Kodak invented the digital camera in 1975, more than twenty years before it transformed the industry. They chose not to launch it to protect film roll sales. In 2012, Kodak filed for bankruptcy. It wasn’t a technology issue. It was a question of how they communicated what they stood for and where they were heading. A well-known brand without the right story can be just as vulnerable as an unknown one.
Invisibility is the most common cause of business death
Statistics Sweden published a 2024 review of Swedish business closures from 2015 to 2024. The most cited reason wasn’t bad finances, the wrong product, or weak staff. It was insufficient demand — customers didn’t come, and the business couldn’t keep going.
Insufficient demand is rarely a product problem. It’s a visibility problem. And visibility is what a working brand delivers. Without a clear brand, you’re competing in a noise of alternatives where the customer has no reason to choose you specifically.
It doesn’t matter how good you are if no one knows you exist.
Seth Godin, marketing author and founder of Squidoo
Price pressure: when you can’t set a price without losing the customer
The most common symptom of a weak brand is that you always lose on price. The customer asks for a discount. You give a discount. The customer compares you to competitors and picks the cheapest. You lower the price again. It’s a spiral that never ends, eroding margins until the work no longer pays off.
Price wars happen when the customer doesn’t perceive any meaningful difference between you and the competitor. It isn’t a sales problem. It’s a brand problem. Apple sells phones for 15,000 kronor in a market full of alternatives at 3,000 — and still has the world’s highest customer loyalty. The difference isn’t the hardware. It’s the story, the identity, and the perceived belonging.
A Nielsen survey (2023) showed consumers are willing to pay an average of 21% more for a brand they trust compared to an unknown alternative. That premium is directly tied to how strongly and consistently the brand is communicated.
When you are a commodity, the only way to compete is on price. When you are a brand, you compete on meaning.
Marty Neumeier, The Brand Gap
The Kodak case: when a brand doesn’t keep up with its time
Kodak invented the digital camera in 1975. It’s not a legend, it’s a fact. Steve Sasson, an engineer at Kodak, built the first digital camera in a lab in Rochester, New York. Management looked at the invention and put it in a drawer. The reason? Digital cameras threatened film sales, Kodak’s most profitable product.
The problem wasn’t that Kodak didn’t understand the technology. The problem was that Kodak’s brand — and the entire company culture — was so deeply rooted in film that they couldn’t think outside it. By the time digital cameras finally exploded in the early 2000s, competitors had a decade’s head start. Kodak filed for bankruptcy in 2012.
The lesson: a brand that’s defined too narrowly — "we’re the film company" instead of "we help people preserve memories" — limits future options. A brand has to be rooted in what the company actually does for the customer, not in how it does it.
How a weak brand costs you the best people
The employer brand is a direct extension of the external brand. LinkedIn ran a 2024 global study with 5,000 hiring managers and found that 75% of candidates research a company’s brand and culture before they even submit an application.
Companies with weak or non-existent employer brands report on average 2.5x longer time-to-hire and 50% higher rates of early turnover. The actual cost of recruiting and onboarding a new employee is, according to Gallup, often 150–200% of that employee’s annual salary. With a strong brand, that cost drops dramatically.
In Sweden, where the skills shortage in tech and creative roles is acute, this isn’t an abstract risk. It’s one of the most concrete financial consequences of not taking your brand seriously.
Seven warning signs your brand needs work
- You lose deals on price even though your product is comparable or better
- Customers can’t easily explain what you do differently from competitors
- Your logo looks different on the website, on Instagram, and in printed material
- You have no clear tone or voice — communication sounds different depending on who writes
- You attract the wrong customers — those who price-shop and never come back
- Your ads generate clicks but no conversions
- You’re embarrassed to share your own marketing material
If more than three of these resonate, it’s a clear signal the brand needs work. It doesn’t have to be a big investment, but it has to start with a decision to take it seriously.
The way forward: what you can start with today
Brand building is a marathon, not a sprint. But it always starts with the same three questions: Who are we? Who do we do it for? And why should they choose us? The answers form a brand platform — an internal compass everyone in the company can navigate by.
From there, the visual identity can be built: logo, colors, typography, and the guidelines that keep communication consistent. It doesn’t need to be a huge project. The most important step is to start, and to be consistent in what you do.