The interwebs are abuzz with the new GAP wordmark. People are shocked, enraged, agog. Productivity is down. People want answers. Emails are flooding my inbox. The Distility social graph wants to know where we stand. Neither wordmark is particularly inspired. But then how inspired is that of Dolce & Gabbana or …
Brand Agencies Won’t Like This New Way to Value Brands
Yesterday, I stumbled upon a great rant about the recently published Interbrand 100 top brand rankings of 2010. On his blog, Chicago based Brand Strategist Jonathan Salem Baskin suggests a far better way to value a brand, one the brand agencies are bound to hate. After sending it to my team, …
Brand Scam: Buying Too Darn Much!
Updated for 2026: This scam is now Trap Three: Too Much, or Too Cheap in the free 2026 edition of How to Buy Branding, rewritten for a world where everyone has AI. Too many branding vendors bank on the fact that you are lost in the branding quagmire, so they …
Distility Branding receives angel-led funding
1day1brand system delivers an innovative and collaborative process for building brands TORONTO, ONTARIO (July 21st, 2010) — MaRS, a Toronto-based not-for-profit innovation centre, is pleased to announce that one of its clients, Distility Branding, has closed a round of angel funding totalling $350,000. Proceeds of the investment will provide operations …
Brand Scam: Buying Too Little.
Updated for 2026: This scam is now Trap Two: Buying Too Little in the free 2026 edition of How to Buy Branding, rewritten for a world where everyone has AI. By Axle Davids, CEO & Brand Technologist, Distility Branding This scam is by far the biggest of all Brand Scams …
Apple Brand Strategy Leaked in Microsoft Slide!
Hours ago, CNET and other tech sites featured a purported leaked Windows 8 document. It looks real. Especially convincing is the sad “How Apple does it: A Virtuous Cycle” slide. (image above from leaked document above) The Virtuous Cycle: A strong brand promises “That it will just work” It does …
Brand Scammed! Branding Agencies Exposed
Updated for 2026: Brand Scammed! is now How to Buy Branding, 2026 edition: free, no email required, and rewritten for a world where everyone has AI. Branding is so loveable when it fuses a team’s passion with a customer’s need. When it separates that team from the pack. When it …
The Apple & Microsoft Brand Strategies – What Do You Think?
Yesterday, Apple’s market capitalization eclipsed that of Microsoft. Their rivalry has fascinated me since I was old enough to geek. Apple has always been about control of the experience. Microsoft in its hey-day about control of the industry. Things they are a changing. So what about their brand brand strategies?
The Problem with Branding Experts
In the world of brand marketing, experts are everywhere. Branding agencies build their businesses on their expertise, and create proprietary jargon and brand models to bolster their credibility. But experts are often the exact opposite of what you need when you want to find your authentic brand.
The Diffuse Brand Strategy – What Went Wrong?
This post is one in a series on our biggest brand strategy secret here at Distility: That most bad brands can be traced back to a failure of exploration, a failure of commitment, or both. This diagram sums up the way most brands go wrong, and what it takes to …