While deleting my ever-full spam folder just now, I came across this one:

From: Carela Manahan
Subject: Harangue

If only more advertisers were more authentic.

(How the hell do they come up with these fake names anyway?)

This is a fun example of authenticity in product naming - a dust collector is … well a dust collector!

Designed by Sebastiaan Straatsma and spotted on core77.

“This above all—to thine own self be true”

… this is the challenge of authenticity: it’s quite easy to talk about and not so easy to do. If authenticity is hard for people to achieve, it is even harder for businesses.

…

The humanity has been driven out of most branding programmes, replaced by an ever-growing list of clever-sounding jargon and “tools” designed to manipulate rather than engage with consumers. It …

Many of (most of? ALL of?) us maintain multiple facades. We are one person at work, a different person when with our friends, parents, partners; and yet another person when on the Internet. And it even varies depending on where on the Internet!

Imagine if we could harness and channel the energy we spend on maintaining these façades towards something more constructive!

The same situation exists for businesses too. We …

Businesses often don’t need what they think they want…

We want a cool website with all the latest gizmos and a splashscreen to entertain our customers.

What you need is a website that helps your customers get to the useful and helpful information effectively.

We want an award winning marketing campaign to remind our customers about us.

What you need is to start giving a damn about your customers.

We want a specialist …

There are those who believe and expect the best out of others. And there are those who believe and expect the worst. Which are you (most of the time)?

Our beliefs about others determine how we treat others, and how we expect to be treated.

We can approach the world with openness and generosity, and receive the same in return. Or we can expect every …

The IOC is worried that they many not be able to “manage” what athletes say about the Games through their personal blogs. They are concerned that blogs “could lead to scurrilous rumours being broadcast on the Internet”.

Welcome to the real world! The Internet gives us (ok, those of us who have the means of accessing it) the power to say exactly what we want to. To express our …

We use marketing and PR to influence how people perceive us. We create profiles and elevator speeches. Knowing how people perceive you is always interesting. That’s why we seek out feedback on our marketing material.

It is useful to know how you come across to people; but such insights should not be relied upon as absolute gauges to base your actions upon. You cannot count on marketing and PR …

How can a credit union stand out authentically? From the banks, from other credit unions, and from the generic credit union brand?

Book now if you work in the financial services sector and care about branding and differentiation. More info on the workshop brochure. Presented with Swivel: Turn It Around

I was at Sunnyfield’s brand launch event where social commentator and noted author Hugh Mackay spoke yesterday.

It was great to hear Hugh talk about the intention behind corporate giving. To paraphrase (badly): if a company gives, it has to do so because it is the right and good thing to do. As soon as a giving programme is wrapped in marketing, brand awareness and other bottom-line-centric …