The Style Guide

The style guide makes it possible that your brand is speaking with one voice even if three different departments located in three different locations are presenting your brand to your customers. In case there is one day a question which cannot be answered by the style guide,

Make A Name For Yourself, Or Someone Else Will

If you can’t concisely and immediately articulate who you are and what you’re all about, one of two things will happen...

Corporate Internet Branding

The Internet, whether through public Web sites, search engines, Internet radio broadcasts, and e-mail are very targeted. It is shown to reach the right target at the right time with the right message.

An Inconvenient Truth — A Failure to Persuade

What does all this have to do with branding to steal market share? Just everything. Most brands market and advertise to their own current customers and ignore the precepts of those “from the other camp.” At times, it is even more of a waste of funds in that brands talk only to themselves and not even their own customers

Starbucks: Please Don't

There they go again. Starbucks Corp. is on a mission to boost sales of glittery snow globes and other non-coffee items. Been there, done that, and not very well.

So What?

Well that certainly is a direct -- if not offensive -- title, isn't it? Stay with me a little while longer, and you will understand its significance. Many of us realize that, to get a buyer's attention, we have to tell them about benefits. As Jack Trout and Al Reis wrote in their best-seller, Positioning, everyone listens to the same radio station, WII-FM (What's In It For Me?). No one really cares about us as businesspeople; they care about how our businesses can help them achieve their objectives.

Line Up Your Services For Branding Power

Are you wondering where the opportunities are for you in YOUR business?

Archie Has a New Groomer

Archie is our little adopted Terrier dog I rescued a few years ago. Archie goes to the groomer every few months.

Are You Playing Buzzword Bingo With Your Customers?

Is your product naming strategy so complex that customers have no choice but to keep their own charts of each name or acronym along with a description of what the product is? Do you sell standalone products or integrated solutions? Several factors need to be considered when deciding the right structure for your product/service naming strategy.

Small Business Marketing Tip - Brand and Customer Referrals

It's true: Good customers want to help your business succeed. Let's help them out. Lots of people talk about word-of-mouth advertising. Creating successful word-of-mouth is much more art than science. Think of it as having your customers and employees carrying a Brand Banner for you.

Staying True to Your Brand...

Luciano Pavarotti is known for his dynamic operatic tenor voice. If he decided to make waves into Country Western music, he'd gain some new Country Western fans, but he'd lose a greater deal of opera fans. And eventually, music fans wouldn't know what to make of him because he has tainted his brand. What about you...

Freelance Copywriters: 'You Cannot Be Serious!'

I'm not saying that you should be controversial for the sake of it. In fact, controversy may be the last thing that you want. But let’s face it, controversy sells! John McEnroe, Kate Moss, Dan Brown, The Rolling Stones, George Galloway, Eminem, Kurt Cobain, Apple Macintosh - are all examples of controversial or converse brands that sell ...

Branding and Distinctiveness: Are You Telling Me It's Okay to Ignore You?

If you are a self-employed person or small business owner with a website are you engaging me immediately in a compelling dialogue from the moment I find your website? Are YOU so clear on who you are that the whole concept of competition has become a meaningless and arcane concept? If you don't get this you are losing customers. A lot of customers.