Branding and Brand Strategy for Growing Companies
Branding for Restless Companies and Driven Entrepreneurs
Branding has gotten desperate. Just to get any attention (whether it’s the right type of attention or the incorrect type of attention), brands have resorted to all types of desperate extremes. In some markets, it’s become an epidemic. Exposing the Truth: Pulling Back the Curtain As part of our mission to help bring some order …
You’ve got to love those articles that talk about the first thing millionaires do in the morning, what habits they have, what they eat first, what exercises they do, what things they avoid doing, etc. What if you could learn what to read, review and study every morning just like a millionaire or a billionaire? …
“Elegance is refusal.” Coco Chanel Brands make a big mistake when starting out. Many brands or companies start out with a particular offering, maybe one or two products or services. The problem arises when their brand (and its scope) outgrows their branding roots. It works like this: Eventually, the brand starts to grow. Or, the …
“The one who follows the crowd will usually go no further than the crowd. The one who walks alone is likely to find himself in places no one has ever been before.” Albert Einstein Authenticity. It’s best when it’s real. When reorienting a brand and clarifying their core reason for being, companies are too often …
OK, I was late to the party. I didn’t start an Instagram account until August if I remember correctly, maybe even as late as October. It is there I share all things branding, food, coffee and chocolate. I try to keep it inspired. Having attracted almost 6,000 followers in that time, what I post seems …
It was an innocent email I received. The email stated they’d seen my “What is Innovation” post and video on Fast Company and needed something equally inspiring for their staff. The company? The global leader in luxury skincare: La Prairie from Zurich, Switzerland, with 14 affiliates and represented in more than 90 countries worldwide. As …
For a subject like branding, I didn’t see this coming. I certainly didn’t see this going viral (though I secretly hoped it would, like anybody who buys a lottery ticket hopes their ticket is the winning one). Yet, 23 days after being uploaded to YouTube, this video was: 130,000+ Views in 23 Days That averages …
In the last 10 days, one client approved and aired a very smart “Super Bowl” ad and got covered by Forbes and Huffington Post. Here’s what I learned along the way and the 3 very important branding lessons every brand should know. Here’s the play-by-play: It was Sunday night, one week before the Super Bowl. …
In life (as distinct from branding), the three most used and most powerful words are, “I love you.” Together, they are definitive. Unambiguous. Powerful. (These three words, like The Beatles, are most effective when united.) So what about your brand? Do clients feel that strongly about your brand? Or is it a little diluted, falling …
A NYC Photographer Masters Brand Elevation Erick “Hercules” Urgiles is a NY-based photographer who has worked with such diverse clients as music legend Johnny Mathis to Mercedes Benz to songwriter Jason Mraz. Breaking up his work assignments, Erick has had a fascination with gravity, more factually, defying gravity as part of a series of photos …
2014 (setting 2015 up for crushing it) was a remarkable year with many milestones (last week, I sent out “My Holiday Elfie” which if you missed, you can check out here). 2015 Highlights It was a year when Forbes.com did an interview on me about the two types of brands (a book is being worked …
“And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make….” What could one do to follow “My Holiday Elfie”? The Fab Four and Abbey Road. The ultimate inspiration. Happy New Year. Abbey Road photo credit: Claudio Divizia / Shutterstock.com
A selfie? That’s so 2014… now, it’s the Elfie. I wanted to do something a bit more personal for this year and had a shot taken in the nerve center of DBD International where so much happens. This shot captured the spirit but calling it a selfie was so… wrong. So, I decided it was …
“A smart person will give you smart answers, but a wise person will ask you smart questions.” — seen on the Web In business and in life, the one who asks the smarter question wins. Whether you’re assessing a product pitch on Shark Tank, reviewing an investment opportunity with Warren Buffett, reinventing an old classic …
“I dream for a living. Once a month the sky falls on my head, I come to, and I see another movie I want to make.” Steven Spielberg This year has been dramatic. I’ll explain. Video Confessions I am by trade and practice a branding professional, specializing in the design and strategy side of the …
Kim Kardashian. Her name alone conjures up images of very inflated portions of the female anatomy, something that became yet one more Internet phenomena recently with the PAPER magazine and Kim’s nudity. Kim, Leaving Something to the Imagination is an Art I am all for playing with the imagination of the shopper. But it takes …
Your best branding tool might be staring you in the face, and if it’s not, it’s costing you (big time) business, sales and phenomenal growth. There is one tool in your brand’s arsenal that will work harder, last longer and be seen more than any other component in your brand’s history and evolution. It’s one …
“Storytelling is the game. It’s what we all do. It’s why Nike is Nike, it’s why Apple is Apple, it’s why Walt Disney built Disney World and it’s why Vince McMahon makes a billion dollars.” Gary Vaynerchuk, VaynerMedia Thinking of best business practices, the original title for this post was “How to Effectively Wash Away …
For those unfamiliar, Gary Vaynerchuk is a New York Times best-selling author, a serial entrepreneur and a wonderfully entertaining, insightful and expletive-infused public speaker. If that weren’t enough, he said this: “All your ideas may be solid or even good… But you have to actually EXECUTE on them for them to matter.” If that weren’t …
“90% of branding that is not effective suffers from one of three problems, and nearly 100% of brands miss this last step of branding.” Very simply, brands should, and deserve to, grow. Going Viral in Real Life:A 300% Jump in Sales is Hard to Ignore I first noticed a pattern when I’d completed the design …
“Don’t wreck a sublime chocolate experience by feeling guilty. Chocolate isn’t like premarital sex. It will not make you pregnant. And it always feels good.” ― Lora Brody “In most people’s vocabularies, design means veneer. It’s interior decorating. It’s the fabric of the curtains of the sofa. But to me, nothing could be further from …
If you appreciate words as a tool, or write, or use the language in any way to deliver a stronger, more memorable message, keep reading. Legalize Marinara While much is written per day, few blocks of text thrill the reader or succeed in generating a real buzz. Candidly, most are boring crap, resulting in my …
“My attitude is that if you push me towards something that you think is a weakness, then I will turn that perceived weakness into a strength.” Michael Jordan Athletes are survivors. They tend to be the fittest. But how do you speak to them? That was the challenge I was faced with…. This dictated the …
It’s called “Breathe.” A new short video by Gary Ravenscroft. Growing up in New York City (Brooklyn, then Queens, then Long Island and Finally Manhattan), there is one quality I associate with NYC: Resilience. That “we-won’t take-sh*t-from-anyone” attitude which is a great quality [for anyone who’s in your corner] to have). It was this quality …
Finally, a video (shown below) that answers that age-old question, “How is Design Like Underwear?” Good design and branding (as well as social media and user experiences) do their job best when they fulfill their roles without calling attention to themselves, just like good underwear. Not Too Tight. Not Too Loose. Answer these questions: Ever …
