… and how to screw them up.

At a recent conference, I was asked what 2015 would be the year of. My response: 2015 will be the Year of Executive Awakening. Executives of organizations large and small will finally embrace modern branding. Even if just to play catch up, it still means that 2015 will be the year that the principles of social business will be embraced and promoted.

At the core of this shift from grudging acceptance to full endorsement are three branding essentials. But because old habits are hard to break, executives can still mess them up with traditional thinking and methods.Read More

The following post was written by Karli Enriquez, my summer marketing intern from St Edwards University in Austin, Texas.

Inevitably, there are countless elements that go into creating and executing an effective brand. Some are very easily recognized and understood, but others, not so much. One element easily overlooked as a tool for branding is leadership. Read More

Branding used to be the process of creating top-of-mind … primarily through impressions (i.e advertising). Brands were built by projecting a certain image then reinforcing it through name recognition, saturation and institutional trust. Images were protected, messaging was strict and sameness in the form of consistency was encouraged. This process built brands in every aspect of life: food products, cars, fuel, finance, fashion, etc.Read More