A lot of companies these days, unsurprisingly, play it safe when it comes to their content marketing. I mean, there are just so many pitfalls aren’t there? We’re basically petrified of offending anyone. But that doesn’t mean our content has to slip into a characterless coma of complacency.
Vikki Ross and Paul Mellor really walloped that dull old mass-produced nail on the head with their wonderfully perceptive Bland Book project:
What this basically means is, unless you want to end up like Bland AB or Totally Mundane Ltd, you’re going to have to make a bit of noise. And the simplest way to do that without stumbling into the quicksands of outrage is to find your brand’s unique sweet spot.
Now Swedish people are very good at this. They know instinctively when someone’s about to go too far. Because they rarely go too far themselves. And they can feel it in their bones when someone hasn’t gone far enough. Even if they probably wouldn’t do anything about it.
There’s a wonderful Swedish word for this phenomenon. They call it lagom.
Interestingly, most Swedes are actually proud of the word’s untranslatability. Mind you, they’re neither extremely proud nor only slightly proud. Obviously. They’re just the right amount of proud. Lagom proud. Not too much, not too little. Just proud enough.
And this funny little word permeates much of Swedish life. From the size of their coffee cups during the daily fika break to the amount of paid parental leave they enjoy. Although, at a whopping 80% for 16 months*, most non-Swedes would agree the latter is far from lagom! But that’s the thing about lagom, it’s all about understanding the boundaries for your particular target audience.
If you can do that, then you’ll have found your brand’s unique sweet spot.
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* Visit The Newbie Guide for more information about parental leave in Sweden.