The other day I was meeting with the executive team of a growing retail chain, a prospective client. The conversation turned to the brand tagline and as the Chief Executive Officer began to explain how the tagline came to be, it became clear that no on around the table had ever heard the explanation before. […]
Change, like sh*t, happens – but unlike its inevitable parallel, change doesn’t have to be messy and unpleasant. In fact, I recently heard Joni Doolin of People Report/Black Box Intelligence make an important distinction that clarified the upside of change: change is passive, but transformation presents an opportunity for you to play an active role […]
brand-as-business bit: In Deadlines and Disruption, the memoir by Stephen B. Shepard, editor-in-chief of Businessweek from 1984 to 2005, Shepard writes about a conversation with Oz Elliott, former editor of Newsweek: He thought that institutions—whether magazines or companies—sometimes fail because of weak leadership. There is no vision or strategy. But sometimes, he said, even strong leaders with […]
If you want a powerful, valuable, brand-building strategy, you’ve come to the right place. We’re more than halfway through the video series, “How to Build a Breakthrough Brand.” So far, in this 10-session series on the steps in the brand development process, we’ve covered: […]
A new definition of brand. Inspiring employees. My take on the Super Bowl ads and the new Taco Bell tagline. Check out my writings on these and other topics in the following “brand-as-business buffet,” a round-up of content from me from this past month. retail and restaurants: How to Keep ‘Em Coming Back — my […]
brand-as-business bit: I’m interested in the Komen/Planned Parenthood situation from a brand point of view, not a political or moral one. That’s why a piece by James Gregory, CEO of Core Brand, a brand valuation consultancy, piqued my interest. He says the Komen organization should have done things differently by focusing on: “basic ‘brand alignment.’ […]
In this week’s Brandweek is an article about the internal marketing Pepsi undertook prior to launching its latest campaign. The piece reported that […]
There’s been a lot of discussion about Pepsi’s new campaign — most of it negative — so I wanted to offer a different point of view. […]
I recently posted about how I see 2009 as a great time for brand-building. I declared, “Rather than fretting over limited marketing budgets and skyrocketing media costs, […]
Before we quickly toss aside 2008 with the carelessness due a former lover, I thought it might be enlightening to look back on the predictions that were made at this time last year — […]