What is status? According to Wikipedia it is the honor or prestige attached to one's position in society. (one's social position) In consumer societies status can be achieved by owning certain brands. For instance, if you drive a Ferrari, you are considered as a higher status person than an owner of a Sebring because buying goods that others …
When do acronyms work?
One of the most painful things for a brand strategist is working with an acronym brand name. They are meaningless, boring and not memorable. Yet, many of my clients want to be like IBM or GE. Any time a client of mine has billions of dollars and a 50-year commitment; I say “Let’s go for it.” …
When do acronym brand names work?
Many companies use acronyms or initials in their names, but how well are they doing it? Learn the three tactics to make acronym brand names work.
Appreciative inquiry and brand building
Rebranding a firm is a tall order for you are dealing with people. Real human beings... And you are trying to change the way they behave. People would resist change for many reasons. Yet, your job is to convince them to embrace the change. At the start of every project, long before you begin to talk …
Branding Lessons from Cuba
Cuba is a fascinating country. With its weather, culture and history it might be “the” country to visit. Also, Cuba is special because of its politics: unlike China, Cuba is a communist country that does not embrace capitalism. In that sense, being in Cuba is a unique and a priceless experience that you can’t have …
Postmodern Leadership
A beloved professor of mine from McGill, Karl Moore, is about to publish his new book: Post Modern Management. Here is an 18-minute video of him talking about the content of his book. We previously talked about some of his points but it is always entertaining to see Prof. Moore in action. Why don't you …
Branding lessons from a Chinese guru
There is a tea shop in Montreal’s Chinatown. Its name is Speacialtea. We found that shop totally by chance. Since then we have been regulars. There are a couple of things that make that shop special and it is very easy for your business to replicate those. First, for a tea lover that shop is …
Branded customer experience
In 1999, B. Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore wrote a book named, “The Experience Economy.” In a nutshell, the book argued that offering, solely, products or services is no longer enough for a brand to demand a premium. Authors claimed that, instead, brands should create memorable experiences for their customers. They went a step further …
When do you need to hire a branding expert?
When you create a new company or product: A branding expert can offer you many services including: conducting research, clarifying strategy, naming, tagline development, designing identity, business card and website design and creating customer touchpoints. When you decide to change the name of your brand: Some names don’t age well. Some names don’t have passports. …
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Criteria of a good brand name – 3
This is the last installment of the naming trilogy. Previously we discussed naming criteria such as meaning and strategic fit. Today, we will focus on legal availability. Unless you own and trademark your brand name, it is not yours. I advice my clients not to get caught too much on domain availability. There are creative ways to get …