Michael Brenner is a globally-recognized keynote speaker, author of The Content Formula and the CEO of Marketing Insider Group. He has worked in leadership positions in sales and marketing for global brands like SAP and Nielsen, as well as for thriving startups. Today, Michael shares his passion on leadership and marketing strategies that deliver customer value and business impact. He is recognized by the Huffington Post as a Top Business Keynote Speaker and a top CMO influencer by Forbes.

We talk about:

• What is marketing? 
• Michael's latest book: Mean people suck
• Michaels company: https://marketinginsidergroup.com/
• A tool for content research: BuzzSumo
• A tool for content research: Answer the public
• How today's content is all about enabling users the generate content (e.g TikTok)
• Consistency in content 

Thank you so much for listening. If you liked this episode, I would really apreciate a rating on Itunes. Make sure to subscribe to the podcast to get the weekly episodes at your doorstep. If you want the deeper, juicier insights you can also subscribe to the newsletter here. This episode is sponsored by Holabrief, The go-to platform 
for creative briefs.

Topics discussed: 

• Competitor analysis
• Three main things to look at when listing competitors: Business, Positioning and Distinctiveness. 
• Mapping your competitors: article on Holabrief
• Interbrand Best Global brand report
• Byron Sharp's how brands grow
• Building distinctive assets

Thank you so much for listening. If you liked this episode, I would really apreciate a rating on Itunes. Make sure to subscribe to the podcast to get the weekly episodes at your doorstep. If you want the deeper, juicier insights you can also subscribe to the newsletter here. This episode is sponsored by Holabrief, The go-to platform 
for creative briefs.

We talk about:

• The shift from Gin Lane to Pattern Brands
• How Hims, a great identity project by Gin Lane, created a certain 'style'
• Purposeful brands and some of the nonsense around 'why'. 
• A funny comic showing the problem with going to high up the brand ladder
• The four pillars for building your own company: Process, business, consumer, brand.

Thank you so much for listening. If you liked this episode, I would really apreciate a rating on Itunes. Make sure to subscribe to the podcast to get the weekly episodes at your doorstep. If you want the deeper, juicier insights you can also subscribe to the newsletter here. This episode is sponsored by Holabrief, The go-to platform 
for creative briefs.

Here's what we talked about:

• The concept bureau
• How writing about brand strategy can help you attract the right clients
• Jasmine talks about 'Hims'
• Four Sigmatic, another brand we discussed
• It's not about being better, it's about being different (read the article)
• The emergent story arc framework
• Looking at history to decide on the future of a brand
• A brand is an opinion

Thank you so much for listening. If you liked this episode, I would really apreciate a rating on Itunes. Make sure to subscribe to the podcast to get the weekly episodes at your doorstep. If you want the deeper, juicier insights you can also subscribe to the newsletter below. This episode is sponsored by Holabrief, The go-to platform 
for creative briefs.

In this solo episode, I talk about brand performance. Why is it important to measure the brand performance, what do we need to measure and how? I talk about some specific tools and techniques we can use. We also look at the key performance indicators for a brand (KPI's). It's a fun ride so I hope you enjoy! 

Here are some important conversation points:

• Measuring the impact you have on an organisation is  important
• Measuring brand awareness before and after the project to benchmark
• It's our job to asses the current brand equity when doing a rebrand
• Measuring the effectiveness of distinctive assets (read the book pls)
• An example of distinctive assets (Johny Walker) 
• A great tool to track your brand performance: Latana
• Use typeform to create your own surveys
• How brand performance relates to sales

Thank you so much for listening. If you liked this episode, I would really apreciate a rating on Itunes. Make sure to subscribe to the podcast to get the weekly episodes at your doorstep. If you want the deeper, juicier insights you can also subscribe to the newsletter on letstalkbranding.be. This episode is sponsored by Holabrief, The go-to platform 
for creative briefs and Latana, the first brand tracking tool to use advanced data science to ensure reliable and accurate brand insights.

In this episode, I talk with Grant Owens, Chief Strategy Officer at Critical Mass, a digital experience design agency. We talk about the future of branding, beyond brand purpose, beyond labels, even beyond brands themselves.

We talk about:

• Brand purpose


• Customer insights


• Digital experiences


• Brand strategy


• The future of branding


• How marketeers think to much in labels

I would really apreciate a rating or review on Itunes. If you wish to get more insights on brand strategy, feel free to subscribe to my weekly newsletter on letstalkbranding.be

In this episode, I talk with a former client and entrepreneur Peter Van Praet. Peter founded 'Bavet', a successful fast-casual chain in Belgium (10 restaurants and counting). We talk about the importance of branding, how to build a brand and how creative agencies could win more clients.

• The importance of people: how to attract employer and keep them excited


• Inhouse VS outhouse creative


• How agencies can become better at serving their clients


• The importance of branding and marketing


• How to keep branding fresh


• How a brand evolves

As always, I would really apreciate a rating on Itunes.

We talk about:

• Doing the same thing as other designers, but from very different perspectives.


• Being a bridge between what the company is and something like a creative team.


• Balance the creative and the business sides.


• What is branding for Koen, and what is marketing?


• How can you work better with marketing departments?


• What are good options from a client’s perspective?


• Important changes in the industry.


• How can you measure brands in a good way?


• Is your brand identity usable?


• Who are you, what can you do, and what do you want to do?


• What is going to change in the future?


• The value of a good idea: does it build a relationship with the right people?


• Data never tells something. You ask data, and it gives you responses.

Important Quotes:

• “Marketing is about compromises.”


• “It’s not about technology or production values, it’s about relationships.”


• “Understanding your team is very important.”


• “The value is in the brief.”


• “Do we attract the right people easier?”


• “You can’t know it all.”


• “We’re not building the most beautiful brand, we’re building the brand that fits what we can do.”


• “Does it serve the purpose?


• “Sometimes we are misguided because of what we learned.”

We talk about:

• Loyalty: how important is it as a brand strategist?


• The true way to build loyalty and, more importantly, your income.


• If you want to re-brand, you need to do it for the right reasons.


• Distinctiveness versus uniqueness.


• What is more important than adding meaning to a brand?


• What is your brand’s purpose?


• Is being small okay?

Important Quotes:

• “Loyalty is not the holy grail of branding.”


• “The bigger you are, the more loyal customers you’ll have.”


• “Just adding meaning won’t help.”


• “Branding is really about repetition.”


• “Just having a purpose won’t get you extra sales.”

We talk about:

• Byron’s book: How Brands Grow


• If it’s not about positioning, then what should you be doing as a strategist?


• How can you build a loyal customer base?


• Small brands VS. big brands.


• How do you push through and become a brand people recognize?


• How do you become distinctive?


• What are the reasons for a re-brand?


• How do you know what distinctive assets you have?

Important Quotes:

• “The real world is a weird place.”


• “Some things are much more important than we thought.”


• “All brands are smaller than they want to be.”


• “If you’re only on one channel, you are going to be smaller.”


• “You know what you can touch and what you can’t.”