branding mistakes Archives - Award-winning branding, rebranding and package design

The 3 Words That Kill Any Brand (and Any Chance of Success) in 60 Seconds

They're 3 words that kill any brand. Nobody Deserves Anything. Now, Embrace the Hustle. (If you have only one minute, scroll down to watch new video. ...

Has Amazon Finally Lost Its Mind?

Just when you thought Jeff Bezos could do no wrong, here comes Amazon Prime Music. Tonight after dinner, I opened up my Amazon Music app and was faced with ...

The 3 Most Powerful Words Every Brand Needs

In life (as distinct from branding), the three most used and most powerful words are, “I love you.” Together, they are definitive. Unambiguous. Powerful. ...

Is Your Brand a Roach Motel? (Brand Failures Explained)

“Money goes in but it never comes out....” That was uttered by Kevin “Mr. Wonderful” O’Leary from Shark Tank speaking about a pitch which had brand failure ...

Which of These 9 Misfires is Holding Your Brand Down?

Sir Richard Branson is someone who knows a thing or two about elevating a brand and rising above the noise. In his own words, he wrote, "The key to generating ...

3 Details Every Brand Must Apply to (Finally) Get Noticed

Found those words on the Internet this morning. How w-i-d-e is the gap between hard-won expertise vs. the hype-driven tactic-du-jour we each read about each ...

The Power of Words: Part 9 (When Size Does Matter)

(This is the 9th installment in celebration of the power of words and language. To see the whole series, links are at the bottom of this article.) I stopped in ...

In 2 Minutes and 33 Seconds, This Video Reveals What No Design Firm Will Ever Share With Its Clients

Honestly, you as a client deserve better. Too many good companies waste money or worse — they fail — for an overlooked and absurdly simple reason. (And too ...

Social Media Simplified: Exposing One’s Pickle

I ran into an amusing little checklist of the top social media channels. It was a handwritten checklist on a whiteboard. Brilliant. It nailed what each ...

Want a More Effective Rebrand? Master This 1 Word (Even Though Most CEOs Are Afraid To)

Rebranding done well (like life and young love) is a dream. Done badly and it results in something only one word can describe. Before the word and the new ...

The Lucky Break J.C. Penney Needed (and How Your Brand Can Benefit from Its Mistakes)

In my Fast Company blog, I discuss the nearly $1 billion dollar loss J.C. Penney had in 2012. I also discuss the ignorantly shortsighted comments by ...

My First Google Hangout Interview: “Branded Alive”

Marketing today is filled with so much double-talk and corporate marketing-speak that it makes the DaVinci Code look like a simple crossword puzzle. So, when ...

Is Social Media The Great Pretender? (Video on Rules of Engagement)

I think we all need a pep talk (thank you Kid President). Social media has become one of the most abused channels of communication currently out there. ...

13 Brand Killers and Why Startups Must Succeed

Startups rule, yet so much is stacked up against their success. (Fact: in the next 24 hours, there will be 18 new businesses that open their doors with 17 of ...

5 Ways to Create a Brand Anybody Will Give a Sh*t About

When I was asked to speak at the American Marketing Association 2 years ago, I decided (following the live presentation) to share my presentation online. That ...

The Small Business Growth Killer

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 ...

Is Your Brand Set Up To Avoid Its Own Fiscal Cliff?

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 ...

I’m David Brier and I Approve This Message

With the presidential election and political debates on everyone's mind, this video message has a certain timeliness about it. Committees: Where Good Ideas ...

Social Media vs. Branding: Which One’s Losing and Why?

"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 ...

What’s Killing Your Brand? 33,995 Reasons to Find Out Now

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 ...

The Secret CEO Technique To Repel Stupid Brand Mistakes

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 ...

The Branding Mistake Even Smart People Make

Smart business people are great to have on your side to help isolate and eliminate fundamental branding mistakes. Why else do you think business line up and ...

Is Your Brand Ordinary or Extraordinary? [infographic]

“Consumers today have become a cynical mob of buyers who believe the reviews and ratings of complete strangers much more readily than your brand's promises and ...

The Great Divide: Why Does One Brand Win and Another Fail?

“A great brand is a necessity, not a luxury,” stated Scott Bedbury, the brand guru whose work with Nike and Starbucks is legendary. Brands need to—and ...

The Call You Have to Hear to Believe [video for entrepreneurs]

We love Sam Cornwell and his ability to help make any video for entrepreneurs hit a whole new level. He's our buddy from across the pond and has a wacked-out sense of timing, humor, and style. He makes us laugh. He's the guy in this video below.

What if?

The concept was simple: We've all experienced odd business phone calls, phone calls where the caller not only wanted you to solve their immediate business problems but wondered how far-reaching this solution might impact the rest of their life.

That was the inspiration and the video below is our take on such a situation.

https://youtu.be/a2m3lbKrTpQ

That video is just one example of Sam's wild approach to humor.

You May Want to Close the Door to Your Office Before Playing These Next Two

Sam's rants we find so over the top, we can't hep but giggle.

Below are a couple more in case you've missed them.

The first video rants against "lazy brands that suck" while the second one embraces Glee in all its glory.

While they are promos for our firm, they give a sense of the fun we have while scripting these morsels of audio/video amusement.

https://youtu.be/OUizBwZinmk

https://youtu.be/qKJhvilbakg

Thought we'd share these amusing little snippets in case you missed them.

That's our friend from Wales.

And the takeaway from this is: If you have fun while working on your company's branding, the chances are much better that this fun will spill over to the viewer who is the most part of this sequence. Without the audience, why would any of us be creating all this stuff?

12.3 Billion Reasons Tourism Branding Makes Sense

The Wisconsin Department of Tourism announced that in 2010, Wisconsin tourism generated $12.3 billion in revenue.

Learning To See Again

In 2010, we were asked to help brand the village of Osceola, the third city or downtown we were commissioned to brand so it was seen as a destination worth visiting. Part of our exercise was to visually capture details of the city that we knew the citizens of Osceola took for granted. I worked with the very talented Steven Braker, a veteran photographer in the Midwest.

Here are some of the examples showing our "visual audit" of this lovely community.

Only after seeing what assets Osceola had could we begin to carve out a voice that would stand out and have meaning for this lovely community.

And for their annual celebration attracting well over 10,000 visitors, we created this poster bringing together the two worlds of wheels and wings (vintage automobiles and airplanes). Note that this vintage hood ornament doubles as an airplane with the clouds reflected in the shiny hood of this classic car.

Poster Design for Tourism

How Can You Brand What You Can't See?

These are shown here so you can see what this lovely city had taken for granted. They'd forgotten some of the gems they lived with each and every day. Which is truly the lesson here: You must never — and can't afford — to over forget the viewpoint of your audience.

Yet, when the committee assigned to this project viewed these, their eyes were reborn to now see what they were sitting on.

Is your city keeping its hidden gems buried out of view? I can think of 12.3 billion reasons why you should explore this.

Happy branding.

Why Brand Elevation Is So Important

Branding, while very important and sometimes extremely serious, needs a reprieve with some humor and levity.

So, while going along and enjoying a day at the office, I ran across this image you see above.

I instantly thought of a scenario of co-workers working in the intense pressure pot of branding.

The result — and dialog — you see above is the result. Nuff said.

The Road To Successful Brand Creation eBook By David Brier 2017

This is the new eBook previously only available to clients.

You've obviously done something right to arrive here to download your copy.

As businesses, leaders and entrepreneurs, we must be able to think. And unthink.

"As business leaders, brands and movements that seek to shift viewpoints (or introduce new ways of doing things), we must not be lazy and rely on 'this-is-how-you-do-it' rules. This eBook is not about rules. It's about hard-won knowledge."

This is the premise of this new eBook.

Click on the Download link above to grab your copy.

In addition, you'll be receiving updates along with some practical and powerful tips on branding, rebranding, growth and getting traction in today's market.

Do Not View (Unless You Have a Chocolate Fix Nearby)

Chocolate can be wonderful. Really.

But with all the decades of chocolate marketing, how do you attempt to rise above the noise? Only options: Add to the noise, or rise above it. There was no option, so I packed my parachute, got on my goggles and prepared myself for some serious brand elevation.

That was the question we asked ourselves ("how do you attempt to rise above the noise?") when we created the Legacy Chocolates rebrand. Part of it was figuring out (since I am an insatiable chocolate sponge with a bottomless pit for consumption) how we could achieve that kind of brand distinction. This part of the rebrand was in the form of posters, as you'll see below.

So I worked closely with one of our photographers and got really intimate with our specimens of chocolate. I don't know what these truffles were experiencing but I felt vulnerable.

Why no one had previously exposed this side of chocolate before, I have no idea. But that's part of branding: To consistently ask, "Why? and then, "Why not?"

OK. Enough foreplay...

here's the stuff

Legacy_Chocolates_David_Brier_Hot_Chocolate

We're Not Done Yet

As if that wasn't enough, this super-closeup photography was so successful, it inspired a decadent and ultra-indulgent chocolate sauce we named "Potion #9." There's a lot to that story, but suffice to say, we drooled when taking these photos for this campaign as well.

Did I share this to torture you?

No. I shared it with you to remind you of this: NEVER assume that something has not been done before "for some good reason" that you're unaware of. Bogus!

If you can't think of a "good reason" (one that honestly makes sense), challenge it. Who knows? Maybe everyone was so busy being too close to it — never far enough away from it — to have that moment of necessary insight to see something everyone else missed, something that changes the game.

Above all things, be rebellious. Albert Einstien said it best when he stated, "We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them."

And with that said, strive for greatness, whether you're branding chocolate or something maybe not as sexy. (And be sure to have plenty of truffles around, just in case.)