Sunday, October 28, 2007

Single Steps of Progress

Now is the time for society to rise up and take actions for the betterment and protection of humanity. If each individual takes a single humanitarian action, connections will be made for long-lasting progress.
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Beyond the Promise

The true value of an organization over time comes down to performance not promise. While we hook people or intrigue them by what we promise, we generate loyalty and connection with them when we deliver on those promises.

Consider your organization ... how well connected is what you promise to what you deliver? Would people at every layer of your organization agree with you?

Perhaps you have an opportunity to bring people together in constructive conversations about the organization's core purpose and how it performs for its stakeholders. Using that information, you can create a clear framework for progress that puts everyone in your organization on the pathway to value.

Or, perhaps you've just uncovered a reason to celebrate!
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Thursday, October 25, 2007

Brand Success Connects

Success comes not when people connect to your brand but when your brand connects people to each other.
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Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Great Brands are Consistent

Branding is about consistency. It's about acting in a manner consistent with your core purpose. It's about deciding in a manner that is consistent with your goals. It's about communicating to your stakeholders in a manner that is consistent with your value to them.

Jeff Brooks goes a step too far in dismissing the importance of brand guidelines (and the look of your brand). If you have a great brand, the last thing you should do is dismiss the "puny efforts of the brand police to achieve consistency." If you have a great brand, you should applaud the efforts of your "brand police" to ensure that there is a thread of visual connection among the messages you're selling to your stakeholders -- be they employees, customers, donors, shareholders or members of the general society. After all, great brand guidelines (which do exist, contrary to Mr. Brooks' assertion) provide context and share the story of the brand: where it came from, what it stands for and why it's important.

Plus, we live in a world of appearances. What you look like matters. And, in a world of uncertainty, people are more likely to support organizations that connect all of their messages -- the written, the actions, the spoken and the visual.
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Saturday, October 20, 2007

Connecting Words

In a business that's all about creating connections through communication, it's fun to come across tools that clarify the very words we use by connecting them. Check out the Visual Thesaurus. Use it to map your brand traits. Then explore new ways to express them and live them without losing sight of the core message.
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Thursday, October 18, 2007

Experience Design :: Design Experiences

Scott Mallwitz recently shared a great mental image when explaining experience design: it's about creating a ride, then watching your brother scream like a girl when he's on it. Design can't be truly great until it grabs ahold of the intended audience. Design is a conduit for the interaction and connection of the audience, who bring the real energy.
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Tuesday, October 02, 2007

A Sequence of Messaging

Messaging is about drawing emotion and imprinting a memory in the brains of our audiences. If they remember the emotion and can associate it with the brand ... success! The messaging is only one-half words. The other half? Design. The right juxtaposition of imagery and ideas will lead the audience to the path of enlightenment. It will educate. It will inform. It will instruct. It will influence. Here is a sequence we recommend for effective messaging: State the objective; discover the idea; differentiate through the words and deliver with the design.
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