Project Clarity

The steps you take to brand and market your professional services firm is not radically different from your steps up the corporate ladder. In either case, it’s typically not an overnight accomplishment - and if it is, you’ve probably done something disingenuous or perhaps illegal to get there. Is that the “60 Minutes” […]

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My buddies at My Creative Team have moved their exhaustive blog (of which I’m a contributor). If you’re not a subscriber yet, check it out. If you have been following it, reset your RSS feed; it’ll be worth the effort.

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Ted Mininni, president of Design Force, writes in the Marketing Profs blog about the tendency to put a new face on a product to try to achieve instant fresh appeal with consumers. Whether is repackaging, a new package design, or a new name to the same old stuff, this represents a quick-fix mentality that […]

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Check out the results of the three-minute online survey of marketers from My Creative Team.

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From product and service attributes all the way down the line to product delivery and subsequent customer support, branding opportunities permeate B2B touchpoints. Harry Hoover, in his Think blog, unearths a great article from bnet on branding products and services in the B2B world.
Here’s a simple, yet tried-and-true tactic from the article:
“In many industries, […]

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Previously, I wrote about how RSS could replace e-mail in terms of catering more to the individual’s preference for receiving opt-in information.
Chris Garrett makes an excellent point on this need for more personalization in RSS, calling for a next-generation RSS that would allow the feed to recognize and acknowledge the person reading the information. […]

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Harry Hoover and the folks at My Creative Team have published an excellent, concise article on 11 ways to promote your website.
The bottom line:  to receive you must give.  Share ideas, thoughts, words, articles, anything you’ve got that’s germane to what you do and you’ll receive legitimate attention.

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The Brains on Fire Blog relays news of JC Penney’s new tagline, “Every Day Matters.”
Apparently, this is another example of how bringing on a new agency often yields a new tagline. Oh, yes, there’s the quote from agency representative about “resonating with consumers.”
Is it a new day at JC Penney? I don’t think […]

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Master landscape architect Frederick Law Olmstead, designer of New York’s Central Park as well as the grounds of George W. Vanderbilt’s Biltmore House and the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, liked to talk to strangers while crisscrossing the country by train to check on work in progress.
In June 1893, on a trip to Asheville, NC, from […]

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The 30-second elevator pitch is the compressed, concise, persuasive and authentic version of your story. Examples of good ones?
Idea Sandbox recommends we look closely at the 30-second narrations at the beginning of TV shows. And it’s great advice. Check that out.
Also, Startup Nation features elevator pitch contests on its podcasts.

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My demographic, GenX, is enamored with the Baby Boomers. We appreciate their idealism, even through our standoffish indifference. A case in point: I was at a party in 1987, an outdoor affair in the springtime out in rural Chatham County, North Carolina. Dr. Bob was there, as usual. A research scientist, a biologist I believe, […]

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