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AbuLLard's Articles: Brand U Docent Blog

Branding in Wonderland

When Alice fell down the rabbit hole, she found herself in a confusing place where people talked in riddles, the context was confusing, and the rules of the game changed constantly. Marketing today is not so very different. We are all like the white rabbit today. We're late. We're busy. Oh so busy these days. It's hard to get our attention. We don't have time to distill information. We want it quick. We want it now! Guess what? Our customers are just like us. They are busy too. They want what they want and they want it now. It's hard to get their attention.

How do you cut through the noise and the busy-ness to get their business? You have to give them what they want, not what you think they want. You need to do that through an information channel they pay attention to. Do they read traditional media? a mix of print and on-line? only what's available on their cell phone? Do you have to get in front ofthem with a PowerPoint or video?

What does this mean when preparing marketing materials? You have to have images and messages that work in whatever medium you choose whether printed, displayed, projected, or spoken. They have to be clear enough that people grasp them immediately, simple enough that people can repeat them, and interesting enough that people remember them.

To do this you need to be systematic. Yikes! What does that mean? Read our recommendations, click here.

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The Yin and Yang and Leadership

Recently we were asked to give a talk on the topic of Leadership to the IABC (International Association of Business Communicators), and we wondered how to present the issue of leadership to people who help other people communicate. 

How do we lead when we are often not in position of being the �leader�? But as communicators, isn�t it our job to �lead� people to do the right thing when it comes to communications? To help them express the right kind of messages? To encourage them to present themselves in a manner appropriate for themselves and their business?

After several discussions, we came up with the title for this talk of the �Yin and Yang of Leadership.� Because leadership comes in many forms and is continually changing. On the one side, there�s the image of a leader in front of a crowd, an army, whatever� for me it�s the image Mel Gibson shouting at a horde of blue faced men �Do you want to be free� and they throw themselves into battle behind him. That�s the Yang kind of leadership. It is frequently based on personality and charisma and there�s some kind of higher cause to be followed.

In organizations we seldom have that driving force and need another form of leadership, the Yin. This style of leadership is based on presence, persuasion. It�s more a process of �herding� than leading a charge. It�s an adaptive process of keeping a team on a path and moving forward while dealing with obstacles and changes in your environment.

How does one do that and do it well? I like to think of leadership in terms of the dance. Click here to see the Brand Management Tango.

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Trademarks, Copyrights and Patents

The letter "O" in AbuLLard's ABC's stands for Ownership. The success of your business can depend on how well you protect your assets - both physical and intellectual. It's relatively easy to lock up your office and equipment, but how do you protect your non-tangible assets -- your ideas, your images, your inventions? This month we focus on common legal protections for intellectual property: Trademarks, Copyrights, and Patents.

Trademark protects titles, words, names, symbols, logos and designs that are used to identify a business's goods (trademarks) or services (service marks) that are used in commerce. As you work to build your brand look for ways to use intellectual property, particularly trademarks, to protect your brand identity. Building a brand can be time consuming and expensive. It's worth protecting your investment with strong trademarks.

Want to learn more about this subject with some help links? Click here

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