Thinking on brand
Points of view – where strategy meets reality
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Report: Construction & engineering consultancies
Same. Difference.
Four in five B2B firms are saying the same thing
An independent audit of 75 UK construction and engineering consultancies, scored across seven dimensions of brand voice. The pattern is sharper than expected – and the open territory it leaves is wider.
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Business strategy made sticky.
You have a business strategy. It’s ambitious. Well-conceived. The board’s on-board. Why isn’t everyone moving in the same direction? Because strategy on paper isn’t strategy in action. And the gap between is where many plans come undone.
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Do you have a positioning problem? Six ways to tell.
You have a great offer. Your customers love it. But new prospects aren’t biting, every conversation drifts to price, and your own team describe what you do differently every time. Sound familiar? These are symptoms. The problem probably isn’t your marketing.
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Brand tone of voice: strategy before style
When people talk about tone of voice, they often mean some basic word choice. A vocabulary. Maybe a list of ‘words we use' and ‘words we don't.' That’s not wrong, exactly. But it’s not where to start.
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Brand messaging – to cut through, you need a strategy
Do you want to send consistent and cohesive messages across all platforms, to cut through the competition to your customer? Create a messaging strategy – a toolbox of words and phrases that convey your brand’s unique value proposition. Here are some elements of a messaging toolbox and the building blocks of a cut-through messaging strategy.
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To be more successful, stop competing*
Conventional wisdom tells us we must constantly compete to stay ahead, right? But this can lead to a pitch battle around benefits and price. One of your greatest assets in executing your business strategy can be a strong brand strategy...
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Distinctive culture, distinctive brand. Chicken, Egg?
How do we craft a unique culture that empowers both your team, and in turn, your customers. Fostering a clear identity will have meaningful impact on employee, and customer, experience.
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Can you see voice? The Brand Voice Radar.
Brand voice usually gets one page in a seventy-page brand guideline – a handful of generic adjectives that say nothing distinctive. Brand Voice Radar measures voice as it actually appears, comparing a brand to its competitors or mapping it across a whole sector.
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What you should get from a brand strategy engagement
A workshop and a document is one version of brand strategy. Here’s what it should look like – and what you should expect to walk away with.
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Purpose is not your positioning. Except when it is.
Is purpose all-powerful or pointlessly performative? Should we start with why - or with what customers need? Sorry keyboard warriors – It depends.
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Why do most consultancies sound the same?
Most consultancies have a positioning problem. Their brand voice is where it shows up. The instinct is to fix the writing. The writing isn’t the problem.
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Before you rebrand, read this
Thinking of a rebrand? Consider this. A rebrand is a signal. If the story isn’t ready before you make the change, the moment passes. You don’t get it back.
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Your brand should help build a cohesive company culture
So many organisations run their brand programme and their culture programme separately. Often involving different people and using different language. Then they wonder why neither lands.
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B2B brands with no spark miss the mark
Most B2B brands hide behind rationality – features, specs, credentials – because it feels safe. But business buyers are still people. They still need to feel confident, excited, reassured.
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Digging for foundations of your brand
If you want to build something enduring – strong enough to stand in the changing winds – you start with the foundation. Right? Tell me, is that controversial? In the rush to produce more, faster, have we forgotten this?
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Create a brand strategy that actually works for a growing business
Growing a business or a brand? Building a brand strategy that actually works isn’t about ticking boxes or following frameworks – it’s about getting clear on who you are, where you are headed, and why that matters. How do you approach it without getting lost in the process?
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Why would you bring in an external brand strategist?
Sometimes you’re too close to see it clearly. An external strategist brings objectivity, pattern recognition, and a process your own team can’t provide – and gets you to a strategy they’ll actually own.
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Inside-out branding
Most briefs arrive focused outward. But in almost every project I've worked on, the gap between a brand that works and one that doesn’t comes down to what happens inside.
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The on-purpose brand
Purpose-led brands outperform the market, times three. Why did purpose get a bad name?
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The (brand) creation story
In the beginning, there was... Your brand’s creation story.
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Brand: watch your assets! Is less more?
The most recognisable brands in the world own a surprisingly small number of assets. The discipline is in knowing which ones to protect – and which to cut.
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Mindfulness trend gathers pace
As we continue to seek the perfect balance between the states of stress and flow, Nike has teamed up with the creators of the leading mindfulness meditation brand Headspace to create audio-guides that use established meditation techniques to give you an enhanced experience of exercise.
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Frenemies? The unexpected usefulness of understanding trends
Trends can be our friends – it’s important to know the terrain and the likely challenges and opportunities you’ll encounter before starting your journey. But, if you’re creating brand assets and behaviours and aiming to follow trends, there may be trouble ahead, you are not navigating your own path.
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