I’ve been reading the memoir of Ulysses S. Grant, who led the Union Army in the Civil War, and became the 18th President. It’s a wonderfully written book, with numerous insights into how the war was ultimately won. What is especially striking is how Grant shows that the outcomes of battles were often determined before[…]
There’s something beautiful that happens when brands and campaigns take the time and effort to strategically define, align and craft their message. You can feel it in the workplace. You can see it in the creative. You can measure in on your bottom line. It’s called clarity. Suddenly, you go from being busy with too[…]
The term branding is so overused it’s almost useless. People say branding when they mean logos, or a tagline, or a color scheme, or an elevator pitch, or reputation, or a cool product name, or just about anything else that has to do with public perception. So what is your brand, really? When all is[…]
From a LinkedIn promotion I recently received: Dear Joe Today’s successful marketers aren’t just good at one thing … We must be able technologists, social media experts, and savvy number crunchers … Dear LinkedIn, I couldn’t disagree with you more. Trying to be good at all the disciplines required to excel in our[…]
Differentiation is key to any strong brand position. But what do you focus on when what you offer and why its awesome sounds a lot like what your competitors are saying? This is a regular occurrence today in mature markets, including professional services, where often everyone is doing the same thing, only some do it[…]
We all want to be received and appreciated by someone who simply doesn’t. It could be a family member, an associate, someone from your past, or even your future. By struggling to be acknowledged specifically by those individuals who resist doing so, we waste energy and time, which we could be dedicating much more productively[…]
Strategic differentiation makes all your marketing communications more effective because they hit home, and more efficient because they don’t have to work as hard to stand out from the crowd. So how are you different? Answering this for the purposes of strategically positioning your brand is not as simple as it might sound. That is[…]
A major computer technology company was growing its presence in the field of online security. They had recently acquired a respected innovator in security and wanted to leverage its thought leadership through a sustained, content-driven digital lead nurturing campaign. Their need: They hired us to develop the messaging strategy for this campaign that would turn[…]
Integrity Engineering (www.integrity-eds.com) already had the name, but they needed the strategic messaging to pay it off. And no, a dictionary-like definition of integrity wasn’t going to cut it. Definitions of this kind imply an ownership that simply doesn’t exist. Integrity Engineering is an excellent aerospace engineering firm, but nobody owns integrity, not even these[…]
Most brands claiming to be leading a revolution probably aren’t. If they really were, they’d think twice about making the claim. For example, a real revolution in shaving might be, perhaps, some product that made your whiskers stop growing in the first place. The revolution you’re much more likely to hear about is really just[…]