What is Generational Transformational Messaging all about? It's not about developing messaging that people claim to like but, instead, achieving messaging that drives customer preference...

Here's a sports question for you: How does a team get better? Recognizing that there are no right or wrong answers to this question, most sports enthusiasts might respond first with something like,

We're pleased to announce that we have a new book scheduled for release around May 1, 2010. The title is COMPETITIVE POSITIONING - Best Practices for Creating Brand Loyalty. We could use your help with it. We'd appreciate your thoughts on select...

How often do we hear the expression, We're committed to best practices? For sure, we often hear consulting firms espouse their devotion to best practices; sometimes we even hear creative agencies making claims about their development of best pract

BRAND MARKETING Marketing is critically essential in today's

This economic recession is taking its toll on virtually every organization and everyone in it. Our companies are no longer safe, nor are our brands, or marketing budgets, or even our positions within these organizations. And if we are one of the luck

It's early in a new year. In our Dispatches of last week, we offered some resolutions to get you and your brand team started off right. This week we offer another kind of help to get the brand started off right--a re-look at one of the most useful

New Year's resolutions typically are about personal development and success. They're about doing better or just doing different.

It has been ten years since Amacom (The American Management Company) published our first book, Creating Brand Loyalty. And over that time we have been gratified to learn from many marketers across the globe of CBL's value to them, especially...

A bit of holiday cheer for you and yours!

We're coming to the end of another Dispatches year. And we hope you have found our perspectives and practical suggestions (especially in our weekly Boats & Helicopters section) enjoyable and practical. For our last e-mailing of 2009 we return to...

The New Year is less than one month away. How quickly 2009 year has gone bye. Many of us will be making resolutions for 2010. Undoubtedly, if we do, our resolutions will include what we hope to achieve in our work life. Afterall, we are all marketing

Making the transition from a product to a brand is a challenge for many brand-builders. It's a challenge sometimes because their companies say they want brands (for added shareholder value) but don't always support their marketers in actually dev...

We're taking a break from publishing DISPATCHES this week to enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday with family and friends.

We've written a few DISPATCHES articles dealing with the importance of the customer's experience with your products and services. We dramatized these articles by exhorting "it's the experience stupid." No, let us reassure you in this article that we

We have been writing a great deal lately about targeting for a brand's positioning because doing it well is so challenging and so important. The positioning target sets up the entire positioning, after all. And one of the themes we have been pushin

The reason-why is a critically important strategic element of both the brand's positioning and communication strategies. It's also important to ensuring compelling communications. Too often marketers confuse

Business managers today face a conundrum. The problem is that marketing managers are expected to grow sales, market share and profits and yet at the same time resources for marketing support are being slashed.

We are privileged to have worked in many, many pharmaceutical drug classes. Even more, we are fortunate to have been involved in teaching pharmaceutical marketers how to better build their brands—sometimes within their company's

Marketing Objectives are the specific target-customer behaviors we expect and need to achieve in order to deliver against the Business Objectives of sales, market share and profits. We do not generate sales unless we first stimulate behaviors. And...

If you are a longtime reader of Dispatches, you already know how strongly we feel about developing Communication Campaign Ideas. Over time, we have offered a good many reasons why an idea can make a big difference—and backed these up with a number

Ever feel the need to defend your role as a marketer? Or even the need for marketing in your organization? Read on...

We are always on the lookout for helpful ways to think (about brand-building) better. And in our training workshops, we often refer to various tools and formats that are an aid to better thinking - what we sometimes call

Far too often client managers use mitigated speech when providing direction on agency creative submissions. We tend to sugarcoat (i.e., to make something unpleasant seem much less so) our comments thereby giving the wrong impression regarding our...

For nearly the past twenty years, we have been in the Professional Marketing Training business. And that means we have not only had the privilege of teaching practical, best practices processes and

Why is it that, whenever we think about differentiating our brand positioning, we automatically think only about the brand's Benefits and Reasons Why? Why do we not just as automatically think about making our Brand Character differentiated - from...

Are you a champion of customers? Only you can answer that question. Read on...

If you think about it, we marketers produce compilations of words. We don't make the product underneath our brand (Manufacturing does that); we don't merchandise or display the product in the store (Sales does that); and we don't produce the adv...

How productive is your marketing? We're not searching for a qualitative answer here. Instead, we want the facts. A key fact is the return on investment (ROI) your marketing produces. But as we have pointed out in past DISPATCHES articles, and you..

No doubt at some point in your school or business career you have spent time leafing through Bartlett's Familiar Quotations looking for that perfect line to open or close with, to express your meaning in a highly memorable way. But have you ever ...

Wonder how productive your marketing is? Don't have a clue? Read on...

Imagine you have just hired a new Brand Manager to take the lead in developing a brand positioning for a major launch. After a few weeks of work with the brand team, this manager presents his thinking on the positioning strategy - Starting with the

A client recently requested us to address the issue of marketers changing campaigns annually.

We were recently inspired by one of our highly respected clients. He told the true story of how his Brand Team, faced with a significant volume-versus-plan shortfall, made an unusual move: they asked their senior management for more marketing funds

New media is on the tongue of many of our clients. It is as if they have fallen out of favor with the traditional and in love with anything non-traditional. This isn't new. It's been going on for a few years now. So, what do we do about it?

So often we hear professional athletes - especially those competing for championships - express their need for getting the

We like to use metaphors when teaching brand building concepts and principles to marketing managers. As you know a "metaphor" is using one thing to represent another (among other meanings of the term).

Do you consider your marketing communications a Work of Art? Maybe you should...

Architects! The word architect comes from the Greek word architektor, meaning “master builder.” Architects design structures and supervise their construction. Marketing is a lot like architecting. Instead of designing and supervising the construc

SELLING THE BRAND POSITIONING “The Marie’s Difference: Is it the homemade flavor? Is it the ingredients? Is it that adding Marie’s to a recipe transforms something ordinary into something extraordinary? Or that our dips and dressings are fo

What ARE you really? Certainly more than the initial classification would indicate. But what?

It has been over six years since we first raised the notion of brands going to market with a

Ever wonder if you could benefit from a little additional training?

WHO DO YOU WORK FOR? What a silly question! Certainly, you work for the company that pays your salary. And, what's best for them is best for you, the brand and the customer. Or is it?

We keep looking for silver linings in the current global economic crisis, right? Perhaps one will be, finally, the broad-based acceptance among Americans that bigger cars, bigger stores, and bigger homes are not really better.

When we wrote

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You’ve no doubt heard the talk in many marketing circles now about brand teams consciously aiming to de-position their major competitor. When successful, it’s a wonderful strategy to improve your brand’s identity at the expense of your competi

As we have discussed in previous Dispatches, getting to a common marketing language is a real challenge. In recent weeks we have found once again how many clients either overload their brand-building "speak" with too many conflicting concepts or ...

This is the second article summarizing learning from the BDNI “State of Marketing” Survey, which we undertook with subscribers of DISPATCHES during the second-half of 2008. The purpose of the survey is to gain a fix on how marketing is currently

Two weeks ago we proposed an analogous management strategy to Total Quality Management (TQM). We termed that Total Quality Positioning (TQP). We also postulated that very few companies actually operated with anything close to TQP. This week we...

At the end of 2008 we initiated a survey with you subscribers of DISPATCHES to solicit your thoughts regarding the state of marketing as it is currently perceived and practiced throughout the world. The purpose of the BDNI

Sometimes, when embarking upon a new year, it makes good sense to look back at some older things … some things we may not have had at the tip-of-the-tongue in recent times but that, nevertheless, still hold value.

When the economy is booming failures are few and few between. New businesses and products grow and prosper, but what about now?

We wish everyone a very Happy New Year! As is our practice, we like to begin each new year with an explanation of "Boats and Helicopters".

Well, we are deep into the holiday season now, and this also means that we are issuing our last Dispatches for 2008. As is common when a year winds down, there is a tendency to want to step back and look at some broader or bigger picture of things.

The current economic environment represents a most challenging context, which is exacerbated by the media’s penchant to stoke the fire of fear and anxiety with widespread stories of “doom and gloom.”

In our brand positioning work with clients, we keep coming back to one of the most innovative and competitively powerful new positioning concepts - the Perceptual Competitive Framework.

Dealing with failure goes beyond the world of politics. It extends into all walks of life from sports to commerce. The current economic news abounds with companies failing to deliver against expectations for growth. And, as a consequence, stock...

How often do we find ourselves saying things like, “Let me put my customer hat on,” or “Let me put my regulatory hat on,” or more likely, “Let me play devil’s advocate here”? In so many of our daily business interactions we stop oursel

On Tuesday, 4 November 2008, we'll be going to the polls in the U.S. to cast our ballot for the 44th president of our crisis laden young nation. A few weeks ago we issued a DISPATCHES article dealing with Lessons from Political Marketing. In our...

We are so fortunate each week to work with marketers from different countries, cultures, categories, and companies. Fortunate because we can learn so much from them. And fortunate because we can see in real time what the marketer-landscape looks...

Time is ticking down on the presidential election in the United States. We’re less than one-month away from going to the election booths to cast our vote for our next president. This has been a political battle between two candidates, more so...

Every so often we get asked questions like, “How does Brand Character fit with Brand Essence?” Or “Is the brand’s Market Definition the same as its Source of Volume?” Actually, answering concept-distinction questions such as these requires

At the time of this writing the economy is teetering on the brink of a meltdown, or so recent business failures, the news media and sell-offs on virtually all the major stock exchanges would suggest. This is not just a U.S. problem but also a world..

Have you ever taken a critical look at the way your company measures market share? Of course, you have accepted that, if your brand is in the antacid category it only makes sense to measure its share of total antacids. But might there not be...

The mobile phone category is among the most intensely competitive markets, regardless of geographcy...

How many benefits are there in your current Brand Positioning Statement? (You do have a Brand Positioning Statement, right?) Chances are there is more than one benefit in that BPS … because today more than ever it is hard for a brand to win - as..

Have you been watching the coverage of the XXIX Olympic games from Beijing? If you are like me you may not be getting as much sleep as you’d like, or need for that matter. In the United States we get early morning coverage and evening coverage...

Sometimes you can sense things in the wind. It seems that, lately, more and more brands are looking for ways to differentiate themselves better via their Reason Why. Actually, this makes good sense. In so many categories leading brands are...

What is it about being BIG? Everybody wants something BIG. When we go to McDonald’s we all want the BIG MAC. Nobody wants a small Mac. When we go to an amusement park we all want to ride the BIG Wheel, not the mini wheel. We want to...

We are more and more convinced that, in this “age of sameness” where we now live and market our brands, having an idea can be the deal-breaker. It might be a promotion idea, a merchandising idea, an advertising idea. But the more we study ...

It’s no secret that we at Brand Development Network International work in many sectors and in many parts of the world. One of these sectors is Pharma, namely BIG Pharma (i.e., the pharmaceutical industry). Our learning in the pharmaceutical sector

We’ve always liked that simple, crisp definition of marketing that goes something like this: “Marketing is the science and art of getting target customers to sustain or change their behavior in a way that favors the brand (and, ideally, not the.

In our first Dispatches newsletter of 2008, we talked about 10 key trends we believe are changing the landscape for “marketects” all across the globe. As we begin the back half of 2008, we would like to cover another emerging trend in brand-build

Whenever we ask clients to identify the criteria they most often set in judging whether an ad campaign is really great, we invariably hear something like “it should be ownable.” Granted, this is not typically the first, nor even among the first,.

Chances are, you are currently in the hunt for a Big Idea. Whether you’re looking to develop a new product, a new communications campaign, a new promotion, some new merchandising vehicle, whatever, every marketer wants a Big Idea? Whoever heard..

No marketer would dispute the importance of discovering customer insights. Customer insights are essential to developing successful new products, strategically competitive positioning strategies and leadership communication campaigns to create...

Whenever we ask our clients to name some of the currently running advertising campaigns that they think are to be admired—or even envied—we seem to get fewer and fewer replies. Oh, sure, we still hear about MasterCard’s “Priceless” campaig

There are a number of important reasons why professionals avail themselves of CME programs. No, we are not talking about Continuing Medical Education programs as sponsored by pharmaceutical companies...

We have all been taught, and probably learned from many real-life experiences, that the old adage “A picture is worth a thousand words” is certainly true. And yet, it’s hard not to appreciate the value of the well-turned phrase…

For the past few weeks we have been focusing our weekly Dispatches ways to improve the direction clients give to their creative agencies - what we refer to as Good Coaching. Developing this skill takes a lot of practice, but even before the actual..

Over the years we’ve witnessed erosion in the confidence of marketing by senior executives throughout the business world . This erosion traces to the...

As we prepare to conduct our annual “Open” Brand Positioning & Marketing Communications College in Chicago, from May 13th through May 15th, we will again focus this week’s (and upcoming) DISPATCHES ™ on those critical skills that we aim to bu

As we prepare to conduct our annual Brand Positioning & Marketing Communications College in Chicago, from May 13th through May 15th, we will focus this week’s as well as our upcoming Dispatches on those critical skills that we aim to build and ...

“There is always a better way; it should be found.” An interesting quote. Want to hear more?

Have you registered for the upcoming Brand Positioning & Marketing Communication College? Space is limited and filling up quickly.

You know the expression, “I really don’t need to hear that”? It usually means that something isn’t going as planned, that the news isn’t all that good. Well, there are times in the creative development process when clients might say ...

Starbucks’ is in the news yet again. On February 26 the company closed the doors of its 7,100 U.S. coffee houses for 3-hours (starting at 5:30pm). The reason for the closure was to conduct a nationwide training event designed to energize...

More and more, it seems, those of us working to build brands in Fast Moving Consumer Goods look to popular retail brands with admiration—even sometimes with envy! We envy them having a place where target customers can be surrounded by the brand,..

This week I participated in a communications conference in Paris. I served as a panel member in a discussion regarding the strategic role of marketing communications, and made a presentation on “Leading the Development of More Effective Communicati

From time to time managers will inquire where we came up with

We spend so much of our limited thinking time these days on the what of our brand-building efforts, the content of our Brand Positioning Statements, if you will.

For a long time now, we have been advising clients to coach their creative resource teams by

Now we arrive at the final installment of our 4-part series identifying what we judge to be “the 10-Most Critical Errors in Brand Positioning.” We have been counting down from number “10” to “1.” ...

It’s election time! And there’s a buzz in the U.S. marketplace now that hasn’t been heard in quite awhile. Already six states have held primary elections or caucuses and neither the Republican nor Democratic Party has a bona fide front-runner

This is the third installment of a 4-part series identifying what we judge to be “the 10-Most Critical Errors in Brand Positioning.” We’re counting down from number “10” to “1.” Each issue of DISPATCHES in this series has revealed three

It was 8 years ago this month that we launched Dispatches for e-distribution. And, as with any significant passage of time, much has changed in the fast-moving world of marketing since then. But, it seems to us, the speed of change has ...

Happy Holidays to all our friends.

This is the second installment of a 4-part series identifying what we judge to be “the 10-Most Critical Errors in Brand Positioning.” We’re counting down from number “10” to “1.” Each issue of DISPATCHES in this series will reveal three

Dave Letterman, host of “The Late Show” with David Letterman, popularized the “top-10” list with his inimitable zany sense of humor. In fact, books have been published with Dave’s lists. What’s the appeal?

One of the hardest things in getting a compelling and differentiated Brand Positioning Statement or Creative Communication Brief articulated is gaining everyone’s agreement on what we mean by the language we’re using. Some marketing concepts, ..

An insightful young marketer participating in one of our Strategic Positioning & Ad College programs came up with this statement about brand positioning: "It is uniquely tied to your brand. If any other brand tried to use the same positioning ...

An insightful young marketer participating in one of our Strategic Positioning & Ad College programs came up with this statement about brand positioning: "It is uniquely tied to your brand. If any other brand tried to use the same positioning ...

We're taking a break from publishing DISPATCHES this week to enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday with family and friends.

Everyone admires a clever strategy, whether it involves something as broad as a Brand Positioning or something as focused as a Communication Strategy. And, as marketers, we are typically quick to assess the success-potential ...

It’s time to write the weekly DISPATCHES email article. You’d be surprised by how quickly this time comes around. It screams for attention at a time when so many urgent business matters beckon.

Did you ever wonder why you never see Coca-Cola ads in, say ultra-upscale Town & Country magazine?

So much press over the past 2-3 years for the Dove Brand and its “Real Beauty” marketing campaign has many of us believing that the brand’s growth is largely attributed to that alone.

All the functional disciplines establish, pursue and attempt to follow quality processes.

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Long ago when we shopped, we did so with the assurance that retailers would do whatever it took to make us happy. The customer was always right.

Ever since the publication of that now classic book, In Search of Excellence, it seems that the excellence concept has been promoted, explored, preached, and generally sought after by serious, growth-driven companies around the world.

It's amazing the way seemingly previously known or talked about conditions are cropping up in the news and advertisements these days.

In this week’s Dispatches we conclude our 3-part refresher of the Competitive Framework. And, appropriately, our focus is on the highlight of the 3 parts—creating a perceptual dimension for the brand’s CF.

We don’t think that you, the reader, would think of yourself as being someone who is “artificial.” Would you? It is less than flattering to refer to someone as artificial. It would imply that s/he is not real but, instead, what we would call a

In this week’s Dispatches we conclude our 3-part refresher of the Competitive Framework. And, appropriately, our focus is on the highlight of the 3 parts—creating a perceptual dimension for the brand’s CF. The whole idea of crafting this addi

We strive for “successful” messaging in our marketing communications. Successful means two things. One, it’s connecting with (potential) customers. Two, it’s achieving a specific behavior needed to drive brand sales. A key to enjoying success

As we continue to work week after week with clients (across many industries) on their Brand Positioning development, we still find that there is one positioning element many do not fully understand or appreciate: The Competitive Framework. And, as

The term “selling out” refers to someone who is abandoning principles or ideals for money. It’s a failure to give one’s best and make a real difference. Instead, it’s about cashing-in on a popularity or reputation.

Who doesn't admire people who know exactly what they are aiming toward, what they really want to get done?

Longtime readers of DISPATCHES know how committed we are to improving our collective coaching skills.

It is very curious that so many managers from large multi-national corporations (i.e., BIG business) express a desire to have their own small business some day in the future. ..

Every so often we have a few, unrelated things to share which are top-of-mind—mainly because our clients bring them up during our weekly engagements.

We often hear from marketing managers (particularly outside of consumer package goods categories such as in Medical Devices & Diagnostics, Pharmaceuticals, Financial Services, etc.) that their company’s competitive advantage resides in the special.

oday, with the exception of some notable disruptions (such as the IPOD), we face commoditization of markets and with it the erosion of brand loyalty. Among the most influential factors contributing to commoditization are: the age of sameness...

You know the expression, "I really don’t need to hear that"? It usually means that something isn't going as planned, that the news isn't all that good. Well, there are times in the creative development process when clients might say ...

At a recent client marketing awards program Tom Carroll, Vice Chairman, TBWA Worldwide, spoke of the need to