Brand Truth - Brand Strategy Consulting, Melbourne | Melbourne-based specialist brand strategy consultancy. We help, challenge and inspire businesses and organisations to get the most from their brands.

Overplaying the short game: The dilemma modern marketing shares with modern soccer

According to the Australian Institute of Company Directors, companies, government and society as a whole are suffering from “excessive short-termism”. One driver of this is visibility. As the AICD notes, “In a world where information is ubiquitous and everyone is digitally connected, the short-term impact of decisions can become widely known within a matter of … Continue reading →

The Four Fundamental Team Principles of Brand Marketing

Consumers may now shape and define brands. But it’s still the marketing team behind a brand that builds it. This post outlines four key team principles for outperformance brand building. The Challenge of Synchronising Mid to Large Brands To direct their team’s brand management efforts, a CMO typically employ a variety of tools and resources, … Continue reading →

Johnny Depp’s Sauvage ad – deeply meaningful or deliberately ridiculous?

Fragrance advertising is one of the last bastions of pure image advertising. Little concerns about brand ‘authenticity’ or ‘truth’ here – just good, old fashioned aspirational sizzle. The latest offering from the category is the campaign for Dior’s new men’s cologne, Sauvage. The commercial is a big budget production with – interestingly – both art … Continue reading →

The Death of Marketing Strategy

Is marketing strategy dying? The default analogy for strategy used to be chess. Now it increasingly seems more like Pick a Box or Join the Dots. Here’s a quick look at this shift and why marketers need to brush up on their chess games. Continue reading →

A story CEOs & CFOs need to know about brand story-telling

The view that a brand should tell a story rather than just have a ‘positioning’ is not new in marketing circles. However, for CEOs who often already see marketing as the ‘soft’ side of their businesses, investment in story-telling may seem too esoteric a notion, and one with questionable commercial benefit. But the outcomes of … Continue reading →

Should brands always confess their imperfections?

Over the past few years it’s been in vogue for brands to do what not long ago would have been unthinkable. To point out their flaws, openly admit their mistakes and offer products that are deliberately less than ‘perfect’. More often than not, proudly so. Imperfections are the latest phase in the brand authenticity movement. … Continue reading →

Three amusing ‘brand’ examples of why nothing should be a commodity

Let’s face it, despite all the efforts of the marketing community to champion brand building, there are many businesses that don’t get – or simply pay lip service to – ‘brand’. Typically they see ‘branding’ as a name, logo, slogan or a few graphics that they slap onto what they sell. And typically these businesses … Continue reading →

Brand Truth – Brand Strategy Consulting, Melbourne

Melbourne-based specialist brand strategy consultancy. We help, challenge and inspire businesses and organisations to get the most from their brands.

How to Create Strategy That Works

Will changes to CEO remuneration drive a new era of brand investment?