Articles
Impact of Business on the Economy
Will Membership-Based Brands be Successful in the Future?
Before we teleport into the future, let’s take a trip into the past. Organizations like Rotary, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, United Way, and the Lions Club to name a few, really became popular in the early 1900s. It was a primary resource for socializing, giving back to their community, and even personal or professional development and support. Clearly, these were the days before the internet and we could be “social” with the movement of a mouse or the swipe of a screen. People were expected to work…
Corporate Culture Eras and What is Next?
Like everything else in life, corporate cultures change over time. They change because the company grows, changes, moves into new markets, offers new services, different locations, or because the staff has changed. They also change because of society’s expectations of companies and the work force. For example, there has been a lot of talk about employers being more flexible—allowing their employees to work from home or to not be so rigid in what time an employee shows up for work. Let’s take a l…World Domination by One Brand Doesn’t Exist Anymore!
I was reading an article about how Starbucks handles their social media in the Seattle Times. While that alone was interesting, what was even more interesting was when the author mentioned the top brands on social media. Here are the top 10 for each:
- Facebook: Coca-Cola, Disney, Red Bull, Converse, Starbucks, Oreo, PlayStation, Walmart, McDonald’s, and Blackberry
- Twitter: Samsung Mobile US, NASA, iTunes Music, Starbucks Coffee, Claro Ronaldo, Whole Foods Market, Samsung Mobile, Zappo’s, Dis…
How Do You Know When to Update Your Brand?
Everything changes. Birds molt and lizards change colors, styles go in and out of fashion, cartoon characters change with the times—look at Mickey Mouse, he is different now than what he was in 1928. Even established companies’ that are decades old change their identity to match with the times: Aunt Jemima, Prudential, UPS. It is all in the Power of Image! Here are three circumstances that indicate it’s time for you to update your identity:
1. You’re part of a merger.
Without going into the ma…
What Does Tomorrow’s Publisher Look Like?
In an interview on NPR, the discussion was about the role of the publisher in tomorrow’s business market. Are they needed? Is it ok for them to just hand pick already successful authors? –were some of the questions they were addressing.Having self-published all of my books, this is a conversation that I am regularly involved in and my opinion often surprises the people I am speaking with. It’s often assumed that because I self-published my books, that I am against publishers or think that they w…
Has Branding Really Changed?
There has been a lot of talk about ‘new marketing’ or ‘branding’ or 'marketing for tomorrow' with the growing hold that social media takes every day. But I challenge you; have the rules of branding really changed? Or is it simply the tactics to achieve the goal that has changed?
The ultimate goal of branding is to create a consistent desired feeling or thought in the client or prospect’s mind when your company or product name is mentioned or visible.In yester-year, that was achieved mainly by …
Why Do Women Choose to Work in Construction?
Almost always said in a disapproving tone of curiosity, people seem to have a hard time believing that a woman could be passionate about construction. “If I got a dollar for every time I was asked how I got into construction, I would be a wealthier woman. People's curiosity points to the fact that they mostly don't know any women in construction now, so the fact that I started almost 30 years ago is considered an amazing happening....especially since there was no divorce or male family pressure …
Diversity Simplified
When you understand what diversity really is, you’ll then be able to understand how your and your employee's attitudes affect your company’s bottom-line results. But where do we start?
Let’s take a moment to think back to when you were a kid—ya know, jus…
How Diversity Accountability Can Effect Your Brand Building Initiatives
Diversity is not just about differences. It is also about similarities—the things that people have in common. Leveraging similarities can be an asset in solving business issues and is often underutilized or abused with little in-between.
Assuming that diversity means differences and similarities let me share with you where many companies go wrong with diversity. They miss the element of difference and only focus on similar or what is familiar. Familiar is safe, reduces immediate risk, and puts…
Judged Unfairly: It’s a Reality
Somehow along the way, our society has decided that certain types of people or certain genders know or do certain things. That is the reality women in construction have to face daily, the judgment that just because they are a woman, they couldn’t possibly know anything about construction, the process, the tools, the technique, or speak the lingo.
When a woman walks into a room, “you start at a negative three. Men are taken at face-value and just be…