Brand Central Station

If there were one core value I would associate with the American brand, it would be creativity.

In my marketing practice, I usually look for a historical root to each brand value we try to use with a client. That practice works in the case of Brand America as well – and especially in the case of creativity as an essential American value.

Creativity’s roots in American history

If you look at the coincidence of the birth of the Renaissance and the discovery of the New World, you find there is much less luck involved in the timing than you might originally guess. In fact, the discovery of the New World and its further development by primarily Western Christian cultures was, I believe, an inevitability given the geography and cultural growth occurring at the time.

As man was starting to re-discover lost knowledge about himself and the world around him, it was natural (and that word is key) to continue exploring – whether that be to satisfy one’s own innate curiosity or for the glory of some higher power (a ruler or deity in most cases). In fact, exploration carried with it several rewards, some social and some economic.

So it’s appropriate that on Columbus Day (today) we view the discovery of the New World as the first step towards American independence and the creation of a unique American brand.

It was with the discovery of the new world that people realized there was a far off place that was relatively unspoiled. The human mind – especially the Western mind – has a way of taking ownership of such an imagined place and building expectations into it. As a result, the New World became a place of hope and dreams. A place where the questioning could find answers whether in the form of religious freedoms, riches, commodities or land.

What these original immigrants found when they landed here was a country full of opportunity and, more importantly, peril. It was very easy to get yourself killed over here. Whether the indigenous people were friendly or not, one wrong move could send you over a cliff or into uncharted woodlands for ever.

The dance between danger and hope in America began here. The result was a unique kind of creativity born out of necessity and a blending of cultures, traditions and knowledge unburdened by conventional moral and social rules. People had to get along and had to work together or they would die.

It was that easy.

Within two hundred years, American philosophers and scientists (most notably Ben Franklin) started to lead the way in discovery and “enlightened” thinking. Why such leadership from such a small and distant country? After all, Americans were considered rude, backwoods huckleberries – especially by the British. Yet many of the American “Founding Fathers” were well educated in a variety of cultural backgrounds both by formal training and by virtue of exposure to so many cultures both native and foreign.

This blending of cultures combined with geographic size, relative isolation and virtually inexhaustible resources to create a prime environment for something new to evolve. The essential ingredient required to form the American culture, however, was creativity.

The more you read and understand this point in history, the more amazing it is that so many people came to a similar conclusion at approximately the same time. The essential elements of a creative environment – whether it’s found in an advertising agency’s creative department or a research and development lab – were brought to play in Philadelphia during the various Congresses of the 1770′s and 80′s.

Constitutional compromises were reached that broke new ground in how people would be governed. Faith and reason were untangled in the name of government and religious freedom for the first time in over a millennia. And innovations like paper money, free press and other conventions we consider as a part of our everyday life were created out of necessity.

Creativity has been – and continues to be – an essential part of the American psyche. It’s a core value of what distinguishes American things as being uniquely American. Such a value comes with several inherent risks (after all, people are naturally resistant to change), but the upside potential is what most Americans see when it comes to innovation and “all things new.”

Understanding the role of creativity in the birth and on-going development of America is essential in understanding what our brand means to people in our country and around the world.

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