Moving Brand Conversations To Recommendations
July 31, 20152 min
This piece from Neil Glassman draws a distinction that I think has escaped many of us between conversation and recommendation.
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July 2015 - Branding Strategy Insider
Build A Useful Brand Before You Make It Amazing
July 30, 20153 min
It’s tempting to believe that every brand must be vastly different and that every opportunity to push the boundaries should be taken if the brand is to win. But is there a case for normality that we’re missing here? Should, as Jay Bauer has suggested, brands stop trying to be amazing and just get on with being useful?
Never Forget Marketing’s Most Basic Principles
July 29, 20154 min
There is no consensus around when the formal discipline of marketing actually began.
Brand Loyalty: Stuck On Versus Stuck With
July 28, 20152 min
There are some brands we are stuck on, others we’re stuck with. Brands we’re stuck on are those where we’ve developed a relationship out of our own free will (Apple, Starbucks, Zappos). Brands we’re stuck with are those where we’ve become trapped through contracts (phone carriers, cable companies), switching costs (banks, software) or incentives (airlines via their loyalty programs).
9 Ways To Counter The Agency Positioning Dilemma
July 27, 20156 min
A recent conversation with a client looking for an ad agency was a reminder of just how little of its own dog food the industry eats. Her assertion that “they all look the same and say the same things” highlighted just how difficult brand differentiation is. It’s so hard in fact that even those who claim to do it for a living struggle to do it for themselves.