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.
Podcast Listener Average Lifetime Value Metric
I love a good metric formula. So even though I don’t have a podcast (yet?), I’m here for Bumper’s listener lifetime value metric.
a podcast’s lifetime value score measures the average number of distinct calendar days each listener spends with the show
How to calculate:
For each platform, sum the daily-resolution unique audience members, then divide that total by the all-time deduplicated number. The result is the average number of “listener days” per unique audience member, AKA average lifetime value.
As with many metrics, the value is provided over time as you build your own trendline and history.
Generally, podcasters should aim for an ever-increasing average lifetime value score, except when overall audience size is trending down (that’s a trap)
Survey says: Consumers are not confident.
The Consumer Confidence Index dropped nearly 7 points since last month, dipping below 90.
Both the Present Situation and Expectation indices are down. The latter marking its 10th month below 80—which usually signals a recession coming.
“Consumer confidence tumbled in November to its second lowest level since April after moving sideways for several months"
Confidence is down across age groups and incomes, though the kids are feeling ok.
Why? Inflation, tariffs, and that whole government shutdown thing.
Consumer splintering continues:
the wealthiest 10% of households, those earning $250,000 or more, now account for half of all US consumer spending, up from about one-third in the early 1990s
This post also shares that the most defining characteristic of luxury brands and products in the minds of consumers is now “expensive.” Which, of course, distills it down to the essence of its use as a status symbol.
via EMARKETER
Sometimes you and a customer just aren’t a fit.
There’s nothing wrong with that.
The wrong part comes in if you try to ignore it and make it work anyway.