Are you chasing relevance?

Are you trying to be relevant?
Or have you been relevant all along?

I’ve spoken to several business owners this week about their positioning. Most of them want the same thing. To be more relevant to their audience, and generate more business.

In almost every case, it came down to language.
Not clever language.
Just language their audience actually understands.

That’s the thing about audiences.
They decide what’s relevant to them.
You can’t force it. You can only earn it.

Trying too hard to sound current usually does the opposite. It creates distance. It signals insecurity. It tells people you’re watching the room rather than standing in it.

So maybe stop trying to be relevant.

Tell people who you are.
Tell them what you do.
Use clear language they recognise.

Relevance isn’t something you apply.
It’s something that happens when what you say, and who you’re saying it to, finally line up.

Enjoy your Quick PINT

This week in Brands

Trump launches ‘board of peace’ logo that resembles the UN symbol.

Copying is supposed to be one of the greatest forms of flattery. In practice, it often just looks lazy. Positioning can help you stand out or deliberately blend in. But using a logo that closely resembles another organisation’s, especially one you publicly reject, raises a different question altogether.

Changing the colour to gold doesn’t really change the meaning. It just decorates it. What’s more curious is why you’d want to borrow the visual language of an institution you don’t believe in or want to be associated with. Symbols carry values whether you agree with them or not.

This week in Bands

Aphex Twin overtook Taylor Swift to become the soundtrack to Gen Z life online.

I’ve been a fan of Aphex Twin for a long time. Probably since Selected Ambient Works 85–92. I once saw him DJ in a Wendy house with a concrete brick. He's that kind of talent. Doesn't say much, just does his thing.

So maybe it’s not surprising that Gen Z has discovered the mysterious Cornish knob twiddler and esoteric beat maker on their own terms, with his track QKThr being one of the most popular downloads.

This isn’t a comeback. It’s a discovery by a new audience.

Music that was never designed to fit neatly into a moment has quietly found one anyway. Not through marketing, not through reinvention, but because it was left alone long enough to be found.