strategic brand platforms
Later today I will be presenting the new strategic brand platform to the Board of Directors for an organization I’ve been working with. I thought I’d take this opportunity to share my approach to brand strategy.
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pricing strategies gone wrong
Companies need to make money – I get it. And as a capitalist at heart, I generally subscribe to the business practice of charging what the market will bear.
But as I’ve learned about the recent pricing decisions of two high-profile institutions of American culture – Starbucks and The New York Times – I’ve wondered if pricing models based on traditional understandings of profit margins and price elasticity can backfire. That is, charging higher prices for certain offerings may make sense on paper – but they actually incentivize the wrong behaviors and reward the wrong customers. Here’s what I’m thinking:
what not to do
You know that feeling you get when watching that show, What Not to Wear? Cringing and squirming, you watch as delusional people show off some of the most hideous outfits – they think they actually look good when it is so clear they don’t. That they would be so self-unaware is unbelievable.
Well, that’s how I’ve felt as I’ve witnessed the recent campaigns by two fast food restaurant chains. They may think they’re rockin’ a good thing, but they’re not – and I’m incredulous that they don’t see it. (more…)
social media’s brand-building potential
Right before the holidays, MarketingSherpa released its “2010 Social Media Marketing Benchmark Report.” 
The report indicated that “improving brand or product reputation” and “increasing brand or product awareness” did not rank highly in the list of social media objectives targeted and measured by U.S. marketers. This confirms my own findings that companies are overlooking the importance of using social media tools for strategic, proactive brand-building. (more…)
is sorry the hardest word for companies?
When it comes to mishaps, most companies seem to have adopted Discovery’s song “It’s Not My Fault” as their anthem – but it would be so much better for them to follow Akon’s lead and plainly state “Sorry, Blame It on Me.”
To be clear, I’m not talking about issuing apologies for the sweeping mistakes companies have made for, say, running our economy into the ground — nor about mea culpas for the indiscretions of executives with poor personal judgment. I don’t even mean the situations in which a company clearly screwed things up for a customer, like failing to provide a promised service or selling a defective product. By now, companies who haven’t figured out the importance of an appropriate apology in these situations are just helpless and hopeless.
I’m talking about saying “sorry” for little things – the millions of seemingly-forgettable occurrences that happen every day as companies go about their business and end up inconveniencing, or disappointing, or causing some trouble for their customers.
I recently had two experiences that exemplify the right and wrong way to handle these apologies.
sound bites from ces
I just returned from a great trip to CES, the Consumer Electronics Show. 
There was a lot of excitement around new, innovative products and it seemed like important deals and connections were being made – it was an energizing way to start off the new year!
I particularly enjoyed participating in some breakout sessions in the MommyTech and digitalHealth summits. It was there that speakers offered up a few sound bites containing wisdom – wisdom that extends beyond the world of consumer electronics and digital technologies.
Here’s what I heard:
how to differentiate
While you are reading this, I’m attending the Consumer Electronics Show. 
I’ll be meeting with clients and prospects, attending educational sessions, and walking the show floor — the last activity is one that I always find both exciting and frustrating. Exciting because there always so many new and cool gadgets and technologies to check out; frustrating because so many of these new items tend to blend together into one big, indistinguishable, unmemorable morass of technology. The brands suffer from the lack of remarkable and sustainable differentiation. (more…)
brand impact in 2010
Happy New Year! I hope you had a great holiday and you are as excited as I am about kicking off 2010!
After the long hard haul of 2009, I’m eager to see business get off to a fresh start this year. It’s impossible to know exactly what the New Year will bring, but I’m confident more attention will be paid to brands and brand-building. That’s because there are at least three key areas that I see brands having an immediate and significant impact in: (more…)