Introducing Insight Unpacked Season 1: Extraordinary Brands and How to Build Them.

These days, it’s easy to build a brand. But if you want your brand to stand out, you will need to build an extraordinary brand.

Whether you need to build that special brand from scratch, or you’re hoping to reinvigorate an existing brand… on Insight Unpacked our faculty will help you figure out how to stand out from the crowd...

You’ll hear how to make sure your brand is hitting the right mark...

And you’ll learn how to use storytelling to bring your brand to life in the digital world.

We’ll also take you behind the scenes as we build a brand of our own. So subscribe to Insight Unpacked, or check your feed at The Insightful Leader. Episodes drop on Mondays starting August 15.

In episode 1 of our 5-episode series, “Extraordinary Brands and How to Build Them,” we reveal the key questions you should answer before you start to craft your brand. Because if you can’t articulate your brand’s value to yourself, you won’t stand a chance of convincing customers.

On this episode, Kellogg professors Tim Calkins and Alice Tybout discuss brand purpose, point of difference, and the McDonald’s McLean burger.

In episode 2 of our 5-episode series, “Extraordinary Brands and How to Build Them,” we dig into the importance of finding the right name for your brand. With apologies to Shakespeare, a rose by any other name wouldn’t smell as sweet.

On this episode, Kellogg professors Paul Earle and Tim Calkins offer advice on where you might look for naming inspiration, what great names convey, and when you should go with something fun and funky versus simple and straightforward. Plus: an NFL franchise with a bad name, a podcast with a great name, and the single naming rule that trumps them all.

In episode 3 of our 5-episode series, “Extraordinary Brands and How to Build Them,” we discuss the associations you want customers to make with your brand, and how to use design to make it happen.

On this episode, Kellogg professor Bobby Calder looks at how great brands define themselves, how stale brands revitalize themselves, and why you should use all your senses when creating a brand image. Channel your inner artist, because it’s design time! We discuss clever multimedia campaigns and explore how soundmarks and audio branding can open the door to new brand associations.

In episode 4 of our 5-episode series, “Extraordinary Brands and How to Build Them,” professor Mohan Sawhney discusses the importance of transmedia brand storytelling–and how to do it right.

Every brand has a story to tell. But consumers only have so much time, energy, and attention. You will need to find a story that cuts through our collective “story fatigue” and find creative ways to deploy it.

In the fifth and final episode of our series, “Extraordinary Brands and How to Build Them,” we look at how to measure your brand’s health–and what you should do if you don’t like what you learn.

Kellogg professors Julie Hennessy, Jennifer Cutler, Jim Lecinski, and Tim Calkins will explain how to use tools like Twitter to understand how customers feel about your brand, and what happened when Old Spice and Lego started to target surprising new audiences. Finally, we’ll learn how Kellogg professors feel about Insight’s new brand.

So opulent! So exclusive! In the first of two bonus episodes, we explore everything that helps brands like Ferrari and Manolo Blahnik scream luxury.

Luxury is dominated by older brands. So what happens when newer entrants try to break through? In the second of two bonus episodes, we show what can go right—and wrong.