The Fine Art of Brand Extensions

Posted on Wednesday, September 28, 2011

For many companies with strong brands, brand extensions are key to their growth strategies. With brand extensions a company is essentially using the strength of its brand in one product category to enter into another. It’s the right of a company with a strong brand, and the strategy makes good sense. But it is not as easy as one would think, and if poorly managed it can backfire.

B2Creative Vs B2Boring

Posted on Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Without a brand personality there really is no differentiation among all those B2B companies. Those hi-tech products are not all that interesting in and of themselves. If the focus is on the product specs and not on creating a brand personality, there is little for the buyer to connect with and so really nothing to keep him or her from wandering to the competition.

Unfortunately, most B2B brands are rather dull in the personality department.

Brand Dubai

Posted on Sunday, September 11, 2011

Brands naturally exist outside of the world of consumer products such as sports shoes and energy drinks. But did you ever think about cities as brands? It is all a perspective, really, or how you choose to look at it.

I have been to Dubai about a half-dozen times in the past three years. I am fascinated by the city, and as I drove in from the airport yesterday I was thinking about why Dubai moves me the way it does.

It is a brand to me. Brand Dubai. It is a feeling in my stomach. But what exactly does it stand for?

The Brand Loyalty Pyramid

Posted on Wednesday, September 7, 2011

In his book “Managing Brand Equity,” David A. Aaker describes the levels of brand loyalty and the marketing challenges associated with each category. Let’s take a look at each of the five categories:

1. At the bottom of the pyramid is the non-loyal buyer who is not attached to the brand in any way. Each brand in the product category is a fine alternative, and as such the brand name plays little role in the purchase decision. Decision factors involved in the purchase relate mainly to what is on sale or convenient. A common term for those in this category are “price buyers.”

I’mTaken.com

Posted on Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Have you noticed how weird company names are getting? Every day a newsletter called VentureWire lands in my inbox. It is a daily recap of companies which have received venture funding – mostly new companies having recently set up shop.

Now while some of the new ideas coming out seem pretty hot, what is far more interesting than these startup company business models are these startup company names. And all of this can be attributed to the fact that the URL of almost every word or name has already been purchased.