A Q&A with Brand Strategy Expert Hannah June Lueptow
Spotlight articles shine a light on designers we admire, asking leaders in the field about their work and their design journey. In this interview, we spoke with brand strategist Hannah June Lueptow. As Head of Research & Strategy at Manyone NYC, Lueptow navigates the intersection of emerging technologies and consumer applications across global markets. Her work reflects a keen ability to translate complex research and insights into meaningful brand strategies.
A graduate of Pratt Institute, Lueptow’s design approach blends a deep knowledge of cultural behavior with strategic thinking. Her career has taken her across seven countries, conducting projects for clients such as Magic Leap, LG, Ford Motors, and Panasonic. At the same time, she channels her creative energy into Hannah June Design, her Brooklyn-based ceramic studio. Her contributions to the design industry have earned her a Red Dot Award, an iF Design Award, and recognition as a Core77 Design Award finalist, jury member, and an IDSA Design Award finalist. We asked Hannah about standing out in a competitive market, failing fast, and how we can all think more like brand strategists.
Q:
Can you give us a simple definition of brand strategy?
A:
Brand strategy is the heart and soul of what a brand is. It is truly the foundation of how you interact with the world. And I want to say the world—not just your customers or your end user—because it is about your core values. It is how you engage with your own team, with your creative process. It’s about your approach to business and the world, and the change that you want to make in the world. That means it’s all the more critical that you define what that strategy is, so that everyone can know about who you are, what you represent, and what you can offer, and people can either buy in or opt out of that. It’s about who you, as a brand, are in the most authentic sense.
Q:
What are some common misconceptions about brand strategy that you’ve encountered?
A:
Sometimes people think that brand strategy is just what something looks like; what the font you use, the color palette, and that sort of thing. But that is the least of what I do. I’m an industrial designer by trade, and now I’m on the design, research, and strategy side of things. When we talk about brand strategy, it’s about that initial positioning in the market. It’s not just, What’s our roadmap? How are we making money? It’s a lot more emotionally driven than that, more like, Why are we doing what we’re doing? What is the meaning behind that? How can we make sure that that is felt at every touch point in our process, from discovery to purchase to last use to disposal? What is that full cycle? Where are the opportunities to reach people in meaningful ways? That to me is the strategy. It can be a mindset. It can be a product. It can be messaging.
When we think about brand strategy in 2025 and beyond, it is omni-channel. It is an ecosystem. It can no longer be only product-centric. We are in a product world, so it needs to be about this bigger vibe.
Q:
Your philosophy emphasizes failing quickly and iterating efficiently. How do you do this?
A:
I think it changes almost every day. I feel like a broken record saying this, but AI has really helped me fail faster and more efficiently. What we learn in design school is, Make your pretty perfect thing, and make sure it’s absolutely perfect before you put it in front of anybody or put it on the market. I think that’s a really dangerous approach. As a researcher, all I want is to put dirty, messy things in the market so that people can react to them, and then you get customer feedback. At the end of the day, you’re always building for that customer. If you put something too polished in front of them, they’re not going to be honest with you about it. At that point, you’ve gone really far down a single path on a single bet.
A lot of strategy is doing your due diligence and understanding the market, testing a lot of different things. You take the scientific approach of having a hypothesis, putting it in the market quickly, getting those reactions, and then adapting the outcome. You want a customer-driven solution that continues to change, because customers change. Our world moves so fast. What you liked last week is different from what you like today. I don’t think people are loyal to brands anymore. I don’t think people should be loyal to brands anymore. What have brands given us? I want, as a consumer, to be able to explore and have fun and push brands to continue innovating. Fail fast, fail often, push things into the market, iterate quickly—that’s how you stay competitive, that’s how you stay innovative, and that’s how you stay exciting and have fun as a brand as well. That’s where those magic bits really happen.
There are a lot of examples of companies that have gotten far too comfortable, thinking that they have dominated a market and that their customers will be loyal to them—Xerox is one—and they become these giants that can’t shift efficiently or quickly enough. They get lazy, they get complicit, and then a startup swoops in and takes their market share, because what consumers want is something that benefits them. So you just can’t get too comfortable. You always need to remember that the customer is your client.
Q:
You worked with Interwoven Design on the Evan Adaptive brand strategy and identity, tell me about that experience.
A:
I came in at the very beginning, and that’s my favorite moment of working with startups; when they have this great idea but they don’t really know how to position it or message it yet. Very early on we started with these three questions: What does the world need? What can I offer? Why does it matter? Just those three questions kicked off an amazing workshop session.
We conducted that workshop with Even Adaptive to start aligning on their vision and their values, and to make sure that those became a foundation for the very exciting stage of visualizing and then designing these products and services. What my role really was—sometimes I joke that I host a lot of therapy sessions with entrepreneurs—was to get them in the room and ask those hard questions. You make them make choices. It’s really easy to say, We’re going to be the Uber of fill-in-the-blank. That’s okay, but what does that really mean? Why is Uber different from their competitors? Once they start thinking about their own brand in that context, it facilitates really interesting discussions. A tool I love to use is looking across different spectrums. So, Are we playful or are we serious? Where do we fall on that? It’s not to say we can’t be both, but we need to create that initial alignment on where we’re going because we do need to have a cohesive brand and consistent messaging. I think that was my core role; helping to be that therapist and understand what our message needed to be. Then I was able to come in and start talking about different visual and verbal positionings that we could take.
Q:
What were the key elements that IW developed for the client?
A:
Rebeccah’s team were the experts at prototyping and soft goods, and I would say I did pretty much everything other than that. I ensured that we were creating a brand that could carry the beautiful products that were being designed by the industrial designers on the team. We started with a lot of mood boards to identify the visual direction. Those informed the font and the type face, which informed the logo and the logotype. We played with the different logos and logotypes to create an emblem for them. That also led to color palettes, hang tag designs, and visual and verbal universes; How do we talk? What type of adjectives and language do we use? What is our form of communication? That was paired with the visual, What is our visual communication? What does our Instagram look like? Are we serious? Are we clean? All of that was packaged into a single brand book that was handed off to Even Adaptive to be able to then move into a photo shoot. Rebeccah and the team facilitated that photo shoot and it looked absolutely amazing. The book also helped to build the website and start implementing the visual assets that I helped define.
Q:
What are some of the elements that were used to position the brand to emphasize adaptability and inclusivity?
A:
It started with those questions I mentioned before, determining how we wanted to frame the story. Everyone should be inclusive, in my mind. That is not always the case, but I think that, in our ideal world, that’s a given now. I really wanted to push that messaging. Is it magical that we’re adaptive or is it empowering that we’re adaptive? You can already start to see how different tensions and imagery comes to mind depending on what you choose. It’s not to say that both of those can’t be extremely inclusive and adaptive creative paths, but it starts to transform the way you think about it.
I came up with a lot of different adjectives that allowed us to share this idea of adaptability and inclusiveness and empowerment but frame them in slightly different perspectives. Then we went into a work session with the team where we had some examples of copy and imagery that would tie very nicely into that interpretation of adaptability, and they shared their favorite elements. I think it’s typical for clients to respond to a mix of the options. They like this about this and that about that, and you gradually funnel down into the final creative territory.
Q:
How do you see adaptability and inclusivity shaping the product design market?
A:
We live in such a chaotic world. Right now what I’m seeing a lot in the inclusivity space is being very sensitive to over stimulation. I think that is very hot and needed in the market, How can we be inclusive within our environments? How do we create spaces that are inclusive? I’m seeing more energy go into that rather than into physical products, especially for the elderly population. There’s a lot of disposable income in those markets, and it’s also completely underserved.
I was joking with a co-worker this morning, saying that the silver lining I see with Ozempic is that at least people are paying attention to women over 50 now, and showing that people are living extremely successful, fulfilled, amazing, active lifestyles. We tend to forget about that. As innovators, I think we are conditioned to look at the generation below us. What’s Gen Alpha doing? But if we’re thinking about inclusive design, we shouldn’t only be looking at the younger generation. Actually, it’s much more exciting and challenging to look at, Who’s older than we are? What has been done already? There’s a lot more opportunity in underserved markets, and that’s where I get really excited.
Q:
With so many products on the market, how can a brand stand out?
A:
I think the answer is to be a little messy right now. Intentionally be messy. I think there are two factors.
One is that I believe the millennial brand is dying. I don’t think that’s a bad thing, but I think that came about with the rise of Instagram; the trend of hyper curation and everything looking perfectly in place. It was a very aspirational lifestyle. I know I just said don’t only focus on the younger generation and here I am talking about what the younger generation is doing but, if you look at how Gen Z approaches social media and their life, it’s messy. I think that is the type of authenticity that people are craving right now. That’s one facet of it.
The other facet is AI everything. We’re seeing such trash AI art and whatnot on the internet. And I already said that I love AI. I use it every day. It’s an amazing tool, but it is a tool. It is not the end outcome. There’s so much AI infiltrating our digital spaces, and I think there’s fatigue coming from that. Where I see these converging is a need for messy, authentic humanness. What does it mean to be human and not the polished, perfect, AI version of a brand? I think we’re craving that messiness. The more that brands can not try and follow trends, not try and hop on an algorithm, and just own the niche and the space that they’re in, people will find them. That’s the beauty of the era of the internet that we’re living in right now; the people who identify with you will find you, but you have to deeply know who you are and own that and articulate it well. And that’s why you need good brand strategists.
I think people are exhausted, honestly. We’re seeing a lot of no-buy 2025 trends. People are sick of constantly being fed stuff that they’re being told they need in order to keep up with the expectations of society. Brands that adapt to that and accept the not-perfectness of the world that we live in, that’s what feels real. That’s what I think people want. People want real.
Q:
As someone who has been both a jury member and a finalist for design awards, what do you think sets award-winning design strategy apart from the rest?
A:
The bar is really low. I participate in a lot of design awards and juries, and I tell applicants to show process, show thinking. Anyone, especially in this age of AI, can make a pretty product. That is the baseline at this point. I want to know why it looks like that, what decisions you made along the way, and what impacted those decisions. And so we go back to the need to fail fast and fail often. I want to see how many times you failed. I want to see all the different versions that this design went through to get to this outcome because, at the end of the day, I’m judging on thinking and process and methodology, not on the render.
Q:
You’ve conducted strategic research in many countries. How do cultural behaviors influence global design strategy?
A:
Humans are so different, and culture is such an important and fascinating aspect of how we engage with the people, the products and the environments that we use. That, to me, is what is so amazing about customer experience design. You need to be tuned into all of these elements. How do people engage with the products they use? How do those products then interact with the environment that you’re in, and then also with the people that are in that environment as well? When I do international research, it is often with US-based companies that have a product or a technology that is already well established in the US market and they want to expand into an emerging market. Luckily, a lot of these clients recognize that there are unique behaviors and circumstances in other countries that we can’t anticipate.
For instance, I was working with Ford on a car that would be sold in the US but produced in Brazil and India. There was a new scratch-resistant coating that Ford wanted to put on the car, and it was kind of pricey. My initial approach was to question the value. It doesn’t actually protect against dents, even though that was the original pitch. But it turned out to be the highest rated feature for this potential car. And why? Because there are a lot of stray dogs in India and they like to sleep on the top of cars at night, because they’re warm from the sun. The dogs stay warm, but they also accidentally scratch the paint on your car.
Being able to tell rich stories like that is the power of doing international research and the importance of doing research anywhere. I’m working with a massive client right now that touches all of our lives and they don’t talk to customers. Or, they talk to customers but only to their fanboys. They talk to people who are advocates, hero users, and they think that they’re getting great feedback. And of course they are, because those users won’t ever tell you it’s bad. Those people love you. But how are you going to build into new markets if you’re not actually understanding the users who are in those markets? So I think it applies everywhere and to every company, no matter what market you’re researching.
Qualitative research is especially important. We have so much quant data floating around right now. We are all aggregating data at an insane rate, we barely even know what to do with all that data. But who’s actually talking to people? How do you tap into the emotional drivers behind things? Why are we actually choosing the things that we do? A lot of the time it takes sitting down with someone for an hour or two to really get into that nitty-gritty and understand that. There is so much untapped value that companies could gain from sitting down and talking face to face with customers.
Q:
Can you share an example where research led to a major shift in brand positioning or product design?
A:
I was working on a consumer-facing tech product. I had done a ton of research and created a product roadmap for them along with a list of what this product needed to include. We call the key features hero moments. This is a term I love to use because it’s not just a feature. It’s more than a feature. What’s the thing that you tell your best friend about when you use something? That’s a potential hero moment. We defined what the hero moments of this product should be by talking to the core target user. OK, jump ahead to three months later. I’m completely uninvolved at this point. The engineers are working on these things in China with the client, and they realize that putting Bluetooth and this other sensor in it will increase the cost significantly. But they also realized they needed those features, because that’s what would enable the hero moment. They saw from the research that their product would have significantly less value to the end user if it did not include that hero moment, and their decision became very easy. Sure, our product’s going to be more expensive and we are going to now target a higher income market for this product. We also understand that if we don’t include this feature that will make it significantly more expensive, the product will lose all value.
That was a really exciting moment for me. This was a client that did not value research at the beginning of our engagement but—through working with us and through seeing these insights that were very actionable in the design process—they became evangelists of qualitative research in their own process, and referenced our work months in the future. Listen to your users!
Q:
How do you see brand strategy evolving in the next 5–10 years, especially with advancements in technology and AI?
A:
AI is making everything faster. What’s exciting is that we have a lot more resources to fail fast. It’s so much easier to get to something tangible, and maybe it’s not refined or thought out, but you can get something that is visual enough to get an initial reaction. What I hope and believe for brand strategy is that we are going to see a huge divergence in creative thinking and creativity.
The negative side is that potentially everything converges and starts looking like AI. But I think if designers and creatives and strategists use AI as a tool, things will open up and be a lot more creative, a lot more unique, and a lot more personalized. The future of successful brands is taking a strategic approach to personalization with their users. We already have niche brands and products and user groups, but I think we’re going to see the 2.0 of personalization because they’re going to be understanding our data in deeper ways. It’s our job as brand strategists to help these companies understand how to use that data in a way that isn’t creepy but brings value to the user in new ways.
Fifteen years ago, it was transformational to us that we could get two day shipping with Amazon Prime and anything could be on our doorstep. Today, I can call a car to my house with my phone. That was insane 10 years ago. Now it’s just what convenience looks like. I think we need to start exploring what that next level of convenience and personalization will look like powered by data and AI.
Q:
If you could give one piece of advice to designers looking to transition into strategic roles, what would it be?
A:
First of all, get into strategy. There’s no wrong way to do it. Strategy is what gives designers a seat at the table. Often, we, as designers, don’t think we deserve that or don’t think it’s our place. We design the thing and that’s it. But if you’re a strategist, you are thinking about the business as well. We are used to thinking about the product, and of course it’s important to think about the customer, which is a lot of what I’ve been saying here. I think the next layer is thinking about business implications, return on investment, and potential impact. The first step into strategy can just be thinking about the impact of a product or a service that goes beyond the core interaction. How does it work with the bigger ecosystem of offerings that this company has? How does this grow into the future? What does it evolve into? What additional benefits or services could spin off of this idea? Thinking about impact and value, that’s thinking like a strategist. You start thinking like a founder or a business person might think.
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