About Us
What is Brand Dummy?
A brand consultancy built for scrutiny, skepticism, and change.
We help build brands that hold up under pressure. We specialize in brand resilience—diagnosing how messaging performs when trust is fragile, values are contested, and the stakes are high. Our approach blends behavioural science, academic insight, and modular diagnostics to help brands communicate with clarity, integrity, and adaptability.
Our mission
To help brands survive scrutiny—and thrive because of it.
We believe resilience is the most undervalued brand asset. Our mission is to help organizations build messaging that holds up under pressure—whether that pressure comes from consumers, regulators, media, or internal misalignment. We don’t just advise. We diagnose, test, and rebuild.
Our values
What guides us when the pressure’s on?
At Brand Dummy, our work is grounded in integrity, clarity, and adaptability. We believe in telling the truth—even when it’s uncomfortable—because resilient brands are built on trust, not spin. We cut through noise and jargon to deliver messaging that’s precise, transparent, and emotionally intelligent. And we design strategies that flex under pressure, helping brands adapt without losing their core.
Our pressure-tested process
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We begin by listening—closely. Clients bring us their toughest brand problems: messaging that misfires, launches that stall, trust that erodes. We don’t jump to solutions. We map the friction. Using behavioural insight and strategic questioning, we identify where your brand is losing clarity, emotional traction, or structural coherence. This intake isn’t cosmetic—it’s diagnostic.
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Before we build, we dismantle. We analyze your existing messaging architecture to uncover hidden assumptions, ideological bias, and emotional blind spots. We examine tone, structure, and strategic flow to understand how your brand is currently perceived—and why. This step reveals not just what’s broken, but what’s brittle, misaligned, or vulnerable under scrutiny.
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We then construct a messaging framework that’s modular, resilient, and behaviourally-aligned. Every element—from tagline to tone—is designed to flex across platforms, audiences, and strategic pivots. We don’t deliver slogans; we architect systems. These frameworks are built to adapt without unraveling, ensuring your brand can evolve while staying coherent and defensible.
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We apply research methods from academia—experimental design, heuristic modeling, and simulated audience testing—to validate our strategies. Whether through existing tools or custom-built diagnostics, we test how real people respond to your messaging under cognitive load, emotional stress, and ideological distortion. This isn’t theory—it’s behavioural proof.
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Messaging must resonate—not just perform. We refine tone, trust signals, and emotional cues to ensure your brand connects with real human values. We also align messaging across stakeholder groups—internal teams, investors, customers—so that your narrative holds across contexts. This step ensures your brand isn’t just clear, but credible and cohesive.
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We treat messaging as a living system. Through feedback loops, stakeholder input, and real-time market response, we refine your strategy without compromising its integrity. We pressure-test for edge cases, ideological resistance, and reputational risk—ensuring your brand can pivot without fracture. This is where Brand Dummy’s modularity becomes a strategic asset.
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Finally, we deploy messaging that’s ready for scrutiny, scale, and strategic change. Whether you’re launching, fundraising, or rebuilding trust, we ensure your brand can hold. We also monitor performance—not just through metrics, but through behavioral indicators of trust, clarity, and emotional engagement. Our goal isn’t just impact—it’s resilience.
Who are we?
FOUNDER & PRINCIPAL STRATEGIST
Eugene is a behavioural scientist and marketing professor at the Ted Rogers School of Management, Toronto Metropolitan University, where his research explores consumer psychology, trust, and ethical decision-making. With a PhD in marketing from the University of Toronto and a deep foundation in behavioural theory, Eugene brings academic rigour to every brand challenge—translating complex insights into clear, defensible strategies that resonate in the real world.
With brand expertise and academic experience in Canada, Australia, the United States, and Europe, he founded Brand Dummy to help brands simplify resilience, decode customer behaviour, and build trust through clarity and purpose. Drawing on years of research, teaching, and cross-border consulting, Eugene blends analytical precision with creative direction—crafting identity systems, messaging architectures, and trust strategies that hold up under pressure. His work sits at the intersection of behavioural insight, brand ethics, and strategic symbolism.
For more information about his academic credentials, visit eugeneychan.ca.