If my love for thee / Could be expressed as a brand, / Of course it's Apple.

In this episode of Poetry and Marketing, I read you a haiku about branding:

If my love for thee

Could be expressed as a brand,

Of course it’s Apple.

Apple is the brand business owners mention nine times out of ten when I ask, “What brand would you want to emulate?” But here’s the catch: Apple, Nike and others in that echelon are legacy brands, built over decades with billions in investment. Most of us don’t have that runway.

So instead of chasing the impossible, I make the case for setting realistic benchmarks. I talk about why it’s smarter (and far more useful) to look at local or regional brands doing great work, especially those serving similar audiences. Let’s be aspirational, yes...But let’s also be grounded in reality.