Our Blog: Think Personality
- RSS Feeds
- Atom
- RSS 1.0
- 2.0
- RSD
- (What's RSS?)
April 2008 Archives
April 28, 2008
Personality Not Included by Rohit Bhargava
Posted by Brad Abare | Filed under: Marketing
When I first heard about Rohit Bhargava's new book, Personality Not Included: Why Companies Lose Their Authenticity--And How Great Brands Get it Back, I got a little nervous. What would his philosophy be? Would our approach differ? What if he's right and we're wrong? Yep, I had all the typical fears and jealousies you'd expect from an entrepreneur who has built his entire company on the idea of personality-based communication!
Up until recently, the conversation about companies having personality has been for the most part silent. And while I am not so naive to think that we here at Personality™ have a corner on the conversation, it has been a little lonely. Thanks to Rohit's book, we may be meeting some new friends.
I've got to say up front, unfortunately, that I read Personality Not Included with a bit of skepticism because of how engrossed in the idea of organizational personality I have been for the last several years. While I don't apologize for the bias, it does temper my enthusiasm because a lot of Rohit's ideas are echoes.
That aside, the book is indeed a decent read. It's divided into two sections. The first section is comprised of just six chapters because, says Rohit, of the more than 100 marketing and business books on his shelf, "Chapter 6 is the sweet spot." The second section of the book is packed with techniques, guides and tools that work alongside the first half's six chapters. Combined, the book is an argument for why personality matters in your company and how to go about doing something about it.
Continue reading "Personality Not Included by Rohit Bhargava"
Comments (2) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink
April 25, 2008
Developing A Confidence Evaluation Tool
Posted by Brad Abare | Filed under: Personality News
Personality™ is all about giving companies the confidence to communicate clearly. For the last couple of months, we've been developing a tool that measures the current confidence level within an organization as it relates to their ability to communicate and move people to action. We've narrowed it down to eight questions that we believe speak to the core issues of confident communication.
In the next week, we'll roll out the evaluation tool to our Think subscribers, along with an accompanying guide that helps companies interpret their score and figure out how to increase their confidence factor.
It's just one of the many things we're working on here at Personality™.
Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink
April 24, 2008
Building Momentum
Posted by Brett Hutchinson | Filed under: Whitepapers
Over the years as we've been helping businesses get unstuck and off the hamster wheel, we have discovered 12 questions that every organization needs to answer in order to build momentum.
Building Momentum (PDF, 124 KB, 2 pages)
Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink
April 21, 2008
Remembering Your Roots
Posted by Brad Abare | Filed under: Philosophy
We've blogged a good bit about Starbucks over the past couple years: their soul, their scent, their steps. Starbucks is such an easy target these days for the work we do at Personality™, and anytime you can use mainstream examples to substantiate your claims, it makes communication that much clearer.
Barbara Kiviat wrote a great profile piece on Howard Schultz in the April 7 issue of Time magazine. The gist of it is Howard's journey back to the heart of who Starbucks really is. "We haven't been as good at telling our story as we once had in the past," says Schultz.
Kiviat rightly concludes that "To Schultz, keeping in touch with the past is key to future success. Remembering who you are is the first step to becoming who you should be." She tells the story of Howard and how he sometimes goes to the original Starbucks at Pike Place in Seattle and lets himself in before the store opens. "He puts his hands on the wooden counter and thinks about how he felt at the beginning, what it was he was trying to do."
Remembering your roots is critical to knowing your personality as an organization. And keeping your roots rooted is critical to staying the course. Perhaps this is why Howard has brought back several people from his original management team. He's also been circulating a memo that he wrote in 1986. "We recognize this is a unique time; when our coffee bars will change the way people will perceive the beverage. It's an adventure and we're in it together." He even signed it the same way he signs memos today. "Onward, Howard."
Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink
April 15, 2008
More Less is More
Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks | Filed under: Inspiration
'Less is more' is kind of a mantra around here. We like simple products. And we're big on organizations narrowing their focus and doing what matters.
So here's a sampling of 'less is more' thinking:
- It's why burrito joint Chipotle won't serve dessert.
- It's why Semco restricts memos to one page with a headline that gets to the point.
- It's why 37Signals switched to a four-day work week.
Of course these all came from 37Signals, the less is more software company.
Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink
April 10, 2008
Personality™ Springtacular 2008
Posted by Brad Abare | Filed under: Personality News
This past week we did our annual Personality™ Springtacular. Similar to last year, it's our chance to set aside the current projects we're working on and think about the business as a whole. Where are we at, where are we going.
We organized our conversation around two themes this year: Current State and Future State. We then did an exercise to "mind the gap" that connects where we're at now (current state) to where we are going (future state). The "mind the gap" conversation resulted in a task list of about 10 things. All of those were grouped into three primary categories that we phrased as objectives:
- Survive and thrive.
- Build the team and build the brand.
- Think ahead.
Next up is drilling down each of the objectives and tasks and turning them into projects and milestones that can be managed.
Progress!
Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink
April 8, 2008
Ford's New Logo--Just Kidding!
Posted by Shawn Stewart | Filed under: Brand & Identity
Brand New, a site dedicated to discussions on corporate identity, played a very elaborate and (judging by the comments) very effective April Fool's joke last week with the news that Ford has redesigned their logo. I have to admit, when I saw it, there was a hint of "can this be real?" But after that I bought it. For a day at least.
The next morning I looked it up and sure enough--April Fool's. But it got me thinking, what if it wasn't a joke? What if Ford did this? Would this be a good idea or a bad idea? Here's my thoughts--let's pretend this was a real story and Ford actually did revise their logo.
Continue reading "Ford's New Logo--Just Kidding!"
Comments (2) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink
April 7, 2008
Don't Pick a Dumb Name
Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks | Filed under: Brand & Identity
Marketing guru Seth Godin riffs on dumb, generic brand names like Party Land, Computer World or Toupee Town:
"It's a bad brand name because Central or Land or World are meaningless. They add absolutely no value to your story, they mean nothing and they are interchangeable. ... Not only are they bland, but you can't even remember one over the other. This is the absolute last refuge of a marketer who has absolutely nothing to say and can't even find the guts to stand for what they do. It's just generic."
Ouch.
But he's right. Your organization's name (or the name of your project, book, sub-brand, etc.) is an opportunity to communicate. It's a chance to stand out from the competition. Don't waste it with something like House of Tacos.
But you also have to live up to your name. If you pick a creative, funky, engaging name, what you have to offer better match. But if all you're offering is bland and generic, than you might as well go with the bland and generic name.
Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink
April 1, 2008
Discipline is the Secret to Successful Marketing
Posted by Brad Abare | Filed under: E-mail Newsletter
Cut Back on the Sugar, Slow Down and Focus
Maybe you're like me--sometimes when I go into a Borders or a Barnes & Noble, I get visually overwhelmed. My mental curiosity kicks in and I want to look at everything all at once. I bounce around the store like a 6-year-old hopped up on a pound of sugar, mesmerized by all the things I could look at next. When it comes time to leave, I have the sense that I never really saw anything.
Last month we talked about the importance of clarity for your business and for its communication. But what happens when the view of what you do is crystal clear, but your inner opportunist can't stop for five minutes to focus on anything?
We have a friend who works at a mid-market insurance brokerage. He's responsible for their IT and web development. Recently, one of their executives asked him to create a virtual tour of their offices. The executive didn't give any direction for doing it, didn't discuss what he wanted it to accomplish and didn't have a clue about what it should really communicate or what it should focus on. This person just saw it on someone else's web site and thought it was a good idea.
Is it a good idea?
Continue reading "Discipline is the Secret to Successful Marketing"
Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink