I love brands that bring people together. That sounds like a super romantic take, but it’s true. I’m the kind of person who recommends a brand that I don’t even own. I wouldn’t say I “obsess” over certain brands, but I can say that what they are doing is clearly working. I first discovered Red Antler Brand Company on Behance. In the past 6 months, I’ve been working towards a major career shift and part of that includes researching the types of roles and projects I think I’d fit into and enjoy working on. This means spiraling down a rabbit hole until I end up with a browser full of tabs and start to feel the budding emotional response of “I’m on to something.” After visiting Red Antler’s website, I  instantly made the connection that nearly every brand I praise was a client of this agency. Dug a little deeper, and saw that the Co-Founder Emily Hayward recently published a book about building brand that people love. At this point, I had already decided that Brand Strategy with a mix of UX Design was a path I wanted to explore so I went to Amazon and prime’d the book all in the same motion.

Obsessed by Emily Hayward is one of those books that is so easy to read, and I mean that in a good way. I’m someone who easily gets distracted while reading and it is so hard for me to stay committed to a book and finish it. If I can finish a book in less than a week, that is an instant sign that it was worthwhile. Emily breaks up the book into digestible portions spanning from identifying problems, tapping into consumer emotional needs, flipping the script to building a community (arguably a synonym for branding) that is not only successful but ~obsessed~ over. These are the aspects of Brand Strategy and Design that I really connect with so naturally there were many moments when I was reading that I felt myself saying “duh” almost intuitively. This means that I am either incredibly in-tune with what it takes to build an amazing brand, or Emily is magic and knows how to simultaneously teach and tell a story (or maybe both 😎). One section that particularly resonated with me spoke on translating a problem/solution into a human need. Almost like reverse engineering an idea, and boiling it down until all that remains is a particular emotion or desire. Emily argues that nearly every problem stems from a fear of death ... which brought me back to college studying psychology and human development. For me, this book made it clear that branding is about understanding people. From their needs to their identity, it’s about tapping into why we are here and how we want to spend our time and be remembered. Emily relates the sentiment to the Korean word and concept of “Jeong”  which she describes as “taking the time to form deeper and more meaningful connections.”  Outside of the overarching themes of this book, I loved the structure. I loved that Emily used Brand stories (cough cough remember the ones I said I praised) as the main examples for her arguments. If you are looking for a light yet educational read that will forever change how you view advertising, social media marketing, and even your own identity — Obsessed: Building a Brand People Love from Day One by Emily Heyward will do just that.

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