I’m often accused of not liking marketing and advertising, and while nothing could be further from the truth, I do have a particular dislike for bad marketing and lazy advertising. Good marketing broadly and advertising more specifically connect with what I care about in a way that gets me to take...
Even people with the best intentions who write about promises (like me) do it more than I would like. After all, so the saying from Alexander Pope goes, “To err is human…” (we’ll get to the second forgiveness part a bit later). You can have strongly aligned purpose and values that...
When you do everything at once you never know what is working or what is not. I was reminded of this again the other day on my yoga mat as I shifted around in my pose moving my foot, spreading my shoulders, pulling up my knees … you get the idea....
I was doing some gardening the other weekend. I like to potter about and as I weeded and prepared my veggie garden for spring planting (a few weeks later than I should have but even that has a lesson) I got to think about the parallels between how a garden...
Nearly every organisation I work with gets a bit of a reading list from me. I can’t seem to help myself because much of my thinking about brand has been informed from the most unexpected places. So after sifting through my shelves and reading list, these are a selection of books...
I was speaking recently at the Better Boards Conference for not-for-profits and the Q&A raised the issue that there is no such thing as an organisation that cannot be for profit of some kind. If you’re not growing by 3%+ a year you’re going backwards and are probably not sustainable. So...
It’s a great line – “the sustenance of unheroic work.” I wish I could claim it as mine, however, it is from author Jedediah Purdy’s book For Common Things. The full quote reads: “Yet a political achievement cannot be taken for granted. It is always either a continuing accomplishment or an eroding one....
It’s a common tale. I have a set of things I believe and care about but feel like that isn’t enough to get attention in the marketplace. I need to differentiate. I need to stand out more. I need people to notice me. It’s subtle at first. I can’t just be good,...
Thanks to everyone for the shares and retweets and feedback on the last couple of blogs – really appreciate it and it is great to see some of the ideas are resonating with others too. This week I’m taking a look at the thorny issue of measurement. I am sure everyone here...
The ‘slow’ movements around the world which began with Slow Food, have since expanded into various areas of thinking and doing underpinned by the ideal of taking the time to make a connection. Reading the terrific book Slow Fix by Carl Honoré got me thinking about the idea of “slow brand” (I sense a...