6 - 12 July 2026

Picking the brands that survive

This week’s insights include:

Surviving cheaper alternatives: A brand isn't a name, a logo, or the size of an ad budget. It's whatever makes a customer walk past a cheaper, near-identical option and still stick with the higher priced version. That stubbornness, often forged over decades, is what turns into pricing power and demand that doesn't crack when conditions turn.
Hype versus legacy: Faux meat firecracker Beyond Meat ran from a US$25 IPO to north of US$200 and back down below a dollar. Meanwhile, Hermès has held its prized mantle as a status symbol for nearly 190 years. The Lindy Effect says that the longer something has already lasted, the longer it's likely to keep lasting. But longevity alone isn't necessarily worth investing in. No one pays a premium for a tonne of iron ore, no matter how old the miner digging it up.
More than just numbers: Brands never appear on a balance sheet, which tempts some investors to write them off. But a brand that has real staying power tends to have steadier growth and wider margins than its rivals can manage. The sharper questions are whether a brand can actually command a premium in its industry, and whether the identity can endure for decades to come.

This week's Market Insights article is a 15 minute read!

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Hi everyone,

When I'm deciding where to put my own money, a couple of traits do a lot of the heavy lifting. Founder-led is one. Brand is the other. What they share is that neither can really be copied.

There will only ever be one Steve Jobs. Tim Cook has been a phenomenal operator, arguably a better one, but he was never going to be Jobs, because by definition there's only ever one of any given person. Others can share the skill set and the temperament, but they will never be atom for atom the same.

A brand works in the same way. The DNA of a company with real history can't be CTRL+C, CTRL+V onto a rival. Trademarks are the obvious blocker for why nobody else can sell an Apple (disclosure, I own shares). But the deeper moat is everything underneath that name. Its first product being hand-built in a Palo Alto garage. The Macintosh and its graphical interface. Jobs getting turfed out of his own company in 1985, then walking back in to launch the iPhone. Those are moments people actually remember, and no competitor can lay claim to a single one of them.

It's that mix of storytelling and lived human experience that lets certain brands slip the leash of plain supply and demand, and outlast the clock entirely.

Finding those companies isn't just a shot at above-average profits. It's also a shot at stability, a business that keeps compounding not for a few years but for decades. A rare case where an investor might get to have their cake and eat it too.

This week is about what separates those brands from the pretenders, and how you might spot the difference before the market does.

Sincerely,

Mitchell Lawler, Senior Investment Editor

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“If people believe they share values with a company they will stay loyal to the brand”

~ Howard Schultz

This week in the markets

Here’s a quick summary of what’s been going on:

Oil jumps as US strikes against Iran risk unravelling Mideast truce
Semiconductor worker shortfall endangers US chip factory revival
Rivian shares fall as capital raising overshadows upbeat revenue forecast
Federal Reserve officials deeply divided over future path of US inflation
Tech volatility hits highest since dot-com bust next to S&P 500

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What company do you think is at risk of losing its ability to charge a premium price?

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Key events next week

Tuesday