Brand Tuned - Rounded Business Design

Stephen Willard is a graphic designer and former art director who moved into employee benefits communications and now runs his own company EMBLAZE a workplace engagement company that specialises in delivering high energy experiences to employees.   In this episode, we discuss how IP tends to be regarded as a luxury, rather than as something essential, and how Stephen has picked up his knowledge of...

Stef Hamerlinck is a brand strategist and designer living in Belgium, and host of the podcast, Let's Talk Branding. He runs his own branding studio. In this episode, we discuss what a brand is and how distinctiveness is fundamentally about making a brand stand out. Stef also shares his views on how many brand codes a business should have and gives examples for smaller and big brands to look a...

Somi Arian is a tech philosopher, award-winning filmmaker, author, entrepreneur, and a LinkedIn top voice in the UK. She has a background in philosophy of science and technology. She describes her role in society as a transition architect, as humans merge with technology, and society enters a new phase of human evolution.  In this episode, we talk about Somi’s background growing up in Iran, moving...

Ian Paget, also known as Logo Geek, is a UK based graphic designer located in Manchester, who specialises in logo and brand identity design. He is the founder of Logo Geek, a professional logo design service, design blog, podcast and community.  In this episode, I asked Ian about his design process and how he goes about creating logos and other visual assets. He shares his insights on how to ensur...

Thomas Kolster is the founder of the  Goodvertising Agency, one of the pioneers in shaping brands.  In this episode, we discuss his book The Hero Trap, and how companies should be clear about their role when carving a niche in the marketplace and understanding how they can be better than anybody else. He shares his insights on mass marketing, how it affects today’s generation of young people and t...

In this episode, Shireen interviews a series of business owners to produce a Vox Pop about what they did when they first started out to create their brands. How did they deal with the IP side of things?  In brief this episode covers: Brand Naming Brand journey What does brand mean? Insights on choosing the right help when turning ideas into a brand Protecting the brand name through intellectual pr...

We’re celebrating a new milestone as we reach our 100th episode.  Now that we’re at the 100th episode rather than looking back on past episodes as is often done on podcasts, we instead want to look forward to the future. That’s why we are releasing several podcasts today: A vox pop episode about intellectual property An episode with Somi Arian of Fempeak whose purpose is to raise the socio-economi...

Joe Gregory is the co-founder of Rethink Press, a partner publishing company that helps business authors to write and publish their books. He has a background in advertising as a graphic designer and sales copywriter. In this episode, we discuss the many ways intellectual property is relevant for entrepreneurs, designers and marketers. We also talk about how IP should be a fundamental aspect of an...

In this episode, I talk about distinctiveness and differentiation, which is the subject of some debate in the branding industry. I also cover the important connection between brand value and IP. The role of identifiers is to uniquely identify your brand. This is the essential purpose of branding and distinctiveness is all about being recognized as the source or origin of your products and services...

Emily Soccorsy and Justin Foster are the founders of Root + River an intrinsic strategic branding practice, who share their perspective on branding, and how the brand starts from within the founder. That is the starting point for communicating the brand story. They discuss their approach to understanding customers and the ideal audience. In the episode we cover:   Building customer relationship Un...

Margie Agin is the founder of Centerboard Marketing and author of the book Brand Breakthrough. In this episode, she shares her insights on developing the messaging and positioning for a company, how she does market research and more. We also discuss why brand projects can fail.  Among other things we discuss the origin story of a company - how that story can be powerful in explaining why the brand...

Chet Morjaria, founder of Realign Global,  and author of the excellent book Work Worth Doing shares his unique insights about values, which are essential to consider whether as an employee or business owner. This episode is a deep dive on values including how our values are formed through our experiences. It covers: Defining values Business values How to articulate your values Principles of narrow...

In this episode, Kevin Urrutia, a serial entrepreneur and the owner of Voy Media, an NYC based digital marketing agency shares his approach for setting up a new business based on his experience of setting up several businesses. He also covers how he finds the right team members to work for him and the importance of training for marketers.  This episode includes essential insights on how to use you...

John Vuong, owner of Local SEO Search Inc shares his insights on local search, and how SEO helps businesses to grow. He outlines the pillars in creating a well-oiled SEO strategy for a website to start ranking for the service offerings it wants to dominate in. John also shares his insights on people’s buying behaviour to help better position your SEO efforts when people are ready to convert, the d...

Chris Kneeland is the CEO of the Cult Collective.  He helps brand leaders embrace proven marketing principles that he discovered about becoming cult brands. He shares examples of successful cult brands and why they achieved cult status, and touches on some more recent and controversial points of cult brands.  In this episode we look at: What is a cult brand? Steps in creating a cult brand Controve...

In this episode, I focus on naming hierarchy. Should you adopt a branded house approach or go with a house of brands?  This episode is essential if you want to have a deeper understanding before choosing names for your business so you understand the risks and opportunities inherent in the different options.  I also discuss when is it appropriate to use a new brand name and the right brand architec...

Brad VanAuken of BrandForward, Inc. shares insights on how to rebrand, thinking through the mission, vision, values and positioning choosing the brand identity - namely the brand name, logo, colours and the like.    This episode covers rebranding as Brad shares his process for transforming an organization, its products or services into a strong brand, imbuing it with an identity that gives the bus...

Rand Fishkin, co-founder and CEO of SparkToro has dedicated his professional life to helping people do better marketing.  This episode is essential for anyone wanting to create a successful business online as Rand shares insights on what constitutes a good name for an online business and how SEO and other methods help to successfully market your business online.  We discuss differentiation in a cr...

In this episode, Derrick Daye, of the Brand Strategy Insider shares among other insights, how founders and startups should create their brand so they end up with more than a logo.  He shares what is the emotional connection for brands, the steps you need to take when you want to inject emotional connection into a brand, a brand’s social purpose and why brand essence is the heart and soul of your b...

In this episode, I talk about differentiation, why and how I differentiate myself from others providing similar skills, and how you can copy my approach to develop a unique angle.   I stand out because I have developed expertise that is more unique by stepping outside the confines of my discipline.  By combining a narrow expertise in intellectual property law, with  marketing and branding. I’ve se...

In this episode, Giles Edwards the founder of Gasp, an award-winning, marketing, strategy & communications agency, discusses how to effectively carry out research and how the value of research is vital. He shares the holy trinity of segmentations as part of the brand strategy, his perspective on branding terminologies and insights on brand distinctiveness.  This episode is essential for anyone...

In this episode, Daniel Greenberg, a South African attorney and UK solicitor with over 14 years of experience in the field of domain name management and Intellectual Property discusses trademarking, keyword rich names and their relevance, and why he believes that the .com is still the king when it comes to gTLDs and choosing the right domain name. Daniel shared the importance of getting your brand...

In this episode, JP Castlin, formerly CEO at Rouser, an international strategic consultancy firm in Stockholm, discusses the hierarchy of strategies, the ways to approach brand and business strategy and the concept that he formulated called strategy hierarchy. He breaks down the terms on complexity, positioning, differentiation, what you need to consider when formulating your brand strategy — the...

In this episode, Phil Barden, author of the book Decoded - the science behind why we buy,  discusses brand strategy, goals, people’s buying behaviour and how best to work with designers to create visual designs to reflect your brand.  Phil bridged the gap that he identified in traditional research techniques by turning to decision science for insights into people’s buying decision. This episode is...

This episode primarily focuses on the U element of the TUNED framework, namely the importance of understanding your market depending on the context. Bryony Thomas shares insights on how the approach to marketing changes if you have an exit in mind. Find out how you might develop an appropriate plan based on the information she shares. Bryony explains the strategies you can implement when preparing...