Reading Time: 3 minutesEver since the GFC, global markets seem to have become more volatile. Oil prices rise and crash; China’s growth soars and slides. When market dynamics are this dramatic, how should you look to effectively develop a longer term plan for a business in a world of spontaneity? Do you go with the ebb and flow, […]
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Perspectives
The big power of little stories: A Long Virtual Coffee™ with Shawn Callahan
Reading Time: 9 minutesI first connected with Shawn Callahan on LinkedIn a number of years ago and was immediately drawn to his storytelling style and his theories about what makes business storytelling tick.
Presentation: Go big, go small or go home
Reading Time: 2 minutesAs the middle market takes a battering in many sectors, size matters more than ever. It matters up and it matters down – because the positioning options themselves are becoming more extreme. You either expand to compete regionally or globally or you go the other way entirely and focus on specific opportunities.
10 things that break brands (and how to fix them)
Reading Time: 7 minutesThere’s a lot of things that brands keep doing that can turn their value south. By way of a checklist, these are the things I see happening far too often.
Has the search for purpose got in the way of selling?
Reading Time: 3 minutesCoke’s new campaign direction feels like a push back towards product-focused advertising. The decision to move away from the more abstract concept of happiness towards a campaign that focuses much more specifically on the taste and the bottle begs the question: are marketers trying to be too clever? With all the focus on searching for […]
Brand strategy vs creative strategy | Confusing ends and means
Reading Time: 9 minutesIn the battle of brand strategy vs creative strategy, both are important – but they are not the same. Often, when people talk about brand strategy, what they mean is the thinking that has led to the work they have been doing on the brand. That’s not brand strategy.
What’s the half life of a digitally-built brand?
Reading Time: 3 minutesThere’s some evidence to suggest that brands globally can expect to have shorter and shorter half lives. But do the same dynamics apply to digitally-based brands that have applied to the brands that were built “physically” in the past?
Should your brand sponsor a big event?
Reading Time: 4 minutesSome events, like the Olympics, Formula One and the FIFA World Cup, attract huge audiences. If you’re a smaller brand looking to change how you are perceived, is it a responsible action to bet everything you have on being a brand sponsor?
How to effectively manage under-performing brands
Reading Time: 5 minutesSmart brand managers actively manage their brand portfolios for maximum collective and individual brand return. If you’ve recently re-assessed your brand portfolio and identified what appear to be one or a number of under-performers, there are a range of options you can pursue to fix that situation.
Rethinking the frontline services of brands
Reading Time: 3 minutesBrands are quick to identify customer experience as an area of critical success for them. Yet too often those responsible for frontline service delivery lack the authority or the experience to fully act in the interests of those customers.
5 ways to make sure your brand stays relevant
Reading Time: 5 minutesOne of the hardest judgment calls for brand managers is relevance. Brands must change to stay consistent yet they must also remain recognisable in order to preserve brand equity. So what should you change, and when?
What do you do when you’re losing control of your brand?
Reading Time: 4 minutesApple’s recent stand-off with the FBI refocuses the dilemma of what to do when someone has used your product in a way that was never intended. What should brands do to influence or change how their products are used?