The Love That Kills: How Brand
Obsession Becomes the Icarus Paradox

In the boardrooms of legacy companies and the war rooms of fast-growing startups, there is one silent killer that sneaks in unnoticed—brand obsession.

Brand owners, founders, and custodians fall in love with the identity they’ve built. The logo, the legacy, the color palette, the tagline that once sparked a thousand sales. It’s all sacred. It’s all untouchable. And slowly, that emotional high of “what once worked” becomes a cognitive blindfold. That’s where the Icarus Paradox begins to unfold.

The Icarus Trap in Modern Branding

In Greek mythology, Icarus flew too close to the sun despite warnings. His wings, crafted from wax and feathers by his father Daedalus, melted under the sun’s heat, plunging him to his death.

In business, the wings are made of success.

A brand that rises because of product superiority, great storytelling, or emotional connection often believes those same wings will carry it forever. But markets change. Consumers evolve. Platforms shift. And if the brand keeps flying with outdated wings, it crashes—just like Icarus.

Brand Obsession: The Love Story Gone Wrong

Let’s be clear: love for your brand is not the problem. Unquestioned love is.

Brand owners get obsessed with:

• A logo that’s “too iconic to change”
• A campaign that “once went viral”
• A product line that “built the company”
• A price point that “made us premium”

They anchor themselves to these past victories as if they’re truths carved in stone. But the brand landscape is not made of stone. It’s liquid. And if your brand refuses to flow, it will drown.

When Brand Identity Becomes Brand Ego

The danger begins when identity turns into ego.

• “Our customers love us for this.”
• “This is how we’ve always done it.”
• “People will come back, they always do.”

These are not strategy statements. They are denial mechanisms.

What follows is predictably tragic: the brand keeps investing in yesterday’s playbook, missing emerging trends, alienating younger consumers, and slowly becoming irrelevant.

Legacy Isn’t a Lifeboat

Kodak, Nokia, Blackberry, Yahoo—brands that were once titans. Each had the resources, talent, and consumer base to evolve. What they lacked was the humility to question their own mythology.

Legacy is not a moat. It’s a memory. And memory fades fast in a hyper-connected world. Your relevance is your only defence.

Escaping the Paradox: Lessons for the Future-Obsessed Brand Owner

1. Fall in love with the customer, not the brand
   Brand obsession should be redirected to customer obsession. The only constant is their changing behaviour.
2. Make reinvention a ritual
   Like Apple dropping the iPod in Favor of the iPhone, or Burberry reinventing itself from a tired trench coat brand into a luxury fashion powerhouse.
3. Appoint heretics, not just loyalists
   Surround yourself with people who challenge the brand, not just worship it. Create a culture where killing sacred cows is encouraged.
4. Audit relevance, not just performance
   Don’t just measure how much your brand is selling. Ask how relevant it is across generations, geographies, and touchpoints.

From Wings to Engines

Brands that survive—and thrive—don’t just fly. They rebuild their wings into engines that adapt, evolve, and accelerate. They don’t just hold on to what made them great. They let go, strategically, so they can rise again.

Because in today’s world, the sun is always shifting.

And the only way not to fall is to fly smarter, not higher.

 

About the Author

Ahamed Shine is a strategy consultant and the founder of BBP India. He works at the intersection of brand, business, and transformation—helping legacy companies and new-age ventures reinvent for relevance, profit, and future-readiness.