How To Create Norms When Your User Is Lost — The one thing humans can’t handle is chaos. It’s why the Soviet Union fell only to install Putin, and the brief moment of hope that was the Arab Spring led to a familiar regime of autocrats. It’s also why when there is a decrease in government stability, there is an…

On signaling behavior, moving the defaults and taking big swings — For a few weeks during the Coronavirus’ spread across the United States, Americans all spoke the same language. Phrases like “flatten the curve” and “social distancing” entered our lexicon. Many have documented our new set of social norms, from stepping away from strangers on the street (once awkward, now thoughtful)…

Now is the time to decide if your brand is a habit or a ritual — When people or brands say, “We’ll get through this together,” or “After the Coronavirus has passed,” they’re revealing a lie in our collective words of encouragement. There will very likely be no “before and after” COVID. Instead, there will be a very slow tumbling of closures and business failures, amplified…

When markets for premium toilet paper and convenience store wine start to prove themselves, a brand reckoning isn’t far behind. — When I arrived in Tokyo’s Nirita International Airport on a cold December morning, before I even searched for baggage claim, I had located my first asian 7-Eleven on the second floor of arrivals. It was all there — puffy cloud pastries, fried chicken on a stick (soon to become my…

The Smithsonian shows that our collective scrambling to define the canon is, in fact, a rebellious act. Alrosa begs the question of ownership. Outdoor Voices pulls a Mariah Carey. — I write a lot about defining strategy and how to build a brand. …

This is what the business of identity looks like. — If you want to know the values of a culture, look at its language. In America, we’ve come to talk about time through a very distinct metaphor hiding in plain sight: Can you spare some time tomorrow for a quick chat? Let’s make this worth our while. I’ve invested a…