If you can't name the feeling, you don't have a brand

“What business are you really in?” is my favorite question to ask prospective clients.

Their answers are almost always functional.

We're the fastest inference layer or most intelligent context graph. Cool, but so are a dozen other fast-growing companies.

Nobody buys Nike for the shoe. You know that, I know that.

Yet AI companies keep showing up with “we're faster and more accurate” like that's going to make someone fall in love.

Red Bull stopped selling caffeine a long time ago—the whole company is in the business of extreme. Harley figured out the freedom thing so well that grown adults pay a premium to wear their leather jackets.

These companies pick one feeling and just keep hammering it.

The function still matters, it's just in service of delivering the feeling.

When I ask teams to name the feeling they want to evoke, most can't, because they never rallied around just one.

So the brand ends up being a little confident, a little warm, a little bold, which is basically the nice person at a networking event nobody remembers.

If you can’t name the feeling, you don’t have a brand.