Welcome to Your Bland New World of Consumer Capitalism - Bloomberg

Why do disruptive startups slavishly follow an identikit formula of business model, look and feel, and tone of voice? Because it works, sort of. Meet the blands... Clockwise from top left: Quip (@quip); Clare (@clarepaints); Tend (@hello_tend); Jot (@jot); Public Goods (@publicgoods); Hims (@hims) via Instagram A week or so ago Colgate unveiled Hum — a smart toothbrush that “guides consumers to brush better and to build healthier habits without sacrificing fun for functionality.” Hum doesn’t look or feel like Colgate’s other toothbrushes … but it does rather resemble Quip. Quip is equally flattered by Goby, Burst, Boka, Brüush, Gleem and Shyn. For those not tracking the intricacies of zeitgeist marketing, Hum vs. Quip is just the latest corporate skirmish in a wider consumer war: brand vs. bland. All startups seek to disrupt and disintermediate a smug status quo, or originate and dominate an entirely new niche. But what makes a brand a bland is duality: claiming simultaneously to be un

Why do disruptive startups slavishly follow an identikit formula of business model, look and feel, and tone of voice? Because it works, sort of. Meet the blands... Clockwise from top left: Quip (@quip); Clare (@clarepaints); Tend (@hello_tend); Jot (@jot); Public Goods (@publicgoods); Hims (@hims) via Instagram A week or so ago Colgate unveiled Hum — a smart toothbrush that “guides consumers to brush better and to build healthier habits without sacrificing fun for functionality.” Hum doesn’t look or feel like Colgate’s other toothbrushes … but it does rather resemble Quip. Quip is equally flat