Aldi and Brewdog's friendly rivalry shows power of corporate 'personality': Bird Lovegod

Aldi might be cheap but their lawyers won’t be and there’s an element of self knowing humor in the way they consistently do this.

So Aldi launched ‘Establishment IPA’ in response to Brewdog’s Punk IPA. Brewdog responded with an ALD IPA, branded in the Aldi colours. Touche.

Aldi responded by inviting them to stock the line in Aldi stores. Everyone’s a winner. And for every case sold a tree gets planted in the Brewdog forest.

It's interesting how some brands are willing to be playful and interact with others, whereas some are standoffish and isolationist and litigious and probably take themselves far too seriously.

I wonder what the reason is?

Perhaps some companies are entirely inward focussed in their operations, they come up with ideas themselves, pass it through the pipeline of marketing, comms, product development, and so forth, and then put it into the world.

Other brands do that, but also have an external awareness, they observe what's going on in the world, in the media, and also with other companies, and opportunistically react to it.

It's like an extension of social media, but deeper, flowing all the way into product design and development.

It’s a conversational approach, an organic one, like an artist referencing what they see in the world rather than creating totally from their own imagination.

In the Aldi Brewdog bromance it’s one company talking to another, ‘what would you say to this?’

And the other company responds ‘It pleases me, it makes me want to do this…’ It takes a certain attitude to be like that, a confidence and also a friendliness, if I was feeling romantic I’d say Aldi and Brewdog are like great whales, singing to each other across the deep.

Personality. It comes down to personality. And that’s what Brands are, or are supposed to be. Corporate Personalities. Highly controlled and constructed, facades much of the time, yet occasionally one finds a certain liberty and actual authenticity.

Aldi and Brewdog have a compatible personality. And it makes me wonder if that’s the key to finding brand collaborations and joint endeavors and commercial riffing. Personality matching.

The benefits are self-evident, it creates new products or lines of products for which there is an immediate affinity and understanding. Greggs and Primark come to mind, those unlikely bedfellows created a clothing range that was cool beyond its time, and probably collectable already for the fans of ironic iconics.

Maybe brands could take a personality test, a commercial Myers-Briggs, that identified which other brands they would be compatible with. Then they could be matched by the third party, and invited to meet in a chaperoned way, without risk of loss of face for anyone. That’s probably a good business idea for someone to develop right there. Not every company is collaborative and playful and willing to engage with other companies in that way, but I have a feeling that many more would be if they were given the opportunity.

They are run by humans, after all. Meta excepted, of course.

Bird Lovegod is MD of Ethical Much