Branded merchandise often works behind the scenes as one of your most consistent marketing tools. A well designed t shirt or jacket does more than outfit your team. It carries your brand into everyday spaces, promoting your business wherever it is worn. Custom apparel creates repeated impressions that build over time. When someone connects with […]
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Iman R
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Fresh off her Golden Globe nomination for the award’s inaugural best podcast category, Alex Cooper is expanding her podcast-fueled consumer empire. Unwell Hydration, the beverage brand that the “Call Her Daddy” host co-founded last year with her husband, Matt Kaplan, is launching a line of energy drinks
Unwell Energy, which is coming to market with four flavors, will be carried exclusively at Target nationwide starting December 28. Formulated with green coffee extract, vitamin B, biotin, three grams of sugar, and no artificial sweeteners, Cooper described the product line as “great tasting, better-for-you versions of their favorite drinks,” in a statement with the release.
“Wellness culture constantly tells us to be perfect, but Unwell Beverages was created to meet women exactly where they are,” she said.
That’s become an increasingly common mandate for both founder-led consumer brands and conglomerates. Over the past few years, energy drinks aimed at young women with cutesier can designs, low or zero-sugar labels, and better-for-you health claims have flooded shelves, attracting customers, investors, and acquisition offers.
Bloom Nutrition unveiled its sparkling energy drink last summer, and the viral supplement brand scored $8 million in sales within the first six months. Alani Nu, a female-focused energy drink brand founded by fitness influencer Katy Hearn Schneider, posted 78 percent annual growth in retail sales before Celsius announced a $1.65 billion deal to buy the company back in February. Serial entrepreneur Michelle Cordeiro Grant raised $24.5 million in Series A funding round for Gorgie, her wellness-focused, zero-sugar energy drink, in April. By August, she told Inc. that her Boca Raton, Florida-based company was set to hit eight figures in revenue by the end of 2025.
Targeting this key demographic of shoppers has also become a priority for Monster. In November, the $72 billion company announced FLRT, its first line of energy drinks catered to women. The zero-sugar drink, which hits shelves next March, aims to entice female consumers between the ages of 18 to 24 with influencer marketing campaigns and promises to boost collagen and immunity while supporting healthy hair and skin.
Monster co-CEO Hilton Schlosberg told shareholders at the company’s investor day in December, “One of the major segments that we don’t service on a more comprehensive basis is the female segment, and we’d like to be able to participate in a larger way.”
Cooper, at least, seems to be approaching this audience with a sense of humor. In a video posted on Unwell’s Instagram, the podcaster, pretending to be an Oprah or Jerry Springer-esque 90’s daytime talk show host, tells her studio audience that Unwell Energy “will solve all your problems,” before amending that promise and clarifying that the drinks, “won’t fix your relationship problems, but it will make you feel like you can.”
The final deadline for the 2026 Inc. Regionals Awards is Friday, December 12, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply now.
Ali Donaldson
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The dominant startup script is simple: raise fast, scale faster, exit fastest. For luxury brands, this often produces hype instead of lasting value.
Lafco, the luxury home fragrance company, took the opposite approach. After 33 years without outside capital, their candles sit alongside premium competitors at Neiman Marcus, core sizes retail around $50 to $115, and the brand has expanded from candles into body care while maintaining its positioning.
Here is what its journey reveals about building brands that actually matter.
Here is the paradox of bootstrap growth: you need to move with market intelligence, not just speed. There’s a difference.
Venture-backed companies optimize for speed: rapid iteration, fast scaling, quick pivots. Bootstrap founders need market timing: recognizing strategic windows and acting when conditions favor their positioning.
“We do not have the luxury of trying lots of marketing strategies and product introductions, of throwing a bunch of stuff against the wall to see what sticks,” founder Jon Bresler explains. “We must be incredibly thoughtful about our initiatives.”
Constraint can create advantage. When Lafco launched the Absolute Collection, featuring mouth-blown glass from a centuries-old Bohemian factory, they recognized the market moment: consumers craving authenticity and craftsmanship in an increasingly digital world. One product launch did the work of an entire campaign.
The lesson: when you cannot afford to buy attention, you need to spot strategic windows where your story matters most. Market timing forces thoughtfulness that speed alone often skips.
That same discipline shows up in how Lafco thinks about branding.
A simple diagnostic for long-term value: would you want your logo on your product?
Lafco deliberately leaves logos off its glass vessels. As Bresler puts it, the pieces should function as decor that quietly elevates a room. That choice signals confidence that the product itself, not a badge, will build equity over time.
When you’re optimizing for quarterly growth, everything becomes a short-term trade-off. When you’re building for decades, you can make decisions that compound in value over time, even if they don’t show immediate returns.
This long-term thinking also shapes how they navigate retail changes.
Retail has shifted. Prestige beauty that once lived only in department stores now meets shoppers in mass channels. Smart brands use this to their advantage.
The insight: meet customers where they are while maintaining premium positioning through how you show up, not only where you show up. That means resisting quick promotions that boost this quarter and erode the brand next year.
For bootstrap founders, every partnership and channel decision either builds or erodes your positioning. When you can’t afford to rebuild brand equity, you have to be more careful about preserving it.
When mistakes are expensive, criteria beat vibes. Lafco filters opportunities through three pillars: Artistry, Integrity, and Luxury.
This is not corporate wallpaper. Instead of “Will this increase revenue,” the first question becomes “Does this align with our pillars.” Sometimes that means walking away from short-term profit so every decision compounds in the same direction.
This patience becomes even more powerful when it’s time to expand.
After three decades of equity-building, Lafco is expanding thoughtfully into adjacent categories where its competencies translate naturally, such as body care and room fragrance accessories.
The driver is not investor pressure: it’s confidence. Patience creates optionality. Instead of diversifying out of desperation, you expand from strength.
The funding environment shifted. Money is more expensive, exits are harder, and profitability matters earlier. Many growth-at-all-costs playbooks will stall.
At the same time, consumers are skeptical of brands that feel manufactured. Companies built with patience and product substance often outperform those optimized for theatrics.
The decision is not bootstrapping versus venture capital: it’s financial engineering versus building something that lasts. Some businesses genuinely need outside capital. Others benefit from the discipline that bootstrapping demands.
“It has always been important for me to control our own destiny at Lafco,” Bresler says. “To make the products we believe represent us as a brand, and that our customers want from us, even if sometimes the products are not immediately profitable.”
Ask yourself: Are you building a business you want to own for decades, or an asset you want to sell quickly. The answer should determine your approach to growth, decisions, and brand.
In a world obsessed with unicorns, the radical move is building a business that does not need myth to succeed. Sometimes the strongest brands aren’t chasing unicorn status: they’re proving, candle by candle, that lasting businesses don’t need wings to fly.
The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.
The final deadline for the 2026 Inc. Regionals Awards is Friday, December 12, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply now.
Shama Hyder
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The driving force behind your company and its success is reliant on your employees. Their success is driven by how you support and encourage them.
Employees who feel engaged with and connected to their employers can drive scalability as well as profitability by delivering better sales and service. Gallup reporting has shown that the companies that rank highest for employee engagement outperform their competitors by 21 percent.
One method to keep your employees invested is by offering them specific perks that go beyond the standard benefits. These perks should further improve your employees’ lives, and they don’t have to be costly to be meaningful.
In the modern scrolling era, happy employees are one of your best sources of advertising. When they make positive comments or share happy work photos online, everyone can see the strength in your company culture. A healthy and impactful perks program can give your workers fodder for TikTok, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
Employee perks providers, like Working Advantage, have been expanding their offerings to make them of more interest to employees, both for usage and clout. For example, when you offer both local and national dining discounts, employees are more likely to get excited about that as opposed to being limited to nationwide chains only.
Employee excitement isn’t just about saving money: It’s about spreading their money throughout the community. By giving your employees the ability to stretch their entertainment dollars, you also give them a way to support local area businesses.
Over time, these seemingly insignificant visits to local eateries add up to memories for your employees and distribution of money for restaurants. It’s an organic way to build word-of-mouth loyalty and satisfaction without a complex, budget-heavy marketing campaign.
Ultimately, perks can turn into a marketing flywheel. As your employees use their perks (e.g., discounts at their favorite establishments or retailers), they feel like they’re getting a special value from being part of your team. Accordingly, they are more likely to gush about their experience, as well as treat your customers well.
You can’t just pick a couple of perks programs and expect that they’ll supercharge your brand’s scalability, though. You have to be deliberate and take a few pragmatic steps.
You’ve probably spent time outlining your company’s values, mission, and vision. Use that information to choose perks that align with the strong culture you want to see.
For instance, retailing giant Chewy offers to reimburse employees who adopt pets. It’s a unique offering that makes sense given Chewy’s place in the pet industry.
What if you can’t find an existing perk program that connects to your values? You could always create one yourself to present a truly one-of-a-kind employee experience for your people.
Employees may need a nudge to share “work perk” stories and experiences online. And sharing can bring a welcome spotlight on your company.
For instance, you might want to ask workers to tag your company online every time they use a perk. You could even have a tagging contest to encourage perk usage.
Another way to prompt your employees to talk about perks is to ask your managers to start the ball rolling. When managers actively talk about the perks they’re using, their direct reports might be more willing and eager to follow suit.
It can be challenging to determine if your perks are working if you’re not tracking them with KPIs. There are several metrics that can be used, including perk usage rates, employee turnover, and employee retention.
If you find that your KPIs aren’t improving, you may need to go back and make sure that your perks reflect your brand’s DNA. It’s better to know right away that a perk isn’t making the grade with your people. The sooner you find out, the sooner you can replace it with a more suitable alternative.
Before you assume that unused perks need to be updated, though, take time to look at the way you’re advertising them. You need to use understandable language. If your wording isn’t clear, your employees may be too confused about how to use the perk (or what it is).
You can’t get bigger if the people running your company are stuck in “grumble” mode. With employee perk programs like those offered by Working Advantage, you can help your workers rediscover their smiles—and share those smiles with your customers.
The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.
The final deadline for the 2026 Inc. Regionals Awards is Friday, December 12, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply now.
Joel Comm
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Multi‑unit brands, when an owner operates multiple locations, rarely stumble for lack of marketing dollars; they falter when execution is uniform, measurement is thin, and meaningful signals go unnoticed.
Many leaders still can’t tie their spending decisions to the outcomes at their store locations—they can see the sales went up or traffic decreased, but they don’t know why. A measurement‑first discipline—geo‑experiments (trying a new offer in 10 stores versus 10 control stores), location‑level KPIs (developing specific metrics for each store), and a test‑and‑scale cadence—reveals what to scale and what to stop. It also forces the operational moves, such as hours, staffing, and customer experience, that will make the results stick.
Why multi‑unit is different (and harder)
Operating one location is hard; operating dozens or hundreds is exponentially more complex. Local markets vary dramatically—demographics, density, commuting patterns, media costs. Competition can even differ within the same Designated Market Area. A national advertising plan that treats every store the same tends to produce uneven outcomes and wastes ad impressions on people who are unlikely to respond.
The solution is not bespoke campaigns for every address; it is a structured way to localize at scale. Start by grouping locations into practical archetypes—such as urban weekday, suburban family, commuter corridor, college‑adjacent, tourism/seasonal, and rural hub—so strategy, offers, channels, and frequency can flex without compromising brand consistency.
Two forces drive results: demand signals (who lives and works nearby) and execution readiness (hours, staffing, inventory, and reviews). Any plan that ignores either will struggle, no matter the budget.
How to fix common marketing mistakes
Here are the seven common mistakes most multi-unit marketers make and how to fix them.
1. Measuring activity instead of impact
Too many dashboards track impressions, clicks, or redemptions without proving whether marketing spend changed outcomes at the store level. Activity is not impact. When leaders cannot separate signal from noise, underperforming tactics linger and high‑return ideas fail to scale.
Fix: Adopt incrementality as the standard. Run short matched‑market tests (geo‑experiments) that compare test and control geographies with similar pre‑trends. Consider incremental return on ad spend— the extra revenue generated by an ad campaign—alongside visit lift, order lift, and average order value. Institutionalize a monthly win‑scale / lose‑learn cadence so teams know what continues, what pauses, and what changes.
Dashboards are not strategy; decisions are.
2. Even‑split budgeting
Equal allocations for locations feel fair but rarely align with opportunity. A downtown store with dense demand and strong conversion should not be funded the same as a rural outpost with a smaller potential customer base and weaker readiness to attract customers.
Fix: Adopt a performance‑weighted model. Provide a baseline marketing budget for every location, then distribute the remaining budget where lift potential is higher, using an index built from signals such as lead density, conversion rate, and recent marginal return. Revisit your spend quarterly. If a store is saturated—more ad spend would just repeat messsages to the same people—cap its budget and move extra dollars to the next best store.
3. Treating all locations the same
A single offer and calendar cannot fit every neighborhood. The same creative that resonates with weekday commuters will miss weekend‑driven family traffic just a few miles away.
Fix: Group similar locations into categories and manage them based on their type. Localize offers, timing, and channel weights by cluster—weekday lunch near offices versus weekend bundles in suburbs—while keeping brand standards intact.
4. Over‑relying on national media
National advertising campaigns build consistency but can miss local intent and timing. Excess saturation without neighborhood relevance leads to waste and customer fatigue.
Fix: Pair a national “spine” with local “muscle.” Use neighborhood‑level targeting, regional calendars, and frequency caps to reach the right households at the right moments. Guard against overlap so channels reinforce rather than cannibalize one another.
5. Overlooking data you already own
Many teams chase new data sources while underusing what they already have—point of sale, CRM, store comps, web and app engagement, and service history. You do not need big data to see meaningful patterns.
Fix: Establish a simple loop: Collect data → Segment locations by category → Test strategy→ Learn what works and why → Implement what is successful. Start by identifying your best customers and building look‑alike audiences, then validate through focused, controlled pilots.
6. Isolating channels
Isolated tactics underperform. A household that sees one message once is unlikely to change behavior; a coordinated sequence across channels has a much better chance.
Fix: Build connected campaigns. Reinforce an addressable mail offer with digital video and display timed to the same households—where privacy rules allow. Sequence touches over three to four weeks enabling creative and offers to compound, not collide.
7. Launching or “fixing” stores without a readiness cycle
Marketing cannot compensate for operational gaps. If hours, staffing, inventory, or the customer experience are not ready, the interest your ads generate will not translate into sales.
Fix: Implement a 30–60–90-day plan.
Focus on metrics that matter
The goal is to manage what you measure, not just monitor activity. Here are the metrics you should prioritize:
Closing thought
Multi‑unit growth does not come from spending more everywhere. It comes from diagnosing demand, localizing with discipline, and proving impact before scaling. When a brand builds measurement, archetype‑level localization, and operational readiness into the way it works, it moves beyond dashboards of activity to a playbook of measurable, repeatable gains at the store level.
The final deadline for the 2026 Inc. Regionals Awards is Friday, December 12, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply now.
Greg Mesaros
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If you wanted to understand how much Formula 1 has become a technology story, you didn’t have to look at a single lap time in Las Vegas. All you had to do was walk around.
Google was there, partnering with McLaren, including prominent Gemini, Android, and Chrome branding throughout the weekend. HP is literally in Ferrari’s team name. The same is true for Oracle and Red Bull Racing.
T-Mobile was the official 5G partner of the Las Vegas Grand Prix, and built out major magenta-branded experiences. Peloton, serving as the race’s official fitness partner, created on-site activations tied to its workout and training content.
Amazon, through AWS, was there. The cloud giant continued its long-standing role as a technology and data partner of Formula 1, powering everything from race analytics to broadcast graphics. Paramount+, the streaming service, had an entire corner painted with its logo. Meta had its logo on the top of the Mercedes helmets. And across the paddock and garages, companies like Salesforce, Siemens, CrowdStrike, Dropbox, 1Password, and Zoom were represented through their team and series-level partnerships.
Everyone showed up. Well, except one.
At a race where it seemed like tech companies were everywhere, there was one obvious absence: Apple. And that’s strange, because next season Apple will be the exclusive U.S. broadcast partner for Formula 1—taking over for ESPN, which has held the rights since 2018.
For Apple, it’s the most ambitious sports-rights deal the company has ever done. You would think this would be the moment Apple started telling a story. Something. Anything. But at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Apple was invisible.
There were no Vision Pro racing simulators tucked into the paddock clubs. Unlike the Super Bowl, there were no Apple Music performances. No Apple TV fan zones or “shot on iPhone” installations. No Apple Maps AR activations, even though the event is literally a street circuit.
Sure, technically Apple’s deal doesn’t start until next year, but the companies already have a relationship through F1: The Movie. And, with Formula 1, holding its flashiest U.S. race in front of the largest concentration of tech, media, and entertainment decision-makers imaginable, it seems a little strange that Apple didn’t even bring a banner.
To be fair, part of that is how F1 works. It’s a maze of sponsorship categories and exclusivities. The commercial rights structure is notoriously rigid. Almost everything inside the paddock is spoken for. If someone already owns the wearable category, Apple can’t just plop Vision Pro units down wherever it wants. If another partner holds streaming rights, Apple TV can’t set up a branded stage.
But here’s the thing: everybody else figured it out. After all, Google managed to turn McLaren’s wheel covers into Chrome logos. If Apple wanted to be seen, it would have figured out a way.
I mean, Atlassian—an enterprise software company—literally wrapped a Formula 1 car in a livery celebrating its AI assistant. If they can find space for Jira on a race car, surely there’s room on the Strip for an Apple activation.
Which leaves the more likely explanation: Apple doesn’t show up until it can control the experience. And right now, it can’t.
The problem is that brand presence in Formula 1 isn’t just advertising; it’s signaling. It tells fans—and executives, and partners, and teams—what you think this sport is worth. And right now, one of the world’s most valuable companies is about to take over the broadcast of the world’s fastest sport, and hasn’t given fans any hint of what to expect.
Obviously, the 2026 season hasn’t arrived yet, and Apple usually waits to show its hand until it’s ready. The company doesn’t do anything that hasn’t been fully considered and intentionally rolled out. When it decides to reinvent an experience—music, phones, payments, fitness—it starts quietly and then rewrites the script.
But if the Las Vegas Grand Prix is a preview of the future of Formula 1 as a cultural event, one thing is clear: tech companies aren’t just attending these races. They’re taking over the grid. This year, it seemed as though everyone was in Las Vegas. Well, everyone except the one company that’s about to own the broadcast.
The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.
The final deadline for the 2026 Inc. Regionals Awards is Friday, December 12, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply now.
Jason Aten
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As the global digital economy accelerates, descriptive domain names have become strategic brand assets for businesses, conveying product relevance, credibility, and intent to customers and audiences at a glance. Their growing adoption also offers valuable insight into broader digital and market trends worldwide.
Recent data from our recent survey at Identity Digital reveals a compelling trend: Seven of the 20 highest-value premium domains sold in early 2025 were .global. Alongside this, .world and .digital have also climbed in prominence among top-level domains (TLDs).
The interest in these TLDs reflects a larger shift: More businesses today are rooting their growth and brand identities within a truly universal digital landscape. This is no surprise, with tech spending expected to surge this year.
Today’s companies are approaching digital brand architecture by prioritizing clarity, scalability, and alignment with global operations via domains.
Descriptive domains are gaining traction with global businesses
The words used in a domain name play a critical role in brand perception. Choosing a domain that aligns with business function or audience expectations can significantly influence trust, memorability, and engagement with customers.
For international organizations, descriptive TLDs like .global, and .digital resonate because they offer immediate context behind a brand’s size and scope. For example, a company using .global conveys international reach, and .digital suggests a modern, technology-driven brand.
But these domains contribute to more than brand perception. They’re effective tools for simplifying navigation and enhancing digital discoverability for customers, particularly as businesses scale, diversify, or evolve their offerings.
As organizations expand into new markets and launch new offerings across multiple platforms, maintaining a cohesive digital presence becomes increasingly complex. Descriptive domains help bring order and clarity to this complexity. With a unique TLD, rather than maintaining siloed or inconsistent domain structures, companies can unify their digital assets under a clear, meaningful brand umbrella.
Boosting global domain strategy
While descriptive domains help unify and elevate a global brand presence, country-code top-level domains (ccTLDs) remain a valuable tool for companies seeking to expand into specific regions.
ccTLDs such as .au, .de, or .jp establish a clear connection to specific geographic markets and help build local trust. For example, a company expanding into Australia may use [company].au to increase visibility in local search results and reflect a commitment to operating within that region. In many cases, search engines also prioritize ccTLDs when serving localized content, which can result in higher rankings and better engagement with regional audiences. Of note, some ccTLDs require a nexus with the country to ensure the connection stays local.
In today’s global economy, companies can benefit from using both descriptive domains for international reach or ccTLDs for regional targeting. These domain approaches offer a comprehensive digital strategy aligned to both international and regional goals.
Smart domain strategies are powering the next generation of global brands
Domain strategy has become critical to modern brand building, and the growing adoption of TLDs like .global and .digital demonstrates a shift in how organizations are framing their future identity.
As businesses expand, diversify, and engage with increasingly distributed audiences, their digital infrastructure must evolve in parallel. Descriptive TLDs support this evolution by communicating global scale and innovation directly through the URL, simplifying digital navigation across business units or initiatives, and strengthening brand recognition and trust among audiences around the world.
The organizations investing in descriptive domains today are not only optimizing their online presence to support long-term growth but are also shaping the global brands of tomorrow.
Akram Atallah
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At SFMOMA on August 20th, my company, Entire Productions, hosted “A Celebration of Event Mastery,” a three-hour immersive experience that blurred the lines between art, hospitality, and connection. Each year, we design and produce an immersive event for our clients and prospective clients to showcase our design, planning, and production prowess, alongside the creative talent that brings our ideas to life. This year’s collaboration with the venue and vendors resulted in a more intimate gathering that was deeply intentional and bespoke. While the evening itself was unforgettable, what makes it worth studying is how deliberately it was designed as a masterclass in experiential marketing.
Here are five takeaways every entrepreneur can apply when designing events that do more than entertain; they drive brand love, loyalty, and lasting impact.
1. Start prior to the first handshake
The guest journey began well before the event itself. Guests first received a save-the-date email featuring a captivating video, inviting guests into the world we were about to create. Soon after, beautifully designed physical invitations arrived, tangible pieces of anticipation that built excitement and curiosity. As the date drew closer, emails and calendar invites kept the energy building, guiding guests step by step toward the experience that awaited them.
Lesson: The event experience doesn’t start at check-in. Every touchpoint from invitation to the welcome drink is a branding moment. Entrepreneurs should map the guest journey like a customer experience funnel: first impression to final follow-up.
2. Make every detail intentional
From a beat-boxing cellist at the entryway to adaptogenic elixirs instead of champagne, every decision was chosen to surprise and delight. Each element said something about the brand: innovative, thoughtful, and unwilling to settle for the ordinary.
Before guests stepped into the elevator to explore the 5th floor gallery, they received a custom-designed mini tote bag—playful, easy to carry, and intentionally curated—with a scavenger hunt slip inside to spark curiosity and guide discovery.
Lesson: Small surprises compound into big impressions. Brands that want to stand out should ask: What expectation can we flip? Replace the obvious with the memorable, and you’ll spark a conversation that extends far beyond the room.
Instead of guests passively admiring art, they were invited into it. A scavenger hunt turned the galleries into a playground for curiosity. An olfactory poetry activation gave each person a custom takeaway. Guided pose portraits were branded as Portraits of a Master, making attendees feel recognized, not just photographed. Guests also received custom-designed bandanas that they personalized with their initials at an on-site embroidery station. This tactile keepsake reinforced their role as part of the experience.
Lesson: Modern audiences want cocreation, not just observation. Create opportunities for them to play, choose, or make something. When people feel they’ve shaped the experience, they’ll share it and remember it as their own.
The event unfolded in acts: atrium, galleries, and the Garden Pavilion. Each transition felt like a scene change, adding anticipation and momentum. Culinary, musical, and design elements evolved as the evening progressed, keeping the energy fresh and guests engaged.
Lesson: The best experiential events are structured like stories. They build intrigue, deliver surprise, and leave guests with a climax and resolution. Think in “chapters,” not checklists.
Rather than Entire Productions-branded swag, guests departed with a personalized, signed copy of Corporate Event Mastery that I wrote. It was more than a gift; it was a call to action to keep learning, innovating, and pushing boundaries.
Lesson: The final moment is your brand’s last word. Don’t just hand out giveaways. Deliver something that extends the experience into your audience’s future.
Events are no longer just networking mixers or cocktail hours. Done right, they’re live marketing channels that move the needle on awareness, loyalty, and revenue.
The future of brand engagement belongs to companies that understand this: Every detail, from the RSVP to the parting gift, is a chance to demonstrate who you are and what you stand for.
Entire Productions showed that an event can be more than a gathering. It can be a living case study in how to make people feel seen, valued, and inspired, and that’s the kind of marketing money can’t buy.
Entrepreneurs: If your next client dinner or product launch feels like just another event, it’s time to ask, what story are you really telling, and how are your guests part of it?
Natasha Miller
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“If we asked you what Nike sells, some of you might say shoes or apparel,” Ramonita Smith, senior director of strategy at ONA Creative and co-founder of the Focus Group, said at the Inc. 5000 Conference in Phoenix last Thursday.
The reality, however, is different. Here’s what Smith says she and Sanja Komljenovic, founder and CEO of ONA Creative, learned the brand truly sells by working on its marketing team for 10 collective years: “The belief in human potential.”
By tapping into intrinsic motivators like belonging, identity, aspiration, and goal setting, Smith adds, Nike is able to avoid chasing trends to get this message across. In fact, according to her, Nike has been telling its consumers the same story for 50 years. “Somebody sets out with an audacious goal, then at some point in the journey, they hit this massive setback or this massive obstacle, and then there’s this defining moment,” Smith says. “Do they try again, or do they give up?”
That’s where the brand’s famous slogan, “Just do it,” comes in—and the athlete defies all odds.
When, like Nike, your business roots itself in “human truth,” Smith says “you go beyond selling” and become a company that truly serves its customers. Here’s a five-step framework you can use to do so.
If you have a brick-and-mortar location, go there and “just watch people pass through your spaces,” says Smith. If you don’t, spend time reading social media comments and customer service emails.
Ask yourself why your customer feels the way they do. Smith recommends taking customers through the five-whys exercise by asking them why they do or believe something five times in succession. “It is so simple,” she says, “but when you make somebody continue to tell you why, you actually get to the core of what you’re observing, and that’s oftentimes how you’re unlocking an insight.”
Once you understand what’s driving your customer, you need to boil it down to a simple statement. Nike’s “Just do it” slogan, for example, is the answer to the dilemma its athletes face on their journeys.
Next, make it actionable. Build your campaigns and your messaging around this human truth—then deliver it. “This is really where creativity comes alive,” Smith says.
Last but not least, test out how the message is resonating with your customers. If all fails, go back to the first step and try again.
Annabel Burba
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In marketing, understanding your company’s target customer demographic is crucial to success. Yes, it’s important to know your demographic data: age, sex, education level, income, family status, and location. But what is the best way to understand your customers’ psychology?
How about being one of them?
This is arguably the biggest advantage you could ever have.
I spent the last 7 years as the cofounder of Fontana Candle Co. with my husband. We started the company in our home as a hobby and turned it into an Inc. 5000 business. In my role as chief marketing officer, I use my time to craft the strategy for our product development, content creation, collaborations, email marketing, and influencer outreach. Our marketing department is one of our superpowers, catapulting us into extreme growth.
The secret sauce
What secret sauce has propelled our brand to grow rapidly when others in the same industry stay stagnant?
We know our niche intimately. We understand what our customers want, because we are very much part of our customer demographic, wanting the exact things they do.
Being part of your customer demographic gives you two distinct advantages:
These two advantages, in turn, create customer trust, true brand loyalty, and strong brand advocates.
Authentic marketing
As a candle company in the wellness niche, our priority is safe and transparent ingredients, leading to healthier indoor air quality. The vast majority of our customers are educated millennial women seeking the best choices for their family. They read ingredient labels, scan barcode labels in the grocery store, swap out synthetically-fragranced personal care products, and use air purifiers throughout their homes.
We bring our customers into our home and office through our social media; they see us making choices aligned with their ethos. The products in our home are the products in their homes. We show changing out the filters in our air purifiers, the best new organic coffee we found, and our rebounder and sauna for detox. My husband wears his Oura ring, and we record content while doing our walks with weighted vests.
We come off as authentic, because what we do is authentic. We understand what words to use when talking to our customers, and it doesn’t sound forced or fake. It is a true connection because it isn’t forced or fake. Our daily lives mirror our customers’ daily lives.
Is it scalable?
I continually ask myself if this authentic, personable framework is scalable as we handle fewer of the daily tasks ourselves. We are in the health and wellness niche, but it is impossible for every team member to be passionate about wellness, because at our core, we are a manufacturer.
We need to have employees skilled in important business functions: project development, manufacturing, fulfillment, email marketing, customer service, etc. Finding employees who are skilled at these functions, as well as passionate about nontoxic living, is like finding a needle in a haystack.
Culture training and embodying our company values in everything we do is paramount as we continue to grow our team. We hope to foster a curiosity about wellness by offering wellness credits, access to sound bath meditations, and sauna sessions. Healthy food options are available at every function.
Our wellness culture is never forced on any employee. It is available for those who want it, but not everyone on the team will. That is okay.
However, the team members who set company strategy, develop products, and directly interact with our customers are the ones who have to embody our mission and understand of our customer demographic. This core group is where I focus my effort to ensure there is a true embodiment of our customers’ values.
I have watched as other wellness brands massively scaled, and seemed to lose who they were. Recently, a probiotic soda brand launched collaborations with large brands with no ingredient ethos. The collaborations were fun and had the “virality factor.” However, when you delve deeper into the social media posts, you see comments from customers who wonder if the brand still cares about their “better for you” mission. The trust has been broken from one mismatched collaboration.
As a CMO, this is one of my biggest nightmares.
Maintain the mission
What can I do to ensure that our authentic customer connections and mission remain as we continue growing beyond what I can manage on my own?
In the last year, we created a Brand Marketing Manifesto that distills all our current team members’ innate knowledge about our brand and how it should interact with the world. We wanted a document to hand to all new customer-impacting employees on their first day, that was essentially like they are sitting next to me and can pick my brain, like our current employees have learned about our company.
This document includes our mission, brand voice parameters, our brand story, and claims we are comfortable making. It has in-depth demographic information and customer personas to help our employees learn more about their lives and pain points, and where we fit into the picture.
And finally, this document contains our partnership guidelines, so we have no collaboration mis-matches that would cause our customers to lose trust in our ingredient standards.
When you are a small company, it is a superpower to be part of your customer demographic. It allows you to innately foster a connection that creates an unbreakable trust. Not everyone in your organization will be passionate about your niche, which is fine, as long as they understand your business’s mission and respect it. As you scale, it is important to find ways to share the knowledge of your niche to all of your customer-impacting employees and agencies. For us, our Brand Marketing Manifesto has been our answer to this scaling question.
Katie Roering
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Quiz time! How many times has The Coca-Cola Company rebranded Coke? If you are old enough to remember the “New Coke” debacle, you know the answer is at least a few times. One of the most important lessons learned from that New Coke rebranding was the importance of listening to customers. Being ready to flex and meet customers’ expectations is one of the most important aspects of embarking on a new branding campaign.
A more recent example is the Cracker Barrel controversy, from launching its new logo this summer. The public pushed back hard, and in a statement, the company admitted to the backlash. It promised to keep “testing, learning, and listening to our guests and employees.”
I spoke with our Arch Painting chief marketing officer Peter Prodromou, who is also the brand architect of our residential, technology-enabled platform, Paintzen. We discussed the strategy and execution behind rebranding efforts. Essentially, how do you revitalize a brand?
Q: When does a company know it is time to rebrand?
Peter: Branding is the signature of companies and products. It’s a personality, an identity, and a market differentiator. But sometimes established, successful brands need a refresh. As the world changes, trends change. Technology comes into play and customer expectations change. It’s important that brands continue to be relevant and meet customers’ needs.
Q: What are the first steps a company should take before rebranding?
Peter: Research. Executives might have a hunch about branding, but undertaking an established brand’s revitalization can be risky. Cracker Barrel is currently living that lesson. Both the Cracker Barrel and Coke examples show that consumers have opinions and sometimes don’t like change. The New Coke controversy was also one of the early instances of customers exerting pressure publicly and en masse, to challenge a corporate branding decision. The success in undoing Coke’s decision is all the more impressive given this was in a pre-internet era, when organizing and pressure really required grass roots organizing and organic activation. I have worked with numerous brands over my career. Anytime I led a rebranding campaign, research—the kind that provides a deep understanding of consumer psychology—is the project’s lynchpin.
For example, our company, Arch Painting, is an established paint contracting company with three decades of experience in the Boston area. We decided to rebrand the consumer, residential painting business, now known as Paintzen, as the company expands nationwide.
Our research showed us that nearly 50 percent of millennials and Gen Xers, the two most prolific home buyer generations, prefer using automated technology to research, price, and book home improvements. But it was more than just the metrics. It was understanding the psychology of these cohorts’ purchasing preferences that fueled our strategy. Paintzen needed to meet those expectations. Backed by our technology platform, Zenify, Paintzen allows customers to price, book, and manage interior or exterior residential painting projects, with a quote in as little as five minutes and the ability to have a paint crew on location in as few as five days. We responded with a design that reflected the prevalent engagement preference for on-the-run mobile. By reflecting our customers’ busy lifestyles, we were able to design something we knew would work and, as a result, would be easier to brand.
Q: How do you ensure a smooth transition to the new brand?
Peter: Communication with our key stakeholders helped ensure a smooth transition. The executive team and board of directors wanted to ensure we were upholding the reputation and brand equity Arch Painting had established in the New England area.
Our employees needed to understand why we were making the change, how it would impact their day-to-day jobs, and how we would speak to the new brand.
Our customers were our most important stakeholder. We used a strategic mix of launching a new website, radio, and streaming media for brand visibility; direct mailers, email communication, and performance marketing for lead generation; and social media channels to let our customers know our new residential service name. But also to share that they could continue counting on the same customer service, attention to detail, technique mastery, and quality commitment.
Revitalizing an established brand can be risky, but allowing your brand to stagnate, not meeting your customers’ needs and expectations, can be worse.
If you are still wondering about Coke, The Coca-Cola Company has rebranded Coke more than 49 times, an excellent example of an established brand meeting its customers’ needs.
Richard Kilgannon
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Your personal brand works around the clock, even when you’re sleeping. Yet most entrepreneurs spend more time monitoring their website analytics than evaluating how they’re perceived in their industry. This oversight can cost you speaking opportunities, partnership deals, and potential customers’ trust.
According to one comprehensive study of over 1,700 executives worldwide, business leaders attribute 45 percent of their company’s reputation to their CEO’s reputation, and 44 percent of their company’s market value to the CEO’s reputation. Yet despite this massive impact, most entrepreneurs fail to actively manage their personal brand with the same rigor they apply to other business metrics.
The solution isn’t hiring an expensive brand consultant or overhauling your entire online presence. All you need is five minutes each month to audit exactly where you stand and what needs attention.
Start with the Google test. Search your name and your company name separately. What appears in the first five results? If outdated information, negative reviews, or worse—nothing at all—dominates your search results, you have work to do. Your goal is to control that narrative through valuable content that showcases your expertise.
Next, examine your LinkedIn profile and recent posts.
The entrepreneurs who consistently stand out share original insights, not just commentary on others’ work.
Check your website’s “About” page last. Can visitors quickly understand your background, your unique approach, and why they should care? If your bio reads like everyone else’s in your industry, you’re missing opportunities to differentiate yourself.
Minutes 3-4: Analyze your authority gap
Most entrepreneurs discover their biggest opportunity in the space between their expertise and their reputation. You might be solving complex problems daily, but if you’re not sharing those insights publicly, potential clients and partners have no way to recognize your expertise.
Ask yourself:
These answers reveal content opportunities that can strengthen your personal brand.
The entrepreneurs who build the strongest reputations practice their expertise, document it, and share their learning process. This creates a compound effect where their reputation grows alongside their actual skills and experience.
Minute 5: Take a content strategy snapshot
Spend your final minute evaluating recent content across all platforms. Social media posts, blog articles, podcast appearances, and speaking engagements all contribute to how others perceive your expertise. Look for patterns in engagement and feedback. Which topics generate the most meaningful conversations?
If you’re only creating content sporadically or sticking to safe, generic topics, you’re not maximizing your brand-building potential. The most effective entrepreneurs choose a few core themes (often the same themes that become chapters in their book) and consistently provide valuable insights on those topics.
Your personal brand isn’t built overnight, but these 5-minute monthly audits compound over time. Use each session to identify one specific area for improvement. Maybe it’s updating your LinkedIn headline, writing a thought leadership article, or finally organizing your expertise into a comprehensive framework.
Track your progress by noting changes in how people respond to you online, the quality of opportunities coming your way, and whether industry peers are starting to see you as a go-to expert in your field.
Set a monthly reminder to spend exactly five minutes evaluating your Google results, social media presence, and content strategy. Identify the biggest gap between your actual expertise and your public reputation. Choose one action to bridge that gap before your next audit.
The entrepreneurs who treat personal branding as seriously as they treat product development consistently see better business outcomes. Your reputation is your most valuable asset—invest these five minutes monthly to protect and grow it.
Vikrant Shaurya
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Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Here’s a stat that should make every small business owner sit up: 76% of people who perform a local search on their smartphone visit a business within 24 hours, and 28% of those visits result in a purchase.
That means when a customer searches for “best coffee near me” or “emergency plumber downtown,“ the decision is often made in minutes — not days.
Now add another layer: artificial intelligence. Once locked behind enterprise paywalls, AI is now available to every entrepreneur. From creating content and optimizing ads to automating customer support, AI is the great equalizer.
When you combine local marketing (reaching the right people in the right place) with AI automation, you create a formula that allows small businesses to compete and, in many cases, outperform big brands.
Related: Why Local Marketing Still Matters in the Digital Age
Consumers trust businesses that feel close to them. Local intent is powerful because it connects need with immediacy:
46% of all Google searches have local intent
50% of local searches on mobile lead to a store visit within one day
Nearly 90% of consumers use the internet to find local businesses every month
That’s not a fluke; it’s a behavior shift. Customers don’t just want the cheapest or most famous option; they want the option that’s closest, fastest and most relevant.
Example: A family searching for “pizza near me” at 7:00 p.m. isn’t interested in Domino’s HQ — they’re looking for the local restaurant two blocks away.
For small businesses, local search represents an enormous opportunity to capture demand in real time.
Artificial intelligence is no longer a buzzword — it’s a growth driver. A U.S. Chamber of Commerce survey found that 98% of small businesses already use digital tools, and 40% are now leveraging generative AI.
Here’s where AI creates tangible impact for small businesses:
Content creation: AI tools generate blogs, social posts and Google Business updates in minutes, saving both time and money.
Ad optimization: AI-driven ad platforms automatically test headlines, images and targeting, improving ROI without requiring a full marketing team.
Customer engagement: Chatbots and AI assistants handle FAQs, bookings, and inquiries instantly, ensuring leads never slip away.
Data analysis: AI provides insights on customer behavior, seasonality and even pricing strategies, once available only to Fortune 500 companies.
Case in point: In Los Angeles, The Original Tamale Company used ChatGPT to create and narrate a lighthearted promotional video in under 10 minutes. The video went viral — 22 million views, 1.2 million likes and a huge spike in local customers. That’s the power of AI in the hands of a small business.
The real magic happens when you merge local marketing with AI tools.
A neighborhood gym can use AI to analyze customer demographics and then run Google Ads targeting specific postal codes with offers like “1 Month Free for Downtown Residents.”
A plumbing company can automate weekly Google Business posts that include trending local keywords, increasing visibility in map searches.
A local café can use AI to personalize email campaigns, sending morning deals to office workers and weekend specials to nearby families.
Big brands often struggle with this kind of micro-targeting — they’re too busy running nationwide campaigns. Small businesses, however, can tailor every campaign to their local community, and AI makes it fast, affordable and scalable.
1. Audit your local presence:
Make sure your Google Business Profile is complete and updated.
Collect and respond to reviews regularly.
Ensure your business name, address and phone number (NAP) are consistent across the web.
Don’t overlook on-page SEO basics — optimize title tags, meta descriptions and local landing page content so search engines (and customers) can easily understand your relevance.
2. Use AI to automate smartly:
Content: Generate local blog posts, ads and emails in minutes.
Customer service: Add AI chatbots to handle common inquiries.
Social media: Schedule posts with AI-generated captions and visuals.
3. Layer in local intent everywhere:
Add “near me” keywords and neighborhood references to your content.
Use geo-targeting in ads to hit your exact customer base.
Create offers tied to local events, seasons or community milestones.
4. Measure, test and refine:
Use free tools like Google Analytics 4.
Explore AI-powered dashboards that track ad performance, keyword rankings and customer engagement.
Double down on what’s working; tweak or drop what’s not.
Large corporations have resources, but they also have limitations. They can’t always personalize at scale or connect authentically to communities.
That’s where small businesses win:
A café can celebrate the local high school’s championship.
A boutique can spotlight neighborhood artisans.
A mover can post about serving families in a specific block or condo.
Big brands can’t match this hyper-local personalization, and when AI amplifies these touches, the impact is multiplied.
Even larger chains that rely on SEO for franchise models often struggle to create content that resonates at the neighborhood level, which is where smaller, locally focused businesses can win.
Related: Why This AI Tool Is the Game-Changer Small Business Owners Have Been Waiting For
For decades, big brands had the advantage — bigger budgets, larger teams, more tools. But 2025 marks a turning point. Local intent plus AI gives small businesses the power to be faster, more relevant and more authentic.
You don’t need a million-dollar ad budget to compete. You need:
A strong local presence.
The smart use of AI tools.
The willingness to act quickly while big brands are still figuring it out.
The future of marketing isn’t about being the biggest player in the game — it’s about being the smartest and most relevant option in your customer’s neighborhood.
Here’s a stat that should make every small business owner sit up: 76% of people who perform a local search on their smartphone visit a business within 24 hours, and 28% of those visits result in a purchase.
That means when a customer searches for “best coffee near me” or “emergency plumber downtown,“ the decision is often made in minutes — not days.
Now add another layer: artificial intelligence. Once locked behind enterprise paywalls, AI is now available to every entrepreneur. From creating content and optimizing ads to automating customer support, AI is the great equalizer.
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Fahim Ludin
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One of the most important aspects of someone’s credibility today is what Google reveals about them during a search. Most corporations and individuals understand the value of this and grasp the core concept, though they might not be familiar with the term itself.
Online Reputation Management (ORM) is the process of creating positive content, suppressing negative press and maintaining a strong online image for businesses and individuals.
Related: Your Business Is One Google Search Away From a Crisis
ORM is essential for businesses and individuals in today’s hyperconnected world. Bad publicity usually results in damaged personal and professional reputations online. These issues can lead to being fired by an employer, getting divorced, losing new customers or even having a hard time raising the next round of funding.
Think of ORM as digital reputation. The internet doesn’t forget easily, and even a single negative article or viral post can overshadow years of good work. That means your Google search results are often the first “introduction” a potential client, investor or employer has to you.
Several key elements of ORM help prevent potential disasters. The first is monitoring your online presence to see what people are saying about you or your company. Good monitoring could have prevented the situation above by allowing you to respond before the wave of cancellations and negative feedback.
The best course of action for this is to use a monitoring tool that helps you track your name online. These tools are often easier, cheaper and more effective than manually searching your name across various platforms. I’ve personally seen companies catch inaccurate information within hours and have it corrected before it picked up traction, saving them from what could have become a reputation nightmare.
Related: How to Better Manage Your Brand’s Reputation in the Digital Age
After you identify negative search results that you want to delete from Google, the next step is to send an email or reach out via social media to each publication. This is a delicate method, and it’s important not to appear defensive, as that can make the situation worse, and things could go viral.
The success of this ORM strategy depends on the specific publication and editorial team: the bigger the publication, the fewer chances you have. Smaller blogs and community sites may be open to correction if the content is outdated, misleading or factually incorrect. On the other hand, going after a national news outlet rarely yields results.
Related: How to Calmly Confront Bad Reviews and Turn Them Into Growth
The best method to fix your reputation is to use the right SEO and PR techniques to push down or bury negative search results in search engines like Google and Bing. By optimizing positive content with the proper SEO techniques, you can rank the positive content higher in search engines and reduce the visibility of unwanted articles, images or forums. On average, it takes 6–12 months to clean the negative search results.
A strong ORM strategy and persistence can sometimes remove or de-index certain negative pages from search results entirely, particularly if they violate platform guidelines or are misleading. In cases where de-indexing isn’t possible, internet suppression techniques-such as promoting high-authority content — can be used to overwhelm negative content with more relevant, positive search results.
Over time, Google’s algorithm begins to prioritize your new content. The key is consistency — one or two articles won’t shift results. But six or nine months of steady online reputation work can transform the first page of search results.
A law firm client I worked with had their reputation nearly ruined due to their arrest. By publishing client success stories, creating authoritative positive content and earning media mentions, we were able to push the false claims to page two within nine months and, as you know, very few people click past page one.
Wendy’s made a huge impact on its online reputation when its social media account rebranded to capitalize on trending memes at the time.
The Twitter account became known for “roasting” users, connecting trending Twitter phrases to their products, and using humor to build engagement. Although their ORM strategy can’t be conclusively tied to a sales increase, it clearly didn’t hurt.
Related: Grow Your LinkedIn Audience 10x With These Expert Tips
Online reputation management is the strategic process of improving the perception of a personal or business brand on search engines like Google. In a world where public perception is shaped by search engines like Google, ORM is no longer optional — it’s essential.
Whether you’re an entrepreneur raising your next round, a corporation protecting shareholder trust, or an individual applying for a new role, ORM is a long-term investment in credibility. If you don’t control your narrative, someone else will, and it may not be flattering. The companies and people who thrive online are the ones who understand that reputation isn’t just what you do offline; it’s what Google says about you.
Ross Kernez
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“It’s always been my dream to be a CEO of a fashion brand,” Ginny Seymour, CEO of contemporary women’s fashion brand Aligne, tells Entrepreneur.
Image Credit: Courtesy of Aligne. CEO Ginny Seymour.
A fashion industry veteran who started her career as a contemporary buyer at Saks Fifth Avenue, Seymour had an opportunity to realize that goal with Aligne, originally founded by Dalbir Bains as a wholesale women’s fashion brand in London in 2020.
Seymour envisioned a new era for Aligne — the brand could fill a white space she saw in modern women’s clothing: the need for design-led, wearable pieces at an accessible price point, delivered with an omnichannel approach.
Related: 5 Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me Before I Became a CEO
Seymour set out to make it happen, essentially “refounding” the company. She joined the business as managing director in 2022, relaunched Aligne under her vision in 2023 and was officially named CEO in 2024.
Image Credit: Courtesy of Aligne
“I felt partners [had to be] a huge part of the story.”
During her first several years as CEO, Seymour focused on Aligne’s community building online and “design handwriting,” then branched out from a direct-to-consumer strategy to an omnichannel approach with U.S. retail partners.
In fact, despite being a London-founded brand, Aligne sees a larger part of its business unfolding in the U.S., Seymour says.
The CEO even recently relocated from London to New York to support the U.S. office and team as the brand continues its expansion.
“ We’re still based in the UK, so I travel back and forth,” Seymour says. “London to me is our creative hub; it’s part of our DNA being a British brand. That’s super important to me and something we don’t want to lose. So we’re very much creatively driven out of London, but commercially driven out of the U.S.”
Image Credit: Courtesy of Aligne
As a still relatively young British brand, Aligne gains validation with a U.S. audience through retailers that have loyal customer bases.
“In the UK, it’s easier to be direct-to-consumer only because the UK is much smaller and more attainable,” Seymour says. “But in the U.S., to resonate as the next contemporary brand that people should be looking at, I felt partners [had to be] a huge part of the story.”
Aligne recently launched with Nordstrom, a retailer Seymour says she’d always hoped to partner with one day, after the company direct-messaged her to express its interest in the brand. Aligne is also available at Anthropologie.
Image Credit: Courtesy of Aligne
“There’s less visibility [into] the analytics and who your customer is. You have to really listen.”
Despite the long-term goal to expand in retail, Seymour first prioritized understanding Aligne as a brand and its relationship to customers before tackling those partnerships, appreciating how important that strategy is for sustainable success.
Whether you’re refounding a business that already exists or starting one from scratch, knowing who your customer is — and quickly — will make or break its growth. ”And that’s easier said than done,” the CEO notes. “There are so many factors. With every iOS update, there’s less visibility [into] the analytics and who your customer is. You have to really listen.”
Aligne’s target customers are “confident, working” women, and acknowledging what those consumers wanted in a clothing line helped guide the brand’s design shift and the direction of its collection, Seymour says.
Related: This Is the Real Secret to Exceeding Your Customer’s Expectations
Dialing into that customer base is paying off. Aligne ended its fiscal year in July 2025 with 56% year-over-year revenue growth and revenue approaching eight figures.
Most of Aligne’s pieces are priced between $100 and $300. Although Seymour recognizes why some brands evolve into the “premium contemporary” space amid rising costs and tariff challenges, she says the company is committed to its accessible price point.
Image Credit: Courtesy of Aligne
“I quickly had to learn where I didn’t want to lean and how to make sure to get the support.”
Being a CEO is a lot harder than Seymour thought it would be when she was 20 years old, she admits. But she appreciates how the job has allowed her to draw on her experience as a buyer, which demanded a “balance of art and science” much like the executive role does.
“[There might be a] week that I’m so artistic and designing the concept and the line, and there’s other days where I’m definitely leaning into the science,” Seymour says. “But I quickly had to learn where I didn’t want to lean and how to make sure to get the support in those areas because a CEO wears so many hats.”
One of the biggest lessons Seymour’s learned during her tenure as CEO so far is the value in listening to her instincts — even when it’s difficult. Over the first couple of months of the company’s refounding, Seymour sometimes hesitated to say what she wanted, then didn’t get the results that she desired.
“Three months in, I had this moment where I brought the team together and was much clearer about what I wanted,” Seymour says. “That brought them more on the journey with me, and it solidified us as a team and our values. If you have an idea and you’re building your own business, trusting your gut and not being scared to say it is powerful.”
“It’s always been my dream to be a CEO of a fashion brand,” Ginny Seymour, CEO of contemporary women’s fashion brand Aligne, tells Entrepreneur.
Image Credit: Courtesy of Aligne. CEO Ginny Seymour.
A fashion industry veteran who started her career as a contemporary buyer at Saks Fifth Avenue, Seymour had an opportunity to realize that goal with Aligne, originally founded by Dalbir Bains as a wholesale women’s fashion brand in London in 2020.
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Amanda Breen
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It’s no secret that sports partnerships can be a powerful tool for brands. But the ones that actually move the needle go far beyond some courtside signage or animated logos on a broadcast.
The strongest collaborations are built on three pillars: authenticity, creativity and growth potential. Few examples illustrate this better than Lavazza’s decade-long relationship with the US Open. For the Italian coffee company, the Open is as much a cultural stage as it is for the athletes competing.
Related: As New York City Prepares for Its First Casinos, Jay-Z Wants In — and He’s Putting Up $250 Million
…isn’t complicated. Authenticity comes down to synergy between the partners. In this case, both the US Open and Lavazza are in the business of excellence. The Open showcases the best tennis athletes in the world; Lavazza serves what it positions as the best coffee in the world.
By joining forces, Lavazza is trying to signal that it belongs in that same tier of prestige. The connection goes even deeper with ambassadors like ATP World No. 1 Jannik Sinner, whose Italian roots and elite play make him a natural fit for the brand.
Both Lavazza and the US Open are centered around experience — whether it’s savoring a perfectly crafted coffee or watching an intense rally. The Open draws both avid sports fans and casual visitors, thanks in large part to on-site activations that could easily fill a whole day even without the tennis.
“The US Open itself continues to resonate unlike any other event,” says Daniele Foti, Marketing VP North America at Lavazza Group. “It is a cultural phenomenon that commands global attention.”
Lavazza is one of the brands making the most of that opportunity. During the event, fans could immerse themselves in Italian coffee culture across the grounds, enjoying classics and signature drinks, such as the fan-favorite Espresso Martini. Which brings us to…
In brand partnerships, creativity is about turning a sponsorship into a story. Over the past decade, Lavazza has reimagined its presence at the US Open, evolving from a simple coffee stand into a full cultural experience.
While guests are sipping espresso, they’re also spinning 3D prize wheels with Lavazza’s animated spokesrobot Luigi, sending postcards from the tournament and collecting custom selfie keepsakes.
This year, Lavazza pushed the boundaries even further, literally. In collaboration with Casa Magazine, they took the partnership beyond stadium walls with a two-day takeover at Casa Magazine on August 20–21, bringing the energy of Flushing Meadows into the streets of New York.
Visitors enjoyed complimentary coffee, latte art featuring both the Lavazza and US Open logos, and immersive photo moments that brought the brand’s “La Dolce Vita” identity to life.
But they didn’t just serve coffee. They blended sport, culture and creativity. The brand turned a simple cup into a shared experience — one that captures the same balance of precision and artistry you see in a perfect tennis match, while also celebrating the craft and ritual of brewing.
…is something the Lavazza–US Open collaboration has that in spades. Over the past decade, the partnership has evolved in step with the tournament’s cultural impact — growing from its early days with a rising Jannik Sinner to today, where he stands as the world’s No. 1 player.
“Our partnership with Jannik Sinner, one of the sport’s brightest stars, reinforces that connection and further anchors Lavazza at the heart of the game,” said Foti. “That is exactly where Lavazza belongs: present, relevant, and closely connected to consumers today and for years to come.”
It’s no secret that sports partnerships can be a powerful tool for brands. But the ones that actually move the needle go far beyond some courtside signage or animated logos on a broadcast.
The strongest collaborations are built on three pillars: authenticity, creativity and growth potential. Few examples illustrate this better than Lavazza’s decade-long relationship with the US Open. For the Italian coffee company, the Open is as much a cultural stage as it is for the athletes competing.
Related: As New York City Prepares for Its First Casinos, Jay-Z Wants In — and He’s Putting Up $250 Million
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Leo Zevin
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In the crowded world of AI Assistive Engines, all the attention goes to ChatGPT, Google Gemini and Perplexity. But the most influential contender may be the one hiding in plain sight: Microsoft Copilot.
Why? Because it’s not just another chatbot — it’s deeply embedded in the Windows and Microsoft 365 ecosystem that powers homes, businesses, governments and nearly every Fortune 500 company. Copilot is already sitting on the desktop of the people who decide whether to hire you, partner with you or fund your company.
That makes it the “sneaky” AI — the one shaping your professional reputation before you even enter the room. In this article, you’ll learn how Copilot and other AI assistants are building your “AI Résumé” behind the scenes — and a practical framework you can use to take back control of your digital narrative.
Related: Uncover Hidden Threats to Your Reputation With These Advanced Suppression Strategies
Think about where decision-makers live: Outlook, Teams, Word, Excel. Copilot is inside all of them. It summarizes conversations, drafts proposals and answers the question: “Who is this person?”
Before an investor opens your pitch deck or a prospect reads your proposal, there’s a good chance they’ll ask Copilot to summarize you. What it delivers becomes your AI Résumé — a recommendation from a machine people trust.
That résumé is only as strong as the information Copilot finds. And if your digital footprint is messy, inconsistent or outdated, Copilot will stitch together a confusing narrative.
I learned this lesson years before generative AI.
After building a successful career as a musician and then founding UpToTen Ltd — an EdTech pioneer competing with Disney and the BBC — I started losing deals worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. The problem?
My Google Brand SERP. Search results for my name highlighted that I’d been the voice actor for a cartoon character, Boowa the Blue Dog. Instead of presenting me as a serious CEO, Google framed me as a children’s entertainer.
The result? Major deals died before they began.
Copilot raises the stakes exponentially. Unlike Google’s static results, Copilot synthesizes information into a story. But its logic is childlike — piecing together fragments without nuance or accuracy. If you don’t control your narrative, the AI will create one for you.
You can’t game the system. The only way forward is to systematically educate AI so it reflects your intended story. My three-phase framework works not just for Copilot, but for ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and beyond.
The machine must know who you are, what you do and who you serve.
Once AI understands you, it needs proof that you’re authoritative.
Finally, make sure AI delivers your story when prospects are researching problems, not just names.
Take it further: create a custom GPT or AI assistant trained on your services, client profile, and solutions. Use it to anticipate the questions your market is asking and shape content accordingly.
Related: From Co-Pilot to Co-Worker: Where the AI Assistant Journey is Headed to Next
The ultimate payoff isn’t when someone Googles you — it’s when AI recommends you without being asked.
That’s AI acting as your marketing agent — delivering opportunities before you even know they exist.
AI assistants like Microsoft Copilot aren’t futuristic — they’re already reshaping how reputations are built.
Your digital presence is no longer a brochure; it’s a living narrative constantly retold by machines. If you don’t design your AI résumé, Copilot will design it for you — and you may not like the result.
The path forward is clear:
Teach the machine your story, or it will tell its own.
In the crowded world of AI Assistive Engines, all the attention goes to ChatGPT, Google Gemini and Perplexity. But the most influential contender may be the one hiding in plain sight: Microsoft Copilot.
Why? Because it’s not just another chatbot — it’s deeply embedded in the Windows and Microsoft 365 ecosystem that powers homes, businesses, governments and nearly every Fortune 500 company. Copilot is already sitting on the desktop of the people who decide whether to hire you, partner with you or fund your company.
That makes it the “sneaky” AI — the one shaping your professional reputation before you even enter the room. In this article, you’ll learn how Copilot and other AI assistants are building your “AI Résumé” behind the scenes — and a practical framework you can use to take back control of your digital narrative.
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Jason Barnard
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Want to grab your customer’s attention? Don’t just tell them how great you are. Tell them the enemy that you stand against — and fight to defeat.
While unsuccessful entrepreneurs obsess over what makes their brand special, successful entrepreneurs instead ask a more powerful question to transform their business into an unstoppable brand: What am I fighting against?
This is the concept of the “strategic enemy,” which I wrote my new book about, and it is the most powerful yet underutilized tools in brand building. A strategic enemy is the oppositional force that your brand or category stands against. It could be a competitor, category, convention, or concept.
Identifying a strategic enemy will force you to clearly define what you are not, which will enable consumers to more easily understand what you are.
Here’s the bottom line: To build a successful brand, you need to be perceived as first in something — by either pioneering a new category or narrowing your focus. If you examine history, almost every successful brand story begins this way. They focused and strongly positioned themselves against a clear strategic enemy:
Most brands have a positioning statement buried in a brand book, but these statements are typically written to serve as an umbrella covering everything the company does. That’s not positioning, that’s a laundry list.
Positioning is a strategy to deal with the mind, and the mind craves simplicity, clarity and contrast. Vagueness won’t cut it in today’s over-communicated marketplace. Successful positioning strategies create clear distinctions in the mind of the consumer. Positioning against a strategic enemy makes your position not just sharper and more memorable — it energizes and motivates consumers to rally for your cause.
Having a strategic enemy isn’t about creating artificial conflict or claiming your brand is right while the enemy is wrong. The enemy is about acknowledging a fundamental truth: consumers are making choices whether you like it or not. Your job is to set up that choice so it’s clear, simple and easy to make.
Every new category should position itself against an existing category by treating it as the enemy. When you can relate your new category name to the previous one, the contrast becomes even more powerful. The iPhone was positioned as the first “smartphone” — a brilliant category name that instantly implied all other cellphones were, by comparison, “dumb.”
The problem is too often that a company uses the same brand name in the new category, which leaves no opportunity to strongly position it against the enemy. Cottonelle can’t exactly run ads saying their wet toilet paper is superior, and their dry toilet paper is inadequate. This is why entrepreneurs often become the source of breakthrough brand successes — they have the freedom to pick the right fights.
Sean Riley was just this type of entrepreneur. His brand Dude Wipes declared war on toilet paper and today sells over $350 million a year.
He found the inspiration for Dude Wipes during a shopping trip. “I was living with all my buddies in a big Animal House apartment, and I was responsible for buying some of the goods one week,” Riley recalls. “I went to Sam’s Club, got toilet paper, paper towels, and a bunch of baby wipes, and stocked the bathrooms.”
“You have to remember, these are guys eating tons of burritos, drinking tons of beers like you’re partying after college — there are lots of bathroom breaks being taken. The baby wipes just came in handy and everyone got hooked on them right away. That was kind of when the light bulb product moment went on.”
Riley wondered: “Why are guys using baby wipes and loving them? Why isn’t there anything else on the market? Why isn’t there something flushable with cool branding?”
While there were plenty of options of flushable wipes for adults available in the aisle, all these were line extensions of traditional toilet paper brands. Kleenex Cottonelle FreshCare Flushable Cleaning Cloths was the first moist toilet tissue in the market. Yes, that was the full name — and one only a big company would come up with! Launched in the early 2000s, the messaging promoted using these new flushable cloths along with Cottonelle toilet paper. It was dual-product approach aimed at promoting both dry and moist products together.
Soon after, Charmin responded with its own line of products called Charmin Freshmates. Like FreshCare, they were marketed as a complement to traditional toilet paper. This made sense for the company… but not for the consumer! The line extension’s name and weak messaging didn’t generate any excitement for the category. And it certainly didn’t resonate with Sean and his buddies.
Dude Wipes was different. It took on traditional toilet paper as the enemy. Their message was unambiguous: “Dry toilet paper doesn’t cut it. Send toilet paper back to the Stone Age.”
This wasn’t just provocative marketing — it was strategic positioning that toilet paper companies couldn’t counter without undermining their core business. It also elevated the importance of the category itself.
Dude Wipes took something many felt taboo talking about and made it cool. They also focused on men, not women. Unlike women, men only use toilet paper when they go number two, making them ideal targets for the product. A man living alone can survive with Dude Wipes alone in the bathroom.
And while Dude Wipes didn’t invent the product, they won the mind of the consumer with a narrow focus, great name and bold branding against an enemy. Today, Dude Wipes is giving Kimberly-Clark and P&G a run for their money in the bathroom.
But what about women? Sean told me one of the most common questions he is asked is when he plans to launch Lady Wipes. His answer: Never. Smart strategic thinking. There is power in being focused. There is power in the name Dude Wipes. When ladies do a number two, they need the strength of a Dude Wipe to clean up. I have no doubt the brand resonates just as well with female buyers as much as it does with men. I do Dude Wipes.
To find your own strategic enemy, follow this formula:
1. Make the Fight Specific: Successful strategic enemies aren’t abstract concepts or unrealistic foes—they’re tangible things or ideas that customers can relate to and visualize as an enemy. “Dry toilet paper” is something everyone understands and has experience with.
2. Stay Focused on Your Fight: The temptation to expand into adjacent categories is strong, especially when you’re successful. But maintaining focus on your core enemy keeps your brand sharp and your message clear. Back in 2019, Dude Wipes launched Dude Deodorant and Dude Bodywash. Luckily, they quickly realized the error and discontinued these products to focus only on Dude Wipes to defeat toilet paper.
3. Embrace the Right Kind of Controversy: Take a strong stand. Dude Wipes drive attention, discussion and avid fans because they are willing to make bold claims that established brands couldn’t or wouldn’t make. To rally against an enemy brings people together and builds a brand worth fighting for.
This essay was excerpted from Laura Ries’s new book, Strategic Enemy.
Laura Ries
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Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
What if the real reason you feel stuck in business isn’t your offer, your ads or your strategy — but the fact that you don’t yet have a community of raving fans?
I know this firsthand. I built a multi-million-dollar company that has been recognized twice on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing companies in America. And if I am honest, one of the biggest reasons we scaled wasn’t just our offers. It was the loyal community we built along the way.
Because here’s the truth: a raving fan community does not just give you customers. It gives you defenders, promoters and ambassadors. It transforms buyers into believers. It is the difference between someone buying once and someone shouting your name, lining up at your events and bringing their friends with them.
This is why Beyoncé can sell out stadiums back-to-back. This is why Sarah Jakes Roberts fills arenas every year with Woman Evolve. And it is why our company continues to grow — because we have intentionally built a movement of experts we call ‘Cashletes.’
The good news? You do not need millions of followers or billions of dollars to build this. You only need to understand what I call The Community Amplifier Method™.
This method is built on three roles every great community must have:
Related: Why Emotional Branding Is Out and Functional Loyalty Is In.
When I left my $300K law firm job in 2018, I thought success would come instantly. The reality was very different. In the first few months of business, I made less than $800 total. I remember questioning and regretting my decision.
Yet those hard months became my most powerful story. People do not connect with the perfect version of you. They connect with the real you. The you that struggled, doubted and almost gave up but didn’t.
Sarah Jakes Roberts embodies this. She does not just share her wins. She shares the fact that she was a teen mom, that she felt unqualified and that she wrestled with insecurity. Her openness makes her community feel seen. Even Beyoncé has pulled back the curtain — through documentaries and candid moments, she lets the BeyHive see her real life, and her transparency deepens loyalty.
Here are some tips to implement transparent leadership:
Transparency creates trust. Trust creates community.
Once you lead with authenticity, you will attract more than customers. You will attract evangelists — people who buy into your mission so deeply they cannot help but share it.
I will never forget the first time I attended a truly transformative event. The experience shifted me so deeply that by the following year, I invited over a dozen clients to join me. I even purchased extra tickets just to give away. No one asked me to. No one paid me to. I did it simply because the experience was that powerful.
That is the power of evangelists. They are your free marketing army. They recruit with passion, and their word carries weight because it is trusted.
Here are some tips to implement brand evangelists:
Serve people so well that they cannot help but talk about you.
The final pillar of The Community Amplifier Method™ is bodyguards. These are the fans who protect your brand when challenges or critics appear.
The BeyHive is legendary for this. The moment anyone criticizes Beyoncé, her fans swarm. Their loyalty is unmatched.
I have experienced this in my own business. After one of my events, critics tried to drag me online. Before I could respond, members of my community stepped in. They corrected the misinformation and defended me without me asking. They did it because they believed in me and in the brand.
Here are some tips to implement brand bodyguards:
You cannot force devotion. You earn it.
Related: 4 Steps to Building a Community of Raving Fans
Here is the bottom line.
You do not need millions of followers to build a raving fan base. All it takes is a small group of people who believe deeply in your story, your mission and your brand. From there, momentum multiplies.
Every movement begins with just a handful of people who lean in, listen and believe. What starts small can grow into a community that spreads your message further than you could alone.
You can do this!
The sooner you start applying The Community Amplifier Method™, the sooner your business stops being a struggle and starts becoming a movement.
What if the real reason you feel stuck in business isn’t your offer, your ads or your strategy — but the fact that you don’t yet have a community of raving fans?
I know this firsthand. I built a multi-million-dollar company that has been recognized twice on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing companies in America. And if I am honest, one of the biggest reasons we scaled wasn’t just our offers. It was the loyal community we built along the way.
Because here’s the truth: a raving fan community does not just give you customers. It gives you defenders, promoters and ambassadors. It transforms buyers into believers. It is the difference between someone buying once and someone shouting your name, lining up at your events and bringing their friends with them.
The rest of this article is locked.
Join Entrepreneur+ today for access.
Ashley Kirkwood
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