20 Words You Can Drop From Your Core Values Right Now
Stop waving the same tired values as everyone else. Customers assume basics like quality and service. Ditch the defaults and uncover what truly sets you apart, something competitors won’t claim.
Brand & Positioning Insights
Short, practical perspectives on market stance, differentiation, and brand strategy — focused on what actually moves the needle for founder‑led service firms.
Being Best Beats Being First
Being first rarely wins anymore. In a fast moving market, underdogs iterate faster, learn from others' mistakes, and take the lead unless patents or relentless innovation protect an early edge.
Customers Want to Know: Are You Friend or Foe?
Drop the buzzwords and watch how primal Friend or Foe instincts shape every click. Build consistency, character, and reassurance, or keep losing silent prospects who never call back.
Simplify Your Logo to Amplify Your Logo
It's tempting to jam your corporate identity full of bells and whistles, but the strongest identities are still the simplest ones. When designing a logo, it's easy to go overboard. There are so many great elements you can work with (colors, textures, patterns, shapes, borders, typography, gradients,…
What Dystopian Sci-Fi Taught Me About Great Customer Experiences
Science fiction’s bleak futures mirror your customers’ daily frustrations. Trade quick wins for human-centered marketing that honors real lives and belonging. Solve problems, restore connection, and watch your brand grow.
What We've Learned about Agile Design
Agile began as a manifesto and became an industry. When design teams adapt it without dogma, tension turns into flow, scope changes stop derailing, and client collaboration beats paperwork.
The World's Best Project Management System
In our line of work, effective project management is absolutely essential. At any given time we have 15-20 projects going on, all with dozens (if not hundreds) of individual tasks involved. We’ve tried countless project management applications, trying to find one that can meet the demanding criteria…
What Makes Videos Go Viral
The basic elements of highly successful online videos are really just fundamental principles of human interaction, and you can apply to nearly any form of communication (especially marketing). While there's no way to guarantee that anything will "go viral," studying and applying those basic elements…
Understanding the Humans Behind the Demographics
When people talk about their company’s target audience, you typically hear things like “individuals between the ages of 13 and 25 who enjoy playing video games and have a mobile phone,” or “active consumers between the ages of 25 and 45 who like to hike and rock climb” or “procurement officers at Fo…
Let Them Smell What You're All About
Smell sells. Tap scent marketing’s subconscious power to lift mood, memory, and sales. Choose simple, context-smart fragrances, tune the intensity, and watch productivity rise without customers noticing why.
This is Why Your Customers Aren't Sticking Around
Stop casting wider nets and fix the holes. Competitive CEOs chase metrics while customers crave emotion. Talk to people, design sticky experiences, and watch each effort land more loyal customers.
The Zombie Guide to Human Resources
If your team was the last surviving band of humans in a city overrun by zombies, you wouldn't let just anybody through the door would you?
Logos Are Getting Simpler
When designing a logo, it’s easy to go overboard. There are so many great elements you can work with (colors, textures, patterns, shapes, borders, typography, gradients, icons, etc.) that it’s tempting to include a little bit of everything to get your point across. In a massively oversaturated media…
Crowdsourcing Your Brand: The Math Doesn't Work
As much as our work at Forty is about “touchy-feely” stuff (psychology, emotion, metaphor, experiences, etc.), I’m still a numbers guy at heart. That’s why I get so frustrated every time I hear someone recommending crowdsourced design services like [99designs](https://web.archive.org/web/20130115155…
“It’s All About You” Doesn't Work
We’re naturally attracted to people and brands that stand for something, and we’re suspicious of those that try to mold themselves around our preferences. Imagine this. You’re on a blind date. > You: “So, where do you want to go?” Date: “Wherever you want to go.” You: “Maybe dinner? What kind of foo…
I'm James Archer.
This is why firms hire me.
3 decades in marketing 20+ years in the C-suite Hundreds of firms advised
I know how to do this in the real world:
- I’ve spent 20+ years in C-level positions
- I ran a successful marketing agency for 12 years
- I’ve helped 100s of businesses from startups to Fortune 500s
- My work’s been featured in The New York Times, Inc. Magazine, Fast Company, and Entrepreneur.
- I’ve delivered over 100 speaking engagements and written countless articles on these strategies.