Inquiries and insights into creative excellence.
Evan Mock is the latest (joining Brad Pitt, Harry Styles, Jared Leto and many others) to have come out as a founder of a gender non-specific beauty brand. Here we are, still doing marketing backbends to get men to take an interest in their appearance. The way we’re doing it now, apparently, is by launching new brands and calling them “genderless.”
Read MoreThere are reasons, beyond elegant design and desirable product, why iconic brands are instantly recognizable and very much themselves at all times. It has to do with the way they communicate their values, not just by the stories they tell, but by how they tell them. It’s what we call brand voice strategy, and it is absolutely essential.
Read MoreIf any one element of a brand platform can stand on its own as what the brand is, it’s the tagline. Like an overarching theme or moral of the story, these few words say everything we need to know about the entity and how it might be relevant to our lives. They explain everything the brand ever does and why you should care.
Read MoreCreating a brand name is a task that should be approached carefully, with great intention. This is the beginning of the brand’s consumer-facing life, its inaugural advertisement. A brand name is a first impression. Choose wisely and it won’t be the last.
Read MoreNo brand is an island. An iconic entity is a network of people—consumers, partners, critics and stalkers—who interact with it, support it and challenge it. The job of a brand is to build a world with a gravitational pull, a force that draws the right energies to its core. It’s essential to define who these people are, and what kind of energy you need to attract them.
Read MoreWhat kind of people are we and what kinds of things do we do to express that? The answer to that question is brand culture, that seemingly undefinable quality that draws people in. Except that it is definable. The culture of the brand is an institution that we need to create, with a set of values that we need to codify.
Read MoreA brand is not a thing, not a noun. Not exactly. A brand is better thought of as a verb. An action. In order to be relevant, it has to do something, and not just pump out product or perform services. That’s not enough. No, for a brand to really matter, it has to do something to your heart.
Read MoreUltimate success can look quite different from market dominance—ask Patagonia. Not every brand will save the world, and success in commerce is still a noble goal, but even that remains elusive if a brand does not pin down a larger, deeper aim.
Read MoreTrends are hard on the psyche. They lead us to believe that everyone is doing this one thing this one way, and if we are not interested in that, then we are alone. In fact, the larger and louder a particular trend is, the more likely people are to be looking for something else.
Read MoreThe most exciting part of an adventure film is the scene where the hero swipes everything off the table and lays out a map. Before the action, the drama, the trials and triumphs, there is the grand plan. It’s clear what needs to be accomplished, but how?
Read MoreEvery brand-birth is the beginning of a universe of its own making. And it is up to its creators to decide how inventive and mythological that microcosm will be, what shapes and stories it will take on as it evolves through the decades.
Read More
