The “Vax:” Innovation Versus Messaging

I think I initially wrote this around Thanksgiving 2020.

In dozens of different jobs I’ve had over the years, I’ve always hated people who constantly talk about messaging and branding. Obviously it’s very important, but a lot of times someone talking about branding is referring to adjusting a logo by six inches or changing a shade of red, and I tend to think of “branding” as more than that. I worked at a few places in ’18 and ’19 that were obsessed with “messaging,” so I wrote this article on the end of brand messaging.

That’s all to say that, in the context of the vaccine(s), I think messaging will be very important. As Wharton notes here:

“We’re going to need to understand what’s holding someone back, what sub-populations have different concerns, and try to tackle those things,” Milkman said.

See also:

“Even if we get the supply chain issues right, even if we get every corner drugstore to someday be supplying these, we have to get them into arms in order for them to change the course of the pandemic,” she…