The Journal · Est. 2021 · Written every other Tuesday
Notes on positioning, naming, and the long game of building a brand that earns its shelf.
A working notebook from the studio — read by 22,400+ founders, operators, and the occasional curious investor. No growth hacks, no trends desk, no roundups of someone else's tweets. Just the thinking we wish someone had sent us in 2014.
Featured · Issue No. 187
The Naming Brief That Saves a Rebrand Six Months
Why most naming projects blow their timeline on week three, and the single one-page document our linguistic team sends to clients before any shortlist is ever drawn. Includes the four diagnostic questions we ask before generating a single candidate — and the red-flag answer that disqualifies a name before lunch.
If you have ever sat in a conference room arguing about whether a word feels "warm enough" without anyone being able to say what warm means, this issue is for you.
Read the full issue →
Recent dispatches
A chronological index of the last twelve issues. Each one is a working note from the studio — not a polished essay, not a thought-leadership performance.
- № 186 Why Your Category Story Stops Working at $20M ARR The narrative that got you funded will not get you into Sephora. Positioning Sept 30, 2025 9 min
- № 185 A Short Defence of Boring Wordmarks On why the brands that age best are usually the ones you forgot to redesign in 2022. Identity Sept 16, 2025 7 min
- № 184 The Founder Who Wanted a Brand "Like Glossier but for Men" A short case study on the brief we declined, and why we still talk about it. Practice Sept 02, 2025 6 min
- № 183 Naming a $40M Brand Without a Single Meeting Our asynchronous naming process, annotated. Naming Aug 19, 2025 12 min
- № 182 What a Positioning Brief Actually Looks Like A redacted sample from a recent engagement, with commentary. Positioning Aug 05, 2025 14 min
- № 181 Three Trademarks We Refused to File And why the refusals saved our clients from a quiet lawsuit. Legal Jul 22, 2025 8 min
- № 180 The Quiet Power of an Editorial Brand Voice On writing the way you would speak in a good restaurant. Voice Jul 08, 2025 10 min
- № 179 Rebrand or Reposition? A Decision Tree The four questions we ask before touching the identity. Strategy Jun 24, 2025 11 min
- № 178 Why We Stopped Doing Mood Boards A small practice note that earned a lot of angry email. Practice Jun 10, 2025 5 min
- № 177 Category Design Is Not a Deck What actually moves a buyer from "I've heard of you" to "I'll try you". Strategy May 27, 2025 13 min
- № 176 A Letter to the Founder Who Ghosted Us On the brief we were excited about, and the one that never came back. Letters May 13, 2025 6 min
- № 175 What We Learned From 186 Brand Briefs A long, quiet retrospective on ten years of client work. Retrospective Apr 29, 2025 18 min
A note from the principal
"I started Brand Moat in 2021 because I was tired of pretending that the thinking happened in the pitch deck. It doesn't. It happens in the margins, in the second cup of coffee, in the email you almost did not send. The newsletter is where we write that down."
We do not write about trends. We do not round up someone else's tweets. We do not run sponsored posts. And we will never, ever publish a listicle titled "10 Brands That Nailed Their Rebrand." What you read here is the same language we use in the studio on a Tuesday morning, edited down by about forty percent.
— Omarion Reyes, Founder & Principal Strategist
If the writing resonates
The next step is a paid diagnostic, not a discovery call.
We work with fourteen clients a year. We always have. Three of those spots are currently open for engagements beginning Q1 2026. The diagnostic is ninety minutes, priced at $1,500, and credited in full toward any retainer we agree to begin.
- 14clients per year, published cap
- 90minutes, founder-led
- $1,500credited toward retainers
- 3 / 14spots remaining for Q1