Observations
Things I keep thinking about in cross-border work.
European Brands in China: What Usually Goes Wrong in Year One
Why European brands stumble in China in year one — and what to validate before you scale.
Read →Why Localization Is Often Not the First Thing a European Brand Needs
Localization often comes too early. Before you change the language or the visuals, answer what the thing actually is.
Read →Why Growth Is Sometimes the Wrong First Question
Growth matters. But sometimes the first thing a brand needs to prove isn't how much it can sell — it's why anyone wants to buy.
Read →Why Some China Problems Actually Start in Europe
Many so-called China problems are really decision-rights problems. And those have to be solved at HQ.
Read →Why Brand Positioning Is Often Too Complicated
The problem with positioning usually isn't depth. It's saying too much. Good positioning means the brand stops having to explain itself.
Read →Brand Consistency Doesn't Mean Everything Looks the Same
Consistency isn't looking the same. It's people making broadly the same judgement in different situations.
Read →Why a Brand Should Allow Some Things to Go Wrong
Control the boundaries, not every step. Leaving a little room for things to go slightly wrong is part of keeping a brand alive.
Read →Why Good Brand Work Often Looks Simple
Good brand work doesn't give a team ten more things to do. It gives them fewer. Simple is usually much harder than complicated.
Read →Why Brand Books Fail in China
The problem isn't the brand book. It's treating it as the starting point.
Read →Why You Sometimes Don't Need a Big Agency
Some problems aren't agency problems. What you need is someone close enough to the business — and independent enough — to say "we don't need to do this."
Read →Why the Problem Is Sometimes Not Marketing
Marketing is just the problem that's easiest to see. Sometimes the real problem is simple: nobody has made the decision yet.
Read →Why I Trust Judgement More Than Methodology
Methodology answers "how can we think about this?" Judgement has to answer "so what are we actually going to do?"
Read →Let's talk
A brand problem. A China question. Or something that doesn't quite make sense yet. Let's talk.
