Positioning

A record executive shortens a kid's name to dodge a bias. The kid cuts a folk song as rock and roll and aims at the same crowd. Two routes to one audience, the mechanism your buyers run on you weekly, and a four-step map to run before you commit.

The logo was sized for the company that ordered it, and the company kept growing. Four operational tells that the file has fallen behind, each checkable in five minutes, and the case they build when leadership asks why now.

Everyone says the words brand and branding. A logo is a mark. A brand is the feeling your customers carry, built by design or by accident. What each term covers, where marketing fits, and the books that laid the foundation.

Genericide kills brands that get too famous. The ugly twin kills the rest: brands so careful to fit their category that customers can't tell them apart. A four-question self-test for whether your brand blends in, and what ownable looks like.