A little about the SBA Blog

Ed Burghard The Strengthening Brand America blog category is to be a forum where economic development professionals and marketing professionals can share their experience with and thoughts on place branding so as a community we have a better appreciation for how to successfully apply the principles for job growth and economic prosperity.

The From the CEO category is to be a forum where I can share thoughts on successful reapplication of private sector product and corporate branding principles in place branding.

All You Need is Love

July 29, 2010 at 9:42 am, by admin | No Comments | Tags: | Category: Strengthening Brand America

Have you ever wondered why certain products command “loyalty beyond reason”? Why do some people obsess about a product and become so emotionally invested that all other solutions become a distant and unacceptable second best? And most important, what can you do to create this kind of passionate loyalty?
The real question is – “How can [...]

Game Changer

July 26, 2010 at 8:14 am, by admin | No Comments | Tags: | Category: From the CEO, Strengthening Brand America

I was skimming through a copy of Game Changer authored by A.G. Lafley (my former Chairman and CEO of Procter and Gamble) and Ram Charan. During my career at P&G, I was blessed with several visionary leaders to learn from – John Smale (1981-1990), Ed Artz (1990-1995), John Pepper (1995-1999), Durk Jager (1999-2000), A.G. Lafley [...]

The Seven Essentials For Success in Tough Economic Times

July 18, 2010 at 10:29 am, by admin | 3 Comments | Tags: | Category: Strengthening Brand America

Operating budgets for economic development are getting even tighter as increased demand is placed on declining municipality and state tax revenues. As a consequence, economic development organizations are being asked to do even more with less. In light of concerns over the current slow rate of economic recovery, it doesn’t appear this situation is going [...]

BP Damages More Than Its Own Brand

June 25, 2010 at 5:06 pm, by admin | 32 Comments | Tags: | Category: Strengthening Brand America

Clearly, the on-going oil disaster is taking a toll on BP’s corporate brand equity. BP’s Corporate Marketing Officer must be cringing with the number of parodies appearing on the internet that denigrate the brand image. A case can be made that the BP brand is on life support and headed in the direction of flat [...]

Attitude Matters in Place Branding

June 13, 2010 at 11:54 am, by admin | 4 Comments | Tags: | Category: Strengthening Brand America

I recently had a conversation with a colleague about the role attitude can play in either enabling or derailing a community branding effort. We talked about how attitude is key for high performance teams to exceed objectives and how difficult it can be to lead a place (or destination) branding effort when community leadership has [...]

Brand America Image Versus Identity

June 6, 2010 at 6:35 pm, by admin | 6 Comments | Tags: | Category: Strengthening Brand America

Brand America may be digging itself into a hole. We need to put down the shovel and focus on delivering the promise. It is time to address the gap.
The Strengthening Brand America Project is designed to help bridge the gap between global perception and the reality of Brand America through more effective use of place [...]

The How of Wow

June 2, 2010 at 7:58 am, by admin | 4 Comments | Tags: | Category: Strengthening Brand America

Ever wonder what you need to do to separate yourself and community from the competition? THE HOW OF WOW, authored by Tony Carlson provides some insights.
The book is a guide about giving a speech that will “positively blow ‘em away”. What does a book on giving a speech have to do with economic development? Nothing, [...]

Can (Should) Arizona Rebrand Itself?

May 25, 2010 at 1:28 pm, by admin | 25 Comments | Tags: | Category: From the CEO

Let me set the stage in case you are unaware of the events. This is certainly not intended to be a definitive accounting of the pros and cons of Arizona’s new immigration law. It is simply intended to provide some background for context.

Arizona passes a law (SB 1070) to address the challenges of illegal immigration [...]

Making Sense of Social Media – Part Three

May 23, 2010 at 11:21 am, by admin | 1 Comment | Tags: | Category: From the CEO

“What’s the buzz tell me what’s a-happening.” Apostles, Jesus Christ Superstar Soundtrack
Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical Jesus Christ Superstar has always been a personal favorite of mine. I can remember when I bought the album in 1970. It is not surprising then that the lyrics were running through my mind as I reflected [...]

Making Sense of Social Media – Take Two

May 16, 2010 at 8:21 pm, by admin | 4 Comments | Tags: | Category: From the CEO

The last post on making sense of social media generated a lot of interest. What I found most rewarding were the emails that said the post made the reader think differently about social media.
I am continuing the discussion for two reasons.
First, there is a lot of learning about effective word-of-mouth or viral marketing that can [...]

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