JOURNAL

Journal

Ideas on brand strategy, B2B branding and putting a company's value into words. Articles are translated from the original Japanese.

66 articles

Oct 31, 2026JournalWebsite Redesign Stalled by Internal Disagreement? Five Decisions to Make FirstWhen opinions on a website redesign conflict, agree on customers, purpose, evidence and decision authority before choosing a design. A practical decision memo for moving the project forward.
Oct 23, 2026JournalNot Convinced by an AI Strategy Proposal? Separate What to Investigate, Decide, and TestA coherent strategy proposal can still leave you unable to act. Separate doubts about evidence, management choices, and delivery conditions to decide what to do next.
Oct 21, 2026JournalCan You Use AI-Generated Business Strengths in Sales? Check the Evidence FirstUnsure whether the strengths suggested by AI belong in your sales materials? Review each claim against customer feedback, comparison conditions, and delivery capabilities, then decide whether to use, qualify, or hold it.
Oct 21, 2026JournalWhat Is a Brand? A Seminar at AREA358 and Five Closing QuestionsAt AREA358 in Honjo, Saitama, Daisuke Irikura spoke about the definition of a brand, brand awareness, and how branding works. This report reflects on a concern raised in many questionnaire responses and the five questions that closed the seminar.
Oct 14, 2026JournalYour Sales Partners Are Not Selling: Trace Stalled Proposals Before Changing Commercial TermsWhen a partner agreement produces little business, examine customer fit, economics and responsibilities from proposal to delivery before changing commissions or sales materials.
Oct 13, 2026JournalNo One Is Applying to Your Job Posting: Should You Change the Conditions or the Message?When a job attracts no applications, rewriting the copy will not fix poor reach or uncompetitive conditions. Separate reach, employment terms and job understanding before deciding what to change.
Oct 12, 2026JournalHow Should Manufacturers Choose New Customers? Decide Which Work to Take Before Expanding Your Prospect ListBefore expanding a manufacturer’s prospect list, compare customer applications with the quality, delivery and economics the company can sustain. A practical way to choose prospects and decide which work to decline.
Oct 11, 2026JournalWork Is Stalled by Undecided Customer Specifications: Agree on Conditions for StartingSeparate decisions that block work from reversible assumptions and choices that can wait. Agree with the customer on decision deadlines and the conditions for proceeding.
Oct 11, 2026JournalDelivery Delays Keep Recurring: Examine the Basis for Promised Dates Before Adding OrdersReview estimates, queues, changes, and shared capacity rather than assuming delays are careless work. Connect delivery promises and prevention to management decisions.
Oct 11, 2026JournalCustomers Are Not Renewing: Understand Their Reason to Continue Before Offering a DiscountSeparate dissatisfaction, changing needs, and internal decisions when reviewing a lost renewal. Decide what evidence customers need and what value your team can deliver next.
Oct 10, 2026JournalEmployees Are Not Suggesting Improvements: Change What Happens After a SuggestionLook beyond motivation to responses, decision criteria and time for trials. Connect frontline observations with customer value and management choices.
Oct 10, 2026JournalSales Are Growing but Profit Is Falling: Choose Future Work on More Than RevenueSeparate costs, overhead and the mix of work before responding to falling profit. Connect customer value with delivery demands to decide which future orders to pursue.
Oct 10, 2026JournalNew Hires Leave Quickly: Who Is Giving Them Which Work After They Join?Trace assignments, support and decision authority after joining instead of explaining early departures through fit alone. Decide what the receiving team needs to change.
Oct 9, 2026JournalWorried About Dependence on a Major Customer? Decide Who to Serve Next Before Cutting BusinessCustomer concentration requires more than a revenue ratio. Examine gross profit, cash needs and dedicated capacity, then test which other customers you can serve while protecting existing commitments.
Oct 9, 2026JournalSalespeople Give Different Explanations: Align Promised Terms Before Standardizing the ScriptConsistent sales explanations do not require identical scripts. Distinguish wording from conflicting service terms, then use actual proposals to establish what the company can promise and who can approve exceptions.
Oct 9, 2026JournalYour New Service Is Not Selling: What to Examine Before Promoting More or Redesigning ItLow sales do not establish a lack of awareness. Separate the customer's problem, purchasing conditions, delivery capability and economics before setting the budget and deadline for the next test.
Oct 8, 2026JournalExtra Work Is Free, but Profit Is Disappearing: How to Decide What the Fee IncludesBefore charging for every additional request, distinguish normal agreed work, correction of your own errors and changes to the original scope. Use work records and customer explanations to make decisions about value and profitability.
Oct 8, 2026JournalWhen You Cannot Publish Client Work: Giving Buyers Evidence Without Breaking ConfidentialityEven when client names and deliverables cannot be disclosed, you can consider other evidence. Establish disclosure limits, distinguish client results from your own tests and provide evidence suited to the buyer's selection criteria.
Oct 8, 2026JournalNo Reply After Sending a Quote: Which Opportunities Should You Pursue or Put on Hold?Silence after a quote does not establish either a lost order or a likely sale. Trace the customer's decision timeline, unresolved conditions and agreed next steps before allocating sales time and delivery capacity.
Oct 7, 2026JournalInquiries Are Coming In, but the Requests Do Not Fit: Revisit How You Explain Your ServicesWhen unsuitable inquiries keep arriving, examine traffic sources, service scope and sales decisions before blaming misunderstanding. Decide what work you accept, then reflect those conditions in the website.
Oct 7, 2026JournalPlenty of Business Cards, Few Sales Meetings: What to Check After a Trade ShowBefore sending more mass follow-up emails, examine visitors' interests, decision stages and agreed next actions. Look beyond business-card totals to identify where opportunities stopped progressing.
Oct 7, 2026JournalCustomer Replies Are Waiting for the President: How to Decide What the Team Can DecideWhen customer replies repeatedly await the president, distinguish missing information, missing authority and unclear decision criteria. Start with one type of decision to establish what the team can handle.
Oct 5, 2026JournalExisting Customers Have Stopped Asking About Further Work: What to Check Before Pitching MoreBefore increasing proposals to existing customers, distinguish changes in their needs, your points of contact and their experience after delivery. Examine why additional discussions have stopped.
Oct 5, 2026JournalThe Same Customer Keeps Complaining: What Management Should Examine After the ApologyWhen complaints recur, go beyond individual apologies. Trace where sales explanations, agreed conditions and actual delivery diverge, and assign responsibility for correction and review.
Oct 5, 2026JournalCandidates Keep Declining Offers: What to Examine Before Increasing Follow-UpDo not automatically attribute declined offers to insufficient follow-up. Distinguish when candidates withdrew and what information they had, then examine the recruitment process.
Oct 4, 2026JournalWhat Sales Should Hand Over After an Order: Keeping Customer Expectations IntactCustomer expectations discussed during sales can disappear at handover. Distinguish contract conditions from expectations, and establish what to pass to operations, who answers and when unresolved matters are checked.
Oct 4, 2026JournalShould a New Business Use Your Existing Company Name? The Decisions to Make Before Naming ItDecide whether to use the existing company name or a separate name by examining customer expectations, links to the existing business, delivery capability, investment and trademark checks.
Oct 4, 2026JournalHow to Reduce B2B Sales Dependence on Referrals: Build Channels from Why You Were RecommendedWhen reliance on referrals makes opportunities difficult to forecast, examine referral sources, buyers' selection reasons and actual delivery. Use that evidence to test another sales channel on a small scale.
Oct 3, 2026JournalHow to Carry Customer Promises Through Business Succession—A Review Process for Successors and Sales TeamsA practical process for successors and sales teams to take over customer promises that depend on personal relationships with the outgoing owner during business succession. It covers terms of business, service records, the sequence of communications, and the limits of this approach.
Oct 3, 2026JournalDo Your Job Postings Match Workplace Reality? Five Things to Check Before HiringA process for checking the information shared on careers websites, in job postings, and during interviews against workplace reality. Review job responsibilities, working arrangements, compensation, development, and responsibility for updates to reduce misunderstandings.
Oct 3, 2026JournalHow B2B Companies Can Negotiate Price Increases—Communicating Cost Justifications and Customer Value SeparatelyThis article explains how small and medium-sized B2B companies can review costs, transaction terms, and the value customers recognize before requesting a price increase. It also outlines options after presenting the request and the limitations of this approach.
Oct 2, 2026JournalHow to Integrate Brands After M&A—The Order for Changing Company Names, Philosophy, and SalesBefore aligning company names and logos immediately after an M&A deal closes, clarify how to assess the purpose of integration, the customer value to preserve, communications with employees and business partners, and implementation across sales and operations.
Oct 2, 2026JournalHow to Make B2B Brand Assets Visible—Taking Stock of Names, Trust, and Systems as Management ResourcesThis article explains how to inventory brand assets by customer perceptions, relationships, operational capabilities, and names and rights—not just advertising effectiveness or logos—and use them in management decisions.
Oct 2, 2026JournalHow to Choose Branding Frameworks—What to Decide Before Lining Up 3C, PEST, and STPUsing more frameworks does not necessarily lead to deeper analysis. This article outlines the sequence: define the question based on the business challenge, select only the analytical methods needed, and connect the findings to decision-making.
Oct 1, 2026JournalWhen Is Rebranding Necessary? Business Changes to Review Before Changing Your LogoRebranding is not necessarily needed just because a brand looks dated. This article explains how to identify gaps between business realities and customer and employee perceptions, and how to decide the scope of change.
Oct 1, 2026JournalHow to Handle Exceptional Projects That Put Your Brand Promise at Risk—Deciding When to Decline, Change Terms, or ImproveHow should you decide whether to accept a project, change its terms, or decline when you may be unable to keep your promise to the customer? This article outlines practical steps, including complaint handling and preventing recurrence.
Oct 1, 2026JournalHow to Read Brand Assessment Results—Management Issues to Examine Before the Overall ScoreA brand assessment is not a competition for points. This article explains how to connect the overall score, variations between questions, and business data to select one management issue to address next.
Sep 30, 2026JournalHow to Use Brand Strategy in Management Meetings—Moving Beyond Reporting to Decision-MakingHow can management meetings use brand strategy to decide on target customers, promises, investments, and operational constraints, rather than simply leaving it in documents? This article explains how to structure agendas and decision records, and outlines the limits of evaluation.
Sep 30, 2026JournalHow B2B Companies Can Ask Customers Why They Were Chosen—Designing Interviews to Reduce AssumptionsDo not let customer feedback end with “good quality” or “a good account representative.” This article explains how to ask separately about alternatives, decision-making situations, deciding factors, and concerns, and turn the answers into records that inform brand strategy.
Sep 30, 2026JournalWho Should B2B Companies Compare Themselves Against? Alternatives You Miss by Looking Only at Industry PeersBefore compiling a list of competitors, identify who customers actually compared you with—and whether they considered alternatives such as in-house solutions or postponement. This article explains how to compare options on equal terms and turn competitive analysis into a tool for brand strategy.
Sep 29, 2026JournalWho Needs What in a B2B Proposal? Evidence for Users, Buyers, and Decision MakersOne proposal needs to answer different questions inside a customer organization. Confirm its purchasing process, then match each person’s decision to evidence the company can actually provide.
Sep 29, 2026JournalHow Should a B2B Company Measure Branding? Designing Metrics for Management DecisionsAwareness or revenue alone rarely settles whether a brand initiative is working. Separate recall in buying situations, the quality of sales conversations, and business outcomes, then keep comparable records.
Sep 29, 2026JournalShould a Second-Generation CEO Change the Predecessor’s Philosophy? Deciding What to Preserve and What to ChangeBusiness succession calls for more than choosing whether to keep or replace the predecessor’s words. A practical way to assess customer promises, employee capabilities, and the economics of each business before deciding what to preserve, reinterpret, or discontinue.
Sep 29, 2026JournalWhat Is Internal Branding?—Steps for Turning Corporate Philosophy into Frontline DecisionsThis article explains internal branding not as an activity to get employees to memorize a corporate philosophy, but as an effort to translate promises to customers into everyday decisions and actions. It introduces three questions for identifying frontline gaps and five steps for implementation.
Sep 28, 2026JournalWhy B2B Companies Struggle to Escape Price Competition—and What to Check Before Cutting PricesA practical guide to checking deal-level profitability, reasons for lost deals, alternatives considered, buying stakeholders, selection criteria, and supporting evidence before cutting prices. It considers changes to commercial terms, operational improvements, and branding measures, while recognizing that price differences themselves can cause lost deals.
Sep 28, 2026Brand guidelinesA Brand Guidebook Is Not a One-Time Deliverable—Designing Its Use and UpdatesA brand guidebook does not reach its goal the moment it is created; it only gains value through continued use. By establishing who updates it, when, and on what basis, and following a five-stage process of drafting, review, approval, distribution, and implementation, an organization can maintain consistency without allowing its standards to change at an individual's whim.
Sep 28, 2026Brand managementAn Era When Speed Gives Brands a Competitive Advantage—Fastvertising and Brand ManagementFastvertising is a marketing approach that responds quickly to trends and current events, turning attention into brand affinity. Speed alone may attract fleeting attention, but it does not build affinity. A clear brand core—its identity—is what allows a quick response to be recognized as true to the brand and become a competitive advantage.
Sep 28, 2026MarketingThree Common Reasons Personas Fail to Work in CompaniesPersonas fail to work not because of how they are created, but because three essentials are missing: evidence, validation, and perspective. ① Personas based on wishful thinking rather than data ② A lack of mechanisms for validation and updates ③ A lack of competitive perspective—without all three essentials, personas become empty formalities, unused in sales, recruitment, or on the web.
Sep 28, 2026RecruitingWhat Is Recruitment Branding?—Not “Looking Good,” but “Communicating Accurately”Recruitment branding means defining what a company means to job seekers. Its essence is not “looking good,” but “communicating accurately.” Unless internal branding is already working, a company cannot communicate honestly during recruitment, and the gap employees encounter after joining leads to early turnover.
Sep 28, 2026Brand fundamentalsBrand Concept vs. Brand Identity—How Confusing the Two Leads to Unusable Brand DesignA brand concept defines why you are undertaking branding and what the problem is. It is the starting point for branding. Brand identity defines who you are as a company and is designed based on the brand concept. Confusing the two leads to brand design without a foundation.
Sep 28, 2026VerbalizationHow to Reduce Dependence on Individual Salespeople: Keep Work Moving When They Are AwayExamine dependence on individual salespeople through information, decision authority, skills, and customer relationships. Start with work that stops in their absence, then decide what to share and what others can handle.
Sep 27, 2026VerbalizationWhy Verbalization Is Essential to Management—Four Academic FoundationsVerbalization is the process of converting the knowledge, experience, and intuition in an individual's mind into words that can be shared with others. Its essential role in management can be explained through four academic foundations: the inability to share tacit knowledge (Nonaka & Takeuchi), the alignment of decision-making criteria in organizational learning (Argyris & Schön), the inability to communicate value that has not been put into words (Wittgenstein), and the damage that inconsistent communication does to trust (Doney & Cannon).
Sep 27, 2026Brand managementWhat Is Brand Equity? Measuring a Brand as an AssetBrand equity cannot be assessed from an order value or diagnostic score alone. Drawing on Keller's definition, this article explains how to distinguish customer perceptions, purchasing behavior, and financial results.
Sep 27, 2026Brand managementWhat Is Brand-Led Management?—A Management Approach That Treats the Brand as CapitalBrand-led management is a management approach that treats the brand as capital to maximize corporate value and build sustainable profits and competitive advantage. As long as the brand is viewed as an expense, the decision will be to cut spending if it fails to deliver results. When it is viewed as capital, the management question becomes how to build, protect, and leverage it.
Sep 27, 2026Brand fundamentalsWhat Is a Brand?—Why B2B Companies Need Brands MostA brand is the meaning a company holds for its stakeholders. Logos and design are merely ways to express that meaning. Because B2B business involves high-value, long-term transactions, multiple layers of stakeholders, and frequent changes in the people responsible for accounts, brand development is actually more directly connected to business management in B2B than in B2C.
Sep 27, 2026B2B brandingWhy B2B Branding Is Necessary—Considering the Risks of Not Doing ItThe need for B2B branding should be measured not by whether you are facing difficulties now, but by whether you can withstand change when it comes. Escaping price competition, maintaining continuity when key personnel change, improving the quality of hiring, and adapting to changes in the business environment all depend on whether you have built your brand as an asset.
Sep 27, 2026B2B brandingWhat Is a BtoB Brand? Understanding How It Differs from BrandingA BtoB brand is the sum of the meaning, trust, and perceptions of a company accumulated in the minds of BtoB stakeholders—an asset. BtoB branding, by contrast, is the activity of deliberately designing and strengthening that brand—a process. If you set out to “do branding” without understanding this distinction, tactics can take the lead while what you are trying to build remains unclear.
Sep 27, 2026B2B brandingHow to Approach B2B Branding—Misreading the Root Problem Can Have Serious ConsequencesB2B branding follows eight steps: ① establishing the brand concept, ② environmental analysis, ③ defining the market, ④ defining customers, ⑤ defining uniqueness, ⑥ designing the brand identity, ⑦ designing the brand strategy, and ⑧ implementation across business activities. The most important part is the initial task of “defining the problem.” Unless you identify the root causes behind surface-level symptoms, every subsequent design decision will be off track.
Sep 27, 2026B2B brandingWhat Is B2B Branding?—Why Shaping Meaning Transforms B2BB2B branding means shaping what a company means to its B2B stakeholders. It is the deliberate design of how everyone surrounding a company—including customers, employees, job candidates, and business partners—perceives what that company stands for. Precisely because B2B has characteristics not found in B2C—complex purchasing processes, long lead times, and decision-making involving multiple people—deliberate brand design is especially important in B2B.
Sep 27, 2026Brand identityWhat Is VI (Visual Identity)?—Rules That Align Decisions, Not PreferencesVI is a set of decision-making rules that ensures recognizability and consistency. Its purpose is not to make things look beautiful, but to create conditions in which the same decisions can be reproduced regardless of who is responsible. By documenting acceptance criteria that can be assessed with a Yes/No answer, along with examples of what is unacceptable, a company can consistently build the same distinctive character even as external vendors and new employees come and go.
Sep 27, 2026Brand fundamentalsWhat Is a Brand Promise?—A Framework for Ensuring Value That Exceeds ExpectationsA brand promise is an assurance of value that exceeds expectations. It is a commitment to the value, experiences, and outcomes customers can consistently expect at every touchpoint with a brand. Unlike a tagline or slogan, it does not change from campaign to campaign; it changes only when the business itself changes.
Sep 27, 2026Brand guidelinesWhat Is a Brand Standards Document?—The Brand as a Decision-Making DocumentA brand standards document is a decision-making document. Rather than a design manual that specifies how to use logos and colors, it integrates the foundations of decision-making—corporate philosophy, identity, positioning, and promise—with implementation-level elements such as market definition, target definition, behavioral standards, and VI. It enables the entire company to share an understanding of how to make decisions when the answer is unclear.
Sep 27, 2026Brand identityWhat Is Brand Identity?—Designing the “Meaning Behind Meaning-Making”Brand identity is the definition at the heart of giving meaning to “who this company is.” At HUV DESIGN OFFICE, we call it the “meaning behind meaning-making.” Logos and taglines are ways to express it, not its essence. The starting point for brand design is to distinguish the sender’s intention—“how we want to be seen” (identity)—from the recipient’s perception—“how we are actually seen” (image).
Sep 27, 2026Brand identityHow to Create a Brand Identity—Why Design Comes After Analysis and DefinitionThere is a right sequence for creating a brand identity: design comes after analysis and definition. First, complete four preparatory steps—environmental analysis → market definition → customer definition → definition of uniqueness—then design your brand identity around five questions: WHY, WHO, WHAT, HOW, and WHOM NOT. If you jump straight into wording, you will end up with an idealized concept disconnected from reality.
Sep 27, 2026Brand identityThe Components of Brand Identity—Designing with Customer Expectations, Competitive Advantage, and ClarityAn effective brand identity consists of three elements: ① customer expectations, ② capabilities that create competitive advantage and differentiation, and ③ clarity. These three elements serve both as design components and as criteria for judging whether a brand identity is well conceived.
Sep 27, 2026Brand fundamentalsWhat Is Positioning?—Why Differentiation Alone Is Not EnoughPositioning is the activity of defining a market position where a company can demonstrate competitive advantage and distinctiveness, and giving that position meaning in stakeholders’ minds. Its essence is not simply pursuing differentiation, but meeting industry standards (PoP), designing points of difference (PoD) across three layers of value—functional, emotional, and organizational—and connecting that differentiation to a revenue model.