Topics

Brand Behavior

Change How You Think About Values At Your Company

October 22, 2013 —

Change How You Think About Values At Your Company

“Values can be defined as broad preferences concerning appropriate courses of action or outcomes. As such, values reflect a person’s sense of right and wrong or what “ought” to be.” – Wikipedia Enterprises seek “appropriate” courses of action and outcomes, so they establish and communicate a set of corporate values. But, too many businesses find that employees aren’t sufficiently influenced by these values. In other words, they don’t fully embrace the ideals, they often act in “wrong” ways, and they don’t work together...
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Insensitive Use of Personal Data Can Seem Downright Creepy

July 10, 2013 —

Insensitive Use of Personal Data Can Seem Downright Creepy

Brands need to think carefully about how they leverage new levels of customer information when handing iPads to front-line service people. Using data and behavior-driven information, while a powerful way to forge connections, can easily go awry. I wasn’t too surprised when I read this in Michael Schrage’s HBR piece, “When digital marketing gets too creepy”. “The digital marketer who effectively runs Qantas Airlines’ highly regarded – and very successful – loyalty program has an unusual iPad problem. Flight attendants on Australia’s flagship carrier can now get up-to-the-minute data on...
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“We Cannot Solve Our Problems With the Same Thinking We Used to Create them.” ~Albert Einstein

June 21, 2012 —

“We Cannot Solve Our Problems With the Same Thinking We Used to Create them.” ~Albert Einstein

One of the challenges of modern business is to get people engaged, motivated and gratified to either work for you, or do business with you. For numerous reasons, people (formerly known as employees and customers) are more demanding of whom they work for, what they buy and whom they buy from. This sea-change of popular attitude, beliefs and behaviors have caught many businesses by surprise. Why? Because they haven’t begun to adapt their way of doing business to the reality of how people think, feel and act in this, The Age of Meaning This is a critical time for business. It’s a...
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If You Don’t Have Anything Meaningful To Say, Social Media Won’t Help You Say It Better

March 15, 2012 —

If You Don’t Have Anything Meaningful To Say, Social Media Won’t Help You Say It Better

We loved this rant about the idea that social media is a “brand strategy”. Repeat after me, urges the presenter, “Social media is a channel”. So, if you’re struggling to make social media work for your brand, maybe it’s time to look at what your brand is saying through social media. How is it creating a better “give and take” between your brand and the people vital to its success? How is it helping people generate new meaning in their lives? How is it creating a new relationship, not simply deploying the same messages used elsewhere? Read the...
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Shaping Brand Experiences to Avoid Alienating People

December 20, 2011 —

Shaping Brand Experiences to Avoid Alienating People

Cartoon by Tom Fishburne. Every brand moment matters. How often have you found yourself filling in a form that simply asked too much? Where you could not imagine how the information being asked was going to be used? Or worse, the only thing you could imagine was that the information would be used against you. No, not by some dreaded department deep inside the government. But, by something worse: the brand’s marketing department. OK, that’s a bit of an overstatement. But hopefully it has provoked you into thinking about how your brand is reaching out to people. How the experience...
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