Blog | Alchemy

alchemy - Jul 4, 2026

Let Your Brand Go Off Leash

No one had ever heard of Beck David Hansen. Now known anonomously as "Beck", he a completely unknown music artist playing in small coffee houses. He scraped together enought money to record a song he wrote called "Loser". It was strange song with incoherent lyrics ----- the reaction?--- Was "Loser" worthy of the "Most Stupid Song Award" or was it handsdown brilliant? Like Nigel Tuft says in the movie "Spinaltap", "It's a fine line between stupid and brilliant". What put "Loser" in the category of brilliant? the nonsensicle lyrics that allowed people to assign their own meaning to...

alchemy - Jun 29, 2026

Feedback Loops Feed Alchemy

A feedback loop is a mechanism that helps a system continuously self-regulate and adapt by using feedback. For brands, it is a process of receiving people's input, interpreting and incorporating that feedback, adjust accordingly, implement, and then repeat the process. The most successful brands and their companies use feedback loops. Postive and Negative Feedback Loops Both postive and negative feedback loops have their place. Postitive feed back loops are dynamic. Negative feedback loops maintain. Most attention fusually ocuses soley of the positive feedback loop. Sorry negative...

brand identity - May 30, 2026

The Search For Authenticity

“I'll know it when I see it” or “It just felt right.” When we use a search engine, sometimes we aren’t exactly sure what we are searching for. But when we do come across it, we know. Whatever the reason, it's definitely not because we’re looking for something fake. Unfortunately, as we know all too well, sometimes the appearance of authenticity can ring our bell enough to make a purchase. Unsurprisingly, when our experience doesn’t reflect what we expected, it leaves a bitter taste in our mouths. Trust walks out the door. And so does the chance for alchemy. Finding we what have been...

social - Apr 11, 2026

Alchemy and Social Tone-Deafness

An unawareness of a social disconnect is often referred to as being socially tone-deaf. At best, social tone-deafness results in a harmless social slip-up. At worst it can end up as a public relations nightmare. In an effort to stay culturally relevent, some companies jumped on a social movement bandwagon. Thing is, some of those companies created campaigns around sensitive topics that they didn’t really understand. Unfortunately, these attempts at combining creativity with social issues led to blunders that ranged from embarrassing to downright horrifying. More Than a Little Off Key...

generation - Mar 15, 2026

Dear 80’s, We Miss You

A recent survey asked 20 to 60-year-olds what they would choose for best decade to live in. Two things about these results were particularly striking societal commentaries. First, across the board all respondents said that how they experienced life went all downhill after. Interestingly enough, despite shoulder pads, glam rock, the age of greed, and yuppies, nearly all the 20 somethings wished they had lived in the 1980’s. Conversely, post 2010 was seen as the worst decades to live. For all respondents, it came down to one single reason: an ever-increasing presence and use of the...

culture - Feb 26, 2026

Don’t Forget to Add the Culture

When I was a kid, my cousins and I used to poke fun at my abuela’s use Vicks VapoRub for everything. One time a cousin hid her arm inside her sleeve and doused it with ketchup. She ran into the house yelling “¡Abuela! ¡Ayudame! !Mi brazo ha sido cortar de apagado!” My abuela rushed into the room and saw what looked like her arm was cut off. She ran into the bathroom and came back with a jar of VapoRub to fix her missing arm. Next came the peals of laughter. Luckily for us my abuela had a good sense of humor. Once she recovered from her shock, she chuckled. Handed down from generation...

decision making, human behavior, psychology - Jan 17, 2026

Are You Biased?

forS use, Did you answer “no”? If so, then you have a bias. It’s called a blind spot. But don’t be too hard on yourself. Truth is, we’ve been hardwired for bias since we were monkeys. It was necessary for survival. See that tiger? Maybe you saw one just like it shred your best friend. So, next time you see anything that resembles a furry animal with stripes you are going run like hell, right? Or let’s say you’re out in the woods and see a yummy looking red berry that poisoned your sister? Note to self: small red berries are bad, bad, bad. Don’t eat them. Biases are baked into our...

brand identity, society - Nov 5, 2025

The Importance of Accessibility

No matter how great a brand is, it doesn't do any good if a quarter of the population can't use its website. According to the CDC, 25% of adults in the United States have some form of disability. A good percentage of disabilities are those with hearing and sight impairments. When it comes to using a website, products or service descriptions, online videos, purchasing, and navigation, should optimize your content for accessibility. And because niche markets have specialized interests, the markets sizes will be smaller that larger segments of the population. That means for a niche business,...

brand identity, culture, society, storytelling - Oct 1, 2025

Myths and the Iconic Brand

The first official brand in the United States emerged in 1818, and since then nearly 90,000 of them have come and gone. Today there are 50,000 active brands out of which roughly 5% to 8% will become legandary. Similarly while there are many gods, only a handful enter the halls of iconhood. It is because of the stories that resonated with people were shared far and wide, handed down from generation to generation. If Apollos, Neptunes, Hades, and Dionysuses were brands, they would be Brand Gods. These gods have riviting co-created stories that represent the immortal truths of human...

Pssst…You’re Not Always In Control

brand identity, brand stories, culture - Aug 26, 2025

Nike’s Success and the Impact of Culture

The insight that came to encompass Nike in its entirety, was grounded in centerpiece of sports within American culture. It was the insight that helped Nike create a strategy from which came great slogans like “Just Do It”, and “Believe in Something”. It also led to a campaign called “Unlimited” which encouraged people of all abilities and in tandem with a film called “Unlimited You” that featured well known people who had achieved great things along with who Nike considered the real stars - regular men, women, and children. Nike’s brilliant two-pronged move fit hand in glove with a new...

brand identity, social - Jun 30, 2025

Brands Are People Too

When it comes to brand identity the question isn't "what" a brand is as much as it's "who" a brand is. Obviously, to be successful. a brand has to function and fill a need or desire in the marketplace. But that's just table stakes. It also has to have the ability to draw people to itself. Nothing does that better than magnatism. It's the power of personification. We gravitate towards brands that define and convey human traits. And we are prone to form a longer lasting connection with brands that share the same human traits as those people with whom it resonates, fascinates, and...

alchemy, marketing, niche - May 22, 2025

Think Like A Fly Fisherman

My father was an inveterate fly fisherman. He’d walk and wade a trout stream for hours to understand all its nuances. Then he would return day after day to study the shifts and changes in its characteristics. When he wasn’t doing that, my father would be huddled over a magnifying glass tying a specific kind of fly that the trout were looking for that day. Figuring out exactly the right fly to use to attract a trout and then get it to bite is central to the art of fly fishing. So, not getting it right means going home with an empty fishing creel. Niche Marketing is Like Fly...

human behavior, social - May 22, 2025

The Art of the Question

Question-asking is not as simple as it seems. There’s an art to it. How they are asked have a significant impact on the accuracy and quality of the answers. The people that inhabit your market have unique and specific perspectives. Which means your questions have to be spot-on. Here are some question-asking pitfalls to be aware of: Don’t Ask Why We often don’t really know exactly why we like, feel, or perceive something. Our knee jerk answers lie on the surface of our awareness. Nothing wrong to begin with asking "Why?" After all, that's what you want to know. However the responses...

community, culture, hispanic, society - May 15, 2025

Latinx, Latino, or Hispanic? It Depends.

Does whether to use Latinx, Latino, or Hispanic have you walking on eggshells? You’re not alone. Many people use Hispanic and Latino interchangeably. Latinx gets a fair amount of attention in college university environments as a monolithic term but is a matter of self-identity for Latino LGBT communities. What they all have in common is that we all worry about commiting a cultural offense. However, these three words aren’t as tangled up as it might seem. If you want to be precise in the use of Latino and Hispanic, here’s how it works: Hispanic is based on language. Latino is based...

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