The greatest group of athletes ever assembled into a team, in any sport, was a cultural phenomenon. 24 years after Barcelona, the 2016 Olympics needs a new Dream Team. Another 12-member roster of star performers. Not to compete in sport, but to save sport.  Saving the Olympic ideal of Olympism, in “building a better world through sport.” IN FOUR MONTHS This August, Rio de Janeiro will welcome athletes and visitors to the world’s first Olympic Games hosted in South America. In selecting…

Does the reputation equity of a esteemed brand add financial value to its owner, greater than that of an interchangeable commodity? And further, can this added value be quantified, by exposing the premium consumers are willing to pay for a high reputation brand? The answer to both questions is yes. In this example from the airline industry, Nick Young of Hopper examines why Virgin America and JetBlue are successful in maintaining premium ticket pricing in…

Nearly one year ago the city of Wichita, Kansas, approved a name change for its airport, which is currently undergoing a transformation with a soon to be opened new airport terminal. Wichita Mid-Continent Airport is now Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport. With the new terminal and new name has come a new logo, yes, dressed up as new brand. The airport's branding agency [read "logo agency"], Sullivan Higdon & Sink, partnered with the airport…

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…

Recently the CBS News program, 60 Minutes, rebroadcast their story about the Robin Hood Foundation, and the organization's founder, Paul Tudor Jones. The Foundation "fights poverty with the hard-nosed, business sense of Wall Street." Tudor Jones, also recently profiled in The New York Times, had this to say about how a smart brand name drives organizational success: If you said to me what part of our success is due to our name, I'd say it's a big part of it 'cause…

Nate Silver, who grew his reputation equity and became a pop culture icon as elections forecaster, creating two respected brands, on March 17 launched his new ESPN-backed FiveThirtyEight.com. Since then, has Silver broken the brand promise of data analysis rigor on which his personal reputation equity has been built, as well as that of FiveThirtyEight, through a case study example of brand overreach? Indeed he has. For those unfamiliar with Silver, after focusing on baseball statistical analysis early…

Exactly. Could not agree more. Rather than price, the iPhone 5c is all about product extension - extending Apple's iPhone brand without diluting reputation equity. A savvy strategy to grow the iPhone as a product family, much like the Apple MacBook product offering of both MacBook Air and MacBook Pro. Product extensions are often misguided and fraught with peril, with brand and product managers often overlooking Product Extension 101: The easiest way to destroy a…

Within a year after creating WHISPER and launching our site, in 2005 Fast Company recognized the WHISPER blog among a select handful offering on-target insights: The always-slippery topic of branding becomes more so on the Web, where "brand" bloggers typically spill the most ink on, well, blogging. We found three that offer on-target insights. Fast Company said this: "WHISPER offers good musings on strategy" When looking back on the Fast Company piece, also of interest are the agency blogs…

Adandon the superfluous. And become unforgettable. Though it might seem counterintuitive to judge a company, a product, or person by their name, a recent study confirms our brains work to do so anyway. The more pronounceable a person’s name is, the more likely people are to favor them: “When we can process a piece of information more easily, when it’s easier to comprehend, we come to like it more,” said psychologist Adam Alter of New York…

Cities from Washington D.C. to Warsaw, nations from Malta to Mexico, each compete to attract tourism spending and business investment. Too often the leadership of cities or states rely upon “The List” in communicating the story of their place. The result is predictable. The tourism and investment audiences mayors and governors seek to attract tune out, as they have heard it all before. Such marketing claims confer commodity status upon any place otherwise believed as…

This past December Texas Tech University hired a new head football coach. A Texas Tech alum suggests a rebrand of the new coach - Swagger? - to gain media attention for the coach and football program, and by extension the university. Read the full let's-do-anything-in-hopes-that-something-sticks hilarity in this from Deadspin. [Image: Jim Cooke; Source: Deadspin]

Lance Armstrong is a product. A product with a reputation. And now Livestrong, which owes its 16 years of existence to Armstrong, is discovering the price of its ongoing connection and public association with its founder, as its own reputation equity begins to diminish. The perils of an organization intertwined with the reputation of an individual, one early on seen as an awe-inspiring sports hero via what we now know was an inauthentic narrative, come…

Washington Post Kraft Foods Inc. says shareholders approved the name “Mondelez” for its new global snack food business, which may put to rest the snickering that initially greeted the name. The Northfield, Ill.-based company said Wednesday the name was approved by more than 90 percent of shareholders who cast a vote. The name — pronounced “mon-dah-LEEZ” — will take effect when the company officially splits into two publicly traded companies later this year. Mondelez International…

Yahoo Finance "MONDEWHAAAAT?" The sarcasm was palpable in the one-word headline that appeared in The New York Post on the day after Kraft Foods revealed that it planned to name its new global snack business "Mondelez," an interpretation of a mash-up of the Latin words for "world" and "delicious." But that wasn't the only dig. One blogger teased that she would've been "stifling giggles" if she'd been in meetings to determine the name. A Forbes contributor suggested…

BOSTON (Reuters) - Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, both academic heavyweights and often neighborly rivals, are joining hands in a new partnership to offer courses online and for free. The two schools, located near each other in Cambridge, Massachusetts, are teaming up on an initiative called edX only five months after MIT rolled out MITx, its online learning system which allows students to earn certificates for completing course work from a distance. Harvard…