Building and evolving brands

Hi, I'm John, Chief Creative Officer at Herman-Scheer, a strategic and creative brand consultancy. We believe the businesses that prioritize connection over transaction are the ones that succeed. 

Since 2010, Herman-Scheer has helped change the way businesses make people feel. We have big heart and daring instincts. A sunny disposition and assertive gait. 

I consider myself a people-people kind of person, enamored by how brands connect to people and how people connect to brands. I love working with businesses that—put simply—keep people healthy and happy.

My career journey has been about embracing the idea that friction makes fire. 

I believe in mixing the intuitive and familiar with the audacious and novel, creating a healthy tension to captivate and engage. This friction, this interplay of ideas, is where I believe brands find their true voice and distinctive edge.

Alongside Chapin, (The Herman to my Scheer), we’ve built an agency with a strong POV: great health and self-care brands create narratives and identities aimed at changing behaviors—experiences so compelling that customers stick with a product or service even before they see the tangible benefits.

If you're in the wellness industry looking to evolve your brand toward lasting impact, let’s talk shop.

Feel free to reach out here or email me at john@herman-scheer.com.

John Scheer

The Mighty Shed

The Mighty Shed stimulates brand innovation by defining where to play & how to win with future consumers – today. Our diverse team combines the wisdom of experience with the creative energy of a start-up to outperform global networks on any job that requires fast, future-forward thinking to solve the Mighty Questions.

Boxer

Boxer is a creative agency specializing in brand storytelling & design. Key brands/clients served include: Accolade Wines, AB Inbev, Brahma Beer, Camel, McDonald's, Ribena, Weber-Stephen, Winston and Whole Foods.

website: http://www.boxercreative.co.uk/
blog: http://www.boxercreative.co.uk/soakitup/

Managing Director

The Marketing Store

The Marketing Store is a global network of creative agencies specializing in a broad range of strategic marketing services. Key clients include: Coca-Cola, Diageo, General Mills, Kraft, McDonald's, Nissan, Shell and Vodaphone.

EVP, Global

LBi is a global digital marketing and technology agency, blending insight, creativity and expertise to solve business problems. Key clients include: Nike, Orange, Marks and Spencer.

Director, Europe

Starbucks Coffee Company

Supported the growth and development of the Starbucks brand in 35 countries in a variety of global, regional and in-country roles.

Director, International

Big business was never on my vision board.

I started on stage. 
Dance. Theatre. Music.

Back then, creativity wasn’t a skill. 
It was survival.

Then I swapped the stage for boardrooms and (like a lot of us) I tried to fit in and hid my creativity.

Then I had a breakthrough:
My greatest strength wasn’t something I should hide.

I had an unfair advantage — forged at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, and sharpened through thousands of hours of improv, directing, and writing original plays.

And once I started to lead with it?
Everything changed.

Now, I help visionary leaders and brands design bold futures through:
❤️ Pleasure
❤️ Purpose
❤️ Innovation

Futures that feel as good as they perform…and I’ve never loved business more.

This simple mind shift led me to:

➤ Unlock billions of impressions for Coca-Cola
➤ Scale Starbucks from 500 to 14,000 stores globally
➤ Help Formula1 connect with its next generation of fans
➤ Deliver keynotes around the world on creative leadership & trend provocations
➤ Get FTSE 100 | Fortune 500s to act like startups and break into new categories

And now, I channel everything I’ve learned into helping future-makers like you — sharing daily sparks on creativity, leadership, innovation, and what’s next in culture.

👉 Follow me for daily ideas to fuel your next breakthrough.
👉 Future-proof your brand by subscribing to my trend platform: Future Possible®.
👉 Get weekly intel on the latest desire & wellbeing trends by subscribing to The Pleasure Report.
✨🔗✨ Link's in my bio.

Angelique Green

In 1998, a pencil was discontinued, which sounds unremarkable until you consider that people started paying $75 for a single USED one on eBay.

The pencil was the Blackwing 602.

John Steinbeck sharpened 24 of them every morning before writing. Chuck Jones refused to draw Bugs Bunny with anything else. A Disney animator asked to be buried with his.

So when it disappeared, it became a grail item.

Then, in 2010, a small cedar company run by a 7th-generation pencil maker named Charles Berolzheimer bought the expired trademark for $300 and reverse-engineered the pencil from scratch.

But they didn’t just re-release the pencil

They built an entire culture around it. They describe themselves as being "in the business of celebrating art and slowing down.”

It started with “The Party for the Pencil”  (a six-day event celebrating pencils). 

Today, they make limited editions, notebooks, and even a Steinbeck Pencil Cup.

And now? In 2026?

They just launched their first-ever pen.

A pencil company. Making a pen.
It sounds like a betrayal.
But it's actually a masterclass.

Because people aren't loyal to the product. They're loyal to the feeling the product creates.

Which, in this case, is art and slowing down.

The ritual of writing by hand. The weight of a considered instrument. The quiet declaration that you care about how your thoughts travel from mind to page.

And whether that page receives graphite or ink is a debatable, but also a secondary question.

The primary question is:

"Does this slow me down in a way that feels like a gift?"

The lesson from all this is that if you're building a brand, stop asking what product category you're in.

Start asking what feeling category you're in.

That's where the real loyalty lives.

I go much deeper into this (as well as which Pleasure Code this falls in) in my latest Pleasure Report. Link in the comments.

Award-winning Brand Pleasure Strategist | Scaled Starbucks 2→37 Countries | Now CEO, The Mighty Shed | Follow Me for Ideas on Turning Ancient Itches into Irrational Loyalty

Every brand in functional beverages is talking about adaptogens. Nootropics. Protein. And now (thanks to GLP-1s) fibre.

But Gillian Anderson talks about the "G Spot."

Why?

First, because no one else would. So she could.

Second, because her name is Gillian and the wordplay was right there.

But third, and this is the interesting part: because in two syllables she acknowledged what the entire wellness complex would rather pretend doesn't exist.

People buying wellness products are not, in their secret heart of hearts, buying wellness.

They're buying something else... in G Spot's case it's the feeling of being alive and sensual and unashamed of wanting things.

Most brands in this space are scratching an itch their customers don't actually have. Anderson scratched the one they do.

There's a VC in New York who has built an entire investment thesis around these itches which inspired me to dive deep on the seven deadly sins, Pope Gregory I, Nietzsche, and the uncomfortable reason you keep ordering DoorDash (or Deliveroo).

It's all in this week's newsletter.

Link in comments.

Shout out to Chris Paik for the inspiration!

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The Battle

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Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Angelique Green's LinkedIn Performance

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