Brand Promise

Brand development is an important part of building a business, and often relegated to a few perfunctory tactics.  Have you stopped to consider the overall image your brand projects, and effect that image has on the aggregate long term? If you're with a start-up, chances are you've had your head down in financial projections and your back end seated in chairs at the bank and the accountant's.  Your ideas are gelling and long-laid plans are emerging into a reality.  Along the way, you may have...

Everything Has It's Own Purpose When I think about 1%, or 2% for that matter, the top-of-mind association is milk.  While I don't care for milk personally, my family consumes about 1/4 of the daily General Mills cereal production.  Some are soakers (let cereal and milk stand until achieving a soggy Lazy Acres Senior Community type consistency-bleh!), and some are crispers (just enough milk to wet the cereal), and to that end we have the Whole.  We have the Skim.  We have the Chocolate.  And no, we can't...

On a flight earlier this month, I found myself stuck without my mainstay reading material.  I'd finished one book earlier in the flight than I'd expected, and with my son asleep on one arm I couldn't reach the carry-on.  So I did what any resourceful woman does and I improvised.  I picked up the NWA World Traveler magazine (hmm, normally not a big draw for me) and flipped through it.  I had about half an hour to muddle through and I was determined to make it with my sanity intact (I typically...

“Branding is what people say about you when you’ve left the room” – Jeff Bezos Have truer words ever been spoken? Branding is about delivering on a promise. What your consumers say (or don’t say) about your products/services when they’re facing their friends, relatives, coworkers is likely to be about how well (or how poorly) you delivered on that promise. You made an implied commitment to them to fulfill upon their needs by making claims to specific benefits you could provide, advantages...

Today at work I did some quick shopping online for my favorite blush and naturally ended up browsing the MAC lipsticks, too. There’s something so enchanting, mesmerizing about reading the product description of luxurious makeup. The photo swatches are great and as I read the blurb beside the item I was coveting, noticed something about "texture." I never thought of my lipstick having texture before. But I guess there are a variety of types: matte, creamy, glossy, etc. MAC even has a texture...