Brand preference, understanding company conflict (Spam Mail #19)

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💎 Word gems

How Pfizer Became the Status Vax (Slate / Heather Schwedel)

If someone had told me two years ago we’d be talking about our preferred vaccine brand I would have thought you were delusional. As Pfizer leads on vaccine TikTok, this has a a fascinating look at brand preference.

The Pfizer superiority complex is at once a joke and a real phenomenon. But is it affecting the vaccine rollout? “Even though I think that we have this instinct that’s out there”—the belief that Pfizer is the elite shot—“it still feels more playful than really driving outcomes,” said Manuel Hermosilla, a professor of marketing at Johns Hopkins’ Carey Business School who studies the pharmaceutical industry. He said he thinks people understand that getting whatever vaccine you can should trump any brand preference—though it’s unclear how this week’s news about the Johnson & Johnson vaccine could change that equation.

Should You Pay Attention To Competitors? It Depends On Your Company’s Conflict (Casey Accidental / Casey Winters)

Casey Winters uses the literary framework of conflict as a way to identify what core business problem to solve. He explains three types of conflict - nature, competitors or self.

Most startups are in a conflict against nature. There is a status quo in the market – or some other type of barrier to adoption like, say, a global pandemic (“too soon!” shouts my co-workers) that has to be overcome for any type of company in the space to be successful. Normally, startups engage in trench warfare to grind against the status quo over time

Stop Telling Women They Have Imposter Syndrome (HBR / Ruchika Tulshyan and Jodi-Ann Burey)

I never realized how limiting - and problematic - the study on imposter syndrome was. A clear call to fix the system, not the individual, to address imposter syndrome.

The impact of systemic racism, classism, xenophobia, and other biases was categorically absent when the concept of imposter syndrome was developed. Many groups were excluded from the study, namely women of color and people of various income levels, genders, and professional backgrounds. Even as we know it today, imposter syndrome puts the blame on individuals, without accounting for the historical and cultural contexts that are foundational to how it manifests in both women of color and white women. Imposter syndrome directs our view toward fixing women at work instead of fixing the places where women work.

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