Most businesses and brands are boring. Doing social media is really an attempt at unboringfication.

Most businesses have spent most of their time not developing a rich, deep, authentic and approachable personality. Let alone one that behaves congruently with clearly stated values and beliefs. They tell themselves they are the expert in everything. They strive to be everyone’s BFF. They are fearful and paranoid. In some cases, they are …

“Don’t be cool. Cool is conservative fear dressed in black. Free yourself from limits of this sort.” Bruce Mau.

Many of us as individuals spend so much time trying to be who we are not. Likewise, many (if not most) businesses spend great effort and resources on being who they are not.

It all stems from fear. We fear (as individuals and businesses or brands) rejection. We fear not attracting …

It is interesting how Apple’s brand has become synonymous with the personality of Steve Jobs. Like it or hate it, this makes Apple as a brand very rich and real.

It is also interesting how it is often in times of difficulty that the true beliefs and values of a person/brand are revealed. And without a doubt Apple is in some difficulties at the moment around the iPhone …

(At least when it comes to commercial goods and services. A lot of the really good stuff about is still free!)

It seems obvious doesn’t it?

Clients agonise over cents. They will choose a sweatshop manufacturer over one that employs people with Downs Syndrome. And yet at the same time, they will splash out obscene amounts to use some celebrity’s face in their product endorsements.

Maybe customers prefer the cloying …

Below is a particularly interesting comment on this article on Steve Job’s “every phone is just as bad” attack on competing phone manufacturers over the iPhone 4 antenna issue:

Posted Monday 19th July 2010 19:12 GMT

…

When you’re paying £100 for a phone and £400 for a logo that logo better not represent incompetence, arrogance, denial and greed.

I steer well clear of any product for which the brand …

In increasing order of effectiveness:

Our words – the stories we tell the world about who we are.
Our thoughts – the rational discussions we have with our selves. The rationalisations we have for our actions.
Our feelings – our emotions, internal dialogue and our bodily responses to thoughts and situations.

Deep down inside, I believe we always know what we truly want. Our feelings never lie. It is a simple …

“Why change the world when all you need to change people’s perception?” — Claudia Bing, a PR magnate character in Absolutely Fabulous.

The older I get, the less concerned I am about trying to “manage” other people’s perception. These days I am more concerned with telling it as I see it, saying what is true to me.

The reality is people will take things …

Beware the people your passion attracts!

When I first read what Hugh MacLeod wrote in his book Ignore Everybody and 39 Other Keys to Creativity, it struck a deep deep chord:

“…as soon as they get a foothold inside the inner circle, you soon realise they never really understood your idea in the first place… And the weirdest part is, they don’t seem to mind sabotaging your original idea …

Marketing managers have now more or less learnt the topical key words – emotional engagement, authenticity, engaging in conversations…

But the doing of marketing is still essentially flawed – because marketing is still treated as a standalone function at the end of a linear service/product development pipeline. Marketing is still treated by many businesses a veneer/façade function, and thus necessarily shallow.

You want to be authentic, genuine, appeal to …

Just like we are personally subjected to the tugs of what I should do vs what I want to do, businesses are similar affected – what the world, “common wisdom”, “experts”, trends, and the media tell them they should do, versus what their leaders and people truly want to do.

In the race for authenticity and differentiation, doing what everyone says you should is probably not a good idea. …