Contrasting Brands: King Charles And “King Donald”
A good brand should ideally reflect a persona with certain values, style, authenticity, and a genuine proposition that people can identify with. Ultimately people will hopefully bond with that brand personality. But creating and communicating such an appealing brand is not easy. Sometimes it helps to directly compare your brand to a competitive brand to highlight your relevant differences and strengths. These principles are meaningful not just for a commercial product or service, but also for positioning a brand for people, companies, cities/countries, government institutions, etc. Here...
Read MoreTrump Brand: Shrewd Marketing Or Narcissistic Overreach?
Many people believe Donald Trump is brilliant at branding, since his name is on such a vast variety of products, services and even public institutions. A brand name is considered the “face of the brand”, and ideally it must imply a promise of benefits that will ultimately lead to a favorable relationship with an audience. Brand image and personality are also critical since the emotional connotations of the name should match what customers want and expect. In general, there are several approaches to creating good brand names. The pharmaceutical industry frequently uses “phonologics”, which...
Read MoreThe Talarico Brand: Targeting An Emerging “Silent Majority”
Branding is strategic, so a basic promise should stay focused on the distinct desires of a target audience. However, market dynamics often require brands to tweak their promise or competitive edge to address changing attitudes and values of their customers. These principles are especially relevant in today’s chaotic world of politics, characterized by extremism, divisiveness, hateful speech and even violence. Fringe activists from both the Republicans and Democrats are guilty of vitriolic rhetoric and misinformation to castigate their opponents. Unfortunately, our leader has offered...
Read MoreMinneapolis-Olympics: Re-Discovering Key Brand Values
In today’s chaotic and divisive world, it can be difficult to identify many new happenings that make us feel encouraged and optimistic. Two events that are currently dominating our news are the I.C.E. driven protests in Minneapolis and inspiring heroics at the Olympics in Italy. The juxtaposition of these disparate experiences reveals some heartwarming values, however, that most people genuinely crave. And these values are also critical for successfully positioning and marketing a brand. The Power of Emotions Neuroscientists have proven that emotions are the most influential ingredient...
Read MoreHow Politics Are Now Undermining Environmental Car Brands
A fundamental challenge for the development of a strong brand positioning is to create a distinctive “reason for being” that is highly relevant to target customers and different from competition. In 2001 Toyota introduced the market’s first gas-electric hybrid, Prius, and it quickly became the global leader in green cars. Its core “reason for being” was the environmental benefit of “saving the planet”. In comparison to gas driven cars, driving a Prius would also cost much less and would make Toyota more competitive around the world. The timing of this brand’s debut 25 years ago was...
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Deviating From Core Brand Promises Can Be Risky – In Business & Politics Successful branding requires extensive research, creativity and credibility. It is strategic, so the goal is to develop a relevant promise and image that will captivate an audience, and over time establish a trusting relationship with the brand’s customers (or voters). However, when a brand changes course and leaves its original message and values, it risks a significant decline in popularity, including political brands (i.e. Biden and Trump). Business Examples Ideally a brand’s core promise should inspire...
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