Position To Win

Send us Fan Mail Brand identity runs far wider than the logo.   Most of the time someone meets your brand, they are looking at the color, the type, the photography, the way things are spaced on a page. The logo is one member of the cast. The whole system is what people actually feel. Episode 6 is a walk through that system: the marks, the type, the imagery, the spacing, and the small rules that le...

Send us Fan Mail Episode 5 is on naming. The Five Tests every name has to pass: distinctiveness, ownability, scalability, pronounceability, narrative load. The discovery method that pulls candidates out of your customers' own language.  The cost of fixing a name later runs three to twenty times what getting it right would have cost. A name is the most permanent decision in branding. Choose it...

Send us Fan Mail A national food company hired my studio with a problem they could feel but couldn't name. They powered other people's brands. The meal kits, the grocery private label, the food-media darlings, all ran on their infrastructure. None of it carried their name. For over a year, leadership argued the same question in different rooms. Should we build our own consumer brand? Sho...

Send us Fan Mail Ask a founder who their customer is and you'll get a category. Enterprise SaaS. Recreational cannabis. Health-conscious consumers. None of those is an ICP. They're hiding places. This episode is about the most underrated decision in brand strategy, and the one most companies fake. Ideal Customer Profile. We do it backwards. We start with who it isn't. It is easier t...

Send us Fan Mail Most companies do not have a brand strategy. They have a list of activities. This episode is about the single mental habit that separates the two. Strategy is choice. Activity is addition. One closes doors. The other refuses to. We will cover the 200-page brand document that taught me what real strategy is not. The three "brand pillars" that could have been written for a...

Send us Fan Mail A simple model for understanding what kind of company you are right now. And who you can actually beat. Scissors is the startup. Sharp focus. One ICP. One edge. Rock is the proven system. Durable. Repeatable. Paper is the giant. Suite. Spend. Distribution. Each one beats a different opponent. And almost every founder picks the wrong fight. Scissors loses when it tries to act like...