Linking your cause with the Nabisco brand can’t possibly hurt. There is a new cause marketing campaign launched recently with boxes of Triscuits, the wheat crackers in the snack isle of your grocery store.

You can have a GroupOn activity that happens an hour from now and done by the end of the day targeting a self-selected group of customers who are actually interested in your offers. This is the maximum use of incentives to the right motivated customers. It’s just another way to create opportunity in the marketplace– a reason for customers to buy now.

This focus on the customer built incredible loyalty and connection. They educated every customer, they increased their level of awareness and in the end they became the preferred choice in the category.

If you’re like me most of your banking is done online these days. I go the accounts area, pay bills, move money around and occasionally check out other services, all with no person involved. I then deposit checks at nonhuman ATM machines. I usually only interact when I need something fixed or just plain don’t [...]

This was the time when retail was immediate and visual as you passed one store front after another. Seeing if you could get pulled into the store by what’s in the window.

Rule 1. in building brands is evolve value and keep building on what you have. Most companies that have dumped an old name for a new one to try to “reinvent” themselves have run head on into customer confusion.

Denny’s may be a top restaurant chain but its focus is on one segment of the market. It may not be my brand. Gap may be a great clothing brand to some but it’s limited to the demographics where it succeeds, just like Jack in the Box

I see a lack of real strategy on building a bigger online community and more of a move towards adding revenue based on targeted groups.

The brands that convey the most customer loyalty like Apple, Coke and Nike are the you brands. The brands that convey your personalized experience that empowers you as part of a greater community.

Brand strategy is the connection between your marketing goals and your customers’ experience. How you position your brand defines who comes to buy, why and how to build your market.