The best brands aren’t built on what companies want to say. They’re built on what consumers already feel but can’t articulate.
Starting with behaviour
Every project I take on begins the same way: observing what people actually do, not what they say they do. The gap between stated preference and real behaviour is where strategy lives.
When I worked with this+that on their pre-seed pitch, the insight wasn’t about the product’s features. It was about a behavioural pattern their target audience exhibited daily but had never been asked about. That insight helped secure $2.1m in angel funding from Local Globe.
Framework, not decoration
Brand identity should be a framework for decision-making, not a layer of visual polish applied at the end. When I develop brand strategy, I’m building a system that answers questions the team hasn’t thought to ask yet.
This means the strategy has to be robust enough to survive contact with reality. It has to work when the founder isn’t in the room explaining it.
The role of constraints
Constraints make brands stronger. A limited budget forces clarity. A tight timeline forces prioritisation. The brands that struggle most are the ones with unlimited resources and no framework for choosing.
I’ve seen this across every sector I work in - from SaaS to fashion to arts and culture. The constraint is different, but the principle is the same: limitation breeds distinction.