no. 33: brand recall.

ipo season, the water bottle of the year, and color theory.

happy monday because it’s finally over 50 degrees! i have a lot to say in this week’s newsletter so let’s get into it:

mini news round-up 🗞️

• figma in talks with bankers to explore an ipo this year - many tech companies instead appear to be gravitating to potentially going public. this is set to be a “test of wall street’s appetite for ai-related companies”. discord, a social chat app, and stubhub, a ticketing software company, are in early discussions about a potential public offering this year.

• target and warby parker are teaming up on eyewear shop-in-shops - i recently bought my first pair of real glasses from warby parker and the experience was beautiful. this naturally makes sense as an expansion plan for warby parker. in case you were wondering i am very excited to wear real glasses instead of my fake blue light ones.

• trump says four bidders in play for tiktok deal ‘soon’ - i really don’t know where all of this is headed anymore. this will be interesting to see unfold…. again.

• all the nyc influencers are getting mad because someone called all the nyc influencers boring and generic (no link for this sorry) - people are reacting to why influencers are mad about being called “boring” and “generic”. the 5 am tracy anderson classes are getting people worked up over their daily workouts.

• a new water bottle has already taken over williamsburg -

  Brandscape
  wrote about how the people have chosen a new water bottle - the bink. the stanley is massively inconvenient but i refuse to purchase another water bottle for at least a year. [edit: since posting this minutes ago

• instagram might be launching a separate app for reels - we already saw how threads went down so i would recommend they don’t try to do this.

brand-storming 🧃

a new section quickly highlighting the brands i’m liking, watching, and buying across cpg/ tech — it only makes sense to share what’s been on my mind.

• ciao pappy 🥫 (cpg)

• profound 📲 (tech)

• allyon 🛍 (retail)

trends to watch 👀

color is so critical to brand identity, yet i think such few brands can deliver a color story while offering a good product. using consistent brand colors can increase brand recall by up to 80%. when customers repeatedly see your brand colors in different contexts, their brains associate those colors with your brand — specifically with brand recall. enjoy this ugly chart i found that probably needs better colors below.

the ugly chart i mentioned.

these are the brands i immediately thought of when looking for brands with a memorable and strong visual identity — right off the bat — and particularly products you could find in my house:

1. crown affair - this was an obvious choice for me,

   Dianna Cohen
   has nailed color theory and has talked about her particular passion for art history when building crown affair. she has meticulously integrated that into crown affair’s brand story. their art direction is flawlessly executed, with their social content essentially being a brand pinterest board. i am a huge fan of the towel and the texturizing air dry mousse both being staples for my daily haircare. on their origin story, i loved this from their website: “our brand colors come from artists like ed ruscha — ca green is based on a 2007 gagosian show catalog, busted glass. the orange comes from ruscha's series: news, mews, pews, brews, stews & dues (1968), and our logo is composed of brancusi-inspired shapes. our overall color story finds a home with botticelli's the birth of venus”. crown affair is a masterclass in marketing in every way.

2. chamberlain coffee - i love to talk about chamberlain coffee solely because i think its a wonderful example of an influencer-led brand. authentic while fresh. i personally pay more attention to when a brand carries over its visual identity from their socials to their products. this brand does this so effortlessly well, also coinciding with their la permanent store front that i covered a few weeks ago.

3. ghia - yet again, ghia has just nailed a strong visual aesthetic at every touchpoint. i won’t talk about it more because i have talked about it at length. see my interview with jess eggert, previous director of brand at ghia for more :)

if you made it this far and you are in the cpg + tech spaces and want brand-storm with me, feel free to shoot me a message!

see you all soon!