Branding Strategies in Marketing

When the founder left the industry-leading company where he’d worked for the better part of a decade to strike out on his own, he had big ambitions: to compete with his former employer on a global scale, with an offering that would set a new industry standard for ethics, safety, and client value.

He was soon joined by two colleagues he’d met during his 16-year tenure in the industry, who had also become friends. The three shared the same vision for improving the industry, and together they atta…

Are you looking to enhance your brand impact, drive sales, and achieve your revenue goals? Harnessing the power of brand messaging with category design is the key to unlocking growth and scaling your business.

In my experience, there are gaps between formal, traditional marketing statements, the pillars of marketing success, and the actual application and results of these structures. These statements are either too formal and wordy or too slapstick and trendy. The pillars used to build and defi…

While there are elements of a brand that need consistency, the overall strategy of building a brand needs flexibility. Your customers, the market, our society, and our culture are not the same as they were—and are not the same as what they will be in the future. Needs change. Wants and desires change, and your brand needs to be able to adapt.

Luckily, modernizing your brand online isn’t as difficult as you might think. Here are just a few tips to help you get started.

The Art of Social Media

Think about a person that you admire or has been a mentor to you.
Can you see them in your mind?
Feel how they make you feel?

Now, tell me about this person. Only I don’t want to know their name or their gender. I want you to describe their personality to me. Do they always make you laugh? Are they always running late? Do they have a quirky twitch that they do when they are thinking? Remember, do not tell me their name or gender.

I’m listening...

Now let me tell you about my person-> My perso…

One problem businesses have is in getting their businesses out into the world. The visibility of their brand and the value that they provide. Some leaders are naturally better at this than others. For some, they may be more introverted. While others might be more extroverted and better suited to getting their business and brand out there. Some may be investing all their time in the actual running of their business and might just not be quite sure which direction to take. The good news is that th…

“If you didn’t have a digital strategy, you do now or you don’t survive,” said Guillermo Diaz Jr., chief executive officer at software firm Kloudspot, and a former chief information officer at Cisco Systems Inc. “You have to have a digital strategy and digital culture, and a board that thinks that way,” he said in an article for the Wall Street Journal.

Technology is not new for businesses. It’s been a standard for a minimum of two decades. But not everyone embraced it, understood it, or recogn…

I remember having a conversation with a business owner years ago about branding. He was trying to convince me that a brand’s logo should NEVER, EVER change. At the time I had been in the industry for over a decade and knew that his intention was correct, but the reality couldn’t be more wrong. As I sat there listening to his reasonings—which completely contradicted each other, but that’s another story—I was taken back to my days in college and my History of Graphic Design book. There was an enti…

Mid-and-large-sized companies often take heat for not being more agile in their ability to pivot or change directions when there are market shifts. Excuses like “too big” or “there are too many moving parts” or “they’re all the same” are regularly heard.

There’s truth in that and it could also be a result of the lack of diversity at the top—the board. As you know, when I talk about diversity, I am referencing more than just the BIPOC and LGBTQ+ communities. I am also referencing the diversity o…

Over the last few years, I have worked with various podcast hosts and producers to improve their show and take it to the next level. Instead of sharing each one as a separate case study, I figured I would combine it into a frequently asked questions article.

What should I name my podcast?

Naming a podcast and naming your business are two different conversations. There are arguments for both approaches: giving them the same name and giving them a different name. It depends on what the conten…

The traditional belief in business is to build a decent product and sell it for a competitive price, reduce your costs as much as possible to maximize your profit, and have great marketing or advertising campaign to drive sales.

Well, that doesn’t work anymore.

Times have changed. Consumers have changed. Expectations have changed…and are continuing to change.

Yes, we are in business to make money. If you don’t make money, you won’t be in business. And, consumers are holding companies accounta…