Ideas, observations and experience from 20 years in the business.
Running a creative and marketing agency in Perth for more than 20 years has taught me a lot about businesses, brands and the people behind them.
I've seen businesses grow, change direction, enter new markets, evolve their teams, launch new ideas and sometimes completely reinvent themselves.
I've also seen what happens when the brand doesn't evolve with them.
THINKING is where I share some of those observations.
It's not a traditional agency blog. It's a collection of ideas, experiences and perspectives from the work we do every day at The Jam Jar, a Perth marketing agency working across branding, creative, design, websites and digital marketing.
We'll talk about brand positioning, brand strategy, logo design, web design, marketing, SEO, Google Ads, social media, digital marketing and photography - but always from the perspective of what we've learned from working with real businesses.
Some articles will be practical.
Some will challenge conventional thinking.
Some will simply explore something I've noticed after two decades in the industry.
But all of them have the same purpose:
To help businesses think more clearly about where they are, where they're going and how their brand needs to show up.
Experience matters.
There is a difference between reading about branding and actually spending 20 years sitting across the table from business owners trying to work out what comes next.
I've been doing that for a long time.
At The Jam Jar, you don't disappear into layers of account management or get handed from one department to another. We're a boutique Perth agency, and our clients work directly with the people doing the thinking, writing, designing and building.
That's something I believe matters.
Because the best work often starts with a conversation.
A good question.
A slightly uncomfortable observation.
Or simply someone taking the time to properly listen.
THINKING is where I'll share some of those ideas.
My Latest Thinking.
Your business has changed. Has your brand?
Most businesses don't wake up one morning and decide they've outgrown their brand. It happens gradually - and often the first sign is simply that something doesn't feel quite right.
Why your brand can feel wrong even when nothing is technically wrong?
Sometimes there’s nothing obviously wrong with your brand - it just doesn’t quite feel like your business anymore. That feeling is often the first sign that something has changed.
Why a new logo won’t fix a confused brand.
A new logo can make a brand look different, but it can’t solve a lack of clarity. Before you start designing, it’s worth understanding what actually needs to change.
When is it actually time to rebrand?
Rebranding is a big decision, particularly for an established business. Knowing whether you need a refresh, repositioning or something completely new starts with understanding where your business is heading.
What is brand positioning and why does it matter?
Brand positioning is more than finding a clever tagline. It's about understanding what your business should stand for, why people should choose you and the space you want to occupy in their minds.
Brand strategy vs brand positioning: what's the difference?
They’re closely connected, but they do different jobs. Positioning defines what your brand should stand for, while strategy helps determine how the brand can support where your business is going.
Why strategy should come before creative.
Great creative can make a business look better. But without the right thinking behind it, you could be solving the wrong problem. The strongest creative starts with understanding what needs to be achieved.
What makes a brand genuinely different?
Being different for the sake of it isn't enough. The strongest brands uncover something that is genuinely true, meaningful to their customers and difficult for competitors to replicate.
Good thinking starts with understanding.
After 20 years working with businesses across Perth and beyond, we know that the strongest brands don't come from jumping straight into design or marketing.
They come from understanding the business first.
If something about your brand, marketing or digital presence doesn't quite feel right, let's talk about it.
What we uncover might surprise you.