Joining us in this episode is James Brown, founding director of Mobiloo, the world's first mobile accessible toilet and changing place designed to cater to disabled people requiring extra equipment and space. Mobiloo has created a huge range of opportunities for tens of thousands of disabled people around the UK. James shares his journey, highlighting his motivation to improve accessibility and inclusivity for disabled people, stemming from his own experiences as a visually impaired...

In this episode of the Brand Tuned podcast, we welcome Paul Fernandez, CEO of The Growth Guys, to discuss the journey of starting and branding his growth marketing company during the pandemic. Paul shares insights from his past experiences, the challenges of defining and living up to a brand promise, and the importance of adapting branding strategies as a business evolves. This episode shares an interesting point of view of branding through experiences including: An Agency That Delivers...

In this episode, Emmanuel Probst, a Global Lead, Brand Thought-Leadership at Ipsos and an adjunct professor teaching consumer market research at UCLA, shares with us how to create a transformative brand. Emmanuel has 17 years of background in marketing and market research experience, such as at IP source. He is also the author of Brand Hacks, and Assemblage - The Art and Science of Brand Transformation, which releases this coming January 2023. Among other things, we discuss: that brands can...

Having recently asked people what their top questions are about branding and IP (Intellectual Property), I decided to record my answers in this episode. The questions answered in this episode include: What are the different ways I can protect my brand?Do I need international protection or is UK protection enough?How do I explain to graphic designers I work with the importance of checking they are not infringing on anyone's IP?How can you be sure that graphic designers you work with hand...

In this episode I discuss some thoughts  following the recent podcast with Sean Adams,  an internationally recognized graphic designer, and the chair of undergraduate and graduate graphic design at Art Center College of Design in California.  I found Sean's approach refreshingly client focused and empathetic.  For example, Sean takes clients on the design journey and explains what he is doing and why.  This collaborative approach, and avoiding a big reveal at the end of the process, is more...

In this episode, Sean Adams, an internationally recognized graphic designer, and the chair of undergraduate and graduate graphic design at Art Center College of Design in California  tells  us to succeed with identities without really trying. Sean Adams is the author of multiple best selling books, including  The Designer’s Dictionary of Color. Brand Identity is not a one-size-fits-all solution. It's a toolkit, an approach to solving problems, an equation. It's not a thing that you can just...

Is being unique your ultimate goal in your business? How, exactly, do you stand out from your competitors and make sure that you remain a purple cow?    A crucial part of a business’ success is being distinctive and visibly different from its competitors. This is the main objective in creating business brand. Having a recognizable and distinctive name helps ensure you will be able to stand out from the crowd.     Distinctiveness is about the identifiers we use. These identifiers are how...

In this episode Robin Landa explains strategic creativity.  Robin Landa is a Distinguished Professor in the Michael Graves College at Kean University. She specializes in advertising ideas and art direction, creative thinking, graphic design and branding and has written bestselling books including Graphic Design Solutions, 6th ed., Build Your Own Brand, and Nimble: Thinking Creatively in the Digital Age. What's the first thing you think of when you hear the phrase "brand identity"? A logo,...

There are many misconceptions when in comes to IP ownership. In this podcast I outline why it's important to ensure you own what you create for your business. Owning what we do is about retaining control rather than giving away the value of our knowledge and skills. Among other things, that involves understanding the role of names in business, and what is involved to legally own a name.  Failing to focus on ownership shows a fundamental lack of understanding of the interplay between branding...

In this episode, we discuss having one brand voice with Chris West, the founder of Verbal Identity. Chris is a specialist in helping brand leaders align their teams in one voice. He is also the author of Strong Language, the #1 best-selling book on Amazon in Language Communication.   We tackle the importance of having a great language and how this could create differentiation for brands. As we go through the podcast, we explore: The power of languageThree levels of languageHaving one brand...

In this episode, I talk about brand strategy for start-ups.  Brand strategy is an overused term in the branding industry. I discuss what makes for a good brand strategist and how they can best support businesses.  Sometimes, design is what's needed. Other times it's support to understand which segment to target and how to discover buyers' wants and needs.  When working on brand strategy it is essential to be aware that there is a world of difference between the actions you need to take for...

Austin Franke is the founder of Woo Punch, a brand design consultancy rooted in the science of how brands grow. Austin is also the man behind brandingbullshit.com, a newsletter that exposes common branding, marketing, and advertising myths, and co-hosts The BS Show with Stef Hamerlinck on YouTube. In this episode of the podcast, Austin shares why the old notions of brand love are outdated. In keeping with the new format of the podcast, he delivers a 10-minute masterclass before being...

In this episode, Sean D'Souza of Psychotactics discusses how small businesses should approach differentiation when selling their products and services.  Sean is the author of The Brain Audit, and is a copywriter, cartoonist, and speaker. He is also the host of the three month vacation podcast.  We discuss common challenges people have around differentiation, and how the biggest mistake people make is that they promote their company instead of talking about their products. We cover: How to...

In this episode I explore positioning with Ulli Applebaum. Ulli is an experienced award-winning brand strategist and founder of First The Trousers Then The Shoes and the author of the brand positioning workbook.  There are different philosophies about positioning and it depends on what category you are working in as to the research that's appropriate to do.   We might have one central brand position, and separate positions and messaging for  products we supply.  We touched on: Brand...

In this episode, we discuss positioning and differentiation with Johnny Molson a marketing consultant and strategist with Wizard of Ads who helps small businesses to build custom marketing strategies.  We consider the difference between niching, positioning, differentiation and distinctiveness, including the challenge of becoming known.  Trying to become known for one thing rather than three things makes it more possible to be remembered in the marketplace.   The episode touches on: The...

Lee Salz is the Founder and CEO of Sales Architects where he helps clients develop processes to hire the right salespeople, effectively onboard them and align their sales activities with business objectives. In this episode,  we talk about differentiation, Lee shares his insights on two types of differentiation which are marketing differentiation and sales differentiation. He also shares why the word "unique" is one of the biggest causes of frustration in sales. This episode covers: Why is...

Daniel Priestley runs business accelerators for entrepreneurs. In this episode, he discusses the Dent rebrand, Lifestyle v. Performance boutique, and the new edition of his book Oversubscribed How the entrepreneurial revolution shifts people to earn money through entrepreneurship and starting and growing their own businesses as the Industrial Revolution changed the way we live and work.Why visual identity has to work harmoniously with the rest of the brand identity and has to be simple and...

David Aaker hailed the “Father of Modern Branding,” and Vice-Chair at Prophet is a recognized authority on branding, He has developed several concepts including the Aaker brand vision model. In this episode, we discuss all things brand related, in particular names. We covered: Why intellectual property is not included in the training of brand managersThe importance of being clear on the definition of IPThe different perspective that IP brings to namingNaming and whether descriptive names are...

Rory Sutherland,  Vice Chair at Ogilvy UK and author of the book Alchemy, the Surprising power of ideas that don’t make sense discusses brand, advertising, decision science and more. In this episode, Rory points out why ambiguity in terms like brand and IP are problematic. The word brand is used to mean anything people want. It's even been used to defend advertising, that doesn't work, the episodes touched on many interesting points including: The misunderstanding of the value of brandsThe...

In this episode of the BrandTuned Podcast Shireen interviews Susan Payton who helps business owners tell three stories - their personal story, their business story and their customer story.  How a career writing and researching in TV and radio led to Susan's business which revolves around how businesses should use storiesSusan has trained in Nashville with Donald Miller - the author of Story Brand and is a certified story brand guideWhy your customer’s story is the most important story of...

John Pryor is a management consultant and founder of Exalt IP and intellectual property firm.  In this episode, John shares his insights on trade secrets, including why it is so important to distinguish trade secrets from general know how in an organisation. Classifying an important recipe as a trade secrets gives you more powerful rights in the event of any breach of them.  He walks us through trade secrets policies and the importance of educating employees about intellectual property and...

Christine Mackay is the founder of  Salamandra.uk an animation agency,  she helps her clients to communicate complex messages using animation.   In this episode, Christine shares that even if you just have a word mark, you could animate your logo, and make it come to life. And in that coming to life, you could actually convey some of what it is that you do.  Animation is very malleable, and there are many ways to make use of it in branding or to explain aspects of the business. Movement...

Lawyers and many other professionals are increasingly challenged to identify their distinctive skills and talents, and the capabilities they possess that cannot be readily replaced by technology or alternative ways of working and access to cheaper options. Richard and Daniel Susskind predict that professionals will be increasingly displaced in an internet society by AI and other technologies.  In an earlier book, The End of Lawyers, Richard Susskind had predicted that a new breed of hybrid...