Some Things Never Change — Second Nature episode artwork

Some Things Never Change

Second Nature November 6, 2026 1:07:18

About this episode

Dan Coe, who writes The Brand Report and spent years at Nike, joins Aaron and Dylan to break down the "primitives" he believes decide whether a young brand survives. Marketing technology keeps changing and the funnel has collapsed into a single swipe, but Dan argues that why people buy hasn't changed, and that the basics are where small brands can beat big ones.

They work through three of them: knowing your customer down to a single person and being for someone rather than everyone; showing that customer the brand is for people like them through episodic content, with examples from Huckberry, Burton, Bandit's Unsponsored Project and a cafe that gives free coffee to anyone who dances; and selling transformation instead of features.

Along the way they get into whether brands should resist growing beyond their core, what brand marketing is really for and how to measure it, what a brand and a community actually are, why Dan chose depth over dopamine for The Brand Report, and the moment Aaron realized his own YouTube titles were selling technique instead of outcome.

Second Nature is proudly supported by Popfly:

Popfly for Brands: https://popf.ly/secondnaturebrands

Popfly for Creators: https://popf.ly/secondnaturecreators

Show Notes:

The Brand Report: https://www.thebrand.report

Dan Coe: https://www.linkedin.com/in/d-coe/

Mattie Sims Pod: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJl441qcZLk

For The Culture (Book): https://bookshop.org/a/128566/9781541700963

The Brand Report - Burton: https://thebrand.report/articles/burton-five-eras

Huckberry on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Huckberryco

Yeti Presents: https://www.yeti.com/films.html

Brooklyn Coffee (IG): https://www.instagram.com/bkcoffeeshop/