Icons against culture.

Most discussion of brands is based on the idea that a brand must own a simple focused position in a person's mind, a view which may be called the "mindshare" model and is most clearly derived from Ries and Trout's classical views on positioning. As a result, an enormous amount of time and money is spent on trying to define and then strengthen the associations between a product and its benefits, personality and imagery in the minds of consumers. Or more simply, most consideration of brands still revolves around the product attributes being attached to category associations and feelings.

While this has undoubtedly been successful, it could be argued that this is not the …