You searched for yin yang - BN Branding

Is it car sickness, or just nauseating radio ads?

John Furgurson — Sun, 02 Nov 2025 18:28:29 +0000

Kids get car sick. Cleaning vomit from the back seat is part of every new parent’s indoctrination. But when adults start getting woozy every time they run a quick errand, you have to wonder about the cause. Is it car sickness or the constant barrage of bad radio advertising that makes you want to throw […]

4 Ingredients of small-business branding – Learning from breakfast cereal and a 4-buck burrito

John Furgurson — Wed, 02 Jul 2025 17:49:51 +0000

Branding is a hot topic in the business press and in business schools these days. Unfortunately, coverage of big brands like Tesla, Nike and Amazon make it sound as if Branding is a discipline reserved only for Fortune 500 companies and globe-trotting billionaires. As if small-business branding isn’t even a thing. Let me set the […]

The Yin & Yang of Marketing – Are your efforts in balance?

John Furgurson — Wed, 28 May 2025 22:21:21 +0000

In Eastern philosophy yin yang represents the concept of duality. Two halves working together toward wholeness and harmony. It’s the dance of opposites — where seemingly contrary forces are actually complementary. Like marketing strategy and tactics. “Wholeness” in marketing — ie optimal results — is only achieved when you strike that delicate balance between […]

A new approach to website design – What’s the big idea?

John Furgurson — Sat, 01 Mar 2025 17:18:02 +0000

In the advertising industry big ideas are the currency of success. Doesn’t matter if you’re working on an ad or a website, you work your butt off to come up with a big idea that can be leveraged into a giant, category-busting campaign. That kind of thinking is the key to a new approach to […]

Truth and clarity about Guerrilla Marketing

John Furgurson — Fri, 01 Nov 2024 18:18:05 +0000

It’s 1810. Napolean’s armies have conquered all of Europe and are enjoying the spoils. But in Spain, small bands of dedicated freedom fighters wage their own war against the occupying forces. They sneak. Strike. Move. Hide. And strike again. They involve the enemy in a long, drawn-out war, and ultimately prevail. That’s how the term […]

Definition of digital marketing — 4 things you HAVE to know

John Furgurson — Wed, 23 Oct 2024 18:30:41 +0000

Surely you’ve heard the online chatter about “digital marketing.” There are a million platforms, channels, systems, software programs and “strategies” that are guaranteed to help you “kill it” online. Every month it’s something new. (You using Facebook Messenger as an ad platform yet? What about TikTok?) If you’re a business owner you have better things […]

Strategic Thinking + Tactical Acting – For better marketing you need both

John Furgurson — Thu, 12 Sep 2024 19:56:04 +0000

I’ve been writing the Brand Insight Blog regularly since 2008. The single most popular post I’ve ever written focuses on the difference between marketing strategy and marketing tactics. Thinking and planning vs. doing and implementing. Seems there’s some confusion there, to say the least, about the definition of marketing tactics vs. marketing strategy. For example, […]

Sorting through a landslide of “marketing opportunities”

John Furgurson — Sun, 11 Aug 2024 22:09:53 +0000

The marketing landscape isn’t really a landscape anymore. It’s more like a fast moving landslide, snapping trees and engulfing unsuspecting business owners up to their ears in muck. Most clients I know are wearing so many different hats, they can’t begin to sort out all the “marketing opportunities,” much less make sound strategic decisions regarding each one. […]

How to cut your marketing budget without hurting your brand image.

John Furgurson — Sun, 11 Feb 2024 02:46:23 +0000

When it comes to belt tightening, most marketing managers have it all wrong. The minute the boss gives them the bad news… “gotta cut your marketing budget” they go straight to the list of tactics and start chopping off the bottom of the spread sheet. Not a stylish trim around the ears, more like a […]

The difference between marketing strategy and tactics.

John Furgurson — Fri, 01 Dec 2023 21:31:34 +0000

A successful marketing guy asked me a question recently — a real no-brainer — which led me to believe he didn’t know the difference between marketing strategy and tactics. How can that be? He’s held several high-paying marketing positions. He has an MBA. He’s gotta know this stuff. So I started doing some research online […]