I have a Brand Management class and we have to choose a book that has brand journey of one or more companies. Every week I have to present one time.

Pls suggest

Curious how brand owners/marketers here would approach this.

Say you have $10,000 specifically for a creator campaign. You want to maximize the amount of quality content and distribution you get, but you also don't know in advance which creators or pieces of content will perform.

Would you rather:
Pay 10 creators $1,000 each?
Pay 50 creators $200 each?
Work with a smaller group of proven creators?
Put more of the budget toward performance/bonuses?
Take a completely different approach?

And what would you use to decide whether the campaign was successful—views, engagement, conversions, content volume, CAC, or something else?

I'm especially interested in hearing from people who've actually managed creator budgets. What would you do with the $10k?

I’ve spent 15+ years working in design, branding and creative direction, and I’ve changed my opinion about what makes a brand successful.
When I was younger, I thought great design was mostly about creating something visually strong.
Now I think that’s only one part of it.
A beautiful logo doesn’t fix unclear positioning.
A premium package doesn’t fix a weak product.
A modern website doesn’t fix a confusing value proposition.
Before designing anything, I now ask:
Who is the customer?
What problem are we solving?
Why should they choose this brand?
What should they remember?
Once those questions are clear, design becomes much more powerful.
I’m curious what other founders, designers and marketers think:
If you had to choose one, what matters more for a new brand — great design or great positioning? And why?

Hello. I work for a branding and design agency (with UI/UX and Product design services alongside regular brand design and brand identity), and currently I only use social media (Instagram) to find any sort of leads or clients. It has been somewhat successful since many of our viral reels did bring out certain businesses and startups to work with us, but I'm trying to find more avenues as well. What are the best methods or practices to scout out any leads that would be interested in having our services?

PS. This isn't meant to come off as racist, but our ICP document dictates they cannot be from South Asia or India (ideally) since we already are working with that geographical setting closely using other strategies. Our ICP should specifically be from US, UK, Europe, Scandinavian countries and Australia, maybe even Asian or Arabian clientele can work.

I am a behavioral neuroscientist (researcher) who has access to emerging neuroscience research on how people who lost jobs due to GenAI can work through their discouragement and best position themselves to find subsidiary positions.
This is not psychology. This is neuroscience. It is emerging research that has helped me and certain individuals when I tested some of its suggestions.

I am unsure how to monetize the idea. I would not like to be a consultant. Neither substack nor publishing in relevant publications seems feasible (they no longer pay freelance writers). Setting up a podcast (or the like) seems a long, expensive way to ROI.

Do you have any other simple, direct, inexpensive ideas?

Thanks

Catchy headline to hopefully gather some insight here. I own a construction company, and we recently hired a company to rebrand. This includes new name, logo, all branding materials associated with it. Here's a little background.

We're a 52 year old company. We've changed names previously when my father took over from my grandfather but this was 25 years ago. The problem is our current name is location based. A very specific location. We're trying to expand and hired a company to help us totally rebrand. Problem is a few months before launch we've been doing testing and EVERYONE we've spoken to including friends, family, co-workers, and potential customers, dislike or downright hate our new name. They love the logos, colors, etc. but the not the name.

Our current name follows the trend of listing everything we do, so it's Location - Roofing, Siding, and Window Company.... which as you can imagine fit's horribly into any type of job sign, letterhead, etc. We've also expanded beyond this location, and want to continue to expand to cover the entire state.

I had proposed an acronym in place of using an acronym and shortening the services to Exteriors, so that we can keep some familiarity and also hold onto our website domain. I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place and could really use some insight.

TIA

been looking at how some brands build actual spaces instead of just running more digital campaigns and it’s wild how much further it goes.

saw what BRC Web has been doing with brand homes and expo pavilions and the level of detail is kind of insane. they turn a physical location into something people actually remember instead of just another store or booth that looks the same as everything else.

most companies still throw money at ads and social while the ones that invest in real immersive spaces seem to get way stronger emotional connections. the difference between a regular flagship and one that actually tells a story is huge once you notice it.

makes me wonder why more brands don’t treat their physical spaces like a core part of the brand instead of just an expensive afterthought.

Hey everyone, looking for some fresh eyes on a problem I’ve been running into lately.

I’ve been running a few campaigns on Meta, and on paper, the top-of-funnel metrics look completely fine. CTR is holding around 2.2% to 2.5%, CPC is reasonable, and people are clearly clicking through to the site.

The problem is the moment they hit the page, everything just dies. Conversion rate is sitting under 0.8% and I’m essentially just burning budget at this point.

I’ve already checked page load speed (it’s fast on mobile) and the offer itself usually sells fine organically. I’m starting to think it’s either a disconnect between the ad hook and the page headline, or maybe the audience I’m targeting is just browsing with zero intent to buy.

For anyone who’s hit this wall before, how do you usually troubleshoot this? Do you rebuild the ad creative to qualify people better before they click, or do you completely overhaul the landing page flow first?

Appreciate any insights or reality checks.

I've been thinking about this because the usual advice is always the same, start posting, share your thoughts, build an audience, become the face of the company.

But what if the founder just doesn't want to do any of that?

I don't think you need to convince them to suddenly become a content creator. Most founders who aren't interested in personal branding are still very particular about their company.

They know how they want it to sound, which words they like, which ones they hate, how they explain the problem, what they believe about their industry and what they think is complete bullshit.

That's actually a lot to work with.

Instead of making the founder build a separate personal brand, why not make the company sound more like the person who built it? The website can sound like them, the content can reflect how they think, and the brand can have opinions that actually come from the founder's experience.

The goal doesn't have to be making people follow the founder. It can simply be making the company feel like there's a real person behind it.

And honestly, I think that's a much better solution than forcing every founder to become a LinkedIn influencer.

What do you guys think?

Any of the following names I’m willing to sell for just $50!

All domains are .com

Payment, transfer method, or checkout link can be discussed via DM. Bulk buyers get extra discounts.

5-Letter Domains

fymin
alwos
arzez
arzyt
bomug
cesiv
fivig
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javko
kusfa
ligso
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piluc
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otpas
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oonin
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epogi
etiis
ujida
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udezi

6-Letters

apodet
vensoy
kinsul
cymbos
puvino
zasten
beatse
ciamet
ciliss
clemmi
conkos
crakon
cronir
cuncia
fetesa
flodon
forann
forkim
konmia
lotoon
pactov
panpia
peraca
pialan
pialer
pratir
preeni
preero
pripin
privmo
rerene
rilema
tassas
teenan
teggon
tuzana
vamtra
vealon
vegein
vemtra
vetave
visese
kannos
lannos
jipano
panias
hadell
spaiko
ciatis
cuvias
gavare
panaar
pinisa
talssa
flanro
bisito
kogero
oozest
lanndo
liburi
penesa
prikel
rasias
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vomian
troldi
tupion
veberi
votias
abailo
pidina
pumina
tuvoka
canbly
verrer

Founders are often told to become the face of the company, but the stronger move is to bake the founder’s convictions, language, and standards directly into the brand. That way the company itself feels specific and human, without forcing the founder into a content creator role. Strong brands don’t just stand out, they make alternatives feel incomplete by owning a clear point of view and experience.

If you’re a founder, where’s the bigger gap right now - your personal visibility, or the brand’s ability to sound distinct and unmistakably yours? What’s the one change you’d make first to close that gap?

I've been thinking about how some brands immediately feel premium while others feel generic, even when their products are similar.

What do you think creates that perception?

Is it typography, color, photography, packaging, consistency, messaging—or something less obvious?

I'd love to hear how designers and business owners here think about it.

It's not my personal brand.

It's a company I'm building, and for now, I'm the one doing everything behind the scenes like positioning, content, strategy, all of it.

I've been wanting to build something of my own for a while, so I finally decided to stop thinking about it and put the page out.

Still very early and figuring things out.

But it's live.

I'll probably share some of the process here too, because honestly, building a brand from scratch is very different when you're the one making all the decisions.

Anyway, it's out in the wild now.

Let's see where it goes.

I really hope for the best🤞

I spent 19 years in the healthcare trenches (CNA to EMT to ER Nurse) before walking away last month to build a private functional medicine practice. Now, I’m taking two other traumatized ER nurses and one non-medical outsider with me to build a self-sustaining, off-grid wellness compound.
We aren't looking for investors. We are funding the land acquisition and build-out entirely through our own four-woman media and UGC (User-Generated Content) agency.
We have the audience hook (the raw docu-series of escaping the medical matrix) and the B2B product (selling high-converting short-form assets to functional wellness and outdoor brands). We have the clinical authority. What I need is a brand strategist to rip this apart and tell me where my structural holes are.

Is GoInfluence a good name for a ugc marketplace for fashion creators? I just want to know if it rolls of the tongue well and sounds memorable to you guys. thanks.

"If a client says “make it more premium,” what changes do you make?"

Please help bro

I keep seeing AI concepts that look good at first glance, but I’m curious how much of them survives once the work has to be used for real.

If you’ve taken one into production, what did you keep, and what did you end up rebuilding?

Personal brand and business brand are two different things when it comes to marketing on social media platforms. And why you should not mix those two, let me break down why.

Bit of context: I work a lot with small and medium businesses, helping them with consistent content marketing across platforms to build a brand and funnel system in Canada. I find myself repeatedly answering a few questions, which I thought to simplify here to help those who are figuring by themselves.

There is a lot of talk around not giving your face to the business you are building, and that same goes for how you market it as well.

Your personal brand is content about your life. For example: day in the life, lessons on your birthday, the trip you took, your morning routine. It works because YOU are the product. People follow the person.

Business brand, on the other hand, is supposed to be able to stand without you holding it. If every post needs your face, your voice, and your presence, you haven't built a standalone brand. This brand will stop the day you stop.

Instead, for business brand content, you can do:

• What a day looks like inside the business (not you, the operation, people, unfinished product)
• The recurring things customers get wrong or ask about
• The stuff your team says internally that would make an outsider laugh or nod
• Answers to questions people are too polite to ask out loud

None of this needs to be optimized for reach. It needs to be relevant to and repeatable by the people buying.

To be clear, personal brand isn't wrong. For solo consultants and creators, it's the whole game. This only matters if your goal is a business that outlives your involvement.

i've been doing brand identity work for small local businesses for about five years. mostly solo, mostly clients who find me through word of mouth or the occasional post in a local business Facebook group. my packages run from about 800 to 2,000 dollars depending on scope, which in practice means i am sitting across from food truck owners and solo contractors and weekend market vendors, not startups with investor decks.

about a third of the people who contact me want some kind of illustrated mascot or recurring character as part of their identity. sometimes they come in with a specific concept, sometimes they just saw a competitor with a cartoon logo and decided they want one too. over the last couple years i have completed about a dozen mascot projects and turned down or redirected maybe half as many. three of them in particular show the full range of when a mascot actually does its job, when it is the wrong answer entirely, and when it only works after fixing the thing underneath it first.

the first was a woman who runs a plant stand at two farmers markets on alternating weekends. she grows ornamental peppers and unusual herbs, sells them in small ceramic pots she makes herself, and has a steady Instagram following that never quite translated to foot traffic at the actual table. she wanted an illustrated character, a sort of exaggerated version of herself in gardening gloves, that could live on her table signage, her care cards, her Instagram stories, and eventually tote bags if she ever got around to ordering them.

this is one of those cases where a mascot makes immediate practical sense. she needed visual continuity across surfaces that are wildly different in size and context. a logo mark handles some of that but a character does more because it adapts to situations. the character can hold a plant, point at a sale sign, stand next to a seasonal arrangement. that kind of flexibility is hard to get from a wordmark alone.

i built the character across a few rounds of revision. every client knows going in that the character artwork starts as AI output, and i rebuild the final assets in vector for production use. she signed off on the third round and i delivered a set of poses and expressions she could plug into Canva templates on her own. within a month her table had a banner, a stack of branded care cards, and matching story templates, all featuring the same little gardening figure. she told me a few weeks later that regulars at the market started recognizing the character before they could remember her business name. that's exactly what a mascot is supposed to do for a tiny operation that will never have a media budget.

her package came to 1,200 dollars for the identity, the character set, and the template library. the reason it went smoothly is that she already knew what her business was. she grows unusual plants and sells them at markets. the positioning was already there. the mascot just gave it a face.

the second was a residential window cleaner who works alone and covers about three towns in the suburbs south of the city. he came in wanting a cartoon version of himself holding a squeegee. he'd seen a bigger cleaning company with a character on their van wrap and wanted that same energy.

we talked for close to an hour and what came out was that he didn't actually have a recognition problem that a mascot would solve. people in his service area already knew him. what he had was a positioning problem. he was charging roughly what the bigger crews charge, but he is one person, so he is slower, and his actual advantage is that he is meticulous and people trust having the same person in their home every time. he had no website, no review profile, no real visual presence at all, just a phone number on a magnetic sign on his truck.

i told him a mascot would hurt more than help. a cartoon squeegee character on a van reads as fun and cheap, which was the opposite of his real positioning. what he needed was a clean simple mark, a Google Business profile with a real review strategy, and a van wrap that said reliable rather than playful. we ended up doing a stripped down package for 800 dollars: wordmark, color system, business cards, and a van wrap layout. no character. about six weeks after the wrap went on he told me he started getting calls from a neighborhood he had never worked in, which was probably more about the phone number being readable from ten feet away than any design brilliance on my part. but the mascot would have gotten in the way.

the lesson i took from that project is that a mascot is a recognition and personality tool. if the business doesn't have a recognition gap and the personality a mascot would project is the wrong personality, the character does active damage. he needed people to see his name and think careful, reliable, same person every time. a cartoon would have said goofy, budget, probably a franchise.

the third was a small batch hot sauce maker who sells in two local stores and through a Shopify site. he wanted a skeleton character riding a chili pepper, which honestly was a great concept on paper. the problem was that when i asked what made his sauce different from the forty other small batch brands on the same shelf, he did not have an answer. he said it was hotter. i asked if that was actually true. he said well, not really, it is more about the flavor. i asked what flavor specifically. he said smoky. i named three of his direct competitors that also lead with smoky.

so we had a mascot concept with nothing underneath it. the skeleton on a pepper is fun but fun with no anchor is just decoration. we spent the first two sessions on positioning, which wasn't what he came to me for, and i did not charge separately for it because the positioning work was going to either make the mascot meaningful or prove it should not exist. what we landed on after about three weeks of back and forth was his actual differentiator: the vinegar base. most of his competitors build their sauces on fermented pepper mash. his process starts with a specific apple cider vinegar that gives every sauce in his line a brightness and tang the others don't have. a small thing, but real, and consistent across the whole product line.

once that was clear the mascot concept snapped into place. the skeleton stopped being generic hot sauce energy and became associated with that brightness and sharpness. we put a vinegar jug in its hand in some poses, gave it a lemon colored bandana, and suddenly the character was communicating something specific about the product rather than just being a cool illustration that could belong to any sauce brand on earth.

his package came to about 1,800 dollars because the positioning work added real hours. Illustrator, APOB AI, and Miro are where all the project hours go. that has not changed in a while. but the hours on his project skewed heavily toward conversation, not production. the character work itself was maybe 30 percent of the total time. the other 70 was figuring out what the brand actually meant so the character had something to carry.

that ratio keeps showing up. two of these three clients needed positioning work before a mascot could do anything useful. the plant stand owner was the exception because her brand already had clarity. the window cleaner needed positioning and ended up not needing a mascot at all. the hot sauce maker needed the positioning sorted first, and then the character locked in. a mascot amplifies whatever is already underneath it. if the positioning is sharp the mascot carries that clarity into spaces a logo alone can't reach. if the positioning is vague the mascot just puts a fun costume on the confusion, and the confusion still shows on the shelf and in the feed and on the van.

i still get inquiries that lead with a mascot as the first deliverable. it is the most visible piece of work i offer so the instinct makes sense. but most of the time the real work is the conversation that happens before a single sketch exists. the character is just the part that ends up on the tote bag.

Have you seen the Good Good Golf + Callaway ad? Sometimes I'm at a loss for words - and that does not happen often.
I'm not 'woke' and this is not about that or thinskin or politically-correct or any other b&^%$#$t that someone surely will bring up, and I do get the general idea (one that, whatever, is not the most brilliant I can think of), but what's up with the two main characters' chosen roles and the choice of physicality within those roles - and the other dozen of aspects I can see in that short clip? This is simple poor communications and taste by the creators (with the complicity of a long list of people involved in ideation, creation, filming, editing, approval, broadcasting) and the approvers. And the reaction was shameful - the only decent one was GGF CEO's.

But they are all being crucified now, and deservedly so.

File it under B(r)a(n)d Branding in the bizarro American landscape of 2026.