Archive for April, 2010
The risks of not branding
One important role of branding is taking the complex and making it simple. Every organization is a multifacited mix of offerings, goals, personalities, benefits, stories, emotions, and experiences. Every organization also fits into an even more complicated environment of competitors, customers, and [...]
Is a brand the same as a tagline?
When I tell people I do branding, many say, "Oh, you come up with tag lines... like 'Just Do it'?" I completely understand that people equate brands with tag lines. But brands and tag lines are not the same things. Both are branding activities. But the "brand" is the idea that comes befo [...]
Brand Orignials–Or Not
One of the most basic rules of branding is that your brand must be unique. When evaluating a brand, always ask, "Can anyone else do what we're doing?" (Or say or what we're saying, or present things the way we are?). If others can say it, then you're wasting your breath, your audience is confus [...]
Preparing the soil
Many organizations think of marketing in terms of projects they must fulfill: create and execute a promotion, run a booth at a tradeshow, send out a press release. Yes, marketing is all that. But those projects are at the very surface of a strong marketing department. Underneath those executions [...]
Now don’t be alarmed
As a brander, one of the tasks I commonly perform is writing case studies. The other day, I got an assignment from a new client. I entered his office and he said, “Now don’t be alarmed.” What can be alarming about a case study? I thought. I’ve written case studies about controver [...]
Tiger’s Hero’s Journey
Everyone in the branding world is talking about the new Tiger Woods commercial. It's the first time Nike's created a new ad featuring Tiger since his big scandal last fall. Columnist [...]
Should you put a “.com” at the end of your company name?
The other day, my client at an internet startup wanted to know if they should use ".com" at the end of the company name. Her company name is Jobfully. So, when they refer to themselves, should they use Jobfully or Jobfully.com? It's a question that a lot of internet companies share, so I thought I'd [...]
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