The real skill in branding isn’t making changes—it’s knowing exactly which ones to make
There was once an industrialist whose production line suddenly broke down, costing him millions of dollars a day.
Desperate, he brought in an engineering expert. The expert arrived, assessed the machinery, took out a screwdriver, and turned one screw. Instantly, the factory roared back to life.
The factory owner, relieved but shocked by the expert’s invoice of $100,000, asked for an itemised breakdown. The engineer happily obliged:
Branding is just like that
Everyone thinks they’re a ‘brand expert’. After all, how hard (and expensive) can it be to tweak a few words in the Vision statement, update the Mission, and refresh the Values.
But branding isn’t quite as simple as that. A great brand is built from a delicate balance of strategy, psychology, design, storytelling, and experience. It’s about knowing exactly which screws to turn, which screws to remove, and which ones to leave alone.
And when there are so many moving parts—internal opinions, market trends, customer research, and company culture—the challenge is reducing it all into a clear, compelling articulation of who you are, what you stand for, and why it matters.
My job is to show you where the heck Wally is!
In branding, just like in engineering, the challenge isn’t making random changes—it’s about pinpointing what truly matters amidst the noise, clutter, chatter, and piles of documents—and then creating a brand with clarity, meaning, and impact at every level.
