Stop Trying to “Elevate” the Brand. Start Grounding It.
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From the desk of the CEO
There’s a phrase that pops up like mold in every strategy deck and stakeholder meeting:
“We want to elevate the brand.”
Lovely. Who doesn’t want their brand to sprout wings and soar into the upper atmosphere of prestige and polish?
Except here’s the thing: nobody’s up there.
Your audience—the customers, the clients, even the poor souls applying for jobs—isn’t sky-gazing. They’re down here, boots on pavement, squinting at their screens, trying to make decisions with half a second of attention and a caffeine deficit. They’re not looking for something elevated. They’re looking for something honest.
“Elevated” is often corporate speak for “let’s make it fancier, safer, vaguer, and less like us.” We start replacing real language with museum labels. We swap clarity for aspiration. Suddenly, the friendly fintech brand that once said, “get paid now,” is saying “expedited capital enablement services.” The human disappears. So does the relevance.
That’s the quiet danger of elevation: it often floats your brand just high enough to feel impressive—and just far enough to be ignored.
Grounding isn’t Settling. It’s Anchoring.
Let’s be clear: grounded doesn’t mean boring. Or basic. It means anchored. To a clear idea. To a real problem. To a living, breathing group of people.
Grounded brands don’t obsess overlooking “premium.” They focus on being present. They show up where it matters, speaking the language their audience already uses—without sounding like they stole their tone from a TED Talk blooper reel.
Want to see this in action?
Patagonia doesn’t elevate. It aligns. It shows up in mud, protest lines, and your closet.
Liquid Death doesn’t elevate. It connects—loudly, absurdly, and with a wink.
Duolingo’s owl isn’t premium. It’s borderline unhinged. And weirdly trustworthy.
These brands didn’t climb the mountaintop. They found the campfire. They told the truth, loudly, clearly, and without brushing their teeth first.
A Grounded Brand Is Scarier to Build
Here’s why most brands resist grounding: it requires decisions. You have to pick a point of view. You have to say no to buzzwords. You have to describe your value in plain English, which feels naked and vulnerable. (It is.)
It’s way easier to stay elevated, vague, and abstract. You’ll never get sued for saying your “solutions are designed to unlock potential at scale.” You’ll also never be remembered.
Vonnegut said, “We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.” Brands should be careful pretending to be perfect, premium, polished saviors. Most of the time, they’re just trying to solve something annoying and real. That’s more than enough.
So, What Do You Do Instead?
You stop reaching for the sky. You plant your flag in real dirt.
Speak plainly. If you wouldn’t say it in a room full of distracted people with snacks, don’t write it on your homepage.
Solve something real. Not “unlocking the future”—just “fixing the thing that bugs your customer right now.”
Be specific. Specificity is the soul of relatability. “Fast payments for freelancers” beats “optimized compensation flows” every time.
Ask yourself: Where does our brand actually live? Not where it wants to go. Where it already is. Who’s around it? What’s broken? What matters?
Then build from there. Ground up.
Because no one is waiting for your brand to become “elevated.” They’re just hoping—desperately, irrationally—that someone out there still talks like a human.
Michael D. Dean
CEO Brand 33