Promises play an indispensable part in how value accrues in your brand result. Yet despite that, too little thought gets applied to what’s going on within the promise itself.Have you ever found yourself trapped under an avalanche of cavalier promises, with people playing fast and loose with the content. And...
After hundreds of articles and speeches and a couple of books about ‘brand as a result of the promises you keep’, I still get people retorting “oh, so you do marketing.”After I swallow my frustration, I take their assumption and use it as an opportunity to talk about what it...
The team of five peered out from their respective Zoom screens. It wasn’t the ideal way to do the work we were about to begin, but after navigating some dicey days, exploring how to work together better was too important to wait until we could meet in person.Values and culture...
Does your to-do list include working on the brand? How about your team’s list? It’s almost certainly on the organisation’s list.And if yes is the answer you’ve got brand in the wrong place. Because it is not something you do, it’s the result of it.Marketing as driver of the brand...
The old chestnut of “personal brand” is topical as ever. And this week I joined a Linkedin Live session with Naishadh Gadani and Karalyn Brown, talking about what it means, and if it’s even a thing.You can watch it here.Note – it’s an hour, so if you don’t have time...
During what passes for idle chatter during coffee and networking at a recent event, the throw-away comment, “I think values are a load of rubbish” got my attention. Because too often rubbish is what companies big and small peddle.We continued to talk and agreed that when people say values, they...
When a business closes up shop for good, the question of what happened often overlooks the role growth played in the failure.Sure, you have to grow to survive. And it’s easy to ascribe failure to a lack of growth, but too much growth is equally dangerous.Talk of unicorns and hyper-valuation...
Walking through the lunch throng after a recent conference talk, I got waylaid by the comment ‘we’re working on our brand’.Because I had ‘Brand Counsel’ on my tag, it’s understandable people wanted to talk about it. So I asked what that meant for them. I was curious because in my...
The combination of hubris and aspiration, liberally sprinkled with puffery make many value sets mosh pits of self-delusion.So there’s every chance your company values are complete bullshit. And if they are, it’s a quick ride on the slip slide to cynicism and ridicule when actions reveal them to be naked...
Ask people what their organisations need to do better, and nine times out of 10, they will say communicate. Whether it’s too much or too little, it’s never just right. When it comes to communication, we have a Goldilocks problem.If you think communication is not your job, you’re wrong. Everyone...
