Inspirational Quotes on Branding

12 thought-provoking quotes to take into 2023

In the words of Monty Python, “And Now for Something Completely Different”.

I’ve just finished reading “Brand Thinking and Other Noble Pursuits” by Debbie Millman. For those who don’t know Debbie Millman, to quote Wikipedia she is an American writer, educator, artist, curator, and designer who is best known as the host of the podcast Design Matters.

This book, published in 2011 contains twenty interviews with the world’s leading designers and thinkers in branding.

Here are 12 quotes that inspired me. I hope you find something in here that does the same for you.

On having opinions

The foreward of the book by Rob Walker is a lovely read in and of itself. Even if you stopped there you would gain so much. I liked a lot of what he had to say, but this quote is really what I think I want Quotidian to be about.

“Branding is the sort of topic that practically demands disagreement if it’s going to be talked about seriously”

— Rob Walker (writer at Design Observer)

On telling stories

I have a two-year old. I read him stories every day, and I’m regularly blown away by how engaged he is but also at the depth of feeling in children’s books. Stories are a fundamental tool that we use to teach children how to view the world. Even without a full grasp of language a two-year old is engrossed. The power of story is deeply rooted in all of us.

“We say we want information, but we don’t experience the world through information—we experience the world through story.”

— Brian Collins (founder of COLLINS)

“You can’t buy authentic values—you can only create them from what the brand does and what its history is. Don’t look to parrot a popular brand. Go back to a brand’s roots and uncover the story that you can believe in and steward forward. You steward the story forward”

— Cheryl Swanson (brand strategist at Toniq)

A brand is a story. Period. Frankly, I would rather dump the word “brand” and use the word “story.” I think we’re in the process of wearing out the word “brand.” At some level, when I’m a brand, I’m more commercial. When I’m a story, I’m more human.

— Tom Peters (writer of In Search of Excellence)

On being distinctive

I’m a passionate advocate of distinction. Too often there is too much emphasis placed on the need to be unique. Being unique is great, but what you really need is to come to mind when someone thinks about what you offer. And so you need to be remembered for something. Here are four corkers. The last one is a an exercise I’d like to try one day:

“When the functional differences are negligible or hardly exist—for example, in terms of price or quality—there is a requirement to create an emotional difference.”

— Wally Olins (co-founder of Wolff Olins and Saffron)

“There was actually a design brief [for the Coke bottle]—and it included two objectives: One, they wanted a package that was so unique and so differentiated that you could find it in the dark. The second was even more surprising. They wanted glass that was so distinctive that even when it was shattered on the ground, you could still tell that it was once a Coke bottle.”

— David Butler (exVP, Global Design and Innovation at Coca-Cola)

“I think “quality” is an attribute that almost all of our clients think they’re bringing to the table. But there are times when I have to point out, “No, quality is actually job two here.” Furthermore, shouldn’t quality be a given? would anyone ever declare, “We’re not about quality—we’re crap”? A company can’t get away with saying, “We’re all about quality” unless they’re really willing to invest in their product and deliver a much higher standard. If not, focus on something else.”

— Sean Adams (founding partner of AdamsMorioka)

“A brand is basically a business that has an identity. If it doesn’t have an identity, it’s not a brand. You should be able to say to somebody, “Shut your eyes and tell me what you see when you hear the words [brand name]”.”

— Karim Rashid ("most famous industrial designer in all the Americas")

On the bigger picture

A lot of branding is about the trees. These quotes are about the forest that surrounds the trees. It helps to take a step back and thinking about the big stuff. I like the notion that branding is about tribe building, and belonging. But it’s Stanley Hainsworth’s quote that speaks to me the most.

Fundamentally, branding is a profound manifestation of the human condition. It is about belonging: belonging to a tribe, to a religion, to a family. Branding demonstrates that sense of belonging. It has this function for both the people who are part of the same group and also for the people who don’t belong.

— Wally Olins

“People who aren’t very experienced with branding, or are new at it, sometimes feel that they can get away with something being off-brand. But I think that genuinely good branding involves an examination of every single way the brand, the product, and the experience is viewed. Everything that you do, everything you release, everything you say—everything is the cumulative expression of your brand”

— Stanley Hainsworth (ex-creative lead at Nike, Lego and Starbucks)

“He who tries to make it complicated or convoluted does a disservice to designers everywhere. Anyone who buys crap gets what they deserve. Design is really so damn simple. It’s so straightforward.”

— Joe Duffy (founding partner at Duffy & Partners)

I think we’re tribal beings. I think that we have a natural tendency to separate into tribes and to feel comfortable in tribes. And I think that those identifiers help tribalize us—they make it clear that “I’m part of this group

— Sean Adams

It bears repeating

This is a five-star read for anyone interested in the subject of brands. Despite being published over 10 years ago so much of the content feels as if it was written yesterday.

What’s clear is that the quest to be a distinctive and authentic storytelling brand is still relevant in 2023. There are a lot of “trend” blogs out there that will tell you what to expect over the next 12 months, but after reading what these incredible thinkers were saying in 2011 I think a lot of “trend” articles are useless, repetitive or worse, wrong.

And as my colleague Bill told me this week, “Remember that more people have seen Fraser on repeat, than saw the show when it aired originally.”

So these quotes bear repeating. Over and over.

I’ll leave you with a lovely quote from Debbie herself.

“One piece of advice I think they should ignore is the value of being a “people person.” No one cares if you are a people person. Have a point of view, and share it meaningfully, thoughtfully, and with conviction.”

— Debbie Millman (bad ass creator, communicator and podcaster)

Have a great weekend,