David Brier > Quotes

“Social media isn’t a brand strategy. Social media is a channel. While it’s important for a brand to develop something to say, it’s more important to create something that will be heard.”
― David Brier

“Look at every ‘revolutionary’ brand or category killer, it had an app, or a feature, or a functionality, or a user experience nobody else at that point could offer. I refer to this as ‘the Killer App’ principle.”
― David Brier, The Lucky Brand

“Every great brand goes back to a courageous individual who dared to say 'NO' to the status quo.”
― David Brier, The Lucky Brand

“Why is it there’s no aisle in a grocery or department in a store or menu on a website for “average stuff” or “beige products”? FACT: People never got passionate about mediocre and average. While consumers and clients can find “best deals” and “natural foods” and “artisan goods,” one doesn’t find an aisle or a website menu tab offering “average stuff” without excelling in something (which might explain that while vanilla is necessary for the ice cream sundae, it’s the hot fudge we all crave and talk about).”
― David Brier, The Lucky Brand

“Cookie cutters are for baking, not branding.”
― David Brier, The Lucky Brand

“If your brand is a cliché, your brand is losing sales and growth. Why? If your brand is using clichés to promote itself, you’re promoting your “category,” not your unique, individual brand. Painful? Yes. Solvable? Absolutely.”
― David Brier, The Lucky Brand

“Having a me-too brand is a death sentence.”
― David Brier, The Lucky Brand

“Ideas are the currency of innovation.”
― David Brier

“Brands are either built on reruns or coming attractions. The future has no road map while the past does. Creating a brand that blazes new trails can sometimes be bumpy but will also allow you to be the first to discover something new, something meaningful and something that makes others ask, “Why didn’t we think of that?” Be very scared of “old tricks” and build a spirit of innovation. It’s the “old tricks” that have the highest risk, not doing something bold.”
― David Brier

“There are three points I used to help a gourmet chocolatier increase sales 300% in a single month as well as a Midwest city to increase tourism guests 500% in 12 months.”
― David Brier, The Lucky Brand

“Branding is the art of differentiation”
― David Brier

“Your competitors have the same idea of how unique, special, vital, and relevant they are with everyone spending a lot of money using the same words, messages, and promises to convince prospects how unique they each are.”
― David Brier, Brand Intervention: 33 Steps to Transform the Brand You Have into the Brand You Need

“A great sports car that goes from 0-60 in 3.9 seconds is just a fact. To the wrong audience, it’s irrelevant. But to the right audience, it’s a passion.”
― David Brier

“We know there are thousands of ways to solve any branding problem a company faces, yet the only valuable solutions are the effective ones. Doing something ineffective in half the time–or “more efficiently” or “more economically”–isn’t progress, but is instead bad business. Very bad business.”
― David Brier, The Lucky Brand

“There are numerous other tools companies don’t know how to use or haven’t mastered. And I am not talking about “social media” as a tool. Social media is a distribution tool. I’m talking about design, color, imagery, typography, style and form (as in packaging).”
― David Brier, Brand Intervention: 33 Steps to Transform the Brand You Have into the Brand You Need

“Evidently, one thing seems to have more value in direct proportion to whether or not we feel we have the freedoms, joys or conveniences of that thing.”
― David Brier

“Customers have a first moment when they discover your brand. If you were to look at it today with a fresh pair of eyes, in fact only through a pair of fresh customer eyes and witness your brand for the very first time, what would you see? What impression would make? Or fail to make? Would your brand blend in? Would it stand out? Would it be memorable, or the leading cause of amnesia amongst shoppers everywhere? Facing the truth of this and fixing it as needed will determine whether your brand thrives or merely stumbles along.”
― David Brier, Great Type & Lettering Designs

“Fact: there are three phases every customer goes through with your brand. Most companies use only the first two of these (66%), when in fact there are actually three: the phase that starts before they buy, the phase that occurs during the sale (or during the use of your product or service) and the last (most overlooked) phase occurring after the sale.”
― David Brier, Brand Intervention: 33 Steps to Transform the Brand You Have into the Brand You Need

“Why do some brands grow explosively when others (that could be thriving) die a lonely and forgettable death?”
― David Brier

“Because richer brands are richer by a different set of metrics.
It’s in how they solve problems for their clients:

They are richer than the obstacles they seek to overcome.

They are richer in approach than those who came
before them.

They are richer in ingenuity than a large, cumbersome company with lots of bureaucratic red tape, internal politics, and a lack of team autonomy and nimbleness.

They are richer because they’re selling the right thing and don’t confuse what they make or deliver with what the customer is actually buying.

Because they are richer, they are more limber and able to react more swiftly.”
― David Brier, Rich Brand Poor Brand: How to Unleash Your David in a World of Goliaths

“We've all seen it. A #startup begins with a #dream, a #passion to do something others have missed or overlooked.”
― David Brier, The Lucky Brand

“Great brands compel us.
They read our minds.

They reflect what’s in our hearts.
They “get us.”

They inspire us to do things spontaneously.

They help us overcome indecision and stagnancy.

Without a second thought.”
― David Brier, Rich Brand Poor Brand: How to Unleash Your David in a World of Goliaths

“The opposite of value is a commodity item with little or no perceived value — which means people are not seeking it out and when they do, it’s merely one of the many choices (so very likely the cheapest offering will get the sale).”
― David Brier

“So it comes down to scarcity, one product or service having qualities you won’t find everywhere or ideally, anywhere. It’s the job of every brand to seek that out as their standard, their stamp.”
― David Brier

“A common mistaken conclusion made by companies is they think ‘people are cheap’ and want only the best price. That’s only true if you’re only giving them the same dismal choices with no differentiation and thus no value. That is the exact point when consumers start to look at price.”
― David Brier

“Brand growth and dominance is created by having the highest brand value, not the lowest price tag.”
― David Brier, The Lucky Brand

“Your brand exists to differentiate. “Same crap, different day” won’t do it. A day that goes by without breaking some sacred branding rule is a day a brand has lost to rise above the status quo. By breaking those rules with insight, intelligent and innovation, your brand can get heard in a world that’s simply too busy to listen.”
― David Brier, The Lucky Brand

“History is filled with inferior brands outselling superior ones thanks to better branding. Only superior branding has the power to overcome and reverse this (and superior products and services deserve superior branding).”
― David Brier, The Lucky Brand

“The biggest mistake brands make are trying to “sell their stuff” rather than clarifying what people are actually buying.”
― David Brier

“Consumers today have become a cynical mob of buyers who believe the reviews and ratings of complete strangers much more readily than your brand's promises and distinctions.”
― David Brier