Brandy

Hello Q3! Every new quarter, founders feel the itch to rebrand, but boredom isn't a strategy. Rebranding experts Reilly Newman and Scott Saunders of Motif Brands break down the real difference between brand adaptation (constant, healthy) and a true rebrand (rare, evidence-driven) with the inclusion of the four signals from Motif's Brand Deficit™ model that actually justify a real rebrand....

Most brands don't die from bad design. They die from becoming indistinguishable. Blanding is what happens when a brand strips away everything that made it recognizable (the personality, the heritage, the visual distinction) in pursuit of looking cleaner, safer, or more modern. The result is a brand that's easier to compare than to choose. In this episode, Reilly Newman and Scott Saunders b...

Most brands don't choose their theme... their category chooses it for them. In this episode, rebrand experts Reilly Newman and Scott Saunders break down why brand themes aren't decoration; they're the operating system behind every distinct brand experience. And when you abandon them, you pay for it on the shelf. From Pirate's Booty's rebrand mistake to Liquid Death's catego...

Harvard Business Review studied 597 logos and declared a winner, but we're not buying it. In this episode, rebranding experts, Reilly Newman and Scott Saunders unpack why HBR's descriptive vs. non-descriptive framing is a useful starting point and a misleading endpoint. Yes, descriptive logos can aid recognition and brand processing. But collapsing logo strategy into a binary choice ignore...

AI-generated avatars are flooding TikTok, posing as struggling small business owners who are actually selling dropshipped products at 300%+ markups. One account's viral video racked up 6.5 million views, with viewers believing they were supporting a real small business. On this episode, Reilly Newman and Scott Saunders are breaking down what's happening and why it matters for every founder...

What happens when a brand takes its eyes off the road? More importantly what happens to the audience when a brand gives them whiplash? On this episode of Brandy, Reilly Newman and Scott Saunders discuss Ferrari's recent Jaguar moment with the release of their EV collaboration with famous Apple designer Jony Ive. The backlash against the EV has been global as the brand confuses and veers off co...

The neuroscience of brand memory, marketing strategy, and why your growth has stalledYou're getting traffic, maybe even good reviews, but referrals are slow, word of mouth is inconsistent, and growth feels stuck. Most founders blame their marketing. Wrong problem. The issue is what your brand left behind. Memory isn't storage, it's reconstruction. In this episode of Brandy, Reilly Newman and Scott...

The Pickleball Finals in San Clemente had a title sponsor nobody expected... Toys R Us. Parent company, WHP Global, didn't pick this matchup by accident. Pickleball is the fastest-growing sport in America, and the audience sitting courtside is the exact demographic that buys toys for someone else: parents, grandparents, gift-givers with disposable income and active kids at home. In this episod...

The algorithm rewards volume. Volume demands low cost and high frequency. And the unhealthy pressure to post constantly, cheaply, and for attention is working against everything brand strategy is built to do. Reilly Newman and Scott Saunders break down why social media's incentive structure is one of the biggest hidden threats to brand health, why chasing followers and engagement erodes the lo...

$1 Trillion retailer (Walmart) spent millions on a brand system most $5M founders refuse to build. Walmart just rolled out a new look for Great Value with a darker blue, refined wordmark, "America's Pantry" tagline. Most marketers will see a logo refresh, but they'll be missing what actually happened.... Walmart didn't redesign a brand. They built a decision system. Shapes an...

Most founders have no idea their brand is being evaluated by machines. 24% of AI users already delegate purchase decisions to AI shopping assistants and that number is accelerating. The brands winning those evaluations aren't the loudest or the most creative... they're the clearest. In this episode of Brandy, Reilly Newman and Scott Saunders break down the most important shift in brand str...

Every business owner knows their tax bill, but there's a tax your accountant will never find and it's bleeding your business on every deal you close, every sale you struggle to explain, and every customer who walks away. It's not a line item. It's your brand . In this episode, Reilly Newman and Scott Saunders break down the three hidden taxes a weak brand puts on your business: the...

Did you know your brand might be costing you money? Most businesses know something is off with their brand. Growth feels harder than it should. Deals get discounted. The wrong clients show up. But without a way to measure it, the problem stays fuzzy and don't get fixed. In this episode, Reilly Newman and Scott Saunders introduce the Brand Deficit™ Scorecard: a free, science-backed diagnostic t...

Marketing doesn’t create clarity. It distributes it. More ads. More content. More campaigns. When something feels off, the instinct is always the same: Do more marketing. But more marketing doesn’t fix a brand problem. It amplifies it. In this episode of Brandy , Reilly Newman and Scott Saunders break down one of the most expensive misunderstandings in business: The difference between marketing ac...

Money isn’t the only currency in business. Status is. And in many cases, it’s the one that matters more. In this episode of Brandy , Reilly Newman and Scott Saunders explore the idea of status as currency and why brands are constantly participating in an invisible exchange of perception, identity, and social signaling. Every purchase, every interaction, every brand choice communicates something. N...

Learn from F1 and Harry Potter that most rebrands don’t fail. They erase. They wipe out years of accumulated perception, then call it progress. On this episode of Brandy , brand strategy is reframed as an issue of asset allocation , not creativity. Reilly Newman and Scott Saunders of Motif Brands introduce a different model: Scaffolding and Recursion. Instead of digging for new meaning, you build...

Department stores were once the center of retail. Today, many feel like empty shells. Large spaces animated by the brands inside them rather than the store itself. In this episode of Brandy , Reilly Newman and Scott Saunders explore the changing trajectory of retail through the lens of Kohl's and its recent earnings struggles. But the most fascinating insight isn’t on the balance sheet. It’s o...

Brand strategy is language. Most founders underestimate the power of words. But the right phrase can shape perception for decades. Why do certain slogans stick in our heads? Why do jingles become cultural memory? And what does that reveal about brand strategy? In this episode of Brandy , Reilly Newman and Scott Saunders explore the strategic power of language in branding and why the words a compan...

A playlist for perfect pasta?! Brand move to note... Most founders think brand strategy is about logos, taglines, or differentiation. It’s not. It’s about framing. In this episode, Reilly Newman and Scott Saunders of Motif Brands break down the deceptively simple line: “Whatever you drive, drive a Firestone.” On the surface, it sounds like a classic slogan. Under the hood, it’s a masterclass in po...

Reilly's daughter is in Poppy Playtime?! And what's up with Staples and Party City?! When a cult-beloved indie horror game launches a new chapter, the internet pays attention. But when that game quietly sells hundreds of thousands of copies, racks up tens of millions of YouTube views, and builds a global fan base founders and marketers should really pay attention. In this episode, Reilly a...

Amazon's Ring surveillance scare. ⁠⁠⁠ >> Get the Award-Winning Book (Brandy): BrandyBook.us The words you use aren’t neutral. They are setting the ceiling of your company. In this episode of Brandy, Reilly Newman and Scott Saunders of Motif Brands break down the power of language; not just in marketing, but inside the mind of a founder and within the culture of a team. Because words don’...

Super Bowl ads are expensive. That doesn’t mean they’re effective. ⁠⁠⁠ >> Get the Award-Winning Book (Brandy): BrandyBook.us On this episode of Brandy , brand experts Reilly Newman and Scott Saunders break down Super Bowl LX by separating the winners from the losers and digging into what actually worked, what fell flat, and what’s starting to feel tired in Super Bowl advertising.... They dis...

After 100 episodes of Brandy , patterns become impossible to ignore. ⁠⁠⁠ >> Get the Award-Winning Book (Brandy): BrandyBook.us Across industries, company sizes, and growth stages, the same branding mistakes keep showing up and the same truths keep separating brands that stall from brands that win. In this milestone episode, brand experts Reilly Newman and Scott Saunders break down the princi...

From Luxury to Tax Prep, see why brands are going physical ⁠⁠⁠ >> Get the Award-Winning Book (Brandy): BrandyBook.us For years, brands were told the future was digital. Now, some of the most powerful brands in the world are placing a very different bet: physical experience . In this episode of Brandy , Reilly Newman and Scott Saunders explore why brands across wildly different categories are...

Is 2026 the year you rebrand? Think again! ⁠⁠⁠ >> Get the Award-Winning Book (Brandy): BrandyBook.us Every year around the New Year, founders feel the itch to rebrand. A fresh start. A new look. A clean slate. But here’s the truth: if you wait for January to rebrand, you’re already late. In this episode of Brandy , rebranding experts Reilly Newman and Scott Saunders reframe rebranding as wha...