We often think of brands as the emotional connection between customers and the products or companies those brands represent. Certainly brands elicit emotions. They spur affinity, love, revulsion, contentment. One…
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The year 2016 is here and with it all the excitement of turning a new page on the calendar. What page might the brand leader turn? I’m not thinking about…
All I really need to know about branding I learned in a cup of coffee. In the beginning, coffee arrived on our shores in unwieldy, roughly marked burlap sacks stacked…
Every time I visit the wine country of California I am awestruck by so many things. The miles and miles of vineyards undulating over the Sonoma and Napa valleys. The…
Your brand is not real. That is, it does not exist as a tangible, concrete element. Your brand is not your logo. It is not your product. It is not…
Scrolling through news feeds on computer screens is how the modern age consumes its news and information. If you think about it, the internet has become something of a miracle…
How many times have you visited a company boardroom and noticed an expensively framed and lavishly displayed mission statement or core values list? Ever wonder what percentage of employees can…
When a word means something different to every person who uses it, the word essentially means nothing at all. That’s the plight of “brand” and “branding” these days. Hillary Clinton…
A blog is an essential component to any company’s marketing strategy. But posting daily itemizations of your corporate offerings or details from the most current reports on the “industry” and…
Trend spotters note a new economy in the making: the “purpose economy.” They argue that just as the industrial economy supplanted the agrarian economy and then was itself supplanted by…
Arkansas once went by the slogan, “the land of opportunity.” Now, it may need to reconsider resurrecting that title due to tremendous startup activity spreading across the state. Here are...
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A recent lawsuit between a couple of global companies underscores the imperative of having strong trademark protection for your brand name and logo. It also illustrates the slippery slope of…
You’ve been shaving every other day since you were 18. You followed the conventional wisdom and kept the clean-shaven face so you could keep your job. Well, times have changed….
Why “do branding?” Because branding works. As I outline in my book, the largest, most successful companies deploy millions of dollars and their armies of marketing MBAs to design, deploy…
A successful brand launch begins inside your company, bringing the vision of the brand to your employees — the most powerful brand champions for any organization. A brand new story. Let’s…