Branding & Identity

Mar 17 2026

The Expensive Gap Between What Brands Deliver and What They Communicate

The Dangerous Gap Between What Brands Deliver and What They Communicate

By Michael Lynch Branding & Identity, Business Strategy & Positioning, Thought Leadership & Authority Building

The Dangerous Gap Between What Brands Deliver and What They Communicate HP Field Notes | Highly Persuasive The most expensive problem in branding today isn't a bad logo or an outdated website. It's the gap between what a company actually delivers and what the brand communicates to the wider market.…

Mar 08 2026

How to Build Credibility in a Category Where You're New

How to Build Authority in a Category Where You’re New

By Michael Lynch Thought Leadership & Authority Building, Branding & Identity, Business Strategy & Positioning

How to Build Authority in a Category Where You're New DemandSignals™ | Highly Persuasive How many RFPs have you submitted in the last two years to buyers who had no real intention of awarding you the work? The RFP was a compliance requirement, a market price check, or a courtesy…

Mar 05 2026

The Anchoring Problem in B2B Fee Negotiations

By Michael Lynch Thought Leadership & Authority Building, Branding & Identity, Conversion Optimization & Sales Psychology, Influence & Consumer Psychology

The Anchoring Problem in B2B Fee Negotiations DemandSignals | Highly Persuasive There's a conversation that happens in almost every complex sale. The buyer asks: "Before we go any further — what's your ballpark on something like this?" Most suppliers answer. They give a range, something non-threatening, designed to leave room…

Mar 05 2026

Why Brand Alignment Collapses Under Commercial Pressure

By Michael Lynch Branding & Identity, Business Strategy & Positioning, Influence & Consumer Psychology, Thought Leadership & Authority Building

Why Brand Alignment Collapses Under Commercial Pressure HP DemandSignals™ | Highly Persuasive In the spring of 2019, a mid-sized infrastructure engineering consultancy in Singapore completed a six-month brand positioning exercise. New messaging. Revised visual identity. A clearly articulated market position built around specialist geotechnical expertise for complex underground infrastructure projects.…

Feb 25 2026

Why Conference Presence Doesn’t Always Build Market Position

By Michael Lynch Business Strategy & Positioning, Branding & Identity, Conversion Optimization & Sales Psychology, Influence & Consumer Psychology, Marketing Strategy & Growth, Thought Leadership & Authority Building

Why Conference Presence Doesn't Always Build Market Position The overwhelming majority of companies that invest in conference speaking believe they're building market authority. The logic is intuitive: you stand on a stage, you share expert thinking in front of your target buyers, they associate you with expertise in the subject…

Feb 17 2026

When a ‘Good Enough’ Brand Becomes Dangerous

By Michael Lynch Business Strategy & Positioning, Branding & Identity, Luxury & Premium Brand Strategy, Marketing Strategy & Growth, Thought Leadership & Authority Building

When a 'Good Enough' Brand Becomes Dangerous HP Field Notes | Highly Persuasive Nobody sets out to build a mediocre brand. What happens is more subtle than that. A company builds something credible — a professional website, a presentable sales deck, reasonable case studies, a logo that doesn't embarrass anyone…

Feb 15 2026

Why Most Companies Misunderstand What ‘Brand’ Actually Means

By Michael Lynch Branding & Identity, Business Strategy & Positioning, Marketing Strategy & Growth, Thought Leadership & Authority Building

Here's Why That Misunderstanding is so Dangerous Let's start with an honest admission: the word "brand" has been so thoroughly abused by the marketing industry that most business leaders have a reasonable basis for ignoring it. They've been told brand is their logo. Their colour palette. Their "look and feel."…

Feb 14 2026

How Brand Friction Adds Months to the Average B2B Sales Cycle

By Michael Lynch Conversion Optimization & Sales Psychology, Branding & Identity, Business Strategy & Positioning

How Brand Friction Adds Months to the Average B2B Sales Cycle Nobody talks about the speed or momentum a brand creates. They talk about awareness. They talk about perception. They talk about "brand equity" — that wonderfully vague term that means everything and nothing. But the most commercially valuable thing…

Feb 11 2026

How Procurement Committees Categorize Suppliers Before the First Meeting

By Michael Lynch Conversion Optimization & Sales Psychology, Branding & Identity, Business Strategy & Positioning

How Procurement Committees Categorize Suppliers Before the First Meeting And How That Shapes Every Conversation That Follows Thereafter DemandSignals™ | Highly Persuasive This is worth saying plainly. We've worked with companies whose technical capabilities, delivery record, and client results were unambiguously stronger than the incumbents they were trying to displace.…

Jan 15 2026

How Brand Perception Creates or Destroys Pricing Power

By Michael Lynch Business Strategy & Positioning, Branding & Identity, Conversion Optimization & Sales Psychology

There's a conversation that happens in almost every mid-market B2B company, and it usually goes something like this. The sales director reports that a deal closed at 12% below the quoted price. Leadership asks why. The answer is some version of: "The client pushed hard on price. We had to…