Strategic Brand Consultancy
This is the second instalment of a series of “systematic problems of placebranding projects” illustrating the roadblock faced by the brand Guadalajara. These essays are intended to help practitioners -both city officials and consultants- to launch more successful and resistant brands. (Read the earlier instalment here and the subsequent ones here and here.) Let’s recap what we have discussed so far. …
Continue reading "What went wrong with brand Guadalajara? Part 2/4"
I stumbled upon this concise and precise essay on the topic of "complicated vs. complex." Particularly "the potty training" example demonstrates so well what happens when the two clashes. I could not have written it better. So I decided to reblog it. Enjoy,
This is the first instalment of a series of “systematic problems of placebranding projects” illustrating the roadblock faced by the brand Guadalajara. These essays are intended to help practitioners -both city officials and consultants- to launch more successful and resistant brands. (Read the subsequent ones here, here and here.) Here we go again. Another city branding project is dealing with a …
Continue reading "What went wrong with brand Guadalajara? Part 1/4"
It has become a familiar narrative: A city, region or a country launches its new visual identity, only to learn that its habitants hate the logo's guts. From Toronto to South Australia, and from Caribbeans to Latin America nobody seems to be happy with the brand that is supposed to represent them. Sadly, that has grown to be a …
Continue reading "Keys to successful place branding – Part 1"
Let’s say you are managing a brand that is about to celebrate its 25th-year anniversary. An interesting question pops up: Should you promote your company’s length of life? Should you say something like, “Since 1990”? When does it make sense to celebrate your brand’s history? What’s the right thing to do?
Donald Sterling, the disgraced owner of the Los Angeles Clippers has decided to sell his team, and Steve Ballmer, the former CEO of Microsoft placed a bid of $2 billion to purchase it. Since the NBA approved his proposal, now many people are wondering the same thing: Should Balmer rename the LA Clippers? Do they …
“Our target audience is 18-48, female and male, C1, B and A.” You might have heard a similar nonsense statement before... The above sentence is a feeble -and rather soulless- attempt to describe a "target" "audience". I am categorically against using such lingo as it's a completely outdated way of thinking. I also believe that in this day …
Are you trying to define what keeps your organization together? Do you want to discover your organizational values? Would you like to write down "the way things get done around here?" Then, read on! I am frequently asked to help brands and organizations to discover their values. Not so rarely, my clients give me a piece …
Continue reading "How to discover your organizational values?"
Private label (PL) is a remarkably profitable line of business. Around the world, the retailers’ profit margin of PL is roughly 40%, twice as much (!) as the profit they make from other brands. Consequently, PL has been treated as a “cash cow.” Money was invested in PL, the product, not PL, the brand. Well, not …
Continue reading "How to Create a Brand Architecture for Private Label Products"
Working with a destination is arguably the toughest brand assignment. Experts, such as Simon Anholt think that you cannot "brand" a place in the traditional sense of the word. As someone who got involved in a couple of place branding projects, I tend to agree. Here is why. Based on my personal experience, many branding projects …