It’s unrealistic to plan your positioning strategy in a vacuum. Remember, you’re positioning against competitors who also have positioned their offerings – with the help of their customers and prospects. The idea is to find an unfilled position that is relevant and compelling to your target market. Those people actually position you – but you [...]

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What’s important when branding a B2B service provider? How do your differentiate yourself from competition? How do you develop long-standing relationships with clients? Here are some thoughts. Because I’m a member of the BrandingWire posse of Pundits, you get to read another 10 or so blogs on this subject after you’ve read this blog.

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These two websites provide insights into lifestyles and trends that branders should at least be aware of. I advise visiting the sights and subscribing to the newsletters.

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This blog in a series on brand naming speaks tof your library as a fruitful source of naming resources, and identifies one particularly rich reference.

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In response to a challenge to 12 branding bloggers, we are all blogging about how to brand a regional coffee shop that wants to go National. My approach is to find a way not to compete head-on with Starbucks. Instead, find a position in a new category by combining the company’s coffee making with a social component that’s at least equal to the coffee as a drawing card. I’d begin by defining what a good meeting place should consist of.

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In the early 1960’s, I was a participant in one of the classic branding failures of the era. No, not Edsel. Not nearly as glamorous or as expensive as that one, but equally embarrassing to the brand owner, duPont. The brand was Telar, the never-drain anti-freeze. I was an assistant account exec on that account [...]

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