As little as a decade ago it was commonly believed that brand strategy development was for the “big players” … the multi-gajillion dollar behemoth companies that ruled the hearts and minds of television viewers. Over time, the process has slowly trickled down to the smallest component of our culture …€” the individual.

BUT, what about going in the other direction? How BIG can a branding project get? Read this news story if you’re interested in taking on the task of re-branding Israel (yes, the country).

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Making the simple complex is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, THAT’S creativity.

…€” Charles Mingus

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Name Game #12
I have to admit, this one’s “borrowed” from Word Wizard Lani Voivod over at Epiphanies, Inc. I told her that I’d give her credit the first ten times I use it, but it’s MY idea after that!

You’re working on a name and you’re hip deep in sample phrases … related words, snippets, jargon, ideas … the works. First, separately list all of the adjectives (come up with more if needed) and then separately list all of the nouns. Start mixing and matching them to see what happens. These unique combinations will help you to cite and incite your most exciting insights (that’s more word-smithing from Lani). Mash those two word combos ’til you find something great.

Example; Lani needed to name a new local writing group/club a while back. She started the naming process and ended up using this excellent strategy to come up with “The Wild Quills.” What a powerful name … Bravo!

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Spending time immersed in the world of brand and creative design, one tends to get picky when it comes to visual presentation. If you’re in any business and have found yourself creating a PowerPoint slide with 10 (or more) bullets, all text, in 12 point font you need to check out these resources more than anyone else:

• Seth Godin redirects us to A Periodic Table of Visualization Methods. If you’re not familiar with the enormous number of different directions visual presentation can take, this is a MUST see chart. Comprehensive, inspiring and itself very creative.
• Garr Reynolds wound up the Presentation Zen 2006 calendar year with a list of recommendations including Say It With Charts.
• And finally, one of my all time favorites; Guy Kawasaki’s masterpiece “rule” of presentation creation called the 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint.

Understand that a large, double-digit percent of the population learns visually. They not only want to experience your presentation visually, they need to see it that way. That, and sometimes, the data is simply better presented in a visual format.

Next time, break out the Crayolas and take your presentations up a notch.

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Posted in Einstein-esque | 4 Comments »

Dyan, owner of the Cozy Inn Lakeview House and Cottages in beautiful Weirs Beach, NH commented on my last post …

I first started reading your blog for the tips etc. I still do but now, I love to check out all the interesting web sites you visit…just when do you have the time and where do you find them all!

INDEED, this is worthy of its own post. My process of finding stuff to write about is several fold and has evolved over the course of blogging for a couple of years. I didn’t seek out guidance from other bloggers … it just happened. Here’s my process (just about every morning);

• Read core group of other bloggers in my industry (e.g. Seth Godin, Guy Kawasaki, Tom Peters, Laura Reis, Robert Scoble, Michael Port, John Moore, and a couple of dozen others). Since I only read the newest stuff and most of these people don’t post every day, it only takes 10 minutes, or so, per day to keep up.
• Read what’s new on Digg.
• Read Google News (I have a couple of specific keywords that are searched for; branding, marketing, advertising, etc.)
• Once every couple of weeks I’ll need a mental break and will find myself at a computer NOT wanting to read, research or do any “heavy lifting.” In this case I’ll use the StumbleUpon plugin to firefox to go surf some randomly selected websites in key topic areas or using specific keywords (e.g. marketing). This is a FABULOUS way to find new and interesting stuff. It’s usually not bleeding edge or super fresh, but it’s almost always interesting.
• The most frequent source of blogging material is just having a strong opinion about stuff.

I’d be very interested in hearing from other people how they get inspired for new blog content. Any takers?

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In Seth Godin’s recent post called Legions of the Clueless, one disappointed reader claims that Seth doesn’t “say anything new, that it’s obvious, that everyone already gets this stuff.” WOW! How amazingly UN-informed this reader is.

About a year ago, someone on our team made the remark that 90% or more of the businesses we encounter “don’t get it”. I thought this was a bit extreme, so I mentally started tracking the number of businesses owners we encountered (not just those seeking our services, but included all networking and research encounters as well. EVERYone!). Surprisingly (or not so), the number turns out to be true! The VAST majority of businesses don’t understand the basic marketing and branding concepts that will take them to new heights. The same concepts that Seth has been espousing for years!

I know I’ll keep reading Seth’s stuff. The real question is how to get the uninitiated 90% to do the same.

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While reading “Eat That Frog” last night, I committed to doing a better job of putting my goals in writing. I’ve always valued the act of doing so but have typically fallen short on the task. This commitment is not necessarily based on a “New Years Resolution” per se, but there are A LOT of people out there in the middle of trying to stick to new resolutions made in the past week. Because 2007 is going to be THE year for a social networking expolsion (it began a while ago), I thought I’d pass this tip along…

Put your goals in writing and make your commitment to the rest of the world. Don’t do this anonymously, however, make sure somebody you know sees it!

Check out 43 Things. It’s a social networking site where you can interact with others who are trying to attain the same goals as you. Cooool.

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Posted in Marketing | 1 Comment »

What happens when you hand The Name Game over to a pack of Photoshop artists?  (Warning: expletives in use!)  What we should learn from this is there are common beliefs about certain brands that naturally lead to this type of humor.  If those beliefs weren’t true (in very large part), the morphed images wouldn’t be funny.  If you’re the brand manager for any of the stores pictured here, take heed … you have a problem on your hands.

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Admit it, when you read the title to this post, you:

• flinched, visibly
• had several parts of your anatomy “pucker”
• heaved, just a little
• grimaced, thinking about how bad of an idea this is
• said (out loud) WTF

It was bound to happen and Verizon, last week, became the second major carrier to put advertisements in your pocket or your purse … that’s right, on the screen of your cell phone. IS NOTHING SACRED!?

Not that you needed the confirming data but Forrester Research has published a report called “Is the U.S. Ready for Mobile Marketing?” and provided detailed analysis including the fact that a whopping 79% of online consumers find the idea of ads on cell phones “annoying”. The report goes on to detail that only 3% actually trust text ads on cell phones.

I could go on and on about this intrusive, interuptive, offensive form of bad advertising but I won’t. You get it. The problem is the advertiser’s paying money for this tactic don’t. Sigh.

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Posted in Turkeys | 1 Comment »

Lyndon Antcliff writes a post entitled “Is This the Thing That Will Destroy Digg?“  The thing? … is other Digg-like websites.  Specifically, Pligg (a new content management system) driven sites that are built to be Digg-like.  Not too surprisingly, there is an explosion of new web destinations that are tapping into the benefits of Web 2.0 attributes and are taking social networking in completely fresh directions.  Be sure to check out Lyndon’s great list of Pligg driven sites.  My favorite is www.pixelgroovy.com, focusing on tutorials for cool effects in Photoshop and Illustrator.  My wife is SURE to love www.DealDigg.com focusing on fabulous shopping deals.

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