Ideo: Not a case of shoemaker's children syndrome

4/23/2013 Unknown 0 Comments

The global design and brand consultancy, Ideo, recently turned its brand- and business-building attention on itself. A recent post at fastcodesign.com looks at the rebranding process the firm used to focus on "intent, not just presence":  "The brief the [Ideo] designers received that morning didn't just ask them to come up with a new identity system for Ideo. It asked them to come up wit a new way of thinking about corporate identity altogether."

The process set up by Ideo is interesting for at least two attributes. First, it started out with an acknowledgement that it's almost too easy, with the digital technologies available today to designers, to express variation and contextual change -- but harder to articulate an enduring, yet "responsive identity." Second, the one-day, multi-office kick-off project for the rebranding was a kind of selective crowdsourcing; results of this phase will be subjected to a smaller, perhaps more conventional review and decision-making.

The Ideo rebranding process is also profiled at core77.


"UCONN" -- it's offical

4/08/2013 Unknown 0 Comments

brandchannel reports today that the University of Connecticut has re-branded itself using the name by which it has been known for some time.

Why BIC is not an online degree

4/05/2013 Unknown 0 Comments

David Brooks
Columnist, The New York Times
David Brooks at The New York Times wrote on April 5 a column on "The Practical University."  He writes, " . . . universities are places where young people acquire two sorts of knowledge . . . technical knowledge and practical knowledge. Technical knowledge is the sort of knowledge you need to understand a task -- the statistical knowledge you need to understand what market researchers do, the biological knowledge you need to grasp the basics of what nurses do. Technical knowledge is . . . the sort of knowledge that can be captured in lectures and bullet points and memorized by rote.

"Practical knowledge is not about what you do, but about how you do it. It is the wisdom a great chef possesses that cannot be found in recipe books. Practical knowledge is not the sort of knowledge that can be taught and memorized; it can only be imparted and absorbed. It is not reducible to rules; it only exists in practice."

Brooks notes that online education has proven to be as effective as sitting in class lectures -- and that's a good thing.  Good (great) lectures from the best professors in the world can now be available to anyone with an internet connection. We need more, not less, online study and academic resources.

But for practical knowledge you need, well, "practice" -- your own and the examples of others (this sounds like the Buddhist or Yogic terminology of "having a practice" -- contemplation, physical discipline, etc.  You just gotta do it; talking or reading about it isn't enough).

The new Master's program in Branding + Integrated Communications at CCNY will provide young marketing communications professionals with the information and data that they need for success in the industry today. But we will also be providing BIC students with the practice -- in the classroom and in the workplaces of communications enterprises -- of marketing communications today.


Bad girl branding

4/01/2013 Unknown 0 Comments

Marian Salzman
Chair, Havas PR
Marian Salzman, chair of Havas PR since 2011, wrote at Forbes this week about bad girl branding.  Salzman summarizes key points from Nancy Shenker, founder of the business development consultancy theONswitch.

Some advice if you want to brand yourself (or your company) as a bad girl (boy):

Don't be afraid to be the weird kid.

No one has ever been fired for innovation.

Confront bullies.

Use logic, facts and statistics to sell your ideas.

Be a big provocative in your choices of words and speech.

Bribing people with food and other treats always works.

Rise above the gossip, bitch slapping and emotional crap. It's not personal . . . it's business.


Even services need a brand

4/01/2013 Unknown 0 Comments

David Johnson, CEO of Strategic Vision, LLC in Atlanta, posts at CommPRO.biz about the necessity for service companies to be concerned about their brand and their customers' brand experience.  He writes, "Sadly, we see way too many 'service oriented' companies out there that say their brand is all about integrity and reliability, or some other overly used and vapid term. Please understand this just positions you and makes you sound all the more like a commodity." He's certainly right -- think of the greatest service brands -- Amazon (after all, they just provide services -- selling and delivering to you other peoples' stuff: "We seek to be Earth's most customer-centric company for four primary customer sets: consumers, sellers, enterprises, and content creators"); McKinsey  ("Our mission is to help our clients make distinctive, lasting, and substantial improvements in their performance" ), IBM (see John Iwata, IBM's SVP Marketing and Communications, discuss the IBM brand, here).