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Adventures in bias: Why focus groups will kill your brand

“Apple is famous for not engaging in the focus-grouping that defines most business product and marketing strategy. Which is partly why Apple’s products and advertising are so insanely great. They have the courage of their own convictions, instead of the opinions of everyone else’s whims.” — Dan Pallota, “Real Leaders Don’t Do Focus Groups” In…

Tip of the hat: Branding Bulleit Bourbon

This is the first installment of Tip of the Hat, a new series where we give a tip of the hat to brands who are doing it right.  The branding of Bulleit is delicious. Branding alcohol can be tricky. Sure, some people are willing to try whatever the barkeep is mixing, but on the whole…

Girls: the best reality show on television.

The phrase “Reality TV” is up there with the most misused phrases in the English language. What part of Reality TV is reality, exactly? Is it the Immunity Idols? Eight person communes designed for conflict by psychologists? Makeup-caked housewives yanking each other’s extensions for screen time? If this is reality, kill me now. Thankfully (and…

Branding is Just Like Life: Beginners only

There is a wonderful book called Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind by Shunryu Suzuki which lays out this thesis much more elegantly than I can. My thesis is that you know more about branding than the experts. The book begins with these words: “In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, in the expert’s there are…

Have it our way: Customization and censorship in branding

For $150, NikeiD lets you customize a pair of shoes with anything you want. Well, almost anything. The company has an official list of personalizations that it strictly prohibits. These include anything that “may seem objectionable” like profanity, inappropriate slang, potential trademark violations, celebrity names, certain color combinations, or just any material “that we do…

Branding is Just Like Life: Brand-speak not spoken here

Branding is just like life. Most marketing people put everything they know about branding into one bucket. And everything they know about people into another bucket. This is a serious mistake. If you look at branding as a pseudo-academic discipline, you’re totally missing the point. This is like the person who reads all the self help manuals…

The top five bumper stickers that bum me out

In a car, we’re a captive audience. This is probably because driving requires the use of our eyeballs, so we end up looking at a lot of bumper stickers. This is how we become acutely aware that the person in the red Subaru is really passionate about kale. Ultimately, I’m fine with someone trying to…

The 5 most compromising poses for Lululemon’s defective yoga pants

Lululemon have themselves in a twist. The athletic apparel maker announced this week they are recalling a line of their yoga pants because the Luon material is too see-through. So to avert potential over-exposure, here are the 5 yoga poses that you should avoid at all costs while wearing Lululemon’s defective pants. (If you’re easily offended,…

March 21: General Assembly branding seminar taught by Eli Altman

Failure to Communicate: The ten biggest branding mistakes startups make and how to avoid them. Taught by Eli Altman, Director of Strategy, A Hundred Monkeys Tuesday, July 24th from 6:30 – 8pm Class Description: Most startups are guilty of gross negligence when it comes to branding. This class is for anyone who wants their company…

Simile, but different

Analogies can be useful for bringing clarity into the world, but they can also get in their own way. Leading someone from A closer to B has a time and place, but comparisons can also turn into gross oversimplifications. I recently overheard someone describe a work as Picasso-esque. Really? I’m skeptical. Picasso lived a long…

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