Reading Time: 3 minutes What have you got to say for yourself? How and when should a brand take a stand? And if you do, should you go hard or go soft? Talking is a critical part of brand behaviour.
Tag: signals
Every brand culture needs a benchmark question
Reading Time: 5 minutes Every brand has a truth point – and that point is always the point of contact: the moment when the customer makes contact with the brand, to buy, to ask, to complain, to enquire … Everyone whose studied marketing for any time nods at this obvious point. But interestingly, whilst all brands acknowledge contact as […]
What to expect from a rebrand
Reading Time: 4 minutes Every company that rebrands does so with high hopes. Their expectation is of course that this will mark a new chapter in the life of the business. Given how much is being invested, that seems more than a reasonable goal on their part. But is it realistic? How much change can a company expect to […]
Brands, commodities and branded commodities
Reading Time: 3 minutes If you’re a marketer, commodity status is a bad thing for your brands. It indicates that your product or service is undifferentiated, that it rises and falls with the market and that it carries no inherent value beyond that. That’s fine when things are going well, and supply cannot keep pace with demand – it’s […]
Brand accuracy – transparency vs disclaimers
Reading Time: 4 minutes Disclaimers are everywhere. From the websites we visit to the products we buy and the ads we watch, the terms under which consumers read and receive are carefully wrapped in legal bubble-wrap to protect brands from liability. In an age of transparency, such disclosures seem prudent and very much in keeping with the demands of […]
Changing the brand context
Reading Time: 2 minutes There’s a tendency to see disruption and innovation as huge moments of significance that shake the status quo to its core. Ultimately though neither is about that at all. It’s often about having the courage, vision and confidence to (gently) do big things. And to do them when and where they were least expected.
How does a brand outgrow its defining characteristic?
Reading Time: 4 minutes Twitter was built on 140 characters. Even though the limitation was serendipitous, it remains a defining characteristic of the brand in the minds of many. Concise thinking, hash-tagged to provide simple, global connection – there’s the Twitter value equation in a little under half the consigned quota. But the question Carl Miller asks is a […]
Refresh or rebrand? Critical brand decisions
Reading Time: 4 minutes Every brand must change, but the extent of the change, and the size of the calls that accompany those shifts, are very different. So when should you revamp what you have to bring it up to date, and when should you “kill” the brand and start again?
Finding your brand’s tone of voice
Reading Time: 3 minutes The language of a brand is really decided by two things: where you are looking to position your brand in the marketplace; and the personality that you choose to adopt.
The ironies of brand attitude
Reading Time: 3 minutes If you’re a brand leader and you’ve been one for a while, there’s a good chance you know your market and that you monitor and are highly aware of your competitors. All the market intelligence you have tells you where things are.
How to respond to social media feedback
Reading Time: 3 minutes In an age where brands are increasingly seen as shared, companies can easily be lulled into treating social media as polling booths for their strategy. That’s not a good idea. However, there are times when you should respond to what is being said. The secret is knowing what to respond to, when and how.
The road to brand greatness: A Long Virtual Coffee™ with Denise Lee Yohn
Reading Time: 8 minutes Denise Lee Yohn is one of those people whose been part of my brand conversations for some time. I first encountered her no-nonsense approach to brand when she published an excerpt from her book What Great Brands Do on Branding Strategy Insider. It was one of the most popular posts of the year.