By: Greg Breeding - President & Creative Director at Journey Group. Iâve served as an art director for the U.S. Postal Service for seven years. Itâs a curious and delightful job and one that has brought me a great deal of creative fulfillment throughout my tenure. The...
By: Tyler Williams - Lead Link of the Brand Aura Circle, Zappos Here is our mindset shift at Zappos. One of our insights is that our current customers are incredibly loyal and love us. Similar to how my mother loves JC Penney and literally asks for...
Nobody buys anything for the sake of having it. Purchases always solve problems. And, problems are always driven by deeper needs. In between the problems and the deeper needs are tensions. These tensions are value-driven: in other words, they are driven by wanting the world...
While revolution must be led from the top, it rarely starts at the top. The spirit of revolution already exists in the hearts and minds of motivated employees and loyal customers. It shows up in the individual stories that employees tell about the work they do. And it shows up in the individual stories that customers tell about the products they love. Often a leader need only act as a kind of managing editor, shaping the stories to align with a shared vision.Marty Neumeier[1. Marty Neumeier, The Designful Company: How to Build a Culture of Nonstop Innovation, 2008.]
Despite what many agencies still claim, brands arenât logos or taglines and they canât be made or changed with a single ad campaign.
A brand is a living entity with three elements: vision, culture, and customer. These elements influence each other and collectively create a perception about the company. That perception is the brand.
Thereâs more than one way to create a brand. But, we think thereâs only one way to create a brand that will be relevant now and in the future. And, thatâs creating an Authentic Brand.
We are thrilled to tackle an opportunity-packed topic that impacts every industry. Because the topic of Cult Branding is so humanistic, we tried something new: We built a Google Slides version of the insights so you can present it to your team along with a worksheet to...
Google âHow to Say Thank Youâ and youâll get 2.18 billion results. Most are instructional. Itâs surprising that something we learned to do as children has that many search results. Somewhere in between childhood and adulthood, we forgot how to say thank you and, most importantly,...
The mall isnât dead, but it needs a makeover. The current model of the mall is broken. It no longer serves the purpose it once did: for adults, itâs no longer convenient; for teens, it seems too much like something uncool from their parentsâ generation to...
"Before I can tell you the story, you have to try the shot." - Fred Mossler Co-Founder Zappos. You mean the one with the scorpion in it? "Yeah and you should shoot it together, you definitely don't want to eat the scorpion alone." - Fred "BJ, The Scorpion...
A brand becomes stronger when you narrow the focus. Al Ries and Laura Ries, The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding. Keeping a brand on course is one of the most critical and difficult challenges executives face. A narrow brand focus will help keep your brand aligned with your...
âWould you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?â âThat depends a good deal on where you want to get to,â said the Cat. âI donât much care whereââ said Alice. âThen it doesnât matter which way you go,â said the Cat. ââso long as I get somewhere,ââAlice added as an explanation. âOh, youâre sure to do that,â said the Cat, âif you only walk long enough.â Lewis Carroll, Alice in WonderlandOrganizations that last know where theyâre going. They know how they want people to perceive their business and they know what they want to achieve.
In short, they have a strong vision.
Creating a strong vision is a key to long-term success: it gives you clarity on what you should and shouldnât do for the continuing health and prosperity of the company.
The vision, however, is only one of the keys to success, you must also have a purpose that drives the vision; and, you must have missions, strategies, and tactics to achieve your vision.