Helpful words

Rebranding process: Don’t let the crowd scare you

Let’s get the aphorisms out of the way: Change is hard, change is inevitable, and change is constant. When it comes to designing a smarter rebranding process, one that keeps these fundamental truths in mind, companies still have a lot to learn. Because people are more engaged with brands than ever before. And if they…

Branding is Just Like Life: Don’t squeeze the bloody life out of it

I grew up in a little beachfront enclave called Sea Gate, which was at the entrance to New York harbor.  My mother would take me in the stroller down to Nathan’s Hot Dogs in Coney Island. The hot dog was probably for her because I was still breast feeding. She told me later that she…

Building a brand: Virgin America

I have heard the interiors of Virgin America planes described as everything from “swanky” to a “strip club in the sky.” While it might not be everyone’s style, it’s certainly better than your other options. Unless you prefer the Reagan-era textiles mottled with burnt coffee you might find on Delta. What’s great about how Virgin…

Branding is Just Like Life: Somebody has to own the brand

When you are creating a brand, the first thing you need to be true to is yourself. Do not share the ownership of your brand with anyone else. This does not mean that your corporate brand is your private property. This does not mean you have to be a brand Nazi. It is more like…

Building your brand for women

Are you building your brand for a female audience? Some companies see this as a straightforward question with a formulaic answer. There’s even a term for female-focused brand strategy that might be one of the worst phrases in the English language. Build your brand in two easy steps! Just “shrink it and pink it.” Shrink…

Creative product names: Mechanical Turk

Amazon has a knack for naming. The company is named after the longest river in the world – a fitting moniker for the biggest shop in the world. They have creative product names as well. Kindle is easily the best-named e-reader. A9 is a bit of a dud, but we’ll let that one slide. But by…

Branding is Just Like Life: Only don’t make it up as you go along

There are a lot of obnoxious stories out there about personal branding. This is not intended to be one of them. My own belief is that life is commercial enough without dragging branding into your personal life. But, allow me to borrow that idea for a moment to make a really useful distinction. Your personal…

company-name-machine

The greatest company name generator ever invented

There are a lot of company name generators out there. Pick a few prefixes and buzzwords and ta-da: 20 crappy name options. If you’ve ever used any of them you realize pretty quickly that you’ll probably have better luck finding a name by throwing darts at the phone book. Anyway, along comes a team of…

Is Facebook Home a good name?

It’s not a phone. It’s not an app. It’s something much more ambitious: software that integrates with your existing phone and brings your Facebook news streaming right to your home-screen. Instead of seeing your lock-screen as soon as you turn on your phone, or the rest of your apps when you unlock it, Facebook Home…

Branding is Just Like Life: Just let them be upset

There is a big difference between caring about what people think and worrying what people will think. In the case of Louis CK, he doesn’t care about either one. When asked if comedians should apologize for remarks that offend people, he said “If the heat gets hot, just let them get mad. Let them be…

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