My friend and great keynote speaker Randy Gage turned me on to this article the other day: “University of Georgia football fans are taking their fandom to the next level ahead of a game between the Bulldogs and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Dill’s Food City, a grocery store chain whose owners are known locally ...
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 ...
Are you familiar with the psychological phenomenon called the Benjamin Franklin effect? It’s where a person who has already performed a favor for another person is more likely to do a second favor for the same person than if they had received a favor from that person. Psychologists hypothesize that people believe they help others ...
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 ...
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 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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
If you’ve read this blog for any length of time you know that I periodically write about the meetings I attend. You might also remember that I attend a lot of meetings and that I hate meetings. Of course, the smart question should be why I attend so many meetings if I dislike them so ...
There are as many motivations for building brands as there are people who build them. But if you step back from your marketing efforts for a moment and truly look at the why of what you do you’ll probably find some insight into building a better brand is based in one of five critical brand motivation drivers.
Unless Bernie Sanders can appeal to the Democratic Super Delegates’ sense of fairness and get them to reconsider their commitments based on the outcome of the most recent state primaries and caucuses, our November presidential contest will be between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. As I see it, this election is an incredible opportunity for ...