This link has been bookmarked by 453 people . It was first bookmarked on 02 Mar 2006, by Calvin Rodo.
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Keri-Lee BeasleyCartoon blog by Hugh MacLeod. I think it's great.
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David WilcoxCreative commons cartoons and also blog business cards
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31 Oct 08
Mark NelsonSo here's Mark Earls, this highly respected British brand guru, getting paid lots of money to better articulate the idea of 'The Brand', and suddenly you're telling your clients, "Hey, you know all that clever 'Brand' stuff you've been paying my agency lots of money for? It's actually all a load of crap."
So I'll ask you the same question your clients undoubtedly asked you: "Why is it crap?"
Let's start with the good stuff about "Brand": it's clearly a popular idea, it's spread far and wide into politics and self-help books. It's useful, in that it allows us to talk about the cluster of stuff that floats around reputation and perception and so on. It looks like we can measure it because it's something that seems like folk out there in Consumerland can talk about.
So what's wrong with it: well, first of all "Brand" is a metaphor. It's not a thing, even though we talk about it as if it were: it's a way of talking as if.
Second, it's a fat-metaphor: there is no agreed definition, so we can use it to mean just about anything we want - to pre- or proscribe whatever we want. Most brand conversations need an agreed set of definitions or...
Third, "Brand" is what you get as a result of doing great , not a good guide to what to do - it's the scoreboard, not the game.
Fourth, "Brand" is a distraction from the main game, which is doing great stuff for customers and staff ("baking it in", as for example the Zeus Jones go on about). P***ing about in Brandland is a good excuse not to really get to grips with the stuff you need to get to grips with, and it tends to lead you off into "communications" rather than actually doing something.
Fifth, "Brand" perpetuates the myths we like to hold tight to, about the power of marketing and communication - sometimes when you hear brand folk talk, they seem to imagine they are sorcerers and magicians, weaving binding spells and illusions. More often than not, they like to use military metaphors. The truth of course is that mostly were neither of these things and have a marginal effbrand gapingvoid culture advertising Mark Earls P-I Purpose-Idea important passion drive cause
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"The Purpose-Idea". I've told a LOT of people about the P-I over the years, since first discovering it in "Creative Age". This time, I think we'd all rather get it from the horse's mouth. Please explain the P-I to us mere mortals. Thanks.
Put really simply, the Purpose-Idea is the "What For?" of a business, or any kind of community. What exists to change (or protect) in the world, why employees get out of bed in the morning, what difference the business seeks to make on behalf of customers and employees and everyone else? BTW this is not "mission, vision, values" territory - it's about real drives, passions and beliefs. The stuff that men in suits tend to get embarrassed about because it's personal. But it's the stuff that makes the difference between success and failure, because this kind of stuff brings folk together in all aspects of human life.
4. I like The P-I. Explaining it to people pretty much has made paying all my bills a lot easier in the the last few years. The Blue Monster was a P-I. When you see a real P-I working in action, it cuts through the clutter and ignites passion in a way that, for the money, your standard "Here's why you should buy my product" message simply cannot compete with. In spite of this, I see people in the business resist it. Something about it that scares them. What do you think that might be?
Like I say, I think it embarrasses the grown-ups: a lot of folk think business is some separate rational sphere of activity, in which maths, analytics and rational thinking prevail (whether it's in customers' or employees' minds). P-I makes things personal - makes you put your balls on the line. It cuts through the crap of "strategy" and all that pseudoscience that we hide behind.
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Kentaro Sudaイラストぱねー
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Paul Terry WalhusWhen I was last in San Francisco a few weeks ago, my good friend, Shel Israel interviewed me, as part of his new FastCompany.com gig. We talked about "Social Objects", with a heavy emphasis on "Social Markers".
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