Great brands happen between the eighth notes
This is a long post. But if you're in the mood for talking a little music and getting some groove and swing up in in your approach to branding, then I appreciate you settling in. The Marcus Roberts trio has been together for some fifteen years. They occupy a place in American music that combines the maintenance of tradition and honoring the past with a highly innovative interplay of harmony, space, and rhythm. And they’re heavy pros. Serious technique. If you haven’t heard Marcus walk a bass line with his left hand while improvising with his right you’re missing out…
Personal branding’s missing link
If you’re on the wrong train, it matters not two wits that you’re going somewhere. There’s clearly a personal branding gold rush. People and firms willing to take your money to tell you how important it is and how to do it. And of course the blogs, mainstream media, new media, Wikipedia, and even a magazine buttress the rush. Wherever we look we're told we must brand ourselves. Without commenting on whether or not there's value in all of this (plenty of others have already chimed in, like @carlosmic's common-sense insight) I believe there's a big link missing from the…
The Hypocrisy of Branding (Moo)
If we practiced what we preached, we’d stop calling it brand. The center of what branding is has been completely lost with all the ideas and thoughts and opinions about what we all think a brand is. We keep putting new layers around it, on top of the latest thought, hardly ever listening to what came before it. We've created a giant rubber brand ball. Imagine you’re in the naming business before the ubiquitous use of the word “brand.” You’re really good at naming, like Nancy Friedman. A client wants you to name a concept. You require and receive a…
Keeping The Right Brain In Planning
I keep reading Daniel Pink’s book A Whole New Mind. It helps me keep many things in mind, including the concept of “whole.” As in complete. Balanced. I spent some time yesterday with an artist. Gwen Laine has some amazing work and has recently gifted an installment to the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. (If you’re in the Springs or passing through, take a minute to swing by and check it out. Or click here to see the work online.) Gwen’s art is often installed without any kind of trial run. The installation is the final expression of the vision.…
It’s not the economy. It’s the creative, stupid.
Think about what it would be like if you started from scratch. If there was no such thing as advertising agencies. No preconceived notions. You have a big entrepreneurial idea. You figure you could start a business that solves problems for companies by executing efforts that reach new customers and motivates them to buy something. You'd integrate other efforts with those efforts that would retain existing customers, too. And probably a few reputation-building efforts thrown in to make sure stuff like the company’s social license to operate is in good order, and that various stakeholders feel good about their investment…
Song of my SEO: What if you are large? What if you contain multitudes?
My father wasn’t much of an arts and entertainment kind of guy and he had but a few jokes at his disposal. One of them was a Bill Cosby take on doing drugs. Goes something like this: “People say that drugs enhance your personality. Yes, but… what if you’re an asshole?” So to be discovered on Google I should be consistent. Be a one-note blogger. Write myopic web copy. Yes, but… what if I’m multitudinous? What if the value I add to clients and the world is an ability to connect and align seemingly disparate data points into a cohesive…
Strategy, branding and health care: Why values go beyond benevolence
Ed Stein, EdSteinInk.com, reprinted with permission If the current dialog about health care reform can teach us anything, it highlights the importance of figuring out our values. We all know the importance of inside-out strategic planning (and brand development, for those who consider them separate). The enterprise values, vision, and mission (brand) should be a collective exercise. Involve as many people as possible. Hold retreats, perform exercises, play games, put the words of participants on giant sticky notes. Transform the more insightful quotes into pictures on the graphical strategy map. Include verbatims in the final deliverable. Stage-gate the process by…