As we look back on this holy year of the brat, the lessons learned from working with brands like Recoup, ProHealth, Passion Joy, and Helados Mexico have ignited a fire in Team Mudge that’s sure to make 2025 a hell of a year. Here are a couple of life lessons we’ve learned along the way: 

  1. Branding is how people feel about your product: A brand is not your logo, your product, your packaging, or the retweet you once got from Shaq. A brand is more than the dollars you put behind billboards, paid social, or limited merch drops. 
  2. Don’t Do Design Without Strategy: Brand Positioning decides where your brand fits in the market and how it’s differentiated from the competition. By skipping this step, you leave the problem your brand aims to solve shrouded in mystery. 
  3. Your agency is begging you to be fearless: Big, bold campaigns and next-level rebrands require a leap of faith (atop a robust foundation of strategy, creative, and data) that’s bound to cause some discomfort. 
  4. Don’t be afraid to shake up your packaging: The journey from outlier to trendsetter to thought leader is easier to measure in hindsight. A trend’s downward spiral typically follows the design appropriation from a major brand (e.g., Walmart’s stripped-down, bettergoods brand) and hits morgue status shortly thereafter. 
  5. Your brand is not the hero, the consumer is: Focusing too much on your brand’s features in lieu of consumer benefits can result in a brand that’s just speaking to itself.
  6. Rethink your brand positioning by considering the opposite: If you’re serious about standing out, start by positioning your brand in a way that has a real, actionable opposite. The stronger and more targeted your brand positioning, the more distinct and effective your packaging will be. Because generic strategy leads to generic packaging—and we both know you can do better than that.
  7. It is, somehow, possible for legacy brands to not be boring: Legacy brands have one powerful advantage on their side: history. They’ve stood the test of time for years – sometimes decades – and have established fanbases suckling at their proverbial teet. 

Launching a brand is hard: Set yourself up for success with a unique brand positioning, emotionally connective story, and packaging that closes the sale.

Need to work on your Positioning? Check out our Food & Bev Brand Bootcamp or send us an email.