How I design brands that make money

Never waste your company's money on a fluffy rebrand. Here's a better way.

Say your company has a rebrand in its future.

Reality check.

If you want this project to actually make money for your company don’t:

• Leave it all up to the designers

• Do brand strategy

• Spend valuable resources on fluff like “Brand personality” and “Brand attributes”

Don’t get me wrong, you need a great designer or two. And there’s an important place in any rebrand for emotion and strategy.

You just have to do it the right way. (And so few do.)

So this is how I design brands that actually drive revenue.

Because isn’t that the whole point?

I used these same ideas to put money in the pockets of my clients at Clari, GitLab, Silo and many more.

1. I define category first, brand second.

When we go to buy something, we think category first, brand second. First "Ketchup" then "Heinz." If a company wanted to unseat Heinz as the leader in ketchup, they’d have to somehow redefine ketchup itself.

That’s a very good moat.

While Heinz’s category leadership is as secure as it gets, tech categories are much more fluid. They are yours to create, transform and subdivide.

The electric car category was one thing before Tesla, and something completely different after. Your vision for where you want to take your category - and your plan to get to the #1 position (the most profitable spot) in that category - is the first thing you must define.

So skip the brand strategy. Category strategy delivers everything brand strategy does but solves for category, too.

Why do we need strategy at all to design a logo? Because our designers need to be briefed to do their best work. The best brief I can give them - hands down - is a compelling story about the customer, a big problem they face, and a category of product that solves their problem beautifully.

Like our clients Uber & Urban Logistics.
Or Qualtrics & Experience Management.
Or Clari & RevOps.

To learn more about category strategy, check out “How to Own Your Category.”

2. I put feeling over logic.

The most profitable brands make their customers feel something. So I never judge a logo or visual identity using logic alone. Or even mostly logic.

Because the only way to get customers to feel something, is to feel it yourself. If you’re designing a brand and it doesn’t fill you with excitement about where this company is headed, you’re definitely not there yet.

Plus, designing a brand that connects with your audience emotionally—not fake emotion, but actual emotion—is a powerful differentiator.

Unemotional brands fight for scraps, so make sure you’re on the right side of this equation.

3. I play in culture, not marketing.

Poor brands think of themselves as marketing. They try to check all the marketing boxes. Profitable brands play in broader culture. They don’t try to be interesting in the world of marketing, they are interesting, period.

It’s not artsy - it’s good business. Being culturally relevant does something very important in the mind of the customer. It brings their defenses down so they can ultimately buy from you.

Because as long as you’re giving off marketing hard-sell vibes, they’ll think of you as low status.

Yes, playing in culture is a higher bar. That’s why it pays you back more—in customer love and profits.

4. I get customers off their butts. 

The most successful brands move us forward. Nike, Apple, Patagonia, REI, Old Spice, Dove. They all incite their own version of revolution. They change minds and show us a new way to relate to ourselves, each other, and the world.

And most importantly, they inspire customers to get off their butts and make something happen for themselves. Because deep down, that’s what we all want.

More energy, more agency, more “fuck it, let’s go.”

If you help them get there, they will gladly pay a premium for the thing you are selling.

It’s why “Just do it.” works.

—

So that’s it. Four simple rules for profitable brands.

1. Category first. Brand second.

2. Feeling > logic

3. Culture > marketing

4. Challenge and inspire the customer

There’s a reason these techniques work.

They’re all built on first principles of the mind.

That makes them far more effective than the artsy or tactical advice you see everywhere.

I hope this helps.

And I’ll see you next week.