Your business may be more sophisticated, experienced, and valuable than it was five or ten years ago. But has the way you present it kept up? If not, you may be inadvertently surrounding $600 worth of value with $40 signals.
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The $600 Business Still Selling Itself Like a $40 One
Your business may have become more sophisticated, experienced, and valuable while the way you present it stayed the same. The Palessi experiment offers a powerful lesson in how positioning shapes perception, and what happens when the signals surrounding your business don’t match the value you actually deliver.
BrandTherapy #15: “On-brand” might show up when you’re not looking
You don’t always know what’s “on-brand” until you’re standing in the middle of it. A regularly scheduled board meeting lost its agenda and turned into an unplanned 90-minute roadmapping session. A reminder that the best work often skips the plan entirely. Recognizing that moment when it’s happening isn’t luck; it’s a skill worth building on purpose.
BrandTherapy #14: Ludacris was the obvious choice
One A Day Vitamin’s decision to cast Ludacris as their spokesperson wasn’t random. It’s a lesson in understanding your brand’s audience. Knowing your audience isn’t just their age, income, or job title, it’s understanding what they value, who they trust, and how they see themselves. The brands that win go beyond demographics.
Has your business outgrown the way you describe it?
Businesses evolve gradually through new services, bigger clients, deeper expertise, and changing ambitions, but their positioning doesn’t always evolve with them. When the story falls behind the business, referrals get weaker, prospects get confused, and websites stop converting. The answer isn’t necessarily a rebrand. It’s making sure how you describe the business reflects the business you’ve actually become.
To-DON’T List for Startup Brands: Avoiding Pitfalls of Building a Strong Brand
Every startup has a to-do list. Build the product, hire the team, land the customers. Brand usually sits near the bottom, but it’s already happening whether you’re managing it or not. Here’s the to-don’t list: seven mistakes that undo the reputation you were hoping to build..
BrandTherapy #12: Go AI yourself: LLMs and your brand reputation
A referral may introduce you, but AI is increasingly making the first impression. As more prospects turn to ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and other AI tools to evaluate people and businesses, your reputation depends on more than search rankings, it depends on the body of work you’ve published over time.
The Hidden Cost of Brand Drift
As businesses grow, their brands often lag behind. Positioning becomes less clear, messaging grows inconsistent, and marketing stops reflecting who the business has become. When your brand no longer aligns with reality, the hidden costs quietly affect marketing, decision-making, and future growth.
You don’t have a marketing problem
Most businesses don’t need more marketing. They need clarity on what’s on-brand and what’s off-brand. Introducing On-Brand/Off-Brand, the newsletter formerly known as The Creative Brief.
Most Businesses Don’t Need More Marketing
More marketing usually isn’t the fix. Most businesses aren’t short on activity, they’re short on clarity. Here’s why brand strategy, not another campaign, is what actually moves growth forward.
The Baggage Your Business Carries
Most businesses have trouble growing because they hang on to too much from the past. Over time, they gather services, processes, messaging, and assumptions that used to work but don’t anymore. Growth isn’t always about adding more. Sometimes, moving forward means letting go of what no longer fits.
BrandTherapy Notes #10: Your Brand May Not Need More Ideas
Most brands don’t struggle because they lack ideas. They struggle because their positioning, messaging, visuals, and customer experience aren’t working together consistently. Brand consistency is what turns strategy into trust over time.