Lessons from a brand strategist
Essays on brand leadership, published weekly. Organized by the four pillars — Creative & Design, Business & Strategy, Marketing & Communication, and Leadership & Management.
I think about brand leadership in four pillars.
Creative + Design
The product experience. The first handshake. Design as communication, not decoration.
Business + Strategy
The economic engine. Margins, pricing psychology, the tough calls that make the brand sustainable.
Marketing + Communications
The positioning. Speaking to the right people, fostering loyalty, turning customers into advocates.
Leadership + Management
The alignment. Clarity, the right people in the right roles, and execution that doesn’t drift.
Pricing Is a Story
Eight principles for setting numbers that do real work Most operators set prices the same way. Add up the costs,
The Lorax in the Boardroom: Why Marketing Needs an Equal Voice
When I was a CMO, I used to tell the executive team I was the Lorax. I spoke for the
The 90% Rule: Why Good Enough Beats Perfect in Modern Business
Perfection is expensive. In this article, Matt breaks down the “90% Rule”: once your product is good enough, chasing the final 10% wastes time, money, and momentum. Learn how Apple, Southwest, and others win by balancing marketing, ops, and experience—and avoiding costly perfection traps.
The Four Pillars of Brand Leadership: Lessons from a Brand Strategist
Most teams don’t fail because they lack talent. They fail because they over-invest in one kind of excellence and neglect the rest. In this post, I share a four-pillar framework that keeps brands balanced: product experience, economics, positioning, and organizational alignment. Get all four working together, and growth gets easier.
The Brand Expedition: A Framework for Building Brand Identity That Lasts
A Guided Ascent to Brand Identity Every brand I’ve helped build — from scrappy rural startups to mature regional operators
There’s a big difference between building a business and building yourself a job.
Most of the founders I’ve worked with didn’t realize they’d made the choice until it was already made. The choice:
The Creative Team Map: Understanding the Roles Inside a Boutique Design Agency
Over the course of my career, I’ve sat in hundreds of discovery calls that opened the same way: “We just
Without a Compass, You’re Just Wandering
Most of the marketing failures I’ve seen weren’t creative failures. They were directional failures. Leadership teams hand down vague, feel-good
Beyond the Basics: Campaigns that Elevate a Brand
At a certain point in a brand’s life, it no longer needs to introduce itself. The heavy lifting of name recognition, product