Brand Tuned - Rounded Business Design

Alex Hamilton, CEO and founder of radiant law. He took his knowledge as a lawyer specializing in outsourcing technology and commercial contracts to create a groundbreaking innovative new law type business that he built up from the ground up. He speaks about his journey of founding a law company and how the business developed and sustainable. There were five of us who started the business, and most...

People assume branding is about getting pretty design work done, whereas the visual identity is the last thing to work on not the first. You just need some inexpensive designs initially while you test the market, and focus on designing the actual business itself rather than its visual appearance. Studies have shown that living a life of purpose leads to better health and overall happiness Working...

An effective brand strategy should provide a central, unifying idea around which all behaviour, actions and communications of the business can be aligned. It should work across products and services and will be effective over time. The best strategies are so powerful that they deflect the competition.  Think about what deep beliefs you cherish above all else  Think about what is your overarching e...

We’re all in distress mode, and as such are more likely to pay attention to the brands that engage with us in the right way. The right way is to avoid being perceived to be a crisis profiteer. Instead lead with the emotional journeys of your customer, with your purpose and the power of your personal brand. The best brands are responding in a human way, with compassion and empathy It’s easier to be...

Whatever your circumstances, setting your brand strategy can be really useful whether you’re branding a new business or rebranding an existing one. Start by considering what your overarching ambition and vision is for your business. Thinking through your brand strategy over a period of time helps in clarifying your vision, mission and values.  Aligning your personal and business goals gives you th...

Asking yourself the question ‘what business am I really in’ is well worth doing periodically – the answer might just help you to discover hidden opportunities or an angle for business development that you otherwise wouldn’t have considered. Somewhere along the line cinemas began to look at their business in a different way The classic example that is given when people are talking about this topic...

Branding has become a bigger thing than its origin as a visual designation of origin of cattle. Today branding lives in a different world. The pendulum has swung so far that everything is said to be branding, even marketing and advertising are said to be branding. A better way to think about it is that branding is who you are—and marketing is how you build awareness. If you’re a business owner wan...

There is quite a lot of confusion generally with intellectual property terms like copyright, trademarks, and patents. You need to have some understanding of these terms as they are a type of “property” that it’s possible to own, just like land. They impact every business nowadays in the digital economy. It pays to be mindful of the longer term implications of your early actions when implementing n...

Levent satisfied his burning desire to run his own business in 1995, joining his wife in her translation business, running the business from their dining room while bringing up a young family. Levent’s background was in print, starting as an apprentice, he moved to production management and then to digital production. He was about to be made a director when he resigned to run his own business. Run...

Building your business’ Intellectual Capital is the way to increase the value of a business because it’s the intangible assets that account for most of the value of corporates nowadays – as much as 70-80%. It’s important to note that intellectual property is PROPERTY and therefore needs careful handling.  Focusing on turnover is not necessarily the way to increase the multiple your business might...

In practice selling a business usually involves preparing for a sale at least 2 years in advance. It’s about identifying potential buyers, creating competition between them, making the business the best it can be in terms of EBITDA, and being ready for the sale so that nothing holds you up when a buyer for the business is available. Vague idea that they will grow their business and sell it one day...

In this episode, I discuss continuous improvement as a philosophy for life and business. I share my insights on why it’s important when tackling something new to not let imposter syndrome or the wish to be perfect get in your way.  In brief the episode covers: Podcasting is the next marketing frontier  The way to overcome imposter syndrome Understand the value of getting a podcast up and running 3...

Jeremy Miller i s the President of Sticky Branding, which is a brand building agency that helps businesses to have sticky brands. He is also the author of the book Brand New Name. He has: a proven step by step process to create an unforgettable brand name.  enables entrepreneurs and marketers to name something after setting their strategy - ie what it is that the brand is or what the product or se...

Stephen Robertson graduated with a law degree before qualifying as a chartered accountant with Deloitte. During his thirty years in corporate finance, he has worked in banking, angel investment and the PLC sector. He founded Metis Partners in 2003 to support businesses to maximise the value of their IP assets. He believes in the importance of setting the foundations in place early for both a perso...

In this episode, Shireen Smith discusses the importance of brand protection in marketing. Surprisingly, less than a third of agencies register their names as a trademark. This suggests many designers and others who offer branding services have little appreciation of the relationship between brand creation and brand protection.  The ramifications of not registering a trademark are many:  You have n...

Chrissie Lightfoot is a prominent international legal figure, entrepreneur, author and CEO of Robot Lawyer LISA. She has written two books including - The Naked Lawyer and Tomorrow’s Naked Lawyer. Started in business before training as a lawyer in her mid-30s and used her own personal brand to bring in clients for the solicitor’s practice where she did her training. After the launch of her first b...

Theo Williams is a creative whose superpower is to provoke new ways of thinking so retailers and brands can better realise their goals. He has held many influential designs and creative roles for the likes of Habitat, John Lewis Home and others. After studying industrial design at Manchester University, he went to Milan in 1991 and stayed for 15 years  Has designed packaging for Armani. products f...

Hannah Power is a personal branding specialist who focuses on supporting purpose driven entrepreneurs and experts to become powerful online leaders. Has been immersed in the world of personal branding since she was six when her parents set up the first online business network. Two sides to her business: one side is about coaching and training and the other is an agency where they offer done for yo...

Shireen discusses How Not to Brand Your Business in the 21st century and talks about the lack of awareness of IP, Brand names, the silo approach and the importance of combining creatives and lawyers when creating a new brand or revisiting an existing brand. Society has been transformed by Coronavirus with many businesses having to operate exclusively online. The lack of awareness of IP and the int...

Chris Radford author of the book Attractive Marketing is a former marketing director of Pepsi and managing director at Head Sports. His business, Differentiate ( www.differentiate.co ) supports business leaders to create better marketing and sales strategies. His methodology, called The Attractive Thinking Approach is based on these five steps: Pinpoint - Understanding customer problems  Position...

Shireen introduces series 2 of the podcast explaining there will be a weekly release of a podcast episode, which will be a mix of solo and interview episodes. In this episode, Shireen discusses how businesses are adapting to coronavirus and the prospect of a recession. For the next year, we can expect more uncertainty in business.  Some businesses are pivoting to an online solution, while others a...

Stephen Fenton supports his clients to work out what they want customers to think, feel and do as a result of their brand. Winning client business was the hardest part of running his own business when he started out.   Stephen owns and runs Zeke Creative specialising in branding in the home and interior sector.   His agency specialises in high-end home and interior clients from small businesses to...

Will Critchlow, who has recently sold Distilled, the international SEO consultancy that he co-founded discusses how he developed the brand in response to the needs of the business as it grew. They looked at what the whole organisation stood for, and what was their meaning in the marketplace as it helped them recruit the right people.   Post the sale of Distilled, Will retains Search Pilot, a SaaS...

Ronnie Fox a UK lawyer, discusses how choosing his niche carefully helped him to build his personal brand during his long and successful career. Here’s a link to his law firm - www.foxlawyers.com Became partner of a top twenty law firm two years post qualification  In March 1989 set up his own firm with colleagues and ended up specialising in employment work Developed an interest in the psychologi...

Stephen Willard discusses his unique employee-focused approach to all things brand related, and how he goes about supporting his clients to identify new names. To build highly democratic brands where employees feel a part of the process – something that appeals to Millenials. Their approach to branding is bottom-up rather than top-down, ensuring employee inclusiveness across the organisation He di...