TOTEM Times:
Philosophy & Humanism
Building Peace Through Business: How Great Brands Elevate the Market
When we think of peace, we often imagine agreements between countries, the end of a conflict, or grand diplomatic gestures. But peace can also appear in much more everyday places. Even in the marketplace. Because competing doesn’t have to mean confronting others. For years, we’ve associated business success with defeating the competition: gaining market share, […]
There are brands that write very well, but read very poorly
They read dashboards, percentages, clicks, reach, impressions, and conversions. But they don’t read people’s weariness. They don’t read the silence of a customer who stops returning. Or the discomfort of a team that no longer believes in the narrative. Nor a culture that changed before the committee approved the change. The problem isn’t a lack […]
There are hugs that don’t inaugurate anything
They simply bring us back. To a conversation that had been left unfinished, to a table that’s full again, to someone we haven’t seen in a while, to a part of ourselves that the noise had left a little distant. September asks us to return. But perhaps it’s not just about returning to work. It’s […]
September is often sold as a fresh start
In business, it often simply means returning to the list: pending meetings, paused campaigns, resurfacing objectives, and calendars filling up again far too quickly. But a brand doesn’t improve by resuming activity. It improves when it regains its purpose. After summer, there’s a common temptation: to act before thinking. To publish more. To launch more. […]
Every time a brand says it wants to connect with young people, something needs to be examined
Not because wanting to understand them is wrong. On the contrary. The problem arises when they are treated like a decorative tribe: an aesthetic, a tone, a list of words, a campaign with fast-paced music and brighter colors. New generations don’t need brands to seem young. They need them to stop treating them like naive […]
August has a strange way of creating distance
Some people leave. Some people return. Families reunite after months apart. Friends meet up for a few days. Conversations linger because there’s no rush. Silences also find rest. And in the midst of this slower, sunnier, more suspended month, the 8th arrives once again. At TOTEM, we celebrate it with #8Hugs. Not as a pretty […]
The World Cup offers more than just matches. It offers identity.
For 39 days, the world did something quite extraordinary: stop, look, and feel the same thing all at once. A ball. A jersey. A flag. An anthem. A country. A promise. There wasn’t much to explain. The World Cup is understood more through the body than the mind. The 2026 World Cup has ended on […]
A customer allows you to generate revenue. A believer helps you grow
They seem like the same person, buying the same things, visiting the same channels, receiving the same messages. But they belong to two completely different categories, and confusing them is one of the most costly strategic mistakes an organization can make. A customer buys. They choose between alternatives, compare, and evaluate. They use reason more […]
A brand without philosophy is just noise
“The unexamined life is not worth living,” Socrates said. At TOTEM Branding, we work with that same premise applied to brands: understanding who they are before deciding how they want to be perceived. Philosophy is not an abstract exercise Philosophy is not an abstract exercise; it is a way of thinking that permeates decisions. It […]
Commitment to the environment is no longer just an institutional statement
It’s a decision that permeates the entire brand. Why It Matters Today, on World Environment Day, the conversation isn’t about green campaigns or well-intentioned messages. It’s about consistency. People have learned to discern when a brand acts out of conviction and when it acts out of convenience. And that difference, increasingly, determines who they choose […]
