Gaylord Nelson, a United States Senator from Wisconsin held the first Earth Day in 1970. Here we are 41 years later and the movement seems to be losing steam. Is the brand losing ground despite the huge volume of media on the topic? General thinking is that we’ve collectively failed on the education front. How would you brand earth day to make it cool to the disinterested American teenager. Read more…
Social media is not far removed from the high school lunch room. You have the jocks sitting over there, the nerds there, the debate team, the tennis team, 4-H (we are in TX after all), and the loners. You get the point.
It stands to reason that those same self-selected groups would manifest themselves online. Set Facebook aside. It’s clear old high school and college chums congregate together. Where does that leave your business?
Are you one of the cool kids or are you a loner?
Chances are you are somewhere in between and in between is not always the best place to be. If you’re popular customers gravitate toward you, your products, your brand and more. If you’re a loner you know your place in the world and its not always a happy place.
What about everyone else in the middle?
You are overlooked.
Maybe it’s time to start thinking about how your company becomes the BMOC. Good products and services, a great story, and a great personality are the recipe for becoming the company others follow not a company that follows. Be bold! Go big or go home.
Hey, don’t be content with the middle or you’ll find yourself alone.
It’s only appropriate on this Valentine’s Day that we celebrate love. Isn’t love what we marketers strive for? I want people to love my brand, not like it. I want customers to love working with our team. Conversely, I want them to hate leaving so much they never leave. It is this love-hate relationship that we feel drives marketing today. However, there is no middle ground for today’s market leaders. Leaders are not prone to occupy the middle ground–the no-man’s land that causes customers or prospects to question our products, services and solutions. We want messages that are clear, solutions that are spot-on, and the confidence to deliver on the brand promise every time.
Love, love, love…
It’s cliche, sure, but love is not without merit in a world filled with marketing opportunity. Brand loyalty (love) provides a competitive advantage and increased lifetime customer value. We would love nothing more than that. Happy Valentine’s Day from the folks at VLG!
Thought leadership threatens the brand, but that’s not a bad thing. A quick read of the latest articles, posts, and podcasts confirm a widely held belief that thought leadership provides a company (or individual) with a competitive advantage. It’s a topic that can be overly complicated.At the end of the day thought leadership is little more than regular, plain old leadership. If buyers flock to the most competent, knowledgeable, trusted thought leaders in the industry for advice, products and solutions and buyers flock to the best brands, how do we get there from here?
Dana Vanden Havel’s “Why Thought Leadership Marketing is NOT Just Giving Information Away” Read Article
So far Dana’s article appeared in 5 Twitter posts. twitt(url)y