Ahoy!

This is Misha Berveno, and you’re reading the fourth edition of the gist of.

After a longer-than-expected break, we continue on the journey of verbal identity with brand personas, having previously covered naming as well as vision and mission.

One of the key marketing concepts you see thrown around when it comes to selling products or services is target audience or target market (is there a difference?).

Bonjour,

In the previous newsletter, we covered naming. Today, we’ll talk about purpose and discuss two distinct verbal identity elements: vision and mission.

Vision and mission are often confused in boardrooms worldwide. Yet, they serve different goals. Some companies choose to have both; others just pick one.

We’ll explore why changing or saving the world is not a good vision, and how you can use both vision and mission to make your goals clear for everyone involved and inform the rest of your verbal identity.

Hello again,

This is the second issue of the gist of written by Misha Berveno. If you no longer wish to receive these letters, you can instantly unsubscribe — no hard feelings at all.

After a brief overview of verbal identity in the previous issue, today we’re diving into the first verbal identity element — naming.

It seems like naming shouldn’t be included in verbal identity — it’s just what you call a company or product (or service). But it’s crucial. A good name can express the full meaning of a brand on its own (e.g. 1Password) or carry the meaning infused into it (e.g. BMW ➙ high-quality German manufacturing).

Howdy,

Long time no see! In theory, you subscribed to the No Country Studio newsletter some time in the past because I, Misha Berveno, the managing editor of this thing, asked you to. If you’re no longer interested, you can unsubscribe instantly.

Welcome to the gist of — a missive from No Country Studio about words that make the world go round. In the letters that follow, we’ll cover the business of writing and tangentially related things to help you write better.

the gist of is about explaining the core of ideas you rarely see published online, assisted with examples from history and my own experience. The heuristic used for selecting topics aims to follow the Lindy effect: Will this be valuable in 5 years?