Branding rules to make or break...

Originally published December 12, 2005. Still solid today. :^) -- RD

As a starting point to your own year-end ruminations about the effectiveness of your company's brand -- or that of one you envision spawning after the last bit of confetti has settled to the earth on January 1 -- here are some trusty new rules on branding, courtesy of New York City-based branding consultancy Sterling Group, as reported by Tim Parry for ChiefMarketer.com.


1. Brands that influence culture sell more and grow faster.
2. Effective brands embrace and boldly communicate their values.
3. The evolution of consumers is making them more valuable to brands than ever.
4. The smartest brands allow consumers to personalize their offerings.
5. Consumers expect to be impressed through each and every brand interaction.
6. Simplicity in presentation and at the point-of-purchase sets the best brands apart.
7. A single weak link can break a brand's connections to its consumers beyond repair.
8. Consumers expect brands to actively support noble causes.
9. Today's successful brands must move fast and constantly demonstrate enterprising initiatives.
10. Innovation is key to most successful brands' corporate strategies.

A proposal for winning business....

Just about anyone who operates a small business or a consultancy must be adept at authoring proposals. By definition, successful established firms and larger businesses have mastered proposal writing as a means of cementing new business relationships. The alchemy combines excellent writing with business acumen in the course of presenting very specific promises and agendas, and usually requires careful treatment of sensitive financial and legal matters. As such, for those just starting out on their own, proposal writing can be a very intimidating requirement of business development. If you're a graphic design professional, or if you feel that entrepreneurial business development practices in the design field may apply to your business, consider signing up for this week's "Proposals 101" webinar from HOW Magazine, the graphic design community's trusted source for creative inspiration, business advice and tools of the trade.


Presenters Ilise Benun and Peleg Top, the co-founders of Marketing Mentor, promise to share the secrets of quickly and easily crafting winning proposals and project budgets. The $69 fee gets you copies of presentation materials, easy-to-follow business-building exercises -- and online access to the webinar for the next year after the live event. It's happening this Thursday -- so if you're interested, register soon!

Leadership brand-building in one easy step...

Over the past few months, I've met with several fellow writers who were either considering starting their own freelance businesses or had recently taken the plunge. In each instance, I found myself advising my friends that they needed to focus on distilling the essence of their own personal brand identities, and then use that information as a guide for focus and decision-making as they forge ahead. Today I found some very solid reinforcement of this idea in an article from the December issue of Harvard Management Update. The article entitled "Five Steps to Building Your Personal Leadership Brand" from Dave Ulrich and Norm Smallwood, co-founders of The RBL Group, offers insights we can all apply -- not only to help us optimize our business decision-making and practices, but also to help us become better leaders.


The single step I'm recommending is that you click on the link for the story title above and download the PDF file for $4.50 US. With the three-page story in hand, you'll have a brief, informative, interactive article -- distilled from the authors' 2007 book "Leadership Brand: Developing Customer-Focused Leaders to Drive Performance and Build Lasting Value" from Harvard Business School Press -- to guide you through the exercise of nailing-down your own leadership brand. In case you're interested, here's mine (feedback welcome!):
. "I want to be known for being thoroughly diplomatic, and proactively inventive, savvy and effective, so that I can deliver superior communications counsel to my clients."