Newsletter 8 (Nov 23-30)

Strategy

Part 1: Marketing Tip / Style

“Signature Move”

Every brand repeats a single thing other than their logo. Sometimes it’s their tagline. But what about brands without a tagline? They often have a unique element—sometimes even their logo—placed in the exact same spot in every ad. It could be the top-left corner, the center, or anywhere consistent.

They repeat this one design choice, and whenever someone sees another brand using a similar style, people immediately remember your brand because of that one icon, element, or logo placed in that specific spot.

Part 2: Brand Story

The Add-to-Cart Button

It was the mid-1990s, back when Amazon was just an online bookshop. The internet was slow and new. At that time, Jeff Bezos and his team realized something: people wanted online shopping to feel as simple as throwing items into a shopping cart, collecting everything, and paying at the end.

So they came up with the idea of the shopping cart. As you browsed products, you could add them to the cart, continue shopping, add more, and repeat — without needing to purchase items one at a time. It may seem obvious and unexciting now, but back then, it was monumental.

In 1996, Bezos and his team filed a patent for what they formally called a “method and system for placing an order via a communications network.” In simpler terms, this marked the birth of a legend — the creation of the Add to Cart button. What looked like a small feature soon became a breakthrough, transforming online shopping forever.

By allowing customers to place multiple items into a single virtual basket before checking out, Amazon eliminated unnecessary friction and made the process simple, familiar, and intuitive. This little button went on to shape the way e-commerce platforms were built and remains one of the most important features in digital shopping today.

A small feature turned out to be brilliant — it forever changed the way people shop online. What once seemed like a simple button became the foundation of modern e-commerce.

Today, billions of online transactions across countless platforms trace their roots back to that single Amazon insight: if you want customers to buy more, make buying ridiculously easy.

Even though what they did seemed small, it truly created history.

Part 3: Two Great Books

The Lean Startup – Eric Ries

The Lean Startup teaches you to build a business by testing small, learning fast, and scaling only what works — instead of burning time and money on guesses.

Start With Why – Simon Sinek

Start With Why argues that the most influential leaders and brands succeed because they begin with a clear purpose — the why behind what they do — and use it to inspire action, build trust, and create loyal followers who believe in their mission, not just the product.

Part 4: Two Great Quotes

“When everyone laughed at my shoes … I was already dreaming of selling millions.”— Scott Seamans, Founder of Crocs

“If you give people the tools, they’ll build their own stories.”— Markus Persson (Notch), Creator of Minecraft

Part 5: This Week’s Actionable

Host a program — it could be a two-hour session or a two-day event. After the program, ask attendees to record a short video or audio message sharing what they thought about it.

Then post those reviews on social media and wait. But remember: only post it if the feedback is good, very good, or at least medium.

A similar approach was recently seen in the review videos on our Instagram page about the Founder’s Dilemma: @brandswamyco