A video discussion about the high impact of starting with strategy, and using it to guide your company, your brand, your products and services Strategic thinking should not be just a once-a-year exercise. It should not be another boring, fill-in-the-blanks meeting. Your business strategy defines key direction across most areas of the business. Whether you're developing strategic planning, or strategic consulting discussion to address key issues within the company, you will have the opportunity to create major impact on… the company direction brand identity and brand marketing product and service development customer experience, customer service and so much more. Want to get a sense of how thinking strategically really impacts all areas of your business strategy, beyond the superficial? Grab a coffee… hit play, and start thinking strategically!

"We're listening... tell us what you think." This was a highly-successful direct mail self-mailer, gaining research and preventing customer turnover / churn. You know what sets Marketing Experts apart in today's saturated online landscape? Direct Mail. That's right – Direct Mail, a powerhouse in Direct Response Marketing, stands out as a fast and highly effective strategy. In contrast to the challenges posed by poor Google SEO responses and crowded social media platforms and email inboxes, Direct Mail cuts through the noise. Imagine placing a tangible, attention-grabbing marketing communication directly into the hands of your prospects, on your own terms and timeline, without being dictated by algorithms. The potential to captivate your target audience is unparalleled. Direct Mail Marketing offers a diverse array of tools – paper, texture, color, metallic ink, folding techniques, hidden panels, embossing, 3-dimensional elements, self-mailers that make an impact. These are the tools that not only communicate but also leave a lasting impression on your audience. Timing is everything, and with Direct Mail, you have the flexibility to send targeted promotions to your audience precisely when you want, with the compelling Call to Action (CTA) you desire. The types of campaigns and formats are unlimited. We've used various approaches, from simple postcards… official-looking letters… graphic self-mailers… to innovative packages like a series of hats in a box. One-up-wows and engaging campaigns that build. And the results have been impressive. Sure, Direct Mail might cost more than email, and yes, some of it is wasted. That's the nature of mail, and any marketing medium. But here's the thing – when you hit the right people at the right time, the engagement and conversion rates soar. You enter the sales closing process swiftly and efficiently. Direct Mail – it's a game-changer. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Want to find out more about Direct response / Direct Mail ? PLus effective, award-winning samples? https://www.marketpoweronline.com/atlanta-direct-mail-direct-response - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Joel Alpert, PDM is a Certified Direct Marketer, and has studied with and worked with some of the pioneering thinkers of the field — including Bob Stone, Martin Baier, Sol Blumenfeld, Emily Soell, and more. .And he's worked with "the biggest and smallest companies in America." http://www.MarketPowerOnline.com

"Brand" is the word! It's up to CEOs and CFOs to maximize its valuable Is it really worth investing in an ethereal idea called "brand"? How can you evaluate the value of a brand? "Brands are conceptually tricky. In the words of Jeremy Bullmore of WPP, they are “fiendishly complicated, elusive, slippery, half-real/half virtual things. When CEOs try to think about brands, their brains hurt." Here is some key perspective about the monetary value of brand identity. BRAND CONFUSION “Part of the confusion (about "brand") comes from the fact that the word “brand,” as a noun, is used in different ways. “Which brand did you buy?” — a brand is a named product or service. “Which brand shall we use for this new product? ” — brands are trade marks. What IS a brand? While you'll hear different definitions, here's a definition by Joel Alpert of MarketPower: A brand is the customer perception which you create…the overall identity of all your marketing communications, activities, and customer interactions. This includes key components of company name, logo, tagline, domain name… positioning of your company, products and services… sales and marketing materials… customer service and all company interactions. A good brand is based on your conscious development of all areas of the business and the way you present these to your target audience(s). It's purpose is to engage the interest of buyers and enable a more efficient sales process… because you've shown your prospects they want to buy from you. “How will brand development strengthen or weaken our company? ” — brand refers to customers’ and others’ expectations about products or services sold under a specific trade mark or about the company which provides them.” Can brand identity can be created within social media? Social Media may be where you blast it… but its not the identity itself. Your brand has many "touchpoints," and when you get the primary ones in focus you're headed in the right direction." Once you (start to) brand … you'll realize it's value, and want to apply it across your business. You'll see the impact it has in a relatively short period of time. These key excerpts were excerpted by Joel Alpert from “Brands And Branding” (Bloomberg Press), "The clarity of focus that a strong brand positioning gives organizations will always create more effectiveness, efficiency and competitive advantage across all operations; and from a pragmatic financial perspective, research among investment communities confirms that clarity of strategy is one of the first criteria for judging companies.” “As one chief executive noted, those who move from the (basic) traditional idea that the brand is about advertising and marketing to using the brand as an organizing idea in their corporate strategy, to touch and inform everything they and their people make, do and say, may find that they ‘ have made more progress as business then we achieved in the previous ten years.’ ” BRAND VALUE “The intangible element of the combined market capitalization of the S&P 500 has increased to around 80%, compared with some 30% twenty years ago, and is likely to grow even further as tangible distinctions between businesses become less sustainable. The brand element of that combined market value amounts to around one-third of the total, which confirms the brand as the most important single corporate asset.” “Warren Buffet, the world’s most famous (and least sentimental) investor told a group of investors that brand is the most important factor in deciding where to invest.” "Strong brands mean more return, for less risk." “If branding is treated as a cosmetic exercise only , and regarded as merely a new name/logo, stationery and possibly a new advertising campaign, it will have only a superficial effect at best …. Reputation is, after all, reality with a lag effect. Branding needs to start with a clear point of view on what an organization should be about and how it will deliver sustainable competitive advantage ; then it is about organizing all product, service, and corporate operations to deliver that.” “If the brand is the most important organizational asset, it makes rational sense for it to be a central management preoccupation. Business strategy is, or should be, brand strategy, and vice versa.” THE POWER OF AN OPEN MIND “Creativity and imagination are crucial to the success of a brand. It is the easiest thing to in the world for people to approach new naming, product development, design and advertising ideas with an open mouth and a closed mind.” “To distinguish itself effectively and efficiently from other organizations, it is helpful to have some kind of shorthand: visual or verbal symbols…” “…these elements will engage and inspire people, externally and internally,to the advantage of the organization.” The Bottom Line from Joel Brand Strategy includes perceptions and reality...from company name, logo & tagline… to product/service development....to customer service and all interactions and beyond. Your basic strategic and branding communications form the foundation for business growth and successful marketing communications. Map out your plans to address perception and reality…do a great job on both! - – - – – - – - – - – - – - – - - Joel Alpert is a branding and marketing specialist who combines (1) a proprietary strategic consulting and branding process which gets at the essence of your business and brand strategy quickly and definitively (using the innovative thinking developed by Robert Fritz, Inc.) (2) huge experience producing effective, award-winning branding and marketing communication programs for large and small companies and agencies across the country. (3) experience working with "the largest and smallest organizations in America." Connect on LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/in/joelalpert123 Come Visit: www.MarketPowerOnline.com Quotes are from Author/Compiler Rita Clifton, a leading practitioner and commentator on branding; CEO/Chairman of Interbrand, a global brand consultancy. You might want to read this multi-author compilation, with multiple perspectives on Branding that particularly appeal to Business Owners, CEOs/CFOs who are trying to rationalize the spend they know they need, but who want to ensure, as best as might be foretold, that it will deliver a return that's worth it. The quotes are from “Brands And Branding” (Bloomberg Press).

Updated Jan 2024 You already know that to be successful your business needs a clear purposeful direction. And you want to make a strong first impression with your brand and marketing. You do this to sell more effectively. Sometimes, however, brands are halfway there. Often a logo and tagline isn't backed by strategic business direction, or thought-through branding . Often product and service descriptions, offers, and customer service are only part-way on target, or key points are missed — not engaging, or not offered the way prospects want to buy. Often a website doesn't address prospect questions with a clear logical flow (Wait, what...?). The boss knows revenue is needed now: "Don’t worry about that mumbo jumbo,," the boss says, "we need to bring in more business now. We'll probably fix that strategy and branding stuff when more sales are made…" "And we don’t really need this branding stuff that badly anyway… we’re in a relationship business. So forget a new logo and tagline and some fancy-pants website, we’ve been doing business without them." You’re a git-er-done guy or gal. So you spring into ACTION: • You contact more prospects than a Nigerian prince with a fortune that just needs depositing in your U.S. account (and you get $2MM just for using your account… that was easy). • Your new keywords pulverize the SEO out of every paragraph… and you think you can even improve your AdWords campaign (even though it's not producing much now.) • You post on Instagram more often than a caffeinated influencer pushing the new caramel mocha latte with sparkly sprinkles. • You hand out flyers with discount codes more efficiently than a one-armed paper hanger. • You power-up the new business presentation to anyone in the elevator .who mentions your line of business. You even add a new salesgal. You push past your limits like a high-intensity aerobic and anaerobic workout, with all kinds of marketing tactics… social media posts…expos… and trade shows and sponsorships, postboards n the town square… and…and…and… BUT-BUT… BUT WAIT A MINUTE! All these efforts… bring your prospects back to your website and new business presentations, right?! And these are driven by your branding and your product/service offerings… …and what if these aren't quite thought through fully, and don't rally engage your audience?! Wait, wha-a-t? With your fuzzy strategy… fuzzy branding… fuzzy product and service offerings… fuzzy processes… and fuzzy marketing communication… things are looking kinda....fuzzy! Is your prospects’ first impression of your website and your business: “Um...so I think I sorta get what you do…” "I think you do something that might help us, but TLDR..." Or: “Yes, saw your site, we'll keep your business in mind....” Do you really want to present your “sorta good enough” branding and website to your best prospects, smart buyers — who are shopping the market, exploring the nuances of your brand, products, and services, and making buying decisions? They may have been drawn in by your amazing blog post that your SEO guy optimized. Maybe they saw a post, a Google ad, came via a referral, or you've even set up a sales call that showed promise. Are your efforts receiving a lukewarm response and not securing business? Are you missing out on cross-sell or upsell opportunities because prospects lack a clear view of your offerings? Did you grab their interest, only for another business to win the sale? Yikes! That often occurs not because your competitors have a better product or service — but only because they have thought-through the components of their business and presented them clearly. Your competitors made it easier for prospects to understand and appreciate their strategy, branding, messaging, product or service, offer and customer experience… and it spoke directly to the interests of the same prospects you're trying to sell. Unfortunately, you’ve just wasted a whole lotta effort and marketing dollars! And you likely have cut off some of your best prospects,even after they've responded to your sales and marketing efforts — because once they say  "nah.…"! And at that point,  it's pretty hard to get them to change their minds! Diddley-dang… your competition just ate your lunch! This is a very big question: Is your "Branding" just a logo, part of a Things To Do List, to pop onto your website...or is it a central strategic driving force? If you look at the Strategy/Branding as something on your TTD list -- not as generative and the core of your integrated thinking -- you will screw yourself royally. Strategy and branding are not stickers you slap on … they're the engine that drives your business. Your business strategy and branding should guide most things you do — from the markets you select…the way you develop, customize and present your products and services... your website content and SEO… and everything else. It is the foundation for growth… and you never want to build on a weak foundation. >> Good strategy (market segmentation and focus, key business decisions and more) should lead to good branding >> (which tells prospects they may want to do business with you) >> Good branding builds the foundation for strong business (starting with your website, products and services, and marketing materials >> >> Content and marketing programs build leads and sales. (And that should include making clear offers with streamlined processes and signup, so you can close sales and deliver efficiently.) Thinking through stuff like presenting your brand, your products and services, should not be considered plug-ins that you get to "whenever." They are essential… part of a continuum… like an airport with runways that are long-enough! In reality, you can't cross a chasm in two leaps! If you present something muddled … you’re really presenting a different offering to your prospects. It might as well be a different company — a company that has no clear identity and direction. And the prospects you've tried to cultivate will meander off with "Hey I’ve got to make a call…" Most businesspeople are moving way too quickly to explore this epiphany: good strategy and branding lead to stronger ways of doing business, new markets, new ways of sales and marketing. You are defining and articulating your offerings in a stronger way, attracting and engaging your prospects and customers, and closing sales (faster). And you're making your boss happy again! And you really have to keep up. Because your markets have changed. Your company has evolved. Your competitors have likely improved their branding, and the overall standard for branding in the marketplace is higher. You've got to stay current, and you certainly want to put your best foot forward. You don’t have to be an Einstein to quote him — “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” Yep! And if we don’t approach growth or innovation freshly, we miss capitalizing on our biggest asset — our ability to think! Set Your Business Direction — Where Are You Going? And Is Your Brand Development Keeping Up With You? First, get the destination straight. Are we going to the beach,…skiing in Colorado? When you know, you pack your bags. Not the other way around. If you ski in a swimsuit and flip-flops it's gonna be chilly! And you don’t want to bring your ski parka and insulated gloves to Jamaica, mon… do you feel me? Practically, if you shift the order of what you do — strategy and branding first, as guiding forces — you'll change everything. You'll have your destination, map and compass. So you can produce the business results you want with clarity and alacrity. Guaranteed. Are you feeling irie? ------------------------- Joel Alpert helps clients gain business results and profitability with level-up tools in strategic thinking, branding, and targeted marketing communications for companies of all sizes, startups … SMB… to the Big Kids and non-profits. He thinks he can figure out with you… how to "do what now." Updated Jan 2024

This is my true Business War Story about what happens when a billionaire CEO is fed up with "consultant's babble." "The story you are about to read is true. The names have been changed to protect the innocent." ( 🎶 Cue Dragnet theme music.) I'd been working with a well-known publishing company in L.A. — doing a combination of strategic consulting… some program rebranding…a major direct mail marketing program… and training the staff in Direct Response Marketing. It was a bigger gig than most of the Small-Medium Business work I usually do… … and all had been going well. Or so I thought. That day I am finishing a presentation of next-step recommendations in the main conference room. Our consultant (me) is in The Zone. George, the Number 2 Guy at the company, is pleased that the components are fitting together nicely. His two protective generals agree. We're headed down the runway for a lunch break. I'm starving — I'd only had coffee and a banana, 5 or 6 hours earlier at the break of dawn. Right at that point, a stately gentleman — looking a good bit like Mr. Rogers' dad — quietly walks into the room. Most everyone sits up a little straighter. Haven't met him, must be high-level management. He plops down… crosses his legs… leans over his knees for just a moment to inhale the whiteboard. "Why in the world would you recommend ___________ , when we've always ______________ before?!" he asks with a sneer. The style is not particularly friendly. He attacks Joel with a barrage of non-stop questions. Not always waiting for an answer,. Boom! Boom! 😱 Perspective questions. Boom! Drill-down details. Boom! Big picture now. Dripping toxic skepticism of the recommendations and explanations. Boom-Boom! 😱 I don't like strategy consultants, he says. And direct mail consultants don't know what they're doing, he says. Explain what you mean by (any point), he keeps demanding. Strategic questions. Targeted marketing questions. Questions about how everything will fit together and operate smoothly, if enacted. Me the consultant was getting a little warm. I wasn't a criminal and I didn't think I should be under a hot spotlight at this police station. Hadn't even met this manager-type. Boom! Boom! 😱 One after the other. Now to the executive team: Do they think these recommendations are any good? Do they understand how to implement these tactics? Often the gentleman doesn't wait for a full answer before the next question. I catch a quick glimpse of one wide-eyed, open-mouthed guy looking at his buddy across the conference table, as if to say "Oh, sweat, Joel is getting a whoopin'!" Boom! Boom! 😱 Back to Joel in the crosshairs, Did you consider other options, why did you choose these? Wait…the executive management team had just been wowed!… now this?! [ insert colloquial 3-letter acronym 😱 for ASTONISHMENT here ] Why the attack? "Why this?" I think, Who does this guy think he is? The provocateur was reserved, but clearly a senior-level guy with authority in a roomful of executives. Wait — with a half-moment of not dodging the spiraling bullets, like in The Matrix… I realize "the guy" might be Jack, the legendary, multi-billionaire CEO. But… No time for meandering, focus right back on defending the recommendations. They had been written over a few weeks, developed over a few months. They were good, Or at least I thought so. Strategy & Tactics & Creative Marketing Concepts. They provided strong value to the company — with a combination of fundamentals and innovative approaches. Why have these obliterated by a random ambush…even if this guy is high-level? It seemed so capricious and improper. I was annoyed, watching my work (maybe) being destroyed. Though thrown by the attack, I gave a to-the-point explanation to every successive challenge. Defending the recommendations. Clarifying apparent misconceptions. Providing perspective. Looking back, my thinking combined doubling-down… flexibility where it made sense… even two "I dunno, I'll check that out." responses. It lasted 35 or 40 minutes. Non-stop. I was feeling like a blackened burger trying to jump off the grill. The interrogator suddenly stops. Stands up. Takes one more mental snapshot of the whiteboard. Walks out of the room without a word. Whew! Everyone visibly relaxes. George, the Number 2 In Command, says to me ,"That was Jack." Yep, The iconic multi-billionaire CEO. The room was quiet for a minute. ("Yikes! What did I just do? Did I just do the right thing?"). Breathe . Okay, then. Go on. We tie up the recommendations in a nice bow, and start the lunch break. There were a few person-to-person glances, and a few overheard phrases as the exec team left the conference room — indicating "Does this consultant guy from Atlanta with the New York accent have any idea that he shouldn't be talking to Jack that way?!" Joel retreats to his "onsite office." For 20 minutes after the meeting, our consultant is glazed over. Exhausted. "Boy, did I just do a number on myself, I just pushed back against the boss, a hugely successful California icon who has built a business empire, and I'm just a little guy, a hired gun on a contract." Our consultant expects to be unceremoniously kicked in the butt… bounced out… pointed back to the airport with his tail between his legs, for slamming the CEO's comments. Especially in front of his execs. I was bummed out, looks like I screwed up, I told the truth, but I got in trouble. The price of being a consultant who sleeps at night, I tried to rationalize. Looks like I'll have to give up this gig — my coveted trips out to "The Coast," usually 10 days with a blissful weekend in the middle. I'd bring my Rollerblades for a day-long skate on Sundays from Santa Monica to Redondo Beach and back. Sunshine, great exercise. Past the muscle builders, bikini girls, jugglers, and assorted loonies on the boardwalk. It was a joyous circus in the sunshine. While the majority of my work is with SMB, this business program was for a bigger company, with multiple components... a bigger scope of work over a longer term. We dug deep into the organization's strategy, direct mail marketing program, processes, and trained the marketing team on direct mail marketing techniques (essential to their business). Oh, well. the good gig, and the good time on The Coast, shot to hell. Rats! , After about 20 minutes, George, the 2nd In Command, glides by that nice little onsite office Joel had been getting used to. George has a wide-eyed "Are You kidding me?!" look I hadn't seen in the few months of working together. He had just spoken to Jack. Turns out this iconic CEO hates, hates, hates  consultants! But he somehow seemed okay with the meeting. Then it dawned on me that months ago George mentioned the boss "hates consultants." But they hired me anyway, so it didn't cross my mind again.. Then after a few months of good feedback, this "challenge" — this overt provocation —  in the meeting. George says he suspected Jack wanted to know: Did this consultant have real rationales, real strategic thinking, real experience,… behind the recommendations? Were these working sessions — that were sucking up the time of some of his executives — worth the money? And would these recommendations be worth it when it cost many times more, to roll out in marketing campaigns? George didn't suggest that Jack was satisfied or not, I don't think he knew for sure. And my fate was hanging by a thread. But -- for the first-time ever, I'm told — this business icon would pick me up at 12:35 sharp at the South Entrance… to continue the conversation over lunch! No way! Did I screw up enough to earn more of Jack's Wrath? He wants to talk more… but he'd already grilled me. Does he get involved at this level? Does he want to berate me for being a smartass? Did I embarrass him? Did he value any small bit of the work? Yes, I was early at the South Entrance, watching a number of cars pull up, waiting for some hot ride like a Jag or Maserati , but didn't see Jack . At the stroke of 12:35, a 15-year-old Toyota Road Runner pulls up, windows roll down: "Hi, Joel… jump in!" Joel asks Jack where we were headed… assuming it might be a fancy L.A. restaurant, where rich people dine for lunch. The boss said we were headed to his home in Beverly Hills! And to this point, I still wasn't sure if I was going to get more pushback on the recommendations, our interaction… I'm just trying to keep breathing evenly… Some small talk and long silences while Jack chauffeured, The Boss seemed focused on his driving, squinting over his bifocals, or deep in thought. The house was decidedly… unimpressive. A 20-minute drive, and we arrived at a ranch house in Beverly Hills. Not the palatial estate I envisioned as we drove past some serious mansions. Car parked outside with a guy watching us. The house looks bigger on the inside. The kitchen has a brand-new refrigerator… but the dark wood paneling says 1950's. No kitchen renovation? The place looks well-lived and musty, but smells clean. The CEO looks more relaxed as he played short-order cook — he makes tuna, with a measured dollop of mayo, and a small bit of grated onion,. He has really good rye bread, crispy crust. Eggsellent. Wrong kinda pickle, no problem.. Served in elegant mansion style — on a Dixie paper plate. He told Joel that consultants and his underlings usually don't tell him the truth. H e can't stand that!  He gave me 3 examples of that disingenuous behavior — they were awful panderings. Jack tells me he likes his reality unvarnished. (I'd also picked up that same phrase from my consulting mentor, Robert Fritz). And he really liked my recommendations and straightforward defense when attacked. Jack smiles. Hot damn! Truth can win. Straightforward works. I 'm feeling tears of relief and validation coming on, but shut that down fast — just act like this happens every day, with some of the biggest icons of industry, I thought, Right. Yeah, right… "two guys," just talking. I knew I was in the presence of greatness, and I certainly was humbled. Okay, a little intimidated, but mostly okay. His questions were well within my expertise and I'd seriously done the work — a barrel of formal and informal "holistic-type" consulting to discover details that fed my recommendations. Our exchange was candid and friendly… spirited and sometimes even playful. It 's a great conversation. Unhurried. Covering strategy, branding, direct mail marketing, operations, even confidential stuff about personnel and how two teams were working together poorly and he wanted my perspective. We were having a conversation. Two guys. He wants to know if I like the tuna. (It really was good!) He gives me feedback from the meeting, about what he and I said during the meeting. A couple of discussion points are very substantive. He recalls being surprised when I said in the meeting "There's lots of perspective missing from (your comment), you'll want to know…" — and then he laughed, saying "Joel. don't worry, I agree, you were right!" He even sorta apologizes for his overall attack, with a sheepish grin. Lunch lasts well over 2 hours! It stops at a very natural point. Jack smiles and tells me there's a driver outside to take me back to the hotel, and he drifts off into the ranch estate. I get into the car I'd seen waiting since we'd arrived. (Oh, sweat… he had been ready to send me back from the moment we arrived!) I asked the driver to drop me a mile or so from the hotel. This day needs a brisk walk. I fall asleep for a few minutes in the car. By the time I get back to the hotel in Santa Monica there's a dark wooden box with a little latch, waiting for me inside my room — with two crystal glasses… and a bottle of 25-year-old Balvenie Sherry Oak Cask Scotch! I'd mentioned that all-time favorite booze to George just before he hired me, about 6 months beforehand. OMG. Now that was a most excellent day! - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -   Joel Alpert is a Swiss Army Knife consultant with a pocketful of unconventional skills in strategic thinking, brand development, direct mail marketing, executive coaching, and more. He's worked with very large and very small companies, usually SMB. You can visit: www.MarketPowerOnline.com

In this fast-paced OMG world, our actions are not always clear, efficient and productive. We want to stimulate fresh ideas and unlock “aha!” moments of insight. This video — with Q&A from the group — was presented to the Sowgrow Marketing Council, a group that shares insider tips on marketing. Watch it with your own business in mind… how you might accelerate your own business growth. Here are some of those topics that open up our strategic thinking, that can be used for strategic planning,… developing marketing plans and social media content programs… • Defining strategic thinking: Are we tackling the right challenges and assumptions? • Navigating the nuances between Strategy and Branding: Understanding the crucial distinctions and identifying opportunities for synergy. • Branding impressions… and beyond those first impressions. Some unconventional insights into the opportunities we may miss to shape our company brand • The strategic importance of Product Development and Refinement: How it influences branding and drives profitability. • Insider tips from a robust strategic planning process: Discover how to leverage strategic planning as both a strength and a potential pitfall. Some ways to think about "Strategic Thinking" were presented in a workshop in the Atlanta Area on March 7, 2024… http://tinyurl.com/2pads2m5   - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Joel Alpert is Chief Lightbulb at MarketPower, and brings experience and expertise to SMB, He's trained and worked with renowned strategic innovator Robert Fritz… and has worked for Fortune 500, SMB, startups, solopreneurs… at top national ad agencies, and with  his consultancy, MarketPower. Get in touch if you want to explore customizable programs to integrate your strategy, branding and targeted marketing. http://www.MarketPowerOnline.com

Nobody is accusing you of murder. Not yet. But if you've been thinking about a rebrand for a while, you might be killing your best business prospects! Because y ou don't want to miss presenting your best business case, and not meeting their interests.. Shift Happens! Does your business need rebranding, or a "brand refresh" because it just needs work, or you've made updates to your company, product, or services? Have you really done anything wrong? No, not at all. Even if you've ignored this key issue for a while… or didn't even realize it needed to be addresses… it's a natural need — your business and the marketplace continuously evolve. Shift happens. But not living up to your business potential, and losing out to the competition, is an egregious strategic and communications disconnect — punishable by loss of business and opportunity. It's not that we need new ideas... but we need to stop having old ideas." — Edward Land, Co-Founder Polaroid Rebranding gives you a chance to do your own best work and compete…even (and especially!) if you’ve been in business for years. To keep up with the market, you have to think. Think about how you present your work to interested prospects right now, considering potential limitations of your company's branding/marketing or muddled delivery of service. And how different that would be if you adjusted your product offerings to better meet marketplace needs and presented and delivered them seamlessly.. (You'd do this because it makes a real difference.) Think about how competitors and market leaders present their work. (They may do it better… or you can jump ahead by guiding your organization to do it better than the market leaders!) Think – for a 1/2-sec — of your prospects’ short attention span! And how you need to engage their interest quickly. Simply, when you line this all up… you sell more. If you don’t maintain a strongly branded company, products, and services… you will kill off your best prospects. They may initially be attracted to your company… but they'll go to competitors who seem to offer a better match for their interests. Ironically, their services and products may or may not be better in reality! It's just they explained it better… or their product/service names and graphics weer more engaging… or they made it easier to do business with them… Business Owners, ask yourself: Don’t I work too hard to let my competition eat my lunch and gain my market share? Of course the answer is obvious, as long as you;re asking the right questions. It’s time to be a transformer. When you create this brand morphing — sometimes a smaller “correction” and sometimes a major “transformation” — you energize your business and its relationships. And gain more business. But doesn't it cost good money to rebrand? Yes. And doesn't it cost you money for salaries and overhead? And, even more so — opportunity cost? In the big picture of overhead, salaries, inventory, training and more… not very much. And it costs you prospects and profitability — far more money! — if you don't. Shouldn't we sell more first… and pay for the strategy and branding work with increased sales later? Do you really want to go out into the marketplace with lukewam company identity and lukewarm product/service offerings? That's not a cure for sluggish sales. If you want to engage your audience(s) you'll want to bring the prospect through your company doors — your brand. The branding of the your products and services can make them feel at home. Or a little out of place,. Button that up — and that articulation of why prospects should buy from you, makes all the difference in the world to your sales results. And you'll want to note — if this branding stuff isn't pretty close to spot-on, you may initially gain the interest of your prospects… but they'll continue to shop — and likely go to your competitors, who brand themselves better. You'll kill your best prospects. Nope, don't wanna do that. But don't you lose valuable brand equity if you rebrand? If your branding is sub-par, you lose valuable opportunity to gain prospects right now. If your "brand equity" is like 3-Day Old Milk — not good enough to drink, but not bad enough to throw out — is it really worth keeping? Plus, here's a crazy secret that seems counter-intuitive: We can affirm that your rebrand is a superb marketing opportunity that helps you gain new business over time, as expected… but also for most businesses in the short-term, by ensuring that your transformation in the spotlight. (Why wouldn't you want to draw attention to that evolution?!) How often should you rebrand? You don't want to rebrand too often . Realize that your prospects — and customers — are swimming on an ocean of products, design, services, websites... and they just want a clear fix on who you are, what you do, and how they can remember your organization. Y'know, stuff like that. Y'know, the stuff that is sorta your brand. To ensure your products and services stay competitive in their substance, and in your marketing communication....this brand consultant recommends that you check your branding radar every year. That doesn't mean you must take action, big or small. Just do the check, to ensure your products and services are in line with your brand and the marketplace needs. Don’t go nuts on too-frequent or too extensive rebranding. If your strategic and branding direction is calibrated for True North, you may be good as-is, or just update some wording (an exercise wrth doing). You can make periodic changes in graphics such as "hero image" on your homepage… but not too often. And don;t mess with colors and type and navigation (unless really needed periodically)… you're not making it better, you're confusing your audience. Rememeber, you see your website very frequently… your audience does not. You want to maintain some sense of consistency,along with your evolution. Yes, these contrasting forces can be tricky to balance. Good judgment is vital here. I have a client who has revamped their website every 9-10 months for a decade. That’s way too much. Even though “brand ≠ website” you’ll confuse your audience. That new look can be considered a brand, but you don't want to do a rebrand every time one of your Transformer parts squeaks. (Even if you're a nonprofit, and the service is donated!) Take a fresh look at these brand components…these may need work: • Company Name — is it bullseye, clear, memorable? • Domain Name — are your prospects clear or confused? • Logo — does it represent your company well? • Tagline — does it expand and enhance your understanding of the company name? • Website Content and User Experience — from architecture to key components that move the sales process forward more quickly…to look and colors • Product & Service Offerings — what you offer and the "way" you offer them... are they really meeting marketplace needs? Are there some intelligent tweaks you might easily make to cross that chasm? We love doing just that!) • Customer Service and Customer Experience — Don't you think it should be in sync with what you're saying about the business?! (Don't say "No kidding, baby" until you check out yours!) • Your Marketing Communications — does it have it's own "voice"…does it gain leads and sell? If your social or targeted marketing works.... an interested suspect/prospects will visit your website.... • Social Media Marketing — is it good enough to motivate and is it shareable? Are you putting out content that speaks to your audience interests? Can they find it.... and do you distribute it? • Targeted Marketing — want to capitalize on your social media development? • Sales & Investor Presentations — bullseye, tailored, guided by your branding • ...and more. "Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one."— Albert Einstein Your marketplace offering and perception won’t transform by themselves. If you aren’t evolving your strategy, branding and offerings every few years, you’re likely to be missing opportunities with your own good products and services in the marketplace… and giving your competition the opportunity to gain a piece of your market share. So consider: If you did rebrand...and align your business and branding and marketing thinking...don't you think your business would be more productive, efficient and more profitable? ------------------- Joel Alpert is a Brand Consultant in Atlanta who uses a unique combination of proprietary strategic consulting tools and creative superpowers to engineer marketplace impact. He works with “the largest and smallest companies in America.” Find out more about our unique strategic consulting, rebranding, effective marketing communications, personal branding and more — connect here on LinkedIn, and come visit: https://www.marketpoweronline.com/atlanta-rebrand-consultant Power ReBrand — It’s Time To Level Up, Matching Your Brand Identity To Your Best Offerings ...plus, follow the links for tips unique perspective you won't find anywhere else on branding, rebranding "what's a "brand refresh," and more!

INSIGHT 1: Get Ready For “Aha!” Don’t you love that amazing “aha!” moment when you discover great new insights for your business? It’s like a jolt of caffeine! Well, fellow business junkies, I’d like to share some strategic thinking insights that are unusual. As we discuss next-step business issues, you could fairly ask: “Hey, what should we do now?” That's a good open question, but there's a question that can be even more valuable to your business: “”How can we benefit from a shift in “the way we think” about the company… how could we open up valuable new ideas?" Remember that Albert Einstein quote: “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” He was really smart! You can step back & think strategically, or just solve problems You already know the fundamental concepts of strategy, branding and marketing. And if you haven't clarified this in your own thinking yet, strategic planning and thinking through business issues are just as important for small and medium-sized companies as it they are for the Fortune 500. Arguably more so for the SMB / SME, because there are fewer resources you can afford to waste. But if you’re focused on immediate business needs — solving the problem du jour — key nuances of strategy and branding can get lost. Dang-didley-dang! Take a deep breath and a good look at the direction of your company — macro and micro. Because the decisions you make when you’re not involved in “producing results”…will affect everything you try to do to produce results! “Reacting” is what you do when the alarm clock goes off in the morning. “Creating” is when you decide to cook dinner, and you do something different. Architecture is creating. Problem-Solving is demolition! With demolition, you want to destroy the problem With architecture, you want to bring something into being. Start “creating” what you really want for your business, and this objective strategic thinking orientation will jumpstart all your efforts. Some quick tips to get started, if you really want to gain thinking insight: 1) Be willing to slow down. Stop scanning. Really think. Don’t just react. You’ll find strategic nuances you never expected. 2) Begrudging… or Energizing? Is your attitude about developing strategy for our business "because I have to"? Or is it "because I want to"? Are you engaging the power of human creativity in you thoughts, speech, and actions, to produce something wonderful? 3) Stop solving problems. Start creating what you want. 4) You’re a serious adult … but “allow” your inner kid’s curiosity! 5) Get Visual … go to the whiteboard, not the computer. You’re more creative there, draw diagrams and doodles and connections between components of your thinking and the business… 6) …so you can literally step back and be objective. (If your whiteboard was your artwork, you might notice where more details are needed…where they color needs adjustment… where a small refinement changes as lot. Seeing reality requires objectivity … and seeing reality is critical. Because the two most important points on your route are your destination and your current location (your current reality, your starting point). 7) Be flexible in your thinking: Screw up. Yes your business is serious… but don’t take yourself so damn seriously! Laugh. Move on. Refine. If you stay focused on what you really want, you'll likely get there. When does real business transformation tend to happen? So in essence, your approach to business thinking is key. That thinking "runs things," like your computer's Operating System. Transformation happens when you are really engaged, when you work up a sweat…not with cool academic business school distance. With engaged thinking that's based on what you truly want to create for the business — not the problem you want to kill —  you can empower any area of your business. That includes all the stuff mentioned here so far, plus HR and Recruiting, Operations, Process Management, Training, Content Strategy and Marketing, Customer Support…you name it! And since business is in the business of creating opportunities — not throwing them away — I’ll continue to share a total of 7 insights from the business battlefield, from a unique consulting perspective I’ve worked with extensively… plus the widest client experience you've ever heard of, on all kinds of programs. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - NEXT POST: 2023: Gain These 7 Powerful Insights On Strategy & Branding" Insight 2: Is your strategy a " generative engine " ? - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - You might also enjoy Strategic Secrets In Eggdrop Soup, It’s a deep look into soup… and the secrets it can reveal! We invite you to check out other Strategic Thinking insights in this PowerBlog . Cartoon by Robert Fritz, from : "A short course in Creating what you always wanted to but couldn't before because nobody ever told you how because they didn't know either."

(This DIRECTOR'S CUT is unedited, just like real life… and includes great questions from smart businesspeople in the Sowgrow Marketing Council.) This video unmasks the phenomenon of Structural Conflict — a dynamic which undermines some of our best efforts in strategy, branding, marketing, HR, and Management initiatives. The dynamic is simple, but profoundly insidious. It sneaks up on even the smartest businesspeople. But once unmasked, we've got a good shot of not getting stuck inside The Matrix. When companies oscillate between change and continuity… investing and downsizing… it's oscillation hell for employees, prospects and customers

Strategy > Branding > < Business Infrastructure > Website, Social, Promo Many business owners and directors of small and large companies fall into the trap of jumping into marketing, before the "marketing infrastructure" is reasonably complete. That could be company branding, for a product or service, or even an event. They’ll say: let’s start marketing now, so we can produce real results faster. Then we’ll add the branding… you know, the logo and the other stuff. However, there’s a significant problem with that. ”Branding” is not a kids “sticker” that you peel and place anywhere…it should be a driving force in your business Branding is not a separate component. It’s both the face of your business, the retail storefront, and a central driving force of the business. You don't "stick" branding on your business or marketing communications. Branding drives business. It's cited as being a significant part of business valuation… because it drives business. It’s the first impression, the center spoke of the communications engine, and process behind the communications and customer interaction. Shouldn't this "branding stuff" be a driving force that guides and integrates all the rest? Think through where “branding” sits in your company’s business, positioning, marketing, sales, and customer interactions. Branding is your business "stick shift"! When you think it through, and figure out what your company, products and services provide for your customers — including such key elements as the buying process (Customer Journey) and customer service — you’ll develop effective plans to turn prospects into customers. Your branding will be driven by your company purpose, your strategic direction, your brand focus. Remember, this “branding stuff” is how you're presenting your business… what you’re saying to customers. It's how they understand you. You want to think through your offerings fully. And if you’re doing something rare for most companies, you'll tweak the product and services offerings to really fit the prospect’s interests. From the big broad brush strokes… to the copywriting and visual style of your communications. Then you figure out how to have this be the foundation of your communication… and THEN you get out there with your SEO, your marketing, your promotions, your sales, your metrics and more! "Can't we just add it later," you ask? If you do a crappy job at branding, and go after your best prospects… (unless you have a monopoly on the market)… …you drive people back to your website with your promotion… and they don’t get it. Or they don’t love it. Or it looks kind of ancient. You’ve enticed your best prospects… but they’ll go elsewhere. Someone else eats your lunch. Tsk, tsk. (So you'll want to get it right at the get-go — don’t think "build it and they will come," … because you'll want to ask: Come to what… something that's "just okay," something they're not sure they really like and respond to?) If you pause long enough to fully think through you're brand identity and its development and scope… you'll level-up your branding. Not because it looks pretty. But because it makes your business results look pretty good! A friend asked me as this was posted: "How could you market without a brand?" As if that's impossible. Being "without a brand," happens often (even though it's a contradiction in terms). A company may have a name, a logo, products and services… but hasn't thought through how to articulate a range of product positioning, marketing messages (and their language and style in ciontent and visuals), processes, product tweaks, training for customer interactions…and more, In that case, you have a company. That company has a brand. But it's a very weak brand, without an identity and focus. Of course you don't want that, you want to use branding to build company value.. In the book "Brands and Branding," one chief executive notes that "companies that move from the (basic) traditional idea that the brand is about advertising and marketing to using the brand as an organizing idea in their corporate strategy, to touch and inform everything they and their people make, do and say, may find that they ‘have made more progress as business then we achieved in the previous ten years.’ ” In fact, if you want to talk dollars and cents, they also note… “The intangible element of the combined market capitalization of the S&P 500 has increased to around 80%, compared with some 30% twenty years ago, and is likely to grow even further. And that book shows lots of other specific examples of financial value to be gained with stronger branding. Some businesspeople run together the definitions of “Strategy” and “Branding” No problem. What you call these, is less important than what each should do. The focus of each discipline is clear: In essence… Strategy defines your business and its markets, how you sell to them, “how” you do business, and more. If its not clear and distinctive, your work in sales and promotion (and even "branding"!) is compromised at best. Branding is that first impression, of course it starts with the logo, tagline, website, business card… but when done well, it includes all the customer interactions they'll have with your company — your brand! So, for example… If you focused your business efforts for your vitamin-fortified apple juice on senior citizens ( that's “strategy,” but you coold call that "branding")… you wouldn’t have a photo of a baby on the label to represent your brand (even though that’s also a market for your juice). Combine strong strategic thinking with strong branding, and you’ll start gaining market share, profitability, and growth! Game on! - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Insight 3 in this Series: DON’T TREAT BRANDING LIKE A STICKER! - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Next set installment: Gain These 7 Powerful Insights On Strategy & Branding" Insight 4: Tired of Playing "Business Whac-A-Mole"? - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Bonus: If you want to explore this idea and its implications, check out “Do What Now?” right here on the PowerBlog - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Joel Alpert is Chief Lightbulb at MarketPower. But don’t be singing “You Light Up My Life”…unless you can do it on key!) Joel is into this “integrated idea” that strategy > drives branding… and branding > drives marketing,… and marketing > drives sales. What were you thinking?

Funny thing, asking these "chicken joke" questions... can open up your eyes to the world of smarter strategic thinking! "HOW do we think" when we develop our business and marketing plans…what happens in "real life"...and is it natural NOT to think? The Mystery of the Chicken By Robert Fritz (mostly, with tweaks by Joel Alpert) The mind has a quirky thing about it. It cannot stand unresolved questions. It can't tolerate gaps in our knowledge. It wants answers – NOW! But we can't always know what's going on. Some answers take time to find out. Some answers are well beyond the reach of our comprehending mind such as the great Universal mysteries. Others are relatively thinkable — such as whether to develop an app, or make your website mobile responsive…or do you really need to rebrand? The mind doesn't like it when we are confronted with unanswered questions. Remember: It wants answers – NOW! That's terrible for business strategy! So, we give the mind answers even when we don’t know what we are talking about. We make up theories or we adopt the speculation of others. What difference does it make if the answer is true or false? The mind likes the feeling of knowing. It likes the sense of resolution it receives from the answers we give it. (Don’t tell me you haven’t seen this in meetings!) This is all very natural. But this dynamic is also limiting. If we think we know the answers to questions, we stop asking. Yet, the gaps in our knowledge can come back to haunt us. We may make decisions based on misconception. We can’t build much on a weak foundation. The mind, left to its own devices, will be glad to accept theory as if it were fact. That is because the mind isn't looking for truth. Rather it is responding to one of the basic principles of structural dynamics: tension seeks resolution. A question functions as a tension. Fact or theory can function as resolution to that tension. In music and writing, there is a name for a typical tension-resolution system. It is "the antecedent-consequential phrase." The antecedent is a question such as "Why did the chicken cross the road?" This sets up a tension. The consequence of the antecedent will be an answer. The consequence will resolve the tension: Why did the chicken cross the road? To get to the other side. Tension: Question about the chicken. Resolution: Answer about the chicken. Now, of course, many people attempt to find a better resolution to the chicken/road question. On Google, there are over 5,000 sites answering the chicken/road antecedent. Here are some of the typical answers we find there: • Walt Whitman: To cluck the song of itself • Jack Nicholson: 'Cause it (CENSORED) wanted to. That's the (CENSORED) reason. • Ralph Waldo Emerson: It didn't cross the road; it transcended it. • Aristotle: To actualize its potential. • William Shakespeare: I don't know why, but methinks I could rattle off a hundred-line soliloquy without much ado. • Thomas Paine: Out of common sense. • Groucho Marx: Chicken? What's all this talk about chicken? Why, I had an uncle who thought he was a chicken. My aunt almost divorced him, but we needed the eggs. • Karl Marx: To escape the bourgeois middle-class struggle. • Star Trek’s Mr. Scott: 'Cos ma wee transporter beam wasna functioning properly. Ah canna work miracles, Captain! • Robert Frost: To cross the road less traveled by, and that has made all the difference. • Sigmund Freud: The chicken obviously was female and obviously interpreted the pole on which the crosswalk sign was mounted as a phallic symbol of which she was envious. • William Wordsworth: To have something to recollect in tranquility. • Caesar: To come, to see, to conquer. • Rene Descartes: It had sufficient reason to believe it was dreaming anyway. • Albert Einstein: Whether the chicken crossed the road or the road moved beneath the chicken depends upon your frame of reference. • Emily Dickinson: Because it could not stop for death. • Salvador Dali: The fish. • Henry David Thoreau: To live deliberately...and suck all the marrow out of life. • Mae West: I invited it to come up and see me sometime. • Gottfried von Leibniz: In this best possible world, the road was made for it to cross. • Dylan Thomas: To not go gentle into that good night. • David Hume: Out of custom and habit. • John Milton: To justify the ways of God to men. • Ernest Hemingway: To die. In the rain. • Star Trek’s Captain Kirk: To boldly go where no chicken has gone before. Okay, back to the mind and the human tendency to fill in gaps of our knowledge with speculations, theories, concepts, models, worldviews, beliefs, examples of past experience, or punch lines from famous people. The mind is hungry to end mysteries, discrepancies, unanswered questions and tension. That often leads to a false impression we know more than we know. So, wait... why did the chicken cross the road? If we don't actually know the true answer, and we wanted to find out the real reason the chicken did cross the road, rather than propose answers, we would tend to ask more questions: What chicken? What road? When? Why did she cross the road? These questions presume that we don't know the answer rather than we do. That's because before we know the answer to anything, we don't know the answer. This may seem obvious but it is counter-instinctive. We orient our lives around the premise of certainty. Some things we do know. Okay, that’s fine. But we go over the line the moment we adopt a stance that suggests we know more than we know. That’s the point where our mental instincts are in sharp contrast to the non-arguable reality: we don't know what we don’t know. If we didn't pretend to know answers we didn't know, we would be more amenable to exploring the question openly. We wouldn't do the usual things we have learned to do: create a theory, test the theory against reality, look for evidence to support our theory, conclude that our theory was correct, attempt to convert others to our theory, begin a movement, notice that someone else has created a counter movement, fight it out over which theory is right and which theory is wrong, begin to take it all very personally, perhaps even start a war. What a world. We have learned that the so-called scientific process is to create a hypothesis, test it against reality, collect evidence, and, if the evidence is consistent with the hypothesis, hold the hypothesis to be true. In science there is said to be enormous intellectual rigor built into this process. In business, too. Perhaps, but the limitation is "start with a hypothesis." What if we began without a hypothesis, theory, concept, model? That would drive us to a more inventive/creative orientation, one of looking and questioning without the premise of knowing what we might find. We would not pretend to know what we didn't. We would be open to finding whatever there was to find, perhaps answers that do not fit into the common theories that abound in the world we live in. Why did the chicken cross the road? That's a good question. How are we to find the answer? What else do we need to know besides the event of the chicken crossing the road? Our focus widens, becomes more relevant, and we can entertain possibilities we may never have thought of. Now all this talk about the chicken has a point: |t is about thinking and creating. We have been taught to learn to adopt theories, speculations, models, and concepts as if they were fact. (These can range from what you think your customers want....to what you say you deliver, and more!) We can become blind to what we believe, presume, and then we trust our assumptions as if they were fact. When something goes without question, it is not questioned. It become "out of bounds." We censor ourselves from thinking anything that contradicts our built-in ideas. The mind feels it knows. We can experience a large degree of comfort and certainty, but these feelings are not well based. They are a product of the mind’s ability to be a sucker for anything that fills in the gaps and resolves the mental tension questions bring. Step one in our approach to structural thinking is "start with nothing." That is to say, start to observe reality without a premise of what we might find. This is the opposite of what we have learned in school, or what we think we're supposed to do in meetings -- which is to collect knowledge to use as a database, and then compare reality against it. This process is a variation of the so-called scientific process. But, if we look to the history of the most creative scientists, they didn't use this process. Instead, they were able to start their exploration without a theory. The great creative scientists have had the ability to generate new insights, often over the dogmatic convictions of true believers in unexamined ideas from the past. We need only think of Galileo, Newton, and Einstein to see how the history of science was dramatically changed when old assumptions were challenged and rethought. Thomas Kuhn, in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, put it this way: "When the (scientific) profession can no longer evade anomalies that subvert the existing tradition of scientific practice – then begins the extraordinary investigations that lead the profession at last to a new set of commitments, a new basis for the practice of science. The extraordinary episodes in which that shift of professional commitments occurs are the ones known in this essay as scientific revolutions. They are the tradition-shattering complements to the tradition-bound activity of normal science." Kuhn is describing a situation when old assumptions no longer work to explain what we see. However, if we never use assumptions, we are always in a position to see something new. Yet we are not addressing just chickens or science. We are addressing how our minds work, and therefore the discipline we need to go beyond our usual limitations based on belief or past experience. When we adopt any model of how we are to do business or live our lives, and then attempt to apply that model, we begin to lose touch with reality directly. Imposing a theory on experience will always do that. When we don't fill in the gaps with filler, when we leave them open, we become more inventive, resourceful, creative. We will find that we are no longer a sucker for a quick theory. Nor do we fill our time with useless speculations. Instead, we position ourselves to become more open and generative as we are more able to grasp new insights that we may not have considered before. You want business breakthroughs? You want to find the magic Blue Ocean Strategy and create real value innovation? Do you think you could start asking real questions…as if you didn’t know the answers? -------------------------------- Strategic Insight Rocks. It changes everything you do — websie to social media posts… new busness presentations to business processes. Joel Alpert works with Robert Fritz' strategic thinknig approach. Connect with Joel on LinkedIn, catch more thought-provoking posts:, or click around here. here.www.LinkedIn.com/en/JoelAlpert123 http://www.MarketPowerOnline.com © Robert Fritz, the the author of “The Path Of Least Resistance For Managers (see new edition, 2011)” and “Your Life As Art.” He founded the field of Structural Dynamics consulting, and the Technologies For Creating curriculum. Joel Alpert has studied with Fritz for many years, and uses Fritz' strategic thinking in business, branding, marketing -- and life -- almost every day.