Articles
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…
Do You Have an Authentic Brand?
In order for your brand to resonate with the market, it has to be authentic. This means that the external actions of a company need to align with its internal culture--or do what you say you do.When a company is successful at this, it can receive benefits of over 6 times the amount of revenue growth and over 7 times the amount of job growth. If that is not enough, companies listed on the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work for significantly outperform the S& P 500, according to an 11-year study b…
Your Business is Like a Rubik's Cube
Think of your business as a Rubik’s Cube. Each side corresponds to an aspect of your business: products and services, systems and processes, your employees, financials, clients, and marketing and sales. While each area can be broken down into great detail, those are the primary areas that a business will focus on. As with a Rubik’s Cube, no one side of your business is better or more important than the other. Instead, they all appear to be the same.You can look at a Rubik’s Cube in one of two wa…
Client Case Study: Department C.Y.A
Challenge: Company is well respected in the industry. It is a desired place to work for and to work with. Over the last ten years, the Company changed its focus of how its product was delivered to its clients. The new focus is technology based.Overtime, one department strayed from the culture so far that it affected product quality and how the clients perceived the company. Other departments within the company viewed this department as ‘weird’ or ‘from another planet’ and outsourced work so they…
The Difference Between Microsoft & Apple Marketing
For years, Microsoft has taken heat on their marketing, or their lack of it, to the consumer market, especially when compared to Apple. Simply put—they just don’t get it!
Yes on occasion they come up with a really cool campaign and the market is both surprised and impressed all in one. But those feelings usually don’t last because Microsoft doesn’t stick to any marketing, let alone what works! Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate Microsoft, in fact, I like them and if you get me talking about OneNo…
How Many Eggs Are In Your Basket?
Marketing is this abstract thing that we have convinced ourselves we can make co…
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…
It’s All About the Women! Ultimate Decision-Makers
Sorry men, I guess we don’t need you anymore!Have you noticed lately that a vast majority of studies are coming out with the conclusion that “women are the ultimate decision-maker” for pretty much everything? In fact, I can’t think of any new study that has reached a different conclusion. Do you know of any?
Women in today’s market are king and men are often presented as incompetent or unable to make decisions. I find these results interesting and find myself questioning them.
Are decisions reall…
Revealing the Truth About Word of Mouth
Word of Mouth is the best marketing a company can do. DUH! Even a caveman knows that! But what the caveman (and some businesses) may not know or get, is that you can say and encourage word of mouth all you want—it doesn’t mean it’s going to happen or happen the way that you want it to! A company needs to give customers a reason to talk about them. And there are only two reasons that a customer talks about a company, a product, or a service.
They did something different or unexpected—in a good way…
You Don’t Create Marketing Results
I wrote a post a while back about the emerging trend of redefining CMO from “Chief Marketing Officer” to “Chief Metric Officer”. In that post I also addressed how the tenure of the majority of CMOs is around 18 months. The reason for this is many companies, boards and stakeholders are under the misconception that CMOs get burned out so t…