Building Brand Identity In Retail

America just got reintroduced to Guinness as a local brand. A bold shift away from its traditional Irish roots, led by the mighty Uncommon Creative Studio NYC. Alden, Steenkamp & Batra’s work on consumer culture positioning is a business school staple. I've never seen a clearer live example of this theory in practice. Their research shows how brands can position themselves in three ways. GLOBAL: Part of global culture LOCAL: A brand for “people like me, from here” FOREIGN: An exotic, aspirational foreign brand With this framework, marketers can shape brand perception, signal trust or status, and win local share for global brands. I've always thought beer and cider is the perfect category showing this strategy at play. 1. Heineken - Global Culture Obvious example. Global sports, international celebrities, same message everywhere. 2. Craft Brands - Local Culture The craft boom was a strategy where large FMCGs bought or built local brands to win trust and authenticity in smaller, profitable markets. Ironically, BrewDog went the opposite way from local to global, ditching the Scottish charm rather fast. 3. Fosters - Foreign Culture Endless options here. Especially as Italian beer is booming! Asahi is also a big winner with this.But Fosters is my favourite: it never even existed in Australia! They borrowed Aussie humour and heat to build a brand around refreshment with mates. Genius, no wonder their campaigns won IPA awards. This is why the new Guinness work is so interesting. It takes a specific American insight (50 states, divided) and relaunches the brand as something that brings them together. Real Americans. Real Guinness. A pure local positioning shift for a brand long doing anything but. This may feel off if you're not American (or even if you are). But this stuff takes time. Just look at Guinness in Africa. Guinness Foreign Extra Stout is now a symbol of local pride across the continent. It can clearly work. This framework is also a bit of a curse. Once you see it, you can’t unsee it. You’ll start reading every brand move through it. Look at discount grocers across the EU. Lidl and Aldi act local and proud in every market to boost trust and quality. The ad itself? A brilliant demonstration that marketers leaving music choices to the end of production are missing the biggest opportunity. Let me know if you're a fan of this new move in the comments. I share #advertising and #marketing insights daily. Follow for more.

The Secret of Luxury Hospitality Positioning 1/ Most hospitality brands think they're selling rooms. Hermès thinks they're selling dreams. Aman thinks they're selling transformation. The Ritz thinks they're selling legacy. Here's why 99% of hospitality brands will never understand true luxury positioning: 2/ The $600B hospitality industry has it backwards. They obsess over thread counts and marble bathrooms. But when a billionaire pays $2,000/night at Aman Tokyo, they're not buying a bed. They're buying 3 hours where the world can't find them. They're purchasing RELIEF. 3/ Hermès mastered this 187 years ago: Birkin bag cost breakdown: • Leather: $200 • Labor: $800 • The rest: POSITIONING You're not buying a bag. You're buying entry into a club your great-grandmother respected. Generational wealth buys IDENTITY, not amenities. 4/ The brands that "get it" understand 3 pillars: SCARCITY: Aman has 34 properties. They could have 340. They choose not to. LEGACY: Le Bristol Paris sells Hemingway's view, not just suites. IMMUNITY: While others chase trends, Aman perfects timeless sanctuary. 5/ What 90% of hospitality brands do wrong: ❌ Compete on features ❌ Chase Instagram moments ❌ Discount for occupancy ❌ Target "luxury travelers" What top-tier brands do: ✅ Create their own category ✅ Build generational rituals ✅ Never compromise positioning ✅ Target legacy builders 6/ Case study in positioning power: Four Seasons: "Exceptional service" St. Regis: "Bespoke luxury" Aman: "Sanctuary" One commands 3x the rate. Strategy isn't about better amenities. Strategy is about DIFFERENT MEANING. 7/ The psychology is profound: When stress costs $1M deals → peace becomes priceless When reputation spans generations → discretion becomes invaluable When time is finite → transformation becomes essential You're not selling hospitality. You're selling a story they'll tell their grandchildren. 8/ Luxury isn't a price point. Luxury is a CULTURE. The culture of anticipated needs, generational consistency, and effortless perfection. Culture can't be copied. Only cultivated. Ready to transform your hospitality brand from commodity to legacy? I help hotel brands discover their unique positioning and build generational meaning that commands premium rates. DM "POSITIONING" to explore how we can elevate your brand's story. RT if this changed how you think about hospitality positioning.

Some brands spend crores on advertising. Others just use your metro seat and your head. I came across this ad from BengaliShaadi.com on a Kolkata Metro seat and it’s a perfect example of how contextual marketing and guerrilla advertising can work together to grab attention without burning cash. At first glance, it looked like an ordinary poster. But then I noticed something clever — the person sitting in front looked like they were wearing a Bengali wedding crown. That illusion wasn’t an accident. It was smart visual positioning designed to make the ad interactive in real life. Every time someone sits, they unintentionally become part of the campaign. That’s user-generated visibility at zero cost. From a marketing perspective, it nails three things perfectly: → Audience targeting: Metro commuters = young, tech-savvy Bengalis (the brand’s ideal users). → Emotional trigger: Humor mixed with cultural identity creates instant connection. → Viral potential: The setup encourages people to click photos and share them online — organic reach without paid ads. This is what happens when creativity meets consumer insight. It’s not about how loud your ad is, but how smartly it fits into people’s daily environment. A small idea. Massive recall. What do you think — marketing genius or just lucky timing? #marketingstrategy #brandpositioning #contextualmarketing #guerrillaadvertising

The boundaries between luxury and streetwear have never been more fluid. While collaborations and cultural crossovers can bring fresh relevance, they also present real challenges—diluting exclusivity, reshaping consumer perceptions, and making it harder for brands to stand out. In this evolving landscape, maintaining desirability requires a thoughtful and strategic approach. The Risks of Blurred Boundaries: - Loss of Exclusivity: Luxury has always been defined by rarity. When high-end fashion becomes too accessible, the sense of aspiration that drives desirability can start to fade. - Market Saturation: With so many brands embracing similar aesthetics, standing out is becoming increasingly difficult. The result? A homogenized market where differentiation is harder to achieve. - Erosion of Brand Value: Integrating streetwear elements into luxury collections can be successful, but if taken too far, it risks shifting consumer perception. If a brand feels too mass-market, its prestige—and pricing power—can suffer. - Evolving Consumer Expectations: Luxury consumers today expect innovation, authenticity, and cultural relevance. While adapting to new trends is essential, moving too quickly—or in the wrong direction—can undermine a brand’s heritage and craftsmanship. How Luxury Brands Can Protect Their Identity - Commit to Craftsmanship and Quality: At its core, luxury is about exceptional materials and artistry. This should always be the foundation, reinforcing exclusivity and setting high-end brands apart. - Be Intentional with Collaborations: Not every partnership adds value. The strongest collaborations align with a brand’s heritage and long-term vision, rather than simply chasing hype. - Maintain Exclusivity: Limited editions, bespoke experiences, and controlled distribution help luxury brands retain their aspirational appeal. Scarcity remains a powerful driver of desirability. - Tell a Stronger Brand Story: A compelling narrative—rooted in heritage, craftsmanship, and values—creates emotional connections. In an oversaturated market, a strong brand identity is a competitive advantage. - Leverage Digital with Purpose: A curated digital presence isn’t just about visibility—it’s about reinforcing identity. Luxury brands that use digital platforms strategically can deepen relationships with their audience while maintaining their prestige. For luxury brands, navigating this shifting landscape isn’t about resisting change—it’s about adapting with intention. Those that can evolve while staying true to their values will continue to lead. If your brand is facing these challenges, let’s connect. Together, we can craft strategies that reinforce prestige, maintain desirability, and ensure long-term success. #LuxuryBrands #BrandStrategy #Exclusivity #LuxuryMarketing #BrandIdentity Picture courtesy of BALENCIAGA

A month ago I wrote that marketplaces are not a distribution channel. They are a data-extraction business that lets you sell things. Most D2C founders already know this. What they get wrong is everything that comes after. The mistake isn't being on marketplaces. The mistake is what founders try to do on them. Most D2C brands run their marketplace business as a revenue channel. They optimise for marketplace contribution, push for higher take rates, build entire teams around scaling marketplace GMV. They treat marketplace customers as just another version of their direct customer. And they wonder why the unit economics never quite work and the operational complexity keeps compounding. The brands that actually win on marketplaces do something different. They treat marketplaces as a permanent acquisition channel, not a revenue channel. The job of being on Amazon and Flipkart is not to make money on Amazon and Flipkart. The job is to create discovery and trial for customers who would never have found you otherwise, with the explicit intent of migrating them off the marketplace for the second purchase. This requires accepting two things most founders refuse to accept. First. The marketplace customer is a different psychological profile than the D2C customer. Lower brand affinity. Higher price sensitivity. Faster to return. The same SKUs, the same merchandising, the same pricing strategy do not work for both. Pretending they do is what makes marketplace economics quietly destroy your brand premium. Second. The job of marketplaces is the upper funnel. The job of D2C is the lower funnel and the relationship. Brands that try to make marketplaces a full-stack revenue channel end up subsidising marketplace customers with brand customers. Eventually they cap out. The hardest part of this is org design. Running a marketplace function well requires a different operator profile than running a D2C brand well, someone who thinks in acquisition math, not brand equity. Most companies blur them. The function deserves a brain dedicated to it. I am still working out where Knya lands on this. The view has sharpened. The answer hasn't. The marketplace question is one of the most underappreciated strategic decisions a consumer brand makes. It is also one of the few where the cost of getting it wrong only shows up in year three or four, by which point you cannot unwind it. Where are you treating marketplaces as revenue when they should be acquisition?

The best product doesn’t win. The best brand does. Harsh? Maybe. Real? Abso-FLIPPIN-lutely. For most of the 20th century, product quality was king. But today, in mega-saturated markets, that’s no longer true. Buyers don’t choose the best product. They choose the brand they know, trust, understand and most importantly: remember. Remember the “remember" for this post. If I had a dollar for every time I heard, “We have the best product but they’re still beating us...” I’d be writing this from a yacht, not a standing desk. DISCLAIMER: A shit product will always be a shit brand. But in today’s market, A good product is just the baseline. Here’s why brand wins, broken down in 6 take-home-with-you points: 01 – The over-choice problem When features blur, consumers choose what they know. 75% are more likely to buy from a company they recognise (LinkedIn/Edelman) 88% say supplier offerings are hard to differentiate on features alone (Gartner) A strong brand isn’t just helpful, it’s how buyers cut through the noise...and B2B right now has way too much noise, the bad type. 02 – Brand recognition = $ Buyers don’t start from scratch, they start from memory. Brand memory, not product memory. 90% of B2B buyers choose from a shortlist of known brands (HBR) 75% are more likely to buy from a brand they recognise (LinkedIn/Edelman) If you’re not in the mind, you’re not in the market. 03 – Branding reduces perceived risk In B2B, buying isn’t just logical. It’s political. Strong brands = less perceived risk = reputational cover if things go wrong. Strong brands pay 1.7–3% less interest on debt (Brand Finance) Why? Because banks, investors, and yes, your CEO trust them more. 04 – Brand > Features VHS beat Betamax: worse specs, better branding Coca-Cola outsells Pepsi: even though Pepsi wins blind taste tests Salesforce outgrew SAP: by spending 45% of revenue on marketing IBM wasn’t always best-in-class, but it was the safest choice Apple… don’t even get me started Winning = good product + great brand. 05 – The psychology behind it all Buyers use shortcuts, especially in complex decisions. Brands make (product) decisions easier. Familiar names trigger emotional safety In B2B, emotional messaging increases purchase intent by 3× (Google/CEB) Rational? Maybe. Emotional? Always. 06 – Strategic shift: intangibles are the advantage In 1975, 17% of the S&P 500’s value came from intangibles Today? It’s 90%+ In 2024, brand awareness became the #1 priority for B2B marketers (Dentsu) Brand isn’t just a comms function. It’s business strategy. Bottom line: If your brand isn’t remembered, it won’t be chosen. Product is the ticket to play. Brand is how you win the game.

I used to have this FOMO...Is my brand even visible? When we started, our scooters were just black. Plain black. And to make them look like Zypp, we slapped a small green sticker on them. That was our brand identity... just a sticker. I’d stand on balconies, rooftops, scanning the streets, trying to spot a Zypp scooter. But with only a thousand on the road, it wasn’t easy. Every 10th or 20th scooter might be ours, but that tiny green sticker on black? Almost invisible. And that’s when it hit me. "If I can’t spot my own brand, how will the world?" So, I made a call. What if the entire scooter was green? Not just a sticker...yes, the whole thing. And we started manually wrapping them. Every single one. A small branding fix that turned into a game changer. Then we went to OEMs and said, "We need green. Nothing else. Get it registered as green, or we won’t buy." At first, they hesitated. Big brands. Small startup. Who listens to us? But when they saw our volume commitment, they aligned. Today, our green scooters are everywhere. You don’t look for Zypp anymore... you see Zypp. That’s the power of one bold decision. A small tweak. A massive impact. Today some people say, “Hara hai to Zypp hai.” Definitely we’ve come a long way on that. P.S. Branding isn’t just about visibility. It’s about owning space in people’s minds. And sometimes, all it takes is a color. #branding #marketing #color #logo #brand #startup #green #zypp

Episode 14: Brand Advocacy - Turning Customers into Champions Greetings, marketing gurus! We basked in the spotlight of Brand Salience in the last episode, ensuring your brand occupies prime real estate in your target audience's mind. But imagine if you had a whole cheering section amplifying your message – that's the magic of Brand Advocacy! Think of it like the ultimate school spirit day. Your ideal customers, transformed into brand advocates, are the ones rocking your brand colors, sporting your logo, & excitedly telling everyone why they love your brand. They're your biggest fans, your walking billboards, & your most persuasive marketing force. Why is Brand Advocacy so powerful? - Enhanced Credibility: Recommendations from trusted sources (like your customers) hold more weight than traditional advertising. Brand advocates add a layer of social proof, making your brand seem more trustworthy & reliable. - Authentic Reach: Advocates spread brand messages organically through their social circles, reaching new audiences you might not have tapped into before. It's like having a legion of friends enthusiastically recommending you to their peers. - Increased Brand Loyalty: Customers who become advocates feel a deeper connection to your brand. They're invested in your success & more likely to remain loyal in the long run. Building Your Brand Cheer Squad: Here's how to cultivate a passionate army of brand advocates: - Deliver Stellar Customer Experiences: Delighted customers are more likely to become advocates. Focus on exceeding expectations and building positive brand associations. Think of it as creating a school experience so awesome, everyone wants to be a part of it. - Empower Your Fans: Provide your advocates with the tools and resources they need to spread the word. Offer social media toolkits, exclusive content, or advocate programs that make them feel valued. - Recognize and Reward Advocacy: Show your appreciation for your advocates! Publicly acknowledge their contributions, offer exclusive rewards, and make them feel like an important part of the brand family. Brand Advocacy Hall of Fame: Brands like GoPro and Patagonia have mastered the art of cultivating brand advocates. Their focus on exceptional customer experiences, community building, and empowering user-generated content has resulted in legions of loyal fans who enthusiastically promote their products and values. Remember: Brand Advocacy is the ultimate marketing win-win. By creating a brand experience worth raving about, empowering your fans, and recognizing their contributions, you can turn satisfied customers into your most powerful brand champions. Like and share if you found this episode a real advocacy booster! #JargonBusters #BrandAdvocacy #CustomerMarketing #Marketing Stay tuned for Episode 15: Brand Refresh - Keeping Your Brand Fresh and Relevant. We'll explore how to adapt your brand to stay ahead of the curve and maintain that top spot in your customer's mind.

Brand positioning is NOT what you say you do It’s what people associate you with without having to think twice📍 -That’s what builds recall -That’s what builds visibility -That’s what actually builds a BRAND Take Zomato as an example: On paper, it’s a food delivery app. But that’s not how people experience it. You don’t open Zomato just because you’re hungry. -You open it when you’re tired -When you don’t want to decide -When you just want something easy That’s positioning📍 They’ve quietly moved from ‘food delivery’ to ‘we make life easier in the moment.’ And everything supports that narrative. ☇The app remembers what you like. ⇢It nudges you to ‘order again.’ ⇢It reduces decisions for you. So over time, it stops being an app. It becomes a default. Then comes visibility📍 Most brands chase attention. Zomato built a voice people actually enjoy. Their notifications feel human. A little witty, a little unexpected. And that’s why people don’t mute them. They read them. ✅ That’s branding doing its job. And the smartest shift? Blinkit Now the story is not ‘we deliver food.’ It’s: ‘we deliver anything you need, fast.’ That’s not expansion. That’s repositioning at scale. Notice how one idea keeps repeating: speed + ease And when a brand keeps showing up with the same idea, in different ways, over time It becomes what people remember. That’s what most founders miss. Branding is not about being everywhere. It’s about being the first thing that comes to mind when the moment appears. Zomato didn’t win because it delivers food. It won because it became the easiest answer. What’s one brand that comes to your mind instantly, without thinking?

💌 How to Build a *Real* Relationship With Your Audience... The brands winning right now aren’t the ones shouting the loudest. They’re the ones building real intimacy. The ones who understand that trust isn’t bought through ads - it’s earned through energy. Through how you move. What you reveal. What you hold back. 💄 Take Rhode. Their Sephora debut this September became the biggest brand launch in North America - making up 35% of Sephora’s online sales and hitting $10M in two days. But the real magic wasn’t in the metrics. It was in the relationship. So what can we learn from them on building real brand love? 1️⃣ Cultivate curiosity. Before launching their new eye-patches a couple of weeks ago, they didn’t blast a campaign. They seeded quietly within their community - the people who already cared. Instead of flooding feeds, Rhode created anticipation loops. Waitlists. Subtle slips. They let their audience feel like insiders before the world caught on. ➡️ Connection starts with intrigue, not overexposure. 2️⃣ Create a world, not a SKU. Rhode isn’t just selling products - they’re inviting people into a feeling. “I wanted to create an entire world,” said Hailey. “Rhode isn’t just products … it’s a lifestyle.” Rhode doesn’t sell products vertically like many other brands. Sephora kept their make up and skincare together, aligning with how their Gen Z audience is really shopping.   They’re co-creating a culture where fans don’t just consume - they belong. ➡️ Scale your story and world. Your product is just the entry point. 3️⃣ Let it become identity. Those logo-branded patches turned skincare into self-expression. They come in two designs: one covered in “R”s and one with the Rhode logo emblazoned all over. The brand has mastered the art of turning skincare products into status symbols - first with phone cases and belly chains that display their famous Peptide Lip Tint, and now these eye patches that double as accessories in themselves, which Rhode has encouraged wearing outside. Wearing them isn’t about function - it's become a statement. ➡️ When your brand becomes language, your community does the storytelling for you.  Brand growth today isn’t top-down (ads → customers). It’s bottom-up (community → culture). The ones who win don’t market at people - they build with them. 👉 Which other brands do you think are building intimate communities? Comment below. 👋 I’m Katie. I help brands and founders connect with their audience through strategy, storytelling, and community.  And I write about reimagining human connection in a fragmented world. Follow along if you want more insights on how we can reset the ways we connect.