CONTINUING THE CONVERSATION

The Anthropos Library

Ideas on brand, leadership, and trust

Ideas on brand, leadership, and trust — written by us, and drawn from the thinkers who shaped how we work. Every idea on this site started somewhere else first — in a conversation, a workshop, or a book that changed how we think, because we listened. This is where we keep track of them, so you can too.

FROM THE BLOG

Recent thinking on brand, leadership, and trust.

Meet our Team / Authors

Brand

Brand 101: What Are Customers Really Buying?

What are customers really buying? Explore the fundamentals of brand strategy and why successful brands sell benefits, experiences and value, not just products.

BRAND

Johnny Johnson

Sep 181 min read

KEEPING IT SIMPLE

A good brand strategy may take many pages to develop, but the final thinking should be simple. Discover why clarity, discipline and distillation matter.

BRAND

Johnny Johnson

Sep 181 min read

Beyond Measure

Measurement can tell us what is happening, but it cannot tell us everything that matters. In a world increasingly driven by data, targets and AI, Johnny Johnson explores what gets lost when everything is reduced to what can be measured, and why leadership begins where measurement ends.

BRAND

Johnny Johnson

Jul 212 min read

Brandkind

A brand promise only creates trust when people keep it. Johnny Johnson explores leadership, collaboration, empathy and common purpose as the foundations of a trusted brand.

BRAND

Johnny Johnson

Jul 214 min read

"Every book on this shelf changed how we work.
- Which one might change you how you think?"

Yuval Noah Harari

Nexus

Exploring humanity’s extraordinary voyage into the information era.

A brief history of information networks from the Stone Age to AI.

The book picked up flack for being anti-AI, but that is a narrow understanding of what it’s about. It’s about meaningful human connection and networking which can (but not necessarily) be undermined by AI.

Why do we recommend this book?

Building Assets in an Information Economy

Brand Leadership

Building Assets in an Information Economy

A foundational brand-strategy text — Aaker and Joachimsthaler's framework for building brand as a genuine business asset: identity, architecture, and the discipline to sustain it over time.

This is the basis of our brand strategy methodology — an excellent reference to the theory and logic of branding, and Aaker's wider Prophet body of work is always a good read.

Why do we recommend this book?

Helio Fred Garcia

The Power of Communication

Skills to Build Trust, Inspire Loyalty, and Lead Effectively

A leadership-communication field guide — the case that keeping a promise is inseparable from communicating it clearly, consistently and face-to-face.

A superb book on communication — because without your people understanding the brand, they can't become brand ambassadors.

Why do we recommend this book?

Title	Author	Description	Key Lesson	Why Anthropos Recommends It	Difficulty
Nexus	Yuval Noah Harari	A brief history of information networks from the Stone Age to AI.	The importance of communication. Harari shows that the primary function of communication is to connect people and build large social networks through shared stories, myths and fictions.	The book picked up flack for being anti-AI, but that is a narrow understanding of what it’s about. It’s about meaningful human connection and networking which can (but not necessarily) be undermined by AI.	Advanced
Brand Leadership	Building Assets in an Information Economy	A foundational brand-strategy text — Aaker and Joachimsthaler's framework for building brand as a genuine business asset: identity, architecture, and the discipline to sustain it over time.	A brand is a business asset built on theory and logic, not a marketing afterthought.	This is the basis of our brand strategy methodology — an excellent reference to the theory and logic of branding, and Aaker's wider Prophet body of work is always a good read.	Advanced
The Power of Communication	Helio Fred Garcia	A leadership-communication field guide — the case that keeping a promise is inseparable from communicating it clearly, consistently and face-to-face.	Communication is not a support function for the promise. It's how the promise gets kept.	A superb book on communication — because without your people understanding the brand, they can't become brand ambassadors.	Intermediate

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FROM THE SHELF TO THE CONVERSATION

Not every book here will be for you today, or ever — but they will help you ask the right questions and find the best answers.

Thinking about your own brand promise?

This is exactly where Stage 1 of our process starts.

Explore Brand Strategy & Promise

Recognise your own team in these?

This is what Leadership Brand and Employee Engagement are built to fix

Explore Communication

Building your own name alongside the company’s?

This is what our Personal Brand work is for

Explore Personal Brand

What are the key elements of a perfect meeting?

Invite the right people, ensure everyone is properly prepared by setting an objective, providing an agenda and any relevant information. In the meeting ensure focus on the objective and ensure everyone contributes. After the meeting ensure everyone knows who has to do what by when.

What are brand values?

Brand values are the foundation on which a strong brand is built, the behaviours brand ambassadors must apply to keeping the brand's promise.

What is a brand's purpose?

It is the fundamental reason the enterprise represented by the brand is in business, beyond making money.

Are there methodologies for good communication?

There are many models for improving your communication, some that focus on the speaker, some that focus on the interaction between speaker and audience. A combination of both is desirable, with the speaker authoritatively ensuring focus on the objective of the communication, establishing context and ensuring benefit is understood, and then giving the audience the space to respond and not only be heard, but to influence the outcome.

What is a brand vision?

A bold picture of the future that focuses everyone's efforts on the brand's purpose.

Why does one need a brand?

A brand gives your product or service a name, just like you have a name, and over time it develops a character and personality, just like you do as you grow up, and by presenting people with a promise and living up to it, it becomes trusted, just like you want to be.

COMMON QUESTIONS

Brand, strategy and leadership

- the questions we hear most.

Discover our Philosophy

In Conversation

Some people think in words, others in pictures.

Every conversation here follows the same shape: a real question we get asked in the room, a few tips worth taking away, and one piece of food for thought to sit with afterwards. Nothing is rehearsed and nothing is padded to hit a run time — if there's nothing worth saying on a topic yet, there's no video.

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