The Changing Pattern of Brand Growth

What two years of research revealed about modern brands

Happy New Year, everyone.

Last month, I submitted the manuscript of my first book to my editor at Toyo Keizai, a preeminent business publisher in Japan, after over two years of research and writing.

The book is called “Brand Shift: Growth Strategy in the Age of Trust,” and it will be published in Japanese in April 2026.

Across cases I studied, there was a pattern I kept seeing:

UNIQLO’s Round Mini Shoulder Bag sat dormant for two years until customers discovered what made it useful. Stanley’s Quencher became a phenomenon without a major campaign. Human Made grew revenue sixfold with minimal traditional marketing. OpenAI became one of the most valuable brands by treating product releases as content.

None of these brands led with emotional storytelling. They led with product. Trust came from experience, not messaging. The brand followed. They didn’t rely on the traditional marketing funnel. Their products attracted customers, customers built trust and spread the word, and that reinforced the brand.

UNIQLO’s Round Mini Shoulder Bag, Human Made’s Daily T, Stanley’s Quencher, OpenAI’s ChatGPT (clockwise from top left) | Image by the author with Gemini

This contradicts how most of us were taught to build brands. But it’s increasingly how they actually get built.

Though I wrote the book for a Japanese audience, the insights apply universally. Instead of waiting for an English translation, I’m serializing the core concepts through this newsletter over the coming months—adapted for an international audience and weekly format.

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What to expect

Over the next several months, I will unpack these topics one by one:

• Why “brand” means something different now: Most people think they know what “brand” means. But the word has become ambiguous and inconsistent—especially as product, experience, and trust have replaced awareness as the primary drivers of growth. I’ll establish a shared language for understanding brand in the 21st century.

• From Funnel to Flywheel: The traditional marketing funnel—awareness, interest, consideration, purchase—assumes brands control the narrative. But in reality, customers now discover products, experience them, build trust, and become advocates. I’ll show why this flywheel model better reflects how brands can grow today, and what it means for how you build yours.

• How technology broke the marketing playbook: From the printing press to radio, television, and the internet—each time media has evolved, the relationship between people and brands has shifted from “reading” to “watching” to “connecting.” I will trace this historical arc, examining why traditional marketing methods no longer work as well as they used to—and what TikTok, the creator economy, and AI agents mean for brands in 2026.

• The four shifts defining modern brand-building: It’s been argued that people buy, not what you do, but why you do it. But they won’t choose your brand again if they don’t develop trust. I will present and discuss four shifts that we must make: Shifts in Question, Structure, Method, and Relationship that define a new paradigm in brand-building. Through these, I will offer a new perspective on how brands can accumulate trust sustainably.

• How to apply this: Knowing the theory is only the starting point. How do you apply it in the real world? I will provide worksheets to put the above concepts into practice.

Each newsletter will stand on its own while building toward a comprehensive framework for brand-building at the intersection of product, business, and technology.

This isn’t just theory—it’s drawn from real work with real companies facing real challenges. I’m excited to share what I’ve learned and hear your thoughts along the way.

Thanks for reading The Intersection. Here’s to 2026.