08.20.2017	Don't like me. Recommend me. Word-of-mouth may be the most valuable form of promotion, but not all shout-outs are created equal.	Marketing	about 3 minutes
08.13.2017	The Thing To Fear Fear is on the rise. Conventional wisdom suggests this is bad for brands and for marketers. But new research suggests otherwise.	Research	about 3 minutes
08.06.2017	Experts, Shmexperts When making your case, it's tempting to rely on experts. But consumers are increasingly shunning experts and relying on confident amateurs.	Influence	about 3 minutes
07.30.2017	The Power of Pause An order for shoes offers a case study in what's wrong with most email marketing and also reveals the seed of a cultural trend	Essay	about 4 minutes
07.16.2017	Marketing in the Time of Snapchat Branding relies upon a story that lives inside the consumer's brain. But that story is changing in an era when stories appear and evaporate in a fraction of a second.	Branding	about 5 minutes
07.09.2017	Symbols and Stereotypes What happens when your brand symbolizes something offensive to others? How much do logos incite bad behavior? The case of the Washington Redskins.	branding	about 3 minutes
07.02.2017	Is ESPN Destined to Become the Next Ticketmaster? As consumers continue cutting cords, ESPN is facing the biggest business challenge in its history. New research indicates its brand is also at risk.	Brands	about 4 minutes
06.25.2017	From Badging to Hacking Being t-shirt worthy was once the imperative for brand managers. But consumers have drifted away from badging brands to confer status. Instead, they seek ways to hack the brand's cultural currency to satisfy their social media reach.	Branding	about 3 minutes
06.18.2017	Are You In or Not? Making consumers feel that they are on the outside looking in is a common marketing tactic, but recent research indicates it might be very risky.	Strategy	about 3 minutes
06.11.2017	Do Brands Do Better by Going Green? Many brands are positioning themselves as environmentally-conscious leaders. But how much does a green brand strategy drive sales and influence brand attitudes?	Research	about 3 minutes
06.03.2017	No Pain. No Gain. Conventional wisdom dictates that brands should provide comfort to consumers and ease their pain. But a new study reveals circumstances when pain is welcomed.	Experience	about 3 minutes
05.14.2017	Sex and Brands According to recent data, Americans are having less sex. They're also having fewer children. What does it mean for marketers?	Consumers	about 3 minutes
04.30.2017	Fyre Danger What marketers can learn from the fate of the social media's newest favorite failure.	Culture	about 4 minutes
04.22.2017	Give The Gift of Experience New research on gift giving suggests that experiential gifts deliver more bang for the buck in building personal relationships	Research	about 4 minutes
04.15.2017	Unapologetic Data A fire hose of data both blesses and curses brand managers. The trick is not getting lost in the data or fogetting the humans it represents.	Essay	about 4 minutes
04.09.2017	From Habits to Rituals In the quest to become indispensable to consumers more brands should consider how they can ritualize their brand experience	branding	about 5 minutes
03.12.2017	When Labels Matter How the subtle use of specific words to define your target audience makes a significant difference in the performance of your brand	Branding	about 3 minutes
03.05.2017	Why the Uber Brand is Probably Not in Danger ... Yet Despite a spate of bad press and questionable behavior, most consumers will tolerate the Uber brand out of sheer necessity and proven behavioral economics.	Branding	about 6 minutes
02.12.2017	Confessions of a Strat-o-Saur Brands are relying on functional positioning more than ever before, raising the question: am I becoming extinct?	Branding	about 5 minutes
01.29.2017	Skip B-School. Study Life. The 3 subject areas to master if you want to become a great brand strategist	Branding	about 9 minutes
01.22.2017	Seduce Me Today. Love Me Tomorrow. Customer satisfaction is the driving objective of most successful brands. But new research suggests that satisfied customers are harder to please. What's a brand to do? Seduce them with the promise of something different tomorrow.	Consumers	about 6 minutes
01.15.2017	Rebooting the American Brand Does The American Dream still resonate with today's consumers? A new study says it might be fading. Three factors are key to connecting the promise of America with modern brands.	Branding	about 8 minutes
01.08.2017	Go Analog For all the excitement created by the latest innovations, American Greetings reminds us that some old-school products are equally great at capturing our hearts.	Branding	about 3 minutes
12.18.2016	Beyond Challengers. A cycle of brand types It's time to evolve our thinking about challenger brands. They are not an end-state, but rather a phase. Success depends on knowing when your challenger days have passed.	Branding	about 8 minutes
12.11.2016	The Hidden Life of Sharing The sharing economy grows and grows, but the richest value in sharing is lost. It's not what we send out but what we do together that makes sharing meaningful.	Consumers	about 7 minutes
12.07.2016	Acts of Curation In the marketing world, curation is the buzzword of choice. But what does it mean to be a curator and how do curators add value?	Culture	about 4 minutes
11.29.2016	And that's the way it is The news industry has a serious branding challenge. To regain its credibility and stature it may be time to start from scratch.	Branding	about 5 minutes
11.22.2016	System Quo In the wake of the 2016 Presidential Election Americans look toward the power of an abandoned status quo	Culture	about 5 minutes
11.15.2016	When Your TV Binge Doesn't Flow Binge-watching is growing and content creators are rising to meet the demand. But making it profitable presents a few specific challenges.	Media	about 3 minutes
11.12.2016	Why trolls troll As America reacts to a divisive election, many are flaming and unfriending on social media. What drives a friend to become a troll?	Culture	about 7 minutes
11.05.2016	When Men Decide Together, Compromise Takes a Hike A new study reveals that men are more likely to reject compromise when they make decisions with other men.	Research	about 6 minutes
11.02.2016	Burberry uses cinematic trailer to tell its story Burberry released a three minute Cinematic Trailer to celebrate its 160th anniversary. But the real story revolves around what's missing.	Storytelling	about 1 minute
10.30.2016	Nomen-culture You can learn a lot about generational differences by looking at how each cohort names its babies.	Culture	about 5 minutes
10.22.2016	A Field Guide to Lies Mark Twain claimed there were three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics. Best-selling author and neuroscientist Daniel Levitin's new book A Field Guide to Lies revisits this sentiment.	Interview	about 73
06.06.2016	Grit: The Essential Ingredient Conventional leadership literature is obsessed with talent. Author Angela Duckworth argues such fascination is misplaced.	Interview	about 63
12.07.2014	20 Minutes of Storytelling While it is easy to fall prey to writer's block, it is just as easy to unlock a good story. This exercise will get you to a beginning, middle and end in less time than it takes to watch a sitcom.	Writing	about 1 minute
10.11.2014	How Google Works Google is one of the world's most admired companies. I had the privilege of interviewing Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg on their new book How Google Works	Interview	about 71
08.05.2014	Questioning the Decoy Price is an often over-looked brand touch point. And not because of what it says, but because of what it implies.	Marketing	about 3 minutes
01.23.2014	Brand Dependence It's often said that you are what you drive. The latest wave of Brand Dependence research indicates that might be more true than you realize.	Research	about 0 minute
11.09.2013	What your tech brand really needs For brands, awareness certainly matters, but it is a low-level measure of a brand's true strength. We suggest these five focus areas to truly ensure a brand's longevity and strength.	Branding	about 4 minutes
10.27.2013	What the world needs now: love-actions It's easy to get lost in the feeling of love. But love is also a verb. To feel it, you have to do it.	Essay	about 3 minutes
10.17.2013	The Maker Movement Manifesto: A conversation with Mark Hatch on a creative revolution Chris Anderson has called the maker movement the next big thing. Leading the way is TechShop. To learn more about how it is empowering a new generation of inventors and entrepreneurs I interviewed CEO Mark Hatch at Live Talks LA.	Interview	about 53
10.15.2013	A Historian's Thoughts on America's Identity When we think of brand identities we often forget that nations have them, too. Historian Joyce Appleby suggests a profound ideal that lies of the root of the American brand.	Identity	about 1 minute
10.12.2013	Telling a Story Without a Literal Narrative The word "story" makes many think of words. But a story can surface with images, sounds, even scents.	Storytelling	about 3 minutes
10.07.2013	Storytelling and Points of Relation When telling a story, clearly set your point of departure so that your audience can anchor in and relate from there.	Storytelling	about 3 minutes
10.04.2013	A Lesson in Storytelling from Ricky Gervais Ricky Gervais reminds us that whether you're writing a report for your job or penning a new novel, the key to good storytelling is relating.	Perspectives	about 1 minute
09.25.2013	Keep Pretending It's Jim Henson's birthday. And his note from the grave instructs us to focus on the things that really matter in this life.	Essay	about 3 minutes
06.14.2013	True Life Adventure A trip to Alaska reminds me of the adventures I imagined when I was a child and seduced by a forgotten Disney gem.	Reflection	about 1 minute
06.06.2013	Dollar Shave Club: Part IV In my ongoing ode to Dollar Shave Club, I commend them for smart brand extension.	Branding	about 1 minute
05.11.2013	Dollar Shave Club: Part III Dollar Shave Club continues its track record of brand consistency with the launch of Dr. Carver's Shave Butter.	Branding	about 1 minute
04.14.2013	Branding by price While many think that price is the antithesis of branding, it is actually a powerful positioning tool.	Branding	about 2 minutes
03.12.2013	The Naming Exchange While the memorability of your brand name matters, there's another facet of naming that matters more.	Branding	about 2 minutes
03.02.2013	Brand Real at Drucker Family Forum I ventured to KPCC's Drucker Family Forum to chat with Matt DeBord about my new book, Brand Real	Brand Real	about 0 minute
02.04.2013	In defense of Super Bowl commercials ... when executed well The death of advertising is a bit premature, especially when considering the category's standard-bearer: the Super Bowl spot.	Advertising	about 3 minutes
01.19.2013	Selling Well with Daniel Pink I interviewed Daniel Pink about his new book, To Sell Is Human for Live Talks LA.	Interview	about 70
12.07.2012	What it really means to be a Challenger Brand Challenger brands are a unique species identified by three essential qualities.	Branding	about 4 minutes
07.20.2012	From Mad Men to Brand Real Mad Men's Don Draper delivered compelling truths to his fictional clients. Today’s business managers need their own reality check.	Brand Real	about 0 minute
06.18.2012	Typecasting and Brand Architecture Human beings are natural categorizers. Brand architecture is how a brand satisfies our need to sort.	Branding	about 3 minutes
05.14.2012	The Hunt for Real Creativity in Advertising It has never been more important for advertisers and brands to consider the story they want to tell consumers. The answer is not in the ads.	Advertising	about 4 minutes
04.25.2012	Great Brand Experiences Change Behavior The best brand experiences compel consumers to behave in specific ways.	Branding	about 2 minutes
04.10.2012	What Avon Can Learn from Instagram Avon just hired a new CEO to reverse an ongoing decline in sales. Her best advice might come from some unlikely digital sources.	Branding	about 3 minutes
03.31.2012	Stuck on You The real value of a brand isn't how much it is liked by people. It's how much people feel the brand is like them.	Brand Real	about 1 minute
03.20.2012	The 2 Critical Story Skills They Don't Teach in School Storytelling is ingrained in the human psyche, yet we do very little to teach our children to tell stories or to find them in the world.	Storytelling	about 1 minute
03.19.2012	What If Hipsters Designed Brand Logos? Life in the hipster branding world is a sea of ironic ubiquity.	Links	about 0 minute
03.17.2012	Leading a Brand A new study finds that transformational and transactional leadership is better for long-term brand health.	Branding	about 0 minute
03.14.2012	Dollar Shave Club, Part II Dollar Shave Club is an excellent example of Brand Real. It marries a credible promise to a compelling experience.	Branding	about 1 minute
03.07.2012	The Folly of Standing Out Before Standing Up Authenticity and service-delivery are the gold standards by which brands are judged. The outdated premise of standing out first comes with a lot of baggage.	Branding	about 1 minute
03.05.2012	Scout's Honor There are many words used to describe a brand's platform. But one word is often conspicuously missing.	Branding	about 3 minutes
02.20.2012	Wage a Campaign Inside The campaign methods used by political entities are a good model for making change inside a brand.	Branding	about 2 minutes
02.20.2012	The Road to and From Memory Branding works on consumer memory. The best brands are easily memorized.	Branding	about 2 minutes
02.20.2012	Stake Promises, Not Positions Though they are often used interchangeably, a brand promise is very different from a brand position.	Branding	about 3 minutes
01.23.2012	Live or Memorex? There's a rebellion growing against brands. And it's driven by brands that think it's ok to fool consumers after they leave the cash register.	Branding	about 1 minute
12.12.2011	You Say Blackwater, They Say Academi In an effort to distance itself from recent history, Blackwater has rebranded. The business is the same. The name is now Academi.	Branding	about 1 minute
11.28.2011	5 Great Branding Books If you're looking to dive deep, here are five must-reads that capture critical perspectives in the art and science of branding.	Branding	about 1 minute
11.25.2011	Why is Black Friday Black? Color names can provide a powerful influence over brand identity--an influence that is often counter-intuitive.	Branding	about 1 minute
11.21.2011	Lifestyles of the Rich It's tempting to assume affluent consumers are shallow. But a new study demonstrates that the wealthiest favor brands that have a cause.	Culture	about 0 minute
11.21.2011	Laying Equity Several retailers have reintroduced layaway, and the results are surprising. Consumers value what you sell more when they work for it.	Branding	about 1 minute
06.05.2011	Answer the Question Great stories hinge on a question. This is as true for the great American novel as it is for a business report. To tell a better story, lean on your question.	Storytelling	about 5 minutes
06.19.2010	An open letter On the eve of a new iPhone, some heartfelt thoughts to Apple and his deadbeat friend.	Branding	about 1 minute
05.09.2010	Healthcare for Brands on A Budget In recessionary times brands need to monitor their health and make the most of every investment.	Branding	about 7 minutes
05.23.2009	Toward Sustainable Branding Is your brand a seasonal or a perennial? What does it take to brand for the long haul?	Branding	about 3 minutes
04.11.2009	Extensions and Deep Cues In a down economy many brand managers review their brand architecture to determine what to cut and what to nourish. A new study offers guidance.	Branding	about 3 minutes
03.06.2009	Branding in a Troubled Economy When times are tough, brands have new decisions to consider. Here's an overview of how to navigate the water.	Branding	about 0 minute
02.22.2009	Brand Preference, Experience and Memory Great brand experiences have a profound effect on the way consumers remember.	Branding	about 2 minutes
11.16.2008	The Dark Side How the US government seized control of a trademark to thwart a band of outlaws	Naming	about 0 minute
10.11.2008	Storytelling Architecture Narrative has an architecture. And it's the key to better branding.	Branding	about 2 minutes