AI Branding: Why AI Is Making Brands Sound the Same

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Why AI is stripping brands of what makes them unique

0:00 AI is gonna change the world 10 times more than the internet did, I think. But it may not change it the way we think it's going to.

0:07 And I just think that maintaining that brand integrity, so to speak, is gonna be something that people are always going to have to do.

0:14 I don't believe that a machine is gonna be able Client decided to, uh, was gonna rebrand his business and started having conversations with AI about what that might look like and, you know, the target audience, and it all sounded really good.

0:28 And then, you know, the AI started making suggestions. It really was, was stripping away a lot of his business's real value and differentiation.

0:37 I mean, I've even heard, maybe you have too, the stories about how people will take AI content, and they'll, uh, just put some grammatical errors in the content so that you think it's human written.

0:46 I mean, is that what we're doing now? You know, is that, is that what it's coming to, that that's what we- With me today is Chris Fulmer.

Chris Fulmer returns for part 2

0:56 He has over 17 years of experience in brand development, brand strategy, and marketing.

1:01 Today we'll cover a lot of how that is being impacted or changed by AI, and there's a lot of good stuff, bad stuff, the ugly, the nice, and I think there is a lot of, um, things that people are doing right now, and we'll see how that is panning out in 2026.

1:16 So Chris, how are you feeling today? Hey, I'm doing great, Zivko, and I appreciate you, uh, having me on.

1:21 It's great. We, we did one before. It was a lot of fun. Looking forward to this one. That's right. Uh, what I wanna start with is, going directly into it, a lot of people right now have tried or are still trying to take, uh, a small team and from, like, 4 or 5 people in the marketing team, one editing, one posting or something like that, and they want to amplify that to, like, 50 people overnight with just giving them a bunch of AI tools and processes.

Turning a 4-person marketing team into 50 with AI — why it fails

1:48 What do you see What happens when someone takes a small team, loads it up with a bunch of AI tools in terms of their brand strategy?

1:57 Well, you know, and we see this, we, we're seeing this more and more now. Um, it's very tempting, as we know, this tool, this amazing technology can

2:05 It's like, uh, your marketing team on steroids, you know, just supercharged 10 times, 20 times all of the production.

2:12 But, um, it really ends up being, uh, i- in most cases, it really ends up being a failure.

2:19 Um, y- you, you know, it's AI has a place to, to, for supporting a marketing team, but when you're, when you're trying to give it too much to do, which is, uh, you know, it becomes, usually it becomes about how much more can we do.

2:34 You know, instead of posting once a week, let, uh, you know, uh, let's post every day. Instead of posting twice a day on social media, let's post 10 times a day.

2:44 all kinds of, of, of different ways that AI's being used, especially in marketing. And, um, when you start giving it too much, you, you can really get into big trouble.

How AI leads you down a path: the rebrand that lost its USP

2:54 When we're talking about using it too much, um, leading into getting into trouble, um, it feels like, uh, when you're interacting with AI, it leads you in a direction, and you just keep click accept.

3:07 Yes, I agree with you, Aline. I agree with you, Aline. What happens when, uh, from the clients that you've seen that are interacting with AI, uh, for quite some time when it comes to their marketing?

3:16 Well, what happens is, uh, most of the time when, when someone uses AI, um, they go into it in a conversation from a conversational standpoint.

3:26 You know, it's brainstorming, trying to come up with ideas, okay? And, you know, whether you know it or not, AI will gradually, in many cases, lead you down this path.

3:38 Um, you know, I'll give you a real-life example. Um, you know, I had a, I had a, a case situation where a client decided to, uh, was gonna rebrand his business and started having conversations with AI about what that might look like and, you know, the target audience, and it all sounded really good.

3:55 And then, you know, the AI started making suggestions. And I, you know, when you look at what the, what the, where the AI led him, where it was taking him, um, you know, it, it, it really was, was stripping away a lot of his business's real value and differentiation.

4:14 Um, he was even using it for color palette selection, you know. And, and I mean, how much does AI really, you know

4:20 Maybe there's some information out, but out there about color palette selection, and that's what it's pulling. But, you know, is that gonna work for your business?

4:28 So, you know, everyone's using it to various degrees, but, you know, if, if you're, you've gotta realize AI doesn't really know anything.

4:35 It's just pulling this information and using human language to com- you know, to give you a response.

4:42 Um, and so, you know, a- and it'll agree with you. You know that. It'll, it'll hallucinate. We, everybody knows by now that if it doesn't know something, it'll make it up.

4:50 I could go into all kinds of examples. Um, but, you know, I, I think that really comes from not being specific enough and making too many assumptions about how it can help you.

5:04 When It's interesting that, that that last piece of not understanding how it can help you.

Putting your brand to sleep and starting to sound like AI

5:10 It feels like people put their brands to sleep when they start just using it and saying, "Make my brand.

5:16 This is what I have. Make my tone of voice," or whatever. How does that look like? What, what are some of the stuff that you're seeing that this is how you could, uh, properly use it versus this is most of the people what they're using, and why you're starting to s- why you start to sound like everybody else?

5:32 Yeah, so, um, well, you know, content creation is a, is a really obvious, uh, example now because that's one of the first things that in, especially in marketing, that it was being used for, okay?

5:44 Um, and I've, I've seen more people commenting lately that if they come across, uh, a post and it, and it even remotely sounds like it was written by AI, they won't read it.

5:55 And, and I see people now making, you know, remarks in the comments about that. Like, "Oh, great job, you know, letting AI do your content."

6:03 You know, just calling people out for it is becoming a more common thing. And, you know, I think what's happening is, um, and, and, you know, to mention kind of a technical term is implicit learning, I think is happening, where we're using AI so much that without knowing it, we're picking up these AI-isms, so to speak.

Implicit learning: picking up AI-isms without noticing

6:24 You know, the language, the phrases. Um, and, and it's not

6:29 It's getting much easier to recognize that now when you see content. And s- and that's because of the similarities.

6:36 And so, you know, when, when AI is making a suggestion for you and your marketing team, it's making that same suggestion everywhere else for everyone else's marketing team who's asking it the same questions.

6:49 So y- you, you know, slowly what's happening is everyone's starting to look and sound the same because they're getting the same guidance, if that's what they're using it for.

6:59 I've noticed that first, maybe because of my, like, web design background, I noticed it in web designs.

7:06 Every landing page. Mm-hmm. Uh, small font, big one in the center.

7:12 Yep. Hill kind of button. And us- the same scrolling effect, the same 3 boxes, then left, right, left, right.

7:20 It was the same kind of look, and with this always a dark color, um, sometimes navy blue-ish, sometimes, like, charcoal dark.

7:27 But it was always kind of the same pattern. And I started po- they, they start popping up left, every- everywhere, that I'm like, "Who's making these websites?

7:34 W- who's this agency? They all look the same." Exactly. Right on. And I'll tell you how that backfires, because one case for doing that, like, I've, I've had, I've seen this, okay?

The "high-converting landing page" that now converts worse

7:45 Use AI to create a high-converting landing page. So you, you lean on AI to, to go out and research what's a high-converting landing page.

7:55 You know, what are the, what are the, what are the design features, et cetera. And then, um, you know, AI cr- you know, creates the page.

8:05 But think about how many other people are doing the same thing. And so you've already noticed it, right? So now all of a sudden that the reason that was a high-converting landing page is because we had, frankly, so many bad websites that were developed by people, right?

8:19 But now everyone is using AI to create high-converting landing pages, and it's going to become a low-converting landing page.

8:27 And, and this is the kind of stuff that we're talking about, you know, with content creation and other, uh, uses, uh, in marketing, you know, how AI is used.

8:37 And, uh, it's, it's become a real, it's become a real problem, you know?

8:42 Um, when we're looking at the brand itself, I think the, the example you gave where it was stripping away piece by piece that uniqueness of that business, and the second part you mentioned there, it was, it is a system, a tool that is communicating in regular human language to you.

9:04 It's not a person, it doesn't feel, it doesn't think, there's, there's no conscience here. There's no like- Yeah "I feel like this when it comes to this color palette."

9:11 Uh- Not yet. Um- But, but yes, you're right when, when you're seeing a brand that is basically put to sleep, or when you see that it's stripping away this, uh, uniqueness out of a brand, uh, what are some of the, what are some of the ways that you are today showing people what, what they should use, where it should stop, how, what is the right way if you are trying to use AI to amplify your brand the right way?

9:41 Yeah, good question. Um, really it comes down to experimentation and testing it before you implement.

Test before you publish: banned words, the em dash, and AI brand guidelines

9:49 Um, you know, here's an example. Um, we've developed content prompts for, uh, you know, author profiles for content.

9:58 And those, those profiles can contain, you know, dozens and dozens of words to avoid.

10:05 Um, and the reason for that is because we all know that there are several trigger words that when we see them, right, and it's just like the em dash.

10:14 You know, it's almost like now A- and it's funny because I used to use them a lot in blog posts 10 years ago, right?

10:20 Yes. This was a real grammatical, like, thing. And now I, I can't use my em dash anymore, you know? I, I can't use my en dash anymore, you know.

10:26 And, and it irritates me, you know, because now when people see an en dash they're like, "Oh, that's AI," you know.

10:32 Um, so it, it's, it's, you know, rather than just jumping out there and using it and implementing it and saying, you know, "We'll adjust, uh, as we go," what we'd rather see is experimentation taking place first.

10:48 You know, develop that in your brand guidelines, you know. You should have brand guidelines, especially if, uh, regardless of you have an in-house team or you're doing it yourself or whatever, you wanna have some sort of guidelines to ensure that the stuff you create is consistent, whether it's visual or it's written or whatever, video.

11:04 And, you know, include guidelines for how to use AI, and the best way to figure that out is to test it.

11:10 And, you know, create a piece of content, put it aside for a couple of weeks, come back to it and look at it and ask yourself, "Does this sound like us?

11:18 Does this look like us?" You know, because in the moment it sounds great, you publish or you, you, you know, post it or whatever, and you just move on.

11:26 So, so I think we need a lot more experimentation earlier on, um, before we start putting all this stuff out.

11:36 Right. It's, it's that level of, um, one-shotting, uh, uh, uh, typing something and then, uh, publishing and someone claiming, "Yes, I actually like looked at it."

11:44 Like, great, but there was no, uh, back and forth test to make sure this is the right thing. And I think what is important that you mentioned there was include AI guidelines in your brand guide, because probably the next agency or marketing person you have will use it.

12:01 It's not gonna go away, they will just use it the wrong way or the right way. So having another page that we never needed to do before, now it could be, m- uh, AI usage and guidelines, what to say, what not to say, how to use it, what to use it, so that it stays within the true, um, essence of the brand.

12:20 Correct. Yeah. Right on. And, um had a thought on something.

12:26 Uh, you hit it right- Well, w- before we, before we go to the next one, I think this is important because people will want to use AI.

12:34 They will probably use it, they just want to use it the right way, and maybe they have been misguided in using it completely wrong.

12:39 Mm. Um, if someone is, um, if someone is looking to like, "Okay, I, I want to do some tests.

12:46 I want to, um, see how this works," it sounds like they should start with one thing, use AI on a one small thing w- in the whole marketing or branding, and then go to the next thing.

12:57 How would that look like? What are the first steps that if you talk with a client and like, "Hey, we have a bunch of tools," what do you usually advise them, start using it here, start using it here.

Start with one use case and perfect it

13:05 What are those use cases? How, how does that look like? Okay. Uh, so, so one thing, uh, yeah, that's, that's a good question, too.

13:11 You know, it's, um, give a, give you a real use case, okay. So content creation, a lot of times what they'll do is rely on the, the, the software to do the keyword research.

13:22 You know, they'll just, they'll just start having a conversation with AI and they'll say, you know, g- give me some keywords to use, give me a topic, research a topic, whatever it might be.

13:31 The first thing to understand is that every AI model has a different method for doing research and making suggestions, so it's very, it's, it's very, uh, possible to go into Claude and get a, a recommendation for a specific topic and go into ChatGPT and get different recommendations.

13:49 Um, so, you know, the first thing you wanna do is y- you want to develop a process, you know, you wanna keep working with your prompts and with the, with the AI model that you prefer until you start seeing some consistency in the results you get back.

Run two AI models against each other

14:04 Um, another good thing to do is to have 2 different models and, and do a comparison. You can test that way, too.

14:10 You know, you can, you can put, you can, you can, you know, ask for, you know, you can have a conversation in one model and get some recommendations, put it in the other.

14:19 They never agree, almost always, you know? Um, so I think the thing to do would be to, to pick an area where you believe AI can offer the most efficiency, right?

14:32 Start with that, and just focus on the one thing, just the one thing, regardless of what it is.

14:37 Don't feel this pressure to have to, you know, use it for everything, because I think, you know, that's where companies start to go down the wrong path.

14:46 And, um, and who's checking, you know? That's another thing. Like, is there any kind of, are there measures in place where anyone is kinda checking this and going, "Wait, wait, wait, you know, this may not be something we wanna put out there," or, "Let's fact check these numbers, you know?

14:59 Uh, are we sure about this?" Even the source, if it gives you a source. A lot of times you'll go to a source that doesn't exist.

15:06 It'll just, it'll give you a source, but it's either, uh, you know, it's no longer alive, so you can't actually go to the page, or all kinds of things there.

15:13 So, you know, really work on one process and finesse that and get it as close to perfection as you can.

15:20 I think if you did that, you know, um, you'd be much better off. You know, I think you'll see that you'll be much more efficient, and what you use it for will actually benefit you more.

15:32 I think that's, that's the most valuable piece in this whole conversation right now. If someone takes that one thing.

15:38 Do not feel like you need to us- uh, use it for your blog, for your SEO, for your Google Analytics dashboard, for your content strategy, for your brand guide.

15:47 Start with one thing. Maybe the one that you suck the most or the one that you are really good so you can use that as you are the soundboard.

15:54 You can always look at it. And I think I was, uh, giving that example where I'm pretty good with writing sales stuff, short messages or emails.

16:03 A- and I was short on time. I needed to change a different, uh, uh, drip campaign. I wanted something different that I haven't done before.

16:10 2 weekends, the emails sounded I've seen them all. They sounded identical, but because I w- I can do that writing I kept saying, "Oh no, this is not good.

16:19 No, this is not good." I would never say that in a sales conversation. This is not good in the early stages. Eventually, I stopped it, and I just wrote it the way that I would write it, and within one day, I got already, like, 2, 3 replies.

16:30 The main point I wanted to say there is your concept. One thing, I took that one thing, perfected it.

16:37 Now you can probably apply it to other places, and that is probably, like, the best way because you can

16:43 The, the second thing you mentioned there that I liked a lot was using 2 models. People become, like, this, like, a echo chamber.

16:50 They just use one. If I've passed it between three and it disagreed on a bunch of stuff, it showed a bunch of stuff that it didn't show on a different one, it is very uncomfortable because you're like, "But I, I know this.

17:02 I've heard it 100 times," but not in this one, not in this model. Right.

17:08 Yeah, absolutely. And you know, you're talking about your, your email there and, uh, writing those.

17:13 I, I think, and, and I think I mentioned this when we were talking one time, that, it seems like now you have to, you, you have to either be a, an, a very good and excellent communicator or a really bad one to stand out.

17:26 You know? I mean, I've even heard, and maybe you have, too, the stories about how people will take AI content and they'll, uh, just put some grammatical errors in the content so that you think it's human written.

17:36 I mean, is that what we're doing now? You know, is that, is that what it's coming to? That that's what we've gotta do, is make the writing worse than it already is?

17:45 You know what I'm s- I mean, there, you know, it, it's, it's like that You know, but that's, that's f- that, that

17:51 Unfortunately, that is where we are right And if, if someone is looking at

17:58 This one I think is interesting, 'cause I've seen it many times. Someone wants to be an expert, and they believe the AI will shoot out the right stuff, uh, and they post it.

18:08 An easy example would be claiming things that you've done but you haven't. Mm-hmm.

18:14 So there was one guy that thought this was like, to me, didn't sound right.

18:19 Um, "I had a call, uh, with the internal team at LinkedIn, and this is what I discovered." That was a hook.

18:25 That was not fact. That was a hook that he took from different places. "I talked with the internal team at, uh, at Instagram, and this is what they said," uh, when it comes to reels.

18:35 It was a nice hook. It wasn't true. What do you see happening when someone, like the clients you work with and the brands, if someone from the team says, "Hey, I think we can run this content that is, uh, they're not the expert at," and they just believe the AI is right?

Publishing content you're not an expert in

18:48 Yeah, that, that's, that's really, that, that's really rolling dice. I mean, you're, you're gambling at that point because, you know, it, it only takes one mistake.

18:59 And I've seen this actually happen t- a couple of years ago. It was a logistics company, um, that was looking

The logistics post that got 500 comments of bad press

19:06 They, they were recruiting, and they put a statistic out about, uh, drivers and their, their, um

19:16 You know, it had to do, it had to do with, um, with, with the company and, and how many miles they covered in a year on the road, their drivers, and it wasn't humanly possible.

19:28 I don't remember what the number was, but it just wasn't humanly possible, and if you read it, you would immediately go, "Wow, that, that almost doesn't sound right."

19:36 And if you do the math, because they also put out how many drivers they had, you know, you, you could see that this was made up, right?

19:44 This was made up, and it was. It was made up. It was an AI-generated post. And you know, their average content engagement was maybe 8, 10 comments, and they, they eclipsed 500 comments on that one.

19:57 They got press. They just got the wrong kinda press, you know? They got the wrong kind of attention. And, um, you know, that's an extreme example, but, but it's in subtle things.

20:06 Um, there was a, there was a court case, uh, uh, that, I believe this was in Australia, and it's been a while, but it's been within the last year or so, where the attorneys actually, um, used AI to research similar cases and there was some testimony that they quoted, and the AI made that testimony up.

20:27 up. And they had to refund, I think it was, it was, it might have been 400,000, uh, Australian dollars or it was, uh, it was 100

20:35 It w- it was something like that. But the, the point is the same. It's, it's like this is, you know, these are the things that are happening out there, and when you read about some of it, it, it, it's kind of unbelievable and you think, "I would never do that," but it is easy to do.

20:48 This tool is just, you know, it's, it's just right here for us, right? And it's cheap, and it's accessible.

20:55 It's on our phones, it's on our computers. Um, and so, you know, we just have to, um, we gotta think twice.

Why 2027 is the year of the human-built brand

21:03 I, I truly believe, um, and, and, and we talked about this, uh, off-camera as well, that in 27, I will not use in any shape or form for the content, 'cause I tried it.

21:15 I wanted to try it. Mm-hmm. You see, you see these talks from, like, the CMO of Anthropic, the CMO from OpenAI, "This is how we use it for our company."

21:24 ElevenLabs, Lovable. Like, all these massive companies are saying, "This is how we use it." And you're like, I had a conversation with one client and he's like, "You know OpenAI, they got Jonathan Ives.

21:35 They didn't get their model. They got Jonathan Ives, the Apple guy, to do marketing and design a product.

21:42 That tells you something. That even the biggest companies, the ones that tell you this is the future, they still will rely on human creativity.

21:50 Mm-hmm. The talent, not the technology. And I think in 27 going forward, I think brand will definitely be the key thing that you can stand out w- far more, um, easier than before because of this sea of sameness.

Where AI takes marketing next: more generic, less unique

22:06 Uh, where do you see AI changing the world going forward? Where do you see that going forward in terms of marketing and brand?

22:13 Uh, what are the right things that people are, are doing? What are the right things that you've seen that we could use this? How will that change branding and marketing going forward?

22:23 Um, so we know AI is going to improve. So there may be someone out there right now saying, "Well, you know, you're right, but, you know, in a year"

22:33 Well, they were saying that 2 years ago. Right. I, you know, I really think that what, this is just my opinion, but based on what I see happening, what I believe is that over time, without knowing it, we are going to become more generic.

22:52 We're just not gonna, we're not gonna be aware of it, as aware of Um, as a result of using AI in our marketing and our brand strategy, we are gonna, we're gonna be less unique.

23:06 We're w- and, and, and again, we're not gonna know it. But the companies that continue, you know, the first thing i- uh, you gotta do is resist the temptation, because there's this temptation to compete and get ahead and keep up, and our competitors are doing it.

23:22 And, you know, we've said that to people. You know, we've said that to clients. We've said, "Listen, you know, your competitors are using this, and, you know, uh, it, it's, it's something that, you know, it's, to, you have to consider."

23:34 But I really believe that the, the companies, um, the marketers who continue to do the work are going to eventually come out of this, uh, they're gonna have an edge.

23:48 They're gonna maintain an edge because they're gonna, you know, the test is to stay true to who you are.

23:55 And a machine, at least for the foreseeable future, is not going to be able to do that.

24:02 I, I see the parallel with, um, someone saying, like you were saying, oh, uh, someone will say, "Oh, well, AI keeps getting improving."

24:09 It's true. It will keep improving and will get better. It's the same thing that you were saying, at least in my mind, if someone was painting a picture versus, um, Adobe Creative that's about, and you kinda make it in Illustrator, whatever.

24:22 That one still has a lot more value. Is it more common? No. It's still an art piece.

24:27 It's still very rare, but that one will have more value versus, uh, the one that you can just do, uh, graphic design it in Illustrator and you're done with it.

24:36 It is not that it's not possible, like you were saying, is it becomes a lot more generic. But the ones that stand out, it's still the art piece that stand, the hand-painted one.

24:44 Even in today's time, doesn't matter if it's, like, common or uncommon. That one has way, way more value, and if you take that and you apply it into a brand, what does that mean?

24:52 This, this product is 5X, this one is 50X because the brand, because of that art painting kinda thing that

25:02 And I believe that, that, that resist that temptation, that's what I was saying. You can notice that it's easier and you sound, you start to sound like everybody else.

25:11 But if you actually get the right person to do it, maybe they can speed up some of the research and they do the test and everything.

25:17 But the actual work, the hard work to be done by a person, it will stand out when it comes to the brand. The brand will, it, it, it is not some logo and a couple of fonts.

What a brand actually is

25:25 In your mind, when someone talks about brand, 'cause I'm pretty sure you hear this all the time, what do you define as brand?

25:32 What is in your mind when you talk with a client, "This is what I consider

25:37 Right. So the, the brand is, is the essence of the company, the entity, just as your personality is, uh, for a pers- you know, for a human.

25:48 It's, it's, it's something that really is intangible. It, it's a collection of things. It, it's a collection of how it looks, uh, what it says, what it offers, the value, the culture, the people that you interact with.

26:02 It's a, it's a collection of all of these things, the messaging- And it, it, it essentially, it is a persona just as a person would have.

26:10 Um, because if you look at a lot of the successful brands, they stand out for a reason, and it's not always about how great the product is.

26:20 Most of the time, it, it's about this, this feeling or this experience that you get, you know, from, from interacting.

26:27 Whether it's Coca-Cola or Disney or whoever it might be, um, there is something about it, you know?

26:32 I mean, it's just like Ray-Bans. You know, I love Ray-Bans. Why? You know, I just think they're cool. You know, Tom Cruise wore them in Top Gun, and I was in high school when that movie came out, right?

26:41 And, um, I wear Ray-Bans, you know? It's not because I think I'm gonna look like Tom Cruise if I put them on, it's just what it means to me, you know?

26:49 And that's what a brand is. And that's why I say that, you know, I think companies that do stay true to themselves and keep that front and center

26:59 You know, AI's gonna change the world ten times more than the internet did, I think, but it may not change it the way we think it's going to.

27:07 I mean, people are gonna lose jobs. There are gonna be new ones, Um, it'll be able to do a lot of things really well that it can't do right now, but there are still gonna be other things that it, that it, that it, um, won't be able to do.

27:18 And I just think that maintaining that brand integrity, so to speak, is gonna be something that people are always going to have to do.

27:26 I don't believe that a machine is gonna be able to do I see the same thing, and I, I say that I see the same thing because as small businesses, we are the ones that tried it the most.

27:41 Basically, we're the guinea pigs. We tried it the most because we needed the edge. How do we compete in this open market?

27:47 And we've used it, and we've tried all the And it's like everybody's looking at each other, is like, "Is it me?

27:52 Is it me that" And everybody says the same story. "No, man. It's not you." I got the same generic answers.

27:58 I got the same generic- Yeah website looking, the same generic, "Here is your marketing strategy day one, day 3.

28:04 This is my lean. This is not what I would do." Press it a little bit harder, agrees with you right away on the spot.

28:10 And the feeling that I'm keep, that I keep seeing is no one is saying, "This is it. I found the solution.

28:15 Finally, man, my content is, like, so good." It's that feeling of, "I tried it and I don't know, so I- I guess I need to go back," or that's what you were saying, I feel like, the resisting to the, to the temptation.

28:27 I just sound more generic and just keep leaning towards faceless YouTube videos or I don't know, whatever.

28:33 So then you start to go like the, the rest as, as opposed to standing out, creating that feeling that these brands are creating for us.

28:39 Um, when you're working with clients that want to develop a strong brand right now today, um, how does that approach look like for you?

How a brand audit works

28:49 What, what are the steps that you take to be like, okay, you are either brand refresh Very, I think very rarely people need to do, like, a full rebrand or something horrible happened maybe.

28:57 It's like a brand refresh. Someone comes to you and says, "We need to do a brand refresh." Uh, what are the aspects that you start to work on?

29:03 How does that process look like? Okay, so the, you know, the first thing we do i- and it's, it's in the name of the company, The Brand Auditors, is we audit the brand.

29:13 Um, and what we're looking for is, you know, are you really who you say you are?

29:19 Is your company really doing, are you really doing the things you, you want to be doing, that you say you're doing?

29:25 Are you reaching the people you want to reach? Um, and if that's not happening, there can be several reasons for that.

29:33 You may not need to rebrand the company. Um, there are several reasons to, to rebrand and why it's a good idea.

29:38 Um, you know, sometimes it's as simple as, as, as updating some things. And so, you know.

29:44 Or you're just missing a few things that you didn't even know existed. So, uh, a- an audit is the first step to that.

29:51 And, um, it, it, it's really going to Uh, it's not just a simple, you know, you know, your color palette needs to be, you know, and your

29:58 It's not, it's not like that. It goes into, um, your, your business value proposition.

Start with the value proposition, not the color palette

30:04 You know, the offer that you really have. Where is the value that you're bringing to the market? Who are your most profitable target segments?

30:12 What are they looking for? What do they care about? Are you connecting with them on that level?

30:20 And, um, you know, as the, as we go through that process, questions get answered.

30:27 When you're going through this process, and it sounds like it's a very, uh, unique approach, where you're going from the value proposition and who you're reaching out to, is that resonating, versus let's look at everything else, you're going to, like, one specific piece.

The value proposition mistake almost every company makes

30:40 Um, what are some of the misconceptions when it comes to a value proposition? When someone says, "Chris, I have a fantastic one.

30:47 This is it." And you're like, "Well, that's not a value proposition." What are the usual misconceptions when it comes to, like, a value proposition?

30:53 Well, what we find most often is it's not communicated very Um, you know, it, it's not unusual for me to, you know, have a meeting with a client and get online, look at their website, kind of look at what they're putting out there, and then get on the meeting, in, into the meeting, and I ask them what their value proposition is, and it, it takes me by surprise because it's not anywhere on the website.

31:17 And if it is, you know, it's just not being communicated very And so, you know, when you start with that, you can imagine, you know, i- is everything else off?

31:29 And it usually is. Um, so I hope that answers- It does

31:35 I hope that answers your question. That- 'Cause that's really- It does- the common question because so many people will say, "Don- don't look at my website. I know I, I need to, like, change it."

31:42 And you're like, "Okay, cool," like, "No problem." Then you open social media, like, oh, but that says something else as well there.

31:47 And then they search the brand, and there will be a bunch of maybe PR they did back in the day. So it's very, um, like you were saying, it's very disconnected.

31:56 What they want to say, what they want to communicate is not what is truly being, uh, communicated.

Scrubbing old AI content and why brands drift over time

32:02 Is there a way to, um, like, scrub, basically.

32:08 Let's, let's call it that. Like, "Hey, look, I know I, I put out a bunch of shit, uh, really bad stuff. Like, you know what?

32:13 We were doing this. Uh, we had Bob, and Bob was, like, leaning into AI slop, and we were, like, pumping in '25."

32:20 what do you advise when it comes to that? Do you advise they go in and scrub all your social media and change your blogs, or is there a way to do it in a different way?

32:27 Yeah, so that's, that's a good question. And, you know, um, I mean, you know, we're guilty of it, too, right?

32:33 I mean, we experimented with a lot of AI content because- Yes you know, w- if it's something that we recommend, uh, or if we, if we share it with clients, it's because we've learned it ourselves.

32:43 We've used it in our business, okay? So we're not just making blind recommendations, and most of the stuff that we talk about, or all of it, is, is stuff we've learned firsthand, okay?

32:52 So we've had to do a lot of that, and we're still doing it, and I think that that's just a process that, that, that will continue because companies evolve.

33:02 Um, you know, the maturity of a company, you know, when you're getting started, you're just focused on, uh, getting business and, and you're on growing the business.

33:10 And whatever it takes to grow, it, you know, you're in, right? That's what you're gonna do.

33:15 After a while, you're, you, you start to focus on some other things, maybe im- improving your product or your service.

33:21 And then after a while, you, you start targeting a different market segment. And so if you look at that over time, everything becomes disjointed and disconnected, and, um, it, it's a normal thing to have that happen.

33:33 And so to correct that is also gonna be a process. Just like it took time for that to, to happen, it takes time to correct

33:41 What's really important is having a process that's practical that you can use, and a consistent process you can use.

Quarterly, semi-annual, and annual brand course-correction

33:51 It's something you've gotta do every quarter, every 6 months, once a year. You know? It, it can't be something that we're gonna do now, and then we're good for 5 years.

33:59 It doesn't work that And that's, that's what we offer. It's that course correction, a continuous going in the right path because things change.

34:08 Uh, you discovered a new market or something else completely shook the, the market, like AI stuff.

34:14 It, it sounds like it's normal to, um, change and evolve, uh, but what is the main piece that is missing is those, uh, that, that course correction that has to happen frequently, which people kind of don't do at all, and, and then it becomes this whole complete different path.

34:28 Um, you mentioned quarterly. You mentioned annually. Um, how does that process start, uh, for, for a brand?

Be realistic: get input from leadership and the frontline

34:36 Is it, is it something that the whole team sits down? Is it something that, you know, when you work with a client, you're like, "Hey, I analyzed a bunch of stuff"?

34:42 how does that look like so that it's more real for people? Okay. Well, that, so it has to work for you, you know?

34:49 We have first thing we have to do is be realistic. You know what I mean? You know, it's nice to think that we're gonna do something and get it done in 90 days, and we're gonna implement and

34:58 in reality, it may not work that way for your company. It may be more like 6 months to a year.

35:03 You know, it's better to do it less frequently but do it effectively than it is to try to, to do more than you can take on.

35:11 Um, you know, and in terms of, of how that begins, you know, it, it's, it's input from everybody because leadership usually has their priorities and their perspective, but people on the front line, whether it's customer service or the sales representatives or, you know, the content creation team, they all have different angles and perspectives they can offer up, and there's a lot of value in all of those.

35:35 And so it's important, uh, you know, when we work with clients, we try to get as much of that input as we possibly can, and, and that's what gives us a, a better picture, a bigger picture, a clearer one, you know, that's more accurate, um, you know, than just dealing with a company contact.

35:54 I think that's the, I think that's the good piece because from my process, talking with the frontline staff like, uh, like you mentioned, uh, that's where I realized I was doing a lot of retargeting to people that I've reached out to but didn't reply to any of my messages.

36:12 Um, and then one of my team members said, "Hey, you know what? I actually get a lot more engagement and book calls from people that said they want to book the call but didn't, or they said we'll touch base but never followed up, and I followed up, but they stopped."

36:24 Reaching back to those people was far more effective than this big list, and I changed the process because I want feedback, was like, and they're like, "Yeah, here's the numbers.

36:33 This person we reached out, like, 2 years ago, they were interested, and I followed up a couple of times. That person converted, versus here's someone that I kept retargeting and nothing happened."

36:43 And get- getting that input, which was very different from what I was looking at, changed the, the, the, not just the brand but the value proposition dramatically differently because, you know, we have different input from all, from all aspects.

36:55 Um, Chris, this is very valuable information. What happens, uh, if someone wants to work with you?

How to reach Chris

37:01 How do people get ahold of you to work with you? Best way to do it is go to brandauditors.com.

37:08 Everything's there. We've got an 800 number you can call. Um, we've got a contact form you can use.

37:13 We've got a consultation form. Um, you know, you can learn a little bit about what we do, uh, the different things we offer.

37:20 Uh, I'm on LinkedIn, you know, under my name, Chris Fullmer. You know, the, that, uh, we put a link in somewhere.

37:27 But, uh, I'm on LinkedIn. Look me up. Uh, either one of those take you right, right, right where you need to be.

Wrap-up

37:35 Fantastic, Chris. Thank you so much. Thank you for doing part 2. Hopefully, we'll do, uh, many more of these parts. This was very valuable, and I believe you set course, uh, to a lot of brands on the right path.

37:44 So thank you for everything, and, uh, I wish you all the success. Hey, thank you so much. It's, uh, great catching up.