JUST Branding
JUST Branding - by Jacob Cass & Matt Davies
The JUST Branding Podcast, hosted by Jacob Cass & Matt Davies, is the only podcast dedicated to helping designers & entrepreneurs grow brands.
Each episode goes deep into the details of the brand building process, with professional insights, actionable tips and resources to help you build better brands.
The focus is on helping designers & entrepreneurs bridge the gap between strategy and design. Branding professionals from around the world join Jacob & Matt in discussing the benefits of brand strategy, top tools, how to sell strategy, brand purpose, brand positioning, neuroscience, brand personality, messaging, storytelling, brand naming, tag lines, logo design, brand identity design and brand experience.
ABOUT JACOB CASS
Jacob Cass is a Sydney-based designer & strategist who runs JUST Creative, an award-winning branding & design firm that doubles as an industry leading blog. Jacob helps brands grow & get results by crafting distinctive logos & brand identities that are backed by a solid brand strategy.
He recently rebranded San Francisco and Puerto Rico, and also branded New York's Digital District. Other clients have included the likes of Disney, Nintendo and Jerry Seinfeld. Jacob has spoken at TEDx, been featured in Forbes, Entrepreneur and has been awarded LinkedIn’s “Best of” for branding.
For him, design is a lifelong journey of continuously honing his craft, as well as educating other fellow designers & business owners to build on theirs, which has allowed him to build a large and loyal following, including his website which has been been viewed over 50 million times. Jacob is an avid traveler and has traveled to 87 countries.
ABOUT MATT DAVIES
Matt is a brand strategy specialist working with leaders to align around their brand and get it ready to connect deeply with those inside and outside of their organisations. His work enables you to grow your business faster and easier. Matt solves a variety of brand challenges, from strategy and positioning to naming and identity right through to company culture and product innovation.
Each episode goes deep into the details of the brand building process, with professional insights, actionable tips and resources to help you build better brands.
The focus is on helping designers & entrepreneurs bridge the gap between strategy and design. Branding professionals from around the world join Jacob & Matt in discussing the benefits of brand strategy, top tools, how to sell strategy, brand purpose, brand positioning, neuroscience, brand personality, messaging, storytelling, brand naming, tag lines, logo design, brand identity design and brand experience.
ABOUT JACOB CASS
Jacob Cass is a Sydney-based designer & strategist who runs JUST Creative, an award-winning branding & design firm that doubles as an industry leading blog. Jacob helps brands grow & get results by crafting distinctive logos & brand identities that are backed by a solid brand strategy.
He recently rebranded San Francisco and Puerto Rico, and also branded New York's Digital District. Other clients have included the likes of Disney, Nintendo and Jerry Seinfeld. Jacob has spoken at TEDx, been featured in Forbes, Entrepreneur and has been awarded LinkedIn’s “Best of” for branding.
For him, design is a lifelong journey of continuously honing his craft, as well as educating other fellow designers & business owners to build on theirs, which has allowed him to build a large and loyal following, including his website which has been been viewed over 50 million times. Jacob is an avid traveler and has traveled to 87 countries.
ABOUT MATT DAVIES
Matt is a brand strategy specialist working with leaders to align around their brand and get it ready to connect deeply with those inside and outside of their organisations. His work enables you to grow your business faster and easier. Matt solves a variety of brand challenges, from strategy and positioning to naming and identity right through to company culture and product innovation.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Feb 15, 2022 • 56min
S03.EP03 - Global Brand Strategy with Jan-Benedict Steenkamp
Are you looking to take a brand to an international audience?
Global expansion needs careful consideration and so if this is you this episode will be packed with value!
We sit down with marketing expert, academic and author Jan-Benedict Steenkamp (or as we know him "JB"!) to discuss his book "Global Brand Strategy: World-Wise Marketing in the age of Branding"
In this insightful episode, JB walks us through the COMET framework and the components of which are helpful to consider for brands seeking to go international or for brands who are already international and need to focus their strategy.
Feb 1, 2022 • 60min
S03.EP02 - Building Legendary Brands with Storytelling w/ Gair Maxwell
The strength of any brand – including yours - hinges on two key factors: Differentiation & Relevance. But it doesn’t stop there. What makes a truly legendary brand is the STORY behind it.
In this episode we decipher why some brands have lines reaching around the block, while other perfectly apt competitors sit empty just steps away.
Gair Maxwell shares case studies including WHY the Mona Lisa is famous and how every-day leaders can build irresistible brands.
Gair Maxwell is a brand strategist, historian, speaker, a former radio and TV host and author of the new book, Big Little Legends:
If you want to build a legendary brand, tune into this brilliant episode.
Jan 19, 2022 • 43min
S03.EP01 - Designing Company Culture with Josh Levine
How can you create an amazing company culture that ensures a brand strategy can be actualized?
That's at the core of this discussion with the amazing Josh Levine, author of Great Mondays.
We sit down with Josh to examine how branding should be done from within by intentionally designing a company culture.
Together we discuss the six components of company culture - Purpose, Values, Behaviors, Recognition, Rituals and Cues.
If you are a brand builder looking to operationalize, align and motivate a whole company around brand thinking, this one is for you.
Nov 15, 2021 • 1h 10min
S02.EP22 - Best of Season 2 (2021)
Listen in as we reveal our favourite outtakes from Season 2 of the JUST Branding Podcast in 2021, including branding insights from creative minds such as Sagi Haviv, Joseph Pine II, Denise Lee Yohn, Natalie Nixon, Bill Gardner, Emily Cohen, Armin Vit, Julian Cole and more.
Nov 1, 2021 • 49min
S02.EP21 - Building Brands for a Sustainable Tomorrow with Katie Klencheski
Katie is the Founder and Creative Director of Brooklyn-based SMAKK, a branding and growth studio whose mission is to help values-led clients build world changing brands.
For much of her career she has worked with everyone from industry giants like American Express and Shiseido to a variety of nimble disruptive beauty, fashion, wellness, and lifestyle brands, including The Honey Pot Company, Harry’s Razors, and more.
Katie applies her expertise across content creation, ecommerce, social media, marketing, and digital experiences toward changing consumer behavior, leading to purchasing decisions that are better for people and the planet.
Oct 18, 2021 • 1h 9min
S02.EP20 - Powerful Personal Branding with Rob Levinson
What makes a powerful personal brand and how can you build one that endures? We outline all the steps you need to follow to craft an authentic brand narrative that will help you get noticed, remembered and results.
Rob Levinson is a seasoned brand strategist who’s worked for global consumer brands such as DeBeers, Rolls-Royce, BMW and more. Now he’s the principal of Leverage Advisors which helps grow middle-market B2B businesses, as well as a Personal Brand Coach which helps people to develop brand stories that get them noticed & remembered. He’s also a lecturer at Boston Uni, and a former Wall Street Journal online columnist.
If you’re wanting to improve & grow your personal brand, this episode is for you!
4 snips
Oct 4, 2021 • 50min
S02.EP19 - Creative Briefs & Strategy Fundamentals with Julian Cole
Learn how to write rock-solid creative briefs and the fundamentals of strategy so you can gain confidence in your strategic abilities, and ultimately have a bigger impact on your company.
Julian Cole is a strategy consultant for global brands such as Apple, Facebook & Disney.
Previously, he’s held the role of Head of Comms Planning at BBDO & has helped create award-winning work for PlayStation, Pepsi, Google and after looking at his wrap sheet - pretty much the Global 100.
Julian is also a strategy coach and in 2017 he founded the Planning Dirty Academy which helps agency strategists improve their craft by getting their hands dirty.
Sep 20, 2021 • 51min
S02.EP18 - Branding From The Inside with Kyle Millar
What's it like working on corporate brands from the inside?
In this episode we take a peak behind the curtain to see how big brands are managed by their in-house teams. We sit down with the fantastic Kyle Millar, VP of Marketing at SodaStream Canada.
Kyle outlines how he views brand strategy, the principles he uses to build brand, create memorable customer experiences and to inspire his teams to success. He also digs into what it’s like to work “in-house” - both the highs and the lows.
If you are thinking about working in-house, or if you are just curious as to what it's like joining a large organization in their brand department, this episode is not to be missed.
Previously Kyle has led leading brand roles in Unilever, Molson Coors and Capital One - so it you want to learn from someone whose been there, done it and got the corporate T-shirt, this is the episode for you.
Sep 6, 2021 • 1h 4min
S02.EP17 - No-BS Strategies To Evolve Your Creative Business with Emily Cohen
In this episode, we go deep into the world of business strategy with Emily Cohen.
Emily is a self-described “brutally honest” consultant to creative professionals and in fact, she even named her book that!
Her business book, Brutally Honest: No-Bullshit Strategies to Evolve Your Creative Business, is chock full of advice, insights, business best practices, actionable strategies, case studies and much more, but unlike many other books for our industry, Brutally Honest is designed for visual learners (like us!) and includes colorful info-graphics, checklists, as well as short & impactful sound bites to apply!
So if you’re looking for the tools & strategies to whip your business or team in to shape, this episode is for you.
Aug 23, 2021 • 32min
S02.EP16 - Simplicity in Branding with Scott Buschkuhl
Today we have Scott Buschkuhl who is the Creative Director at Siegel & Gale, a brand strategy, design, and experience firm with its global headquarters located in NYC.
Here, Scott develops teams and works hands-on with his clients who have included folks like New York Times, Victoria’s Secret, Wired, and dozens more. He’s got a ton of awards on his belt, he’s a sought-after lecturer, an esteemed judge for competition juries, and also a professor at the School of Visual Arts in NYC.
He’s previously worked at Pentagram and also ran his own agency for 12 years so it’s safe to say we’re in good hands.
Today we’re going to be discussing Simplicity in Branding which is S&G’s philosophy on brand in general. In fact, they state “We’re the simplicity company” as their tagline.
We discuss designing for humans, emotional responses, team collaboration, simplicity as an approach to brand strategy, presentation techniques, and much more!
