Great brand strategy work often lives in notebook scribbles, messy Miro boards, and a hundred half-formed Post-its. Turning that into a clean, compelling case study is an art! The goal is to make the value obvious and to give the client you're presenting to confidence that you can run a brand strategy process for them. After selling brand strategy projects for over 20 years, here are my tips.

How to share brand strategy case studies: a complete guide

1. Understand what you have permission to share

You want to promote your work, but you must protect your reputation too. Don't share anything without client approval. Read your NDA and always reach out to clients before you publish something about them on your website or in any marketing materials. Mask sensitive data, get approvals, and avoid proprietary numbers when unnecessary. Anonymized categories still sell your capability and give a new client reassurance that you will be a safe pair of hands.

How to show it:

• Slide: "Notes on...

At the Brand Builders Summit two live conversations revealed powerful lessons for all brand strategists. The first was with Marty Neumeier and Andy Starr, then with Debbie Millman and David Aaker.
Here’s where these four thought-leaders strongly agree—and where their perspectives differ—on four crucial themes.

1. Brand strategy builds long-term business value

All four speakers reinforced that brand strategy is not just a tool to guide design and communication, it is the engine of long-term equity and competitive strength. 

David Aaker stressed that brands are corporate assets:
“People still think… branding is about awareness and image… [but] branding is not just the communication problem...brand is an asset and you want to build this asset over time… branding touches everything in the organization from product development to customer journey segmentation.”

(If you struggle getting clients to understand this  - here's a ton of data to support the value of brand strategy).

Debbie Mill...

When you write a book called Rebrand Right, you can guess which brands you get asked most about. Jaguar for the first half of 2025 and now - Cracker Barrel.  So what’s the difference? Why did Jaguar stay the course while Cracker Barrel reversed?

Cracker Barrel rebrand: why the logo change backfired (and Jaguar didn’t)

If you’re here for the Cracker Barrel rebrand, here’s the short version: the restaurant’s logo change triggered a fast, emotional backlash, and the company reversed course to protect what guests love most -comfort, nostalgia, and familiar cues. Since then they fired the agency and VP of Marketing and it appears that bots - not just Trump - played a large role in spreading the vitriol.

This article breaks down why the Cracker Barrel rebrand sparked such heat, how a poor launch amplified the reaction, and how a tighter diagnosis could have helped them make the changes that were needed, while keeping the soul of the brand intact. I contrast it with Jaguar: a true business...

As brand strategists the last thing we want to do is create confusion. We want to create clarity to help a client move forward. So avoid creating a standalone brand vision statement. Instead, embed visionary thinking into the Why (purpose/mission) statement to avoid internal confusion.

Here's why:

1. Clients often already have a vision statement:

   • It is usually for internal and shareholder use and is profit/revenue-focused (e.g. 'grow 25% by 2030', 'become a $3bn business in the next 5 years', 'become the market leader').

   • So introducing a new "vision” creates confusion—especially in internal communications.

2. Lack of clear definition:

   • "Vision" has no universally accepted meaning in brand strategy.

   • It is often used interchangeably with “mission,” “purpose,” etc.

3. Best brands don’t use the term:

   • Most top global brands (e.g., Apple, Microsoft, Intel) express visionary aspirations in their brand strategy—but label them as “mission” or “purpose.”

   ...

When you write a book called Rebrand Right, you can guess the first question every journalist throws at you: “So did Jaguar get their rebrand right?”

So here's my take on the question. 

It's easy to go along with the naysayers and the shock headlines. And last week’s headlines were loud: “Jaguar sales crater 98% after ‘woke’ rebrand”. Just 49 cars sold in Europe. Cue the outrage.

But here’s what most coverage missed — Jaguar isn’t shocked. In fact, this sharp sales drop was expected. It’s part of a bold, deliberate strategy.

The real story? Jaguar is no longer producing most of its current models. The company is winding down its legacy lineup to make way for an all-new brand vision: a leap into the ultra-luxury electric vehicle space.

Buried at the bottom of many of those viral articles is a crucial line: “We are no longer producing models in 2025 and very low inventory is available.”

This isn’t a collapse. It’s a controlled demolition — the kind a brand makes when it’s preparing...

USPs (Unique Selling Propositions) are an outdated concept for modern brand strategy. They originated in the 1940s to emphasize functional product benefits in advertising. While this made sense when brands had unique functional differences, today's market is crowded, and most functional differentiators are easily copied.

Today, brands need to focus more on emotional connections and bigger promises beyond mere functionality. While the concept of differentiation is still crucial - and you need to identify a brand's relative strengths vs. competition - using the term "USP" may date your work, be too difficult to articulate and misses the broader emotional narrative essential for modern brand building.

Read on for what a unique selling proposition is, USP examples, and advice from some of the world's most successful business leaders on why this is not enough to build a strong brand today.

What USPs mean and why they are outdated 

So you've got to understand where this term has come fro...

What to do if your client doesn't like the brand strategy options you've presented

If a brand strategy doesn’t land with a client, don’t panic — in this video and blog we help you navigate the moment by digging into why it missed.  Common issues include:

• the idea being too ambitious (or not enough)
• personal bias from a dominant stakeholder
• misunderstanding what a brand strategy is
• misjudging whose voice really matters.

Ultimately, it’s about listening, adjusting, and supporting the client’s direction — it’s their brand, not yours.

Here's a transcript of this video:

Question:
"I'm curious, what happens if a proposition doesn't land well with the client? Not necessarily that they hate it, but that they're not sold on the proposition or they don't particularly like it. How would you navigate that?"

The first thing to say is that the 'navigate' word is exactly it. How do you navigate what happens next? Because it's not usually about blowing everything up and starting ag...

A brand strategy is a bridge between the goals of a business and why anyone is going to care. Trends give you a source of insight into things that matter, or are going to increasingly matter to those people you need to influence: your potential buyers.  Knowing what matters to them is important for two reasons. Firstly, it helps to ensure your brand strategy is relevant. Secondly it helps to ensure you're creating a strategy that will last for the long-term. 

Read on for the two different types of trends, which one you need to pay attention to, case studies of brands that used trends to improve their brand strategy and business growth and where to find the right trend sources.

What trends are and how to use them in brand strategy

What are we talking about when we refer to trends?

Trends: A general development or change in the way something is moving or people are behaving (Cambridge Dictionary). 

There are different sorts of trends.  Some are more long-term – signifying a bi...

“Begin with the end in mind.”  

One of the ‘Seven Habits of Highly Effective People’, and common sense, you might say. 

But very unhelpful if you’re trying to learn how to do brand strategy.

Because here’s what happens.

When people try and learn how to do brand strategy they start by researching models and frameworks - the end deliverable for a client.

But then they get stuck.

They get stuck in the muddy world of different models, frameworks and jargon promoted by different people and agencies trying to differentiate themselves with their brand strategy deliverables.  It’s understandable, but it’s not helpful if you’re trying to learn how to do brand strategy.

(I know this, because I’ve polled the 348 people who’ve taken Brand Strategy Academy and it’s where they were stuck before they took the course). 

The truth is - it doesn’t really matter what model you use, as long as your deliverable answers the fundamental questions you need to answer in a brand strategy to help to move...