13 Jun

Customer Experience Isn’t Just a Department—It’s Your Whole Company

“Customer service shouldn’t just be a department, it should be the entire company.” — Tony Hsieh, Founder of Zappos Too often, companies isolate customer experience (CX) within a single department, treating it as a support function rather than a fundamental business philosophy. But exceptional customer experience...

10:05 / Branding / Core Values / Cult Branding / Cult Marketing / Culture / Customers First / Leadership / Trust / Salim Bueno

10 Jun

How Inconsistency Undermines Your Brand’s Value

The Hidden Cost of Ignoring Brand Consistency "Your brand is what other people say about you when you're not in the room." — Jeff Bezos While most executives understand the importance of branding, there's an often-overlooked aspect that quietly erodes profits, customer loyalty, and competitive advantage: brand...

14:29 / Branding / Cult Branding / Cult Marketing / Marketing / Salim Bueno

08 Jun

Brand Isn’t a Luxury — It’s a Multiplier

"It's not fashionable these days to say that you want to put more effort towards brand and consumer sentiment because they're harder to measure...

14:12 / Branding / Cult Branding / Cult Marketing / Marketing / Strategy / BJ Bueno

06 Jun

Good Brand Strategy Isn’t About Being Right — It’s About Being More Right

In brand strategy, I often see teams move forward when they feel pretty confident — when their odds of being right seem just above 50%. But here’s the truth: Being barely right isn’t good enough in high-stakes decisions. The real value comes from pushing that confidence way higher...

14:07 / Branding / Cult Branding / Cult Marketing / Marketing / Strategy / BJ Bueno

03 Jun

Are Your Customers Truly Loyal—or Just Creatures of Habit?

In 1973, researchers posed a powerful question that still hits hard today:Are repeat buyers really loyal, or are they simply doing what they’ve always done? Decades later, the answer remains crucial for every brand leader:A large portion of customers aren’t loyal — they’re habitual.They’ll buy your...

23:22 / Branding / Cult Branding / Cult Marketing / Marketing / Trust / BJ Bueno

01 Jun

What’s Wrong With “Brand vs Performance”? Just About Everything.

Brand or Performance?Long-term or short-term?Storytelling or selling? The binary is broken. Thinkbox’s "Profit Ability 2" study (with Ebiquity, EssenceMediacom, Gain Theory, Mindshare, and Wavemaker), is based on a rigorous analysis of £1.8 billion in ad spend across 141 brands, 14 categories, and 10 media channels. And the big...

10:33 / Branding / Cult Branding / Cult Marketing / Marketing / Strategy / BJ Bueno

30 May

Retention Is Having a Moment ✨ — And It Deserves Your Full Attention

Let’s face it: this isn’t the same marketing landscape we were operating in even a year ago. 💸 Budgets are tighter.🧑‍💼 Teams are leaner.🛍️ And customers? They’re more cautious, selective, and value-driven than ever. In this environment, there’s one area that smart brands are doubling down on: Customer...

09:15 / Branding / Cult Branding / Cult Marketing / Marketing / Strategy / BJ Bueno

28 May

Ask This One Question Before Approving a Media Plan

Here’s a simple but powerful question I ask every time I review a media plan with a brand team: 👉 How did the idea inform this media strategy? Most media plans start with audience behavior:What do our customers watch? Where do they scroll? When are they most...

17:07 / Branding / Cult Branding / Cult Marketing / Marketing / Strategy / BJ Bueno

26 May

Why the Most Powerful Medium in Marketing Is Still Underpriced

For years now, many in the advertising world have been ringing the death knell for television. “TV is dying,” they say. “Nobody watches anymore.” “It’s all about digital now.”But what if I told you that a lot of what’s been said about the value of...

10:52 / Branding / Cult Branding / Cult Marketing / Marketing / Strategy / BJ Bueno

23 May

What Does Marketing Actually Do?

As a branding strategist, I don’t typically advocate isolating marketing as a siloed function—at the executive level, business goals should transcend departmental boundaries. Whether it's revenue growth, customer loyalty, or market leadership, the goal is the goal. How we get there should be driven by...

10:14 / Cult Branding / Cult Marketing / Marketing / Strategy / Word-of-Mouth Marketing / BJ Bueno