<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" ?><rss version="2.0" xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/"><channel><title>Posts in Branding</title><link>http://vip.marcomprofessional.com/categories/branding</link><description>Posts in the Branding category on MarCom Professional</description><language>en-gb</language><lastBuildDate>Tue, 06 Jan 2009 21:51:04 +0000</lastBuildDate><copyright>Copyright: (C) 2009 MarCom Professional and contributing authors.  For full copyright info and terms of use visit http://vip.marcomprofessional.com/</copyright><ttl>15</ttl><image><title>MarCom Professional</title><url>http://vip.marcomprofessional.com//lib/img/rssimg.png</url><link>http://vip.marcomprofessional.com/categories/branding</link></image>	<item><title>Bruised Apple</title><description><![CDATA[Apple have made a number of cardinal errors that have combined to make a noxious cocktail in the last few weeks. The first is in allowing too much of the value of the business over time to be vested in the CEO. There are many other businesses, of course, that take similar risks by putting their CEO front and center at every opportunity and having he/she lead all communications with the outside world. The trouble is that when it comes to valuation, it soon becomes difficult to separate the enterprise and the leader.It is far better for a business in the medium / long term to let people see and hear from a cross-section of talent from the leadership team.]]></description><link>http://vip.marcomprofessional.com/posts/hamish.thompson/bruised-apple</link> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://vip.marcomprofessional.com/posts/hamish.thompson/bruised-apple</guid><pubDate>Tue, 06 Jan 2009 11:08:37 +0000</pubDate></item>
		<item><title>What Can Brands Learn from Alexandra Burke?</title><description><![CDATA[And so the marketing machine that is &lsquo;X Factor&rsquo; rumbles towards securing Simon Cowell another Christmas # 1 this year. At the time of writing, 150k copies of Alexandra Burke&rsquo;s cover of &lsquo;Hallelujah&rsquo; have been downloaded thus far, making it the fastest selling download of all time and virtually guaranteeing it to be the soundtrack to many people&rsquo;s Christmas. Whilst Ms Burke might be a talented singer, nobody can doubt that her song&rsquo;s popularity has a lot to do with the amount of time, emotion and money people have invested into her over the course of X Factor.]]></description><link>http://vip.marcomprofessional.com/posts/david.knowles/what-can-brands-learn-from-alexandra-burke</link> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://vip.marcomprofessional.com/posts/david.knowles/what-can-brands-learn-from-alexandra-burke</guid><pubDate>Thu, 18 Dec 2008 21:28:36 +0000</pubDate></item>
		<item><title>Is Santa Claus the World's Most 'Social Brand'?</title><description><![CDATA[I&#39;ve been reading a lot lately about the need for brands to shift more from a mindset of &#39;control&#39; to one that&#39;s a little more relaxed and open and engaging from a consumer perspective. In other words, the smart companies are ceding a degree of control of their brands to consumers and in doing so are building communities of loyal fans, the whys and what-fors of such a strategy is the subject of (many) more blog posts!Anyway, back to Santa.I was in the kitchen at home this week and noticed two letters waiting to be posted (below);]]></description><link>http://vip.marcomprofessional.com/posts/trevor.young/is-santa-claus-the-worlds-most-social-brand</link> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://vip.marcomprofessional.com/posts/trevor.young/is-santa-claus-the-worlds-most-social-brand</guid><pubDate>Thu, 27 Nov 2008 05:50:27 +0000</pubDate></item>
		<item><title>Logo Design Tips &#8211; What Does An Image Say About You?</title><description><![CDATA[Whether it&rsquo;s a golden arch, a half eaten apple or pink jagged numbers, a logo is the visual embodiment of a brand&rsquo;s identity. It has the power to inspire trust, admiration or even disdain, so you need to think carefully about how it&rsquo;s designed. Creating a logo isn&rsquo;t simply a case of doodling for a few hours and picking out your favourite sketch. You have to find the magic combination of shapes, images and colours that will reflect your brand&rsquo;s ethos and appeal to your target market.]]></description><link>http://vip.marcomprofessional.com/posts/david.knowles/logo-design-tips-8211-what-does-an-image-say-about-you</link> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://vip.marcomprofessional.com/posts/david.knowles/logo-design-tips-8211-what-does-an-image-say-about-you</guid><pubDate>Fri, 14 Nov 2008 14:20:06 +0000</pubDate></item>
		<item><title>Reaching 'Stay At Home Britain'</title><description><![CDATA[Further evidence that consumer confidence is taking a beating emerged this week and made me think more about what this will mean for marketers operating in a depressed commercial environment. My previous post alluded to the need to adjust marketing and PR strategies to take into account the fact that none of us are going to feel particularly flush in the next 12 months, and how this might impact on the habits of the great British public. I had dinner with some friends earlier this week and realised]]></description><link>http://vip.marcomprofessional.com/posts/caroline.tarbett/reaching-stay-at-home-britain</link> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://vip.marcomprofessional.com/posts/caroline.tarbett/reaching-stay-at-home-britain</guid><pubDate>Fri, 14 Nov 2008 10:30:36 +0000</pubDate></item>
		<item><title>Banks will disappear soon - centuries of tradition to be replaced by Internet systems</title><description><![CDATA[People aged over 40 are often amazed by what is happening online. Sometimes they find it difficult to consider things the way those born in the 1970s do. For instance, people under 30 tend to distrust corporates and they also seek the best solutions for what they want to achieve, regardless of brand. In spite of what you might think from media coverage, surveys tell us that the younger generations are not really that brand aware.That&#39;s a problem for traditional business which is geared around promoting brands.]]></description><link>http://vip.marcomprofessional.com/posts/graham.jones/banks-will-disappear-soon---centuries-of-tradition-to-be-replaced-by-internet-systems</link> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://vip.marcomprofessional.com/posts/graham.jones/banks-will-disappear-soon---centuries-of-tradition-to-be-replaced-by-internet-systems</guid><pubDate>Wed, 12 Nov 2008 20:27:00 +0000</pubDate></item>
		<item><title>To get real attention for your web site - build a brand</title><description><![CDATA[Look at the statistics for web usage and you soon discover that the most popular web sites in the world are those which are focused on specific brands. Search terms also tell a tale or two about the importance of brand. For instance, the latest figures on search popularity show that in the IT area, FIVE of the Top Ten search terms were for PayPal. In the Internet sector, Facebook and YouTube dominated the searches.This is, of course, no surprise - but it does show us something interesting. People are using search engines to find brands, such as Facebook or PayPal, when all they need to do is type the brand name into the address bar to be automatically taken to the brand without conducting a search.]]></description><link>http://vip.marcomprofessional.com/posts/graham.jones/to-get-real-attention-for-your-web-site---build-a-brand</link> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://vip.marcomprofessional.com/posts/graham.jones/to-get-real-attention-for-your-web-site---build-a-brand</guid><pubDate>Mon, 10 Nov 2008 12:47:00 +0000</pubDate></item>
		<item><title>Should Marketers Make People Feel Unhappy or Special? Part Two</title><description><![CDATA[Consumers are never happy unless you give them what they really want In another recent post, Seth Godin commented on how consumers are never happy, but are constantly demanding freebies, updates and product improvements from businesses. Seth suggests you can continue feeding the demands of unhappy customers, as though trying to buy a spoilt child&rsquo;s affection, or you can give them what they really want: a sense of connection, to feel appreciated and loved. Generic mass marketing cannot make people feel special or loved.]]></description><link>http://vip.marcomprofessional.com/posts/david.knowles/should-marketers-make-people-feel-unhappy-or-special-part-two</link> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://vip.marcomprofessional.com/posts/david.knowles/should-marketers-make-people-feel-unhappy-or-special-part-two</guid><pubDate>Mon, 10 Nov 2008 10:52:53 +0000</pubDate></item>
		<item><title>Should Marketers Make People Feel Unhappy or Special? Part One</title><description><![CDATA[In a culture jaded from decades of interruption style advertising, people praise their digibox, for enabling them to skip the &lsquo;annoying&rsquo; ad break, and ruthlessly bin emails which have the merest whiff of spam. Some think that advertisers and marketers are out to trick them, to make them feel unhappy or inadequate so they can then sell them products to heal their pain. When you add the credit crisis to the equation, it&rsquo;s unsurprising why some believe/hope we&rsquo;re on the verge of a cultural shift away from consumerism and towards (supposedly) a bright new utopia in which people find meaning in other ways than the pursuit of &lsquo;things&rsquo;.]]></description><link>http://vip.marcomprofessional.com/posts/david.knowles/should-marketers-make-people-feel-unhappy-or-special-part-one</link> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://vip.marcomprofessional.com/posts/david.knowles/should-marketers-make-people-feel-unhappy-or-special-part-one</guid><pubDate>Thu, 06 Nov 2008 09:58:28 +0000</pubDate></item>
		<item><title>What Brands Can Learn From Barack Obama</title><description><![CDATA[If companies and brands require any further proof that communicating with spirit and conviction as well as telling interesting stories is effective in attracting people&#39;s attention (and subsequently getting their buy-in), then look no further than Barack Obama&#39;s barnstorming win in the US Presidential race.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Obama spoke fervently and relentlessly about hope and change. He didn&#39;t get bogged down in detail - much to the chagrin of the media and his opponents who no doubt wanted to better understand the nitty-gritty of what he stood for.&nbsp;But the public didn&#39;t care.&nbsp;The people attended his rallies in their thousands.]]></description><link>http://vip.marcomprofessional.com/posts/trevor.young/what-brands-can-learn-from-barack-obama</link> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://vip.marcomprofessional.com/posts/trevor.young/what-brands-can-learn-from-barack-obama</guid><pubDate>Thu, 06 Nov 2008 03:29:39 +0000</pubDate></item>
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