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When new creative employees join Oatly, the onboarding starts with a single instruction: \u201cUnlearn everything you know about marketing.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Oatly<\/a> creative director Michael Lee, that\u2019s the only way to build a truly distinctive brand voice: You must operate without the guidelines that bind most other companies\u00a0\u2014 including how decisions are made, how teams are structured, and how the brand voice is even defined.<\/p>\n For example, most big companies have a \u201cbrand book.\u201d It\u2019s\u00a0a style guide that defines how the brand looks and speaks, so that every touchpoint is consistent. But Oatly does not have one.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve always kind of refused to do kind of brand books,\u201d Lee says. \u201cWhenever we work with a partner, they\u2019re always asking us about our brand book. And we don\u2019t have one because as soon as you do one, you feel like you have to stick to it, and we\u2019d rather have the freedom to just do something completely different if we felt like it.\u201d<\/p>\n For a company that\u2019s grown into a global provocateur beloved for its packaging and relentlessly human tone, that freedom matters enormously. Here\u2019s what Lee\u2019s approach reveals about what it actually<\/em> takes to build a brand with real perspective \u2014 and why it gets harder, not easier, the bigger you get.<\/p>\n Oatly launched in Sweden in 1994, originally positioned as oat-based alternative to dairy. Its branding was quiet and boring.<\/p>\n Things began to change in 2012, when Toni Petersson became its new CEO. John Schoolcraft him joined him as chief creative officer, then eliminated the entire marketing department and rebuilt it with creatives at the center of the business. Their goal: Transform Oatly into a brand with personality and international appeal.<\/p>\n Schoolcraft\u2019s new model was unusual. Oatly\u2019s creative team (which named itself the Department of Mind Control) would operate largely on its own. It would write its own briefs, set its own strategy, and execute its own work.<\/p>\n Schoolcraft departed in 2025, but that structure still remains.<\/p>\n \u201cNo one really can veto what we\u2019re doing,\u201d says Lee, who joined as creative director in 2017, the same year Oatly entered the U.S. market. \u201cIt\u2019s not like we\u2019re presenting to any marketing director or sales guys.\u201d<\/p>\n This is a genuinely rare setup, but Lee believes it\u2019s a vital one. If you want a distinct brand voice, he says, you can\u2019t just hire creative people and hope for the best. You must remove the layers of approval that instinctively sand down anything provocative, and empower creatives to truly own and operate their work.<\/p>\n But with great creative power comes great creative responsibility.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen things go well, great. But you also have to take it in the chin when things don\u2019t go well,\u201d Lee says. \u201cThen you must have the wherewithal and courage to continue being at that edge.\u201d<\/p>\n Oatly\u2019s creative director, Michael Lee. That unusual corporate structure has produced an unusually voice-driven product. Oatly is full of creatively distinct decisions, and speaks in a funny, often provocative way that helped turn the brand into something beloved and distinct.<\/p>\n Here are a few of those unusual choices:<\/p>\n But despite Oatly\u2019s distinctive voice, Lee says he can\u2019t exactly explain what\u2019s \u201con brand\u201d for this brand. Nor does he want to.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is an Oatly idea, and there is\u2026 that is not an Oatly idea<\/em>,\u201d he says. \u201cHow do you know? I don\u2019t know. It\u2019s just you develop a feeling. You develop this sense for what feels Oatly and what doesn\u2019t feel Oatly, and it\u2019s hard to wrap words around it.\u201d<\/p>\n This might sound frustrating for anyone seeking a repeatable process. But Lee\u2019s point is that a real brand voice resists being reduced to a checklist. It must become a fluid, ever-evolving thing.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of what I\u2019ve spoken about \u2014 a company acting human and doing human things \u2014 is easy to say, and it sounds kind of normal,\u201d Lee says. \u201cBut the reality within corporations and businesses it is extremely difficult. Because as everyone knows, when you go into a company, suddenly it\u2019s company speak. You talk like you wouldn\u2019t talk at home.\u201d<\/p>\n As a result, he says, brand leaders often become police officers: Their jobs are to create guidelines that feel safe and prevent bad ideas. But Lee thinks a creative leader should do the opposite, by building enough shared instinct for everyone to recognize a good idea. That way, they can collectively reject ideas that are safe but don\u2019t feel true to brand.<\/p>\n Startup founders often lament: If only I had the marketing budget of the big guys\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n But Lee says startup founders should take advantage of their size. When you\u2019re small, it\u2019s easier to take large risks. \u201cIt is much harder to be disruptive and courageous with your brand at the $100 million level than it is at the $10 million level,\u201d he says. \u201cThat, I think, is the most difficult challenge \u2014 to maintain that edge and continue to be disruptive.\u201d<\/p>\n At scale, every campaign faces more scrutiny, more internal stakeholders, and more pressure to protect what\u2019s already been built. This is when most brands quietly sand off their edges, he says. They trade their original voice for something safer.<\/p>\n So how do you preserve that creative integrity? Lee says it all goes back to fundamentals: How are you structured? And is the company truly built to support creatives? Commitment must come \u201cnot from just the creative director, but the entire company, from the top all the way down,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n That\u2019s one more reason he\u2019s grateful for the structure at Oatly.<\/p>\n When there\u2019s no brand book, the creative team must constantly shape and refine the brand itself. When there\u2019s no layers of approval, the creative team feels a deep obligation to get it right. And when a new team member is told to \u201cforget everything you know about marketing,\u201d they can start to define a new way for themselves.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n When new creative employees join Oatly, the onboarding starts with a single instruction: \u201cUnlearn everything you know about marketing.\u201d<\/p>\nThe Oatly origins<\/h2>\n
Image Credit: Courtesy of Oatly<\/em><\/p>\nA Brand Voice is a Feeling<\/h2>\n
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Courage Gets Harder As You Scale<\/h2>\n
Key Takeaways<\/h2>\n
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