There is a fine line between what used to be called “cause marketing” and disingenuous virtue signaling in your marketing communications programs. I tend to prefer neither, and much prefer when your actual corporate values stand for something.
An example of the disingenuous kind of virtue signal marketing is when brands and marketers use “greenwashing” strategies.… Read the rest
A while back, a client hired me to conduct a PR and brand audit of the organization. The process involved establishing a set of questions to be used in interviews with a cross-section of key stakeholders. This sort of research always serves to tell an organization how it’s perceived among those most important to it, how they process information, where they get it and more.… Read the rest
One of my favorite quotes on branding came from Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, when he said, “Your brand is what other people say about you when you’re not in the room.”
So simple and so right.
Your brand isn’t your logo, your signage, your website’s design or your graphics package, though all support your brand.… Read the rest
Over the years, I’ve done my share of media training, and in the course of that, I’ve gotten very familiar with how other media trainers operate and what we all have collectively accepted as conventional wisdom when it comes to media training.
For instance, find one media trainer who does not teach you to speak in sound bites, and I’ll … well … I don’t know what I’ll do, but whatever it is it will be unlikely, because media trainers teach you to speak in sound bites.… Read the rest
The grass on baseball fields in Florida and Arizona is getting lush right now, ready for the annual rite that is Major League Baseball spring training and those sunny exhibition games. You don’t have to be a baseball fan to see the appeal of getting a taste of the warmer months ahead, if only by clicking on an online video for a few seconds or catching a game on television.… Read the rest