Origin stories are big business in Hollywood. Millions of people pay top dollar at the box office to get the back-story on their favorite superhero or sci-fi villain. (The Joker grossed $849 million in just two months.) Unfortunately, brand origin stories are highly underrated and underutilized in the business world. Let’s say you’re involved in […]
Naming, rebranding, and the role of your brand origin story. Read More »
I get a lot of questions when people I tell people I have a branding agency… “What, like golf hats and branded water bottles?” “No, it’s not branded merch. It’s branding services… You know, like brand names, logos, ads, signs, trade show booths, event graphics… Anything that will improve your image and help
6 good questions about branding agencies and their owners Read More »
There’s nothing like a good origin story to remind everyone what your brand’s really all about. Phil Knight’s memoir, Shoe Dog, is an exceptional example. It spells out how the Nike brand narrative evolved as the company grew up. Like all good stories, it has plenty of interesting characters, plot twists and emotional ups and
From underdog to big dog: Take-aways from the Nike brand narrative. Read More »
If you conducted a poll of 100 people like myself who develop brands for a living, 99 would tell you that naming your company is the hardest piece of the brand identity development process. Naming is way harder than designing logos or writing brand narratives. Naming a business is harder than naming a baby. Naming
Naming your company – Why is it so dang hard to do well? Read More »
Business naming is one of those funny creative tasks that everyone thinks they can do. No one thinks they can draw a logo. They don’t “pitch in” during the design process with their own sketches, but they sure think they can come up with a good business name. There’s a lot of armchair quarterbacking involved
How to come up with a good business name – avoid these common mistakes Read More »
Here’s who we are: John Furgurson – Owner, creative director, brand strategist. John’s been called an anomaly… A creative guy with a penchant for business. A poetic entrepreneur. He can devise an insightful strategy in the morning and craft award-winning ad copy over lunch. It’s a left-brain, right-brain, one-two punch that fits perfectly with the
High quality content is a completely subjective — and massively broad — subject. For one person it means funny Tic Toc videos. For someone else, it means authoritative scientific content that helps them finish their PhD. For the purposes of this blog post, we’re going to focus on high quality content that helps small business
“High Quality” Content – Finding or providing something genuinely worthwhile. Read More »
Apparently, I have peasant feet. At least that’s what the nice sales person at REI told me as I was buying a pair of Keens. That comment inspired me to use that brand as a good branding case study. Here’s how the story goes… Back in medieval Europe, peasant’s feet were short and stubby, with
Keen Footwear is a great branding case study. If the shoe fits. Read More »
It’s the age of information, and much of the marketing buzz these days revolves around information-rich content marketing. Especially for business-to-business marketers, it’s all the rage. We have YouTube videos, webinars, blog posts, slide sharing, Powerpoint Presentations, Facebook updates, LinkedIn articles, tweets, podcasts, websites, ebooks, and white papers coming out our ears. In many cases,
The secret, missing ingredient of content marketing. Read More »
One of the hosts of an immensely popular golf podcast recently said, on the air, that “custom club fitting is a total waste of time for most people.” It was the type of statement that boosts ratings and incites debate among golf industry insiders. But his reasoning was weak; “It’s not like real life,” he
Custom club fitting: Path to perfection or folly of the fragile golf psyche? Read More »
