BRAND STRATEGY EXPERT ARTICLES 

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 Acce

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....

Part 2: Personas, Outreach, Conversion For those of us who aren’t natural salespeople, it’s often the fear of rejection—or thinking we...

In 2011, Patagonia ran an ad with the message  Don’t Buy This Jacket . More than a bold statement, it challenged consumerism—urging...

Kantar, the international market research company, recently conducted the largest brand research project* ever undertaken and concluded...

IF YOU CAN'T DEFINE YOUR BRAND'S VALUE, NEITHER CAN YOUR CUSTOMERS. AND IF YOUR BRAND ISN'T SEEN AS VALUABLE, IT BECOMES INVISIBLE. The...

KFC: Kitchen Fresh Chicken? More of that later. Let’s start with electric cars. Very Clever. As a Brand Strategist I love the Chinese...

Mark is, without doubt, my most exciting and derring-do client!   World Extreme Medicine is a global network delivering world-leading...

Hmmm, where does this go?   I think of the process of defining a point for a brand is a little like exploring a city.   The only way to...

“What’s the name all about, Jeff?”   I was having coffee with Jeff Moore, the co-founder of Just Us!, a coffee company based in Canada....

Many of us don’t have a clear and concise idea about what our businesses stand for, and how to consistently communicate what we do to our...

“What do you do Bruce?” “I’m a Brand Strategist”. “How interesting!” Pause , “ But what do you actually do?” And so it goes. Brand...