Clever Claude

In the age of AI, taste, integrity and humanity are the real differentiators.

Read on to learn why:

① Telling people what you stand for is the first job of good positioning.

② The differentiating levers are niche, positioning, style, creativity, and emotion.

③ One old Florida man’s ‘de-banking’ is everyone else’s sound risk management.

④ Long term competitive edge lies in adopting AI not building it.

⑤ Protecting your brand is your CMO’s job - but your legal team has her back.

⑥ Visibility is essential in a senior leadership role.

⑦ Poor workplace behaviour should be a thing of the past.

What's new

Anthropic revised Claude’s ‘Constitution’ this week, TechCrunch reports.

In short:

“On Wednesday, Anthropic released a revised version of Claude’s Constitution, a living document that provides a ‘holistic’ explanation of the ‘context in which Claude operates and the kind of entity we would like Claude to be’.”
“For years, Anthropic has sought to distinguish itself from its competitors via what it calls ‘Constitutional AI,’ a system whereby its chatbot, Claude, is trained using a specific set of ethical principles rather than human feedback. Anthropic first published those principles - Claude’s Constitution - in 2023. The revised version retains most of the same principles but adds more nuance and detail on ethics and user safety, among other topics.”
“Anthropic has long sought to position itself as the ethical (some might argue, boring) alternative to other AI companies that have more aggressively courted disruption and controversy. To that end, the new Constitution is fully aligned with that brand and has offered Anthropic an opportunity to portray itself as a more inclusive, restrained, and democratic business. The 80-page document has four separate parts, which, according to Anthropic, represent the chatbot’s ‘core values.’ Those values are:
- Being broadly safe.
- Being broadly ethical.
- Being compliant with Anthropic’s guidelines.
- Being genuinely helpful.”

Why it matters

① I’m a marketing, branding and communications specialist. I know all the tricks. But despite this - indeed perhaps because of it - I feel like I’m more susceptible to good marketing than most. Back in October (see ⑤) we talked about how Anthropic brilliantly stands out from its competitors by being anti-slop, pro ‘thinking’, and making its customers the heroes of its marketing - by celebrating them, not how clever their product is. I fell for it and Claude became my AI of choice.

What I’ve discovered since - not least by testing it daily against ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini - is that there is substance to its positioning. It’s the only AI I pay for because of its:

Taste: From its stylish branding to its elegant UI, Claude just seems to have more taste than its competitors. And, because, like any other tool, the results AI produces depend greatly on the person using it, it’s perhaps no coincidence that taste - the ability to instinctively choose what looks and sounds more elegant, compelling or impressive - is also what will differentiate its users from everyone else with an AI chatbot by their side. Anyone can make slop.
Integrity: It may say as much about the things I ask AI to do than how the language model has been taught to behave but it’s telling how often Claude’s replies to me begin with “I need to push back on that,” followed by some solid reasoning that I hadn’t necessarily considered. In short, it has integrity and so is a true thought-partner, not a sycophantic slave. When your AI assistant has integrity, you can use it to keep yourself sharp, to level up your own thinking rather than dumbing down your output.
Humanity: Amanda Askell, Anthropic’s lead on how Claude should behave, isn’t a software engineer. She’s an ethicist and philosopher by training. Perhaps as a result, the Constitution reads more like loving advice a parent might give its child than a set of operating instructions. It’s guidance with trust. And Claude’s responses are better written, reasoned and somehow more human as a result.

Gemini, ChatGPT, Perplexity and even the repugnant Grok have claims to besting Claude in some areas. Every week it seems, one of them takes the lead in one way or another. That’s not my point. I’m not arguing Claude’s technical superiority. I’m defending its unimpeachable market positioning and championing the way it nails the things that will give its users competitive advantage in the long-term. This story matters because it’s the latest example of how Anthropic is crushing its competitors from a marketing perspective.

🎧 For a deeper dive, I recommend this week’s episode of Hard Fork:

What to do about it

Take action

② What can you crib from the Anthropic marketing strategy?

Niche: You can’t be all things to all men. Choose who you want to sell to. Anthropic is unashamedly focused on the regulated, enterprise market.
Positioning: Pick an enemy. Articulate what you stand for.
Style: Adopt a style that will appeal to your niche and reinforce your positioning. Elegant, formal, esoteric…whatever works.
Creativity: Think outside the box, surprise people. Anthropic opened a coffee shop for a weekend. Do something that fits your style but is unexpected.
Emotion: You may be selling B2B but never forget we’re all humans. Appealing to emotions - ego, fear, humour, pride, ambition - remains the best way of influencing other human beings.

Get help

Two ways I can help you:

Tackle a specific challenge by retaining me in an advisory capacity or on a fractional basis.
Elevate all your marketing and communications by hiring me as a full-time member of your team.

Let's do our best work, together

Top stories

The other articles that are worthy of your time.

FINANCIAL SERVICES

Trump sues JPMorgan for $5bn claiming he was de-banked

③ Closing the account of a serial bankrupt, liar, and felon isn’t ‘de-banking’, it’s sound risk management.

Jamie Dimon at Davos on Thursday. Source: The Times, 22 January 2026

“President Trump is suing JPMorgan Chase and Jamie Dimon for at least $5 billion for allegedly stopping doing business with him for political reasons. The complaint accuses JPMorgan of trade libel and breach of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing. It also claims Dimon violated Florida’s Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Act.”
“During the Biden administration, bank regulators made financial institutions consider ‘reputational risk’ as a component of their tests of banks.”
“Dimon has been one of a small number of US chief executives to criticise some of Trump’s policies during the current administration. Speaking at Davos on Wednesday, Dimon warned that Trump’s plan for a 10 per cent cap on credit card interest rates would be an economic disaster. He has also defended the independence of the Federal Reserve as Trump has sought to pressure its chairman, Jerome Powell, to cut interest rates.”

TECHNOLOGY

Europe can still win the other AI race

④ Long term competitive edge lies in adopting AI not building it.

Roland Busch, CEO, Siemens. Source: The Economist, 22 January 2026

“Europe has a large industrial base and it is hunting for ways to boost economic growth. It may have fallen behind in the race to produce cutting-edge AI models—it built just three of them in 2024, compared with China’s 15 and America’s 40. And it has no hyperscalers of its own to pour vast sums into building data centres. But when it comes to widespread productivity gains, adopting ai will matter more than selling it.”
“Europe’s manufacturers are well ahead of their peers across the Atlantic: 48% of them use AI, including older types of machine learning and ‘big data’, whereas only 28% of American manufacturers do. Siemens has been using AI at its futuristic factory in Erlangen, in Bavaria, for over five years. More than 100 algorithms are improving production at the site. Schneider was also an early adopter. It hired its first ‘chief AI officer’ in November 2021, a year before the launch of ChatGPT.”
“What could slow the Europeans down? One risk, as usual, is regulation. Policymakers in Brussels have so far focused most of their energy on preventing the technology from wreaking havoc, resulting in the EU’s AI Act. It sets a global benchmark for safety and data protection, but critics say it creates too much red tape and will slow down innovation and adoption.”

MEDIA & MARKETING

Victoria Beckham owns trademarks to all her children’s names

⑤ Protecting your brand is your CMO’s job - but your legal team has her back.

“Documents from the Intellectual Property Office show that Victoria has not only owned the brand name ‘Brooklyn Beckham’ since December 2016, but also the trademarks to the names of her other three children: Romeo, 23, Cruz, 20, and Harper, 14.”
“The trademarks cover an array of products and services, including make-up, massage oils, sunglasses, ballpoint pens, holdalls, electric train sets, leather goods, shoes, tote bags and music. The children need Victoria’s permission for any deals that use their names to sell the products or services. A legal expert said it was a ‘wildly’ long list of items and services.”
“Brooklyn might have laid himself open to a separate legal challenge from his family because it was likely that he would have signed an agreement not to bring ‘Brand Beckham’ into disrepute. Any such agreement is likely never to see the light of day, because all participants would be likely to have signed a non-disclosure agreement.”

WILDCARD

How to articulate your contributions as a senior leader

⑥ Visibility is essential in a senior leadership role.

Source: Harvard Business Review, 23 January 2026

“Articulating your impact isn’t bragging or something to put off until you’re ‘less busy.’ Your visibility affects everything from the budget and headcount you receive to the advancement opportunities you’re trusted with.” Here’s how to do it:

“Use ‘we-then-me’: This structure lets you celebrate others first while still making clear what you brought to the table.”
“Speak to scale: When you’re no longer doing hands-on work, success is measured by the size and complexity of what you run.”
“Show strategic judgement: Your competitive advantage is explaining why it happened, specifically the decisions you weighed, tradeoffs you made, and the things you said no to.”
“Name the invisible work: A sentence or two connecting your behind-the-scenes effort to the outcome is enough.”
“Highlight your stewardship: At your level, you’re assessed on your ability to cultivate talent and advance the organisation’s mission, vision, and values.”

Off cuts

The stories that almost made this week’s newsletter.

The last word

⑦ Helena Morrissey on non-financial misconduct:

Helena Morrissey. Source: Investment Week, 23 January 2026

“Talent, trust and long-term performance depend on workplaces where people feel respected, safe and empowered to thrive. The choice for the industry is clear: we can become a leader or a cautionary tale.”

Don’t settle for marketing.

Aspire to InMarketing.

Wishing you an interactive week,

P.S. Choose your words carefully.