Laura Busche

I faced people from all walks of business who fully disregarded design (though they were completely influenced by it). I also met fine artists who drowned in their own work and the dense creative universe in their minds.Then I met designers. And instantly fell in love. Let me tell you why.Designers are familiar with critiques. They not only tolerate them but actively look out for them. They honestly believe in iterations and learn to edit down their work. They embrace simplicity and create beauty based on requirements other than their own. Design education teaches you to run away from assumptions and to have the stomach to scrap your work often.I__ bringing this up because it__ time to bridge the gap between design and business.

Your brand story__ __appily ever after_ involves open wallets.

Do everything in your power to make customers go confidently in the direction of their purchase intention.

Lean brands are the result of continually testing assumptions.

In today__ saturated marketplace, you__l go nowhere selling a __unch of features._ We are in the business of disrupting the market with brands that matter.

All human aspirations are opportunities for brands to build relationships.

Products shouldn__ just work well, they must unfold well.

Research conquers doubt. It aligns everyone around the incontestable. Research is the key to clarity__n startups, enterprises, and life itself.

Brand and product don__ compete. Brand is product, and everything else conforming to the unique story that consumers create when they think of you.

Everything and everyone represents at least one brand. Therefore, to brand or not to brand is not even a question.

People change, and so do their aspirations, and so should brands.

So, you don__ have money to invest in your brand? You do have money for damage control, right?Here__ the thing: anyone can make your brand inferior in your absence.

People relate to people, and if your brand feels like people, they__l relate to you, too.

Positioning is finding the right parking space inside the consumer__ mind and going for it before someone else takes it.

Make sure you test your brand story__ recipe with whomever you__e cooking it for.

Brands play in an exciting sandbox of symbolic meanings.

What is the __nce upon a time_ of your brand story? Ask yourself this: __ow does what I__ building help consumers close the gap between who they are today and who they want to be tomorrow?

Everyone is either building an audience or being an audience these days. Someone, somewhere in the world is thinking up content that will appeal to you as you read this. You are someone__ target audience.