This is your go-to stream for clear, strategic thinking on how to grow your brand with intention. Whether you’re refining your positioning, clarifying your message, or figuring out why your marketing isn’t landing, you’ll find practical insights here to help you stand out and scale up.
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Paid, Earned, Shared, Owned: The PESO Media Mix That Builds Brands
Paid, earned, shared, and owned media make up the core mix of modern brand marketing. When these four channels work together, they create visibility, credibility, and long-term growth—helping small businesses and solopreneurs build stronger brands.
Seven Ways We Can Help You Build a Smarter, More Referable Brand
Want to know all the ways we can work together? From quick-start strategy sessions and in-depth research to ongoing advising, design, and free resources, here are seven ways we can help you build a smarter, more referable brand.
Is That a Kodak on Your Wrist?
Rolex and Kodak may seem worlds apart, but both names were deliberately invented to sound distinctive, memorable, and universally pronounceable. Their shared philosophy shows that a name doesn’t need a definition to be powerful; it needs clarity, simplicity, and room to grow into meaning. The right name can shape perception, spark emotion, and build lasting brand identity.
A Beautiful Website Won’t Fix a Broken Brand
Redesigning your website or marketing materials might seem like the fix for slow sales or outdated visuals—but if your brand strategy is unclear, even the best-looking materials will fall flat. When brand positioning, strategy, and design are out of sync, your marketing won’t deliver results. Aligning your message, visuals, and marketing approach creates a strong foundation that helps your website and collateral attract and convert the right audience.
What Your Pricing Says About Your Brand (and Why It Matters)
Pricing communicates more than cost—it signals value, shapes perception, and positions your brand in the marketplace. Whether it’s Evian vs. store-brand water or a consultant who’s “not cheap but worth it,” pricing influences how others talk about you. A strategic approach to pricing can elevate your brand, attract the right clients, and reinforce your reputation.
The Power of Referral Marketing: How to Turn Happy Customers into Loyal Advocates
Referral marketing is a powerful strategy for small businesses, using personal recommendations to build trust, attract new customers, and foster loyalty—all while keeping costs low. It reflects the quality of your business and the trust it inspires, turning happy customers into enthusiastic advocates
Is your brand Holding you back?
Take this 15-minute brand clarity assessment and discover what’s holding your business back—so you can fix it fast.
7 Tips For A Mid-Year Brand And Marketing Checkup
As we approach the halfway point of the year, now is the perfect time to take a step back and evaluate the effectiveness of your brand and marketing strategy. It’s a good idea to do a mid-year checkup to ensure you’re on track to meet your goals and make any necessary adjustments before it’s too late.
The Power of Pricing: How to Make Your Brand Stand Out
The right pricing strategy is crucial to the success of your brand. It should align with your brand’s values and positioning, and can create a loyal customer base, increase sales, and boost revenue. On the other hand, the wrong pricing can damage your brand’s reputation, decrease sales, and drive customers away.
Brand Overhaul: The Strategic Benefits of Rebranding Your Business
A company’s brand is its most valuable asset. Rebranding can provide significant benefits if done correctly. A brand overhaul can improve brand recognition, enhance customer engagement, and help a company stay relevant in a constantly evolving market.
The Marketing Mix
Even after 40 years (or 60 in the case of the original P’s), the Marketing Mix is still very much applicable to a marketer’s day to day work. A good marketer will learn to adapt the theory to fit modern times and their own business model.
Talking the Talk: The Marketing Lexicon
Like any specialty, marketing has a language of its own. Recognizing some important terms and dropping them into conversations when talking to your marketing consultant would help us solve your business challenges.
Your Website Is For Your Prospects
Your website is a reflection of your business, the value you offer your prospects, and what it’s going to be like working with you.
How I Killed (and Fixed) My Email Campaigns
It took just ten minutes to update my DNS settings, and almost two weeks to fix the problem I created. This article is a cautionary tale of letting better get in the way of good enough.
Don’t Stop Marketing
Rather than stopping all of your marketing, consider instead changing your strategy. Instead of selling, inform. Instead of daily email blasts, send emails weekly (or monthly). Instead of doing the same thing you’ve always done, pivot to something different. Here are some specific ideas for this difficult time.
How To Name Your Brand
Effective brand naming isn’t emotional or political—it’s strategic. It should align with your positioning, resonate with your audience, and be memorable enough to stand on its own. More than a trivial detail, a name plays a critical role in shaping perception, signaling value, and reinforcing your brand’s promise. A weak or confusing name can dilute impact and force your brand to work harder to stay top of mind. Ultimately, naming is both a creative and disciplined process that deserves as much attention as any other aspect of branding.
The Difference Between Marketing Strategy and Tactics
Your website isn’t converting. The social media advertising doesn’t bring in as many leads as you hoped. The direct mail campaign was a waste of paper. Your emails don’t get opened. And none of it is bringing in any new business. Sounds familiar right?
40+ Types of Marketing for Your Business
Marketing isn’t just one thing—it’s a diverse ecosystem of strategies that have evolved with technology, consumer behavior, and media platforms. This comprehensive guide explores over 40 distinct types of marketing, from traditional advertising and inbound content to emerging methods like voice, experiential, and neuromarketing. It emphasizes that there’s no single best approach—businesses should choose the right mix based on their audience, goals, and resources. Ultimately, understanding these categories helps brands become more strategic, creative, and effective in how they engage and convert their audiences.
How Writing Helps Me Talk About What I Do
I attend a fair amount of networking events every month. As an entrepreneur providing...
Goalsetting With A Vivid Vision Document
Most business owners have an idea of what they want their company to look like. However, their employees can’t necessarily see that same vision for what the future can be. If you are struggling with writing a clear mission statement and vision statement, then you should try to write a Vivid Vision first.
6 Ways To Spot Cheap Logo Design
There’s only one thing worse than a cheap logo, and that’s a cheap looking logo. Even if your average consumer can’t communicate why your logo makes them feel embarrassed, disgusted, or confused, they’re still going to have that reaction anyway.
A Fresh Start: Rebrand Your Business or Refresh Your Website?
No business can afford to rest on its laurels. While your company may be keeping up with economic and market changes, is your brand keeping up? Does your website communicate to your target audience how you’re keeping up?
You may be trying to decide if you should rebrand your business, or just update your website. Here are 10 factors to consider helping you make your decision.
Getting Mission, Vision and Values Right
The Vision, Mission, and Values statements guide the behaviors of people in an organization. The Vision statement describes where the organization wants to be in the future; the Mission statement describes what the organization needs to do now to achieve the Vision.
Choosing The Right Logo For Your Business
A logo is a powerful visual representation of your company. It forms an impression that...
Transforming Your Brand Culture
In the first part of this two-part series, I talked about brand cultures that focus on...