Category: Branding Soapbox

Stories on brands, marketing and business strategy

22 May

Toward Sustainable Branding

Brands are not tissue paper. They require purpose and a commitment to longevity.
11 Apr

Extensions and Deep Cues

Music isn’t the only industry to enjoy “deep cuts.” Brands can be evaluated by consumers using surface and deep cues, and the difference might offer clues on the best way to structure your brand architecture.
01 Apr

Why Flickr Rocks!

I’m convinced that Flickr is the greatest web app … ever. Yes … ever. If you love photographs, it’s hard not to fall in love with Flickr. From a brand perspective, it has a wonderful voice. Colorful, creative, and friendly.
06 Mar

Branding in a Troubled Economy

Many assume that branding is less important when budgets are tight and jobs are on the line. Evidence from past recessions, however, advise otherwise.
21 Feb

Brand Preference, Experience and Memory

Brand marketers often fall prey to a massively faulty assumption. They assume that consumers are rational. But consumers don’t really behave that way. The irrational consumer is more than a hypothesis. It’s a well-researched reality.
14 Feb

Promise or Position?

Is a brand built on a position or is it built on a promise? Promise has become the word of choice in recent years. But I might suggest that the two words have different meanings, and should be applied at different times.
02 Jan

Alaska Airlines “Gets” Customer Service

Just when I thought customer service was dead — when I lament how brand after brand gets it dead wrong — a candidate comes along that surprises and delights and restores my faith in brand experience.
26 Nov

Demarketing

A friend turned me on to a great story on Studio 360 about signage for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste storage site. Here’s the dilemma: how do you design a symbol that will instantly communicate ‘danger’ to future generations? Think about it. Nuclear waste remains dangerous for thousands of years. The site needs signs that [...]
25 Nov

Listen Up!

This Friday, StoryCorps encourages people to participate in the National Day of Listening. For all you aspiring storytellers, this is a wonderful way to explore living narrative. It’s a simple process of interviewing a friend or a loved one. StoryCorps provides a helpful guide on how to conduct your interview, with tips on structuring an [...]
23 Nov

On the Subject of Brand Narrative

This is from a presentation I gave earlier in the week to a large technology company. It’s a mix of legacy content from Legendary Brands and new content from my upcoming book, Brandlore. On the Subject of Brand Narrative View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: culture symbolism)