You can differentiate your brand by owning an attribute. Here you concentrate on a particular characteristic of your offering, whether that be a product or a service. That’s just what Volvo has done, and the attribute they own is safety.

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There are some words that have been endlessly abused and are no longer fit for human consumption. They’ve become stale and meaningless. And in that class are words that end up in generic-type company names.

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One of the most important “ingredients” in your brand platform is a definition of how you will differentiate your brand from competitive brands. And one of the most powerful differentiators is being first in your product category or industry.

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The “new” Wall Street Journal debuted last week. It features a broader editorial policy with increased “focus” on politics and international news, and on weekends, sports and culture. I think it a mistake.

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I blogged about the abstraction ladder and concluded that the branding without abstractions delivers the strongest, most relevant and most endearing brands.

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The idea behind the abstraction ladder is that the more abstract the word or phrase used to describe an object, concept or situation, the less precise the description is. The more abstract, the more chance for confusion and miscommunication.

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It’s the blog of Heywood Innovation, “a successful Sydney-based creative consultancy operating in Australia and Singapore”. They’ve only posted 15-20 blogs so far and the content is no-nonsense basics.

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I used to think that meaningless, pontificating pratitudes might really damage a brand. Not any more. What brought me to this new point of view (which is actually a position of neutrality), are the ads for Southwest Airlines.

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Don’t be afraid of giving your sales force the major task of branding your company. More and more we are hearing branding pundits expound on relationship-building as a powerful brand-building activity.

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My dad was an entrepreneur – a successful entrepreneur. He built, owned and managed two of the most successful businesses in Estes Park, Colorado, prior to the Second World War.

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