Among what is sure to be a plethora of April Fools’ Day blogs I thought I’d resist temptation and instead deal with growth. How to get it. How to sustain it. How to manage it. And more specifically, how to “grow brand”. It’s a subject that I’ve been thinking more...
The implosion of Qantas this week seems to have made plenty of people nostalgic. There was barely an article that didn’t make some mention of the “good old days” when the Qantas brand brought a tear to the eye and ache to the heart for anyone heading home. Looking at the...
Attaching words and ideas around brand to everything that moves is somewhat old hat. But just when you didn’t think it could get any more confusing along comes – branded! Branded assets (the mind boggles). Branded products (don’t they all have names). Branded experience (Disney must be so proud). To name...
My friend and long-time collaborator @getnance (aka Nancy Hellmrich) sent me an article from The New York Times last week. It explored the topic of “Other People’s Views” – bringing it down to a great question: “When should you care about what other people think and when should you not?” For many people, brand...
News last week that Billabong has been bought by US hedge funds Oaktree Capital and Centerbridge Partners was painted as a win for the future of the organisation. But the long and sad road to this point is a lesson in how brands fail. Contrary to popular belief, the brand doesn’t fail. It...
You may recognise the following exchange when discussing positioning or messaging for your organisation. “How about we say we help our customers…” “Yeah but help feels a bit plain, how about…” You can insert the replacement words here – a grab bag of escalating verbs designed to show that while the others might...
This year I’m going to take a swing at some questions that swirl around the brand landscape. Today’s question is the fruit of a conversation that I had before the holidays with Megan Barrow (@meganbarrow of JoElla Marketing). Megan is a great supporter of this blog and I’d promised her a...
Welcome to the 2013 annual selection of brand good, brand middling and brand ugly that caught my eye this year. In a departure from years past I’ve deliberately ignored the big banks, airlines and telecom providers and am taking a road a bit less travelled. So without my usual corporate piñatas...
Most days I tweet out a “brand to do” to my followers. They make up quite a list of things big and small, easy and hard, internal and external, advice and action. All written in 140 characters or less to help build a strong resilient brand that people will care...
One of my favourite topics addressed in my articles, and one I talk about regularly with clients, is how actions align with values. Values aren’t values unless you do them every day, and one of the best organisations around for actioning their values is Patagonia. I know I use them as an example a...