Category: Brand Basics

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Less Can Be More

(Reading Time: 4 minutes)

A young brand manager faces his vice-president of marketing, ready to present the first strategic plan he has ever created. He is nervous, but also confident in the fact that he has done a thorough job. The two fat binders that sit on the veep’s desk are proof of this.

The brand manager launches into his spiel. His presentation is a dazzling, overstuffed collection of words and pictures. Charts follow graphs. Data tables precede more dense data tables. At one point, the young man sets a world record for “most words crammed into a single PowerPoint slide, ever.” Continue reading “Less Can Be More”

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So You Want to Build Your Brand?

(Reading Time: 4 minutes)

“I want to build my brand!” declares Tom confidently.

I ask Tom what he means, exactly. I’m pretty sure I know what to expect, and he doesn’t disappoint.

“I want my company to be the one everybody knows – the one that leaps to mind when they need products like ours!”

Sally’s goal is to turn her product into a brand. For her, branding is all about sales: “The stronger my brand, the more I sell,” she explains. Continue reading “So You Want to Build Your Brand?”

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You’re Not a Brand

(Reading Time: 4 minutes)

You’re not a brand.

Can we agree on that? It’s not a bad thing, and it’s not personal. I’m not a brand either.

There’s a lot of fuss these days about “personal branding.” And though I make my living as a brand strategy consultant, I can sum up my feelings about personal branding in two words: “Mostly bunk.”

Some of it is tried-and-true concepts with a lazy new label. Some of it is authors trying to sell books. Most of it is flat-out misguided.

Allow me to present five arguments against the notion of personal branding: Continue reading “You’re Not a Brand”

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A Brand-Builder’s Bookshelf: Created By You

(Reading Time: 8 minutes)

Last week, I posed a simple question:

Assume a colleague tells you that he or she has limited knowledge of branding, but is looking to learn more. What ONE book would you recommend to get that person started? As importantly, why would you recommend that book?

In addition to posting it here at That Branding Thing, I listed it in LinkedIn Answers and discussion groups. In less than 4 days, I received no fewer than 73 thoughtful replies. Continue reading “A Brand-Builder’s Bookshelf: Created By You”

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Branding When Times Are Tough

(Reading Time: 4 minutes)

It’s not pretty out there.

Recent economic events do not paint a rosy picture for anyone trying to grow a business. Credit has tightened. Consumer confidence is down. Bad news has rippled through every segment of the economy, and what happens next is anyone’s guess.

Call me crazy, but I believe these down-cycles are actually net-positive. Why? Because they teach us to do more with less and to evaluate every dollar that we invest. These are lessons that will serve our brands for years to come. Continue reading “Branding When Times Are Tough”

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How to Kill Your Brand – 40 Easy Ways!

(Reading Time: 5 minutes)

Pointless advertising. Unresponsive customer service departments. Convoluted buying processes. If I didn’t know better, I’d think some companies were actually trying to kill their brands.

Since so many companies seem determined to destroy their brands through boneheaded moves and bad decisions, I thought I’d lend them a hand.

If you’re serious about killing your brand, I’m pleased to offer 40 tips and tricks – guaranteed to set your brand on the path to miserable, abject failure! Continue reading “How to Kill Your Brand – 40 Easy Ways!”

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Three Kinds of Brand Consistency

(Reading Time: 4 minutes)

Meet Stan. Stan works over in accounting. He is, you might say, a little buttoned-up. His shirts are so well-starched that they deflect bullets. On Casual Friday, he lets loose by wearing jeans – with crisply ironed pleats. He has a picture of Rush Limbaugh in his office, which is so immaculate it makes his co-workers anxious. And a hair out of place? Not on Stan’s head.

But one Monday morning, Stan arrives looking like he missed the bus to Bonnaroo. He’s wearing baggy hemp clothing, his hair resembles a bird’s nest, and he hasn’t seen the working end of his razor in days. Barack has replaced Rush in the frame on his desk. Continue reading “Three Kinds of Brand Consistency”

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Two Kinds of Companies

(Reading Time: 3 minutes)

It’s happening, and it’s happening right now. At this very moment.

It’s happening in board rooms, in grocery stores, online and a million other places: Companies are either getting better at making customers happy, or they’re getting worse. None stay the same.

Somewhere, there’s a VP of finance who convinces her CEO to reduce staff in the customer service center to hit the annual budget. Both execs are aware that doing so is good for their stock options, at least in the short term.

Somewhere else, there’s a CEO who recognizes just how critical his customer service department is. He knows that, in many cases, that department provides the only human point of contact between the company and its customers. So he hires carefully, trains thoroughly, rewards properly and defines jobs intelligently. Continue reading “Two Kinds of Companies”

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When Re-Branding Isn’t

(Reading Time: 3 minutes)

It was recently reported that the local franchisee of an international fitness center chain would discontinue that franchising agreement.  The reason?  So it could launch and operate health clubs under a new name.

The CEO of this new operation told a local publication, “This is simply a re-branding and signage change.”

By my view, he’s half right. The signs have been changed, certainly, and the walls have been painted. Re-named? Yes, that, too. Re-branded? Not quite. And the distinction is an important one. Continue reading “When Re-Branding Isn’t”

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What Were They Thinking?

(Reading Time: 4 minutes)

The world is crawling with bad branding practices. They lurch stupidly across the countryside, inciting consumer cynicism, bombarding the citizenry with meaningless messages, wasting scarce dollars and even scarcer time.

For the most part, these misguided marketing moves are created and perpetuated by people paid handsomely for what they do. But what were they thinking? What was on the minds behind such products as Oil-Free Oil of Olay, Low-Salt Mr. Salty Pretzels and Rust-Oleum for Wood?

Here are a few examples of bad branding practices that I find nettling: Continue reading “What Were They Thinking?”