About Tobias de Calonne, brand and positioning designer in The Hague

Somewhere in the Netherlands, someone cycles twenty minutes out of their way for a six euro flat white.

On the way he passes three cafés with the same beans, the same oat milk and probably the same La Marzocco machine.

He keeps riding.

Because he isn’t buying coffee. He’s buying his place.

The same thing happens with six hundred euro hotel rooms, absurdly expensive sneakers and chairs that cost a month’s salary. On paper the differences are sometimes small. In people’s heads they are not.

That is what a brand does.

It makes clear why something matters, who it is for, and why it can’t simply be swapped for the alternative next to it.

People understand faster why they should choose you. A higher price feels logical. Your name comes up before anyone starts looking for alternatives.

Many organisations try to fix that with better copy, a fresher website or a different shade of blue.

But more explaining doesn’t help when your story has become too small.

I help organisations that have outgrown how they look from the outside. We find the position only they can credibly take, and build a world around it that people want to step into, become fans of, buy from and tell others about.

So far I have built brands for care organisations, emergency services, governments, investment firms, family businesses and founders. Usually at moments when something was changing.

A new name. A next phase. A bigger playing field.

Or the uncomfortable realisation that the company is by now a lot better than the website it is sold on.

Born in Friesland, six years in Groningen, and recently I started calling The Hague home. By Dutch standards that is quite the world tour, but the northern no-nonsense stuck.

If your company has become better, bigger or more interesting than how it is understood today, you probably don’t need a louder story.

You need a story that looks further ahead.