Twisk

I have a number of rules I like to remind myself of. I say, ‘remind’, instead of, ‘follow’, because I still fail to follow brand messages with alarming regularity. “Assume Nothing.” As a B2B brand advisor, that’s one of the biggies. You just don’t mess with, “Assume Nothing.” It’s worth a reminder because in a […]

By the time people reach my door, they have discovered a branding problem they hope I can fix. I undoubtedly can. But before we can fix anything, we first have to prise the brand from the cold, clammy grasp of the guy who thinks branding and brand strategy is all about function. Letting go is […]

B2B is famous for sticking doggedly to established positioning messages hewn from the rock of intransigence in the land that time forgot. But that’s no longer  acceptable positioning. And it’s no longer an excuse. Business to business companies may not have changed their Positioning and Messaging Strategy in B2B, but the audience has. The connected […]

LinkedIn is not a difficult concept to understand. The ‘World’s Largest Professional Network’. What else do you need to know? Well, you need to know about the LinkedIn knobheads. Within its 470m registered users, there are going to be a few knobheads who don’t fully comprehend the idea of inbound marketing or networking in a […]

10 minutes is all you have to make an impression when you’re selling denim samples to a retail buyer. At Brand on the Run ®, however, we had all night. John Ryder, the man behind many a jeans trend shared stories of his time working behind the scenes with an iconic wardrobe essential. It is […]

Have we all become lost in the B2B wankwordery of ‘alignment’ and ‘onboarding’ closely affiliated to the term, ‘Customer Experience’? It’s perhaps important to acknowledge that the blind pursuit of customer experience is complete bullshit. It’s a popular view in current B2B brand strategy. We should all conform to the will of the customer. Only […]

It’s been a while since I gave the BA brand a kicking for providing a thoroughly shit customer brand experience. After my last BA brand experience, I’ve simply chosen to fly with other airlines. It’s a small protest, but one that makes me feel like a valuable customer when the brand makes me feel like […]

Crowdsourcing, crowdfunding, crowdsurfing. Just a load of words with ‘crowd’ stuck on the front? Or are we ready to consider the B2B application of the crowd beyond abstract Kickstarter funding offers yet? It’s been a while since I mentioned crowdsourcing for B2B marketing. Crowdsourcing has been available to businesses in that time, just seemingly not […]

During a presentation about journey brands, I asked an international group of business leaders to raise their hands if they had a LinkedIn account. Despite being there to discuss journey brands, almost all of them raised their hands. I asked how many of them had posted something to their account that day. They looked at […]

Positioning remains a mysterious art in B2B marketing. Small companies too focused on product functionality. Large corporates too obsessed with jargon. Neither help the customer nor improve brand awareness. In the middle? Well, positioning, somewhere between a rock and a hard place, there’s a small window of opportunity for businesses to articulate a clear message […]