Stepping Back From Komen's Brand Disaster

Now that the dust has settled on the Susan G. Komen Foundation's disastrous and embarrassing handling of their partnership with Planned Parenthood, it's a good time to take a step back and understand how an organization that does so much right could have gotten this one so wrong.

State of the State of the Union: Power(Point) to the People?

On January 24th of 2012, President Barack Obama delivered the State of the Union address. For the second time, the White House made it available online with a special enhanced broadcast complementing the speech with onscreen presentation graphics.

I know what you're thinking—a Powerpoint from the President? Who does he think he is, Ross Perot? Our founding fathers must be turning in their graves. 

DIY Communications: Multitasking Your Way to a Mediocre Brand

Until 20 years ago, organizations were highly structured and sought to maximized operational efficiency through the division of labor. Need a sign? Call the sign shop. Need a Press Release? Call PR. Want a great presentation? See if the consultants are available.

Brands Behaving Badly, Summer 2010 Gold Medalist, BP

Ok, we all knew it was going here.

At the risk of pointing out the obvious, we're going to do our best to add some insights on the BP disaster from a branding and brand strategy perspective.

Brands Behaving Badly, Summer 2010 Silver Medalist, Toyota

Talk about snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. If there was one company primed to dominate the U.S. auto market after the implosion of The Big 3, it was Toyota. It's not often that your top 3 competitors fall on their own swords simultaneously. Yet Toyota spent decades waiting for a moment like that to arrive and then fell right down with them.

Brands Behaving Badly Awards: Summer 2010 Bronze Medalist, Lebron James

"If you can't beat 'em, join 'em!"

Athletes are some of the most charismatic brands in the world. We care about them irrationally. In them we see our highest aspirations of achievement, fair play, right and wrong. And their brand strength directly affects their ability to charge a premium, not only as players, but as endorsers of other brands. In short, the most recognized athletes are often everything a great brand needs to be. 

Rethinking the Traditional Policy Report

The conventional strategy for policy reports is to cater to a specialized cadre of industry insiders. This often results in dry, linear documents, interspersed with the requisite stats and charts to support their policy recommendations. While this approach can certainly help get your ideas down on paper, it doesn't do much to get your audience to notice you and your message over the thousands of others vying for their attention.