Every well-managed brand has a Brand Standard Manual (BSM). It’s sometimes given a different name, like Brand Book, Brand Bible, or Symbol Simon’s Guide to Don’t Mess With Our Logo. We’ll stick to BSM, thanks. Even more so, an underdog startup enterprise needs a BSM as a foundational document designed to achieve and express a consensus: this is who we …
Every purchase decision involves emotion. We buy from people we like, we buy from brands we like. Unless you’re selling commodities to robots, reason takes a back seat to feelings. Spock fails at branding. Every time.
Every purchase decision involves emotion. We buy from people we like, we buy from brands we like. Unless you’re selling commodities to robots, reason takes a back seat to feelings. Spock fails at branding. Every time.
Claiming great customer service as your key differentiator doesn’t work. People demand perfect customer service, every time from every business. Besides that, Those Other Guys make the same lame claim. Time to re-think.
Bonefish Grill announced they’re closing 14 of their restaurants, sparing some of us the recurring jolt of seeing their unpleasant name and logo as we speed past. Someone, somewhere decided this was a brand identity that would succeed. It would be disruptive. It would stick with you (kind of like a bone stuck in your throat?) That it survived and …
Yes. Buying decisions are to one degree or another emotional. All of them. This assertion deeply offends marketers who trust rationality, logic, evidence and ten-reasons-why facts. Because the evidence is stacked the other way. Customers buy from (vote for, believe in, trust) people they like, and by extension, brands they like. Consider that college choice, by reputation a considered purchase …
Do your ads, intended to sizzle, fizzle? Does it cost more, year against year, to get through to your market? When we pose this question to CEOs and CMOs, the answer is a uniform and melancholy Yes. Marketing ROI is declining for companies who are not evolving fast enough. Outbound marketing is less cost-effective this year compared to last year, …
Recently, WGN radio asked us to discuss branding issues, starting with a Target stores’ mini-scandal. Imagine a plus-size dress labeled as “Manatee gray.” It’s worth a listen. Our takeaway was not about Target’s unfortunate error, but their brilliant response. The interview also veered into other areas, including Acura’s inept model-naming, the Wii, and “the quicker picker-upper.” Correcting a mistake is one of …
“Good to the last drop” was first used in 1907. Maxwell House coffee made it “Good to the last drop®” in 1926 when they finally protected the trademark. So, for everyone who questions the cost of good branding/marketing/advertising – often the investment in intellectual property returns value for years, decades, or even centuries. Want more about taglines?
Competing on price is evidence of branding failure. The strongest brands don’t have to compete on price. Consumers happily pay 40% more for Morton Salt over store-brand sodium chloride. They’ll pay an equivalent premium for a famous deodorant over a chemically-identical price brand. Is it just awareness? No. Some brands have high visibility, but that’s never enough. Awareness, although crucial, …
