Branding and Brand Strategy for Growing Companies
Branding for Restless Companies and Driven Entrepreneurs
“Let’s get @#$%&*! creative!” screamed the CEO. Hey, innocent lives are at stake, and all the usual thinking has failed to result in any breakthrough. After all, creativity is the cure-all to everything, right? Dear CEO, I disagree. Collecting the Dots vs.Connecting the Dots Most of us have it backwards: Creativity isn’t the outcome or …
Shark Tank, Friday night’s new vice for entrepreneurs (and anyone interested in business deals, heated negotiations, how the wealthy think and seeing what’s hot) has gone mainstream. Shark Tank has formally hit its stride. As I noted in my latest Fast Company post (number 6 below), “Even though Friday night is typically TV’s death slot, …
You knock yourself out to close that client. They close. You’re pumped. Yet, once the project ends, you never hear from them again. So you rinse and repeat: Close. Deliver. Sell more. Month after month. Year after year. Never gaining the traction or brand recognition you rightfully deserve. There are various possible scenarios why. But …
The late Steve Jobs said, “You’ve baked a really lovely cake, but then you’ve used dog shit for frosting.” The cake Steve referred to is your company, your organization, your event or your invention. The “shit” Steve referred to is the minimal attention some businesses give to the outer layers — those first points of contact — …
I was reading a good article in the Huffington Post that explains in understandable English what’s meant by the term “fiscal cliff.” It is explained this way: “This whole situation is the result of an ongoing fight in Washington over how to improve the economy (in the short term) and bring down the national debt …
Here’s a Holiday message I had to pass along. In March, I posted the first Power of Words post which drew a remarkable range of cheers across the globe with a video that relayed a beautiful universal message and the power of words. Then in September, I posted the Power of Words, Part 2 featuring …
Jimmy Fallon is funny. His interviewing style resembles a kid who’s finally been sent on a road trip with their favorite lifelong hero, celebrity or screen crush. But it’s his musical mischievousness that keeps me entertained. And this holiday season, Jimmy sent me a home video he made with his band. I love how fun …
Having a great idea is the currency of innovation. Artists (and creators of any sort) are in the business of taking ideas and mashing them together like a visual food processor to end up with something new, fresh, inspiring and… unexpected. As Steve Jobs said in the bestseller, Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson: “Creativity is …
Daniel Craig has kicked ass as James Bond. In the 50-year franchise, the 23rd James Bond film Skyfall has become the highest-grossing Bond film for the multi-billion-dollar franchise. This is the exact catalyst that brought this face-off between Daniel Craig and me to a head. (For the record, that’s Daniel Craig on the left and …
Chocolate and branding. They’re my drugs of choice. It’s an obsession, like “50 Shades of Brown”…. So when I go to a city that I’ve not been to before, I find the best chocolatier in town. This past weekend was Portland, Oregon. Lovely city. Made only more lovely by this one purveyor of chocolate: Cacao. …
In our ever-changing world, I deal with business owners, CEOs and entrepreneurs of all sorts. I find each of them is tempted to try the latest new business tool. I’ve seen too many, with all of these distractions and messages, lose sight of some key fundamentals which I’ve noted below. Where Greatness Starts Here are …
“You can’t save souls in an empty church…. And you can’t bore people into buying your product.” David Oglivy. (This slightly embellished but true story exposes a tale about a love triangle involving lust, branding and logo design.) “It’s true. Don’t get me wrong, if it wasn’t the logo that had me pissing and moaning, …
Brad Pitt’s TV commercial for Chanel No. 5 has created quite a stir. Ad Age wrote about it and Saturday Night Live did a series of spoofs that echoed this ad’s ambiance for the famous fragrance. Journey. Fate. Passion. These very meaningfully stated words have left too many in a daze of… something reminiscent of …
“The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance but the illusion of knowledge.” Stephen Hawking Can every brand grow explosively when others (that could be thriving) die a lonely and forgettable death? Interesting question. Some companies think it’s how deep one’s pockets are. But Microsoft, with its deep pockets, has proven time and again that …
With the presidential election and political debates on everyone’s mind, this video message has a certain timeliness about it. Committees: Where Good Ideas Go To Get Slaughtered Yes, this video immortalizes something I actually said in public, “Committees — famous for vanilla outcomes, exhausting debates and mindless meetings — have destroyed more good ideas than …
“We’re here tonight with two world-class opponents. “In this corner is the current champion, Social Media, the reigning and defending Champion holding the professional world record for endless wins (and numerous controversial losses) standing at 6-feet-2-inches tall, weighing in at 225 pounds. The Challenger and former World Champion is Branding from the East Coast, standing …
Companies will at some point come to that milestone known as “the rebrand.” For some, it happens early on once they’ve discovered who they really are while with others, it occurs after many years of having grown (or outgrown) their brand. Then and Now You’ll discover that some brands go along an evolutionary track that …
“The luscious aromatic intoxication I held up to my lips warmed my insides like the soft caress of a silk wrap embracing the smooth virgin shoulders of a young starlet at her Hollywood premiere debut….” Yup, I wrote that. And yes, I am obsessed with an intoxicating shot of espresso where the crema slithers down …
As a brand, I find Shark Tank at the top of its game. It’s a well choreographed enterprise that hasn’t lost its mission, focus or appeal. That’s why I first wrote “The Shark Tank Formula: 4 Steps To Owning A Room–And Making A Killing” in my Fast Company blog which Daymond John tweeted, “the best article …
Content Marketing. A modern marketing term almost as popular as Social Media (and we see the trouble many companies got into over that). Then, there’s the other big word: Strategy. Longer term, bigger picture solutions versus the day-to-day tactical actions taken by companies to achieve short-term goals (e.g., drive sales) and handle more immediate issues. …
Stop blaming words. That just doesn’t fly anymore. Words aren’t to blame for a failure to communicate, any more than the sneakers in an Olympic marathon caused the runner to win or lose. Or the bat caused the winning home run. No. It’s how the originator of those words uses them which gives them power …
In a video I recently saw by James Wedmore, he reported that every single minute, there are: 2.8 million videos viewed on YouTube 277,000 logins on Facebook 100,000 tweets sent on Twitter 100 new accounts created on LinkedIn On top of that, there’s a reported 550,000 new businesses started in the US alone, each and …
I love writing for Fast Company. My editor rocks and is an SEO genius. FC is a great venue because the readers are my public: entrepreneurs, rebels, movers, innovators, geniuses, dot-connectors and leaders who zig when others zag and avant-gartists™ (new made-up word) who can unleash the hidden gems that others overlook and miss. You can …
Branding mistakes are awful. Some are worse than others and hard to live with. The Beatles, Western Union and Steve Jobs The famous guy who said “No” to signing on The Beatles since “guitar music was on its way out,” well, that was a bad one. (Thankfully, The Beatles knew to say “No” to such …
The sheer volume of impractical business solutions you can find are nearly endless. Too often, I overhear some stupidly shallow conversation or ridiculously useless blog opinion that tries to separate two key functions of business: marketing and sales. They are inherently intertwined. Yes, sometimes, there will be a rainmaker with the Midas touch but even …
