A single distinguishing trait is progressively amplified until it displaces everything else the character or brand once was.
Named for Ned Flanders, who began as a mildly religious neighbour. The brand version is identical: a distinguishing attribute is emphasised in each iteration because it worked in the last one, until nothing else remains.
In practice
- A restaurant known for one dish adds it to every course until the menu is unusable.
- A software product's signature feature is put on the home screen, then on every screen, until the thing it was distinguishing has no room left.
- Standing
- Applies to brand positioning and political identity as readily as to characters.
- Further reading
- Wikipedia
- Subject
- Sociology & Culture
- Essay
- The measured patterns of social life