You don’t create a logo or tagline that conveys immediate resonance.
You create a platform for fans to imbue with meaning.
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Why the economy isn’t vibesmaxxing (according to the NYT)
We dug into the data, conducted surveys and talked to people around the country. Our research shows that even relatively well-off families are struggling with high prices
By almost four to one, Americans told us that rising prices, rather than paychecks that haven’t kept up, are driving a cost-of-living squeeze. Two-thirds say they are struggling today and need relief they can feel right away. And the most cited concern is grocery costs.
Shoppers want value and stability.
Dollars for nonessentials are tight.
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I like this framing of a brand’s core position being an aspect of its intrinsic character versus a specific product or service.
The core position is long-range, low-turnover holding. Ralph Lauren’s preppy style or Hermès equestrian aesthetics belong here, as well as Burberry’s trench or check pattern. These are positions held for 60 years and 200 years, respectively.
Building a brand is having the patience and fortitude to do the same thing over and over and over. It’s about being boring in one way to be creative in others.
What role does your brand fill in the garden?
Unchanging evergreen or moment of glory
Summer stunner or winter warmer
Flower factory or shade sculptor
Know the seeds you’ve planted.
❤️🔥🧭
Markets are niches all the way down.
You don’t have to drill to the bottom. Match a sub-niche to the moment.
Don’t build your brand a faraday cage. Allow signal in and out.
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I thought that advertising is about spreading the message of your brand. “Please try my product.”
That’s not the role of advertising in marketing.
The role of advertising, turns out, is to inset the experience. It’s not just about increasing awareness, it’s that you are creating a belief that creates an anticipatory response that actually effects the feeling.
Belief and expectations shape experience.
In many cases, your ad is the first experience someone has with your brand. What expectations are you setting?
You get tired of saying it long before customers get tired of hearing it.
If you make the best burger in town you’re going to get tired of making the best burger in town.
And when you get tired of it you’re tempted to change it.
But no one who comes through the doors is tired of it or wants you to change it.
Keep serving the burger.
Sometimes looking for something new and fresh is a reaction to boredom. But people don’t go to burger places to try the escargot.
Embrace the boring.
What would you teach a junior person in your role?
What’s your defining belief or differentiating idea about what it is that you do?
What is your signature?
I got my head checked
By a jumbo jet
We spend a lot of time craft the message. What we say.
But how we say it and where we say it is just as (even more?) important.
Just ask Damon Albarn