I think our simple, performance-marketer brains completely crumble when we try to think about building a "brand."

It's abstract, it sounds antithetical to performance & growth, and it leads marketers into a lot of bad behavior

Instead, you should be trying to build PERSONALITY into your company.

A personality that is capable of showing up in the right context, to each persona you're trying to sell to.

Think about your own personality. You show up differently to saturday night dinner with friends than you to do sunday afternoon lunch with your in laws. You might dress different, you might drink differently, and you definitely talk different.

You dress differently to a concert friday night than you do to work on monday morning.

You're not being fake, you're being authentically you in every one of those situations, but you're showing up in the right context for different people, places, and times.

That's what our "brands" need to be able to do in 2026 and beyond.

Can we show up with the proper context, to specific personas in our target audience, at the right times, on the right channels, with the right influencers & partners?

That's how the next great brands are going to be built.