Branding

Your brand is your emotional DNA. It’s that feeling a potential customer gets when they have a need and top of mind brings up your name. Your brand and the feeling you give them in the pit of their stomach is what determines whether you get that lead or if they’ll instead go to a competitor. Are you doing everything you can to carve out a positive brand identity? Do you know what a positive brand identity is?

The truth is brands could once be controlled, contrived even. Not so long ago consumers and their voices were fragmented and weak. Big companies could sweep issues under the rug without having to worry about the toll it would take on their brand. However, the birth of blogs, social media and sites like Twitter have banded consumers together, creating a much larger platform for them and a greater need for you to promote a positive brand image. Consumers have demanded that brands become transparent, authentic and that they deliver more value than ever before.

In this section of the blog you’ll learn the Who, What, When, Where, Why and How of corporate and personal branding. We’ll show you how to create a brand, how to manage it, and how to use it to create a compelling point of difference that attracts customers. We’ll even show you how to create that personal brand while working for someone else to help you get a better job.

If you have suggestions for posts we should do or techniques you’d like to see covered, contact us and let us know. Or, if you want to know how we can help you through our Internet marketing services, feel free to contact us about that, too.

It’s Not About The Starbucks Logo, Stupid

January 6, 2011

Hold on, kids. We have another logo apocalypse on our hands! If you caught any of the marketing or advertising blogs yesterday afternoon you probably heard the shocking news – Starbucks has changed its logo. I know. They did it and they didn’t even ask your permission. However, unlike Gap, it seems like Starbucks actually [...]

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Creating Your Own Brand Network Like Oprah Winfrey

December 20, 2010

The idea for an official Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) was first whispered nearly two decades ago. It was 1992 (and I was 10!) when Stedman, Oprah’s unofficial husband, suggested the mega-brand create her own television network to combat the negative vibe on the air at the time.  After years of inaction and a failed attempt [...]

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The 7 Habits Killing Your Personal Brand

December 7, 2010

As a society, we’re obsessed with brands. Nike, Apple, Coca Cola, Google – we’re drawn to them like football players to HS cheerleaders. And in the social media world, we’re even more obsessed. We’re constantly hearing conversation focused on brand, telling us how to build one, how to leverage one, and whose brand is bigger [...]

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Common Sense, For When Your Brand Won’t Save You

October 29, 2010

Brands have always walked around with a sense of entitlement. Whether we’re talking about a celebrity, a company responsible for a popular product or service, or someone who deems themselves Internet famous, there’s this idea that when you ARE the law, you’re above it and things simply don’t apply to you. And for a really [...]

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Talking Link Magnets with Aaron Kahlow

October 11, 2010

Heya, kids! As you may know, SES Chicago is right around the corner, hitting the Windy City October 18-22. Outspoken won’t be making the event this time around, but that doesn’t mean we can’t partake in the fun. Over the new couple of days we’ll be featuring interviews with some of the great minds slated [...]

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How To Save A Web Community’s Life

August 27, 2010

I’ve stopped responding to new comments on our Philly blogger tax post (don’t worry, still reading them). It’s not that I’m disinterested in the conversation or that I don’t value the time people are spending engaging there, it’s just too much. That conversation has spun in so many different directions and taken so many turns [...]

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Why Are You Scared To Be Outspoken?

July 30, 2010

[This post gets a little personal in my attempt to make a larger point. If that offends you, we humbly direct you to Search Engine Land, Twitter or Daily Puppy.  Pick your own poison. We'll see you tomorrow for Weekend Coffee Links.] My job is to help brands find their voice online. Interestingly, the first [...]

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What To Do When Branded Employees Leave (or go to Miami)

July 12, 2010

Last week a top player, someone who had spent seven years developing his name and his skill at one company, decided to leave and take a position playing for another. To make the situation worse, he did it in public. And with his own prime-time special. As an employer, this is pretty much your biggest [...]

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The Incongreenient Truth: Cost Effective Ways to Better Your Business While Saving the World

July 5, 2010

Oh beautiful! For smog-filled skies For sludge-mired Gulf Coast waves For countless landfills overflowed Trash flying o’er the plains! America! America! We’ve dumped a load on thee! But starting now I’ll try, somehow, To make it up, you’ll see! Happy American Independence Day! Guest blogger Virginia here, charged with getting outspoken on this fine holiday. [...]

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Building a Brand on Someone Else’s Dime

May 25, 2010

I’ll go ahead and say it – if you’re working for someone else and NOT actively creating your own brand, you’re wasting time and losing value. You need to change the way you work. Today. We’re living in the era of the branded employee. And despite popular belief, branded employees are not unstable, job-hoppers, and [...]

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