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By Magda Adamska / 26 September 2024

Brand Architecture Part 2: The difference between sub-brands and endorsed brands

The relationship between a corporate brand, consumer brands, sub-brands, products and services, product variants, and acquired businesses within a company’s portfolio is defined by […]

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By Magda Adamska / 24 August 2024

Brand Architecture Part 1: The difference between a Branded House and a House of Brands

Brand architecture describes the role of the corporate brand in marketing products and services, as well as the relationships between all the brands, sub-brands, […]

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By Magda Adamska / 29 July 2024

The positioning of the four most valuable payment brands

We have previously written about the positioning of the most valuable brands in categories such as automotive, B2B, beer, luxury fashion, and media as well as the most […]

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By Magda Adamska / 28 May 2024

So you think you know brand strategy? Take our brand quiz! Part 7

True to our annual tradition, we’re back with another brand quiz. Our six previous quizzes can be found here, here, here, here, here and here. If […]

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By Magda Adamska / 8 March 2024

How Procter & Gamble has repositioned three brands to make them more purpose-driven

Some brand experts wholeheartedly believe in it, while others view it as just another marketing fad. Yet, one thing is certain: purpose-driven branding is […]

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By Magda Adamska / 20 February 2024

The positioning of the three most valuable B2B brands in the world

We have previously written about the positioning of the most valuable brands in categories such as automotive, beer, media, payment solutions and luxury fashion as well […]

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By Magda Adamska / 22 January 2024

Decoding brand management mastery – why can’t brands learn from Apple?

Although the factors behind Apple’s commercial success have been widely analysed, the topic of the company’s brand management practices – pivotal in driving the […]

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By Magda Adamska / 14 October 2023

What does “brand” really mean and what is the difference between brand strategy, marketing strategy and comms strategy

Even the most seasoned marketers sometimes get brand terminology wrong. On the one hand, some terms are incorrectly used interchangeably (e.g., brand strategy and […]

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By Magda Adamska / 20 September 2023

The five biggest changes in brand strategy and brand architecture

Seven years ago we wrote two articles about the latest trends in brand strategy (you can read them here and here). Back then, we […]

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By Magda Adamska / 11 July 2023

How not to sabotage your business by avoiding these brand management mistakes


Unless you work for a brand-centric organization, you may still not appreciate the impact certain brand-related decisions might have on your company’s commercial performance. […]

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By Magda Adamska / 21 May 2023

So you think you know brand strategy? Take our brand quiz! Part 6

In line with our annual tradition, we’ve prepared another brand quiz for you. Our five previous quizzes can be found here, here, here, here and […]

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By Magda Adamska / 24 April 2023

Three brands that have recently changed their positioning – Part 6

This is our sixth article focusing on global brands that have changed their brand strategy in recent years. Changes might include a refreshed positioning […]

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By Magda Adamska / 6 January 2023

The most instructive rebranding case studies of all time – Part 4

Our three previous articles in this series covered the following rebranding case studies: – Bell Atlantic and GTE becoming Verizon, and Lucky GoldStar becoming LG (part […]

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By Magda Adamska / 24 October 2022

Five characteristics of a winning brand strategy

In one of our previous posts, we wrote about the four things that are generally believed to help build a strong brand but which rarely […]

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By Magda Adamska / 25 July 2022

The positioning of the four most valuable brands in the world

In January 2018, we wrote the first version of this post, analysing the positioning of the most valuable brands in the world. The estimates of […]

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By Magda Adamska / 14 May 2022

So you think you know brand strategy? Take our brand quiz! Part 5

In line with our annual tradition, we have prepared another brand quiz for you. Our four previous quizzes can be found here, here, here […]

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By Magda Adamska / 6 April 2022

The most effective brand research studies

In one of our previous posts, we wrote about the most important KPIs measuring brand health. Today we’ll take a look at four types of […]

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By Magda Adamska / 13 March 2022

The positioning of the three most valuable automotive brands in the world

We have previously written about the positioning of the most valuable brands in categories such as beer, media, B2B, payment solutions and luxury fashion, […]

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By Magda Adamska / 14 February 2022

The ultimate fate of rebel brands – how these three challenger brands have repositioned themselves to build a wider market appeal

“Differentiate or die”, the term coined by Jack Trout, has for years been the mantra of marketing experts, who believe that a brand has […]

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By Magda Adamska / 10 January 2022

The three most effective brand positioning models

If you have something interesting to say about your brand, it does not really matter what brand strategy template you use to say it. […]

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By Magda Adamska / 29 November 2021

The most common brand research mistakes

In one of our previous posts we analysed four types of brand research study which have proved to be most effective in solving business problems […]

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By Magda Adamska / 26 October 2021

The positioning of the four most valuable media brands

It is becoming more complicated to define what constitutes a media brand. Most companies have become content publishers and to some degree act like […]

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By Magda Adamska / 25 September 2021

The strategy behind the most successful brand launches – Part 2

This is our second post in a series discussing the most remarkable brand launches of the last three decades and the reasons why the […]

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By Magda Adamska / 30 August 2021

The most instructive repositioning case studies of all time – Part 1

In the last few years, we have written a series of articles analysing the most instructive rebranding case studies, including stories such as: – […]

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By Magda Adamska / 22 June 2021

The differentiation strategy of mainstream brands – how to stand for something without alienating anyone

In one of our previous articles, we explained how challenger brands, by being daring, cheeky and rebellious, attempt to stand out from the crowd […]

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By Magda Adamska / 25 May 2021

So you think you know brand strategy? Take our brand quiz! Part 4

It has become our annual tradition that in May we post a new brand quiz. Our three previous quizzes can be found here, here and […]

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By Magda Adamska / 29 March 2021

How these four brands use tone of voice to differentiate themselves

In one of our previous posts, we analysed several examples of well-known brands arranged into three groups, based on where they belong on a […]

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By Magda Adamska / 22 February 2021

The positioning of the world’s most iconic brands – Part 3

In our previous posts from this series, we analysed the positioning of Nike, Lego, Jack Daniel’s (part 1), Guinness, Red Bull and Ferrari (part 2). […]

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By Magda Adamska / 14 December 2020

BrandStruck’s top insights 2020: what we have learnt and what has surprised us the most?

It has become our tradition to publish a summary of the past year in December, focusing on the aspects that people liked most on […]

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By Magda Adamska / 16 November 2020

What is meaningful differentiation and how it can help drive commercial results?

Last year we wrote our most shared article so far, “Brand differentiation vs. brand distinctiveness – what matters more?”, in which we: – explained […]

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By Magda Adamska / 14 September 2020

The positioning of the three most valuable beer brands

No other category has mastered the art and science of brand strategy like alcohol brands. Their understanding of consumers’ needs and their finesse in […]

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By Magda Adamska / 10 August 2020

How these three brands have survived a reputation crisis – Part 2

In this series of articles, we analyse how some big brands have dealt with serious crisis situations. By serious crisis situations, we don’t mean […]

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By Magda Adamska / 13 July 2020

The strategy behind the most successful brand launches

This post is the first in a series, in which we are going to analyse the most remarkable brand launches of the last three […]

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By Magda Adamska / 7 June 2020

The positioning of the world’s most iconic brands – Part 2

In our previous post from this series, we analysed the positioning of Nike, Lego and Jack Daniel’s. Today, we are taking a look at […]

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By Magda Adamska / 11 May 2020

So you think you know brand strategy? Take our brand quiz! Part 3

It has become our annual tradition that in May we post a new brand quiz. Our two previous quizzes can be found here and […]

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By Magda Adamska / 14 April 2020

The most important metrics and KPIs measuring brand performance

We first published this post in January 2018 and since then it has become one of the most popular articles on BrandStruck. This version […]

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By Magda Adamska / 9 March 2020

Targeting women in communications – how these three mainstream brands approach the topic of femininity 

Last year we wrote a post that analysed how Gillette, Axe / Lynx and Old Spice approach the topic of masculinity. Today’s article focuses […]

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By Magda Adamska / 9 December 2019

BrandStruck’s top insights 2019: what we have learnt and what has surprised us the most?

Once again, it’s the time of the year when we publish our annual summary, covering what people enjoyed reading on BrandStruck, which of our […]

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By Magda Adamska / 11 November 2019

Brand differentiation vs. brand distinctiveness – what matters more?

If it were not for the academics representing The Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science, (mainly Byron Sharp, Jenni Romaniuk and the late Andrew Ehrenberg), […]

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By Magda Adamska / 14 October 2019

The positioning of the world’s most iconic brands

If you ask two or more brand experts what, according to them, constitutes an iconic brand and how various products and companies in fact […]

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By Magda Adamska / 7 September 2019

Effective sub-branding – examples of sub-brands that have become stronger than their masterbrands

We have recently read an interesting Retail Dive piece on labels introduced by well-known retailers that have become more commercially successful than their parent […]

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By Magda Adamska / 9 August 2019

Three brands that have recently changed their positioning – Part 5

This is our fifth piece in a series of posts focusing on global brands which have changed their brand strategy in recent years. Changes […]

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By Magda Adamska / 4 May 2019

So you think you know brand strategy? Take our brand quiz! Part 2

Last year we published our first brand strategy quiz. Encouraged by its popularity, we are posting a new one this year as well. If […]

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By Magda Adamska / 5 April 2019

Targeting men in communications – how these three mainstream brands approach the topic of masculinity

Gender fluidity is slowly but surely becoming part of the mainstream media agenda and as a result, brands are increasingly expected to be much […]

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By Magda Adamska / 18 March 2019

Brand naming strategy – how to choose the right name for your product or business and not regret it later

Anyone who has ever had to come up with a name for a new product or a new company, knows how draining the process […]

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By Magda Adamska / 1 February 2019

How these advertising mistakes can kill your brand

Our blog is almost solely about brand strategy. Even when we write about execution, we always attempt to understand the strategy behind it. This […]

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By Magda Adamska / 14 January 2019

The positioning of the four most valuable luxury fashion brands

In March 2017, we wrote the original post about the three most valuable luxury fashion brands. At that time, the 2016 Interbrand Best Global […]

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By Magda Adamska / 18 December 2018

BrandStruck’s top insights 2018: what we have learnt and what has surprised us the most?

December is the time of the year when most blogs and magazines publish their annual summaries, top 10s and various lists of all things […]

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By Magda Adamska / 24 November 2018

Three examples of distinctive CEO brands

People form opinions about consumer brands based on their interactions with its products, on communication, the brand’s visual identity and standards of customer service […]

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By Magda Adamska / 8 October 2018

Why these three famous global brands have rebranded recently

We have already covered a good deal on the topic of rebranding – from the main points to consider when rebranding to the most instructive […]

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By Magda Adamska / 25 August 2018

Why building the intended price perception should be part of every brand’s strategy

There are a number of research studies that prove that in many categories, price perception plays an equally significant role to the actual price […]

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By Magda Adamska / 1 August 2018

How digital businesses can measure their brand performance

A few months ago, we wrote a post about the most important metrics and KPIs measuring brand performance, which was later followed by a […]

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By Magda Adamska / 11 July 2018

The most instructive rebranding case studies of all time – Part 3

In our two previous posts about the most instructive rebrandings of all time, we wrote about how Norwich Union and CGU created Aviva, how […]

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By Magda Adamska / 20 June 2018

Three brands that have recently changed their positioning – Part 4

This is our fourth piece in a series of posts focusing on global brands which have changed their brand strategy in recent years. Changes […]

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By Magda Adamska / 8 May 2018

So you think you know brand strategy? Take our brand quiz!

Today, instead of a regular blog post we are launching our first brand quiz. If you’ve been reading our articles and brand strategy case […]

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By Magda Adamska / 15 April 2018

How to choose the right branding strategy post-M&A

When two companies are going through a merger or an acquisition (M&A), the branding strategy is often the last thing that senior managements think […]

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By Magda Adamska / 7 December 2017

Three brands that have recently changed their positioning – Part 3

In the previous posts from this series, we wrote about how and why such brands as Johnnie Walker, Coca-Cola, Reebok (Part 1), Dr Pepper, […]

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By Magda Adamska / 25 October 2017

How these three brands have survived a reputation crisis

It’s hard to find a big, global brand which hasn’t been through a reputation crisis. Having analysed more than 200 of the world’s biggest […]

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By Magda Adamska / 20 September 2017

10 rules for brands collaborating with YouTube influencers

For decades, brands, in their pursuit to increase awareness, have sought to enrich their image with new associations or simply reach a specific niche […]

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By Magda Adamska / 1 August 2017

How to build a more premium brand?

Let’s assume that you are in charge of a mainstream brand and that, according to research, respondents think it is as good as white […]

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By Magda Adamska / 16 July 2017

How not to make a fool of yourself as a strategist

Nobody wants to be perceived as a lousy strategist. Even if someone’s job has both strategic and operational elements, for some reason, people are […]

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By Magda Adamska / 27 June 2017

The difference between the three most popular rankings of the world’s most valuable brands

There are several companies producing annual rankings of the world’s most valuable brands. However, only three currently matter: “Best Global Brands” by Interbrand (a […]

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By Magda Adamska / 26 May 2017

BrandStruck’s top insights – Part 2

Both in this and the previous post, we have summed up our key lessons and insights related to how people use BrandStruck, as well […]

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By Magda Adamska / 15 May 2017

BrandStruck’s top insights – Part 1

It’s been almost five months since we launched a full version of BrandStruck, and more than a year since we started testing the first […]

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By Magda Adamska / 20 April 2017

Three global brands that have moved from product- to image-led communication

In the previous post, we discussed why Apple, Coca-Cola and Heineken have changed their marketing strategies and moved from brand-driven campaigns to campaigns with […]

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By Magda Adamska / 5 April 2017

Three global brands that have moved from image- to product-led communication

A topic of frequent debate among marketers is whether a company’s communications should focus on their brand or their product. “Brand enthusiasts” argue that […]

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By Magda Adamska / 21 March 2017

Three brands that have recently changed their positioning – Part 2

In the previous post from this series, we wrote about recent changes in the brand strategy of three global brands. We explained how Johnnie […]

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By Magda Adamska / 22 February 2017

The most instructive rebranding case studies of all time – Part 2

In the previous post we wrote about two famous rebrandings: how Abbey National, Bradford & Bingley and Alliance & Leicester became Santander and how […]

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By Magda Adamska / 7 February 2017

The most instructive rebranding case studies of all time – Part 1

Rebranding should never be a decision taken lightly. It costs money, is time-consuming, requires years before any benefits can be seen and often ends […]

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By Magda Adamska / 25 January 2017

Three examples of truly unique brand strategies

Over the years, having worked with hundreds of brands representing various categories, we have come to the conclusion that the number of potential brand […]

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By Magda Adamska / 10 January 2017

Three soon-to-be-gone trends in brand strategy

In our last post we wrote about the three biggest trends in brand strategy. Today we want to take a look at the three […]

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By Magda Adamska / 15 December 2016

The three biggest trends in brand strategy

At BrandStruck, we’ve analysed over 100 brand strategies, to find out how brand essence, values and character are built up and communicated. Having conducted […]

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By Magda Adamska / 8 December 2016

What are the three most popular brand archetypes?

At BrandStruck, we have a database of more than 100 brand strategy analyses (and growing every week). For each of the brands we’ve looked […]

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By Magda Adamska / 30 November 2016

The most unique global employer brands

A few weeks ago, we wrote a post about the differences in how companies want to be perceived as consumer brands, corporate brands and […]

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By Magda Adamska / 23 November 2016

When tech-based brand strategy makes sense

As innovation continues to drive business growth, it has become more and more common for brands to include technology as part of their brand […]

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By Magda Adamska / 16 November 2016

Our favourite rebrandings from recent years – Part 1

When a famous company rebrands, almost everyone has an opinion on whether it was a good or bad idea and whether the new identity […]

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By Magda Adamska / 10 November 2016

Consumer brands, corporate brands and employer brands – what’s the difference?

We previously wrote about brand architecture, talking about the differences between branded house and house of brands, and sub-brands and endorsed brands. These four […]

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By Magda Adamska / 24 October 2016

The most fascinating brand wars – Part 2

Last week, we started a new series of BrandStruck blog posts, taking a look at some of the most fascinating brand wars. In business, […]

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By Magda Adamska / 19 October 2016

The most fascinating brand wars – Part 1

Most big names in the business world have direct rivals, who offer similar products in entirely different ways. They usually appeal to separate segments […]

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By Magda Adamska / 13 October 2016

How three global tech brands have recently changed their branding strategies

Over time, every company will change its branding strategy with the aim of keeping communication fresh, enticing new markets and continuing to excite the […]

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By Magda Adamska / 5 October 2016

The most practical brand resource you probably haven’t heard about yet

Can you tell what brands such as Apple, Coca-Cola, Samsung or McDonald’s stand for today as opposed to what they were 5 years ago? […]

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By Magda Adamska / 26 September 2016

Why these 4 famous digital brands rebranded recently

Rebranding is always a hot topic for marketing journalists and bloggers and a hot potato for communications teams. It rarely goes without controversy as […]

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By Magda Adamska / 31 August 2016

Purpose-driven branding – who does it right?

Mark Ritson, in his brilliant video, called brand purpose “a trendy distraction” and spectacularly sent it to the marketing hell. Ritson claims that companies, […]

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By Magda Adamska / 22 August 2016

The 3 biggest “watch-outs” when considering a rebrand

There comes a time in every company’s life – big or small, when it will consider a rebrand. The rebrand might consist of a […]

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By Magda Adamska / 15 August 2016

What are brand archetypes? Part 4 – The Explorer, the Magician and the Lover

We’ve now analysed nine out of the twelve brand archetypes, explaining what they are, how they are applied by famous brands, what connects them, […]

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By Magda Adamska / 9 August 2016

What are brand archetypes? Part 3 – The Sage, the Creator and the Jester

Brand archetypes’ typology is one of the most common brand classifications. It divides brands into 12 understandable and relatable categories, which determine how a […]

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By Magda Adamska / 1 August 2016

What are brand archetypes? Part 2 – The Caregiver, the Innocent and the Regular Guy

Almost every consistent brand can be linked to one or two archetypes –  a brand typology rooted in the psychological framework created by Carl […]

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By Magda Adamska / 25 July 2016

What are brand archetypes? Part 1 – The Ruler, the Hero and the Outlaw

For a brand to be successful, a strong identity is key. In order to build it effectively, it needs to be based on an […]

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By Magda Adamska / 18 July 2016

The 4 things believed to help build a strong brand, which actually don’t matter

It’s not easy to come up with the perfect strategy to build the perfect brand and all too often, people responsible for brand management […]

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By Magda Adamska / 11 July 2016

The three most common brand values and famous brands which apply them

Distinctiveness of brand strategy is thought to be a key success factor of any brand, as it is believed to accelerate the growth of […]

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By Magda Adamska / 4 July 2016

Three brands that have recently changed their positioning – Part 1

Every company has to change its brand strategy from time to time. It’s the key to keeping communication fresh, while ensuring it continues to […]

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By Magda Adamska / 27 June 2016

An express guide on how to choose the right branding agency

There comes a time, when the brand you are responsible for, needs some kind of a revamp – repositioning, refresh of design or a […]

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By Magda Adamska / 17 June 2016

Microsoft buys LinkedIn: What does this mean for the two brands?

Earlier this week, one of the biggest online acquisitions of the decade was announced. In a surprise move, Microsoft confirmed it would invest a […]

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