brand framing
442 posts
How Not To Name A Startup Or Anything
A brand name is more than a word. It is the beginning of a conversation. ~ Lexicon Everyone can agree that there’s nothing really objectionable about calling your business ‘Bargain World’. It’s an innocuous name and most people won’t hate it. And that’s the problem. If you’re going to name your busi
Acknowledging The Fear
“Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.” Marianne Williamson People are scared. Especially people with big ideas and vision, who are doing great work. They are scared of doing the wrong thing, of making a misstep. Scared of
People Want What They Never Asked For
Everybody’s obsessed with finding a niche when what they should be doing is expressing a worldview. ~ Amy Hoy Have you ever been to a chocolate cafe? There’s a new one in town and we went to see what all the fuss is about. I’m not talking about a big franchise operation here— I’m talking…
What Is An Idea Worth?
“A single idea, the sudden flash of a thought, may be worth a million dollars.” Robert Collier If you’re here and reading this article you probably make your living, (or want to) by selling your art. You market your creative genius and your ideas. So what do you think one of your ideas is worth?…
Ruby Slippers
Every single idea becomes what you can communicate. Dorothy’s ruby slippers were magical. They sparkled, they shone and everyone including the wicked witches with all her power coveted them without knowing exactly how they worked and why. Naturally you want to explain to everyone how to tap their he
Your Mission Statement …
Your mission statement… … is true. … tells people what you do. … is personal and relevant. … talks about what happens today. … looks at what change is achieved because you exist. … stems from real values and reflects what you stand for. … is easily understood by everyone who works for you.…
Different Enough
“If you’re trying to please everyone, then you’re not going to make anything that is honestly yours in the long run.” Viggo Mortensen Every cafe tells the same story (or tries to anyway); ‘we serve the best coffee.’ Every non- profit tells us how our money will make an impact and every box of deterg
Taking Control Of Your Personal Brand
“Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.” Dr Seuss And dead or alive you know that you are going to be ‘Googled’. You may not be able to control what others say about you but you can take steps to tell your own…
What’s The Most Important Marketing Question In The World?
“The strongest principle of growth lies in human choice.” George Eliot Head down to your nearest Borders bookstore (while there still is one) and you’ll find hundreds of titles that all aim to help you answer this question. If Borders had asked the very same question and acted upon the answer they p
What Worldview Are You Marketing To?
“No matter how brilliantly an idea is stated, we will not really be moved unless we have already half thought of it ourselves.” – Mignon McLaughlin Sometimes our ideas spread because their time has come. Maybe because we’ve worked out who we need to be talking to and what some of those people are re
Understanding How To Spread An Idea
“Everyone who’s ever taken a shower has an idea. It’s the person who gets out of the shower, dries off and does something about it who makes a difference.” Nolan Bushnell So how do you begin to make an impact and spread an idea? 1. Create something that people want to talk about. 2. Give…
How Will I Know You?
The 1915 design brief for the original Coke bottle was simple. The criteria were that it must be recognisable in the dark and if it was broken. The result; a timeless, elegant solution which plays a huge part in creating a memorable brand story. Think about how you could apply criteria like these to
How Apple Succeeds By ‘Thinking Different’
“We’re not going to get a chance to get people to remember much about us. So we have to be really clear about what we want them to know.” Steve Jobs. Lots of people can do what you do as well as you can do it. If that’s not the case and you’re lucky enough…
So…. What Do You Do?
Have you ever had difficulty explaining the really cool project you’re working on to people? You’re not the only one! Even really smart people get stuck at trying to tell us what they do. The founders of Instagram, (the iPhone app that is taking communication in the social space by storm), Kevin Sys
Framing Your Scarcity
Do you know a woman on the planet who wouldn’t get excited if she was handed this blue box? I bet if a behavioral economist studied this they’d find that on a scale of one to ten, the excitement about the contents would rate lower than the elation experienced on receiving the box. The scarcity…
There’s Only One Orla Kiely
There’s only one Orla Kiely but a hundred ways to experience her brand. A brand that appeals across generations from teens to youthful grandmothers. That doesn’t mean that Kiely’s multicolored designs inspired by the 1960s and 1970s appeal to everyone, quite the opposite. You will either love them o
What Makes A Good Tagline?
As entrepreneurs and brand builders we like to think that our tagline could be the thing that positions our brand uppermost in the minds of clients and customers. We want something original and unique, a brilliant one liner that will make us unforgettable. I am asked what makes a great tagline a lot
Make Meaning
Sharing your idea with the world has never been easier. You don’t even need the marketing budget of Revlon like you did in the old days. Today the best brands tell stories that people want to believe and make meaning before making money. Some of the biggest successes of our time, Facebook, Google an
Questions To Ask Before Launching An Idea
It’s not that hard to get really enthusiastic about your own great idea for a business, product, service or movement. But how do you work out if other people will be excited enough about it to spread the idea and buy what you’re selling? Launching something new might mean that you don’t have all the
Finding Ideas That Spread
You have ideas every day. Some are great, others are truly awful. So how do you work out which ideas deserve to be executed or which ones have a chance to succeed? It begins by understanding that the people you are trying to reach have an established ‘worldview‘, their own unique framework of ideas
