Lab Notes
What we are finding out
Essays from live work. Brand strategy, positioning, and the distance between what a founder means and what the market actually hears.
- Field Notes
- Gap Map
- Learning Log
Learning Log
Abandoned cart emails: what to say before you offer a discount
An abandoned cart is usually someone still deciding, not someone who said no. The flow's job is to show up at the right moment with the right answer, and the answer isn't always a discount.
Field Notes
Brand identity vs brand perception: the three layers of a brand
Brand identity and brand perception are usually drawn as two ends of one line. There is a third layer between them, and it is where nearly every brand problem is actually caused.
Field Notes
The three brand gaps: positioning, audience and language
"Brand confusion" is not a diagnosis. There are three specific ways a brand drifts from what its founder means, each leaves a different signal, and each is fixed somewhere different.
Field Notes
Strategy isn't declared. It's discovered.
A strategy deck is a set of bets that nobody has placed. Here is why a presented strategy almost never survives contact with the market, and what we do instead.
Field Notes
Selling on Amazon vs your own store: what each one is for
Most brands end up on both and treat them as two shopfronts for the same thing. They are not. One gives you a single screen and the most honest demand data in commerce. The other is the only place anyone can step inside your brand.
Learning Log
What a welcome flow should actually say
A log, not a template. We inherited a welcome flow that opened with money off and a timer, rebuilt it to open with the brand, and moved the reward to the end. The first email is not the one people think it is.
Field Notes
How often should you send promotional emails?
Everyone wants a number. Two a week, three, daily in November. The number is not the variable that matters, and chasing it is how brands end up sending more and earning less.
Gap Map
Brand love vs brand loyalty: what's the difference?
Marketers use "brand love" to mean whatever they need it to mean that week. It has a sharper definition than that, and the sharp version is the one you can actually measure.
Gap Map
How to discount without damaging your brand position
I am not against promotions. Promotions close the decision cycle. But a percentage is no longer a reason to buy, and a brand that only ever speaks in percentages teaches customers exactly what it is worth.
Learning Log
Discount fatigue: why sale emails stop getting opened
A log, not a case study. We had a client whose every email opened with the offer, and whose open rates fell for months. Here is what we thought was wrong, what we changed, what moved, and what we still cannot explain.
Field Notes
What AI can and can't do in brand strategy
AI belongs in the expression layer, not the vision layer. Here is where I draw the line, why I draw it there, and two brands that show what happens on each side of it.
Learning Log
How often should you refresh your brand strategy?
The question has a wrong assumption inside it. Brand strategy is not one thing on one clock, and treating it as one is how brands end up rebranding instead of fixing anything.
Field Notes
Why AI copy sounds the same across every brand
Your AI copy is not bad. It is average with excellent grammar, which in a crowded category is worse. Here is the mechanism, and the one thing that fixes it.