10 Signs that You Don’t Know How to Talk about Your Brand
(Or that you might not really have one!)
- You’re frequently at a loss when trying to think up brand-related social media, newsletter, blog, or website content.
- If you asked ten different employees to describe what you do or who you are as a company, everyone would say something different.
- You cringe at networking or social events when people ask about your work; you ramble and mumble.
- The marketing material your company produces seems to speak in clichés, is monotonous, or sounds i
Brand Archetypes: How to Tap into Universal Story and Emotion

One of the biggest things most everyday companies are struggling with, in terms of branding, is how to “tell their story.” If you’re there, you’re not alone. Most everyone struggles with articulating their brand and its narrative. Archetypes can help. Here’s how.
Your Website Showcasing Your Supercool Office Space is a Cliché.

This is a plea for an end to hip websites featuring photo shoots of cool “creative spaces” and not much else.
You know what I’m talking about: Parallax websites papered with empty reception desks with brand signage; macro shots of artisanal light fixtures; den-like flex spaces with artfully cast-off iPads and headphones; and perspective shots of touchdown workstations with knife-edge aligned Apple displays and funky task chairs.
Your homepage is now a cliché.
A Believable Brand is in the Eye of the Beholder
A couple weeks back I was commuting to a client meeting and was backed up at a four-way stop across from a familiar forest-green Waste Management garbage truck. For the first time I was able to read and fully comprehend a marketing decal that’s flashed by me countless times:
“Our landfills provide 17,000 acres of wildlife habitat.”
I actually laughed out loud.