For years, companies have treated brand and product as two separate worlds. Marketers handle messaging, while engineers and designers build the thing itself. The result? Disconnect. Great products that aren’t positioned well and strong brands that aren’t backed by great products.
Before co-founding Lomi Agency, Bjørn Hembre’s career was focused on proving that this divide is a mistake.
Educated as an industrial designer, Bjørn moved into brand strategy early on. From Tandberg in Norway he moved to Audi in Germany, where he saw firsthand the business impact he could make by driving forward with this strategy.
At Lomi Agency, he’s helping global companies break out of their comfort zones. His approach helps them create products that don’t just look good but also shape market perception, build trust, and define entire categories.
Inside R&D teams, he obsessed over product innovation. However, one thing kept bothering him and his colleagues. No matter how good the product was, it often wasn’t marketed in a way that made sense.
He saw engineers and designers create incredible technology, only for the marketing team to present it in a way that didn’t align with the strategy that brought it to life. The result: lost opportunities, confused positioning, and products that never reached their full potential.
That’s when he made the jump to marketing strategy—first at Tandberg, then at Audi. Working on long-term brand positioning projects, he helped anticipate how consumer behavior and technology would evolve over the next decade.
And one lesson stood out:
40% of a brand’s perception is shaped by its products.
After years working globally on strategic branding, such as Audi’s repositioning in China, running an agency in Beijing, and advising multinational brands, Bjørn returned to Norway and noticed something:
“Scandinavian companies build world-class products. Yet many are hesitant to expand globally.”
Companies in the region have the talent and innovation, but they often lack the confidence to push into international markets. That’s where Lomi Agency comes in.
At Lomi Agency, Bjørn and his team don’t just design products—they shape how those products fit into a company’s broader brand ecosystem.
“A brand isn’t just a logo. It’s the entire experience with a company. That starts with the product.”
One of the biggest missed opportunities in most organizations? Bringing design and branding together earlier in the process.
The challenge is in breaking down silos between R&D, design, and marketing to ensure that companies aren’t just building great products but are also positioning them for success from day one.
Bjørn challenges companies to flip the traditional mindset on design. Instead of treating it as a finishing touch, it should be a core part of business strategy.
“If 25% of your marketing budget went into making a better product, you’d end up with something that sells itself.”
At Lomi Agency, this philosophy informs everything, from UX and industrial design to strategic brand positioning. Whether working on digital services, physical products, or complex B2B solutions, the goal is always the same:
“Create products that don’t just exist in a market. They define it.”
