Before You Speak to the Market: 10 Videos on Brand Voice, Positioning, Distinctiveness and Building a Brand People Remember

Why watch

This is the foundation of the collection.

Marty Neumeier challenges one of the most persistent misunderstandings about branding: that a brand is primarily a logo, visual identity, product or corporate message.

Instead, he describes brand as something that ultimately exists in people’s perceptions. That distinction changes the question facing a new organisation.

The challenge is no longer simply what we want to say about ourselves. It becomes what people are likely to understand, remember and believe after repeatedly encountering us.

Brand voice should not be treated as decorative copywriting added after a business has been created. Language is one of the ways through which audiences gradually construct their understanding of the organisation.

Watch for

• the difference between brand and branding
• reputation and perception
• why logos are not brands
• differentiation and specialisation
• communication as part of a larger brand system
• why branding ultimately happens in the audience’s mind

C.I.S. reflection

Before deciding how a brand should sound, understand what you want that voice to help people understand.

Why watch

A distinctive voice cannot compensate for confused positioning.

April Dunford provides one of the clearest explanations of the relationship between positioning, messaging and branding.

She explores what organisations are genuinely competing against, what makes their offer valuable, who values that difference and what context allows customers to understand the offer correctly.

If positioning is unclear, AI-generated content can simply reproduce that confusion faster.

Watch for

• the definition of positioning
• competitive alternatives
• differentiated capabilities
• customer value
• best-fit audiences
• market categories
• positioning versus messaging
• positioning versus branding

C.I.S. reflection

Language becomes stronger when the strategic position beneath the language is clear.

Why watch

Professor Jenni Romaniuk of the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute is one of the leading researchers on distinctive brand assets. Her work provides an important evidence-based foundation for this collection.

The discussion examines the difference between being different and being distinctive. Brands frequently attempt to differentiate themselves by making increasingly elaborate claims.

Distinctiveness asks another question: can people recognise that this communication belongs to you?

Distinctive assets can include visual elements, colours, characters, sounds, shapes and other recognisable signals. C.I.S. proposes that organisations should also consider whether recurring linguistic patterns can perform a complementary role.

Watch for

• distinctive brand assets
• fame and uniqueness
• recognition
• memory
• differentiation versus distinctiveness
• consistency
• how distinctive assets develop over time

C.I.S. reflection

The ambition is not merely to make communication different. It is to make the organisation increasingly recognisable.

Why watch

Byron Sharp’s research has profoundly influenced contemporary thinking about brand growth.

This conversation expands the collection from voice into mental availability. Brands need to become easier to notice, recognise and retrieve from memory in relevant buying situations.

Every advertisement, article, social post, email, video and AI-generated answer is potentially contributing to—or fragmenting—the mental structures associated with the organisation.

Watch for

• mental availability
• physical availability
• customer acquisition
• brand growth
• memory
• category buying situations
• the importance of reaching beyond existing loyal customers

C.I.S. reflection

A brand voice is not simply something audiences hear. Used consistently enough, it can become part of what audiences remember.

Why watch

This shorter explanatory video complements the deeper Romaniuk and Sharp conversations by introducing distinctive brand assets through recognisable examples.

Its usefulness within this collection lies in encouraging viewers to extend the concept beyond logos.

What visual elements, phrases, recurring ideas, ways of explaining problems, language structures, questions and editorial characteristics belong to the organisation?

Could somebody recognise a C.I.S. article before seeing the C.I.S. logo? That is where distinctive-asset thinking becomes especially interesting for language.

Watch for

• how distinctive assets work
• recognisable brand cues
• consistency
• repeated exposure
• examples of distinctive brand properties

C.I.S. reflection

A powerful future brand system may combine visual assets + verbal assets + behavioural assets + experiential assets.

Why watch

Seth Godin’s classic TED talk asks why some ideas attract attention while ordinary ones disappear. His argument centres on remarkability.

In markets overflowing with communication, competence alone is insufficient. That argument has become even more relevant in the generative-AI era.

When millions of organisations can produce grammatically competent articles, advertisements, emails and social posts almost instantly, competent communication becomes abundant.

The strategic question becomes: what makes this worth noticing?

Watch for

• attention scarcity
• remarkability
• ordinary versus memorable ideas
• audience relevance
• why safe communication can become invisible

C.I.S. reflection

AI can dramatically increase the quantity of communication. It cannot automatically provide a reason for somebody to care.

Why watch

One of the central arguments of the accompanying article is that voice should emerge from something deeper than stylistic adjectives.

A brand cannot simply decide to sound bold, friendly, authentic, innovative or human. Those characteristics require substance.

Sinek’s well-known framework begins with purpose. Whatever position one takes on the wider framework, it provides a valuable pre-launch question: what does this organisation believe strongly enough to communicate consistently?

Watch for

• purpose
• belief
• organisational identity
• communication from the inside out
• why people respond to meaning rather than information alone

C.I.S. reflection

A distinctive voice requires something distinctive enough to say.

Why watch

This video moves the collection into the practical process of developing strategy.

It explores how research, cultural immersion, strategic thinking and creative judgement interact when developing a brand.

One particularly useful element is the emphasis on understanding the world surrounding the brand rather than designing identity in isolation.

A brand exists within culture, communities, categories, competitors, language, history, expectations and changing social meanings. Understanding that context gives strategy greater depth.

Watch for

• research before execution
• understanding audiences and communities
• cultural immersion
• positioning
• narrative
• connecting strategic decisions to creative expression

C.I.S. reflection

Before creating the voice, study the world in which that voice will be heard.

Why watch

Rory Sutherland brings behavioural thinking into the collection.

Brands do not operate in a purely rational marketplace. People interpret meaning through context, expectation, culture, memory, psychology and experience.

Sutherland’s work repeatedly challenges the assumption that the most rational or efficient solution is necessarily the most valuable.

AI systems are extremely good at optimisation. But optimisation can push organisations towards similar answers. Brand building sometimes requires protecting things that appear inefficient precisely because they create personality, memorability or meaning.

Watch for

• behavioural economics
• creativity
• brand building
• relevance
• communication
• the relationship between rational optimisation and human perception

C.I.S. reflection

The most efficient language is not necessarily the most memorable language—and the most optimised brand is not necessarily the most human one.

Why watch

The final video brings the collection back to communication.

One of the most common mistakes in brand development is making the organisation the hero of every story: we are innovative, passionate, industry-leading, committed and exceptional.

The StoryBrand framework reverses the perspective. What is happening in the customer’s world? What are they trying to accomplish? What problem stands in their way? What role can the organisation credibly play?

This is particularly valuable when developing AI writing systems. Without clear guidance, AI-generated brand content can easily become organisation-centred promotional language.

Watch for

• customer-centred communication
• narrative structure
• clarity
• reducing messaging complexity
• positioning the customer rather than the company at the centre of the story

C.I.S. reflection

A distinctive brand voice should not simply reveal who the organisation is. It should demonstrate that the organisation understands who it is speaking to.