Whether it’s for a rebrand or a new brand, product or service, your company’s name(s) play a vital role in your brand experience. If you’ve been a brand marketer long enough, you will come to recognize and be asked to name to trends. The key problem with this ask is that trends disappear, and what you’re left with is a neon sign of a forgotten time.

Jason Hall

September 2020

On Wednesday, September 23rd, I led a conversation with five global marketing leaders to explore brand building and brand partnerships in the COVID-19 era. Our conversation touched on how the pandemic has reinforced the criticality of connection, the value of open and honest communication amongst partners and what happens when businesses and communities unite for a common goal. In closing, I asked our panelists: What are the most important factors in successful brand partnerships, and what is your commitment to building successful partnerships for your brand? Here’s what they had to say.

Margaret Molloy

September 2020

Branding firms are popularly thought of as creating brands. The truth is, we spend a good deal of our time rationalizing them. We call this disciplinebrand architecture.As the term implies, brand architecture defines the structure of brands within a portfolio, and so it is closely related to portfolio strategy...

James Withey + Lea Chu

September 2020

In August 2020, The Global Action Plan cited polling results suggesting that the UK public wants to see government encourage car manufacturers to produce more Electric Vehicles (EVs). It would stand to reason that given the focus on their children, parents would be eager to invest in a form of transport that ensures the safety of future generations. But how do parents feel about the prospect of switching to EVs and abandoning their trusty family SUVs?

James Moretti

September 2020

Across every industry and around the world, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to fundamentally alter workplace culture. In many ways, it has caused leadership and HR professionals to take a critical eye to their employer brand—in other words, the employee experience they promise for their people and what they’re doing to deliver on it. A strong … Continued

Christine Lim

September 2020

COVID-19 and disease names like it lack clarity, which leads to their inconsistent use in communications. This not only potentially dilutes their impact, but also gives people an opportunity to simplify and/or coin their own new names for the disease. As we know, this led to racist epithets like China Virus and Kung-flu for COVID-19. What can we do from a naming perspective to prevent confusion around the next virus that goes global?

Aaron Hall, Jason Hall + Gabriele Zamora

September 2020

There’s no shortage of lessons communicators can extract from the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, but one really stands out. Simple communication wins the days. The underlying principles that guide effective communications in times of great urgency apply in more ordinary times as well.

Billy Kingsland

September 2020

On Wednesday, September 9th, I spoke with five marketing leaders from venture-backed and digital-first companies to explore the interrelationships across brand building, innovation, growth and scaling. Our conversation traversed how each brand approached innovation, industries that unexpectedly benefited from the crisis and the advantages of being born in the digital world. However, at the heart of the panelists’ stories and perspectives was the remarkable power of brand and its unparalleled ability to differentiate.

Margaret Molloy

September 2020

The concept of “purpose-driven” brands has developed into a mainstay term over the past few years as consumers become more attuned to what companies really stand for. But what motivates consumers to seek brands that are similar to themselves and their values?

Karli Buescher

September 2020