Spotted on the fridge at my local Nando’s charcoal chicken shop. It took me a split second to get what was on the sticker - it was a great bit of entertainment whilst I was waiting for my food.

The sticker was discreet; almost like an after thought. It is part of the integrated Nando’s branding/advertising approach which I reckon works quite well. Their …

NRMA Insurance is running a series of simple TV and radio ads at the moment. All they do is list stats about how many claims they have paid out, and how quickly, in response to recent floods in parts of New South Wales.

Nothing about how much they care about customer service, or how many years they have been in business, or how they are committed …

Small things can and do make a difference. I found myself smiling at this label on a new box of Splenda today:

Exceeding a customer’s expectations, making a small difference in someone’s day, need not be a hard thing.

I gave a talk this week to several hundred high school students at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research where the Eating Disorders Foundation had their Youth Forum. My talk was about body image – specifically how fantasies are literally manufactured in the media, advertising and the fashion industry.

Eating disorders aside, there is no doubt that being constantly bombarded with impossible and unattainable ideals will negatively affect self …

If I were looking for an SUV today. I totally love their Save the Rhino TV commercial.

It still showed the product doing its thing - and actually in aid of a genuine worthwhile cause. (Suzuki is donating part proceeds from each sale to save the black rhino and the tassie devil.)

How refreshing it was not to see yet another super-preened yuppy dude in his super-clean, super-polished, …

The marketing material accompanying Lenovo’s new super-exclusive Thinkpad Reserve Edition is a great example of how increasingly, differentiation is about the soft stuff, the services; and less so about the quality or power of the hardware.

Take a look at the PDF Spec Sheet. Despite it being called a spec sheet, less than a quarter of the document was actually devoted to technical information. …

Integration - what individuals (and businesses) seek to create within themselves. We are talking about being whole and acting seamlessly together. Where the left hand not only knows what the right hand is up to, but all hands are on deck, united by the same values, and aiming for the same horizon.

Differentiation - the more an individual (or a business) is integrated internally, the more differentiated one will …

I came across this exemplar of a business that stood out because its services are actually designed for the convenience of customers.

Upgradeable.com.au sells memory upgrades for all sorts of computers - from ancient ones that ought to be replaced, to the latest and greatest.

In a commoditised market saturated with competitors, their website alone stood out because it actually provided useful information specific to different models and …

This is the emergency evacuation sign up on the wall of a classroom in a local educational institution. Note Step 4.

Food and drinks (except water) are actually not allowed in classrooms. Was this deliberate and well thought-through? Who knows.

But it was funny. Very human. And definitely unforgettable.

Can you do something similar with a piece of your business communications?

Artist Matt Siber’s Compare To… project is a neat visual illustration of product category and brand signifiers beyond the logo. We don’t need much info to know what these everyday products are.

Such a situation is possible because of the highly commoditised nature of these products. Brand recognition is arguable less powerful a buying incentive as is price and availability.