their outward representation in media and advertising, thereby exposing the rhetoric of the cosmetics industry with the radical ideal that beauty is more than skin deep. And Coca-Cola’s lay in acknowledging the common human need for authentic enjoyment, enhanced through our shared experiences, and expressed over the years with beautiful simplicity as “open”, “real”, “happiness”, “enjoy” and “feeling”. In each case the corporate values and the product values meshed together. We have found it very useful to express this in terms of a Big IdeaL – one step on, if you like, from a Big Idea. What exactly do you stand for? A Big IdeaL™ A Big IdeaL is a type of positioning, but not all positionings are Big IdeaLs. A positioning can be based on a purely functional benefit: Brand X washes whiter, or is more refreshing. But a Big IdeaL is about having a worldview or a purpose that goes beyond a simple functional benefit, even though it should be supported by the functional aspects of the brand. And it’s not a shallow emotional benefit: it touches culture. It’s a belief system which drives everything that a brand does and helps it to attract widespread support. It’s something to be voted on by consumers and stakeholders who have a bigger vote than ever before. For these reasons, at Ogilvy & Mather we have never written Big IdeaLs like “normal” positionings. We wanted to find a simple way of capturing a brand’s Big IdeaL that would force the writer to express the brand’s point of view on the world, or on life, or the country in which it operates. So we developed a form of words which could work as a summary of a brand’s Big IdeaL. In practice we find that completing this phrase forces the writer(s) to focus quite hard on what the brand’s worldview really is. The phrase is deceptively simple because it could be completed in 30 seconds, but doing the necessary thinking to get it absolutely right could take months. The phrase is: “It's a belief system which drives everything that a brand does and helps it to attract widespread support.” Brand X believes the world would be a better place if ..........................