The danger of boring yourself
The thing about churning out one of these essays every week, is that it forces me to constantly be focusing on the “next” thing: the next idea, the next theory, the next technique, the next talking point. In general this is no bad thing, as it helps me to continuously deepen my knowledge, and hopefully […]
How to be truly rebellious
In 2022, there’s nothing more conformist than being revolutionary. I’ve written about this before, but I still think it bears repeating that it can be quite hard now to find brands who don’t present themselves as being in some way maverick, rebellious, and counter-cultural – even (or especially) amongst corporate giants. They all stand with […]
Strategic unity: how to blend the functional with the emotional
I often say that the best businesses are generic in every way but one. In amongst a framework of safe and recognisable best practice, they have a single disarming insight which subverts the status quo, and from which all their leverage stems. In my case, although I dress everything up to appear distinctive, there really […]
Master or servant: how should you work with agencies?
The relationship between brands and their creative agencies is often an unhappy one. I don’t have any stats at my fingertips, but it’s often observed that the rate of satisfaction tends to be quite low on both sides of the table. From the client’s side, the complaints tend to centre on agencies’ inability to understand […]
Cultural imprinting: how ads really work?
Ever notice how much better it is when your favourite song comes on the radio compared to when you listen to it on Spotify? It’s weird isn’t it. You’re driving along, radio humming away as background noise, and then you hear those first couple of beats and suddenly it’s volume up, windows down, hand beating […]
How not to be disrupted
Note: after last week’s discussion and the idea of balancing planned vs. agile strategies, I gave it some more thought and came up with a concept I think explains it well. So you can consider this a bit of a follow up, hope you enjoy. ____ Generally speaking, I think the pace of change is wildly exaggerated. […]
The Challenger Trap: fighting the status quo with the status quo
Once up on a time, to be a “challenger brand” simply meant that you weren’t number one. On this basis pretty much any brand could be framed as such, without it really saying anything about their philosophy or approach to the market. One of the original challenger brands, for example, was Avis, the car rental […]
Armani, aspiration, and the decline of luxury
If we’re reductive about it, we might say there are really only two strategic levers a business can pull from a consumer perspective: Utilitarian Brand led When it comes to delivering value, these are basically the paths to do it. Utilitarian companies offer a genuinely useful and unique “function” – for instance, the supermarket Lidl, […]
How to make eco-strategies work
I spend a lot of time here talking against herd behaviour; against the reflexive urge, we all have to copy and to cluster – particularly in business. It should be acknowledged, however, that not all herd behaviour is necessarily illogical or counterproductive. We are all swimming in the same cultural waters, and sometimes a wave […]
How successful brands die
Understandably we talk a lot here about growth. That’s what most founders are interested in. However, this is should only be one part of their agenda. The other, less discussed, is survival. Simply sticking around and maintaining your brand’s position – hopefully long into the future. When it comes to the growth side of the […]