Mike Renaud

Even back in the command-and-control days of the production line, Henry Ford’s decision to manufacture automobiles was driven by intuition rather than market research. “If we had asked the public what they wanted,” he explained, “they would have said ‘faster horses.

A brand is a person’s gut feeling about a product, service, or organization. It exists in the hearts and minds of individuals.

DISTINCTIVENESS is the quality that causes a brand expression to stand out from competing messages. If it doesn’t stand out, the game is over. Distinctiveness often requires boldness, innovation, surprise, and clarity, not to mention courage on the part of the company.

In the race to the top of responsive innovation and experience-building, a few recent trends are resurfacing as powerful approaches to the intersection of brand, behavior and psychology. The concept of “tribal branding,” of understanding and activating our collective behaviors and unmet evolutionary needs, cuts through the clutter of motivations,... See more