What makes a brand truly unforgettable?
In this episode of The Unified Brand Podcast, Chris Outlaw sits down with brand strategist, creative leader, and founder Marc Rust to explore why the world’s most successful brands aren’t built on logos, colours, or taglines—they’re built on clarity, alignment, and what Marc calls “brand magic.”
Marc shares his journey from learning French through television commercials in Paris to helping organisations strengthen their positioning, increase enterprise value, and create brands people genuinely remember.
Together, they discuss:
- Why most businesses focus on what they do instead of why they matter • How internal alignment creates stronger brands and better customer experiences • The role of creativity in driving growth and innovation • Why remarkable brands stand out while ordinary brands get ignored • How private equity firms can use branding to increase company valuation • The future of brand strategy in an AI-powered world • Lessons from iconic brands including KitKat, Nike, Goodyear, and Barbie
If you’re a founder, marketer, business leader, or anyone responsible for growing a brand, this conversation will challenge how you think about branding and provide practical insights into creating a business people notice, remember, and choose.
Listen now and discover how to bottle brand magic.
Marc’s Links
Website: https://marcrust.com
Agency: https://consequentlycreative.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcr/
Agency LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/consequently/
Why Businesses Struggle With Branding: 9 Reasons Your Brand Isn’t Driving Growth
Walk into almost any boardroom and you’ll hear a familiar conversation.
“We need a new logo.”
“Our website feels outdated.”
“We need a rebrand.”
Often, these requests are genuine. Businesses evolve. Markets change. Customer expectations shift.
But after working with hundreds of organisations, I’ve noticed something interesting:
Most businesses don’t have a branding problem.
They have a clarity problem.
The logo is simply the symptom.
The website is simply the symptom.
The inconsistent marketing is simply the symptom.
The real issue sits much deeper.
During a recent conversation on the Unified Brand Podcast, brand strategist Marc Rust, founder of Consequently Creative, captured this perfectly when he explained that clients often approach agencies believing they need a website refresh or visual redesign. However, the real challenge is usually much deeper than what appears on the surface.
As Marc put it:
“They might think they need a new website, but often it’s because the environment has changed, the audience has changed, or the products have changed.”
That distinction matters.
Because until businesses identify the root cause of their branding challenges, no amount of visual refinement will unlock sustainable growth.
This article explores why businesses struggle with branding, the hidden costs of getting it wrong, and the strategic steps leaders can take to build a brand that creates long-term value.
What Is Branding Really?
Before discussing why branding fails, it’s important to understand what branding actually is.
Branding is not:
- Your logo
- Your colours
- Your website
- Your typography
- Your social media content
Those are brand assets.
Your brand is something far more powerful.
Your brand is the meaning people attach to your organisation.
It’s the perception that exists in the minds of your customers.
It’s what people say about you when you’re not in the room.
Strong brands create trust, recognition and preference.
Weak brands create confusion.
And confusion is expensive.
Why Do Businesses Struggle With Branding?
There isn’t usually one reason.
There are several interconnected factors that prevent businesses from building strong, differentiated brands.
Let’s examine the most common.
1. They Focus on What They Do Instead of Why They Matter
This is perhaps the most common branding mistake.
Businesses become obsessed with describing products, services and features.
They explain:
- What they sell
- How they deliver
- How long they’ve been operating
- Their technical capabilities
Yet they rarely explain why customers should care.
Marc Rust highlighted this challenge during our discussion:
“Businesses lead with what they do rather than why.”
This creates a major problem.
Customers aren’t buying products.
They’re buying outcomes.
They’re buying certainty.
They’re buying progress.
They’re buying transformation.
The strongest brands understand that customers want solutions to problems, not detailed explanations of internal processes.
When every competitor is talking about features, the brand that communicates purpose stands out.
2. They Blend Into the Category
Human beings are wired to ignore the familiar.
We filter information constantly.
Marc shared a brilliant analogy that perfectly illustrates this concept.
When you walk through a doorway, you don’t notice the door handle.
Not because it’s poorly designed.
Because it’s expected.
It’s common.
It’s invisible.
The same thing happens in markets.
Businesses copy competitors.
Competitors copy industry norms.
Everyone begins to sound the same.
Everyone uses the same language.
Everyone makes the same claims.
Eventually, nobody gets noticed.
Differentiation isn’t about being different for the sake of it.
It’s about creating meaningful distinction.
Brands that stand out challenge assumptions.
They present ideas differently.
They create memorable experiences.
Most importantly, they give customers a reason to remember them.
3. They Treat Branding as a Marketing Exercise
One of the biggest misconceptions in business is that branding belongs exclusively to marketing.
It doesn’t.
Branding is a business strategy function.
It influences:
- Sales
- Recruitment
- Culture
- Customer experience
- Product development
- Investor confidence
- Enterprise value
Marc Rust works extensively with organisations backed by private equity firms.
One of the reasons these firms increasingly invest in brand strategy is because they understand the relationship between perception and valuation.
As Marc explained:
“There is a direct link between the value of your company and how you’re positioning that company.”
Strong brands create commercial leverage.
Weak brands create friction.
Brand isn’t a communications exercise.
It’s a growth asset.
4. Internal Teams Aren’t Aligned
Many organisations suffer from a hidden problem.
Everyone tells a different story.
Ask seven leaders to describe the company.
You’ll often receive seven different answers.
The challenge isn’t a lack of intelligence.
It’s a lack of alignment.
Marc described alignment as one of the most important factors in building successful brands.
Without alignment:
- Marketing creates one message
- Sales creates another
- Leadership communicates something different
- Customer service interprets the brand differently
The result?
Customers receive mixed signals.
Trust weakens.
Consistency disappears.
Growth becomes harder.
Strong brands create a shared understanding of who the organisation is and why it exists.
Every employee becomes an ambassador for the same story.
5. Leadership Doesn’t Lead the Brand
Branding by committee rarely succeeds.
Everyone has opinions.
Everyone wants input.
Everyone believes they’re representing the customer.
Unfortunately, too many opinions create confusion.
Marc was particularly passionate about this point.
According to him:
“The non-negotiable in developing a brand has to be leadership.”
Strong brands require decision-makers.
They require conviction.
They require clarity.
Without leadership, branding becomes a collection of compromises.
And compromise rarely creates remarkable brands.
6. Businesses Underestimate the Power of Creativity
Many leaders still associate creativity with risk.
This belief is holding businesses back.
Creativity is not risk.
Creativity is innovation.
Creativity is differentiation.
Creativity is commercial advantage.
Marc spends a significant amount of time helping business leaders reframe their perception of creativity.
As he explained:
“Business leaders have equated creativity with risk and that’s not the case.”
The world’s most valuable brands aren’t successful because they’re safe.
They’re successful because they’re memorable.
Creativity creates memory structures.
Memory creates preference.
Preference creates growth.
7. They Fail to Create Remarkable Experiences
People don’t remember transactions.
They remember experiences.
Throughout our conversation, Marc repeatedly returned to the concept of creating something remarkable.
Something worth noticing.
Something worth talking about.
He described seeing a KitKat billboard that featured people staring at KitKat bars as though they were mobile phones.
No headline.
No explanation.
Just an idea.
The campaign instantly reinforced KitKat’s long-standing positioning around taking a break from everyday distractions.
That’s the power of strategic creativity.
The strongest brands create experiences that reinforce their beliefs.
Every touchpoint becomes an opportunity to strengthen perception.
8. They Prioritise Execution Over Strategy
Many businesses move too quickly.
They want deliverables.
They want campaigns.
They want websites.
They want content.
But they skip strategy.
This creates a dangerous situation.
You can spend thousands on marketing while communicating the wrong message.
Marc explained that his agency is increasingly shifting towards strategy-first engagements because strategy creates the roadmap for growth.
His definition was simple:
“You have your business objectives on one side and your audience on the other. Strategy is how you’re going to get there.”
Without strategy, marketing becomes activity.
With strategy, marketing becomes momentum.
9. They Lack Clarity
If there is one theme that connected every part of our conversation with Marc Rust, it was clarity.
Clarity of purpose.
Clarity of positioning.
Clarity of leadership.
Clarity of communication.
Clarity is often treated as a luxury.
In reality, it’s a prerequisite for growth.
Marc described it brilliantly:
“Clarity is not a luxury. It’s a stepping stone to go higher.”
When businesses achieve clarity:
- Decision-making improves
- Marketing becomes more effective
- Teams become aligned
- Customers understand value faster
- Growth accelerates
Everything becomes easier.
How Strong Brands Create Enterprise Value
Branding isn’t simply about awareness.
It’s about creating value.
Strong brands create:
Higher Customer Retention
Customers stay longer when they understand and trust a brand.
Greater Pricing Power
Differentiated brands compete less on price.
Improved Recruitment
People want to work for organisations with purpose.
Better Customer Experience
Alignment creates consistency.
Increased Company Valuation
Strong brands become strategic assets.
This is why private equity firms increasingly recognise brand as a commercial growth lever rather than a marketing expense.
The Future of Branding in an AI World
Artificial intelligence is changing branding.
Design is becoming easier.
Content is becoming easier.
Execution is becoming easier.
But strategy is becoming more important.
Marc sees this shift clearly.
While AI can generate logos, websites and messaging, it cannot replace deep strategic thinking.
It cannot uncover purpose.
It cannot build alignment.
It cannot define meaningful differentiation.
As AI democratises execution, the organisations with the clearest strategy will create the greatest advantage.
The future belongs to brands that think before they create.
A Framework for Building a Stronger Brand
If you’re struggling with branding today, focus on five areas:
1. Clarify Your Purpose
Why does your organisation exist?
2. Define Your Position
What makes you different?
3. Align Your Team
Can everyone tell the same story?
4. Create Remarkable Experiences
What will people remember?
5. Lead With Strategy
Are your activities connected to business objectives?
Master these five areas and branding becomes significantly easier.
Final Thoughts
Most businesses don’t need another logo refresh.
They don’t need a colour palette update.
They don’t need more content.
What they need is clarity.
As Marc Rust reminded us throughout our conversation, remarkable brands aren’t built through shortcuts or easy solutions.
They’re built through leadership.
Through alignment.
Through strategy.
Through creativity.
Most importantly, they’re built by understanding why you matter before communicating what you do.
Because when clarity exists, branding becomes a growth engine.
Without it, even the most beautiful marketing struggles to make an impact.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why do businesses struggle with branding?
Businesses struggle with branding because they focus on visual identity rather than strategic clarity, differentiation, alignment and purpose.
What is the biggest branding mistake companies make?
The biggest mistake is leading with what they do instead of why they matter to customers.
Why is internal brand alignment important?
Alignment ensures everyone communicates a consistent message, creating stronger customer trust and brand recognition.
Does branding affect business growth?
Yes. Strong brands improve customer retention, pricing power, recruitment, trust and overall company valuation.
What is the difference between branding and brand strategy?
Brand strategy defines positioning, purpose and direction. Branding is the expression of that strategy through design, messaging and customer experience.
The Next Step
Ready to discover what’s really holding your brand back? Take the Brand Power Assessment and uncover the gaps between how your business sees itself and how the market sees you. The results may reveal that your biggest challenge isn’t branding at all—it’s clarity.
What's Your Brand Ceiling?
Take the 4-minute Brand Power Assessment and find out what's capping your growth, before it costs you the next deal.
