For a long time, I’ve observed a serious tension between "branding" people and "marketing" people.

I’ve spent most of my career on the branding side, and I’ve always felt that tension from marketers working alongside me. For example: my team would create a beautiful identity, a well-crafted website, packaging—our best possible representation of the value our client had to offer...

...only for it to get completely undermined 😅. A pop-up email sign-up covering the homepage. A poorly designed sign in the wrong color. A pixelated image slapped onto a high-touch ad. Even thinking about it now makes my stomach turn.

"Branding" is about drawing out the best in a company—making its value clear and compelling so that it can be understood in a second.

"Marketing", on the other hand, is often focused on hitting a revenue goal by any means necessary 🤮. This often results in "cash grab" decisions that are disguised as growth in the short term, but are actually sacrificing and diluting the brand in the long term.

Great branding comes from a place of abundance—inviting the world into the immense value a company has to offer. But too often, the marketing department seems to operate from a place of scarcity—chasing short-term wins to keep the business afloat or meet a commission target.

Both are necessary, but they have to work together to be truly effective.

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Song of the day​
​Bands With Managers by Pedro The Lion​