30 – Ragged Edge: brand is an emotional thing

Strong brands are strong brands.

If you can build something that people really love, that people identify with, then I think it's just as powerful now as it always has been.

It's easy to be cynical about branding, and never more so than when you've been working in that space for a long stretch.

But when I chatted with Max Otignon, who's been running branding agency Ragged Edge for coming up on 20 years, there was absolutely no cynicism in sight.

Max thoroughly and wholeheartedly believes in what branding can achieve.

And if anything, he's more of a believer now than he's ever been.

For this episode of Private Views, we spoke about some of the hardest questions branding still faces.

Every single measurable of brand is vague and imprecise and it could be attributed to something else.

And so if you're investing in brand, you just have to get comfortable with that stuff.

There is a lack of precision.

It is hard to measure.

It is hard to know what's correct.

You are going to have to use your intuition.

And we also chatted about why building brands and working with creative agencies requires a level of gut feeling and intuition that maybe doesn't always get the credit it deserves.

And brand is an emotional thing.

And you want to work with someone who you feel gets you.

And I think that's okay.

I think that's a really good way of choosing.

So,