Freelance Resources

1.  ## Design solves an important human problem

2.  ## Design is context specific (it doesn’t follow historical cliches)

3.  ## Design enhances human ability (without replacing the human)

4.  ## Good design works for everyone, everyday

5.  ## Good tech and design is discreet

6.  ## Good design is a platform that grows with needs and opportunities

7.  ## Good design brings about products and services that build long-term relationships (but don’t create emotional dependency)

8.  ## Good technology design learns and predicts human behaviour

9.  ## Good design accelerates new ideas

10.  ## Good design removes complexity from life

Design Bridge and Partners | Provocations about AI and brand building

-   **Know your purpose:** A purpose is at the core of every great brand. What does your company exist to do? More importantly, why should anyone care? If you’re unsure of your brand’s purpose, your customers will be, too.
-   **Focus on one big idea:** Brands that try to stand for too much inevitably end up standing for nothing. To avoid this, focus on owning a singular, powerful idea. Nike owns performance. Apple owns simplicity. What will your brand own?
-   **Be consistent, but adaptable:** A brand by design doesn’t mean rigid. It means consistent in its values and adaptable in its methods. As markets shift, your brand should evolve, but the core identity must remain intact.
-   **Lead with vision, not consensus:** Great brands are built with bold vision. Leaders who try to please everyone end up pleasing no one. A brand designed to last isn’t afraid to stand firm on its principles, even if that means alienating some audiences in the process.

Work With Brian Collins

The truth about brand strategy. And why your company needs one

WIRED By Design: Designing a Brand That Even Non-Designers Can Work With

## Top 10 Copywriting Frameworks

Here are the 10 best copywriting frameworks you can use to succeed with your product, solution, service or offering:

1.  [4Ps](https://jdmeier.com/copywriting-frameworks/#4ps): Picture, Promise, Proof, Push
2.  [AIDA](https://jdmeier.com/copywriting-frameworks/#aida): Attention, Interest, Desire, Action
3.  [APP](https://jdmeier.com/copywriting-frameworks/#app): Awareness, Problem, Positioning
4.  [Before-After-Bridge](https://jdmeier.com/copywriting-frameworks/#bridge): Before state, After state, Bridge to achieve the After state
5.  [FAB](https://jdmeier.com/copywriting-frameworks/#fab): Features, Advantages, Benefits
6.  [Great Leads](https://jdmeier.com/copywriting-frameworks/#greatleads): Direct, Indirect, News, How-to, Question, Command, Testimonial, Story, Quotation
7.  [PAPA](https://jdmeier.com/copywriting-frameworks/#papa): Problem, Agitate, Persuade, Asks
8.  [PAS](https://jdmeier.com/copywriting-frameworks/#pas): Problem, Agitation, Solution
9.  [StoryBrand](https://jdmeier.com/copywriting-frameworks/#storybrand): Character, Problem, Guide, Plan, Call to Action
10.  [The 5 Cs](https://jdmeier.com/copywriting-frameworks/#5cs): Clear, Concise, Compelling, Credible, Customer-focused

# How do you make sure you’re creating something that has purpose and you’re not just following trends?



A lot of the time clients come to you because they don't have clarity about themselves… They’re just confused about who they are and who they want to be represented by and they need to clarify that. And in strategy, you help them to do that. It's a kind of process of thinking with them. So trends are not going to help. Sometimes the client is really clearly behind their product… or the capabilities have gotten better, they’ve done more things and they haven't done the brand and they need to upgrade it and they just need to explain that. Again, how's a trend going to help explain who they are? So trends are so unhelpful, they’re just not efficient.

Remember, the objective of a brand strategy is to provide clarity. And clarity helps the business focus on the things that will help the business stand out and meet its commercial goals.

The following principles are important when building a brand strategy:

1.  **Assess the current state of play.** It’s essential to first understand how everyone talks and feels about the brand – both customers and colleagues. Establishing the truth of how the brand is perceived in comparison to where the brand wants to go will give you a clear indication of the task at hand and one of the key objectives of the brand strategy.

2.  **Make the business case.** As mentioned earlier, a brand strategy must support the business strategy and so demonstrating how the two are related is key to getting buy-in beyond the marketing team. Since it requires a collective effort to bring a brand to life, it’s important to get engineers, product managers, sales teams and yes of course founders on side. The earlier the better. Doing so requires understanding their worlds (and priorities), speaking their language and helping them to see how brand strategy directly impacts not only what they do, but the broader vision for the business.

3.  **Go wide, go narrow.** Think short and long term. Customer acquisition is important but so is customer retention. Product market fit is crucial but so is innovation and evolution in a world that constantly changes. The key here is to think of the big picture whilst simultaneously paying attention to the small steps required to get you there. This approach lends itself to an always-in-beta mindset that will help keep your brand strategy fresh and fluid.

4.  **Use data but tell stories.** Data gives you evidence, narratives give you motivation. A brand strategy that is built with both ingredients is not only irrefutable but inspirational. And the larger the organisation, the greater the need for the brand strategy (or any strategy for that matter) to travel. The overarching objective is for the brand strategy to influence key business decisions across the entire organisation. Storytelling and stats give you the best chance of doing that at scale.

5.  **Revisit and reassess.** It is often said that if you stand still you’ll go backwards, and the same can be said for brand strategy. Whilst consistency is crucial to building attribution (see [our previous newsletter](https://offbrandkoto.substack.com/p/why-brand-consistency-can-make-or) on this), remaining relevant is equally important too. As a business grows and adapts to meet the changing needs of its customers, a brand strategy must evolve to help the brand keep up. How frequently a brand strategy is revised and how much it should evolve depends on a number of different factors – the key is that any change must make sense and should strengthen the role the brand plays in the lives of its customers.

3 Minutes Of Pure Branding Gold By Brian Collins

# Great design is a great idea.

It speaks to your head and your heart. It makes you feel different, and think differently. It makes you remember, and respond.

That’s what we aim for: to go from insight, to ideas, to design that connects. To craft work with intelligence, beauty and precision. To create work that makes you successful, with a solution that only you can truly own.

Motto’s unique approach focuses on seven critical aspects of the brand. These 7 P’s form the foundation of a comprehensive brand assessment designed to uncover insights that lead to meaningful change:

Purpose (the why):
Purpose is the core reason for your brand’s existence beyond making money. It defines what your brand stands for and believes in. We see if your brand’s purpose aligns with your target audience’s values, ensuring a deeper connection.

Positioning (the difference):
This involves evaluating how your brand differentiates itself from competitors. What makes your brand unique? We help you articulate and reinforce those differences, ensuring they resonate with your target audience.

People (the target audience):
Your audience’s perception of your brand dictates its success. We analyze your current target audience’s demographics, psychographics, and behaviors to tailor your brand strategy to their specific needs.

Product (the value of what you sell):
We evaluate the perceived value of your product or service. How does it address a unique need or problem for your audience? This understanding enables you to enhance the value proposition, aligning it with customer expectations.

Price (compared to competitors):
Price reflects perceived value. We analyze your pricing strategy compared to competitors, understanding its alignment with your brand’s positioning, weight, and the market’s perception.

Personality (verbal identity):
Your brand’s voice and how it communicates with the audience is vital. We assess your verbal identity, ensuring that it authentically resonates with your audience and is consistent across all channels.

Presence (visual identity):
Visual identity goes beyond logo design. It encompasses all your brand’s visual aspects, including color schemes, typography, and imagery. We ensure your visual identity cohesively represents your brand’s personality and values.

The following principles are important when building a brand strategy:

1.  **Assess the current state of play.** It’s essential to first understand how everyone talks and feels about the brand – both customers and colleagues. Establishing the truth of how the brand is perceived in comparison to where the brand wants to go will give you a clear indication of the task at hand and one of the key objectives of the brand strategy.

2.  **Make the business case.** As mentioned earlier, a brand strategy must support the business strategy and so demonstrating how the two are related is key to getting buy-in beyond the marketing team. Since it requires a collective effort to bring a brand to life, it’s important to get engineers, product managers, sales teams and yes of course founders on side. The earlier the better. Doing so requires understanding their worlds (and priorities), speaking their language and helping them to see how brand strategy directly impacts not only what they do, but the broader vision for the business.

3.  **Go wide, go narrow.** Think short and long term. Customer acquisition is important but so is customer retention. Product market fit is crucial but so is innovation and evolution in a world that constantly changes. The key here is to think of the big picture whilst simultaneously paying attention to the small steps required to get you there. This approach lends itself to an always-in-beta mindset that will help keep your brand strategy fresh and fluid.

4.  **Use data but tell stories.** Data gives you evidence, narratives give you motivation. A brand strategy that is built with both ingredients is not only irrefutable but inspirational. And the larger the organisation, the greater the need for the brand strategy (or any strategy for that matter) to travel. The overarching objective is for the brand strategy to influence key business decisions across the entire organisation. Storytelling and stats give you the best chance of doing that at scale.

5.  **Revisit and reassess.** It is often said that if you stand still you’ll go backwards, and the same can be said for brand strategy. Whilst consistency is crucial to building attribution (see [our previous newsletter](https://offbrandkoto.substack.com/p/why-brand-consistency-can-make-or) on this), remaining relevant is equally important too. As a business grows and adapts to meet the changing needs of its customers, a brand strategy must evolve to help the brand keep up. How frequently a brand strategy is revised and how much it should evolve depends on a number of different factors – the key is that any change must make sense and should strengthen the role the brand plays in the lives of its customers.

Data isn’t just about facts and figures. It’s also the building blocks for a new wave of creativity that's being used by brands to do everything from influencing behaviour to changing perceptions. It's an opportunity to discover and share narratives – becoming a fresh new form of storytelling.

We spoke with three people for whom turning data into compelling stories is at the core of their work: Founder of non profit Shift Design Tori Flower, Spotify's Global Executive Creative Director Alex Bodman and Founder of design studio maddthing Maral Pourkazemi.

Here, we’ve summarised their key advice into these takeaways.

**1.** Data can be presented to get people to compete with others – look at how [O Power](https://opower.com/) compares how much energy you are using to others in similar homes, and [Strava](https://www.strava.com/) shows how well you compare to others who are also running and cycling in your area.

**2.** Large data sets can inspire others to act. [Historypin](https://www.historypin.org/en/) uses big data sets of old photos from archives and museums as stimulus for story-sharing sessions, encouraging conversation and debate.

**3.** Think how it can be integrated with maps, like [Ushashidi](https://www.ushahidi.com/), or [Shift's work mapping fast food outlets](http://shiftdesign.org.uk/products/healthy-fast-food//). How can this tell a story and show change over time?

**4.** Data visualisation is about showing correlations and relationships. It is not about just presenting figures.

**5**. Make your visualisation relevant to your target audience.

**6.** Treat the numbers with empathy and respect. Most of the time they are about people.

**7.** The key is curiosity. Data storytelling starts with a question. Or many questions.

**8.** Data will never form a narrative for you, but it can fuel it.

**9.** Look for the unexpected, surprising or difficult to believe – data storytelling is dull when it confirms what you'd expect.

**10.** Prepare for the answers to disappoint. Then ask more questions.

Two Times Elliott - Talking Thursdays - Episode 45 w. Malena Kronscnabl

A good brand strategy should be:

-   **Rooted in truth:** Not invented out of thin air - it elevates something that is true about the business

-   **Differentiated in the category:** It captures a sentiment in the category that no one else already knows

-   **Emotionally rich:** It responds to an emotional opportunity with your audience in an inventive, rich way

-   **Creatively inspiring:** A creative jumping off point that could be brought to life in multiple visual and verbal ways

The 4 Levels of PMF

What Branding Consists Of | The Branding Wheel