AI is a Valuable Tool. But It Shouldn't Be Your Head of Brand Strategy.
Chris Langathianos • March 13, 2025

AI is a Valuable Tool.

But It Shouldn't Be Your Head of Brand Strategy.

AI is a powerful tool for marketing, but it shouldn't replace human creativity in brand positioning. 

Here's why:


•   AI lacks emotional depth : 95% of purchasing decisions are driven by emotion, which AI struggles to replicate.

•   Cultural blind spots : AI often misses local nuances, leading to missteps in global campaigns.

•   Over-reliance risks sameness : Brands using identical AI tools can produce generic, unoriginal content.

•   Bias in AI systems : Historical data can introduce ethical issues, harming brand trust.

•   AI focuses on the past : It struggles to predict future trends or innovate beyond existing patterns.


Where AI Falls Short in Brand Identity

AI is great at crunching numbers and generating content, but it struggles when tasked with defining a brand's unique identity. These weaknesses highlight why AI alone can't shape effective brand positioning strategies.


Missing the Human Element


One major drawback of AI is its inability to replicate genuine human emotion or empathy. Considering that 95% of purchasing decisions are driven by emotion , this is a big gap. AI simply can't create the emotional connections that inspire people to buy.


"Relying only on AI-generated content risks generic or formulaic branding, lacking uniqueness and emotional resonance. Branding should evoke emotion; this human touch is still vital in the creative process." 

- Ian Maskell, founder of Pecorino Group and ex-vice president of marketing at Unilever [ 3 ]


While AI can analyze data patterns, it doesn't grasp the emotional nuances of customer experiences. For example, 80% of consumers are more likely to purchase from brands offering personalized experiences [2]. This shows that data alone isn't enough to craft compelling brand narratives.


Market Context and Local Differences


AI's inability to fully understand cultural and market-specific nuances can lead to big missteps. In 2019, a beauty brand faced backlash after an AI-translated campaign ignored cultural beauty standards, offending several target markets [ 4 ].


"Localization is not just about translating words; it's about understanding the cultural context and adapting the content accordingly." 

- Anna Schlegel, Head of Globalization at NetApp [ 4 ]


It's not just translation errors. A University of Sydney study found that large language models often default to U.S. cultural values when discussing topics like gun control and immigration [ 5 ]. Failing to account for these cultural differences can alienate diverse audiences, weakening a brand's identity.


Past Data vs. Future Trends


While the AI market is expected to grow from $108 billion in 2020 to $738 billion by 2030 [ 7 ], AI's reliance on historical data presents a major limitation: it reflects the past rather than predicting the future.


This backward focus creates challenges for brand positioning:

Because AI often overlooks major societal shifts, brands risk being stuck in outdated strategies that don't resonate with modern audiences. These limitations highlight the importance of blending AI with human creativity and insight to shape effective brand strategies.


Problems with Too Much AI in Branding


Reduced Original Thinking

Relying too heavily on AI can suppress creativity. According to McKinsey's 2021 Global AI Survey, 40% of companies using AI encounter unintended bias, underscoring AI's limitations in producing genuinely new ideas [11]. While AI is great at spotting patterns, it struggles to deliver the kind of creative solutions that set brands apart. This often leads to a sea of sameness across industries.

Relying too heavily on AI can suppress creativity. According to McKinsey[11]. While AI is great at spotting patterns, it struggles to deliver the kind of creative solutions that set brands apart. This often leads to a sea of sameness across industries.'s 2021 Global AI Survey, 40% of companies using AI encounter unintended bias, underscoring AI's limitations in producing genuinely new ideas 


"ChatGPT is here to make us all the same… The Great Same-ening is upon us… ChatGPT, Jasper and all the rest are powerful conformity machines, giving you the ability to churn out Bible-length material about yourself and your business that's exactly the same as your competitors."        – Ian Whitworth [9]


Similar-Looking Brands

When companies in the same industry lean on identical AI tools, the result is predictable: cookie-cutter branding that fails to stand out. This lack of originality weakens brands' ability to connect with their audiences. Marketing expert Anthony Gaenzle warns:


"If you rely solely on AI, you'll end up wasting time publishing content that people ignore."    – Anthony Gaenzle [10]


Here’s how overusing AI can hurt branding:

This uniformity doesn’t just harm creativity; it also amplifies the risks of biased practices, which introduces ethical challenges.


AI Bias and Ethics

AI systems can introduce bias, posing risks to both brand reputation and effectiveness. A striking 47% of executives admit they lack the tools to properly detect and address this issue [11]. Some high-profile examples include:

  1. Amazon's AI recruitment tool, which showed a preference for male candidates due to biased historical data [13].
  2. Twitter's image-cropping algorithm, which disproportionately favored white faces in previews [13].
  3. Financial services AI systems, which denied loans to borrowers of color at rates 40-80% higher than others [13].

With 42% of organizations expressing serious concerns about the reputational harm caused by biased AI, brands must prioritize strict oversight [12].


"Companies are acknowledging there's huge reputational harm and risks that can come from these systems."
                                                             – Genevieve Smith, Associate Director at UC Berkeley's Center for Equity, Gender & Leadership [12]


The key takeaway? AI should enhance a brand's identity - not dictate it [8].


Combining AI Tools with Human Expertise


AI's Role in Market Analysis

AI can process massive datasets and uncover patterns that might escape human notice. For instance, tools like Fathom and Grain turn interviews into actionable insights, while platforms like Essense.io dive into competitor reviews to highlight market gaps and opportunities [14]. These capabilities provide a foundation for informed strategy shifts driven by human expertise.

When to Use Human Judgment

AI excels at crunching numbers and spotting trends, but it’s up to people to interpret those insights. While teams often see productivity boosts with AI, success hinges on knowing when to rely on human judgment.


"AI can improve efficiency in tasks like writing web copy but should be seen as a tool to enhance human creativity, not replace it. Marketers should focus on strategic decisions that AI cannot replicate, such as brand positioning and long-term planning."         - Seth Godin [16]


Key areas where human judgment remains irreplaceable include:


  • Understanding cultural subtleties
  • Crafting emotionally resonant messages
  • Making ethical decisions


These factors highlight the importance of blending data with strategic insight.


Success Stories: AI + Human Teams

Real-world examples show how combining AI data with human creativity can overcome common challenges:


Coca-Cola's Create Real Magic: Using tools like DALL-E 2 and ChatGPT, Coca-Cola empowered users to create over 120,000 pieces of content. With an average visit time of over 7 minutes, the platform demonstrated high engagement [17].


"AI helps you perfect your craftsmanship. That's what you saw when we created Masterpiece – it wasn't 100% created by AI, but AI helped us as a technology to make our craftsmanship better."               - Pratik Thakar, Global Head of Generative AI, Coca-Cola [17]


Ben & Jerry's Flavor Innovation: Ben & Jerry's used AI to analyze social media, music, and movie data. Human teams then interpreted these insights to craft breakfast-themed ice cream flavors that resonated with consumers [17].


Nike's AI-Enhanced Design: Nike worked with Obvious artists to develop new Air Max designs. AI generated initial concepts, which human designers refined to align with brand identity and trends. The limited-edition shoes sold out within 10 days [15].

These cases show how AI can amplify human expertise. By 2025, it’s predicted that 30% of marketing messages from large organizations will be AI-generated [16].


Steps to Better AI Brand Strategy


To prevent AI from making your brand feel generic, focus on striking the right balance between data-driven insights and human creativity. Here's how to do it.


Set Clear AI vs. Human Tasks

Assign specific roles to AI and humans to maintain your brand's unique identity.

For example, a Southeast Asian bank combined AI-powered trend analysis with human strategists to uncover opportunities in digital finance and microcredit [18].


Quality Control Methods

A strong review system is critical to ensuring AI doesn’t compromise your brand.


"Human judgment remains essential to crafting the strategic vision, which combines the organization's ambition with a view of how to realize it." [18]


  • Human Review Protocol: Set up teams to thoroughly check AI-generated outputs for accuracy and brand alignment [19].
  • Source Validation: Double-check AI insights against reliable industry data and sources [19].
  • Brand Voice Verification: Make sure AI-created content sticks to your brand's established style and tone [19].


Regular reviews will help keep your processes sharp and aligned with your goals.


Regular Process Reviews

Consistent evaluations are key to maintaining alignment between AI efforts and your brand's overall strategy.


T3 Services Group, for instance, cut their website launch time from 8 weeks to under a month while improving content quality through well-structured AI use [21].


Key elements of process reviews include:


  • Quarterly Assessment: Set up feedback loops and regular reviews to measure AI's impact on your brand [20].
  • Performance Tracking: Keep an eye on metrics from AI tools. For example, Just Mad used AI to turn 100,000 pieces of customer feedback into actionable insights almost instantly [20].
  • Team Training: Offer ongoing training on ethical AI practices to ensure your team can confidently manage AI while safeguarding your brand [20].


Conclusion


Main Points

Striking the right balance between AI's capabilities and human creativity is key to effective brand positioning. Research shows that well-positioned brands can achieve up to 9x more volume share and charge twice as much as their competitors [23]. For example, The North Face used an AI-powered shopping assistant to analyze data, while human marketers ensured the recommendations aligned with their brand identity [22]. The takeaway? AI excels at data processing, but human creativity is irreplaceable.


"Marketing is fundamentally about understanding and influencing complex and often irrational human behavior. Despite its advanced algorithms and data-processing power, AI still struggles to grasp the subtleties of human emotions and cultural nuances."

                                                           - Natalie Slyman, Content Marketing Manager [1]

What Every Company Can Learn from Tesla’s Brand Fallout

By Chris Langathianos • April 10, 2025
Tesla's recent struggles show how controversies can damage a brand. CEO Elon Musk's recent controvercial decisions have alienated a significant portion of Tesla's eco-conscious customer base. The fallout has been severe: Stock Decline: Tesla's stock dropped 36% in Q1 2025, erasing $460B in market cap. Sales Impact: Vehicle deliveries fell 13% year-over-year in Q1 2025, with market share in Europe and Germany plummeting. Customer Trust: Favorability among Democrats dropped 23% from January to July 2024, while Tesla's brand consideration score halved since 2021. This highlights a key lesson: brands risk fallout when taking sides on divisive issues, and this is particularly true in politics. It highlights how important it for brands to remain focused on their core mission, establish authenticity, and earn trust from the market. You may be asking yourself, well hold on, how is this any different that what other brands like Ben and Jerry’s have done over the years. The key difference is that even though they may express views that some may find divisive, these views didn’t counter their core brand essence, in fact it enhanced it. Conflicts Hurting Brand Performance Brand Value Losses Tesla experienced a hit to its brand value following statements from its CEO that many perceived to be divisive or off-brand. Survey results showed that 45% of respondents viewed the impact as "negative," while 40% described it as "extremely negative" [2] . Customer Trust Breakdown Tesla's favorability ratings have sharply declined, particularly across political affiliations:

Understanding Brand Health: The Marketing X-Ray Every Marketing and Revenue Team Needs Now More than Ever.

By Matt Bowen • April 3, 2025
B2B marketing is a high-stakes game, data is everywhere—but insight is rare. One of the most powerful yet underutilized sources of marketing intelligence is a clear view of your brand’s health. Not vanity metrics, but a deep, diagnostic look at how your brand is perceived at every stage of the buyer’s journey. With perceived being the key word here. This kind of insight doesn’t come from your CRM or website analytics. It comes from targeted audience research that maps how each buyer persona perceives your brand at every key touchpoint in the funnel: awareness, familiarity, consideration, usage, and loyalty. When done right, it’s like getting an X-ray of your entire marketing engine—and your competitors’ too. Think how useful this is for a marketing and revenue team. Defining Brand Health: Perceptions Across the Funnel Brand health isn’t a single number. It’s the sum of how well your brand is performing in the minds of your target audiences—at every step of the funnel: Awareness – Do your ideal customers even know your brand exists? Familiarity – Can they describe what you do and how you’re different? Consideration – Would they include you in their shortlist when making a purchase decision? Usage – Are they choosing you and experiencing the value you promise? Loyalty – Do they stay, recommend, and grow with your brand? When you understand how each of your target personas perceives your brand at these stages, you can pinpoint the exact points where your marketing is working—or where it’s leaking leads and losing revenue. Why You Can’t Rely on Internal Data Alone Here’s the reality: most internal dashboards can only tell you what people do. But they can’t tell you what people think. And what they think determines whether or not they’ll engage with you in the first place. The only way to measure brand health accurately is through targeted audience research—surveys and qualitative insights gathered from your actual buying personas (or those of your competitors). This research reveals how each group perceives you at every stage of the funnel, uncovering blind spots and opportunities that performance data alone can’t provide. The Strategic Power of a Brand Health X-Ray When you can see brand health perceptions by funnel stage and by persona, you unlock powerful advantages for both marketing and revenue teams: Focused Strategy If awareness is high but familiarity is low, you know your messaging isn’t landing. If consideration is weak, you may need to clarify your value proposition or address trust barriers. This enables marketing to focus efforts where the funnel is breaking down—no guesswork. Smarter Budget Allocation Instead of spreading your budget evenly or betting on assumptions, brand health insights show you exactly where to invest to get the highest return. No more overspending at the top of the funnel when the real issue is mid-funnel conversion. Competitive Benchmarking When you include competitor data in your brand health assessment, you can see how buyers perceive your rivals at each stage of the funnel. Are they winning on awareness but losing on loyalty? Are you the most considered, but not the most chosen? This is the kind of clarity that drives smart positioning. The Business Case: Stats That Matter Companies that monitor brand health regularly are 60% more likely to exceed revenue goals. Consistent brand presentation can increase revenue by up to 20%. Brands with strong funnel-wide perception outperform competitors by up to 3X in customer retention and advocacy. To get started, B2B marketers should: Identify Key Personas – Who are your target buyers? Define them clearly. Map the Funnel Stages – Customize the funnel stages to match your sales cycle. Launch Targeted Research – Use surveys, interviews, or brand assessment tools to gather perception data. Analyze and Benchmark – Compare across personas and against competitors. Act on Insights – Use findings to adjust messaging, content, media spend, and sales enablement. Marketing teams are under more pressure than ever to prove impact. By measuring brand health through the lens of funnel-stage perceptions across key personas, you equip your team with the clarity to act with precision—and avoid wasting time and budget on the wrong problems. It’s not just about knowing how your brand is doing. It’s about knowing why—and what to do next. Want help setting up a brand health assessment for your organization? DM me and let's talk about how to build your own X-ray view of your brand and your competitors.