Gregory Kennedy

I went into B2B because I was better suited for it. The products tend to be complex and require a lot of knowledge and expertise to market them, which allowed me to utilize my writing and communications skills in ways that I couldn't in consumer. I enjoyed diving deep into new industries, learning about new technology, and developing communications materials that promoted these types of products.

Rome wasn't built in a day. Your brand voice won't be developed during a single Zoom session. And that's okay. Think of your brand tone and voice as an ever-changing and evolving entity that starts small and grows over time from a seedling into a mighty oak. It's something that you nurture and experiment with, and eventually, you will get the right feel for what works and what doesn't. But you will only know that after you have tested many different ideas and experimented with them in the real world with real customers.

I designed one logo that became quite famous. I did it for the company before they were popular when I was young. No, it never became as big as Nike, and I received no stock. Too bad for me. Logos need to be readable and usable in a wide range of places. Keep yours simple and versatile. Remember, it will be used on tiny phone screens and on giant billboards. It must go in a banner ad and also get knitted onto hats and shirts. The use cases are so wildly diverse that simplicity is the name of the game. Make sure it also has some character to it. But not too much. You don't want to confuse anyone.

Names get harder to create each year. Why? All the great ones have been taken. But what's worse is when names go through silly trends that make no sense 15 years late. Do you remember when people added the letters 'er' to the end of their company name? We had Dogster, Jobster, and Lobster (oh, wait, that's a real animal). They were inspired by a once-popular website called Friendster, which most of you probably have never heard of. If you're trying to come up with a name for your company, try to create a short, simple, catchy, easy-to-spell name where the domain name is available. This is getting hard, you say? Yes, indeed, naming is tough. Keep it at. Names matter a lot.

Competitive product research is overrated. There are many examples of products that tested poorly, like the Walkman, but went on to be a huge success. However, customer research, where you gain a deep understanding of who your customers are, how they buy, and what problem you solve for them, is gold. There is nothing more valuable than talking to customers. I believe in doing pure customer research that isn't biased by having a viewpoint on a particular product. Speak with them. Ask open-ended questions and get a sense of who they are and their problems. Work backward from there to create something useful to them, not the other way around.

A vision is often confused with a mission. While the two are closely related, your vision is how you see the world and how it will be different because of your impact. The best examples I have ever seen are from Tesla. Their mission statement is “to accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy.” Their vision statement is “to create the most compelling car company of the 21st century by driving the world's transition to electric vehicles.” What I love most about this vision statement is that it describes clearly how they will make a car that will help them achieve their inspiring mission.