How to Escape a Market Equilibrium That Blocks Growth

Best practices in an industry are just excuses not to think. When everyone is following the same playbooks or sticking to the rules of a sector, who’s left to innovate? Who’s left to capture the growth trapped behind those boundaries? No one.

The market settles into equilibrium when all players, relying on the same playbooks (or with minor variations), have reached their most aligned audiences. Sure, some brands might fight over the same customers, and certain campaigns or products might shake things up temporarily, but the overall balance remains. And that balance becomes the ceiling—one you can’t break through by doing more of the same.

The Usual® is the enemy of extraordinary growth. Those rules defining the industry’s playing field are both barriers and opportunities. To break a market equilibrium, you’ve got to tear those rules apart. With a method, of course—but tear them apart nonetheless. True innovation doesn’t play by the rules.

“Ignore industry norms to make products unignorable.” It’s a mantra I keep coming back to because it encapsulates an undeniable truth, a way to approach brand and product positioning—a mindset for growth. But like any powerful phrase that distills an entire philosophy into a handful of words, it’s often oversimplified. And let’s be honest: it’s usually oversimplified.

This isn’t just a call to rebellion for rebellion’s sake or some shallow ploy to grab attention. Breaking rules isn’t about bravado. Breaking rules is about strategic analysis.

So here’s the kicker: the right question isn’t whether to break the rules. That’s already a given. The real question is:

Which Rules Should You Ignore to Break Market Equilibrium?

Driving against traffic on the highway might sound bold, but it’s even better if you don’t crash. Rebels with a cause, remember? To be truly unignorable, you need a structured approach to decide which rules to shatter. The goal isn’t just to stand out—it’s to create a new game entirely.

First, you need to recognize that industries are systems—complex, self-regulated systems with their own tacit rules and internal dynamics. These rules aren’t arbitrary; they make sense and have worked historically, but they can also be shackles limiting your product’s potential. By deeply understanding the rules of the game, you can identify which ones are holding you back. Break the right rule—or set of rules—and you’ll create the good kind of unignorability.

Ignoring the right norms can give you a competitive edge that doesn’t just elevate your product but makes the old model obsolete. That’s the game: creating your own rules. Every Layer Is a Meta-Game. Think of the market as the main game and the layers within it—product design, distribution, positioning, marketing, sales—as meta-games. Each layer has its own sets of rules. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of rules to break.

And some rules are worth smashing because they create entirely new models—new ways of doing business, communicating, or positioning yourself. Those are the ones that make you truly unignorable. The rest? They’re just for specific campaigns. Sure, a disruptive campaign might grab some attention, but it’s fleeting. Campaigns don’t define you.

But when you build a model that doesn’t fit the old system and exposes its limitations? That’s when the game changes.

Embrace the Uncertainty

So, how do you break free from market equilibrium and create the conditions for extraordinary growth? By breaking the right rules. But hold up. I skipped a step—a big one. Because the truth is, there’s no right answer to the wrong question.

Since I started building this house from the roof down—spurred by the buzz around Jaguar’s rebranding and the spontaneous flow of thoughts and ideas sparked by this Twitter thread (you’ll find the video of the rebranding and some context linked at the end of the post, in case you’re not familiar with it)—I now find myself needing to figure out exactly which question I’m answering. And it’s not as simple as it seems. Obvious questions like How can I drive extraordinary product growth? or How can I differentiate my product? are headed in the right direction, but this post—my answer—is too specific for such broad queries. In other words, there are certain scenarios where achieving those results doesn’t require breaking the rules to create a new model that renders the old one obsolete.

We can find a better question:

How do I break my product out of a market equilibrium that blocks growth… …when the best practices and playbooks I know don’t cut it?

In other words, when The Usual® isn’t enough. That’s the question we’re answering here.

I’ll admit, I cheated a bit. You might have not noticed because I went ahead and made that question the title of the post, but I didn’t actually know what question I was answering until this far in my train of thought. I’ll let it slide this time, as this was a spontaneous intellectual exercise and not the analysis of a real-world situation. But as always, choosing the right question to answer is essential, and it illustrates the point in this section’s title: in complex scenarios, total control over the situation is simply not possible.

And let’s be real: complex scenarios is what we are talking about here.

Picture a puzzle where the pieces constantly change shape, new ones keep appearing, and others disappear entirely. Meanwhile, the board itself shifts in size, tilt, and elevation. You might think you know what’ll happen when you break certain rules, but the truth is, you don’t. When you create a new playing field, the variables in motion are too many, and the ripple effects too unpredictable, to have everything neatly under control.

But that’s not an excuse for inaction. It’s a reason to act with method.

Are we facing a Complex Problem Solving situation? That depends on the rules we choose to break. You’re not the first to think about breaking rules—or to actually break them. Depending on the combination of rules you decide to challenge and the specifics of your industry, you might encounter scenarios of varying complexity, as outlined in the Cynefin framework. Throughout this post, I’ve placed myself in the shoes of a company breaking a fundamental set of rules within its context and industry. This inevitably leads to a complex scenario where not all consequences are as predictable as we’d like, but the move is necessary because the current playing field isn’t working in our favor.

We know we’re going to disrupt the market equilibrium; we know we want to tilt it in our favor. We’ve carefully selected the rules to break to gain a competitive advantage. We believe we’ve identified the biggest risks and opportunities, tackled the aporias that blocked our decisions, and prepared our Wardley maps to navigate the uncertainty ahead. We may not know exactly where we’ll land, but we’re ready to propel ourselves in the right direction.

You can’t precisely predict how each action will ripple through the system. But you can be methodical in selecting which variables to adjust, as well as the direction and intensity of those adjustments, to push things the right way. You might not nail it on the first try—almost certainly not—but with each tweak, you’ll get closer to the outcome you seek. Who knows? You might even hit a hole in one.

So, What’s Jaguar Doing?

Jaguar’s recent rebranding caused waves, especially because it seems to alienate their traditional audience. At first glance, the entire industry rushed to label it a mistake.

But think about it: Do you really believe your five-minute judgment is better than the collective work of a team of presumably highly skilled professionals, months in the making?

Could it flop? Sure. But it could also redefine what it means to be a luxury brand in the 21st century. The line between genius and disaster is always razor-thin.

Breaking norms, especially at this level, requires purpose and planning. Is Jaguar creating a new model that exposes the limitations of the old playing field? Or are they crashing spectacularly? Time will tell.

It’s Not About Standing Out—It’s About Building a New Game

Differentiation isn’t the end goal. It’s the means to create a new game—one where your differences become the new rules.

So the next time you think about breaking the rules, don’t stop at the surface. Do it with purpose. Do it with cause. And do it with an awareness of the complexity you’re stepping into—and the new complexity you’re creating.

Because at the end of the day, it’s not about fighting the status quo. It’s about making it irrelevant.

And that, my friend, is the real game.

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