The Hyatt Sneaker

In This Is Strategy, Seth Godin shares a brilliant thought experiment.

Close your eyes.

Imagine the new Nike Hotel.

Even though it doesn’t exist, you can probably picture it. The vibe. The aesthetic. The energy. You know what it would feel like to stay there.

Now try this: imagine the new Hyatt sneaker.

...

Exactly.

That’s the difference between a logo and a brand.

A logo is what you print on the side of a sneaker.
A brand is why someone would buy it in the first place.

This spring, I surprised my family with a trip to Chicago. We stayed at The Drake—a historic hotel that’s meant something to generations of my family. My parents. My grandparents. My wife had her bridal shower in the tea room. It’s a place steeped in memory.

In the morning, while the kids enjoyed room service, Angie and I wandered down to that same tea room. A man at the door greeted us warmly and offered to show us around.

And then—just as we were basking in nostalgia—he launched into a Hilton timeshare pitch. Vegas, New York, someplace else I can’t remember because suddenly…

We weren’t at The Drake anymore.

We were in a strip mall.

That’s the thing about brands. They're fragile at the edges. One wrong turn and the illusion breaks.

Nike gets this. They know the brand isn’t just the core—it’s the fringes too.
At no point during our visit to the Nike store did someone ask if we had 20 minutes for a “quick opportunity.”

Because Nike doesn’t need to sell you Vegas.
They’re already selling you belonging.

Hilton—at least in this moment—forgot the assignment.

A brand is what we imagine when you don’t say anything at all.
A logo is what you slap on a pitch deck.

And The Drake?

Turns out it’s just a hotel.