Archives for Branding

The first one to blink will . . . . .

Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella were at the head of the respective lines waiting to perform their magic on the waiting masses of young lasses in Toon Town at Disneyland. It was clear that each “actor” had been chosen from thousands of applicants, since each was indeed an incarnate of their cartoon counterpart.
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“Excuse me. You have a French fry sticking out of your nose.”

Five Guys hamburgers.  Visions of red and white checked decor, with peanuts in shells to distract you while your burger is customized in it’s assembly and you are assaulted with the French fry experience. Assaulted?  By French fries?  Experience? To the uninitiated.  You can pay less to get a hamburger at almost every other fast food joint in town.  But then you are not vacuumed into the experience of a Five Guys . . . “burger and fries” (I know the rhyming is too much).  The added price is worth the price of admittance. There on the wall is the
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How fast can a Brand lose it shine?

As a marketer I found the accolades given to the Obama campaign interesting a year ago.  From a purely scientific viewpoint they did put together a great win given his historical leanings and how those match up with the population at large.  They went into his presidency with a powerful brand with a lot of mental equity. At the core of all great marketing is a religious vigor for listening to the customer. The Obama camp have, with the health care bill, done a fantastic job of completely discounting that customer dialog.  They have done serious damage to his reputation,
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TransBrands – The future of business – lessons from Pandora and the blue Na'vi

My friend Carol had to go back and see the Imax version of Avatar in 3D a second time last Saturday. Carol, Glenn and I had gone to the morning show and it was awesome.  I think it represents the future of entertainment.  It is a true TransBrand. A what? Turn the clock back one hundred years.  Farmer John used to take his eggs and milk into town.  His neighbors brought their produce and they traded with each other or exchanged dollars. Then the world got sophisticated.  It certainly got bigger as the cities grew.  No longer did the luxury
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When Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter go bad – why Social Networking may be screwing up your life

It was scary.  Nashville was mobbed by educators from across the country.  As presenter at their conference I was amazed by the slate of Social Networking sessions.  There are thousands of experts who travel the country espousing the correct method to Twitter, Facebook and a host of other sites.  Each tells of how these tools will bring world peace or cure the common cold.  Problems tend to turn to technology for a fix.  If the horse isn’t fast enough then build the car.  If the saw blade gets dull invent the laser to cut.  The latest invention in the world
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What Should YOUR Business Look Like In a Speedo?

Mike Vance is, in my opinion, one of the greatest business speakers in the last 100 years.  His work on developing creativity is cornerstone.  He introduced the three methods to create something.  Those were: Invention Invention (i.e. the light bulb) Invention Extension (i.e. the flashlight) Invention Devention (see below) An old Nike T-shirt had a saying plastered across the front that read, “The older I get the better I was!”  That is me.  Believe it or not, there was a time when I was the captain of the swim team -many, many, many pounds ago with the svelt torso to
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