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A few weeks ago, I saw a great advertisement for the History Channel at the movie theater. It highlighted most of their major shows and announced the new season for all of my favorite things. The unfortunate thing was that it also upset a LOT of people in the movie theater. Last season, the History Channel…
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I was forwarded a post from Seth Godin’s blog this morning about his recent visit to a new restaurant. He reflected on the fact that, despite the relative vacancy of the dining room, his party was seated at the worst table available. The “best” tables were apparently reserved for regular customers. I worked in retail…
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In the human world, organic is better. In the business world, synthetic is better. Why? There are several reasons, so let me give you a high-level overview. Organic Eating serves an organic system – us. We are organic (well, most of us are…) so it is better to use organic things to sustain ourselves. Sure,…
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By “master brand” I mean umbrella brand. The brand that covers multiple product lines that hold individual brands of their own. Take Proctor&Gamble, for example – few recognize the P&G name, but almost everyone knows Charmin, and Pepto Bismol. Understanding the attributes of your master brand is just as important as understanding those of your…
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When I went to graduate school, I was given the opportunity to specilize in one of three fields: logistics, marketing, or sustainability. Those of you who know me can probably guess my reaction to the logistics offering – I’m fairly good at it, but I don’t enjoy all of the technical aspects that go into planning…
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A lot of people tell me how funny the word “mindshare” looks. It’s a made up word that, apparently, has a completely artificial definition. I like things that way. It appeals to my deep desire for ultimate control over things (insert ominous, evil cackle). Really now, “mindshare” is one of the most valuable concepts in…
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I’m a big fan of YouTube. I’ve always been impressed by the deluge of quality content put out by amateur video producers. As fun as it is, though, I never really thought about the business applications of YouTube until recently. We all loved show-and-tell in Kindergarten. We got to see what cool new toys everyone…
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The negative aspects of your brand are just as important as the positive ones. Marketing missteps and managerial mistakes in the past should be embraced as learning opportunities, not errors. No company can ever be perfect, and forcing a squeaky-clean image of perfection on your brand can actually kill it – no one is perfect…
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Finally, a metric for measuring the comparative equity in a brand name across markets, industries, and products. For years, people have talked about brand value and brand equity in difficult to define terms. Brand value was one of three things: 1) the current financial worth of a brand entity, 2) the future financial worth of…