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W. H. Auden As Brand Strategist: Understanding The Power of Words Wednesday, January 28th, 2015
W. H. Auden, an Anglo-American poet, born in England, later an American citizen, is regarded as one of the greatest writers of the 20th century. Auden was a writer through and through, as throughout his life writing was always uppermost. As a writer and poet, Auden deeply understood the power of words. Quoting Austrian writer and journalist Karl Kraus, "language is the mother of thought, not the handmaiden of thought," Auden added: "Words will tell…
Cancerese: How The Language of Cancer Needlessly Threatens Tuesday, January 27th, 2015
Cancerese is the language of medical providers speaking to medical providers. Needed instead is a new drug, in this instance a language that speaks humanely to people, rather than threatening them, offering words and a vocabulary connecting with one's soul telegraphing not what you may lose, but rather how a deepened life often awaits. "Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind." This, one of English writer Rudyard Kipling's most famous quotes,…
Woody Guthrie On Brand: Be Simplicity Genius, Rather Than Complexity Fool Tuesday, January 6th, 2015
Legendary singer-songwriter and musician Woody Guthrie is today remembered as an American icon. Guthrie wrote over 1,000 songs, including one that became his most famous, "This Land Is Your Land." Beyond his more obvious talents, Guthrie left to marketers and brand strategists a gem of timeless advice: "Any fool can make something complicated. It takes a genius to make it simple." He was right of course. Yet Guthrie lays out a difficult objective, as business leaders and often…
If Anonymity Is Preferred, Crowdsource Creation Of Brand Tuesday, July 22nd, 2014
Crowdsourcing works in financing a new product or idea - think KickStarter, gauging interest in a new invention - Quirky, for household chores - Task Rabbit, or dating advice - Crowdpilot. In contrast, crowdsourcing is a bad idea for on-the-field competitive sports decisions, in seeking medical treatment, or when needing legal advice. The reason is that specialized expertise is required for each, an expertise not found in an unspecialized crowd. Crowdsourcing product names is another bad idea, as Fast Company indicates the results are a…
Three Dirty Words We Most Detest: Brand, Branding And Marketing Thursday, January 8th, 2015
We are in what many label the marketing business. WHISPER is a company, more often labeled an agency, due to the profession in which we apply our expertise. Instead, rather than marketing or branding, our agency is in the asset creation business - assets offering ease of communication - focused on establising relationships with people to grow the reputation equity of products and enterprises. And we say this. Often. The reason is the three words we loathe the most: brand, branding and marketing. Oh…
Richard Branson Offers Maxim for Brand Success: Simplicity Tuesday, December 16th, 2014
Richard Branson, founder and Chairman of the Virgin Group offers this maxim for business success: "Complexity is your enemy. Any fool can make something complicated. It is hard to make something simple." Branson reprises a quote originated by legendary singer-songwriter Woody Guthrie, who first framed it in this way: "Any fool can make something complicated. It takes a genius to make it simple." Growth in the reputation equity of any product or enterprise requires an abandon-the-superfluous focus. A difficult objective, as business leaders…
Befuddled Brand: CEO Demonstrates Microsoft Shortcomings Thursday, July 17th, 2014
Within the past week, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella sent a public email of some 3,187 words to company employees, with a Subject line of "Starting FY15 - Bold Ambition & Our Core" Nadella set out to articulate his vision of the new Microsoft - to paint the future for 127,000 Microsoftians anxious to know where their new boss is leading them - saying his motivation for writing the memo was to "galvanize employees around what our soul is." He fails miserably, committing a…
Visually Communicating A Message Simply: Less Is Far More Saturday, July 12th, 2014
Today's front page of The New York Times sports section effectively illustrates a key point behind any brand that wishes to achieve market leader status: communicate simply. As discussed in sports media site Deadspin: LeBron James, you might have heard, announced...he would return to [the NBA's] Cleveland [Cavaliers], a not insignificant transaction in the sports world. In reporting the news on Saturday, The New York Times went with a white-space heavy front page that is visually striking and clever. The…
For City of White Rock in British Columbia, The Brand Opportunity Remains Wednesday, January 21st, 2015
This story appearing in the design and technology media journal Gizmodo caught our eye: Back in the day it wasn't uncommon for trunks and suitcases to slowly become covered in labels as they visited cities and ports around the world. But it's become sort of a lost art—one that the folks at Animi Causa are trying to revive with this set of lovingly designed luggage label decals. Reminds us of communications assets created for the City of White Rock, located in a beautiful…
Clay Christensen's Milkshake Marketing: Strategy New or Relabeled? Friday, July 11th, 2014
A client recently asked our thoughts about this story discussing "Milkshake Marketing," published 2011 in Working Knowledge, a newsletter of Harvard Business School, in which the author breathlessly extols Milkshake Marketing as the latest creation of Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen: About 95 percent of new products fail. The problem often is that [product] creators use an ineffective market segmentation mechanism... It's time for companies to look at products the way customers do: as a way to get a job done.…
