Tedoo

Though he had his fair share of flops in his early days (Apple III, NeXT, Lisa) and some well documented personal flaws, probably the greatest “product design CEO” of our era was Steve Jobs.

I realize that I am writing about Jobs a little later than most, but I finally finished the massive 500 page W. Isaccson biography over XMAS & I wanted to jot a few thoughts down about the [...]

We all know the story…once upon a time in a decade far, far away (like the 50s) companies cared about their employees and lifetime employment was the norm.  Turnover was rare and employees expressed strong company loyalty–that’s sort of the cultural narrative anyway.

Then, a whole rash of things happened (globalization, deregulation, etc.) and the bond between company/employee was broken. Star employees became free-agents, able to find better deals with the [...]

Apparently the topic of “purpose driven marketing” was in vogue at the latest Association of National Advertisers convention in late Oct.  You can read all about it in this Ad Age article.

It is great to see the advertising community getting on board with purpose.  I hope they don’t treat the idea of standing for something beyond $$ as a fad.

The greatest brands all stand for something above and beyond profit

The [...]

Identity is a pretty complex “umbrella” concept that gets tossed around a lot. If you talk to someone in business/marketing, identity covers everything from a company name and logo, to an entire image or perceived set of values in the marketplace.

If you talk to a social scientist, they’ll use identity to describe a person’s expression of their individuality. Indeed, social psychologists will see identity as [...]

We all have our favorite brands. My favorite brands range from expected “Über” brands like Apple, to smaller European niche brands (like Bionade).

Sometimes folks who aren’t as familiar with marketing or brand building ask me about the purpose of a brand…what’s all the fuss with the brand stuff anyway?

Brands drive shareholder value

25% of all market capitalization is derived from brands.  Astonishingly, brands within some sectors comprise 70% of [...]