But more importantly, he was keenly sensitive to making Pears more than just soap; it had to become a status symbol…
Lesson 3: help them Differ
But the biggest milestone in branding history wasn’t about product (easy to match or beat),
or advertising (Barratt didn’t invent it or monopolize it).
It was this: the realization that a brand can become bigger than product or marketing when it helps people differentiate themselves.
In the case of Pears, all early advertising was carefully tuned to nurture the impression that people of taste, cultivation, and sophistication chose Pears – and so should you. Barratt tapped into a number of Victorian cultural narratives that helped him make the point – including the idea of colonialism as a “civilizing” influence on the rest of the world, which led to some frankly racist advertising like the “white man’s burden” ad above.