Importance of Branding

The financial case for brand strategy: Why CFOs should care. Branding isn’t just about looking good.* It drives real financial impact (* if done strategically) Yet, many companies still see it as a cost rather than an asset that increases enterprise value, reduces waste, and boosts profitability. Here’s what most businesses get wrong: - They see branding as expense, not an investment. - They focus on short-term lead generation over long-term equity. - They underestimate how much a strong brand lowers acquisition costs, improves pricing, reduces churn and attracts talent. Here’s how: 01 - Brand Strategy Increases Market Value: Brands are intangible, but they drive real financial value. Today, 80–85% of the S&P 500’s market value comes from intangibles like brand equity. Corporate reputation alone is worth $16 trillion globally. Companies with strong brands deliver 2× higher shareholder returns over 20 years than the MSCI World Index. Why? A strong brand builds trust, reduces risk, and increases pricing, partnerships, and M&A leverage. 02 - A Strong Brand Lowers Marketing Costs: Weak brands must pay to be noticed, they have to keep buying attention…spending millions on ads and lead gen. Strong brands generate attention. Tesla, for example, spends $0 on traditional ads, while competitors spend $495 per vehicle sold. Tesla’s brand, combined with a touch of Elon, drives WOM, earned media, and loyalty...saving hundreds of millions in marketing costs. (And yes, I know it works both ways, for better or worse) 03 - Branding Improves Profit Margins & Pricing Power: A strong brand lets you charge premium prices and avoid price wars. Apple sells iPhones at 40%+ gross margins, while competitors struggle, even with similar hardware. Why? Customers aren’t just buying a product, they’re buying into a brand. Data shows: - Consumers pay 11% more for trusted brands. - Brand-loyal customers pay 38% more, even price-sensitive ones pay 14% more. - Without strong branding, companies must compete on price alone. 04 - Strong Brands Retain Customers Longer: Retention is one of the biggest profitability drivers. It costs 5× more to acquire a new customer than to retain one. A 5% increase in retention boosts profits by 25–95%. Brand loyalty reduces churn, increases lifetime value, and creates repeat buyers without ads spend. 05 - Resilient Brands Outperform in Crises: In downturns, weak brands suffer revenue losses and resort to discounting. Strong brands hold their value & recover faster. During 2020, while most businesses struggled, the top 100 most valuable brands grew by +5.9%. A well-built brand acts as financial insulation, stabilising revenue. The Hard Truth: A strong brand isn’t a luxury, it’s a financial strategy. If your CFO still sees branding as a cost center, send them this. Sources: McKinsey, Interbrand, BrandZ, Bain & Company, Nielsen, Kantar, Invesp, Unilever, Tesla, industry reports on brand valuation, CAC, and shareholder returns.

Here's what most businesses get wrong They focus on: → Random logo design → Generic color schemes → Template websites But real branding is deeper: 1. Brand Strategy Your foundation: → Purpose (Why you exist) → Vision (Where you're going) → Values (What you believe) 2. Brand Voice How you speak: → Personality → Tone → Language style 3. Visual Identity How you look: → Logo design → Color psychology → Typography → Image style 4. Brand Experience How you deliver: → Customer service → Product Quality → User experience → Marketing Message 5. Brand Consistency How you stay memorable: → Same voice everywhere → Cohesive visuals → Unified message Branding is the process of creating a unique identity for a business, product, or individual. It includes elements like a logo, colors, messaging, and the overall experience that shapes how people perceive a brand. More than just visuals, branding is about building trust, recognition, and emotional connections with an audience. "A brand is a person's gut feeling about a product, service, or organization." - Marty Neumeier #design

Coca-Cola spend less than 3% of revenue (estimated) on advertising… While challenger brands burn 10–20%. Why? One word: brand equity. Recent estimates put Oatly at ~8% of revenue on ads, Liquid Death at ~6%, and The Coca-Cola Company closer to 2–3%. Not because Coke's marketing team is lazy, but because 138 years of brand building does the heavy lifting. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗻𝘂𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗹 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆: • Challenger CPG brands: 10–20% of revenue • Established brands: 3–5% • Category leaders like Coke: Under 3% That gap? Pure profit margin. Think about it. When you're thirsty at a gas station, you don't need an ad to remember Coke exists. But that new kombucha brand? They might spend $8 in Facebook ads just to acquire a single customer. 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗯𝘂𝘆𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂: • Retail real estate: Strong brands get eye-level shelf placement. Weak brands fight for bottom shelf at twice the slotting fee.    • Word-of-mouth multiplier: When someone says "grab me a Coke," they might mean any cola. That mental availability is worth billions.    • Pricing power. Private-label cola: $0.99. Coca-Cola: $2.49. Same sugar water, different trust levels. The real insight? Every dollar you invest in building genuine brand connection compounds. Ads get you today's sale. But consistent quality, memorable packaging, and keeping promises? That gets you the next decade of sales, at half the marketing cost. Liquid Death gets this. Sure, they're spending ~6% now. But every skull-covered can is building equity. In 10 years? They'll be spending 3% while new brands burn cash trying to break through. The strongest brands aren't built on the biggest budgets. They're built on the smallest details, delivered consistently, until trust becomes automatic. Because when trust becomes automatic, marketing becomes optional.

“B2B Marketing and the 95:5 Rule” - new cartoon and post: In 2021, Professor John Dawes of the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute introduced the 95:5 Rule, a simple but powerful concept that challenged conventional thinking in B2B marketing. In his research, John showed that up to 95% of buyers are not in the market in any one time (and perhaps won’t be for months or years). As he put it: “This is a deceptively simple fact, but it has a profound implication for advertising. It means that advertising mostly hits people who aren’t going to buy anytime soon. And in turn, that tells us about how advertising works: it mainly works by building and refreshing memory links to the brand. These memory links activate when buyers do come into the market. So, if your advertising is better at building brand-relevant memories, your brand becomes more competitive.” This runs counter to the short-term pitch approach taken by so much of B2B advertising — trying to drive immediate marketing leads. Marketers can’t push out-of-market buyers to buy now, and only 5% of buyers are currently in market. As Peter Weinberg and Jon Lombardo wrote about Dawes’ work when they led the B2B Institute: “Effective marketing increases future sales in future buying situations. How? By increasing the probability that the brand comes to mind when the buyer goes in-market. Simply put, the brand that gets remembered is the brand that gets bought. You can’t push buyers down a funnel, but you can, to quote Professor Jenni Romaniuk, ‘catch buyers as they fall’.” This framework also expands the remit on B2B marketing to be a heckuva lot more exciting than it is often perceived. It’s not just about features and benefits and driving qualified marketing leads. It’s about long-term brand building. I often think about a quote Eric Ryan shared when we worked together at Method: “There are no low-interest categories — only low-interest brands.” >>> Sign up for my weekly marketoon email newsletter (link in bio). #marketing #cartoon #marketoon Marketoonist

The "95:5 Rule" in #marketing presents a heuristic that, irrespective of the market category, at any point, only about 5% of the Total Addressable Market (TAM) is actively looking to make a purchase either from you or your competitors. This small segment is referred to as the "In-Market" buyers. Conversely, the vast majority, 95%, are "Out-of-Market" potential #buyers. These individuals may already have a preference for a brand long before they are ready to buy, but are currently unable to proceed with purchasing due to their personal circumstances which could include budget constraints, being abroad, or not having convinced key decision-makers. This insight challenges the common belief that #marketingeffectiveness is solely about persuading customers to move through a sales funnel. In reality, the primary factor that transitions a customer from being Out-of-Market to In-Market is their personal circumstances, not marketing strategies. Consequently, marketing efforts cannot significantly increase the percentage of In-Market buyers within a category either; it almost always remains around 5%, barring seasonal variations. Given this constraint, the strategic question for marketers becomes how to generate more sales without being able to increase the 5% TAM threshold? The answer lies in capturing a greater share of pie of this In-Market segment. Say move from capturing 0.5% of that pie to 2% of that pie. Even though 5% of a TAM might seem small, in a category with 100 million potential buyers over five years, this translates to 5 million active buyers right now. The competition among brands is for the largest share of these buyers, with the market leader typically securing a substantial portion. To increase market share within this 5%, two primary strategies are suggested: Mental Availability: Engaging potential buyers with memorable, branded #advertising well before they are ready to purchase increases the likelihood of them preferring your brand when they become In-Market. This strategy relies on building #brand recognition and preference early in the customer journey. Essentially, the goal of your marketing is to make your brand salient before the customer is ready to buy. Physical Availability: Ensuring your brand is easily accessible and purchasable at the moment the 5% are ready to buy is crucial. By this stage, most have already decided on a brand, doing very little research. They are more focused on ease of purchase rather than exploring options. Having a seamless user experience and being present on the right channels can significantly impact conversion rates, as potential buyers are likely to default to their next preference in the face of any obstacles. When you understand the 95:5 Rule, you better understand customer purchasing dynamics as well as why it is vital to investing in reaching the 95%.

𝗕𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗰𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗿 𝘃𝘀 𝗥𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗯𝗼𝘄 𝗽𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗮𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴. One builds brands. The other breaks them. And most teams choose wrong. The “rainbow strategy” for variants looks creative. But it’s lazy design in disguise. Marketers think: → more colors = more choice Designers think: → more colors = more expression Reality? It fragments what matters most on shelf. 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗕𝗥𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗕𝗟𝗢𝗖𝗞 Strong brands don’t just sit on shelf. They group. They signal size. They dominate. That’s not aesthetics. That’s how the brain works. We notice what looks big. We trust what looks popular. We buy what feels familiar. 𝗔 𝗯𝗼𝗹𝗱 𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗰𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗿 𝗶𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗱𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗼𝗴𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗻 𝘀𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗳. Break that unity, and every pack fights alone. That’s the hidden cost of rainbow packaging. 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗱. 𝗕𝘂𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘀𝗺𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗿 𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗱𝘀, 𝗶𝘁’𝘀 𝗯𝗿𝘂𝘁𝗮𝗹. You’re already fighting for attention. Fragment your shelf presence, and you disappear even faster. The best brands solve the tension: → One unifying brand color → One clear variant cue Both working together. Not one vs. the other. That's where most get it wrong. There's one rule: 𝗕𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗱 > 𝗩𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗻𝘁 Design for brand impact first. Clarity second. Because if you’re not seen, you’re not chosen. And if you’re not chosen, nothing else matters. Look at Coke. Look at Kraft Mac & Cheese. The question is simple: 𝗔𝗿𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮 𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗱… 𝗼𝗿 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗮𝗿𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗰𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗿𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝘀𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗳?

Digital noise is killing your brand. Everything competes for attention, packaging, campaigns, influencers, reels, claims, the real enemy is no longer direct competition. It’s noise. Digital noise: an excess of stimuli that saturates the market and erodes the value of branding itself. →WHAT is digital noise? Digital noise refers to the overwhelming volume of content and stimuli competing for consumer attention, including ads, social media content, storytelling, product drops, collaborations, launches, AI-generated content, and always-on marketing. +4,000–10,000 ads per day, exposure for an average person Content overproduction, driven by AI and creative tools, creates more content but less signal. Consumers move between platforms faster than ever, and brands’ constant messaging doesn’t guarantee relevance. Meanwhile, short-term metrics (CTR, views, engagement) have often displaced long-term brand building. Identity dilution happens when brands all speak the same language, leading to homogenized aesthetics, memory erosion, consumer fatigue, and ultimately, loss of your brand value. +Most consumers can only recall 3–5 brands unaided in any given category +Ads’ recall can drop to as low as 8–12% within weeks after exposure OPPORTUNITY: Identity as a strategy. Isn’t a communication problem, it’s an identity problem. The next generation of brands will win through strategically designed, unmistakable identities that create real disruption in the channel. Branding that stand out have a strong point of view: you don’t just sell products, you define cultural territory. +84% say authenticity influences their purchase decisions +Brand consistency can drive 10–20% revenue growth +31% retention rate for brands with strong awareness One core idea per campaign, avoid overloading the audience with multiple claims. Why it works: Fewer messages lead to higher recall, consumers remember clarity, not complexity. +Experience → redefining how a product fits into life +Style → breaking category visual codes +Performance → reframing expectations +Category → creating your own space Break category codes, use unexpected visuals to create a signature style. Visual contrast cuts through saturated feeds, boosts recognition, and turns design into strategic leverage. Communication that creates contrast: Less messaging, more intention, being unmistakable matters more than being beautiful. x 4.1 lifetime value for customers with high recall x 2.7 repeat purchase rates for aided recognition leads CONCLUSION The biggest risk today isn’t invisibility, it’s indistinguishability. In a world of digital noise, winning brands won’t be the loudest; they’ll be the most recognizable, impossible to confuse. #beautybusiness #beautyprofessionals #branding #digitalnoise #brandexperinces

If you want credit for your work, stop waiting for someone else to notice. Most professionals think self-promotion means bragging. That it's a choice between being liked and being recognized. They're wrong about the problem. The issue isn't that you're promoting yourself. It's that you're doing it badly. Watch what happens when you lead with ego. Someone says "I'm amazing at strategy" in a meeting when nobody asked. A colleague drops their MBA into every conversation about budgets. These moments don't just fall flat. They quietly teach people something about you. Now watch the opposite. When project management comes up, you mention the workflow you created that eliminated bottlenecks. When someone struggles with a difficult client, you share the approach you developed that turned things around. You're not bragging. You're solving their problem. This is what it means to lead with impact, not ego. The second method works even better: strategic storytelling. Instead of announcing you're good at something, share what happened. Tell the story of inheriting a failing project and the three decisions that saved it. Focus on the lessons other people can apply. People forget boasts. They remember stories. Self-promotion doesn't fail because you're talking about yourself. It fails because you're making it about yourself. Here's what most professionals miss. People decide two things when you talk about your work: ↳ Is this useful to me? ↳ Or is this just ego? Some professionals only share wins. Titles, promotions, achievements. But no lessons, no value. Others stay silent entirely. Nobody knows what they've learned or what they can do. The best self-promotion provides value first. The credibility follows. This is why professionals who master this advance faster. They're visible without being obnoxious. They get credit without directly asking for it. Everyone else is still choosing between being known and being helpful. 💡 Share this with someone who deserves more recognition for their work. ➡️ Follow Dorie Clark for more on building influence without feeling like you're bragging.

Brand awareness alone isn't enough - if your brand isn't remembered at the right moment. We (marketers) put a lot of effort towards raising our brand's aided and unaided awareness. But awareness alone doesn't drive buyer behavior. On The Marketing Architects Podcast this week, we cover the study "Conceptualizing and Measuring Brand Salience" by Jenni Romaniuk and Byron Sharp from the University of South Australia. They research "brand salience," which is about being recalled at the right time in a buying situation. Memory is triggered by context. Brands we think of when making a purchase are influenced by multiple cues, like location, need states, and subconscious associations. That's why we recall different brands in different buying situations. Brand salience isn't just about being associated with a category. It's about having multiple mental pathways that connect your brand to buying moments. Big brands stay big because they're associated with more high quality cues. Coca-Cola is well-known because it's linked to holidays, meals, sports, summer afternoons... The stronger the cues, the greater likelihood of recall. IMO, TV makes a lot of sense for building brand salience because it combines video and efficient reach. A TV ad is more likely to be remembered than a display ad. Links to the study and podcast episode in the comments. 👇

Bespoke, or Not to Bespoke? That's the typographic fork in the road most brands hit sooner or later. Custom type used to signal big-budget confidence. Apple, Airbnb, Coca-Cola. Alphabets nobody else could legally touch. A private language, basically. That boundary has shifted. Variable fonts, smarter tooling and AI workflows have pulled custom type out of the luxury bracket. At the same time, whole categories have started to blur into each other. When everything looks the same, distinct type stops feeling extravagant and starts feeling like common sense. And that's where the real value of type shows up. People notice shapes before they register meaning. That split second is where recall happens. Distinct letterforms create recognition long before the message lands. A custom system gives a brand a rhythm of its own, and that rhythm stays with you. That doesn't mean inventing an entire alphabet. Distinction often comes from small, intentional edits. A tighter aperture, a softened serif, a ligature that only belongs to you. Repeated consistently, those details build a voice just as effectively as a full ground-up redraw. Some brands already work this way. Take Amazon. Ever noticed its logo? Probably not, because technically, it doesn't have one. The typography is the logo, and that's what makes it brilliant. Bold, instantly recognisable, and sitting comfortably on everything from cardboard to Kindle screens. When your type works that hard, you don't need a symbol. Nando's takes a different route but ends up in the same place. Its lettering started as hand‑painted signage by Tanzanian artist Marks Salimu, later digitised without sanding off the brush marks. Those marks became the character of the system, and that character became the brand. All of this points to the same conclusion. Whether you build your characters from scratch or adapt them with intent, your typography should project your brand's voice clearly enough to be recognised even in silence. If you want a voice, own the letters. 📷Marks Salimu