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About Branding

Rebranding: Companies that Succeeded

There are many things to consider when rebranding companies. A rebrand might simply consist of a new logo, or even just updated colors. Or it could be a new company name and an entire visual makeover. Truly successful rebranding means understanding your company’s situation well enough to judge what level of rebranding is right for…

Branding is Just Like Life: The power of “I don’t know”

Do you know anybody who has to be right all the time? If so, you probably don’t make a habit out of spending a lot of time with them. Being wrong is part of being alive. If you can’t make mistakes, how can you learn? If you can’t say, “I don’t know, I’ve been wondering…

The future is always in motion

Everybody wants to see the next best thing. They want to be there for genesis. Which is why car companies build concept cars — as an opportunity to electrify their audience and show off their most radical thinking. If the car is a winner, some or all of it will make it to production. If…

Creating Taglines That Stick

The poet David Clewell jokes that the greatest line of poetry in the 20th Century is “Raid kills bugs dead,” the tagline for the popular insecticide. Considering the line’s ability to implant itself in your memory, and its staccato sound that makes it fun to repeat, some marketing consultants would most likely agree with him….

Rebranding process: Don’t let the crowd scare you

Let’s get the aphorisms out of the way: Change is hard, change is inevitable, and change is constant. When it comes to designing a smarter rebranding process, one that keeps these fundamental truths in mind, companies still have a lot to learn. Because people are more engaged with brands than ever before. And if they…

Branding is Just Like Life: Don’t squeeze the bloody life out of it

I grew up in a little beachfront enclave called Sea Gate, which was at the entrance to New York harbor.  My mother would take me in the stroller down to Nathan’s Hot Dogs in Coney Island. The hot dog was probably for her because I was still breast feeding. She told me later that she…

Building a brand: Virgin America

I have heard the interiors of Virgin America planes described as everything from “swanky” to a “strip club in the sky.” While it might not be everyone’s style, it’s certainly better than your other options. Unless you prefer the Reagan-era textiles mottled with burnt coffee you might find on Delta. What’s great about how Virgin…

Branding is Just Like Life: Somebody has to own the brand

When you are creating a brand, the first thing you need to be true to is yourself. Do not share the ownership of your brand with anyone else. This does not mean that your corporate brand is your private property. This does not mean you have to be a brand Nazi. It is more like…

Building your brand for women

Are you building your brand for a female audience? Some companies see this as a straightforward question with a formulaic answer. There’s even a term for female-focused brand strategy that might be one of the worst phrases in the English language. Build your brand in two easy steps! Just “shrink it and pink it.” Shrink…

Branding is Just Like Life: Only don’t make it up as you go along

There are a lot of obnoxious stories out there about personal branding. This is not intended to be one of them. My own belief is that life is commercial enough without dragging branding into your personal life. But, allow me to borrow that idea for a moment to make a really useful distinction. Your personal…