By: Ethan Flores

“Investing a little bit of additional budget with somebody smart in branding can often make a big difference in marketing and potentially an even bigger difference in sales.”

Jamie Schwartzman, Founder and Chief Creative Strategist of Flux Branding, isn’t interested in fluff. On The Pivot Experience Podcast with host Alex Seale, Jamie shared 25 years’ worth of insights on brand strategy, identity development, and the emerging role of AI in branding—without any of the jargon or hype.

Branding Isn’t Just Your Logo. It’s Your Identity.

Branding is one of the most misunderstood business functions, according to Schwartzman. “Brand identity is not just your logo, it’s not only graphic design,” he explained. “We’re exploring meaning, we’re crafting a story.”

At Flux Branding, the work starts well before design. The goal is to help companies articulate who they are, what makes them different, and how they connect to people emotionally.

He sees branding, marketing, and sales as three overlapping spheres in a Venn diagram. “Branding often serves as a foundation for marketing,” he said. “It’s about figuring out who you are, how you are different, what’s unique about you.” When done effectively, marketing leads tend to be better qualified, and sales teams may waste less time.

Why Startups Shouldn’t Rush Branding

For early-stage companies, Jamie offered direct advice: “Avoid the trap of trying to do branding too early. You might not know your industry well enough. You might not know your market well enough. You might not know your customers well enough.”

Instead of guessing who they are, startups should focus on doing the work and letting their identity surface over time. “Do a reasonable job to get out there and figure out who you are,” he said. Branding based on assumptions about what the market wants often comes across as fake. “Inauthentic brands tend to fall flat. Customers often sense them quickly.”

Archetypes: A Path to Brand Clarity

When asked how small businesses can start discovering their brand voice, Jamie pointed to one of his favorite tools: archetypes.

Referencing Carl Jung’s work, he explained, “There’s a collective consciousness… the hero, the rebel, the explorer, the dreamer. There are a number of classic archetypes.” By aligning your brand with a well-known character type, companies may communicate more effectively.

He added, “People typically don’t have a lot of time. And if you can align your brand with something they already understand, it often becomes easier to communicate who you are.”

Flux Branding even offers a free Brand Decoder quiz on their site to help organizations begin this journey.

Brand Strategy Before Design

Jamie’s IDEA Method (Ignite, Distill, Energize, Activate) guides companies through the branding process in four phases. Design doesn’t even begin until the third.

“In the Ignite phase, we’re doing workshops, having conversations, talking to the business principals, looking at the competitors,” he shared. “Then we come back and provide a reflection of what we saw. That helps establish initial consensus.”

The most challenging step? Naming. “Naming is often really hard because the name has to do a lot,” Jamie admitted. “It’s important for it to be protectable, to ideally have a good URL, be pronounceable, and not mean something bad in another language.”

Despite the difficulty, he’s seen clients go from reluctant to proud once the right name is chosen. “Sixty days later, that name often feels like anything but a compromise.”

AI’s Potential Role in Managing Brand Voice

Looking ahead, Jamie sees artificial intelligence potentially becoming a bigger part of his work. “I anticipate us moving much more into delivering an AI portal where we could train an AI infrastructure in the brand voice,” he said. “It could make it easier for people to maintain consistency with the right tone of voice.”

He also noted that future brand standards may live in digital portals. “All the colors, all the fonts, all the files are there. It’s often easier to have it all in one place at one time.”

Published by Joseph T.