More than a few brand reputation and social media managers have been dealing with the aftermath of having thousands of...
Brand Strategy Articles
Brand Loyalty is Dead. Will Brand Connections Replace It?
For companies accustomed to the old ideas of winning a customer’s brand loyalty and then forgetting about it, the last...
Politics, Profanity & Unicorns: How Personal Brand & Professional Reputation Go Hand-In-Hand
Politics are never pretty, but the 2016 presidential election was particularly nasty. The nastiness was magnified by...
How to Get Yourself Some Brand Love
Valentine’s Day is around the corner. If you make gourmet chocolates or sell long-stemmed roses, you’re pretty comfortable with the language of love. If you are the marketing manager for an industrial manufacturer…well, “love” may not be part of your everyday business...
Brand Strategy Portland: Can Geography Affect Decision Making?
I am fortunate to live and work in Portland, Oregon, one of the “friendliest” cities in the country according to any number of surveys and polls. (It also helps that Portland beat New York, San Francisco and Chicago to be named the best food city in America by...
Galvanize Your Business and Brand in the New Year
Happy New Year! If you are like me, you started January 1st with personal resolutions for the year ahead. One of mine is to spend more time with my family outside and to revel in the fact that Oregon has been blessed with some of the best snowfall in years. What about...
Is “Anything Goes” a Way to Approach Brand Strategy?
When you hear brand strategy you probably think of the calculated steps that a company takes to build a strong emotional connection between its brand and customers. After all, one of the definitions of the word strategy is “a careful plan or method for achieving a...
Simplify the Brand Experience to Boost Loyalty, Referrals and Sales
A simple brand experience pays off. That’s the conclusion of the 2014 Siegel+Gale Global Brand Simplicity Index, an annual global study of more than 12,000 consumers in eight countries around the world. Simpler Brand Experiences Wanted Highlights from the report,...
Use Brand Touchpoints to Stay on Course
Only a very small fraction of what is said about a brand comes from the brand itself. The rest comes via word of mouth from customers, prospects and the world at large—i.e., anyone who has ever interacted with one of the brand’s many touchpoints. If you haven't...
Why Brand Name Takes a Backseat to Brand Experience
In graduate school, I took a series of marketing and branding classes and learned that a strong brand name serves as a shortcut to decision making. In other words, without adequate information or the time to conduct exhaustive research, consumers rely on strong brand...
Even Unsexy Brands Can Hit Pay Dirt on Pinterest
If you’ve thought of Pinterest as a platform for food and fashion brands, type in the word “fungicide” and see what pops up. Granted, fungicide doesn’t automatically come to mind when most people think about the popular picture-sharing site. But when you need to...
Rebranding Your Association? What to Look for in a Brand Strategy Firm
An association’s brand is more than just a logo, tagline or brochure—it’s an emotional connection that members, donors, staff and the community form with an association and the stories that they tell about the work that it does. Whether you are rebranding your...