Between spring break, March Madness, and primary season, there’s been a lot going on outside the brand world this month.  But there’s also been a flurry of new brand-building content going around.  Here’s a handy recap of what I contributed to the conversation:

brand-building:

• Steve Jobs on Brand-Building – a slide show of what Walter Isaacson’s biography of Steve Jobs teaches about brand-building
• 5 Lessons from NBC’s ‘The Voice’ on How to Differentiate Your Brand – my OPEN Forum column on increasing brand differentiation with approaches used by the contenders on NBC’s The Voice
• Start Strong, Stay Strong, Finish Strong – more important lessons for marketers from The Voice
• Marketing As Product and Profit – a bit about how Red Bull has transformed content from a marketing tactic into a business unit and from a loss leader into a profit-center
• Apple Brand Magic – my “brand as business brief” on how everything Apple does its magic

restaurants and retail:

• Radical Differentiation at Lululemon – a blogpost on the “mystery” behind Lululemon’s phenomenal growth
• How to Succeed in the Restaurant Business – wise advice and juicy tidbits from restaurant leaders at the California Restaurant Association Orange County Chapter’s CEO/President’s Panel
• Brand Experience Briefs – videos of insights, analysis, and images of the brand experiences at Uniqlo‘s Herald Square megastore, and The Habit Burger Grill, a 50-unit quick serve burger chain
• The Sales Associate of Tomorrow – a post about the evolving role of the retail sales associate role
• Retail Tensions – a post based on Interbrand’s Best Retail Brands 2012 report about the tensions that now define retail

business and strategy:

• Professor Peter Fader on Customer Centricity – my interview with Wharton Professor Peter S. Fader about the myths about customer centricity
• Best Brands and Companies Lists – a comparison of popular best lists including Interbrand’s Best Global Brands, Fortune 500, Most Admired Companies, Best Companies to Work For, and Most Innovative Companies
• The Challenge of Companies and Rock Bands – a bit from Switchfoot band leader John Foreman about the bellcurve of a song which mirrors that of a company’s lifecycle

marketing tactics:

• 3 Ways to Improve Local Marketing – my QSR Magazine column on the three P’s of effective local marketing
• Taco Bell Wins in Co-Brand with Doritos – data from ePoll that shows Taco Bell brand stands to gain significantly from its new Doritos Loco Taco — but what’s in it for Doritos?
• Why Would Anyone Buy Naming Rights to a Highway? – insights quoted in BBC News about how companies would consider highway naming rights just to be different