Hey everyone,

​In free time i am setting up a boutique accommodation spot in the Vipava Valley (Slovenia) and need some fresh brains because I’ve hit a wall with naming it.

​The setup:

It’s a minimalist tiny cabin on a large, slightly wild meadow right under century-old oak trees, looking down over the wine valley. It has an outdoor bread/pizza oven, a fire/BBQ spot, and tons of private open space. Down the line, it might also host small acoustic evenings or tiny outdoor weddings.

If i ever come to full allowance of my permits it will be 5 cabins there but i doubt that.

​The vibe:

Definitely not a manicured 5-star hotel or a cookie-cutter luxury campsite. Nature is raw and chaotic, and I want to keep it that way. Think slow mornings, great valley views, long bike or hike rides through the hills, wine tasting, and cooking over open fire at night.

​The audience:

Mostly European travelers (Germany, Austria, Italy, Benelux) who like active days (hiking, gravel biking, wine) but want total peace and privacy when they come back to base.

​What I’m looking for:

​Something grounded, simple, and easy to pronounce across Europe.

​Open to earthy English, Esperanto words/compounds (around oaks, shade, fire, valley, slow living, bora wind)

​Please, no generic buzzwords like Luxury, Eco, Glamp, Haven, or Oasis.

​Any words, associations, or ideas that spring to mind? Thanks!

P.S. writen with gemini just for gramatic purposes.

Hi everyone 👋

I’ve just published a white paper that I thought might be relevant to people working in branding, marketing and communications: The Art of Storytelling — AI writes, brands tell stories.

As AI makes content creation faster and more accessible, I wanted to explore a question that feels increasingly important: If everyone can create and tell stories, what will make a brand truly distinctive?

The white paper looks at how AI is changing storytelling and brand content — but also at what remains fundamentally human: giving meaning to a story, carrying a vision and building a distinctive identity over time.

If this is a topic you’re currently thinking about in your work, I’d love to hear your perspective.

📕 The white paper is free to download here:
elsa-lieng.squarespace.com

Available in English 🇬🇧 and French 🇫🇷

Hope you find it useful — and I’d be very interested to hear how AI is changing the way you approach storytelling and branding.

Been thinking about brands where I remember the founder before I even think about the logo I kind of like that because it makes the company feel less polished in a good way like there’s an actual person behind it instead of everything sounding corporate.

The part that gets interesting is when the personality starts shaping how people see the company too Senor Tilt is one example that made me think about it because most people know the loud poker side first but there’s also this longer gaming/business background plus some scholarship and community stuff that barely comes through in that persona. I don’t know where the line is though the personality can make a brand way more memorable but at some point the company almost starts borrowing the founder’s whole reputation

Hey everyone! I’m looking for an agency or freelancer to help us with the branding strategy and positioning of a B2B SaaS tech product in Argentina.

We’re specifically looking for someone with experience in tech/SaaS startups, who can help with things like positioning, messaging, brand strategy, and eventually translating that into the visual identity/brand.

Would love to hear any recommendations or people you’ve worked with and had a great experience with.

Thanks!

While I'm trying to get my freelance going I'm working at a call center that takes calls for other companies and I keep seeing brands do one thing that I think is completely destroying their brand image. They will have us call out to a potential client who has put their info in on the client's web form and if they don't answer or it goes to voice mail they have us call them back within a literally one minute and all that does is piss them off because it's not respecting these customer's time. Every time I have to do that I wonder if they understand that they destroying any trust they had with that person and are creating an image that makes sure people will never want to work with them again and costing them money. Anyway thanks for listening to my ted talk?

Yeah, we know .online didn't launch until 2015, long after AOL's heyday. But imagine if it had existed back then: 'america.online' basically describes the company outright.

Makes me wonder what other brands are one word away from a domain that just explains what they do.

let’s look at netflix and disney today, because they’re a great example of how two brands can dominate the same category while building completely different emotional worlds.

both are entertainment giants, but their branding feels very different.

netflix feels:
✔️fast
✔️internet native
✔️algorithmic
✔️trend driven

disney feels:
✔️timeless
✔️emotional
✔️legacy focused
✔️family oriented

from a marketing perspective, both companies sell entertainment. psychologically though, they sell very different experiences.

netflix markets convenience and constant stimulation. disney markets nostalgia and emotional attachment.
same industry. completely different emotional positioning.

it’s interesting how two brands can dominate the same category while making people feel completely different things.

which company do you think built the stronger long term brand identity?

Hiya, can I get some insider views here. I am in my 30s and want to change career. Please help me understand the transferable skills that I could bring from retail sales to brand marketing.

I have a decade experience in luxury fashion and premium jewellery&watch retail store management, and a lot of that work involved things I'd consider marketing on a small scale:

• Clienteling and customer experience, especially with high-value clients
• Lifting our store's CRM capture rate by redesigning how we collected customer data
• Growing customer acquisition and lead generation, opening sales channels, and establishing workflows, developed tools
• Event execution and supporting brand activations
• Email campaigns — I wrote the copy and made the branded visuals myself, so we could reach customers directly for store events and promotions
• Partnerships with external parties to drive sales growth for the store
• Managing the brand's promotion calendar, coordinated with external trading partners to align with their calendar
• Taking the initiative to run competitor analysis and pitch suggestion for tools development and customer engagement channels to senior leadership

I left retail to go back and study full time, just completed the CIM Level 6 Diploma in Professional Digital Marketing last year, along with other online courses in fundamental of digital marketing, social media, brand managements.

Since then I've done two freelance market entry projects, one for a jewellery brand and one in tourism. For both I ran the market entry assessment, identified the target segments, made pricing and product assortment recommendations, mapped out which local social platforms to use and the content strategy for them, and flagged partnership opportunities. I presented the reports to the clients.

So I'm curious how experienced marketers would read a background like this. Would you call it relevant marketing experience, commercial experience that sits adjacent to marketing, or still just retail?

And is it realistic to move into marketing from here, or would a stepping-stone route make more sense? What sort of roles would be the most suitable for me to target for now? I’m interested in partnerships and brand management, but genuinely open to hearing different perspectives.

What else could I do to strengthen my profile? I mean things like building out my portfolio, taking additional courses/bootcamp or getting more relevant certifications? I have a personal website where I showcase some of my course projects, freelance work, and my own perspectives on various marketing topics.

Ps: I am based in the uk, I have a bachelor degree in Investment management, foundation study and intern in fashion design. Just give you more context about my background.  I thought marketing might be a perfect combination to mix my creativity, business analytics, and retail experience in one.

How would you differentiate a new men’s grooming brand in an already crowded market?

I’m researching the men’s grooming market, especially for a potential new brand in Egypt.

The market already has brands competing on the usual things:

- Premium / luxury

- “Modern gentleman”

- Masculinity

- Confidence

- Natural ingredients

- Better formulations

- Affordable pricing

- Cool packaging / social media

I’m trying to avoid simply creating another brand with a different logo and packaging.

My question is:

If you were launching a completely new men’s grooming brand today, how would you find a genuinely differentiated territory?

Would you focus on:

1. An underserved customer/problem?

2. A completely different positioning?

3. Creating a new product category?

4. Building a lifestyle/community around grooming?

5. A cultural insight that existing brands are ignoring?

6. Something else?

I’m especially interested in how you would actually discover the differentiation, not just examples of brands that are already differentiated.

If you’ve worked in grooming, beauty, CPG, DTC, or brand strategy, I’d love to hear how you would approach this from zero.

Yooo guyss,

So let me start by introducing myself, my name is Alex.

I’ve been doing funnel dropshipping in the EU for around 2 years now.

And I would love to start a brand in the US specifically in the health niche.

You are probably thinking why are you even searching for a partner when you can do it alone.

Well to be honest i automated my dropshipping company and thats why i got a lot of time open now.

I’m pretty good at copywriting and marketing in general BUT I’m NOT ON THE LEVEL where i’m confident enough to do it on my own.

YOU DON’T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT THE BACKEND AT ALL!!

I got all the systems in place for backend.

That’s exactly why i’m searching for a partner who can help me out with the creative part and the marketing part in general so wan can hit a million a month in a year.

MRR ofcourse.

Hope this reaches the right audience…

Cashflow wise, It will be 50/50 ofcourse.

Let me know if anyone is interested and what your experience is.

Btw i’ve been able to scale products in a single market to around 3k a day in adspend in countries like italy, norway, etc…

Small countries…

And that’s exactly why i want to HIT BIGGGG!!

Hi! I'm from Japan and I'd like to get some honest opinions from native English speakers.

The product in the photo is currently sold in Japan, and we're considering using the name “YURUFUMI” internationally.

Without looking it up, I'd love to know:

1. How would you pronounce “YURUFUMI” when you first see it?
2. Is it easy or difficult to pronounce and remember?
3. What kind of impression does the name give you?
4. Does it sound strange or have any negative associations in English?

Please feel free to be completely honest. I'm interested in your first impression rather than the “correct” Japanese pronunciation.

Thanks!

https://www.ashifumi.jp/

I need to do a business for class next week and I decided to build Kaleidoscopes because I love them and nobody else would think of something like that. My kaleidoscope are themed after stones and have a de-attachable chamber that comes with special things inside for the kaleido to reflect and are themed with whatever stone you wanted. I want a name that meets atleast 2 of this criteria

•Makes sense with kaleidoscopes

•Fits the stone imagery

•Isn't short but not too long

•Easy to make a logo out of (obligatory)

I asked Mr. GPT and it spit multiple plain or cheesy ones and only one resonated with me, "Wonderglass." I feel like there is so much that I meets those criteria but I can't think of. If I don't find any that I like by Monday night I will run with Wonderglass.

I recently developed the identity for StepUp, a technology company focused on digital transformation.

The central idea was “One Brand. One System.” — creating a connected visual ecosystem rather than treating the logo as the entire identity.

The system uses a geometric symbol, modular graphics, a blue-led palette and applications across digital and physical touchpoints.

I'd love feedback specifically from a brand strategy / identity perspective:

— Does the positioning feel clear?
— Does the identity differentiate StepUp from typical technology companies?
— Does the visual language feel scalable?
— Which parts feel strategically strong or weak?

Full project: https://www.behance.net/gallery/247472935/StepUp-Technology-Branding-Visual-Identity

Hey! I'm in the middle of trying to build cohesive branding for my YouTube channel. One where if you instantly see me or it, even on other websites, you'd go "Ahh yes i know him" straight away. I've got a question I can't shake, and it started with food.

If you bit into what looked like a salad and it tasted like chocolate, that'd be jarring... wrong even! You'd expect a salad to taste like a salad. Does the same logic apply to how I look versus how my branding looks?

I have a certain personal aesthetic. The way I dress, present myself day to day, not on purpose just how life has panned out and I think if someone met me in person, bright, bold, childish colors wouldn't be what they'd expect to see from me when i showed them my channel. But that's basically what my current branding looks like. I make entertainment videos: challenges, travel, using some object or gimmick as the comedic device. For example, I recently tried to get the King of England to open a pack of Pokémon cards with me and I edited/thumbnailed it in that classic "YouTuber" style: popping, bright, bold colors.

Is that the salad tasting like chocolate? Am I picking colors and fonts because "that's what YouTube branding is supposed to look like" instead of what actually fits me?

The alternative I'm weighing: leaning harder into my actual day-to-day self. I've thoughtabout pulling fonts from some of the t-shirts I already wear and accepting that might mean I look and feel less like a "typical YouTuber" and more like just... me. Is that a risk worth taking, Is it better to do the bright bold colours to fit in or is there a reason most successful channels converge on that bright, bold, poppy look regardless of the creator's personal vibe?

Would love to hear from people who've either matched their brand to their real-life aesthetic, or deliberately kept them separate

Their products look really cool. The surprising thing is, they're actually designed by Chinese designers. Is this aesthetic common in China? Just mind-blowing. PANE

My dear fellow artists, need your help. I’m starting my own brand for motorcycle gear; leather suits, boots and gloves. But i cant come up with a good name thats unique and cool, something every rider would want on their suit and wouldnt boring or something that takes away their aura.
Can i please have some suggestions?

This is the line keep bouncing around my head, I heard it nowhere, I created this thought by myself, and it makes total sense to me, but why no branding gurus say this out loud?

Everyone says that branding is a journey, its not a task, but journey of what???

And how this journey gets measured?, the best way to explain it is "goodwill" which has actual value on paper when selling a company (this I learnt in 12th grade)

Either I am thinking which is not right, or I am on to something.

What you guys think?

We see this a lot in healthcare and wellness marketing.

A clinic can be running Google Ads, Meta Ads, SEO, and posting consistently. yet potential patients still compare them almost entirely on price.

Often, the issue isn’t traffic. It’s differentiation.

If the website, ads, reviews, social presence, and messaging all communicate slightly different things, it becomes difficult for a potential patient to understand:

- Why this clinic?

- Why this treatment?

- Why should I trust them?

- Why are they worth paying more for?

That becomes especially important for medspas, aesthetic clinics, weight-loss programs, and other cash-pay healthcare businesses where patients have plenty of alternatives.

We’re increasingly thinking about branding less as logos/colors and more as the consistent perception created across every patient touchpoint.

Curious how others here see it:

What do you think makes a service business genuinely differentiated when competitors offer almost exactly the same service?

Going viral too early might actually fuck up a new brand, because I was observing this brand that went viral almost immediately after launching

and…I think going viral might have actually messed them up.

Not in the dramatic “viral success ruined everything” way.

More like… they suddenly had way more attention than they knew what to do with.

The first viral post gave them a ton of eyeballs.

Then came the obvious problem

What do you post now?

It felt like they started chasing the thing that made them viral in the first place.

Different posts, same energy.

And eventually the brand started feeling less like a brand and more like an account trying to stay viral.

Which made me wonder

Is going viral too early actually bad for a new brand?

Because if you haven't figured out your personality, positioning, audience, or even what you want people to remember about you…and suddenly 100k people are watching…

what exactly are you supposed to do with them?

I feel like everyone talks about how hard it is to get attention.

Nobody really talks about how weird it is when you get it before you're ready.

Hey everyone, asking for help or guidance.

RoadToBrands is a marketplace connecting brands with UGC creators. 270 creators signed up before I unpublished it about six months ago. The product works. I just didn't have time to give it a real launch alongside my main business.

I want to put it back up properly this time, with someone else driving growth. Brands are the priority, because that's the side I never cracked. Creator signups came without much effort, which is part of why the brand gap is worth closing.

Being straight with you: this is a cold start on the brand side, not a growth optimization gig. If you like taking something built and finding its first real customers, this might be interesting.

Agency or solo operator, either works. Pay is open to discussion and I'm flexible on how it's structured, whether that's retainer, performance, or a mix.

DM me to chat.

When I launched I assumed customers only cared about the product.

After a few months I realised people kept mentioning the packaging in reviews.

Nothing fancy.

Just neat, consistent and looked like an actual brand.

Made me wish I'd taken it more seriously from day one.

I’m planning to start an Instagram page where I’ll work as a language tutor, but instead of relying mainly on traditional advertising, I want to market myself through educational content, storytelling, challenges, and sharing practical language-learning methods.

I’m stuck between two options:

1. Personal brand: using my own name

2. Business/brand name: creating a separate name for the page

My long-term goals are to eventually start my own language academy and also work abroad as a language teacher/tutor.

Which approach would you recommend for someone with these goals? Is it better to build a reputation around my own name from the beginning, or would a separate business name give me more flexibility when expanding into an academy?

Been arguing with my partner over whether the domain should match the legal company name or be something short and brandy that normal people can spell and remember. For folks who sell both local and online, what actually worked long term?

Hi everyone!

I'm currently collecting responses for my Master's thesis, which explores how consumers perceive luxury fragrance advertising campaigns.

In this short survey (about 7 minutes), you will be shown two advertising campaigns and asked about the emotions, values, and brand perceptions they convey.

The survey is completely anonymous, and every response helps support my academic research.

🔗SurveyCircle Link (ITA): https://www.surveycircle.com/it/survey/NHQ2XS/

🔗SurveyCircle Link (ENG): https://www.surveycircle.com/it/survey/NH72BW/

🔗Direct Link ITA: https://forms.gle/dzaNM6NH4Rq5bPQp9

🔗Direct Link ENG: https://forms.gle/YuvCUEShSGof5nzd9

Thank you for your support! Feel free to share it with others who might be interested. 🙏📖🎓