Big Idea: branding
Clean-up Your Brand’s Act
You know that one cool item that just came out and you saw the awesome commercial so you bought it? And then it sat underneath your bathroom sink for a year until you threw it out? Yeah, don’t be that brand. Turns out, if no one has a reason to use you, they won’t invent one on their own. You have to give them a reason – a really good reason – otherwise people won’t be opening their wallets for your brand anytime soon. Maximize Relevance and Resonance After you’re convinced that you’ve got a great idea and you’ve built your brand, you release[.....]
Are Marketers Discounting Brands into Oblivion?
Your customers are not really yours In marketing, we often, erroneously, think of “our customers” and “their customers.” The whole idea of segmentation is based on this concept – we serve this segment, they serve that segment. The reality is, particularly in frequently purchased products, that we share customers with our competitors. For example, an analysis conducted using TNS Impulse Panel data showed that 72% of the people who bought Pepsi in a given period also bought Coke during the same period. (Check out this video with four common false marketing assumptions) Again using the TNS panel data; we find[.....]
Without Passion, Social Media is just Noise.
What connects us? Social networking is taking over the world. I keep track of my kids who are scattered around the world on Facebook; the same with my brother and sisters and their kids; with old friends, too. Why are these people in my network? Because I have an emotional connection with them. We have shared experiences and, while our politics and walk of life may vary, we are emotionally attached. When one does something special, it gets passed around to all their friends and family. Recently one of my daughters participated in a protest in our state capitol. She[.....]
How Branding Can Position an Entire City in the Global Competition for Jobs.
This blog entry originally appeared at In Business on January 4th 2011. As a place to start and grow a business and family, Madison is a good place to be. The city’s many kudos are well deserved. But the community’s self-concept as exceptionally intelligent and creative is starting to raise significant questions in the minds of many: Is it making us averse to change out of fear we’ll lose the great quality of life we already have? Is it blinding us to how other communities are innovating faster, and more boldly than we are? Is it making us overconfident that[.....]
