I like it when I see a collection of political candidate signs clustered together on someone’s yard. Especially when the assortment includes a sign for their preferred presidential candidate. That’s because as much as I try to stay up-to-date with local and regional politics, I often don’t know about a specific commissioner, judge, or state ...
My father was a general contractor on Miami Beach in the 1960s. As innovative as my dad was, the business was still a rather analog affair. Supplies were delivered on flatbeds, building materials were inventoried on a clipboard, boards were nailed together by hand, and job sites were cleaned up by laborers with shovels, push ...
Gloria and I were watching some music awards show where Bruno Mars was performing Amy Winehouse’s song Valerie. During the performance, the horn players were doing a little dance when all of a sudden they jumped up and did a coordinated dance move. Of course they did it at precisely the same time. If you ...
Not very long ago – sometime in early to mid-April – it seemed as if almost everyone I know was calling and telling me they were how concerned they were. Covid. Unrest. Lockdown. Politics. The economy. Despite their concerns, the common word they all seemed to use was “uncertainty.” After hearing different versions of the ...
You know the old joke: How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, man, practice. Here’s today’s version: How do you write a book? Write, man, write. At least once a week someone asks my advice about writing a book. The conversation usually goes something like this: Potential author: “Hey Bruce… you’ve published a bunch ...
Recently all of these storied brands have come under protest and scrutiny for being offensive: Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben’s, Mrs. Butterworth’s, Eskimo Pie, Barbie, GI Joe, the Washington Redskins, the Cleveland Indians, the Atlanta Braves. How about all of those Disney movies you grew up with? Jungle Book, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Or ...
Back in 1996 I was browsing the shelves of a bookstore (remember them?) when I happened across Caleb Carr’s novel The Alienist. I was already a big fan of historical fiction, especially concerning the Victorian age, and the book became an instant favor of mine. My memory of it was so strong that when I ...
What is an interrobang? Go ahead, I’ll give you a minute to rummage around in the dusty, musty recesses of your brain. Need a clue? Here’s what it’s not… An interrobang is not a new military interrogation technique. It’s not the definition of the whole process of an explosion. And it’s most definitely not a ...
Don’t Race What You Can’t Replace. When I was in my early 30s, I was finally able to buy my first Porsche Carrera. Before you think I’m showing off, it was a used 911 and the culmination of a lifelong obsession I inherited from my father. And before you think it was a mid-life crises, ...
It’s time to be honest with yourself. You know all the things you’ve been meaning to do but just didn’t have the time? Organize your closets maybe, weed the garden or write that book you’ve always been meaning to write? Here’s a newsflash – if you haven’t started these things during the three months of ...
The Serenity Prayer and The Coronavirus. American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr composed his famous Serenity Prayer in 1923. Throughout the 1930s and 40s the prayer spread throughout church groups and was adapted by Alcoholics Anonymous and other 12-step programs without attribution to the original author. According to Wikipedia, Niebuhr used it in a 1943 sermon in ...
Surprises From The MasterMind About ten years ago I heard about a MasterMind that was being created for what I’m calling the “superstar speakers.” It was put together by the top seven or eight money-makers in my industry. I wanted into that club. Badly. Or so I thought. So I signed up for the three-day ...
My father was an innovative and very successful real estate developer. The Miami Herald called my dad “The Father of Florida Condominiums.” That was because he built the first residential condo in the United States – and the first office condo in the world. As a kid growing up on Miami Beach, I used to ...
When my kids were little and we’d go on road trips, sooner or later the whining would begin. “Are we there yet?” “I’m hungry.” “She touched me.” “I have to go to the bathroom.” No matter what I tried, I couldn’t get them to stop. Until one day we hit on an alternative solution. Instead ...
My friend Cathy Berkowitz ran a risk-management consulting firm. She and her business partner would tour factories and recommend the steps needed to protect companies against potential calamities. Cathy soon discovered that the problem with her business concept wasn’t that her services weren’t needed, but that prevention is the most difficult thing to sell. Why? ...
Each of us is coping with our reactions to the Coronavirus Crisis in different ways. Our opinions and reactions are based on our own circumstances — how our health and businesses are faring, how much money we have in the bank, where we are sheltering-in-place and whom we are sheltering with, how our loved ones ...
Coronavirus and the Tyranny of Seamlessness. Ironically enough, one of the most important aspects to shooting good video is the audio. I’ve learned that viewers will put up with fuzzy shots or shaky images, but if the sound is bad or hard to hear, they’ll sign off almost immediately. Because of that, I’m always fretting ...
25 Things I’ve Discovered by Sheltering-In-Place I’ve discovered that practice does not make perfect. Proof: I’ve played so much guitar in the past six weeks that I’ve developed those little round calluses on the tips of my fingers. Playing doesn’t hurt anymore, but I haven’t gotten any better either. I’ve discovered how important motion is. ...
People To Help You Cope With the Coronavirus Crises. The Coronavirus outbreak has given new meaning to the term, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” And thanks to Coronavirus we’re all dealing with the “new normal.” But pretty soon we’ll just call it “normal.” This new global pandemic affects all of us ...
Up on stage as the opening keynote speaker, I explained to my audience why their efforts branding their businesses by promoting the functions of what they sell or what they do was ineffectual. Instead, I suggested they should spend their time establishing an emotional connection with their customers. I showed them why this would both ...
My plane to Cabo was scheduled to leave at 2:45 and we pulled up to the airport a little less than an hour before that. Gloria was off for the day, and she was nice enough to drive me herself, so we had left the house a bit early to enjoy a quick lunch together ...
My good buddy Tom Todoroff is one of the leading acting and best keynote speaker coaches in the world. Even though I have no evidence to confirm my hunch, I’m pretty sure that Michael Douglas’ character on the Kominsky Method is based, pretty accurately, on Tom’s life. A quick scan of the testimonials on Tom’s ...
Newton’s Third Law of Motion states: “Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.” Later, The Byrds rerecorded Pete Seeger’s interpretation of a passage from the Book of Ecclesiastes: “For everything, (turn turn turn) there is a season.” And so, we all believe that one thing causes another. The Butterfly Effect It’s natural to believe ...
An article about Hyundai’s new Genesis in Road & Track Magazine caught my eye: “Genesis has always offered good value. Now, it’s starting to offer an identity.” Reading the first two paragraphs I knew this article was for me. And for you. “Value is great. Money matters, dollars talk, and nobody wants to get hosed. ...
If you’ve been reading anything about the goings on at Art Basel in Miami, you’ve probably heard about the $120,000 banana. If you haven’t, here’s what my buddy Keith Harmeyer wrote about the most talked-about work of art at this year’s show: Duct-taped Bananas The banana, duct-taped to a wall, was the work of Italian ...
The small conference rooms held about twenty people in their late twenties or early thirties. Their job was to sell Bacardi products to legal drinking age (LDA) consumers. I started our presentation by showing the different bars we visited around the country. Then I showed a random sampling of people we spoke with during our ...
Do It Differently My Miami running group meets bright and early at 5:45 AM to get our sweaty miles in. Often when we invite new runners to join us, or when I’m telling people about our regular runs, they want to know why we meet so early. One of the reasons is so the young ...
Have you ever noticed that when a politician makes the news for a bribery conviction the amount of money they got caught taking is always surprisingly low? $1,500 here, $5,000 there. All for sacrificing their honesty, integrity, reputation, career, etc. Granted, they might not have had either of those first two assets to begin with, ...
Bobby Ingram died last month. Bobby was a stage engineer, high school theater teacher, union stagehand, merchant marine, dolphin captivity activist, navy veteran, father, husband, recording artist, songwriter, raconteur, folk-rock troubadour, and so much more. He was also my friend. Last week Bobby’s community got together and remembered him with a memorial service and celebration ...
Buying and Selling. Frank Kiick was one of the best-dressed men I ever met. His shirts and suits were always immaculate and precisely tailored to fit his lanky frame. His beard was perfectly trimmed and his accessories — tie, cufflinks, watch, shoes — were always just right. So imagine my surprise when I walked into ...
I was speaking at a conference in Denver and met a very successful entrepreneur who told me he wanted to be a keynote speaker. I offered to show him the ropes and let him know what it would take. “When are you going to be out west again?” he asked. (I live in Miami. He ...
When I was a kid, there was a head shop in our neighborhood called The Great Train Robbery. Perched in their window was a black light poster that featured two seedy-looking vultures lurking on the limb of a dead tree. One says to the other, “Patience, my ass. I’m gonna kill something.” Years later, I’m ...
My friend Carlos Oramas, CEO of the Gems Group, took a weekend off to spend time with his 10-year old daughter. Carlos and some friends went on a father-daughter cruise on a Royal Caribbean (RCCL) ship. His plan was to enjoy the amenities and the open sea, and to spend some quality time with his ...
Minutes after I walk on stage as a keynote speaker presenting on brand building, I reach into my pocket and pull out a little harmonica. After a quick introduction, I play “Minuet in G” by Johann Sebastian Bach. Once I confirm that everybody recognizes the tune (despite my tortured rendition) I play another tune, this ...
My friend Naomi owns my favorite breakfast spot — the Madruga Bakery in Coral Gables, right across the street from the University of Miami. The best croissants in the world The Madruga Bakery serves the best croissants I’ve ever tasted, including ones I’ve oohed and aahed over in France, Italy and Spain. Along with the ...
Things I Don’t Like. In No Particular Order. I don’t like when people wearing earbuds or iPods approach smiling because of what they’re listening to, not because they’re happy to see me. I don’t like not picking people up at the airport simply because it’s easier to take Uber. I don’t like new apartment buildings ...
An article in AdWeek Magazine titled “The Survivors” promised to teach readers, “How to make it as an indie agency in the merger era.” (For those of you not in the advertising agency business, that means how small, independent advertising agencies can survive without being gobbled up by one of the giant advertising conglomerates that ...
It’s not the most attractive image, I know. But I got up from the table with something stuck between my teeth. I walked through the dining room to the front counter looking for the little cup filled with toothpicks. After circling the front desk and reception area a few times, I gave up and asked ...
Regular readers of this blog know I’m an unabashed car fanatic. As a good buddy of mine (whose passions run to full-bodied cabernets) once told me, “I have a friend who says I’ve never met a wine I didn’t love for some particular nuance or reason. I think the same rule applies to you and ...
Because I believe so strongly in making my brand All About Them, I sometimes have to remind myself to take a step back from pontificating about building brand value. Instead, I need to spend more time understanding the issues and concerns my clients and readers have and try to give them proven tools, tips, and ...
In 1984 IBM’s share price skyrocketed and they were the darling of Wall Street. But ten short years later, IBM lost over $8 billion, the biggest loss in corporate history at the time. In response, the company completely revamped its strategy, moving from a product-based business to a service business. IBM spent over $30 billion ...
Patagonian Tooth Fish was considered by-catch trash fish until 1977 when fisherman Lee Lantz changed its name to make it more appealing to American consumers. Even though the fish is not necessarily caught in Chilean waters and isn’t technically even a bass, Chilean Sea Bass is so popular that today it’s dangerously overfished. As early ...
A few years ago, I visited Graceland, Elvis Presley’s home in Memphis. After oohing and ahhing in the Jungle Room and checking out Elvis’ cars and airplanes, we walked through the museum. Behind the glass was a huge collection of Elvis memorabilia; Guitars, motorcycles, posters, and mannequins dressed in his various stage and movie costumes. ...
A friend and I spent some time talking about her business. The next day I received a lovely thank you note from her. “Thank you for your generosity yesterday Bruce – You really got my wheels spinning in creative ways. I can get some interesting URL options based on our conversation. I wasn’t sure which ...
From an accounting point of view, the distinction between the assets and liabilities is simple: Assets are the items you or your company owns that can provide future economic benefit. Liabilities are what you owe other parties. Assets make you money, liabilities cost you money! But when it comes to your brand and your product or service, the distinction ...
My wife and I were celebrating our eighth wedding anniversary in Florence, Italy. We were having dinner at a wonderful restaurant with our curly headed six-year-old Danny and two Roman dentists whom the restaurant’s owner had sat with us at the big rustic table. The dentists didn’t speak any English and we didn’t speak any ...
At first, I wanted to cry. Three of my longtime readers unsubscribed from my blog this week. I didn’t know which of their notes was more cutting. One simply wrote, “delete me from your mailing list.” “Mailing list?” “Delete me from your MAILING LIST?” Is that all we’ve meant to each other? These essays are ...
The speed of evolution is measured by the genetic changes of a species over time. If these genetic changes occur over a short period of time, the speed of evolution is defined as “fast.” Of course, “fast” is a matter of interpretation because, evolutionary speaking, a short period of time is defined as thousands of years. If thousands of ...
It used to be that a sincere “I’m sorry” was accompanied by a bouquet of flowers and a sappy card. Then life went back to normal. For companies, fixing a mistake usually meant a generic apology by the CEO and a conscientious program set up to rectify whatever wrong the company was apologizing for ...
It’s time for you to market your business like a pickup truck. That’s because Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) is about to release their 2020 Jeep Gladiator; a midsized truck based on their best-selling Wrangler four-door SUV. The Gladiator is a nostalgic recreation loosely inspired by Jeep’s original Gladiator pickup truck that was built between 1962 ...
Last week I received an email from my friend Randy. Over time I’ve been helping Randy with his business: “Hey Bruce, I got a call from a potential client yesterday. He had been referred by someone I didn’t recognize. That person must have known of me thanks to my blog. After the conversation, I sent ...
Do you ever wonder where the writers for Saturday Night Live get ideas for their skits? How about where the comedians on the show get ideas for their characters? I think I know. While I’m writing this post, I’ve already spent an agonizing eight hours sitting in a city council review board. I’m pretty sure ...
Hermés uber status symbol, the Birken Bag, range from $12,000 to more than $200,000. Fortune Magazine suggests that they might be a good investment because “Earlier this month, a single handbag sold at a Christie’s auction in Hong Kong for $223,000, breaking a world record for handbags sold at auction. That record-setting handbag was a ...
Here’s a fascinating dichotomy: The management structure in most hotels is very hierarchical. The org chart pyramid starts at the top with the owner, then the General Manager, then the department directors (Food & Beverage, Housekeeping, Grounds Keeping, Operations, Administration, etc.), then the supervisors, and so on. At the base of the pyramid, both in ...
Lots of brand consultants like to use an exercise where they ask their audience this question: “If your brand was a car, what car would it be?” They use cars because most people have a good understanding of what the different car brands stand for – Jeeps are rugged, Toyotas are dependable, Mazdas are fun, ...
Years ago I was introduced to a brilliant woman who was doing business with a friend. When we met, she gave me a copy of her book – a New York Times bestseller that I had heard a lot about. I read it across the weekend and found it interesting. A few years after we ...
Let’s try an experiment. Let’s dispassionately examine some of the phenomena that are front and center in our national zeitgeist these days. Please don’t be swayed by whether you agree or disagree. Just try to let the idea of what people are thinking about wash over you without judgment: Gillette ran an ad suggesting that ...
I was reading The Piano Shop on The Left Bank when I came across the following phrase, attributed to piano virtuoso György Sebök: “There is no such thing as a music note by note just as there is no such thing as a book word by word. We have to accept that things are ambiguous.” Author ...
Here are some interesting online marketing facts for you: Over 70% of B2B marketers confirm that video is more effective than text for brand building. A study done a few years ago reported that social video outreach generated 1200% more shares than text and images combined. Business Insider reports that more than 500 million hours ...
I’m sitting in the second row of the big conference room listening to the keynote speaker at a corporate event. Every few minutes the speaker raises his hand and asks the audience if they’ve experienced whatever it is that he’s talking about. “How many of us,” his hand goes up and he looks at us ...
New years are great times to look back and look forward – to evaluate how you did in the year that just ended and plan for the year to come. When it comes to your brand strategy and building your personal brand, the new year is also the perfect time to plan for how you’re ...
Want to know how to ask for money? Pull off any expressway and down onto any exit ramp in any big city in America and you’ll probably have this same experience: As you slow down on the exit ramp, you’ll see a man or woman in soiled clothes and filthy sneakers standing at the red ...
Uber’s new CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi, is new to his position, but a recent email to employees proves he is a thoughtful inspirational speaker.When UK officials announced that they would not renew Uber’s license to operate in London, Uber announced its plan to appeal the decision. Moreover, Uber’s chief executive sent a remarkable email to his employees: “While the ...
American mythologist Joseph Campbell was best known for his theories on the power of stories and myths. Campbell’s theory of the “monomyth” held that all great myths and stories throughout history are simply variations of one powerful meta-myth. Campbell’s theory was so universal, he was even able to extend it to our belief or disbelief ...
“I went to Whole Foods for the first time since they were bought by Amazon. I read they lowered the price of salmon to $9.99/lb. Wow! We love healthy salmon! They do have salmon for $9.99. But after reading the 5-point type, I saw that all of their lower-priced salmon is farm-raised. WTF? Whole Foods sells ...
There are a lot of reasons why I don’t ever check my bags when I get on a flight: First, I believe that there are only two kinds of luggage; carry-on and lost. Case in point, Gloria and I attended an over-the-top 50th birthday party in Austria that included a black-tie dinner in a Viennese ...
I love old Porsches. I’m partial to air-cooled 911s but I find vintage 356s fascinating too. There are plenty of other cool old cars that always make me look twice, but nothing says “damn” better than a classic Porsche. I love music. Blues, rock, salsa, and classical are my favorite genres. But as long as ...
Here’s a thought: If we want to increase our success, why don’t we stop concentrating on what our products or services do and start focusing on what they do for our customers? In other words, what if we stop emphasizing our function and start promoting the results of that function? I’m not talking about doing ...
A very nice email popped up on my laptop the other day. It was from a woman who had heard me speak at a recent conference and wanted to update me on what she’d done with the ideas I presented. Here’s what she wrote (I changed a few words to make sure her identity remains ...
It used to be that a sincere “I’m sorry” was accompanied by a bouquet of flowers and a heartfelt card. Then life went back to normal. And for companies, rectifying a mistake usually meant a generic apology by the CEO and a conscientious program set up to rectify whatever wrong the company was apologizing for ...
Willy Walker walked purposefully to the center of the stage and addressed the 400 people in the audience. “Late last night I wandered through the hotel lobby. A maintenance engineer asked me if I needed help and I told him I was looking for the gym. Instead of just pointing me in the right direction, ...
For years Google has crowed about their code of conduct, “Don’t be evil.” In 2015 they doubled down on the concept, if not the actual words, when they introduced their new tagline “Do the right thing.” As the company explains in their code of conduct, ““Employees of Alphabet (Google’s parent company) and its subsidiaries ...
By Fried On Business Jim Fried of Fried On Business talks to Bruce Turkel, CEO and ECD for TURKEL Brands in Miami, FL. Turkel uses a unique combination of creativity and business acumen to help companies build their businesses by making their brands more valuable. Turkel is a serial entrepreneur who has created many successful ...
Seven or eight years ago I found myself running into the same predicament over and over again. Our advertising agency would present our branding and marketing concepts to our clients and they would want objective assurances that our ideas would work. Although we were quick with pithy retorts to their requests such as, “Testing creative ...
A few months ago I made a presentation titled Building Brand Value to a group of industrial service providers. While I spoke there were about 300 people in the room furiously scribbling notes. As soon as I finished talking, a bunch of hands went up and the crowd peppered me with questions.
I was talking to Mark, my new business guy, and he wanted to know if I respond to the new business leads I find with Google Alerts. When I told him I do, he asked what my success rate was. It didn’t take a second of thought to come up with the answer – almost ...
A childhood friend of mine runs a very advanced consulting business. He recently confessed that he wasn’t getting enough leads and wasn’t converting those he did get into sales. We spent a few hours applying the seven points of Building Brand Value to his business. Here’s the (edited for length, believe it or not) e-mail ...
Time and time again we talk about Building Brand Value by differentiating your product or service based on organic advantages. Here’s a beautiful ad, created for the Three Kings Hotel On The Rhine and placed in Lifestyles Magazine. This ad, aimed specifically at an affluent Jewish audience offers them a heartfelt benefit that resonates with ...
As you may know, I spend a lot of my time traveling the world speaking on building brand value and creativity. I also teach presentation skills and help people with their own presentations. So I’m always watching great speakers and looking for tips and techniques to make my presentations better. Recently Business Week published an ...
Thanks to Google Alerts, I found this great review of my book, Building Brand Value, on the Beyond Madison Avenue blog. Because I believe in always celebrating the good stuff, I thought a quick blog post was in order. Thanks for indulging me! And thanks for the great review!!
Surprised by the results? The Knowland Group recently released this study, and you can read more about it here. Really talks to our concept of Building Brand Value, doesn’t it, where a destination is more desirable because of its brand name.
