LLenny's Podcast
← All episodes
Arielle Jackson (Google, Square, Marketer in Residence at Fi18 August 2022

The art of building legendary brands | Arielle Jackson (Google, Square, Marketer in Residence at First Round Capital)

5Frameworks
13Insights

Frameworks in this episode

Marketing4 steps

Brand Personality via Five Dimensions

Spike in two of five personality dimensions, then write five 'we are X but not Y' attributes with built-in tension

Read →
Marketing4 steps

Product Positioning with the Bar Test

Define audience via concentric circles, distill into the classic four-part statement, then validate it out loud at a bar

Read →
Marketing4 steps

Startup Launch PR Playbook

Fix your story, set realistic exclusive expectations, hang news on a bigger hook, and mine local press

Read →
Strategy4 steps

The Purpose Statement (We Exist To)

Distill why you exist into one 10-year 'we exist to' sentence that makes people root for you

Read →
Marketing5 steps

The Startup Naming Process

Position first, brief the intent, brainstorm hundreds of bad names, then score survivors against seven criteria

Read →

Insights & moments

The myth-busts, hot takes, explainers, and tools worth keeping.

Myth Buster· 1

Myth Buster34:30

Your Brand Is Not Your Logo

Founders often equate 'brand' with logo, font and colors, but Arielle corrects this: those are only the visual expression. Your brand is who people actually think you are, and brand strategy is deciding what you want people to think and how you'll shape that perception.

  • Logo, font and colors are a visual expression of a brand, not the brand itself
  • Your brand is who people think you are
  • Brand strategy = what you want to be, what you want people to think, and how you'll shape it

“so your brand is who people think you are and developing a brand strategy is what do you want to be what do you want…”

Arielle Jackson · 35:00
#branding#brand-strategy#marketing

Hot Take· 2

Hot Take28:30

A Bad Name Won't Kill a Good Company

Arielle argues that a great name only helps a company at the margins, while a bad name won't doom a fundamentally good business. Over time, strong companies imbue even weak names with meaning, so founders should feel less pressure to find the 'perfect' name.

  • A good name helps spread word of mouth, but it's just one part of the overall brand
  • Disney (Walt's last name) and Volvo were 'bad' names that came to mean magic and safety over time
  • In a plain spreadsheet cell, most legendary brand names look unremarkable
  • Realizing this takes the pressure off the naming process

“disney means magic today you know volvo means safety those names are not good like if i just put it in a spreadsheet or one…”

Arielle Jackson · 29:00

“a good name is just going to help you but i don't think a bad name is going to kill a good company”

Arielle Jackson · 29:30
#naming#branding#startups
Hot Take1:01:30

When Brands Try Too Hard: The ADP 'Fun Summer' Fail

Arielle critiques an ADP marketing email that tried to make home security sound fun and colloquial for summer. Because a security brand's personality is serious, the forced fun reads as awkward and inauthentic; the copy should have leaned into safety instead.

  • ADP tried too hard to sound fun and colloquial for a serious security product
  • Forced, off-personality copy feels awkward and inauthentic
  • Better copy: 'secure your home while you're away' / 'feel safe when you're on your summer trip'
  • Tone must match the brand's actual personality

“of trying too hard right like they tried too hard to make it sound colloquial and fun like they're a security system”

Arielle Jackson · 1:02:00
#brand-personality#copywriting#marketing

Explainer· 1

Explainer15:30

Why 'Empty Vessel' Names Cost More to Build

Arielle explains the spectrum of names from descriptive to 'empty vessel' (Yahoo, Google, Apple, Eero). Meaningless names can be memorable and evocative, but require far more marketing spend and consistency over time to make them stand for something. A name with built-in meaning does part of your marketing work for you.

  • Empty vessel names (Yahoo, Apple, Eero) carry no inherent meaning and need heavy investment to build
  • A name with meaning does some of your marketing work for free
  • Internet Explorer, Chrome and Firefox sit at different points on the descriptive-to-fanciful spectrum
  • All three browsers succeeded despite very different name types

“my take on empty vessel names is they can be really memorable and they can be evocative of the motion but you have to do…”

Arielle Jackson · 16:00

“if your name is internet explorer rip i know exactly what you do”

Arielle Jackson · 17:30
#naming#branding#marketing

Story· 4

Story04:30

Launching the Square Stand, 30 Weeks Pregnant

Arielle recounts her favorite project: volunteering as a first-time product marketer to launch the Square Stand, the iPad point-of-sale hardware that moved Square up-market into brick-and-mortar. She seeded the coolest coffee and donut shops across 15 metro areas and unveiled it at Blue Bottle while heavily pregnant.

  • Square was ~140 people with no PM function and hardware team running the show
  • She handled everything: positioning, packaging, negotiating with Best Buy and the Apple Store
  • Seeded ~15 metro areas with cool coffee shops, donut shops and Blue Bottle stores
  • She still gets excited paying on the original Square Stand years later

“i was like super pregnant and super proud and i i still i still get kind of excited every time i pay on one of…”

Arielle Jackson · 06:00
#square#product-launch#hardware
Story08:00

Selling Jewelry Is How She Got Into Square

Before Square, Arielle made and sold jewelry as a side hustle, taking cash and painful PayPal invoices at craft fairs. Getting a Square reader transformed her sales, and her enthusiastic email to two Google friends who had joined Square turned into a job.

  • The Square reader helped her sell ~50% more by accepting credit cards
  • Her firsthand merchant experience helped her understand the small merchants Square marketed to
  • An excited email to two ex-Google colleagues at Square led directly to an interview

“i think i sent them both an email just being like this thing's [ __ ] awesome you know i make jewelry it was great”

Arielle Jackson · 09:00
#square#career#origin-story
Story37:30

Volvo Owns 'Safety' Because of Decisions, Not Its Logo

Arielle uses Volvo, a brand she's fiercely loyal to, to show that a brand's meaning comes from actions, not visual identity. Volvo's boring logo and color palette don't convey safety; giving away the three-point seatbelt patent for free in the 1950s did.

  • Volvo's logo (from its ball-bearings history) and black/white/blue palette are unremarkable
  • Their founding belief was that a carmaker's job is to protect the humans driving
  • In the 1950s they gave away the three-point safety harness patent for free to make all cars safer
  • Company decisions, not the logo, made Volvo stand for safety

“those kinds of company decisions that's what made volvo stand for safety it's not the logo”

Arielle Jackson · 39:30
#branding#volvo#case-study
Story1:13:00

Make Your Customers the Heroes for Local Press

Arielle shares how she landed coverage for Vitable Health, which sells affordable primary and urgent care for hourly workers, by tying it to the 'great resignation' and framing local businesses as heroes. Local press is hungry for these stories and far more accessible than national outlets.

  • Vitable offers ~$50/person/month primary and urgent care for hourly workers who fall between Medicaid and insurance
  • The story was framed around the great resignation and businesses attracting hourly workers
  • A Philadelphia Inquirer piece cast local restaurants and daycares as heroes, not Vitable
  • At Square she turned customers into heroes and went after local press, which is hungrier for stories than the NYT or WSJ

“we turned all of our customers into heroes and went after local press”

Arielle Jackson · 1:14:00

“they are the ones hungry for these stories more than um you know the new york times in the wall street journal”

Arielle Jackson · 1:14:30
#pr#local-press#storytelling

Tool· 1

Tool1:16:30

Arielle's Favorite Marketing Books

In the lightning round, Arielle names her go-to marketing reads. Her all-time favorite is the 1980 classic 'Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind,' and a recent favorite is Rory Sutherland's 'Alchemy,' which sits at the intersection of behavioral science and business.

  • 'Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind' (1980) is her favorite marketing book
  • 'Alchemy' by Rory Sutherland is a recent favorite
  • Her favorite reading area is behavioral science and psychology meeting business

“definitely the book called positioning the battle for your mind it's from 1980 it's still my favorite marketing book”

Arielle Jackson · 1:17:00
#books#marketing#recommendations

Takeaway· 4

Takeaway31:30

Pick a Code Name So Ridiculous You'd Never Launch It

A common naming mistake is that founders incorporate quickly under a placeholder name, then get emotionally attached and reluctant to change it. Arielle recommends deliberately choosing a code name so absurd you'd never actually launch under it, freeing you to run a real naming process later.

  • Founders often raise a seed round or incorporate under a throwaway name
  • Attachment sets in, making it hard to switch even when the name is weak or has trademark conflicts
  • A deliberately ridiculous code name keeps you unattached until you find a real name

“i really believe in using a code name that's so ridiculous that you won't ever launch a product like that if you're just trying to…”

Arielle Jackson · 32:00
#naming#startups#founder-mistakes
Takeaway55:00

The Worst Thing an Early Startup Can Do Is Serve Everyone

Arielle argues early-stage companies lack the runway to be everything to everyone. The winning move is to pick a target audience big enough that dominating it makes you a giant business, while narrowing to a focused, nameable segment like Eero's 'tech savvy dads.'

  • Early companies don't have the runway to serve everyone
  • Find an audience big enough that dominating it makes you a giant business
  • Eero targeted 'tech savvy dads' with a richly detailed model persona
  • The target audience is only who you actively try to acquire for the next 18 months, not everyone you'll ever get

“the worst thing you can do is try to be everything to everyone because you don't have enough runway”

Arielle Jackson · 55:30
#positioning#target-audience#startups
Takeaway1:10:30

PR Reality: Launches Are Now Exclusives, Not Embargoes

Arielle explains how startup PR has changed: the old embargo model where five outlets all published at once is gone. Today early-stage launches almost always run as a single-outlet exclusive, and a straight funding announcement is weak on its own.

  • Five years ago founders could brief 3-5 outlets under embargo to publish simultaneously
  • Now early-stage launches are almost always a single-outlet exclusive
  • You can still run your own blog, social, and investor channels alongside
  • Don't do a bare funding announcement; use the funding as a hook to tell a bigger story

“these days for early stage startups we're almost always running the launch announcement as an exclusive which means you give the news to a single…”

Arielle Jackson · 1:11:00

“we'll use that funding announcement as a news hook to cut to tell a larger story”

Arielle Jackson · 1:12:30
#pr#startups#launch
Takeaway1:15:00

When a Startup Should Hire Its First Marketer

Arielle offers a heuristic for hiring a full-time marketer, which differs by business type. Sales-driven businesses should wait for a repeatable sales motion first; marketing-driven businesses tend to need someone around 10 people, when cobbled-together agencies and freelancers become too hard to manage.

  • Sales-driven businesses should nail a repeatable sales motion before hiring a marketer
  • Marketing-driven businesses usually need a marketer around 10 people
  • The trigger is when ongoing work replaces discrete one-off projects (a name, a website, an ad test)
  • She favors a 't-shaped marketer' who is deep in one function but capable across all

“if you're a marketing driven business it generally seems to me like it happens around 10 people”

Arielle Jackson · 1:15:30
#hiring#marketing#startups