BRAND STRATEGY EXPERT ARTICLES 

My last blog looked at how to put a brand strategy to work. This time, I want to look at what happens when you do. A good brand strategy brings greater clarity, differentiation and direction to a business. Put it to work and those benefits can translate into something tangible and measurable: greater visibility, stronger engagement, increased sales and business growth. Here are four examples from Brand Arrow clients where putting their brand strategy to work has delivered cle

One of the ‘mic drop’ moments in a Brand Arrow workshop comes when I ask: who is the most important audience for your brand strategy? Customers? No. It’s your team. If they understand your brand, there’s a good chance your customers will too. If they don’t, what hope do your customers have? Because even the best brand strategy means nothing if your team doesn’t understand it — or isn’t given the tools to put it to work. That’s why I always check in with clients after we’ve de

The Biggest Brand Problem Isn't What You Don't Know. It's what you do Know. One thing I've noticed over the years is that many founders and leadership teams know their businesses so well that they can stop seeing them through their customers' eyes. They become so familiar with their business that they forget what their customers need to know. It's why websites become cluttered, elevator pitches become rambling and marketing becomes feature-led. Clarity begins when you stop ta

Back in 2019, just before publishing my book, I needed a lawyer to help me review a number of intellectual property issues. As you would expect, I didn't simply choose the first firm that appeared on Google. I spoke to people I trusted, asked for recommendations, read reviews, looked at websites and eventually selected a firm that felt right. Looking back, the decision was influenced by all sorts of factors. Reputation. Recommendation. Experience. Trust. Perhaps even a little

Last week I was on a work trip in Miami and, on an afternoon off, found myself sitting on South Beach watching a series of gigantic cargo ships ease slowly out of Miami Port and head towards destinations across the world. Stacked to the gills with containers, all perfectly aligned, I found myself wondering how something on that scale manages to fit together so neatly. The answer, of course, is standardisation. For decades, the global shipping industry has operated around agre

In my last blog, What’s the Point of a Point?, I set out the case for why having a clear point matters — how it helps a business stick in the minds of its audience and gives teams a single focus to align around. What tends to get less attention, however, is the other side of that argument: what actually happens when that point is missing, or not clear enough to do its job. In most organisations, the challenge isn’t a deliberate decision to operate without a point, but the gra

Points are useful as they’re sharp, tend to stick into things, and there’s just one of them (think arrow). Being singular means a single focus – only one thing to communicate. The oft-told story still holds true: it’s easier to catch one tennis ball than twenty – just don’t try the exercise with arrows. For a business, however, corralling features and benefits, different target markets and audiences into a single point is tough. To express the offer in a single-minded way tha

Over the years of running Brand Arrow, I have worked with many organisations that struggle to articulate a clear, unified expression of what they stand for and where they are heading (or, as I like to put it, their point). While individuals across the team can usually describe the brand in their own words, those descriptions rarely align. This isn’t unusual. Research consistently shows that only around a third of leadership teams are genuinely aligned on their organisation’s

In the Age of AI, Clarity Is Your Competitive Edge With AI increasingly shaping how customers find and choose brands, clarity is no longer optional. Algorithms — as much as people — need to recognise what you do, who it’s for, and why it matters. In a world of constant noise, that’s getting harder. Attention spans have dropped from 12 seconds in 2000 to around 8 today, and consumers face more than 10,000 messages a day. Social media has given us endless opportunities to tell

Interbrand’s Best Global Brands report puts a $3.6 trillion value on the world’s top 100 brands — but the real lessons lie in why some are accelerating their lead. Overall it’s straightforward - brands that deliver clarity, distinctiveness and focus win. The rest are being filtered out — by both people and algorithms. Here’s my review of five key insights every SME should take from this year’s findings — and how they reinforce what we already know. 1. The Age of AI Is Accel

Hard to believe, but research shows that most leadership teams struggle to articulate what their business stands for — and why customers should care. Without definition, your brand loses direction, leading to mixed messages and missed opportunities. That’s where the elevator pitch — or more formally, your value proposition — comes in. The elevator pitch was born out of necessity. The only time you might catch a senior decision-maker was in the lift, so you had thirty seconds

Ask ten people what a brand is and you’ll get eleven answers. Some say it’s a logo. Others mention reputation or tone of voice. None are wrong—but none tell the whole story either. At its heart, a brand is a promise—the consistent delivery of a distinctive benefit. And behind that promise sits a brand strategy: a clear definition of purpose and character that helps your team make better decisions about how the brand shows up. Without that strategy, you're guessing. With it, y

Part 1: Offer, Market, Route Everybody needs to sell—whether it’s ice cream, consulting, or indeed brand strategy. And selling is tough. It takes discipline to shape a compelling offer, and determination to keep going when the pushbacks inevitably come. It’s hard for sales professionals—and it’s doubly hard for those of us who aren’t. I count myself in that group, and I’m guessing many of you do too. So how do people like us get good at sales? Passion and process. Passion may

Part 2: Personas, Outreach, Conversion For those of us who aren’t natural salespeople, it’s often the fear of rejection—or thinking we don’t have the right sales patter—that stops us from getting on with the vitally important job of finding customers (and income!). But the reality is, rejection is normal—not everyone wants to buy what you offer. Selling is more about asking questions, listening, and matching your offer to the buyer’s needs. In Part 1 of this series, we looked

In 2011, Patagonia ran an ad with the message Don’t Buy This Jacket. More than a bold statement, it challenged consumerism—urging people to rethink purchases, highlighting the environmental costs of overconsumption, and reinforcing the brand’s sustainability ethos. Paradoxically, it drove sales while cementing Patagonia’s reputation for authenticity. From the words on your homepage to the pitch that wins deals, the campaigns that grab attention, and the emails that nurture re