Michael Campion: Let's look at the brand protocol of world and lens. Now, two people or two companies can see the same thing or sell the same thing, but interpret it completely differently. So the magic of branding is to see whatever else sees, but notice what others don't. Talk to me more about the brand protocol of brand world and brand lens.

Bob Sheard: Yeah, this is important because I think this is where brands get stuck, when they think that their category is their brand when it's not. So it's understanding the world you are in and where the world you are in is not your brand. So, for example, the example we use here is Rapha. So Rapha is a road cycling brand. They understood that that was their world, the world of road cycling, but they recognized that their brand was about pain. Their brand was about the glory of suffering, and it was pain and suffering that enabled them to navigate that world. It was understanding that they had to design products to overcome that pain, the pain of the climb, to enable their riders to ride through that pain. It was understanding that they needed to create communication that venerated that suffering and venerated the kings of pain. That enabled the brand to realize that its lens was pain, its world was road cycling, and then, from understanding that lens, they generated a high quality and quantity of brand communication, all orienting around the concept of pain. So what happened is we got addicted to that content and whilst we were consuming that content, we bought more product.

Another brand that we worked on was Ben Sherman, and obviously Ben Sherman sells shirts, so it's in sort of men's tailoring and men's fashion. But the lens that enabled Ben Sherman to successfully navigate that world was a concept called buttoning up. You can always tell a Ben Sherman consumer because they would button their top button and it was a very considered ritual that represents a really a totem of self respect and self worth that I'm buttoning up, that last final flourish of self expression. That said to the world that I'm more detailed, more considered, have a high degree of self worth and take me seriously. And so buttoning up was their lens that enabled them to navigate the sort of whimsical world of men's fashion. And, Rapha, it was pain that allowed and enabled them to navigate the world of road cycling.

Michael Campion: I love those two examples and they are very clear to me in that they show how the different protocols interact. So immediately while you're talking about that, I think about how this relates to the protocol of having a narrow focus that broadens your appeal, because you and I, as long distance runners, we can appreciate the glory of pain that comes with long distance running. So we could relate to all the communication at Rapha, but a lot of people won't relate to that masochistic quality. Similarly, with Ben Sherman right, there's a very precise ritual that identifies a Ben Sherman consumer. Am I right in thinking that they're being deliberately exclusionary in order to amplify their reach and their appeal to the ideal consumer?

Bob Sheard: I don't think they're deliberately excluding. I think that's just a function of being focused. Some people will get it and some people won't. And some people won't get it but will still want other people to think they get it, so they'll still buy it. True, True. That happens in Guinness all the time. Hardly anyone understands the advertising, but when you raise the Guinness to your lips you're kind of telling the world. You kind of understand the fish riding the bike.