If you spend as much time working on brands as we do, you would have noticed similarities in business personas, within specific markets. If you’ve spent a lot of time working with business owners, you would have also noticed the personas trends amongst the owners of those businesses. Some are known to make things happen, others chase the thrill of adventure or step in to save the day; we’ve worked with problem solvers, those who offer enjoyment, support and help others; Shamalee and I have worked with all kinds of business personas, and we’ve noticed a general most archetypes are leveraged depending on the clientele’s biases. All except one, the Utopian archetype seems to be the exception.
This Utopian is often driven by the desire to create a perfect, harmonious world; ideals are realities to them. This persona is often identified as ‘the child’, or the ‘Innocent’. It embodies purity, innocence, and a desire for safety. Its key offer is hope. Its shadow is the idealist.
Shamalee and I were wondering if these qualities were hard to reconcile with the idea of a successful business, specifically a profitable one. Considering all the different businesses we’ve worked with in the past, and their competitors in general, why aren’t there more Utopians? Do the key Utopian qualities—particularly their innocence and conviction of ideals—make them less compatible with the idea of business?
The first segment of the conversation explores the complexities of Utopian ideologies, particularly their strengths and limitations. We discuss how utopian visions are often criticized for being unrealistic and not considering real-world challenges. The discussion also touches on how Utopian mindsets can be applied in various business and artistic contexts, and the need for financial stability to sustain such ideologies.
The second part of the conversation revolved around the presence of Utopian businesses in Sri Lanka, particularly in the tourism and hospitality sectors. We also touched on the idea that businesses tend to attract a clientele that aligns with their personas and consider how the volatile social, political, and economic climate of the past few years could have made it challenging for a business to maintain a utopian persona in Sri Lanka.
In the final part, we unpack the two common types of Utopian businesses; the business that is driven by a Utopian ideology and the business that is driven by a Utopian Market and illustrate the key difference between the two.
Check out this month’s reading list we prepared for more information about what these ideas look like, and how they can be used in stories.