This is where we share honest takes on branding, backed by years of experience. If you’re after real-world thinking that cuts through the noise, you’re in the right place.
Article | 14th Apr 2026
Marketers have been told to become publishers for the best part of a decade. Most of them did it: editorial calendars, content strategies, dedicated teams. The brief was always the same: more content, more often, on more channels. Then AI arrived and removed the last excuse not to produce. We now have more content than ever, and most of it sounds like it was written by nobody in particular.
Article | 18th Mar 2026
If your B2B brand isn't generating leads, the problem is almost certainly not your sales process, your pricing, or your product. It's your brand. Specifically, the way your company is understood, remembered, and chosen by prospects before they ever speak to your sales team. The five most common reasons are: unclear positioning, inward-facing messaging, visual and verbal sameness, inconsistency across touchpoints, and simple invisibility. Fix those, and the pipeline moves.
Article | 4th Feb 2026
The word 'rebrand' gets thrown around a lot. A new logo here, a colour refresh there, and suddenly it's a rebrand. But for B2B companies, a true rebrand is a significant strategic decision. And getting the timing wrong can be costly.
Article | 30th Jan 2026
Businesses often judge brand health through short-term performance. That’s a mistake, and it leads to the wrong decisions at the wrong time.
Podcast | 15th Jan 2026
In this episode, Stewart, Julie, and Chris dive into the pervasive problem of "AI-powered" marketing in 2026. Sparked by observations from the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the team discusses how lazy product marketing has reduced AI to a meaningless badge, plastered on everything from battery chargers to computers without explaining actual customer value.
Article | 13th Jan 2026
What a soap opera. For years, I've been enjoying William Cohan's coverage of the industry over at Puck News. All the struggles, the intrigue, the… well, nonsense. And now, these giants have given us exactly what we want: A crossover event. To. The. DEATH.
Article | 9th Jan 2026
Most brand values work perfectly, right up until the moment they’re tested. And when that moment comes, the gap between what organisations say and what they do becomes very hard to ignore.
Article | 27th Nov 2025
We received a brief recently from a great client. It was full of gnarly problems and interesting challenges. The kind of brief you want because the client is genuinely looking for growth. Then I looked at the KPIs.
Podcast | 25th Nov 2025
Lululemon built an empire by obsessing over community, culture, and the women they served. Then something changed. The stores lost their personality. The customer workshops disappeared. The soul got diluted.
Article | 24th Nov 2025
Two emails from two banks show how simple, clear communication can turn a moment of change into a trust-building advantage. B2B brands rarely treat change this way, even though they should.
Article | 11th Nov 2025
On a grey Thursday afternoon, a CMO and a CFO sit in a glass meeting room, looking at the same chart and seeing two very different stories.
Article | 7th Nov 2025
Branding projects rarely fail because of bad ideas – they fail because no one makes a decision. Indecision creeps in quietly, draining momentum, confidence and belief.
Podcast | 3rd Nov 2025
Most brand projects fail not because of bad creative work, but because of poor internal groundwork. In this episode, we sit down with Robert McKechnie, MD of Starrett Europe and a veteran of successful brand transformations at organisations including Core (Scottish Power) and Norbord.
Article | 21st Oct 2025
Most businesses focus on how their brand shows up in the market. But the real test is how well it’s understood inside the organisation. If your people don’t understand, believe in, and know how to use the brand, nothing else will stick – not campaigns, not culture, not consistency.
Podcast | 1st Oct 2025
Something's coming over the hill! In this episode of The Good Brand Podcast, Stewart sits down with Chris and Julie to tackle a thorny question: what happens when “cheap imports” aren’t cheap or inferior anymore, just good enough, well-priced, and increasingly well-branded?
Article | 29th Sep 2025
Measuring brand should be simple in theory, but in reality, it’s often messy, political, and difficult to pin down. Here’s why it’s so hard – and why doing something, however imperfect, is always better than nothing.
Podcast | 17th Sep 2025
In this episode of The Good Brand Podcast, we sit down with Catherine Connolly, Executive Chair of Prime Light Group, to explore how brand shapes boardroom decisions and business strategy.
Article | 11th Sep 2025
Refreshing a brand doesn’t always mean starting over. Done well, it’s about subtle evolution – strengthening what already works while removing the clutter that’s built up over time. In this piece, we look at why boards fear brand change, why that perception is wrong, and how we approach brand refreshes, so they build confidence rather than cause chaos.
Podcast | 27th Aug 2025
In this episode of the Good Brand Podcast, we sit down with Caroline Jones (CJ), co-director of Anatomical Concepts, a Glasgow-based company providing rehabilitation technology and personalised services for people following life-changing illness or injury.
Article | 26th Aug 2025
You measure brand value in B2B by tracking two things: leading indicators that show early momentum (like share of search, sales confidence, and customer sentiment) and lagging indicators that prove commercial impact over time (like margin uplift, win rate, and customer acquisition cost). The mistake most companies make is waiting for the lagging indicators and measuring nothing in the meantime, then concluding that the brand can't be measured.
Podcast | 14th Aug 2025
In this episode of the Good Brand Podcast, we unpack the findings from our latest B2B brand survey — and they’re telling.
Article | 11th Aug 2025
Clients used to talk about “cheap asian imports” as a distraction. They were, as the name implies, cheap. Cheap in cost but also in quality.
Article | 5th Aug 2025
We asked senior B2B brand leaders where brand breaks down. The issue isn’t strategy – it’s belief. Most have clear brand foundations, but they’re not being used. This piece explores why brand gets sidelined and what it takes to build belief where it matters most.
Podcast | 30th Jul 2025
Why do so many professional services firms, full of smart, capable people, sound like they’re trying to confuse you? In this episode, the Good team dives into the five hard truths that explain why professional services branding so often misses the mark.
Article | 16th Jul 2025
When sales flatten, most CFOs reach for the obvious fix: pour money into sales enablement. More decks, more training, bigger incentives. But here's another point of view.
Podcast | 9th Jul 2025
A trillion-dollar value gap. A C-suite that doesn’t get it. And why “brand” still feels like a dirty word in B2B. Stewart, Chris, and guest Teri Nicklin get real about why brand is misunderstood, underfunded, and harder than ever to prove. Expect honest takes, stupid questions worth asking, and a push for braver brand thinking.
Article | 30th Jun 2025
Too many professional services firms confuse complexity with credibility. They sell expertise, but their brands don’t show it. In this piece, we share five hard truths firms need to hear – from fixing muddled messaging to breaking free from bland, lookalike branding. If your firm is serious about standing out, start here.
Article | 25th Jun 2025
Agencies say strategy. What they really mean is synthesis: the skill of turning noise into something clear, useful and true. Let’s call it what it is.
Podcast | 23rd Jun 2025
In this episode of the Good Brand Podcast, Stewart, Julie and Chris get stuck into the real reason your best work isn’t cutting through. It’s not a branding problem, it’s a business problem. From product-led blind spots to muddled messaging, they unpack the "recognition gap" between what companies think they’re selling and what customers actually value. Expect plain talk on why brand is often misunderstood, why internal bias wrecks clarity, and how to close the gap with positioning that drives real, measurable value. If you’re still leading with technical specs and calling it strategy, this one’s for you.
Article | 19th Jun 2025
Something feels off. The brand doesn’t quite fit anymore. You’re not sure what’s wrong, but you’ve started wondering, do we need to rebrand?
Article | 21st May 2025
Let’s get one thing straight. Sales performance isn’t just a pipeline problem. Or a training problem. Or even a strategy problem. These things matter, yes, but if your sales team keeps coming up short, chances are the real problem lies elsewhere.
Article | 15th May 2025
You know how it goes. When sales slow down, the default diagnosis is always external.
Article | 9th May 2025
We’ve worked with businesses through some of their most demanding product launches. It’s an intense process. Every detail gets scrutinised, from the design studio to the factory floor to the first customer experience. Everyone’s all in.
Article | 6th May 2025
I was listening to The Rest Is Politics: US the other day, and they were discussing the latest round of government cuts in America. One point jumped out – federal funding for R&D is being slashed, despite the fact that for every $1 invested, the return is estimated at $5 or more.
Article | 2nd Apr 2025
In B2B tech, complexity is often treated as inevitable—even desirable. The more advanced the product, the more convoluted the brand becomes. But that thinking is flawed. Complexity might be part of what you build, but it shouldn’t be part of how you explain it.
Podcast | 31st Mar 2025
B2B tech is booming. But most of the branding? Dull, confused, and disconnected from what actually drives growth. In this episode, Stewart, Chris, and Julie dig into Brand Dynamics in B2B Tech: The Current Landscape - our new report that finally puts it all in one place.
Article | 24th Mar 2025
Stop waiting for perfect conditions to fix your brand. Most branding projects don’t start from scratch. They start in the middle of the mess - while a website is already being built, a marketing campaign is in progress, or a leadership team is debating next steps.
Article | 14th Feb 2025
Brand positioning is the process of defining the distinct space your company occupies in customers' minds. What you stand for, how you're perceived, and why buyers should choose you over alternatives. It's not a tagline or a messaging exercise. It's a strategic commitment to owning a specific, defensible position in your market that shapes every decision the business makes.
Article | 10th Feb 2025
You’re pouring money into your marketing, ticking all the right boxes, but the leads just aren’t coming. The campaigns aren’t landing, and the ROI isn’t there. Why do marketing campaigns fail?
Article | 7th Feb 2025
Most businesses don't realise they need brand consultants until facing a brick wall. Maybe growth has flatlined. Perhaps the leadership team is pulling in different directions. Maybe the market has shifted, leaving your brand feeling like yesterday's news.
Article | 31st Jan 2025
In the competitive world of B2B tech, branding is often an afterthought. Companies tend to focus on technical features, leaving their brand foundations weak and messaging fragmented. But without a strong foundation in B2B Tech Branding, even the most innovative technologies struggle to resonate with customers and drive growth.
Article | 21st Jan 2025
In our 20 years of working with B2B brands, we’ve learned a simple truth: branding’s impact is rarely immediate, linear, or easily captured in a spreadsheet.
Article | 11th Dec 2024
Emotion is a word that’s thrown around a lot in branding, often associated with happiness, joy, or love. In B2C, it’s easy to see why.
Podcast | 3rd Dec 2024
Join the Good Brand Consultants team as they tackle the challenging intersection of AI and brand positioning.
Article | 26th Nov 2024
Branding often mirrors a curious behavioural quirk in decision-making: Bike Shedding. It's a term coined by British historian and writer Cyril Northcote Parkinson in his 1957 essay on organisational inefficiency.
Article | 19th Nov 2024
AI is everywhere. From marketing to product design, brands are rushing to slap “AI-powered” on their offerings, hoping to ride the wave of technological intrigue. But here’s the thing: it’s not enough to say your product uses AI. Customers aren’t dazzled by buzzwords; they’re looking for something far more fundamental—clear, tangible value.
Podcast | 5th Nov 2024
Shifting from feature-focused sales pitches to value-driven conversations through effective positioning helps B2B companies demonstrate real business benefits to prospects.
Article | 1st Oct 2024
A recent study by the B2B Institute in partnership with MediaScience reveals a shocking truth: only 19% of an ad’s audience can attribute it to the correct brand.
Podcast | 30th Sep 2024
Chris, Julie and Stewart dive into one of the most common challenges businesses face: how to communicate their brand consistently across different channels, regions, and markets.
Podcast | 11th Sep 2024
In this episode of The Good Brand Podcast, hosts, Chris Lumsden, and Julie Murdoch and Stewart Steel dive into the challenges of managing complex product portfolios in B2B businesses.
Article | 20th Aug 2024
In the rush to showcase technical prowess, many B2B brands forget the simple yet powerful act of introducing themselves. Without a proper “hello,” even the best products struggle to make an impact.
Podcast | 1st Aug 2024
Going through a brand refresh is fraught with challenges.
Article | 22nd Jul 2024
B2B Tech brand marketers must learn to step away from a technical features approach and embrace a brand-led storytelling to stand out and differentiate their products.
Article | 12th Jul 2024
Trends. You can't escape them, and you are certainly influenced by them. One way we look at trends affecting what we do here at Good is to look at the types of enquiries we're getting in and see how they change over time.
Podcast | 20th May 2024
The theory around brand architecture is well documented.
Article | 7th May 2024
In our experience, B2B portfolios are too complex and create a lot of confusion. Here are 5 tell-tale signs that your portfolio needs to be simplified.
Article | 22nd Apr 2024
A recent uptick of enquires around specialist brand architecture projects has prompted me to reflect on the complexities these businesses face and how theoretical understanding impacts practical application.
Article | 8th Apr 2024
In a recent discussion, Sam Altman suggested a future where AI could automate 95% of tasks traditionally performed by marketers, agencies, and creatives offering instant, nearly perfect outputs at negligible costs.
Article | 12th Mar 2024
Over the years, we’ve been lucky enough to work with brands that are all on board with what brand can add to their business.
Article | 7th Mar 2024
Ever opened a head? Like, a human head. With a bonesaw. Then gone in and fixed that brain inside the head? No? Probably because it sounds hard, like brain surgery. It is hard. It's, you know, brain surgery.
Article | 13th Feb 2024
We’re often brought into branding projects when things have gone wrong, or a previous branding project has run out of steam.
Article | 10th Jan 2024
Like deciphering coffee menus, obscure business branding can lead to confusion, affecting sales.
Podcast | 4th Jan 2024
We chat with Mike Hunter, our associate design director here at Good, about the dos and don'ts when it comes to what many businesses see as the end of the brand process, the brand guidelines.
Article | 4th Dec 2023
This is a recurring issue in the B2B work we do – and our answer to the question ‘should we create a new sub brand?’ is almost always ‘no’.
Article | 1st Nov 2023
When executed well, a brand’s guidelines are an essential tool that facilitates consistent and effective application of its visual identity. The problem is when they’re not done well, they do the exact opposite.
Podcast | 30th Oct 2023
Stewart's in the US! Chris is at home! Julie is at home!
Podcast | 28th Sep 2023
We're not playing around, we're diving deep into the trenches of practical brand strategy.
Article | 29th Aug 2023
We recently had an agency debate about which brands had the best brand character. Over the course of a week, we voted on different options and Captain Birdseye won. (A fine choice, don’t you agree?)
Article | 23rd Aug 2023
The short answer is no.
Podcast | 15th Aug 2023
In this barnstormer, Chris researched the brand values on B2B websites. He was underwhelmed.
Article | 10th Aug 2023
Exploring the why and how of B2B tech's fear of simplicity
Podcast | 13th Jul 2023
In this episode, we tackle the issue of 'brand confusion' and its impact on sales.
Article | 20th Jun 2023
Let's start by setting the scene with a couple of assumptions.
Podcast | 20th Jun 2023
We work with private equity businesses that understand the value of a clearly articulated brand.
Podcast | 22nd Mar 2023
We've been looking into the world of business to business tech firms, and we've noticed some patterns in how they deal with brand that could be losing value in their business.
Article | 21st Mar 2023
This is the question that’s been keeping me up at night. I’m slightly scared to ask it publicly, but I’m genuinely struggling to answer it.
Article | 6th Mar 2023
These mistakes may not be brand killers, but they could cause yours to bleed value and equity and feed the competition's business.
Article | 6th Mar 2023
Agencies aren't partners with their clients unless they share in the commercial risk of the enterprise.
Article | 23rd Feb 2023
I think that outside the realm of B2B marketing, clients generally have a poor understanding of brand and why they should invest in it. I also think that’s because we (agencies) do a bad job of explaining why.
Podcast | 14th Feb 2023
Your competition is another company; it's the status quo.
Article | 7th Feb 2023
We don't claim to be experts in ESG but we do know a thing or two about brand. And as more and more clients come to us with projects that include an aspect of ESG, we’re seeing the two worlds collide.
Article | 25th Jan 2023
It feels like every other B2B tech firm I look at conforms to the same visual and verbal convention.
Podcast | 9th Jan 2023
Too often, we focus on the end result when it comes to brand. Instead, it's helpful to reflect on one of the critical milestones in the journey, the kick-off session, the brand workshop. We dive into what makes a good brand workshop, the reason for doing it and how to improve the session's outputs to ensure great work is built from it.
Article | 23rd Nov 2022
Even if we offer customers something new, better and cheaper it’s not necessarily the case that they’ll jump at it straight off the bat.
Podcast | 21st Nov 2022
Everyone swoons at a vision. Everyone gets into the value. But the mission? It's the middle child that people love but don't understand. We get into what we mean by 'mission', why it's central to a brand and how it should be used within your business.
Article | 9th Nov 2022
One thing we’re always telling clients is that the clarity and coherence of their organisation needs to come through in the first contact with the brand. Often, this first contact comes via a company’s website.
Article | 7th Nov 2022
I had an experience recently that forced me to boil down the essence of a brand workshop to its constituent parts, so that we could be through it in an hour. This wasn’t particularly easy, given that we usually run these sessions over a half day period.
Podcast | 24th Oct 2022
The title says it all. We go into the brand strategy, what it means to be serious about it and why we think there needs to be more critical thinking around it.
Article | 4th Oct 2022
As I sit here in October 2022, it looks like we're heading into a recession.
Article | 29th Sep 2022
We've been going through our brand definition process, going into some detail with vision and values. Now we're getting into the meat of that brand sandwich, your brand's mission.
Podcast | 13th Sep 2022
Defining your brand starts with your vision. We look at the best approaches to creating a meaningful vision that's ownable to your business.
Article | 17th Aug 2022
When businesses decide on a growth strategy, there are several options open to them. Growth through acquisition is a commonly chosen path. Shopping lists are written and deals are done, often in quick succession – a demonstrable commitment to growth.
Podcast | 2nd Aug 2022
We talk about brand purpose. Is it useful? Does it help? What's the point? Where does it work well? Where doesn't it? We talk it out. Let us know what you think.
Article | 1st Aug 2022
ESG is making a bigger impact on brands than ever before. But the challenge is that many of them just can’t leverage their ESG credentials in a credible way. I wanted to take a look at why and what can be done about it.
Article | 20th Jun 2022
Creating a vision for your brand seems straightforward when looking at other companies. They seem so self-evident, so obvious.
Article | 30th May 2022
At some point in a brand project, we’re faced with a persona. These can have many names, marketing/buyer/user persona, but they are usually a one slide archetype that represents an idealised customer.
Article | 27th May 2022
Once upon a time when it came to product marketing, it was about going beyond the features. Features meant nothing. NOTHING! It had to be all about the benefits, I'd yell. Give me the benefits, and let me create magic for you.
Article | 9th May 2022
Discover how to answer the question ‘What is a brand vision?’. A year‑to‑year guide built on your mission and values. Learn how to create an inspiring, ownable vision that stretches your brand toward its future.
Podcast | 20th Apr 2022
If you're looking to put a brand strategy in place it makes sense to know what the return is. The best way to do that is to tie the goals to the overall business strategy. Makes sense. So why is it we don't see this in operation as much as we'd like? Chris dives deep into what it takes to tie brand to the business goals.
Article | 5th Apr 2022
We've done many, many articles in this journal on how we see brand working in your business. From how it manifests itself in content to the need for strong brand architecture, we've covered many bases.
Article | 17th Mar 2022
I’ve recently been doing some B2B research, I looked at 34 large corporate entities. They were all a certain size, with average revenues in the $3bn mark, a global footprint and more than 1,000 employees. So, they’re not mom and pop shops.
Article | 8th Mar 2022
The most alluring aspect of digital marketing is the ability to get the right message to someone when they're looking for something. Intent is powerful. Someone wants something; you present an option to them.
Article | 3rd Mar 2022
Yes, a post from a brand consultancy about how to keep your brand project on track. Now, the easy post would be about hiring us to get it done. Easy but not useful.
Article | 2nd Mar 2022
At Good, we’re of the view that if clients want to spend money on brand, then they should have a right to know what it’s likely to do for them.
Podcast | 10th Jan 2022
We've talked about how sustainability can destroy brands, the trick is then to understand how to make brands work with sustainability. Especially as a number of proposals are on the table about how brands should report on their sustainability efforts. We have a chat about the repercussions of Sustainability Disclosure Requirements and what it means for branding.
Article | 17th Dec 2021
I don’t think that there is a more contentious element in the wonderfully weird world of branding right now than the notion of “Brand Purpose”.
Article | 14th Dec 2021
Every once in a while, I’ll read a brief and stop in my tracks when I get to the target audience section. I can’t help but think, “you think you know… but you have no idea.”
Article | 22nd Nov 2021
The UK government recently announced that there’s legislation pending on the thorny topic of sustainability.
Podcast | 11th Nov 2021
Do you get confused between your mission and your vision? Are you tripping up over the values and a purpose? Can you tell the difference between a brand key and a brand onion? Are you asking why this is so hard? So are we. Here's our approach.
Article | 5th Nov 2021
The last 2 years have been mad. We’re all doing things differently and business has never been as strange. One thing we’ve noticed in our consulting is that some clients reviewing their brand values in house. And I get why.
Article | 5th Nov 2021
What people do, what they say and what they say they do are three very different things. When it comes to understanding people, context is everything. When it comes to effective research, it means using the right tactics and asking the right questions.
Podcast | 14th Oct 2021
Brand's where the fun is, content's where the work is. But what's more important? There's is only one way to find out. FIGHT!
Article | 29th Sep 2021
The purpose of our brand consultancy work is to build the perceived value of a business so that you can increase the margin of a product or increase market share — ideally both. But to start to create that perceived value, you must understand your brand.
Article | 24th Sep 2021
I think that content v branding is like David v Goliath. Branding gets all the headline billing and razzmatazz, but content is ruthlessly efficient in getting the job done.
Podcast | 20th Sep 2021
We're looking at the thorny issue of "Brand Love". Is it something useful? Is it nonsense? Can it be measured? We chat it through. Chris, Julie and Stewart try to get to the bottom of the phrase, "brand love".
Article | 17th Sep 2021
In our time as a brand firm, we’ve done our fair share of work in the whisky sector. And the one thing that has been consistent across it has been that all the brands seem to be saying more or less the same thing.
Article | 24th Aug 2021
So, Aladdin gets into the cave and finds an old lamp. Aladdin rubs the old lamp to give it a wee clean and out pops a genie. A fucking genie. Genie has three wishes that he can bestow on Aladdin...
Article | 12th Aug 2021
Every month we get, on average three new business inquiries through the website. What’s interesting is how these inquiries vary in terms of approach. Some are highly professional, others… well, leave some things to be desired.
Article | 6th Aug 2021
When you take on a brand project with a global business, the thorny issue about how to deal with the various regions and the language translations is always there, sitting just below the surface.
Article | 20th Jul 2021
Since I started at Good, the one thing that has shifted has been the need for brands to move from pretty straightforward advertising around their product or service to becoming content publishers.
Podcast | 15th Jul 2021
Yes, that’s right, you read that right. Sustainability is important, we’re not arguing that, but are brands getting their messaging around it right? We’re seeing some trends and we’re not encouraged. Oh, we also have our longest prepod but trying to edit it was a nightmare so, yes, five minutes of ‘banter’ before we get into the good stuff. Let us know what you think. About the sustainability chat, not our prepodding.
Article | 2nd Jul 2021
Research. It’s a polarising topic. Rarely do we see research apathy: you either love or hate it. If you love it, chances are you’ve seen the value – it’s given your brand clarity or strengthened your marketing strategy. But if you hate it...
Podcast | 21st Jun 2021
Sure, they're the biggest company in the world with budgets that would make your eyes water. But we can still learn so much from Apple, no matter what size the budget or what business you're in. We got talking about it. See what you think.
Article | 11th Jun 2021
Post pandemic, it feels like the sustainability trend is going to dominate. For a tired old brand cynic, it’s the next cab off the rank for brands to fetishise now that AR, QR codes and social media seem to have normalised.
Article | 9th Jun 2021
There’s a formula for brand success and it’s really no different from that tried-and-true recipe you always go back to. When it comes to brand, we know what works – simplicity, quality and consistency – and it’s what’s worked for a very long time.
Article | 18th May 2021
The world of branding is notorious for making changes to brands all the time. It's as if we need to keep changing to attract attention, when in actual fact, it's the opposite that's true. The more brands stay the same, the more recognisable they become.
Podcast | 5th May 2021
If you communicate coherently and consistently with your customers, you'll outperform your competitors. We wanted to prove that this is the case, so we started to get insight from data to prove it. And, lo, Clarity Reports were born. We chat through what they are, why we think they’re useful and how the reports can be used to guide brands.
Article | 4th May 2021
I feel for clients as they go around their agencies—presentations, suggestions, observations and, occasionally, insights. And then, when talking through a particular challenge, they are brought up. The Jesus of Modern Branding: Apple.
Article | 27th Apr 2021
To understand what it takes to create an effective employer brand, it’s essential that we’re on the same page about what exactly an employer brand is, and why it's important.
Article | 22nd Apr 2021
We’re delighted to announce the launch of our first product from Good, the Clarity Report. We’ve been working on creating these reports for about eight months now, so it’s a relief to get it out in the world.
Article | 15th Apr 2021
From a business perspective, the pandemic’s been shit. It’s forced lots of businesses to close, increased layoffs and generated tons of debt. At Good we were not spared. We stared into the abyss along with everyone else and wondered…will we make it out?
Article | 13th Apr 2021
There’s loads written on tone of voice and it’s an important component of a successful brand. I want to go a bit further and say that language is about more than just TOV, it can work harder for brands.
Podcast | 25th Mar 2021
The hippies won!!!! Branding is fully democratised! This is the future, now! Everything is awesome. We think. We'll have a chat about it. We see massive upsides and a few potential banana skins.
Article | 25th Mar 2021
I’ve been thinking a wee bit about what happens to brand in this digital world, and one of my conclusions is that it’s being overpowered, and we’re now “branding by algorithm”.
Article | 23rd Mar 2021
One industry I think is particularly behind the curve in the brand space is recruitment. They misunderstand the value of ‘brand’ and the disproportionately important role it plays in customer interaction which happens primarily in the digital sphere.
Podcast | 17th Feb 2021
Recorded just before Christmas, we were bombarded with the perfume ads which led to a chat about branding and the luxury market.
Article | 11th Feb 2021
Today’s marketing landscape is more complex and crowded than ever. Combined with the fact consumers are busy, distracted, and have enormous demands placed on their time – how do brands achieve that much longed-for ‘cut through’?
Podcast | 12th Jan 2021
We're in another lockdown. We're mad as hell and we're not going to take it anymore. And it starts with those branding theories we just can't stand. We picked three knitting rippers to start with. We could've picked more. A lot more. We're raging. But still staying positive.
Podcast | 9th Dec 2020
Your website is the most apparent, transparent, accessible, immediate and influential asset you have. But sometimes brand isn’t applied to your site as well as it should be. Why is this, what’s the consequence of ignoring brand here and what can you do to make sure you’ve got the best experience going? We go through it all. We also introduce the Salami of Trust, probably the biggest branding buzzword of 2021. No problem.
Article | 25th Nov 2020
There’s been some buzz recently around an interesting new metric that claims to be a quick health check on your brand.
Article | 25th Nov 2020
The world of brand is filled with buzzwords designed to make us sound clever. Both agencies and clients are guilty of using them – seemingly relishing the art of making simple things complicated. We call it Brand Bollocks, and the industry is full of it.
Podcast | 16th Nov 2020
We've implemented a new client policy and we're interested in chatting it through. We're really interested in what you think about this. What have we missed, what are your concerns, what do you like? We're keen to learn. Drop us a line at [email protected] Oh, and a terrible Sean Connery joke told terribly.
Article | 29th Oct 2020
I like the term ‘leaking value’ when it’s attached to brand. For me, it perfectly encapsulates the idea of what happens to organisations when they have a brand problem that’s hidden from view.
Podcast | 12th Oct 2020
Julie's back! Tired sharks! Boris jokes! What is content? How to create a content strategy! Ill-advised Sean Connery impressions! Pointed questions! Shameless/shameful self-promotion! Scream if you want to go faster!
Article | 23rd Sep 2020
For us, I suppose the reality is that it’s somewhere in between.
Podcast | 22nd Sep 2020
Julie's not here. Chris channels a young David Frost. Stewart mentions books he's read. All about how digital doing is easy but doing digital right takes some planning.
Article | 16th Sep 2020
Have you ever been in a reporting meeting, a meeting that is reviewing the digital marketing activity and found yourself wondering how your life turned out so... wrong?
Podcast | 24th Aug 2020
After a very impromptu sweary start that couldn't be edited out for reasons that will become apparent, we board the good ship Orca and set sail to treacherous waters around the Seven Watchouts of Brand Architecture.
Article | 14th Aug 2020
There’s not necessarily a right or wrong answer here. But in my opinion, the fewer, the better
Article | 14th Aug 2020
This is going to sound controversial, but many of the written briefs we receive are crap and aren’t worth it.
Podcast | 28th Jul 2020
Hold on to your hats. It's Chris versus the universe as we get into a heated discussion over brand values and their usefulness within a business.
Article | 20th Jul 2020
Brand Leadership. It’s a term that we use at Good when we start working with a client to understand just how much they “get” brand.
Podcast | 13th Jul 2020
How can you tell if your company is taking the brand seriously? Chris, Stewart and Julie sit down and chat through the top five signs of brand leadership that we think you can gauge if your business is taking brand seriously.
Podcast | 22nd Jun 2020
Social distancing! The future! The basics! The business! The pub openings! One star reviews! Forgetting statistical sources! Meme reading! All this and more on the Internet's favourite three-star branding podcast.
Article | 19th May 2020
Welcome to yet another article about how to prepare for the end of the pandemic. You gotta get ready, you gotta be ready for the new world, and how everything's changing and you gotta get ready.
Podcast | 11th May 2020
In this barnstorming episode from your favourite three-star podcast about branding, we're joined by a very special guest and great friend of Good, Nat Maher. We're chatting about Nat's role as founder of Kerning the Gap, an equality network for the design industry. We cover it all, we discuss the founding of KtG, the launch of the Scottish chapter, confidence in women, how men fit in, world leadership and much more besides. So much in fact that we had to cut Nat's predictions for the pub openings. Her guess: September!!!! Enjoy!
Article | 29th Apr 2020
Brand architecture challenges are the branding equivalent of pulled muscles. They cause pain and frustration, but they don’t create enough of a problem to take you entirely offline to focus on the fix.
Podcast | 29th Apr 2020
Special guest time, we're joined by Chris George, marketing director for UK and Ireland for Electrolux. We talk about Corona (sorry), branding, consumer confidence, yellow and when the pubs will be open again.
Article | 15th Apr 2020
I've got an old school pal who has a cracking family business. It's the oldest craft bakery in Scotland and has been in his family for 190 years. (No pressure there then).
Podcast | 7th Apr 2020
We promise that this is our last Corona focused podcast. But as the bomb is still going off, we chat through what the hell is going. We hope it is useful though, we're all in it together. Take care of yourself. And each other.
Podcast | 27th Mar 2020
All professionalism leaves the building as we do our first podcast from our homes. We talk about how the business is doing in Corona time, what we're not doing and what we think brands should be thinking about doing. Then we chat to some of the team at Good to see how they're feeling. Feel free to leave us a 3-star review. We know. It'll be better next week.
Podcast | 18th Mar 2020
When we decided to start this podcast we wanted it to be about brand, not about an agency. That was two weeks ago. How times have changed. We just wanted to chat through where we are, what we’re feeling and what we’re doing. No great insights here, just thought it would be good to share. Stay safe.
Article | 18th Mar 2020
One of our worst habits as a business is trying to make things brilliant, when they only need to be good.
Article | 16th Mar 2020
A few weeks ago, I was sat in a local pub enjoying a jam-packed afternoon of sport. A pretty good day, you might say.
Podcast | 13th Mar 2020
We're going for an easy one. What is brand? Chris, Julie and Stewart thrash it out. Hopefully. Let us know what you think, we're up for a chat.
Article | 9th Mar 2020
Let’s talk about paranoia in branding. It’s something I’ve noticed a lot over the years - mostly with clients overestimating how much equity there is in their brand.
Podcast | 7th Mar 2020
Here it is, the first episode of Good's podcast, the Good Round Up. Chris and Stewart chat through some posts that have gone up on the Good site. We're covering reporting, some insights into brand architecture and how you can get the best from your agency.
Article | 25th Feb 2020
Getting your reporting structure right is key to the continual improvement of your marketing efforts. Here's some tips.
Article | 25th Feb 2020
Help us to help you.
Article | 3rd Feb 2020
When businesses merge or acquire other businesses, they don’t spend enough time thinking about what to do with the brands, products and portfolios. This is our experience anyway.
Article | 28th Jan 2020
Brand collaborations, how they work and why it has something to do with peaches and steak.
Article | 9th Jan 2020
Is it ridiculous for us to consider ourselves a management consultancy?
Article | 26th Nov 2019
This is a bit of an unusual post as it talks more about us and our approach to digital.
Article | 26th Nov 2019
Strap in. We're going to talk about the latest, most fabulous digital marketing experience. Creating content that people want to look at, read and engage with.
Article | 25th Nov 2019
We recently completed a Management Buyout at Good. Keith, my co-founder and partner of 15 years, left the business and I now have four new partners from the management team.
Article | 29th Oct 2019
By the time this hits our blog I’ll have left the design company I helped start. And that’s a good thing.
Article | 29th Oct 2019
Measuring the value of your brand is one of the hardest judgements in marketing. And one of the most dangerous.
Article | 29th Oct 2019
So many digital strategy documents, created with the very, very best of intentions, end up lonely, forlorn and forgotten. I hate that.
Article | 23rd Sep 2019
Relax. This isn't an in-depth look at how to create a digital strategy for your business. Great Guns, no. We both don't have the time.
Article | 17th Sep 2019
When we started, our first ambition was to open an office in London. It’s an inconvenient truth that we needed to have an office there in order to be taken seriously by clients. (Thankfully, I think it’s beginning to change now).
Article | 11th Sep 2019
My recent ramblings on good branding, featuring our client Interface, got me thinking about a topic there's no escaping. The environment. How, as businesses, can we do our bit? How can we embed sustainable practices and behaviours in our organisations?
Article | 27th Aug 2019
The challenge when looking at digital is that it is seductive to fall for the lure of the big numbers. There is comfort in big numbers, especially if it comes at a low price.
Article | 14th Aug 2019
I’ve been asked to prepare a presentation on how Good has come to appreciate and sell the value of design. When I sat down to think about this journey, it was hard to plot how we got to where we are.
Article | 25th Jul 2019
Digital Maturity is a term to describe how developed a brand or business is within the digital environment. It’s important because the most digitally mature brands communicate best with today’s digital-first customers.
Article | 11th Jul 2019
So far in this series on what we feel constitutes Good branding, I’ve talked about Filson and its reach with the far-flung members of its family. And, I’ve waxed lyrical about Nike’s discipline in using brand to drive decisions where others wouldn’t.
Article | 24th Jun 2019
From time to time we face an interesting moment during that first client presentation when we’re introducing a new brand. We’ll take them through values and positioning matrices. Through the insight we’ve gleaned to give the brand the best possible start.
Article | 3rd May 2019
Gated content is one of those terms used by marketers rather than real people. Marketers see it as a lead generator, a transaction of information for your details by filling out a form and only then can you download that sweet, sweet PDF.
Article | 10th Jan 2019
I recently wrote a post on the definition of good branding, where I used a young Filson store assistant in Portland as a great example of how good branding can positively influence behaviour in both staff and customers.
Article | 7th Jan 2019
So the call comes in from on high. We need a blog post on our definition of branding.
Article | 18th Dec 2018
This might sound overly simplistic, but one of the questions we keep asking ourselves (and our clients) is ‘how does this contribute to the plan?’
Article | 27th Nov 2018
TalkTalk have launched FibreNation – a company to help build a new broadband network for Britain. And we worked with them to name and brand the new organisation.
Article | 26th Jul 2018
Let's be honest. There’s no straightforward methodology to measuring design effectiveness.
Article | 26th Jul 2018
We seem to be in an interesting time for digital marketing.
Article | 19th Jun 2018
Whisky brands and digital have never felt like comfortable bedfellows. In fact, digital highlights the challenges in whisky branding.
Article | 31st May 2018
When you have a look at our branding work, the first thing that hits you is the diversity. From sausage skins to car dealerships to carpet tiles to whisky. We cover a lot of ground.
Article | 19th May 2018
If there is any certainty in my job, it's the moment that you chat with the marketing department about how they work with their IT team.
Article | 19th May 2018
If there’s any certainty in my job, it's that moment when you chat with an IT department about how they work with their marketing team.
Article | 15th May 2018
Looking to get the most from your internal comms? You have to start with your brand.
Article | 12th Mar 2018
Be aware of the impact internal politics can have on your marketing budgets.
Article | 22nd Feb 2018
The DEA's are the closest thing we have to a respected benchmark for design services that business can believe in.
Article | 29th Jan 2018
How Good is preparing to comply with the General Data Protection Regulations.
Article | 22nd Jan 2018
Our top 5 tips for creating effective internal comms.
Article | 18th Jan 2018
Most brands fail to get their core values right. But then some don’t, and those brands all have something in common.
Article | 16th Jan 2018
An agency can achieve global reach by being an expert in their field with a proven track record of success.
Article | 11th Jan 2018
The best way to improve the customer experience of a website is to make the design process a partnership.
Article | 18th Dec 2017
We need to share our expertise in order to build a better understanding of difference between the two.
Article | 19th Sep 2017
One of the biggest challenges facing clients and agencies is how to keep a brand’s tone of voice alive on day 1000, not just day 01.
Article | 29th Aug 2017
A strong well positioned brand acts like a marketing rudder. It creates coherence and simplicity, effortlessly sorting tactics from strategic activity.
Article | 27th Apr 2017
Anyone else sick of hearing the word ‘Branding’? It seems to be everywhere and most of the noise is out of context and utter waffle.
Article | 30th Mar 2017
I don’t know about you, but I’ve always had a problem with the brand onion, aka brand wheel, brand key, brand house.
Article | 16th Mar 2017
Our take on three of the most common abbreviations you may have seen populating digital articles and conversations.
Article | 20th Feb 2017
After thirty years of delivering all manner of design services, I know my primary role in any engagement, large or small, is that of an educator.
Article | 16th Jan 2017
Now, before I start, I want to make it clear. This isn’t a rant. I’m not using this piece to have a go at clients, the system, or any third party who has ever sought to influence how and where work is placed.
Article | 30th Nov 2016
Six months into being the team’s youngest designer, here's some ‘wisdom’ for all the students out there keeping me on my toes.
Article | 11th Nov 2016
We all love a good pun don’t we. Well one would think so, living in the UK where puns can be seen and heard every day. But are they falling on increasingly deaf ears?
Article | 22nd Sep 2016
Our Head of Backend Development comments on the argument that's been dividing the internet since the first webpage was created.
Article | 20th Sep 2016
What does solid mean in the virtual world of digital design?
Article | 7th Sep 2016
What’s your favourite emoji? Cheeky monkey? Glass of wine?
Article | 7th Sep 2016
What do you think when you hear the word ‘craft’?
Article | 16th Aug 2016
Good, timeless brands, like great architecture, are built on solid foundations.
Article | 28th Jul 2016
How would you like your company to outperform the FTSE by 200 percent over the next decade?
Article | 16th Jun 2016
Brand architecture is the system that defines how a company's master brand, sub-brands, products, and services relate to one another. It determines whether customers understand what belongs to you, what each offer does, and how your portfolio fits together. For most B2B companies, the right brand architecture is simpler than they think, and the answer is almost always to consolidate around the parent brand rather than create more sub-brands.
Article | 3rd Feb 2016
The Tokyo Olympics identity system has re-raised the age old question. What is a logo and what is a brand?
Article | 1st Apr 2015
It’s funny the way certain themes and strands emerge in the marketing world.
Article | 23rd Feb 2015
'Yes, you're no doubt effective, but are you delivering real creativity?'
Article | 5th Dec 2014
Since the big reveal of the Apple Watch, there has been some speculation on why the long-anticipated product ditched Apple famous ‘i’ prefix.
Article | 25th Sep 2014
I’m amazed at how we can complicate this industry so much that we actually forget what’s right in front of us.
Article | 31st Jul 2014
In our 10 years we’ve done quite a few of these jobs and we’ve learned a fair bit about what happens and what matters when you're doing them.
Article | 11th Mar 2014
We recently won another couple of Design Effectiveness Awards, which takes our tally of DEAs to ten since 2009. Six golds, three silvers and one bronze.