A new, ‘unconventional’ framework for business strategy is emerging. One that various high-performance companies have used to succeed at a time when most businesses have struggled to find growth. This post outlines a tested approach for strategy development aligned to this framework that can be adapted by any organisation with relative ease. Business strategy has … Continue reading
Filed under Brand Building …
The Four Fundamental Team Principles of Brand Marketing
Consumers may now shape and define brands. But it’s still the marketing team behind a brand that builds it. This post outlines four key team principles for outperformance brand building. The Challenge of Synchronising Mid to Large Brands To direct their team’s brand management efforts, a CMO typically employ a variety of tools and resources, … Continue reading
A story CEOs & CFOs need to know about brand story-telling
The view that a brand should tell a story rather than just have a ‘positioning’ is not new in marketing circles. However, for CEOs who often already see marketing as the ‘soft’ side of their businesses, investment in story-telling may seem too esoteric a notion, and one with questionable commercial benefit. But the outcomes of … Continue reading
Should brands always confess their imperfections?
Over the past few years it’s been in vogue for brands to do what not long ago would have been unthinkable. To point out their flaws, openly admit their mistakes and offer products that are deliberately less than ‘perfect’. More often than not, proudly so. Imperfections are the latest phase in the brand authenticity movement. … Continue reading
Three amusing ‘brand’ examples of why nothing should be a commodity
Let’s face it, despite all the efforts of the marketing community to champion brand building, there are many businesses that don’t get – or simply pay lip service to – ‘brand’. Typically they see ‘branding’ as a name, logo, slogan or a few graphics that they slap onto what they sell. And typically these businesses … Continue reading
A key to the tourism marketing of small destinations, places and attractions
Brand strategy is now part of the mainstream of destination and place marketing. But for small destinations brand management can seem too complex. Or the stories that they develop look too similar to other places, and so don’t do enough to enhance the destination’s attractiveness. But there is one simple and effective technique any destination … Continue reading
Successful brand building – like life – is a game of inches (Part 2)
In brand building small things can have a big impact. A previous post outlined how achieving superior brand communications is often “a game of inches”. This post looks at identifying which details of what a brand does that makes the most difference to its success. Too many moments of truth Attention to detail is by … Continue reading
Successful brand building – like life – is a game of inches (Part 1)
Fans of sports movies will recognise that the title of this post borrows from Al Pacino’s famous coach’s speech in the American football film, Any Given Sunday. “You find out life’s this game of inches, so is football. Because in either game – life or football – the margin for error is so small. I … Continue reading
Fierce Truths – Three challenges for brand marketing from (what used to be) Monty Python
Comedy can help us see things that we’re usually blind to, or that we simply prefer to ignore. As put by writer Mary Hirsch, “Humour is a rubber sword – it allows you to make a point without drawing blood.” The ad industry, for all its foibles, often manages to laugh at itself. And in … Continue reading
3 Brand Building Lessons from Guerlain’s epic The Legend of Shalimar web film
Recently the fashion world has been abuzz about a new web film from French perfume house Guerlain for its signature Shalimar fragrance. The almost six minute long “The Legend of Shalimar“ has been hailed by many as setting a new standard for mega-production advertising. It has also set a new standard for epic brand story-telling. … Continue reading