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About Branding

The Rise of the Blank and Blank

Opening a restaurant is risky: a quarter fail in their first year, and nearly two-thirds are gone by the third. The desire to minimize risk causes many restaurateurs to pick names that appear safe. They aren’t. Consider this list of Bay Area bars and restaurants, ordered by opening date: 2005: Squat & Gobble, Fish &…

Cicero is Holding You Back

One of the oldest things on your computer—and it’s definitely on your computer—is a garbled, 2100 year-old text written by Cicero: Lorem ipsum dolor sit , consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea…

What can you learn from Dumb Starbucks?

What can you learn about branding from a business consultant who advises a gas station owner to offer a giant rebate that can only be redeemed on a remote mountaintop? Actually quite a bit. Nathan Fielder, the star of Nathan for You on Comedy Central, recently opened Dumb Starbucks, a parody version of Starbucks in…

Stupidest Product of the Year (and it’s only January 3rd)

On the way into work this morning, I was listening to Marc Maron interview Artie Lange. One of the things I love about Maron is the way he hawks his sponsors like stamps.com and Adam and Eve in fine old time radio style. You’re rooting for him to pull it off but you know the only…

Competing Against Big Companies: No One is Going to Save You.

In the Mission District, San Francisco, local merchants are banding together to try and prevent Jack Spade from selling tote bags and oxford shirts near them. The same thing happened with American Apparel a few years ago. In Berkeley on Telegraph Avenue, Mokka Coffee’s windows are plastered with “SAVE MOKKA”. (A Starbucks is opening down…

Embarking on Brand Building Ventures

Embarking on  a brand building venture is an exciting and sometimes unnerving experience. The brand you build will, in many ways, determine the success of your company. It’s exciting to create concrete ways to express the vision and values of your company to your prospective customer audience, but there can be a lot of pressure…

Developing Brand Building Strategy

The task of building a successful brand can sound daunting, but if you approach it with a well-defined brand building strategy, it becomes much easier. Brand building is a complicated concept that begins with getting your brand noticed. But it can’t just stop there. Successful brand building means getting the people who notice you to…

The Difficulties of Brand Building Online

These days, a strong online presence is essential to establishing any kind of successful brand. Whether you’re starting a fresh new business venture or rebranding a company that for whatever reason needs an image makeover, brand building online is hard work and doesn’t happen overnight. There are many elements to brand building online, ranging from…

What to Expect from a Brand Consultant

So you’ve decided to work with a brand consultant. That’s the first step. Of course, now that you know you are doing it, you have to hire a brand consultant, and there are a lot of people out there offering their services. Since the reason you decided to hire a brand consultant in the first…