An Intentional Oversimplification of UiNIFICATION Most businesses have a website. A logo. Some advertising. Maybe a reasonably active social presence. But ask whether those things work together to help a customer understand, choose and buy the brand, and the answer gets a little less clear. This is what I do, in it's simplest form, and that's why I created UiNIFICATION. The idea is straightforward: people interact with your brand everywhere, online and off. Every interaction

Sameness Is Suicide. Provocative statement? Sure. I put it on my website for a reason. When your brand looks, sounds and behaves like every other option, you make yourself interchangeable. You leave the customer to figure out why you matter. And if they can’t find a meaningful difference, price becomes a pretty convenient way to choose. That’s a difficult place to build a business. It’s also a difficult place to build a career when the brand is you. Years ago, I read Marty Ne

Frictionless Markets? Nah! I recently heard Ezra Klein describe markets as wanting to be frictionless. I understand the theory. Make things easier to find, compare, trade and buy. As a consumer, I appreciate that. Nobody needs another checkout password or a customer service obstacle course. But as a brand strategist, the idea gives me pause. Because the things that make a business worth choosing often interrupt the easy comparison. A distinctive product. An unexpected idea. A