Unseen Unknown

Times of uncertainty have a way of revealing the mindset of a society, and today’s imminent threats - from COVID-19 to political instability and global warming - are revealing a mental shift that emotion-led brands are responding to. A new league of brands has created businesses around beautifully designed, high style, premium disaster kits and products that are suddenly relevant in a space that’s gotten very little attention in the past. Meanwhile, the world’s elite have invested in luxury bunkers, exotic real estate and indulgent doomsday plans. When did disaster preparedness become so fashionable? What can these companies teach us about branding in a time of crisis?We speak with BBC and Vox journalist Colleen Hagerty, eschatologist and end-of-world expert Phil Torres, and founders Ryan Kuhlman and Lauren Tafuri of the popular disaster kit brand Preppi to explore the different narratives and deep rooted human beliefs that make sense of this trend. Don’t be misled by beautiful design and luxury veneers. There’s something going on in the subtext here that can explain a meaningful shift in our cultural values.  Links to interesting things mentioned in this episode:Exploring Our Endless Obsession With the End (Psychology Today) Psychology Reveals the Comforts of the Apocalypse (Scientific American) Most Americans are not prepared for a disaster. Now survival kits are all over Instagram. (Vox) The US Town Prepping for ‘Devastating’ Disaster (BBC) Doomsday Prep for the Super Rich (The New Yorker) How To Think Like A Brand Strategist (including a study on Costco) (Medium)Check out our website for more brand strategy thinking, and come connect with us on Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.

Brands like Ring and Billie leverage the uncertainty of our changing value systems to create new interest in old paradigms. In other words, they play with cultural constructs: arbitrary systems determined by our culture or our community, rather than a truth that stems from an immovable aspect of human nature. They prove that when constructs start to change, real brand opportunities start to emerge. In this house episode, Jasmine and Jean-Louis talk about some of the biggest constructs defining our lives right now, from the nuclear family and privacy to gender and personal hygiene. These are constructs in limbo, creating a new brand whitespace for smart companies to play in.They are also constructs that affect our everyday decisions. Some may seem inconsequential, others may seem like they are fading, but don't be fooled. Many of our archaic constructs are alive and well, dictating how we move within our lives. Links to interesting things mentioned in this episode:The Nuclear Family Was A Mistake (The Atlantic) How Ring Transmits Fear To American Suburbs (Vice/ Motherboard) Resonate (Nancy Duarte)Metaphors We Live By (George Lakoff and Mark Johnson)Check out our website for more brand strategy thinking, and come connect with us on Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.

The undercurrent of burnout in American society and has opened the doors to a whole new breed of D2C branding that promises to heal us from the ills of the modern world. From analyses to antidotes, our obsession with burnout is changing the way we consider products and consider ourselves.In this episode, we speak with Emmett Shine, cofounder of Pattern Brands, and previous cofounder of the lauded branding agency Gin Lane. Emmett and his team have created some of the most powerful D2C brands of the past decade including Harry’s, Hims, Recess, Everlane and Warby Parker, and now his own sub-brands Equal Parts and Open Spaces… all, in some way or another, speaking to the larger burnout narrative.We also speak with psychotherapist Abby Krom who has researched an emerging form of burnout among millennials called The Burden of Potential. She sees an even deeper shift in millennials and Gen Z who are negotiating the tension between wanting to achieve, and not wanting to be vulnerable. Her work explores how these conflicting needs are exhausting us emotionally and physically.Links to interesting things mentioned in this episode:How Millennials Became The Burnout Generation (Buzzfeed) Releasing Yourself From the Burden of Potential (Medium) The Company That Branded Your Millennial Life Is Pivoting To Burnout (Buzzfeed) What Having A "Growth Mindset" Actually Means (HBR) Work as identity, burnout as lifestyle (Ezra Klein Show) What is burnout? (vlogbrothers) Check out our website for more brand strategy thinking, and come connect with us on Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.

We’re leaving the current age of social media and entering a new one where our symbols and our languages are changing. Any time a new age is born, the rules get harder, the audience becomes more discerning, and all of us - people, brands, identities - are separated into those that move ahead and those that are left behind.The question now is, what is this new age that we’re walking into?In this episode we speak with two experts on opposite sides of the spectrum in order to answer this question. Erin Weinger is the Vice President, Social Editorial, at Sony Pictures Television who has also worked with some of the biggest influencers and publishers in the game. Her vision of the new age of social media is a stark departure from where we are now.We also speak with Dr. Therese Mascardo, a licensed clinical psychologist and founder of the wellness community Exploring Therapy. Dr. Mascardo is in a unique position to talk about the cultural shifts happening in social because she’s both in the practice of mental health, where much of social media can be more clearly understood, and in the practice of building a social media brand… as an influencer herself.Links to interesting things mentioned in this episode:The Changing Language of Luxury: Experience, Education, and Poetry (Luxury Society)Is social media influencing book cover design? (The Guardian)Americans are reading poetry again because of Instagram (Quartz)Instagram appeal: How social media is changing product development in beauty (Glossy)How To Optimize Your Apology (Freakonomics)Yelp Reviewers’ Authenticity Fetish Is White Supremacy in Action (Eater) Dr. Gabor Mate on Attachment and Conscious Parenting (YouTube)Learn more about Dr. Therese Mascardo and Exploring Therapy here.  Check out our website for more brand strategy thinking, and come connect with us on Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.

We’re used to looking at history in order to understand the present, but what happens when we look to the future? In this house episode we conduct ‘100 Year Thought Experiments’ - a simple mental device for brand strategists - to better understand the current cultural mechanics of health, careers, environmentalism and food.“When the definition of something changes, the stigma around it changes, too.“In all of these areas, definitions are starting to change. Our words and language, our perceptions and beliefs are shifting in exciting new ways that are more readily revealed when we look to the future first.Links to interesting things mentioned in this episode:Playing With FIRE DocumentaryWhy “natural” food has become a secular stand-in for goodness and purity (Vox)How American Masculinity Creates Lonely Men (NPR/ Hidden Brain) The History and Nature of Man Friendships (The Art of Manliness)Check out our website for more brand strategy thinking, and come connect with us on Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.

Influencer-led beauty veteran Ria Muljadi gets deep with us about the current role of a women’s brand, what it means to have a realization about yourself through a brand experience, the personal impact of reconsidering your national identity, and how burnout is the new cause.“When this conversation started, it was almost like a floodgate. People felt it but never knew what it was until somebody said it.“Ria is the CFO of Em Cosmetics, and formerly Head of Finance for Ipsy. She has the unique perspective of being someone who literally helped build the modern influencer-first beauty industry, but also seeing it more objectively from a non-branding role.Check out our website for more brand strategy thinking, and come connect with us on Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.

We speak with luxury branding expert Ana Andjelic about the imagined communities that form around identity brands, the importance of hacking subculture over hacking growth, and the gendered stories that tap into our collective psyche.“Brands now create a sense of belonging to a specific community which is imagined, because we don’t know those people, we just know we like similar things and we share the same values.”Ana is the former Chief Brand Officer for Rebecca Minkoff, former SVP and Global Strategy Director for Havas’ LuxHub, and currently serves as an Executive Brand Consultant for companies like David Yurman and Mansur Gavriel.She’s also a Doctor of Sociology, prolific writer on all things retail, consumer behavior, branding and strategy.Read all of Ana’s writing: http://www.andjelicaaa.com/Read the article we discussed where Ana describes the value of hacking culture: https://medium.com/@andjelicaaa/hacking-culture-hacking-growth-a0cbf22917cfCheck out our website for more brand strategy thinking, and come connect with us on Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.

The podcast discusses the future of brand strategy and the impact of new consumerism. It explores complexities in CPG, politics, and education, emphasizing the importance of creating adaptable frameworks. Topics include social media influence, upskilling in the modern workplace, grassroots brands for causes, and innovative political branding strategies.