Category: Branding & Market Views

Changing how America shops, and the week’s other top business stories

1. The man who changed how America shops – Chief Executive To successfully market when forces conspire to make everything a commodity, amplify the emotional content. 2. Ensuring that business transformation does not fail -- Forbes Just because everyone agrees business transformation is important doesn’t mean everyone knows how to do it....

Get a cue! Connecting your brand to everyday life

One way that your advertising can influence what people think about and notice is through ‘cueing’ –linking your brand to words or expressions that come up naturally in everyday conversation. Repeated often in your advertising and other communication, they become cues that help increase the power of your brand. You...

Some of our Favorite Recent Media Campaigns

Ice Bucket Challenge In 2014, one of the most successful public relations campaigns was the organic Ice Bucket Challenge. That’s no surprise for most people, because the messages and images of the campaign were pervasive, very wet, often entertaining and sometimes highly emotional. The campaign began inauspiciously, when two friends...

Your checklist for growth in 2015

To grow effectively in the new year, you need to begin with preparation and planning stages, not unlike the work necessary before you take a journey or climb a mountain. Think of the new year as a new journey.  To begin, you need proven tools and expert guides to help...

18 Value Propositions That Get it Right

The best way to understand value propositions is to see good examples at work. Here are 18, from the largest company in the world to some small, eclectic start-ups.  1. Wal-Mart. Everyday low prices. Behind the value proposition of not only the world’s largest retailer but also the world’s largest...

The Christmas Factor

For Christians the world over, Christmas is one of the year's holiest observances, with the remembrance of the birth of Jesus Christ both solemn and celebratory. But it is people of all faiths and traditions that have also made Christmas the year’s single largest economic stimulus, as sales increase dramatically...

Marketing trends that will impact your business in 2015

Management guru Peter Drucker said that “attempting to predict the future is like trying to drive down a country road at night with no lights while looking out the back window.” That has stopped almost no one from doing it, and in fact we all make decisions, major and minor,...

This Week’s Trending Business Stories 12-15-14.

A quick look at popular stories on business Websites this week.  15 Ways to Overcome Procrastination and Get Stuff Done 15 techniques to fight your tendency to procrastinate. For example, don’t set unreasonably ambitious goals. Facing the impossible is paralyzing and you won’t end up doing much of anything. --Entrepreneur...

25 Big American Product Flops

1. Edsel In 1957, Ford launched the Edsel, a car the company billed as hot and revolutionary, Problem: It turned out to be sort of "blah."Ford was enormously successful in building high expectations for the forthcoming Edsel, but America was equally disappointed. The Edsel tanked. It became a national joke,...

22 of the Best Mission Statements in the World

The main purpose of a mission statement is to clearly and concisely answer the question, “Why do we exist?” and to lay out your overall company goals and how you will achieve them. And it does it all in a quick, easily understood – and easily shared – statement. To...