Content, Strategy, Marketing & Business | A consultant’s view » Christine Thompson
As a girl, I shivered one night in the basement where our TV had been banished, and thrilled to the Beatles’ American debut. Not all my shivers were from the cold of that unheated room… I’d fallen in love. A landmark event in 20th century music, the 1964 Ed Sullivan Show ignited the outbreak of Beatlemania […]
While updating Informing Arts’ website I was reminded, the hard way, of the need to keep digital brand assets current. We stumbled on issues relating to trademark renewals and obsolete digital file formats. Even strategic marketers like me can overlook details like how current are your brand assets — can you still make changes with […]
Are your partners tarnishing your brand? Do you even know? This story concerns a good brand that risks dilution and negative word-of-mouth, due to poorly trained partners who interact directly with the brand’s consumers. Alaska Airlines: Great Brand, But Partners Need Training Last week I flew home from Boston’s Logan Airport via Alaska Airlines. The flight […]
So here we have two small business owners actively disenchanted with our HP printers, and talking to each other about what the quality decline must be doing to HP’s printer brand. And the time we’re both wasting as a result. What makes this story so disheartening is that both of us worked for HP earlier in our careers. As former employees (and former shareholders), we’d like to feel better about the brand. So how did HP lose its way?
I love strolling and window shopping in Paris. There’s a special mystique that window dressers in Paris employ that brand teams and marketers everywhere would do well to emulate. Shop windows in Paris do a wonderful job of conveying the idea of what’s being sold — of conveying the brand essence, helping you envision how […]
This must be a painful time to be a marketer at Dell Computer. Dell has just introduced a svelte, feature-packed premium laptop aimed at execs, status seekers and “impression makers.” Thanks to their PR team (or influencer relations), Dell secured a high visibility blog posting at the NY Times discussing the product and its aspirational positioning. Unfortunately, it backfired.
How many times have your executives (or your clients’ executives) directed you to focus on the “quick wins,” the quick fixes, or go for the “silver bullets?”
Yet as B2B marketing experts know, it takes patience to build a trusted brand. Marketo asserts in their blog, Modern B2B Marketing,
I love the idea of conversational marketing, and applaud the innovators who are trying to figure out more scalable ways to put it into action. A tweet today from Jeremiah Owyang led me to an interesting new offering from marketing pundit Seth Godin, one that puts brands in a social media context.
These days it seems everyone wants to imitate Apple, but few really know what it takes. This post examines some of the key factors that set Apple apart, from the perspective of a person who has worked with or for Apple since 1983. From design to product strategy to brand and employee values, it’s a hard act to follow.
Earlier I blogged on the purpose of a business and the problems that can arise when organizations lack a clear sense of purpose, or when they define success narrowly in financial (shareholder-centric) terms. Today’s post focuses on business purpose and its links to corporate brand strategy. In the context of brand strategy, purpose energizes the […]
