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How do you build a great brand?  Ever since I wrote the book What Great Brands Do, I’ve been on a quest to discover and share answers to this question.  While all seven brand-building principles that I introduced in the book still are important and relevant today, the one that has risen to the top […]

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Accelerated agility, enriched engagement, and definitive differentiation — these are the top priorities brand builders need to achieve brand leadership today. The roles that brands play and the expectations people have of them today requires new brand-building mindsets and skillsets. My new post in my LinkedIn Brand+Culture Series explains the what, why, and how of […]

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BrandZ just published its annual brand valuation report weeks after Forbes released its best brand list.  The dramatic differences between the lists caused some head scratching among businesspeople.  When Interbrand‘s report comes out later this year and inevitably reports more different numbers, confusion is likely to grow.  Unfortunately if you want to know which best […]

brand protection

I originally wrote this piece for the Harvard Business Review. It was published on HRB.org on April 23, 2014. Licensing can generate big business for brands. The top 150 global licensors accounted in total for almost $230 billion, according to License! Global. Disney alone reported $39.3 billion in retail sales of licensed merchandise worldwide in […]

2015_BrandZ_Top100_Report summary

Brands continue to grow in value, according to the analyses in Millward Brown‘s most recent BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands report. Although I maintain my previously-expressed concerns with all brand valuation methodology — whether it is Interbrand’s Best Global Brands, BrandFinance Global 500, or Millward Brown’s BrandZ — the dollar values they report are […]

(Credit: Boundless.com)

I recently wrote an article for OPENfor.business entitled, “Are You Making Excuses for Not Building Your Brand or Are You Embracing Its Potential?”  In it, I explained that some CEOs try to explain why brand-building isn’t relevant or possible for them by claiming “Our situation is different.”  But the unique challenges they think face are, more […]

2015

Welcome to what has become an annual tradition for me – a post highlighting my recommendations for the “Brands to Watch in 2015.”  Importantly this is not a list of brands that I predict will grow, succeed, or otherwise go big.  After all, Peter Drucker once said, “Trying to predict the future is like trying […]

aaker on branding

–  the book:  Aaker on Branding:  20 Principles That Drive Success –  the brain:  One of the definitive voices on branding, David Aaker.  Dave has published more than 100 articles and 15 books on branding, brand strategy, and brand management, including Managing Brand Equity and Building Strong Brands, two texts that have served as my […]

amazon-smartphone

My “brands to watch” post was such a hit last year, I thought I’d share who I will be keeping my eye on in 2014.  Some of these brands are sure to grow in the coming year, the future of others is less certain – but I’m pretty sure we’ll be hearing a lot about […]