Trust isn’t built through a logo, a slogan, or a perfectly curated feed. Trust grows from the gap between what a brand promises, what it delivers, and how reliably it keeps showing up over time. Today’s digital world is crowded, and customers are more sceptical, informed, and overwhelmed than ever. Trust is now a brand’s…
Book Review : Alchemy by Rory Sutherland. There’s a comforting belief in marketing that people are rational. That given the right information, presented clearly enough, they will make sensible decisions. Alchemy by Rory Sutherland exists to gently, brilliantly, and repeatedly destroy that belief. The Big Idea (Spoiler: Logic Is Overrated) Sutherland’s central argument is both…
An overthinker’s guide to being comfortably, strategically human. Modern marketing has a strange and sometimes worrying habit. At some point, a meeting took place. In that meeting, someone said: “What if we made everything… perfect?” Instead of being shown the door for such an unrealistic idea, they got a budget. The Pursuit of Flawlessness (and…
In this episode of The Overthinker’s Guide to Modern Marketing Podcast, Sean Makin takes a thoughtful and sceptical look at one of modern business’s biggest trends: personal branding. Opening with the line, “You are not a brand,” Sean explores how professionals have shifted from simply being themselves to becoming carefully curated online identities, complete with…
An overthinker’s guide to not accidentally ghosting your customers. There is, in the vast and mostly uncharted universe of marketing, a peculiar phenomenon. It is the moment a brand spends an extraordinary amount of time, energy, budget, emotional resilience, and at least one poorly considered brainstorming session involving sticky notes… just to get your attention.…
Book Review : They Ask, You Answer by Marcus Sheridan. There’s a moment in every marketing meeting where someone says, “We should create more content.” No one is entirely sure what that means, but it usually results in a blog post nobody asked for, answering a question nobody had. They Ask, You Answer by Marcus…
How to be trusted without being boring, and likeable without being useless. There is a moment in every marketing discussion where someone says: “We need to show more personality.” This is immediately followed by someone else saying: “Yes, but we also need to sound professional.” And just like that, the problem appears. Because what follows…
How to know what’s about to happen slightly before it does. There is a moment in every marketing meeting where someone says: “We need to be more on trend.” This is usually followed by nodding, a brief silence, and the quiet realisation that no one is entirely sure what that means. Because trends, much like…
How to exist loudly enough that people realise you exist at all. There is a persistent and deeply unhelpful myth that if you start a small business and are very good at what you do, people will simply find you. This is a charming idea. It is also, in most cases, spectacularly wrong. Because the…
How to spend money without immediately regretting it. Marketing budgets are fascinating things. They often begin life as a number someone feels comfortable saying out loud, evolve into a spreadsheet that no one fully understands, and eventually become a source of mild anxiety when results don’t immediately appear. At no point in this process is…