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How to execute a brand
Probably not the kind of “how-to” article title you expected to see, is it? Nevertheless, I want to give you a short lesson. Step 1: Build up a stellar brand and either push your competitors out of business or buy them up and leverage their core competencies. Step 2: Having eliminated all of your competitors and taken control of the market, sit back, enjoy your market dominence, and cut your marketing and advertising budgets to the ground. Step 3: Ignore the rise of any potential rivals, even those that might take market share away from you. Step 4: After one…
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Entitlement and Cynicism
As a kid, I always would look up to people in higher grades and wait for the day when I, too, could be like them. They’d get out of school earlier, or have the option of a late start, or … fill in the ellipses with whatever it was the older kids had a right to that I didn’t. I’d sit back and wait patiently for my turn, as was expected. When I grew up a little bit, I joined the Boy Scouts. Once again I was struck with the dichotomy between the “new guys” and the “older Scouts.” One…
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Three Pillars
I’ve always had these three imaginary Roman pillars in my mind. When I need to escape something, be it monotonous work, a boring movie, or an uncomfortable moment with friends of friends, I retreat there in my mind. I kind of imagine a garden, full of life and beauty, with three huge marble pillars in the center. Occasionally, they have vines growing around them, and sometimes the vines are flowering, too. (I realize there are only two pillars in the photo, but it was the best image I could find on short notice) Lately, I’ve been trying to explain my…
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Climb On!
Climbing is tough. You stand at the bottom of a huge cliff and stare up at what seems to be an insurmountable object … a wall that was not built for climbing. After all, we use stairs and elevators now, why would anyone want to climb up a cracked wall? My fear of heights adds another dimension to this. While I can usually keep it under control, sometimes looking down from the top of a cliff can cause me to panic. Nothing major, just shaky hands, nervousness, and a sincere desire to GET DOWN. Working my way up the…
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Laundry Day
A few days ago I was introduced to the concept of a ‘Life Laundry Day.’ It’s a novel concept where you set aside one day each week (or month) and clean up not just the physical parts of your life, but the mental parts as well. I usually set Sunday’s aside. I get up early in the morning, as always, and make myself an extravagant breakfast. Cheerios are healthier, but there’s something refreshing about a big breakfast once in a while that can’t be passed up. I spend the morning in church, meditating on the past week and preparing mentally…
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Inflation?
As a kid, I always wanted to have the best art supplies. Both my brother and I liked to draw, sketch, and paint. We would fight during the summer over school supplies because we always wanted to get the best colored pencils, the largest box of crayons, and the most expensive art stock. It was comical, really. While now I care about and follow several different brand names, the only company I cared about back then was Crayola and whether or not they’d put the new crayon sharpener on the smaller crayon boxes. One year, my parents bought my younger…
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Push Me, Pull You
I had a long conversation with someone the other day about the differences between push and pull marketing. It was a little disappointing, though, because they had already invested a great deal of time and money developing their pull marketing strategies under the assumption that there was no difference between the two types. Not all was a waste; pull marketing is still highly effective. It’s just not as quick to bring in new customers as he would have liked. Push Marketing This is any strategy that results in a direct call to action. Television advertisements with a “call now” message,…
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Apple – Psystar
Long-time readers will know that I talk a lot about Apple and it’s marketing efforts. Yesterday, another ‘incident’ with Apple came to my attention, and it adds support to everything I’ve said in the past. Back in May, I made the argument that the only difference between an Apple computer and a PC was smart branding. On the technical side of things, they are nearly identical products, capable of running the same software. This is bad for Apple, because customers will eventually catch on and begin to question why they’re paying $2,000 for something they can get for $300 down…
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Brand YOU
When you’re looking for a job, the most important thing to understand is your personal brand. What reputation does your name carry? What is the first impression employers get from your resume? What tone do you use throughout your cover letter? These are just elements of the “first impression” your brand makes with potential employers. The next, and most important, element is your actual personality. How do you dress when you show up for the interview? How do you introduce yourself? How do you address interview questions? While a stunning background and intriguing cover letter might get you in the…
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Ten Ways to Build a Stellar Blog
This blog is just a few days shy of being 1 year old. I thought I’d celebrate the occasion by sharing some of the things I’ve learned through blogging over the past year. Here are ten things, in no particular order, you can do to build a stellar blog: Post something every day: I realize I don’t follow this rule myself, but if you want to build a truly large following, you need to guarantee your readers some sort of fresh content every time they point to your site. Read other peoples’ blogs: I can’t stress this enough. If you…