Branding Strategy Insider

Branding Snapshot - June 17

Every Sunday I like to take a moment and try to collect some of the blur that was the past week on Branding Strategy Insider and elsewhere. There’s much to take in. It helps that we’re all writing it down…

Peter on Change Leadership
Improve systematically. Exploit success. Innovate systematically. Written with deep meaning from the father of modern management.

Brad on Overcoming Common Brand Problems
When trade deals and sales promotion are favored at the expense of brand building we see the cause of number 33 in our list.

Martin on how the Future is Blogs
Are brands ready to make the leap?

Elsewhere…

Do consumers love brands?
Funding Ideas - What VC's are looking for...
A blog we like...

All the best for the week ahead...

Sponsored By: Harvard Business School Press

Branding Snapshot - June 3

Every Sunday on Branding Strategy Insider we take a look back on the week that was. We re-cap some of our favorite posts of the week and share insights we discovered elsewhere.  This week the days were shaped by…

Brad on Building Winning Brands
The thirteenth most important thing to know about building winning brands is that brands are personifications of organizations, products, services and experiences.

Seth on Understanding the Funnel
The Google funnel is easily measured and if you're marketing anything to anyone, you need to understand it.

Peter on Integrity in Leadership
Character is not something one can fool people about. The people with whom a person works, and especially subordinates, know in a few weeks whether he or she has integrity or not.

Elsewhere…

A nice companion piece to Peter’s thoughts, The Neuroscience of Leadership...
Daria’s MediaBlog never fails us…
Find your SEO Bull’s-eye with our partner Loren Baker at Search Engine Journal…

Bring on the new week…

Branding Snapshot - May 27

This last full week of May was as fruitful as ever around the blogosphere. Here on Branding Strategy Insider the week was influenced by these thoughts…

Seth on Trademarks
What every entrepreneur, geek, brand manager and marketer needs to know about trademarks...

Martin on The Vision Statement
What value do companies gain from such statements?

Derrick on Memory & Communication
Does the memory of images decay less rapidly than the memory of words?

Brad on Overcoming Common Brand Problems
While it might be tempting to choose a name that describes your product or service, it’s a mistake.

New on Branding Strategy Insider
We are featuring marketers seeking employment. Currently, Bill Perkins is seeking a C-level or VP-level position in marketing or business development.

Comment(s) of the Week
Goes to Steve Woodruff on The Vision Statement

Elsewhere…
We like:
Chris Brown’s perspective on Branding & Marketing
David Armano’s Logic & Emotion
David Koopmans' Business of Marketing & Branding

Looking forward to a new week, new month and new discoveries…

Branding Snapshot - May 20

There’s never a dull moment in this marketing universe. This past week we sharpened our wits around the blogosphere, and made a few points of our own here on Branding Strategy Insider…

Brad on Building Winning Brands
At which point in the customer process does your brand’s “moment of truth” occur?

Derrick on Auto Dealers and Icebergs
There is no doubt today’s auto dealer is experiencing the business equivalent of Titanic’s grave situation.

Martin on the Living Brand Manual
Corporate standards are killing brands. So are the brand manuals that specify those standards and the logo-obsessive behavior that they prompt.

Elsewhere…

2007 Top 100 Most Powerful Brands…
Bridging The Brand Gap…
Breaking Up with Advertising (Will the Love ever come back?)…

Looking forward to a new week of discovery…

Branding Snapshot - May 13

I hope this past week on Branding Strategy Insider was as meaningful for you as it was for us – everything we share here helps focus and calibrate our own brand.

Brad on Building Winning Brands
The eleventh most important thing to know about building winning brands is that the corporate culture must reinforce the brand positioning.

Seth on The Brand Formula
What is his advice on growing a valuable brand?

Brad on Customer Touchpoint Design
Making the brand promise real at each point of customer contact.

Branding Rally
We’ve been having a robust conversation on Place Branding with a range of experts on the subject. We need your help in deciding what the focus of the next rally will be. Thoughts?

Elsewhere…

Subliminal Advertising at work…
Word of Mouth: Hoping consumers named Stacy will talk…
A professional athlete takes up cause marketing on his blog to strikeout ALS…
Celebrate this Mother’s Day with a greater understanding of how to market to women online…

Here’s to new ideas and welcoming new clients in the coming week.

Branding Snapshot - May 6

“There will come a time when you believe everything is finished. That will be the beginning.”      - Louis L’Amour

Seemed like those words rang especially true this week with beginnings at every turn. Including the entrance of the Month of May where Seth Godin took the baton from Jack Trout as our featured co-author for Marketers For Charity. Here on Branding Strategy Insider the week was anchored by these thoughts…

Jack on the Law Of Perception
There is no objective reality. There are no facts, no best products. All that exists in the world of marketing are perceptions in the minds of the customer or prospect. The perception is the reality. Everything else is an illusion.

Seth on why Small is the New Big
Big mattered. And then small happened.

Brad on Overcoming Common Brand Problems
The marketplace is too competitive to make this mistake.

Martin on Religion as an Inspiration for Brands
Whether we love it, or hate it, the world of branding is becoming increasingly inspired by the world of religion. Religion offers a powerful roadmap for how branding can evolve over the years to come.

Comment(s) of the Week
Goes to Rahul Chawda on how Small is the New Big in India

Elsewhere…

The Delta Airlines brand: Out of bankruptcy with a new brand identity
What’s in store for the Paris Hilton Brand?
Branding: A look at Perception and Visualization

Onto more beginnings…

Branding Snapshot - April 29

“If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it the third time - a tremendous whack.” – Winston Churchill

Was Winston talking to marketers when he said this? Probably not, but I think we’ve followed his wisdom and hit a few points this week on Branding Strategy Insider. I know I've discovered many well-made points around the blogosphere. Looking back…

Martin on Building Brands & Building Traffic
What's more important: the chicken or the egg? Both. Far too many brand builders believe traffic is secondary to site development. Wrong. Unless you have an unlimited budget, you can't afford not to think creatively.

Jack on Trouble and the CEO
Jack Welch types are an anomaly, as today's new CEO has no chance to match Welch's longevity. That's because a CEO probably faces no more difficult a task than attempting to transform a core business threatened by a new technology.

Brad on Building Winning Brands
One of the most difficult tasks in brand management is transforming the organization from one that does not understand the scope or importance of brand management to one that embraces and actively builds the brand as a critically important source of sustainable competitive advantage.  Key to this transformation is the organization’s brand promise.

Jack on the Law Of Division
Instead of understanding this concept of division, many corporate leaders hold the naive belief that categories are combining. "Convergence," "synergy" and its kissing cousin "the corporate alliance" are the buzzwords in the boardrooms of America. The fact is categories are dividing, not combining.

Elsewhere…

A thanks to the good people at Six Apart for selecting Branding Strategy Insider as TypePad's Featured Weblog for April 25th.

More worthwhile reading:

Name Wire
Marketing Blogger Portal
Lastly, will blogs be the Death of News?

Next week, more points to whack…

Branding Snapshot - April 22

“Time is the most valuable thing one can spend.” - Theophrastus

I spent a mint this week. And I’m happy with the return.

A look at a week of posts on Branding Strategy Insider and elsewhere reveals the days were shaped by…

Brad on ‘Inside Out’ Branding
In the mid to late 1990s, I was Hallmark’s first official chief brand advocate. In that role, I was responsible for increasing Hallmark’s brand equity and market share. I approached this with my team a number of ways…

Jack on the Mandate of Differentiation
In this global killer economy you have to find a way to differentiate yourself. To do this, here are the steps you must follow…

Derrick on Brand Extension
An exploration of successful and unsuccessful brand extensions as well as other angles on the topic…

Comment(s) of the Week
Goes to Robert Price who is helping us set the record straight on the health of Buy.com in: Of Brands and Naming.

Elsewhere…

Seth Godin (Next months Marketers For Charity co-author here on BSI) offers insight on why bad or bizarre ideas are more successful at getting attention than boring ones. And early adopters, not the mainstream's bell curve, are the new sweet spot of the market.

Greg Verdino zero’s in on Shopdropping -- the act of placing doctored product packaging (often calling attention to the disconnect between a brand's stated and actual values) alongside the real thing on retail shelves.

More to come in the minutes, hours and week ahead – guaranteed.

Branding Snapshot - April 15

If you see the social media landscape as the 'Wild West' then you have to agree blogs are the wagons taking us there. Here on the Branding Strategy Insider and Elsewhere 'trails' there was much to take in this week…

Jack on Solution vs. Direction, General Motors and the War in Iraq
Interestingly, my many years of being in the problem solving business has led me to believe that often, looking for a solution is a fool’s errand. There is no easy solution for complex problems. What there is, is a direction.

What direction does Jack propose for GM? For the Iraq War?

Brad on Building Winning Brands
The marketplace is too competitive for you not to try to constantly reinvent yourself.  Maintain a significant pool of resources to invest in new ideas.  Award the resources based upon projected incremental sales and return on investment.  Hold frequent ideation and creative problem solving sessions.

And embrace these approaches to new business development.

Brad on “Inside Out” Branding at Hallmark
In the mid to late 1990s, I was Hallmark’s first official chief brand advocate. In that role, I was responsible for increasing Hallmark’s brand equity and market share. To accomplish my objectives, I needed the support of the entire organization.

My department approached this task in many ways…

Martin on Contextual Branding
Contextual Branding is simple. It's about how, when and where you serve your message to achieve the best possible result. Contextual Branding is what professional marketers have been doing for decades. But brands now need another push to get them even closer to their consumers' recognition of need.

This can only happen by using these three ingredients…

Elsewhere…

Social Media and The Future of Journalism…

Coping with a Web Attack and the ‘Venom of the Crowds’…

Beyond Word of Mouth…

Happy Trails...

Branding Snapshot - April 8

Every Sunday I like to take a moment and try to collect some of the blur that was the past week on Branding Strategy Insider and elsewhere. There’s much to take in. It helps that we’re all writing it down…

Jack on Getting Agencies Back on Track
Forget about emotion, bonding, borrowed interest or show business. Agencies have to rebuild their reputations around being able to help top management figure out the right competitive strategy for a brand. In simple terms, they have to be able to help establish the point of difference for a brand.

And what does Jack have to say about industry awards?

Martin on project BRANDchild
Today’s kids expect to see an integrated flow across all channels. The BRANDchild study clearly shows that brands, which only use one, channel – or maybe use several channels but don’t create a synergy in the message between the multiple channels will lose.

What else did the study reveal?

Brad on Overcoming Common Brand Problems
What is the ‘kiss of death’ for brands?

Branding Rally: Place Branding
Eli, Marcia, Edward, Alan, Derrick and Ed continue a lively discussion on Place Branding. Join us…

Elsewhere…

Meaningful thoughts on Cause Marketing.

The Latest on the Social Media Boom: Technorati is now tracking more than 70 Million Blogs.

We like the Credibility Branding Blog and think you will too.

Higher mental profits for all of us in the week ahead I’m sure…