It could be said that reputation is what they say about you when you leave the room. I’ve also heard reputation often used as a de facto for brand, and given I describe brand as the result of the promises you keep and reputation is achieved in much the same...
Values. Google calls them the “ten things we know to be true”. Atlassian says they “guide our business, our product development, and our brand”. Big corporates like to talk about them but they never seem to add up. I call them non-negotiables. It’s not news that you need to have a set...
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...
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...
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...
What would you like people to think and say about you or your organisation when you are not in the room? Got it… Now think about all the things that you do and don’t do that would make that true. Grab a piece of paper and write down the first five...
Malcolm Gladwell famously alerted us all to the 10,000 hours of practice it takes to get really good at something. And I don’t see why building a brand is exempt from that rule. Brand is not an event, it’s a result. It’s a result of the constant doing of things that...
The estimable Peter Drucker once stated that “culture eats strategy for breakfast”. Not sure about the eats part, but the fact that it plays a critical role in building a strong, resilient, competitive organisation is accepted wisdom today. From where I sit, culture is the active face of your brand. Brand...