Here are 25 surprising things you will learn about brand and culture in my new book, FUSION: How Integrating Brand and Culture Powers the World’s Greatest Companies. […]
brand strategy
By now, it should be obvious how important it is to clearly differentiate your brand. But I still get questions about how to identify key brand differentiators — or how to prioritize them, clarify them, or use them in brand strategy development. So I’ve produced an excerpt from a recent webinar I gave in which […]
07.11.17
9 Different Types of Brands
Here’s a hypothesis: There are essentially nine different types of brands and you can jumpstart the development of your brand strategy by identifying the one that’s right for you. I’ve developed this hypothesis after working on brands for over 25 years. I’ve come to realize that there is a finite number of brand types or […]
05.16.17
How to Build a Brand of Distinction
I recently was asked to speak to the executive team of a $200 billion organization about increasing the company’s competitiveness. It was an extraordinary opportunity and I seized it by sharing my insights on how to build a brand of distinction — one that isn’t merely different, but one that stands apart and above the rest. […]
03.28.17
Brand Differentiation
Brand differentiation is more important now than ever before. You can’t just be better than your competitors — you must be different. Here are five of my resources, all in one handy spot, to help you understand the new challenges and requirements to differentiate and how to achieve greater brand differentiation. […]
Differentiation may quite possibly be the top priority in brand development. In today’s competitive business environment, simply being better than other brands no longer creates a sustainable advantage. Your brand must be different. As you scale-up your brand, it is critical to identify and develop your key brand differentiators. […]
My blog series on “How to Scale-Up Your Brand” continues today with instructions on how to plot your brand positioning. A clear competitive brand positioning is essential to brand-building because it defines who you are selling to, what your business scope is, and how you create unique value for your customers. In this post, you’ll […]
This installment in my blog post series on how to scale-up your brand introduces two brand tools. Use them in your process of developing or refining the strategic platform of your brand. They will help you identify and clearly articulate your brand purpose, values, and attributes. […]
04.05.16
Choosing Greatness
Good to Great, the bestselling book by Jim Collins, offers timeless insights into what it takes to become great. It applies not only to businesses, but also to brands, people, churches, non-profits, governments, communities, and more. I recently revisited the text, along with the monograph accompanying it, Good to Great and the Social Sector, and […]
I originally wrote this piece for the Harvard Business Review. It was published on HRB.org on March 28, 2014. As a member of a start-up advisory program, I regularly hear pitches from aspiring technology entrepreneurs. My job is to sort out the companies with potential from those that need to go back to the drawing […]