Branding
- Expensive in the short run
- Cheap in the long run
Why Brand Matters: Tariff Edition
Tariffs—or at least their impact—have been top of mind for consumers for most of 2025. (I counted the other day, and nearly every month between February and September had some kind of tariff announcement, implementation, or change. That’s slowed, but now the whole thing is rolling through the court system.)
They’ve also been top of mind for businesses, and therefore brands. And provide a great illustration of why brand is so important, as A Matter of Brand so efficiently illuminates:
brands are scrambling right now to sort their options in dealing with a massive cut into margins. They can cut costs by laying off people and cut corners with materials and production - or they can raise prices.
To dampen the impact of raising prices, brands need to establish pricing power to make them less vulnerable to the price elasticity of demand for their products, meaning the degree to which the demand for their products changes when the pricing changes.
Essentials are inelastic, but that means fewer discretionary funds for non-essential items that can be highly elastic. Brand strength can help counteract elasticity. (Offset what you can’t control by controlling what you can. (But, yes, brands are largely out of your control once they launch. At that point they’re organisms of co-creation.))
I see two ways to do this - truly differentiable innovation and strong brand work. Both can be costly but brand work can be accomplished largely with creativity and insights - budget is helpful of course but a great team can do a lot when the dollars are tight.
The time is NOW for brand.
Why is your product worth the price? That’s a matter of brand.
Building a brand is expensive in the short-run and cheap in the long-run.
Thoughts on building a media network from the NBA Front Office Show that’s also great brand building advice. 🏀
You want to do things really well before you just try to do a lot of things.
That’s one of the biggest mistakes people make is, “I want to do everything.”
Let’s do one thing really well first.
Find your niche. Get great at that. Then you can branch out.
Nike: A Cautionary Tale
But a strong brand can also become a crutch.
See: Nike.
When you’re trying to build a brand you’re aggressive. Focused.
Your focus is on meeting your customer where they are and doing the things that create moments of delight for them. On doing the things that make people, first, fall in love with your brand and, then, talk about it to others. To begin to incorporate your brand into their identity.
Once you’ve built your brand—reached that mountain top—you can start to lose focus.
You can start to forget about everything you did to get to this spot and start to think you deserve this spot.
You can make choices based on financial models and balance sheet forecasts and forget those dollars come from people.
And while you’re looking in the wrong direction, the next group of brands is doing all the stuff you did to get here.
Building a brand is the beginning. Once built, it requires maintenance.
Brands aren’t owed anything.
&
Everything is customer service.