*Sigh.* As of today, the brandbuilder’s Power 150 (Ad Age) ranking has dropped to 203rd. To make matters worse, that ranking still links to the brandbuilder blog’s old URL (at blogspot). This brandbuilder blog (wordpress) is nowhere near the Power 150′s radar. Same blog, new url: All the difference in the world. I guess the [...]
Archive for July, 2008
The cost of moving to wordpress.
Posted in adaptation, blogger, blogs, blogspot, the brandbuilder blog, wordpress, tagged blogs, power 150, ranking on July 31, 2008 | 7 Comments »
Lessons in Leadership from HBO’s “Generation Kill”
Posted in clarity, leaders, leadership, lessons, management lessons, military, tagged 1st recon, generation kill, HBO, leadership, marines on July 30, 2008 | 5 Comments »
I have to admit it, my latest guilty pleasure is watching HBO’s “Generation Kill” (the story of the 1st Marine Recon Batallion in the first few weeks of the 2003 invasion of Iraq) on Sunday nights. The 7-part miniseries is currently on episode 3, and so far so good. Think “The Wire” meets “3 Kings” with [...]
Microsoft’s Mojave Experiment: Vista actually rocks (of course).
Posted in apple, community, conversations, customer communities, customer experience, customer relationship, mac, market disruption, messaging, microsoft, microsoft sherpa, trust, truth, tagged apple, mac, mac vs. PC, microsoft, mojave, vista on July 29, 2008 | 15 Comments »
Those of us who have been using Vista pretty much since the start already knew this, but there has been so much bad publicity around it that it’s hard to separate myth from reality anymore. Well, Microsoft recently decided to try a little experiment to see if Vista haters and skeptics really, truly didn’t like [...]
Budget deficit math
Posted in economic development, economics, economy, federal budget, idiocracy, incompetence, Inequity, insanity, leadership, point of view, politics, poor leadership, tagged budget, economics, economy, federal budget, politics, project management, white house on July 28, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Some of us who have managed projects know a little bit about budgets. Simply put, a budget is a bucket of money set up to pay for all of the line items in a project – or a series of projects. Typically, the budget is set based on little things like what the client (internal [...]
Twitter’s growing pains.
Posted in twitter, tagged twitter on July 25, 2008 | 3 Comments »
I don’t want to jump on the “twitter keeps crashing” bandwaggon. It’s already pretty full. But man, it’s hard not to. I just need to remind myself that twitter is free, so I probably need to check my expectations at the door and cut the twitter team some slack. Whatever they’re doing to the code [...]
Today’s BrandBuilder Conversations
Posted in air travel, airlines, automotive, bad customer service, community, design thinking, starbucks, Uncategorized, tagged air canada, bad customer service, communities, community manager, delta airlines, design, Ford, ford motor, seth goding, starbucks on July 24, 2008 | 3 Comments »
1. Bad Customer Service As a follow-up to my US air travel rants of yore, this piece by Joseph Jaffe (also a follow-up to his own rants on the same subject – his being specific to Delta Airlines): A bunch of my colleagues experienced the delta skelter. About 10% of the Microsoft people travelling from [...]
How did this happen? Seriously!
Posted in identity, vs., tagged olivier blanchard, olivierblanchard.com on July 24, 2008 | 7 Comments »
I was recently asked why I didn’t own www.olivierblanchard.com. My answer was a frustrated mix of grunts, shrugs and frowns. Why? Because the cold hard ugly truth is that another Olivier Blanchard beat me to it. And just so you know, that sucks- at least for me. Just so you know, there are four very distinct Olivier Blanchards in [...]
Stage 17 of the 2008 Tour De France
Posted in courage, cycling, sport, tagged Alpe D'Huez, courage, cycling, grit, le tour, stage 17, tour de france on July 23, 2008 | 8 Comments »
Even if you don’t care for cycling, even if you think that watching cycling on TV (or in real life) is as boring as watching the grass grow – only with more lycra and crazy looking sunglasses, you might still want to head over to VS. tonight (yes, the TV network) and watch today’s Tour De France [...]
Welcome to my annual midsummer blog slump
Posted in Uncategorized on July 21, 2008 | 9 Comments »
It happens every single year: Sometime between mid-July and mid-August, my posting rate drops considerably. You can almost set your calendars to it. I struggle with this a bit, as my contributions to this and other blogs are pretty important to me, but year after year, I find myself falling into the same pattern: One [...]
Wagging the long tail: Gimmicks vs. Substance
Posted in adoption, advice, anthropology, being the best, brand consciousness, brand culture, brand relevance, brand strategy, brand valuation, building value, change agent, common sense, cool factor, customer communities, differentiation, fresh ideas, great ideas, happy customers, ideation, identity development, market disruption, market research, mentality, niche, opportunity, perception, pop culture, power brand, product development, product failure, product management, product release, purchasing triggers, reality, relevance, smart business, success, value proposition, tagged coca cola, coca cola blak, corante, product ideation, product launch, the long tail on July 15, 2008 | 6 Comments »
(Corporate leaps of faith rock my world.) photo by toimaginetoo I like to go back to the archives every once in a while – partly because I’m a little crunched for time these days, but mostly because the vault contains some pretty solid posts that you guys might never had the opportunity to read. I originally wrote [...]
Vive La Republique! Vive La France!
Posted in france, tagged 14 juillet, bastille day, fete nationale, france on July 14, 2008 | 6 Comments »
Today is Bastille Day – which is how the rest of the world calls France’s “Fete Nationale,” or simply “le 14 Juillet.” This day in 1789, the people of Paris stormed the Bastille (Louis XVI’s political prison) and started down a road that eventually led to France becoming a Republic, just a few short years [...]
Why positive people create positive brand experiences… and negative people don’t.
Posted in advice, anthropology, being the best, brand ambassadors, brand consciousness, brand culture, brand insights, brand ownership, brand you, civilized behavior, collaboration, community, competition, conference, corporate culture, corporate ecosystem, culture, customer communities, customer experience, customer relationship, customer service, differentiation, employee morale, engagement, evolution, excellence, good advice, happy customers, happy employees, human interactions, infection, insight, integrity, intelligence, kicking ass, leadership, lessons, management lessons, mentality, microsoft, motivation, passionate staffers, perfectionism, perspective, professionalism, psychology, purchasing triggers, relationships, science, smart business, strategy, team building, user experience, working with others, tagged emotional contagion on July 11, 2008 | 3 Comments »
Ever noticed how positive attitudes are infectious? You walk into a store, and everyone who works there is jazzed and happy to be there and energetic… and by the time you leave, you have completely adopted their mood? Ever noticed that the opposite is also true: Walk into a business where everyone is negative or [...]
Back from Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference
Posted in innovation, insight, inspiration, IT technology, mac, microsoft, travel, truth, tagged mac vs.PC, microsoft on July 10, 2008 | 9 Comments »
Just got back from Microsoft’s WPC in Houston, and I have one word to share with you (and one you might not normally associate with Microsoft): Inspiring. Go ahead and buy into the whole Mac vs. PC propaganda if you must, but when you get to rub elbows with thousands of the world’s smartest, most [...]
En route to Microsoft’s WWPC – Houston, TX
Posted in air travel, microsoft, microsoft sherpa, travel, tagged air travel, microsoft, microsoft sherpa, travel, wwpc on July 7, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Where am I going to be today, Tuesday and Wednesday? Houston, TX, that’s where! (With about a gazillion other “PC” peeps, courtesy of Microsoft.) Yep, it’s World-Wide Partner Conference time again (WWPC). But first, I have to tackle a drive to Charlotte, NC, a shuttle ride from long term parking, get through check-in and security, [...]
Happy Birthday, US of A!
Posted in America Rules, tagged 4th of july, America Rules, july 4th on July 4, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
America Rules England Sucks – Watch more free videos Courtesy of the OC on this most hallowed of days. Who knew that the birth of democracy would turn out so friggin’ badass? (Maybe The French.) If the embed fails again, go here to watch the video.
Infographics caviar: What your day really looks like.
Posted in aventures modernes, Design Goodness, innovation, tagged aventures modernes, infographics on July 3, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Incredible presentation/video/analysis. (Hat tip to Alceste’s blog.) Infographics heaven. If the embedded thing didn’t work (I’m posting this from my office and that can cause some compatibility issues, the link is: http://youtube.com/watch?v=lBvaHZIrt0o )
I just wrote a genius post about the auto industry, but my computer ate it.
Posted in adaptation, advice, automotive, customer experience, design thinking, differentiation, efficiency, experience, fresh ideas, good advice, hybrid thinking, ideas, ideation, identity development, innovation, inspiration, purchasing triggers, purple cows, purpose, relevance, smart business, strategery, user experience, user interface, value proposition, tagged auto maker, automotive, car sales, cars, compact car, identity, innovation, le car, R5, renault, renault 5, renault cinq, renault in the US on July 2, 2008 | 11 Comments »
So instead, I will just post this haiku: GM US sales dropped 18% in june. Toyota US sales dropped 21% in June. More imagination is needed. Source: CNN With every car and truck and van in the US looking essentially the same and absolutely no effort whatsoever by major car manufacturers to create sexy, well-designed, fuel-efficient, compact [...]
Happy Birthday Canada!
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged canada, canada day on July 1, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Today is Canada Day!
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