Storytelling

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They Communicate HP Field Notes | Highly Persuasive The most expensive problem in branding today isn't a bad logo or an outdated website.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 16 2026

How to Build a Point of View For Your Brand That Attracts the Right Clients

By Michael Lynch Thought Leadership & Authority Building, Influence & Consumer Psychology

How to Build a Point of View For Your Brand That Attracts the Right Clients DemandSignals™ | Highly Persuasive There is a significant difference between having deep capabilities and having a distinct Point of View. In a marketplace filled with capable firms, the most successful aren't just hired for what…

Jul 04 2025

People Buy Stories, Not Solutions. Make Sure You’re Telling the Right One

By Michael Lynch Marketing Strategy & Growth, Influence & Consumer Psychology, Lead Generation & Demand Creation, Thought Leadership & Authority Building

People Buy Stories, Not Solutions. Make Sure You're Telling the Right One You know this already: your product isn’t what they’re buying. But what most people get wrong is why they buy at all. It’s not logic. It’s not features. It’s not even urgency. It’s story. But not yours. It’s…

Jun 26 2025

Why Playing It Safe Is the Riskiest Move in High-Stakes Sales

By Michael Lynch Branding & Identity, Business Strategy & Positioning, Influence & Consumer Psychology, Lead Generation & Demand Creation, Marketing Strategy & Growth, Thought Leadership & Authority Building

I. The Compliance Trap: The Paradox of Playing It Safe In high-trust industries like HealthTech, FinTech, LegalTech, even enterprise AI—most brands assume that playing it safe is the surest path to trust. They lead with compliance, drown in disclaimers, and write like their buyers are all regulatory inspectors. The instinct…

Jun 05 2025

Why Industrial Marketing Doesn’t Work — and What to Do Instead

By Michael Lynch Marketing Strategy & Growth, Business Strategy & Positioning

I. The Marketing Mirage Most industrial businesses believe they’ve already “done” marketing. They’ve got the basics in place — a website, maybe a few ads, some social media posts, perhaps even hired an agency once or twice. Yet despite this activity, the phone isn’t ringing more, the pipeline isn’t growing,…

May 09 2025

The Real Battle in Manufacturing Is Not Mechanical

By Michael Lynch Business Strategy & Positioning, Conversion Optimization & Sales Psychology, Marketing Strategy & Growth

The Real Battle in Manufacturing Is Not Mechanical HP DemandSignals™ | Highly Persuasive The operations director has your technical specifications in front of him. He's reviewed your tolerances, your lead times, your quality certifications, your track record on comparable programmes. He agrees your capabilities are strong. He's said as much.…

Apr 26 2025

Why the Most Commercially Powerful Brands Are Defined by What They’re Against

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

Why the Most Commercially Powerful Brands Are Defined by What They're Against HP DemandSignals™ | Highly Persuasive In a 2012 Harvard Business Review analysis of what separates enduringly successful brands from transient ones, researchers identified a consistent structural pattern: the brands that maintained both premium pricing and customer loyalty across…

Apr 26 2025

Why Loyalty Belongs to the Brands You Can Defend Out Loud

By Michael Lynch Influence & Consumer Psychology, Branding & Identity, Business Strategy & Positioning

Why Loyalty Belongs to the Brands You Can Defend Out Loud HP DemandSignals™ | Highly Persuasive There is a moment in most B2B relationships — usually around six to twelve months in — when the nature of the client's commitment changes. At the beginning, the relationship is provisional. The client…

Apr 24 2025

The Most Expensive Sentence in Commercial Positioning: “We Can Help Anyone”

By Michael Lynch Business Strategy & Positioning, Luxury & Premium Brand Strategy, Marketing Strategy & Growth

The Most Expensive Sentence in Commercial Positioning: "We Can Help Anyone" HP DemandSignals™ | Highly Persuasive There is a failure mode specific to companies that are genuinely good at what they do. They've worked across multiple sectors. They've solved different problems for different clients. They've adapted their approach to different…

Apr 22 2025

Why the Organisations That Sell Certainty Command the Most Durable Pricing Power

By Michael Lynch Business Strategy & Positioning, Conversion Optimization & Sales Psychology, Marketing Strategy & Growth

Why the Organisations That Sell Certainty Command the Most Durable Pricing Power Ambiguity aversion — the documented preference for known risks over unknown ones, even when the known risk is larger in expected value terms — is among the most commercially consequential findings in behavioural economics. First established by Daniel…