#brand-strategy

#brand-strategy

Messaging alone does not sustain a brand. It is sustained by belief and reinforced through behavior. When employees do not understand or believe in the organization's purpose and standards, customers eventually experience that inconsistency. This is where many branding efforts break down. Leaders focus externally while internal alignment remains underdeveloped.

Instagram's new 'Shop the Look' feature and recent algorithm shifts highlight the vulnerability of social media reliance, where creators fear brand dilution from automated tags while companies like Oddity faced a massive stock drop due to the instability of rented social spaces.

ChatGPT Pulse is a mobile AI feature for Pro users that delivers personalized updates and information directly in users' feeds. This new "push" approach gives brands an opportunity to reach audiences proactively, even before they search for content. To appear in ChatGPT Pulse, focus on building content that is authoritative, clear, and AI-ready. Establish verified brand profiles, maintain canonical pages, and publish regularly updated, time-stamped content.

YouTube is the Hunger Games of attention. Twenty million new videos compete for visibility every day against over 5 billion already on the platform. Whatever survives that level of competition is the most valuable attention in media. Unlike other platforms, viewers arrive with a purpose. They come to watch something specific, from creators they follow. That's a fundamentally different relationship than a scroll-based feed.

In the new position, Isaacs will be leading Quince's global brand strategy, positioning and storytelling, and is tasked with deepening the San Francisco-based startup's emotional relationship with consumers. Quince has scaled rapidly since its founding in 2018, with sales having doubled to over $700 million last year. But the $4.5 billion company has struggled to shrug off its reputation as a dupe maker.

Shelby Miller comes to FullTilt Marketing with a robust background that speaks volumes about her expertise. Previously, she held pivotal roles in marketing and business development at notable companies such as Applewood Fresh Growers and FirstFruits Farms. Her experience includes leading strategic B2B campaigns, managing key retail accounts, and supporting various produce brands through sales enablement and digital marketing initiatives. This hands-on experience makes her a valuable asset to FullTilt, as she understands the intricacies of the fresh produce industry from the ground up.

That Meta's move has propelled the concept of the metaverse into the public consciousness, bringing with it no shortage of brands into the space, is no bad thing. Very few of us beyond niche communities were talking about 'the metaverse' two years ago. And now we are.

When Xfinity makes its national Super Bowl debut, it doesn't hedge its bets. It resurrects one of the most iconic films in movie history- Jurassic Park -reuniting Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, and Sam Neill, backed by John Williams's original score and directed by Taika Waititi. On the surface, it's blockbuster nostalgia. Underneath, it's a sharply executed brand strategy, and one that small business owners should pay attention to.

Spend half an hour exploring #StrategyTwitter or #MarketingTwitter and you'll quickly discover huge swathes of talented folks arguing passionately about the correct way to market brands. On one end of the spectrum you'll find the staunch strategists quoting lines from Sharp's How Brands Grow (which is well worth a read), while on the other end you'll find people posting fairly nauseating Gary Vaynerchuk quotes in serif fonts about how the number one rule in marketing is 'love'.

In a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal, Jamie Dimon explained why JPMorgan Chase is spending billions more on AI. He was making a long-term bet. The same kind of leaders make when they build headquarters, factories or infrastructure that won't "pay off" this quarter but will define competitiveness for decades. It's exactly how marketers should think about and position differentiation in the eyes of the C-Suite.

If you work in marketing, you might want to look away now. The brutal truth is... the vast majority of people don't care about your brand. In fact, 81% of the brands sold across Europe could disappear overnight and consumers wouldn't be concerned... They probably wouldn't even notice. Various dynamics are at play here. Firstly, abundance. With up to 30,000 new products being launched every year, we're all spoilt for choice. With so much variety on offer, very few brands feel truly indispensable.

For much of the modern corporate era, brand has been treated as surface area. A story told outward. A set of signals designed to persuade, attract, and differentiate. When companies spoke about brand, they were usually talking about perception: how they looked in the market, how they sounded, how they were received. That framing made sense in a world where markets moved a little more slowly, organizations were stable, and leadership could afford to separate strategy from culture, product from meaning, execution from belief.

"In this upgraded role, Ayaz will lead a new internal organization comprised of all Disney marketing teams (including those in parks, sports and other sectors) meant to "support a more connected approach to how Disney reaches audiences, elevates its campaigns, and advances the business goals of each segment and the company as a whole," a Wednesday announcement said. Ayaz will report to Disney CEO Bob Iger, as well as vertical leaders Dana Walden, Alan Bergman, parks head Josh D'Amaro and ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro."

It's a bet - like, a large financial bet,

Mark Ritson has released a one-hour lecture breaking down what he calls the 10 marketing moments of the year, offering marketers an indepth review of the campaigns, trends and strategic decisions that mattered most. The video pulls together The Drum columnist's assessments of the successes and failures that defined the past 12 months across brand, media and effectiveness. Rather than focusing on novelty or virality alone, the video revisits moments that had a material impact on business performance, category thinking or marketing practice.

Going viral has always been a risky marketing strategy. In many ways, the bump a company gets from becoming a social media sensation works like the sales impact of appearing on "Shark Tank." Even companies that don't make a deal to a piece of their brand, usually see a short-term spike in interest and orders because of the television exposure. That can help with exposure and acquiring customers, but it does not last forever.

Costco launched Kirkland Signature in 1995 to consolidate its private labels and reduce consumer confusion. Today, the brand is a money-generating machine that, according to The Wall Street Journal, made about $86 billion in the financial year 2023-24. For context, Costco reported a total revenue of $254 billion in the 52 weeks ending September 1, 2024. The figure is also a whopping $40 billion more than what Nike earned in the year leading up to May 2025.

In December, when Under Armour hosted its first investor day in five years, along with sharing its final quarter results that posted $1.4bn in revenue in 2024, its chief executive officer, Kevin Plank, unveiled plans to "fortify" the brand. It has divided the new strategy into four pillars: product, story, service and team. Sitting within the 'story' pillar are changes to Under Armour's marketing strategy.

Launchmetrics, which provides 1,700+ brands AI-powered software, data and insights to connect strategy with execution. For years, growth in fashion, lifestyle and beauty was about scale. More channels, more content, more reach. But as algorithms multiply and audiences tune out, ongoing growth requires a different strategy. In 2026, success will come from depth over breadth; from scaling meaning instead of volume.

Smith worked alongside star designer Jonathan Anderson, who left Loewe for LVMH stablemate Dior earlier this year, and chief executive Pascale Lepoivre to steer Loewe's image during a period of rapid growth. The luxury brand steadily transitioned from an arty, niche label to one with mass-media currency and cross-generational awareness, complementing efforts like the Loewe Craft Prize with celebrity tie-ups that included Maggie Smith, Jamie Dornan and more. Smith oversaw collaborations with Studio Ghibli and On Running and developed Loewe's viral TikTok strategy.

GoodRx has built its brand equity by being present where its customers need it-the pharmacy counter. Over the past year, the prescription savings platform introduced a feature that gets users to engage with it even earlier, offering an e-commerce portal for pharmacies that allows patients to validate their prescription and pay the discounted GoodRx price online before picking up their medication IRL.