Emotion in B2B Buying
Emotion is a word that’s thrown around a lot in branding, often associated with happiness, joy, or love. In B2C, it’s easy to see why.
Journal
Articles by Chris Lumsden
Brand Bike Shedding: Why Avoiding the Big Brand Questions Costs You More
Branding often mirrors a curious behavioural quirk in decision-making: Bike Shedding. It's a term coined by British historian and writer Cyril Northcote Parkinson in his 1957 essay on organisational inefficiency.
81% of B2B Ads Fail: Here’s How Better Branding Can Fix It
A recent study by the B2B Institute in partnership with MediaScience reveals a shocking truth: only 19% of an ad’s audience can attribute it to the correct brand.
B2B Branding: What Happened to “Hello”?
In the rush to showcase technical prowess, many B2B brands forget the simple yet powerful act of introducing themselves. Without a proper “hello,” even the best products struggle to make an impact.
The importance of storytelling for B2B Tech brands
B2B Tech brand marketers must learn to step away from a technical features approach and embrace a brand-led storytelling to stand out and differentiate their products.
5 signs your brand needs a simplification audit.
In our experience, B2B portfolios are too complex and create a lot of confusion. Here are 5 tell-tale signs that your portfolio needs to be simplified.
The Practical Side of Brand Architecture: What Theory Doesn’t Tell You
A recent uptick of enquires around specialist brand architecture projects has prompted me to reflect on the complexities these businesses face and how theoretical understanding impacts practical application.
Navigating the AI Revolution in Brand Consulting
In a recent discussion, Sam Altman suggested a future where AI could automate 95% of tasks traditionally performed by marketers, agencies, and creatives offering instant, nearly perfect outputs at negligible costs.
Decoding Brand Confusion: Aligning Agency Expertise with Executive Vision
We’re often brought into branding projects when things have gone wrong, or a previous branding project has run out of steam.
The Lost Art of Brand Naming
Like deciphering coffee menus, obscure business branding can lead to confusion, affecting sales.
Does Your Business Need a Sub Brand?
This is a recurring issue in the B2B work we do – and our answer to the question ‘should we create a new sub brand?’ is almost always ‘no’.
From Frivolous to Fruitful: Agency Challenges in Promoting B2B Brand Characters
We recently had an agency debate about which brands had the best brand character. Over the course of a week, we voted on different options and Captain Birdseye won. (A fine choice, don’t you agree?)
The Power of Simplicity for B2B Tech Brands: Less is More
Exploring the why and how of B2B tech's fear of simplicity
Why do Private Equity firms ignore the role of brand in creating value?
This is the question that’s been keeping me up at night. I’m slightly scared to ask it publicly, but I’m genuinely struggling to answer it.
Brand mistakes made by B2B Tech firms
These mistakes may not be brand killers, but they could cause yours to bleed value and equity and feed the competition's business.
Reflections on a 10 year client partnership
Agencies aren't partners with their clients unless they share in the commercial risk of the enterprise.
Helping B2B understand why it should invest in brand
I think that outside the realm of B2B marketing, clients generally have a poor understanding of brand and why they should invest in it. I also think that’s because we (agencies) do a bad job of explaining why.
B2B Tech Firms must dig deeper to differentiate
It feels like every other B2B tech firm I look at conforms to the same visual and verbal convention.
Why the status quo is the real competition
Even if we offer customers something new, better and cheaper it’s not necessarily the case that they’ll jump at it straight off the bat.
Tips for a good brand homepage
One thing we’re always telling clients is that the clarity and coherence of their organisation needs to come through in the first contact with the brand. Often, this first contact comes via a company’s website.
Tips on how to run a brand workshop
I had an experience recently that forced me to boil down the essence of a brand workshop to its constituent parts, so that we could be through it in an hour. This wasn’t particularly easy, given that we usually run these sessions over a half day period.
Why Brands Need a Serious Brand Strategy
When businesses decide on a growth strategy, there are several options open to them. Growth through acquisition is a commonly chosen path. Shopping lists are written and deals are done, often in quick succession – a demonstrable commitment to growth.
How brands can make their ESG meaningful
ESG is making a bigger impact on brands than ever before. But the challenge is that many of them just can’t leverage their ESG credentials in a credible way. I wanted to take a look at why and what can be done about it.
Creating the vision for your brand.
Creating a vision for your brand seems straightforward when looking at other companies. They seem so self-evident, so obvious.