Stop focusing on logos, colors, and taglines.
Building a brand takes time—and starts from the inside. With the right marketing strategy, you take the first steps to meaningful growth.
Don’t Make This Big Mistake With Your Brand Values: Branding Mistake No. 11
Many firms don’t formally define values until an agency tells them during a branding initiative that it is important to articulate "brand values." Of course, all agencies have some methodology to facilitate brand values discussions and build consensus (See Mistake No....
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How to Avoid Mismanaging Personal Brands: Branding Mistake No. 21
You can tell a lot about a firm when the topic of "personal brands" comes up. Among intelligent, driven people, discussions about personal brands can get a little heated. There are firms that quash personal brands and firms that buy them as a growth strategy. Both...
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The 3-in-1 Drivers of Brand Preference
Attributes that drive brand preference are akin to biblical laws. The Old Testament laws numbered 613. When Jesus was asked which of the laws was most important, he consolidated them all down to one; “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul...
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Is failing to make growth decisions causing your firm to fail?
Who owns growth decisions in your firm? Confusion often reigns in professional firms about who makes decisions that affect a firm's growth. Is it the leadership team, practices, geographies, individual partners, BD, or marketing? Not knowing creates sub-optimal...
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Marketing Strategy or Marketing Calendar: How to Tell the Difference
As firms finalize accounting of last year’s performance, sort through bonuses and deliver employee reviews, partners are turning their sights to this year’s revenue bogey. Many are wondering where the revenue is going to come from and turning to their marketing...
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The Unnatural Act of Cross-selling
The whiz kids from your expensive strategy consultant will often tell you that cross-selling is the solution to your firm’s growth challenges. “If clients like and trust your tax, they will like your IT consulting,” they say. “If they like your intellectual property...
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How to Make Strategy Live When You’re Not in the Room
Quick. Tell me the strategy of your organization. For bonus points, tell me how your team and your role fits into that strategy. And how it affects your actions each day, especially in terms of what you choose NOT to do as a result of the strategy. If you’re like most...
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Do you have high expectations for your marketing team?
With year-end approaching, many organizations are beginning their requisite employee evaluations. While evaluations are intended to provide fairness, paper trails and opportunities for "improvement," they are of limited value in either helping marketers become...
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4 Steps to Align Buying and Selling Mentalities
My marketing education began before kindergarten, but I "officially" began working in my family’s auto parts business when I was thirteen years old. By working in our company’s many stores over the years, I came to appreciate the business, our employees and our...
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