Some brands move product. Others move people. A few move humanity forward. The only type I care about. These brands inspire us. They give us something to aspire to. They impart identity and purpose. They create meaning. Most brands want to get more. More money. More...
Inevitable. In retrospect, some things were inevitable. Millennials valued experiences over job security. Peer-to-peer platforms came on the scene. The cost of airfare continued to fall. Cue Airbnb. Its explosive growth didn’t come from a huge market study. Nobody...
The aspirational brand is a faux pas. You don't aspire to be a color palette. You don’t aspire to be a slogan or a logo. People aspire to be other people. The guy founding a tech start-up. The poster child for social justice. The starving artist living her...
Customer loyalty. Sounds like something from an 80s department store. Getting your card punched to win a free sandwich. Earning reward points on your credit card. Fans? Fans go to ballgames when the weather’s nice and their team is winning. Forget that. What you...
Don’t want to wait? Download the ebook. Stream the movie. Find a date in 5 minutes. Call anyone anywhere. The knowledge of the world at your fingertips. Instant gratification. It’s to the point that we can even buy self-identity in a box. Who am I? Why am I here? What...
You can’t create the perfect design.You can only design something perfect for your brand. People don’t just want to copy Apple’s designs--people want to copy how Apple designs. But the genius of Steve Jobs was not design. Design was the result, not the product....
How do you kill the competition? Create better products. Use design thinking. Develop with agile. Outspend them. Cultivate your culture. You can do that. But do you think that’s why Nike is legendary and Rebook is not? Are those the things that made Harley-Davidson...
“We are not in the coffee business serving people. We are in the people business serving coffee.” Starbucks’ CEO got it half right: A brand doesn’t sell a product.A person buys a product for the function.A person buys a brand for the feeling.Ergo, every product must...
Some people retreat into their own minds and create their own realities. For some, the world within is more real than the world without.
What do we do with these people?
Therapy. Medication. Asylums.
Functional.
Experiential.
Transformational.
Only three.
Most brands deliver a function.
Holiday Inn: hotel stays
IBM: computers