Explore every episode of the podcast Brand Tuned - Rounded Business Design
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Exploring IP Internationally via Puerto Rico's Legal Landscape
06 Sep 2024
00:30:09
In this episode, Paola Zaragoza Cardenales, a dual qualified New York and Puerto Rico attorney discusses the similarities and differences between intellectual property laws in Puerto Rico and the UK. We discuss:
Intellectual Property Issues Faced By Farmers
Importance Of Integrating IP Into Business Plans
Legal Checks to clear names
Collaborating with Branding Agencies On Trademark matters
IP is much less formal in Latin America's economy according to Alberto Ramirez Bonilla, founder of BR Latin America. Tune in to explore how trademark practices differ in the South American economic landscape and why that matters.
Among other things the episode discusses:
How business design and naming unfold across Latin America
Branding and intellectual property in Latin America
Copyright protection for software and guidelines for naming conventions
How Tom Gardner Built and Branded Multiple Businesses
07 Jun 2024
00:37:16
Joining us in this episode is an ex-Mckinsey consultant, Tom Gardner, a serial entrepreneur known for his analytical approach to branding. He draws on his experience of launching several brands across different industries, both B2B and B2C.
Tom shares his journey in branding, marked by a blend of scientific and practical approaches, emphasizing customer feedback and market testing from the very start.
Joining us in this episode is James Brown, founding director of Mobiloo, the world's first mobile accessible toilet and changing place designed to cater to disabled people requiring extra equipment and space. Mobiloo has created a huge range of opportunities for tens of thousands of disabled people around the UK.
James shares his journey, highlighting his motivation to improve accessibility and inclusivity for disabled people, stemming from his own experiences as a visually impaired individual and a Paralympic athlete. His flight in becoming a social entrepreneur exemplifies the power of innovation driven by personal values and a deep understanding of the community's genuine needs.
Navigating Branding and Growth with Paul Fernandez
24 Apr 2024
00:31:54
In this episode of the Brand Tuned podcast, we welcome Paul Fernandez, CEO of The Growth Guys, to discuss the journey of starting and branding his growth marketing company during the pandemic. Paul shares insights from his past experiences, the challenges of defining and living up to a brand promise, and the importance of adapting branding strategies as a business evolves.
This episode shares an interesting point of view of branding through experiences including:
How to Create Transformative Brands with Emmanuel Probst
02 Dec 2022
00:34:17
In this episode, Emmanuel Probst, a Global Lead, Brand Thought-Leadership at Ipsos and an adjunct professor teaching consumer market research at UCLA, shares with us how to create a transformative brand.
Emmanuel has 17 years of background in marketing and market research experience, such as at IP source. He is also the author of Brand Hacks, and Assemblage - The Art and Science of Brand Transformation, which releases this coming January 2023.
Among other things, we discuss:
that brands can no longer just sell products. They must aim to be transformative for people and the world they live in.
That brands are no longer in control of the narrative, so they must harness the power of the community and make a greater and more sustainable one.
the importance of noticing what existing brands are offering the market. Then consider creating something new and unique to offer in the category.
creating your market positioning.
The trick is really to understand your audience and get a deep understanding of the market.
Resources mentioned on the podcast Brand Hacks Assemblage - The Art and Science of Brand Transformation marketingweek.com adage.com adweek.com mediapost.com Challenger Project - Eat Big Fish Financial Insights at Ipsos.com
Having recently asked people what their top questions are about branding and IP (Intellectual Property), I decided to record my answers in this episode.
The questions answered in this episode include:
What are the different ways I can protect my brand?
Do I need international protection or is UK protection enough?
How do I explain to graphic designers I work with the importance of checking they are not infringing on anyone's IP?
How can you be sure that graphic designers you work with hand over the rights to all the assets they create? How can you be sure they have done this fully?
What do you regard as the best branding campaign(s) of all time? And why?
Do you think the Internet is actually effective for brand building?
Takeaway lessons from Sean Adams' Masterclass on Identity Design
11 Nov 2022
00:18:50
In this episode I discuss some thoughts following the recent podcast with Sean Adams, an internationally recognized graphic designer, and the chair of undergraduate and graduate graphic design at Art Center College of Design in California.
I found Sean's approach refreshingly client focused and empathetic. For example, Sean takes clients on the design journey and explains what he is doing and why.
This collaborative approach, and avoiding a big reveal at the end of the process, is more likely to result in an identity that the client finds acceptable.
I think if the designer can also talk about the IP dimension they would be the ideal adviser to clients. While the word ‘design’ is commonly associated with graphic designers, in truth it includes anyone who advises on business structure. They can help plan how a business should work in all respects, not just visually.
Given that visual identity needs to be permanent I’m often baffled that designers radically change the visual identity of established businesses just because the business’ strategy changes.
Surely tweaks to the identity is all that's needed, unless there is something radically transformed about the business. It’s vital to leave the identifying elements so you don’t disturb memory structures.
This episode tackles:
Importance of taking clients on the design journey
What makes a good logo?
When is it the right time to radically change a visual identity?
Drawbacks of changing your identity
Measuring brand equity to make identity design decisions
www.seanadams.design Resources mentioned on the podcast The Designer’s Dictionary of Color
Sean Adams - How to Succeed with Identities Without Really Trying
28 Oct 2022
00:51:40
In this episode, Sean Adams, an internationally recognized graphic designer, and the chair of undergraduate and graduate graphic design at Art Center College of Design in California tells us to succeed with identities without really trying.
Sean Adams is the author of multiple best selling books, including The Designer’s Dictionary of Color.
Brand Identity is not a one-size-fits-all solution. It's a toolkit, an approach to solving problems, an equation. It's not a thing that you can just slap onto your business and hope for the best. You have to understand it and use it correctly in order to succeed with brand identities without really trying.
If you're just starting out, the process can seem overwhelming at first. Where do you even begin? What kind of logo is best for your business? How do you go about creating an identity that speaks to your customers and attracts new clients?
There’s no one right answer, but there are three kinds of identities that you need to understand to start with: word mark, monogram, and symbol. Your branding strategy may use one of these approaches, so it’s good to explore them all and know what they mean.
One of the trickiest aspects of branding is building equity over time. If you think about the Apple identity, it has that little bite out of it, which forces you to think a little bit, the more you think, the more it sticks in your head.
Design is an important part of branding. You can't just have a nice logo and expect people to buy your product. You have to make it appealing in other ways too, Branding isn't just about beauty and aesthetic, but it should be how we can make it unique.
We focus on certain colors because they've become emotionally loaded with meaning for us. How do we get those emotional meanings etched into our brand image?
This episode discusses:
Three kinds of identities
Building equity with symbols
Choosing your branding fonts
Visual attributes
How to know you have a great designer/ designers sensibilities
The cultural impact of color choices
Semiotics
Current challenges facing designers
www.seanadams.design Resources mentioned on the podcast The Designer’s Dictionary of Color How Design Makes Us Think Debbie Millman books Sean Adams' LinkedIn leaning course on branding
Is being unique your ultimate goal in your business? How, exactly, do you stand out from your competitors and make sure that you remain a purple cow?
A crucial part of a business’ success is being distinctive and visibly different from its competitors. This is the main objective in creating business brand. Having a recognizable and distinctive name helps ensure you will be able to stand out from the crowd.
Distinctiveness is about the identifiers we use. These identifiers are how consumers recognise brands. They associate them with you. It’s your name, and brand elements you choose, such as your logo, any distinctive symbols, characters, shapes, sounds, colours etc.
When you’re creating your business' brand, understanding what competitors can and can't legitimately copy is key to creating a unique brand. Your focus should be as much on what to create as whether you can prevent copying of the elements you create..
That’s why creating slogans and taglines that are ownable is key to protecting our messaging strategy. We stand a greater chance of being associated with the message behind our strategy.
In today's fast-paced world, it is not enough to raise awareness of how we differ. We need to know and understand about intellectual property rights, and how this can help us achieve design choices that set us apart from competitors.
In this episode I touch on the laws governing the ownership of ideas and trademarks, as well as how to use them to protect your brand. I discuss:
Two components for a business to stand out
Difference between personal and business brands
Intellectual Property
Concept of distinctiveness
Popeye the sailor
How important trademark rights are in protecting business brands
Famous personalities and their distinctiveness/uniqueness
Valuable Resources:
For the latest insights on branding, and brand strategy sign up to receive TUNED news weekly.
Strategic Creativity - Being Relevant and Resonating
14 Oct 2022
00:53:42
In this episode Robin Landa explains strategic creativity.
Robin Landa is a Distinguished Professor in the Michael Graves College at Kean University. She specializes in advertising ideas and art direction, creative thinking, graphic design and branding and has written bestselling books including Graphic Design Solutions, 6th ed., Build Your Own Brand, and Nimble: Thinking Creatively in the Digital Age.
What's the first thing you think of when you hear the phrase "brand identity"? A logo, color palette, and characters right? But that's only a small part of the story.
To have a successful brand identity be strategically creative. A brand identity is the representation of the brand and it is the strategic position in the marketplace. So, it has to be strategically creative in order to gel with the target audience.
Brand identity does more than just build an imaginary world, it creates a relationship between people who have heard you and made your name part of their lives. A logo mark is more than just a logo. It's the entry point for your brand and its identity. It's your name and the way you're perceived by customers, and it's the foundation for everything else you do. It's what sets you apart from other brands and allows you to stand out from the crowd. It has to be memorable, differentiating, imprinting on people, and most importantly, it needs to be easy to remember—and ideally, emotionally inspiring.
It's really hard to make a brand identity that is personal and unique when you're working with a company that has thousands of designers and their work is available for all to see. This is why we need to be careful that we don't just lift someone else's work and use it without permission. Brand identity must be unique and personable!
In this episode, we discuss:
Brand Identity and how to make it memorable and distinctive
Brand construct and manifesto
Basic design principle you need to know
The idea behind balance design and color associations
Sonic branding
How to identify talent in identity design
Intellectual property law
Identifiers in brand design
Valuable Resources:
For the latest insights on branding, and brand strategy sign up to receive TUNED news weekly.
There are many misconceptions when in comes to IP ownership.
In this podcast I outline why it's important to ensure you own what you create for your business. Owning what we do is about retaining control rather than giving away the value of our knowledge and skills.
Among other things, that involves understanding the role of names in business, and what is involved to legally own a name.
Failing to focus on ownership shows a fundamental lack of understanding of the interplay between branding and brand protection. The episode touches on:
Why marketers and designers need training in intellectual property.
What ownership of names involves.
The 2-step process to securing ownership rights in a name.
That ownability of brand elements involves making the right choices.
The drawback of failing to focus on ownership
Valuable Resources:
For the latest insights on branding, and brand strategy sign up to receive TUNED news weekly.
One Brand, One Brand Voice - How to Align Everyone in your Company with the One Brand Voice
30 Sep 2022
00:41:52
In this episode, we discuss having one brand voice with Chris West, the founder of Verbal Identity. Chris is a specialist in helping brand leaders align their teams in one voice. He is also the author of Strong Language, the #1 best-selling book on Amazon in Language Communication.
We tackle the importance of having a great language and how this could create differentiation for brands. As we go through the podcast, we explore:
The power of language
Three levels of language
Having one brand voice for early-stage businesses
Visual attracts, verbals engage
Aligning everyone in a company with a one brand voice
In this episode, I talk about brand strategy for start-ups.
Brand strategy is an overused term in the branding industry. I discuss what makes for a good brand strategist and how they can best support businesses.
Sometimes, design is what's needed. Other times it's support to understand which segment to target and how to discover buyers' wants and needs.
When working on brand strategy it is essential to be aware that there is a world of difference between the actions you need to take for a start-up to those you would take for an early-stage business to those you would take for an established brand. The work differs, not just because of the size or stage the business has reached but also due to the reason that the business is seeking your support with its brand strategy.
I discuss:
- The different brand strategies
- Proof of concept
- What makes for a good brand strategist
- The different needs that start-ups and early-stage businesses have
- Why choosing names and identifiers needs to be informed by intellectual property law.
Austin Franke is the founder of Woo Punch, a brand design consultancy rooted in the science of how brands grow. Austin is also the man behind brandingbullshit.com, a newsletter that exposes common branding, marketing, and advertising myths, and co-hosts The BS Show with Stef Hamerlinck on YouTube.
In this episode of the podcast, Austin shares why the old notions of brand love are outdated. In keeping with the new format of the podcast, he delivers a 10-minute masterclass before being interviewed.
A 10-minute masterclass about brand love
The old notions of brand love that are outdated
Why distinctiveness is not synonymous with differentiation
The reality and the evidence-based insights into how brands grow
In this episode, Sean D'Souza of Psychotactics discusses how small businesses should approach differentiation when selling their products and services. Sean is the author of The Brain Audit, and is a copywriter, cartoonist, and speaker. He is also the host of the three month vacation podcast.
We discuss common challenges people have around differentiation, and how the biggest mistake people make is that they promote their company instead of talking about their products. We cover:
How to position a product so it sticks to the consumers' minds
Common challenges people have around how to differentiate
Measuring results through benchmarks
Reasons for the high failure rate of small businesses
In this episode I explore positioning with Ulli Appelbaum. Ulli is an experienced award-winning brand strategist and founder of First The Trousers Then The Shoes and the author of the brand positioning workbook. There are different philosophies about positioning and it depends on what category you are working in as to the research that's appropriate to do. We might have one central brand position, and separate positions and messaging for products we supply. We touched on:
Brand purpose
Ideas on how you can do positioning
Positioning — how to create your positioning
How does positioning tie with differentiation
Creating a category — should it be part of your positioning?
Examples of well-known brands and their positioning
Differentiation and Positioning for Small Businesses
20 May 2022
00:38:11
In this episode, we discuss positioning and differentiation with Johnny Molson a marketing consultant and strategist with Wizard of Ads who helps small businesses to build custom marketing strategies.
We consider the difference between niching, positioning, differentiation and distinctiveness, including the challenge of becoming known. Trying to become known for one thing rather than three things makes it more possible to be remembered in the marketplace.
The episode touches on:
The need to test the market to decide how to position your brand.
Difference between differentiation and positioning with examples
How to get your desired perception into the consumer's mind
Social media – is it worth doing in terms of building a brand?
Lee Salz is the Founder and CEO of Sales Architects where he helps clients develop processes to hire the right salespeople, effectively onboard them and align their sales activities with business objectives.
In this episode, we talk about differentiation, Lee shares his insights on two types of differentiation which are marketing differentiation and sales differentiation. He also shares why the word "unique" is one of the biggest causes of frustration in sales. This episode covers:
Why is it important to differentiate
What does a business need to do to differentiate itself and what examples
Why the word "unique" is one of the biggest causes of frustration in sales
Two types of differentiation — marketing differentiation and sales differentiation
How to perceive meaningful value in what you're selling through an ideal client profile
How some buyers don't see an objection to prices and value a product intrinsically
REPOST: Daniel Priestley - Building the Dent Brand
29 Apr 2022
00:33:47
Daniel Priestley runs business accelerators for entrepreneurs. In this episode, he discusses the Dent rebrand, Lifestyle v. Performance boutique, and the new edition of his book Oversubscribed
How the entrepreneurial revolution shifts people to earn money through entrepreneurship and starting and growing their own businesses as the Industrial Revolution changed the way we live and work.
Why visual identity has to work harmoniously with the rest of the brand identity and has to be simple and clean
What happens when you nail your vision and its simple, the clear message becomes a turning point for your business
How having a strong culture and vision allows you to attract the right kind of people when you’re recruiting talent.
Why Daniel incentivises new hires to leave quickly if they discover his company isn’t a good fit for them
What presidential elections can teach you about the evolution of marketing
Daniel released a new edition of his book Oversubscribed: How to get people lining up to do business with you in February 2020
The two main successful business variations are Lifestyle Boutique. 3 - 12 staff, profitable and lots of fun. The second is Performance business that employs 40 to 150 staff who are a talented team, it has recurring revenues, assets and a good niche in the marketplace.
How businesses are valued by various methods including benchmarking, multiples of profit and based on their brand, market position and systems like Uber for instance.
REPOST: David Aaker - Descriptive or Distinctive Name?
22 Apr 2022
00:39:20
David Aaker hailed the “Father of Modern Branding,” and Vice-Chair at Prophet is a recognized authority on branding, He has developed several concepts including the Aaker brand vision model.
In this episode, we discuss all things brand related, in particular names. We covered:
Why intellectual property is not included in the training of brand managers
The importance of being clear on the definition of IP
The different perspective that IP brings to naming
Naming and whether descriptive names are a good choice
The role of intellectual property in building barriers to entry against competitors
REPOST: Rory Sutherland - On Brand, Advertising & More
15 Apr 2022
00:37:22
Rory Sutherland, Vice Chair at Ogilvy UK and author of the book Alchemy, the Surprising power of ideas that don’t make sense discusses brand, advertising, decision science and more.
In this episode, Rory points out why ambiguity in terms like brand and IP are problematic. The word brand is used to mean anything people want. It's even been used to defend advertising, that doesn't work, the episodes touched on many interesting points including:
The misunderstanding of the value of brands
The reasons why brands might change their name and logo
Situational examples when brand names can't be protected
Chesterton's Fence and how it relates to Tropicana's redesign
The value in simple fame that defies logic explained by behavioural science
The importance of understanding what the law means by IP in terms of branding
How plagiarism is policed through professional shaming in the advertising industry
In this episode of the BrandTuned Podcast Shireen interviews Susan Payton who helps business owners tell three stories - their personal story, their business story and their customer story.
How a career writing and researching in TV and radio led to Susan's business which revolves around how businesses should use stories
Susan has trained in Nashville with Donald Miller - the author of Story Brand and is a certified story brand guide
Why your customer’s story is the most important story of all, the one to focus on
Showcasing what your customer needs will show you care about their problems
A good example of business storytelling in action is TOMS shoes who donate a pair of shoes for every pair they sell.
John Pryor is a management consultant and founder of Exalt IP and intellectual property firm.
In this episode, John shares his insights on trade secrets, including why it is so important to distinguish trade secrets from general know how in an organisation. Classifying an important recipe as a trade secrets gives you more powerful rights in the event of any breach of them.
He walks us through trade secrets policies and the importance of educating employees about intellectual property and trade secrets. This episode covers:
Guiltless Gourmet's buy out talks with Frito Lay - an example of what not to do with your trade secrets
Steps an organization needs to take internally to protect trade secrets
How to classify trade secrets possibly using red, amber and green classification
Threats to leakage and theft of trade secrets
Examples of brands protecting their competitive advantage through trade secrets
Why reputation is the single most important issue for brands to focus on
The Power of Animation in Branding with Christine Mackay
25 Mar 2022
00:34:16
Christine Mackay is the founder of Salamandra.uk an animation agency, she helps her clients to communicate complex messages using animation.
In this episode, Christine shares that even if you just have a word mark, you could animate your logo, and make it come to life. And in that coming to life, you could actually convey some of what it is that you do. Animation is very malleable, and there are many ways to make use of it in branding or to explain aspects of the business. Movement attracts attention.
This episode covers:
How Christine chose salamandra as a name from which 3-D Sal emerged.
That salamanders mean 'cute, funny and smart' to Christine .
The power of animation in making a brand more memorable
How tone of voice was an important differentiator for her business.
Companies often turn to animation to communicate complex messages.
The difference between a video and animation.
The single most important thing a company needs to focus on to build its brand.
How to Move Beyond Your Job Role To Trusted Adviser
18 Mar 2022
00:11:28
Lawyers and many other professionals are increasingly challenged to identify their distinctive skills and talents, and the capabilities they possess that cannot be readily replaced by technology or alternative ways of working and access to cheaper options.
Richard and Daniel Susskind predict that professionals will be increasingly displaced in an internet society by AI and other technologies.
In an earlier book, The End of Lawyers, Richard Susskind had predicted that a new breed of hybrid lawyers will emerge, who are increasingly multi-disciplinary in order to succeed. Hybrid lawyers are quite different to the lawyers of today who already claim they are deeply steeped in neighbouring disciplines, as project managers, strategy, management consultants and more but who often lack the depth of expertise in those neighbouring disciplines.
This episode covers:
How internet society will bring fundamental change in the way 'practical expertise' of specialists is made available
What professionals need to do to move up the food chain to become trusted advisers
Parallels to the legal industry for other professions.
The essentials to be "superbly schooled and genuinely expert” in multiple disciplines.
A call for lawyers and others to consider the prototype Brand Tuned Accreditation
In this episode, I share my journey starting in business, how the business developed, grew, transitioned to virtual working and then reversed course to become what is now Azrights International Ltd.
With Bill Gates' quote in mind, that most people overestimate what they can do in a year and underestimate what they can do in 10, and using Paul Jarvis' book, A Company of One for inspiration, I'm thinking through my 10 year plan for the Azrights business and the Brand Tuned podcast.
This episode covers:
The business journey of Azrigths
The steep learning curve involved in learning how to design brands.
When you create a brand and choose identifiers you create intellectual property
How IP laws determine whether identifiers will be distinctive enough to own and cost effective enough to protect
The difference between distinctiveness and differentiation
How use of colour can create distinctiveness.
Why a brand protection strategy needs to be an inherent aspect of brand strategy.
This episode discusses the book Creating Passion Brands – how to build emotional brand connection with customers by Helen Edwards.
Essentially, it's key not to mistake being consumer focused with being consumer led. Some brands are asking for consumer approval for their every action even to the extent of asking consumers what their brand essence should be.
Being consumer-led in a brand’s strategic approach inevitably blurs the brand’s clearly defined brand image and makes it average. Listen in to find out more about
How brand belief needs to infuse everything a brand does
What to foster to build a strong brand
What needs to remain true over time, and what can change as a brand develops.
The importance of leading rather than following
Why the values need to drive the brand's point of view, and conviction.
Joe Glover is the founder of Marketing Meetup a place where people come together to learn about marketing and connect in a meaningful way. It’s not what he’s done, but how he’s done it that has led to the success of the Marketing Meetup.
There are plenty of places where marketers can learn, there are plenty of places where marketers can meet each other, but what Joe realised was that there was a need for a safe place where marketers could come together because they love marketing, they’re curious to learn more, and want to connect with open minded marketers in a way which feels kind, lovely, safe, and inclusive. It’s a counterblast to the corporate approach that feels like you’re being judged by your job title and the size of your budgets.
In this episode, Joe shares his experience in community building. The community grew quite organically as people resonated with how they chose to do things. There was never a big ambition behind it. The foundation was about humanity, coming together and listening. That’s the group that Joe wanted to see exist and attend. Then over time they began to suggest how people should engage with one another - to say hello, listen and be positively lovely.
This episode covers:
How Marketing Meetup came into existence.
Insights into building a community.
How to reach out and better understand your audience.
Forums you use as you build the community — Facebook, LinkedIn, Slack and Discord groups.
Hubspot and Salesforce and other examples of successful strong community-based brands
Lucy McCarraher is an author, publisher, mentor and speaker. She has written 13 books and is co-founder of Rethink Press, which helps entrepreneurs to raise their authority, increase their client base and visibility through writing and publishing books.
In this episode, Lucy shares her experience in the recent rebrand of Rethink Press. We also discuss the importance of books, how to approach writing one given that a book is an iconic product. You don't want to undervalue or devalue the experience for readers by writing content that's too promotional. This episode covers:
Their process of rebranding Rethink Press
How the only formal branding action Rethink had taken before the rebrand was to secure the rights in their name.
What to bear in mind when writing a book — value is the name of the game
Key steps for a business to take to ensure it stays on brand as it develops and grows
Lucy's insights from her recent rebranding experience on how to differentiate from competitors.
Karen is the leading expert in applied colour and design psychology helping businesses and design professionals to use colour and design to improve well-being, support mental health and create positive change in the world.
She is the author of the best selling book The Little Book of Colour - How to Use the Psychology of Colour to Transform Your Life. It's a revolutionary guide to boosting your wellbeing, putting you firmly in the driver's seat and on the road to changing the colours in your world to boost your mood, increase your motivation and change how you feel in an instant.
In this episode, Karen discusses colour psychology, how colour influences how we think, how we feel, and how we behave. She gives her perspective on how colour should be used in branding, and that it should align with the brand personality, and values to influence buyers. This episode covers:
Association of brand values with colour
Case examples on a brand that's misaligned with the colour
How colour can be associated with a demographic or an age group
How to create a brand from within and out
Colour as emotion — how it makes people stop and think why they are in business
Finding the right colour for a brand — a colour that best represents a brand & the best reflectional representation of that brand
Karen’s point of view about McDonald's green brand colour
Lucy Werner, author of the books Hype Yourself and Brand Yourself, and founder of The Wern, a PR & design consultancy for startups has over 17-years of PR experience. She is focused on teaching early stage businesses how to do their own publicity without spending a fortune.
In this episode, Lucy shares valuable tips on how to develop a strategy for creating hype in line with your brand strategy to promote what you are doing so you make maximum impact. She also shares steps towards building a brand strategy based around your values. We discuss:
Strategies for creating hype for your business
Insights and ideas on how to pitch a story to publications you want to collaborate with
How she helps clients create their personal brand — the process & strategy
The importance of values, which shape everything as you build your brand
Collaborating with like-minded business people to increase your impact
Nick Lehrain, designer and creative director of Oliver Grace creative studio is focused on digital products.
In this episode, Nick shares his views on brand and growth strategies, distinctive brand assets, the trend towards simplification of the unique identifying characteristics used for consumers to notice, recognize and recall a brand.
What is Blanding
Creating a distinctive brand — differentiation and distinctiveness to stand out
His approach to designing the visual identity for a brand
Examples of timeless logos from Logo Modernism book
The brand codes you need to use consistently so you are recognizable
The single most important issue to focus on and not lose sight of to build the brand
Paige returns to the podcast to discuss how smaller businesses and start-ups can do research to see their business from the point of view of the customer, before segmenting the market.
Before founding Mavens and Moguls, a network of seasoned marketing professionals, she worked in organisations like Procter & Gamble, and Coca Cola, as well as for early stage businesses like Zipcar, Inc.com and Launch Media. She holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and Harvard featured her business as a case to teach MBA students how to start a successful business.
In this episode, Paige shares some strategies for better understanding the customer you want to serve, in terms of what motivates them to buy. We cover:
Some online methods to understand the market
Considering who might be your ideal client
Ways to understand what the market wants
Listening tour as a way of touching base with your audience
How Paige helps her clients
How to approach people so they don't fear being sold to when doing market research
Different ways to segment your market — demographic data, psychographic data, behavioural data, geographic data and life stages
Stephen Houraghan on The Changed Branding Industry
14 Jan 2022
00:41:26
Stephen Houraghan, founder of the Brand Master Academy, is a brand strategist who helps designers and brand builders to package up their creative thinking and specialise as brand strategists. He teaches graphic designers abd copywriters, who are executing within the brand on the tactical side, on how to focus more on the strategic side.
In this episode, Stephen discusses that everything starts with the audience, The brand exists in the mind of the audience, without which it has no reason to exist.
This episode covers:
How the brand starts from within and then looks outwards.
How to revisit a brand strategy especially for small businesses
The strategic process of developing a brand identity
How the branding industry has changed
Importance of collaboration between the brand strategist and client in creating a brand
This is part two of episode #117 which was on niching.
It outlines what's involved to segment the market, and why it is essential to do before targeting.
Segmentation is challenging to do for small businesses that lack the time and resources of large organisations. Perhaps this explains why the topic isn’t much discussed in the small business sector despite being a cornerstone to marketing. This episode covers:
How to segment the market by reference to customers' different wants and needs
How I am researching and segmenting the branding industry
Using qualitative research to decide the criteria by which to segment the market
Following up qualitative research with desk research
Interviewing potential target customers before finalising choice of target market
This episode from the archives features Mark Ritson discussing brand strategy. Mark answers some of the burning questions I had around understanding the market and differentiation and positioning.
In this episode we covered:
Rebranding Transferwise
Brand purpose
Market research and how it differs from brand strategy.
Marketing strategy
The intersection between business and brand strategy
In this episode from the archives, Chandresh Pala discusses different business models and how to consider which one is right for you. The episode touches on:
Choosing the right name
How to create products and sell them
What is a business model canvas?
Insights on different business models
What are the first stages of a business — exploration and learning
A brand is more than a logo — it's your interaction, the team's interaction with the client, and how the customer uses and experiences the products.
Why do people choose brands based on values, identity and purpose?
What should be the mindset of someone launching a new business or product?
In this episode, I talk about a foundational topic that isn’t well understood, niching. The accent in this episode is on expertise and how to ensure your core skills are in line with your interests and market opportunities.
Many entrepreneur courses advise people to niche and not to try to sell to everyone. However, there is often a lack of detail on how to go about choosing a niche. The upshot is that many entrepreneurs get it wrong. They either pick a niche at random, or one that’s too narrow, or they disregard the advice altogether, because it’s too difficult to implement.
The episode on niching touches on:
The key success in niching — how to stand out and set yourself apart from others
Useful insights on building his brand, and niching by Ronnie Fox, a successful lawyer.
How experts with core skills can increase their earning potential and relevance
Problems in the small business market
How to distinguish yourself from competitors when you're a designer, marketer or brand strategist
The fundamental disciplines to understand when creating a brand identity
This interview of Shireen by Somi Arian was initially recorded for the Somi Arian podcast.
In this episode, we talk about the do’s and don’t of branding and trade marks. There are a host of useful tips on branding, trademark protection and how to develop brand equity.
This episode covers:
Valuable tips on branding and trademark protection
Brand equity and how trademarks contain the value of a brand.
James Church is the co-founder and chief operating officer of Robot Mascot, the UK leading pitch agency and the author of the bestselling book, Investable Entrepreneur.
In this episode, James shares how investors care primarily about the defensability of the product rather than the brand. The brand is going to contain the value of the business when it comes to the exit but it's regarded as something that can be changed through a rebrand if needs be. The patent like protection that names can offer is not something investors are alive to.
Robot Mascot started out as a generic branding agency. It was thanks to niching down and attracting an experienced investor that the business took off.
In brief this episode covers:
The possibilities, such as licensing that a brand offers.
Rebranding and the loss it can entail for a business.
How the pitch agency focuses on creating critical funraising assets.
Series A, seed funding and what investors are looking for
The importance of understanding the problems of your audience, and what they want and need
Rory Sutherland, Vice Chair at Ogilvy UK and author of the book Alchemy, the Surprising power of ideas that don’t make sense discusses brand, advertising, decision science and more.
In this episode, Rory points out why ambiguity in terms like brand and IP are problematic. The word brand is used to mean anything people want. It's even been used to defend advertising, that doesn't work, The episodes touched on many interesting points including:
The misunderstanding of the value of brands
The reasons why brands might change their name and logo
Situational examples when brand names can't be protected
Chesterton's Fence and how it relates to Tropicana's redesign
The value in simple fame that defies logic explained by behavioural science
The importance of understanding what the law means by IP in terms of branding
How plagiarism is policed through professional shaming in the advertising industry
Paige Arnof-Fenn is the founder and CEO of Mavens and Moguls, which is a marketing or branding firm located in the USA. She graduated from Stanford University and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School. Her experience spans corporate branding at Proctor & Gamble, start up branding for various companies that were subsequently sold, and entrepreneurial branding working for clients of Mavens and Moguls. These range from early-stage, startup, pre-revenue, to venture-backed, and all the way to fortune 500 companies. One of her clients that we discuss was Virgin.
In this episode, we cover:
The different branding needs clients tend to have based on their size
How to do market research and segmentation for small pre-revenue companies
Effectiveness comes from not having too many messages in your storytelling
Naming, identity creation, and tying it all together in a brand blueprint
How working at Proctor & Gamble and Coca Cola have multidisciplinary teams that include lawyers
The most important area to focus on for a brand to succeed
In this episode, I talk about the challenges that colour involves as a brand identifier.
The bar to registration of colour as a trademark is high so that confusion can arise between competitors. If you have legal rights over a brand identifier you can maintain its uniqueness for your brand and reduce the scope for customer confusion.
The episode on colour as a brand Identifier touches on:
What to consider when it comes to trademarks and colour.
How to be distinctive using colour as a brand identifier.
The challenge of preserving uniqueness in the absence of legal rights
How litigation is sometimes an option to deter competitors from using your colour
Brands that have achieved colour trademark registrations
Is it Time to Change the Creativity First Mentality In Branding?
05 Nov 2021
00:44:51
Derrick Daye is the man behind the Brand Strategy Insider Blog, he serves as the Managing Partner of the Blake Project. He has extensive and varied experience working in advertising agencies such as Satchi & Satchi.
In this episode, Derrick and I discuss the choice of identifiers such as colours and symbols and the extent to which IP needs to be taken into account when building brand assets. We also discuss the concept of distinctiveness.
In brief this episode covers:
The extent to which distinctiveness matters
How larger agencies collaborate with IP lawyers
What is Blanding?
Oversimplification - does it overlook the imperative to be different?
The importance of knowing what you don't know as a branding professional
Ownership underpins IP licensing. and should also underpin identity creation
The imperative for design companies to explain IP's role to their clients
David Aaker hailed the “Father of Modern Branding,” and Vice-Chair at Prophet is a recognized authority on branding, He has developed several concepts including the Aaker brand vision model.
In this episode, we discuss all things brand related, in particular names. We covered:
Why intellectual property is not included in the training of brand managers
The importance of being clear on the definition of IP
The different perspective that IP brings to naming
Naming and whether descriptive names are a good choice
The role of intellectual property in building barriers to entry against competitors
In this episode, I talk about what I mean by brands. To use trademarks strategically, you need to first understand the role they play in branding to then know why and how to be strategic with them.
A brand is a name that people associate with a set of perceptions. It distinguishes one product or service from another. Brands are important to us because they provide us with the familiarity we crave as humans.
In brief the episode covers:
Visual Identity
Why brand can easily be a business's most valuable asset?
Brand Identifiers are non-name signifiers that build mental association to your brand
Trademarks are the most important and potentially valuable IP asset to own
A branding lawyer can help you understand the brand protection aspect of a name
Registering a trademark to protect your distinctiveness
How to avoid trademark legal disputes and litigation
Rob Meyerson is the principal and founder of Heirloom, an independent brand strategy and identity firm. His specialities include brand strategy and positioning, naming and messaging, brand architecture, qualitative research, and organizational change.
In this episode, we discussed why IP is not included in branding projects and covered:
The lack of job training for brand consultants and the culture of learning by doing that prevails
Checking company and product names
Building distinctive brand assets, versus the simplicity in design approach that prevails
What to consider when naming — what makes some names stronger than other names
Whether the legal dimension is a limiting factor that constrains the creative process
In this episode, Alison Jones, director of Practical Inspiration Publishing, the publisher of Brand Tuned, interviews Shireen Smith. As host of the successful podcast, The Extraordinary Business Book Club Alison is an experienced interviewer and draws out some interesting information.
Alison asks questions about the process of writing Brand Tuned, what I found out along the way and the reason I chose to write the book. I also share my hopes and what I want to achieve as I release the book. This episode covers:
My insights on providing holistic advice around branding — understanding the market needs
What I want to achieve for Brand Tuned as I release it to the world
The number of brand identifiers you should have to stand out
IP is about managing competition
The important issue with the brand name and considering the brand protection aspects
How proper branding can impact everything that you do in your business
The extent to which it's appropriate to change a brand's identifiers
The journey of writing Brand Tuned: Why I chose to write the book