We live in a world that correlates speed with business success. Often, it’s not about inventing the best solution. It’s about getting there first and then fending off competitors parallel to trying to get the product right. But building a brand is not a transaction or a campaign. It requires time. Those same fast-twitch muscles …more
Steve Jursa (EVP in the San Jose office) recently attended a presentation called “The Mind of the Engineer” by Aspen Core, the company that owns EE Times. They surveyed over 4,000 engineers around the world to better understand their day-to-day jobs, how they gather information and what their guilty pleasure on Netflix is (just kidding …more
As a student of thought leadership and brand building, I’ve watched with interest as the Brookings Institution has increasingly turned to owned media to tell its story. David Nassar, who leaves this his role as VP of communications and the effective Chief Marketing Officer at Brookings later this month, led this effort. I appreciate David …more
The idea of pulling from multiple marketing services agencies to create a single team to serve a large client isn’t a new idea. This is one of the more effective ways that the large holding companies throw around their weight. Omnicom used this model to win the McDonald’s ad business last year. WPP won the …more
The key to branding isn’t just knowing who you are and what you stand for. It also calls for communicating those very qualities to the outside world. Take the Singaporean store in the picture. Is there any question about its value proposition? Closer to home, everyone seems to think there’s a deep lesson in Donald …more
Communication professionals can learn a ton about storytelling from our advertising brothers. When you’re shelling out $4 million and change to create a single ad, it has a way of tuning one’s senses, a dynamic that typically doesn’t exist when PR crafts a pitch or writes a news release. With this in mind, I wanted …more
Most IT vendors have come to realize that their websites should be more than gloried product brochures. Yet, the transition has been more evolutionary than revolutionary. Blogs that initially highlighted breakthrough vegan dishes for the cafeteria gave way to communicating perspectives on industry issues. These same blogs transitioned to thought leadership platforms that begot a …more
It doesn’t matter whether you sell pizza, cars or solid state memory chips, every company grapples with the question: why should the customer buy me over competitors? Few companies try to compete on price, and even those that do are careful in how they play the low-price card. The next time you’re at Costco or …more
David Stern, who ruled the NBA as commissioner for 30 years before stepping down in 2014, deserves credit for making the long-term commitment to building the NBA’s brand in China. The arrival of Yao Ming certainly spiked interest as did Linsanity — yes I know while Jeremy Lin’s heritage is Taiwanese, he still impacted perception …more
