Archive for April 2012
Monday, April 30th, 2012
When I started exploring place branding, it quickly became evident that the concepts of selling, marketing and branding were often confused and used interchangeably. As a consequence, many communities experienced failed attempts at “branding” when the better solution may have been to focus on developing a more effective selling effort. When I was working at […]
Sunday, April 29th, 2012
Reliable, low cost energy can be a competitive advantage in attracting capital investment to a community. Energy availability is key to the economic growth and prosperity of both our communities and our nation. So much so, that ensuring an uninterrupted supply of energy can easily be (and is) viewed as a matter of national security. […]
Thursday, April 26th, 2012
It is hard to be an excellent marketer if you have trouble presenting your thinking. After all, ideas are our product and the presentation is our packaging. You want your brilliant idea to be delivered in an equally brilliant package. So, how do you deliver a great presentation each and every time you are required […]
Thursday, April 26th, 2012
One area many marketers struggle with is translating features into benefits. I recently gave a talk to a group at Shawnee State University in Portsmouth, Ohio and the organizers requested I include some comments on this topic in my presentation. “Features Tell and Benefits Sell.” I learned this easy to remember phrase early in my […]
Sunday, April 22nd, 2012
I have written a number of blog posts on the subject of social media. The general message in all of my writing has been to consider the channel as experimental and invest in it with a “seek to understand what works” mentality. I know many people will push back on my counsel, and have pushed […]
Tuesday, April 17th, 2012
So Frustrating! I have been studying social media for a couple years now and have posted about it before. I continue to struggle with finding successful case studies where the ROI is apparent. In part, I’m sure it is because the measures are not sufficiently robust yet and there is so much experimentation going on […]
Monday, April 16th, 2012
I was fortunate enough to moderate the panel discussion entitled the “Ohio Energy Forum: The impact of shale exploration, drilling and extraction on companies doing business in Ohio”, hosted by McDonald Hopkins in Cleveland. Governor Tom Ridge kicked off the Forum by sharing his thoughts on the importance of shale energy to the State, Region and Nation. […]
Tuesday, April 10th, 2012
One of the challenges in managing brands is to find the right balance between investing reuin developing the asset and delivering a positive Annual Return Filing. It doesn’t matter if we are talking about a product, corporation or community. The tactical choices may be different, but the challenge is the same. Profit or Growth? is […]
Monday, April 9th, 2012
It is rare that I find a presentation that positively impresses me. Even rarer if I agree with most of the content. I want to share a series of presentations on branding I think are worth the time to look at. Idris Mootee, CEO of Idea Couture, authored the presentations four years ago. I recently […]
Wednesday, April 4th, 2012
I recently encountered a situation where a reader submitted a comment to a guest blog post that amounted to, in my opinion, a character assassination of the author. Since it added no educational value to the content of the post, I opted to reject publishing it. But, it did get me thinking about the […]