Creating Personal Brands

Many people ask me about how to create their “personal brands.” If you already have a passion for what you’re doing -- a passion for knowledge and experience – then you’re on the way.

In my journey of personal branding, here's what I've learned that might help you define the CHEMistry of your brand:

C = Connect by making what you do relevant to others You might be a "knowledge engineer" that can help take what people need/want to know and structure it into action. Who couldn't relate to that?

H = Honesty is being true to yourself and not trying to make your "brand" something that you really aren't.

E = Easy is memorable. Keep it simple, but don't try to water it down.

M = Motivate your audience to action. Knowledge and attitude are only the beginning. Remember the "call to action". What do you want to happen?

Best of luck with your personal brand. I'm sure with your energy you'll "fast-forward" your brand and your life in powerful ways.

Business-like Thinking is Everywhere… and Especially in Boise

I’ve built my business model around the concept of speed and access, and the Groups, Events, and Media office I have in Boise is no different. StinsonGEM is just one way we can help our clients take advantage of the ever-accelerating pace of change in medicine, life sciences, lifestyle, wellness, and related research and technology.

With that in mind, enjoy this article from The Idaho Statesman…

Quest for longevity: Boise's minor league teams use a business approach to stay alive
Mar. 30--Idaho Stampede coach Bryan Gates has had two pressing issues on his mind in recent weeks.

How to hold off Los Angeles to win the West Division in the NBA Development League.
And when he's going to get an $800 credit from an airline for a pricing mistake on a team road trip.

Managing investor Bill Ilett is tracking both issues closely -- the former from his courtside seat at Qwest Arena, the latter through weekly reminder e-mails to his coach/travel agent.

"It's $800 that we can use," Ilett said.

The Idaho Steelheads have a choice when they buy hockey sticks.

They can buy a one-piece stick for $120. Or they can buy a $90 shaft and $40 blade separately.

They have opted for the two-piece sticks.

"With a one-piece stick, we don't see the stick being broken," coach Derek Laxdal said, "we see $120 being thrown onto the ice."

Those might seem like nickel-and-dime issues, but in the world of minor league sports it is that attention to financial details that can make the difference between longevity and insolvency for the three teams that will play games at Qwest Arena in Downtown Boise next month -- the Stampede, Steelheads and Boise Burn indoor football team.

Still, these teams aren't get-rich ventures.

"None of us have ever made a penny on this thing," Ilett said of his ownership group. " We get paid in dunks, great assists and 3-pointers."

"It's a challenge to break even," said Ray Kaufman, the chairman of the board of Block 22, the Steelheads' ownership group.

Reminders of that challenge -- and what happens if they fail to meet it -- are everywhere.
The Steelheads began play in 1997-98 in the now-defunct West Coast Hockey League. Their rivals, the Tacoma Sabercats and San Diego Gulls, also are defunct.

The Stampede began play in 1997-98 in the Continental Basketball Association, which folded during the 2000-01 season and, despite a rebirth, has lost its place as the development league for the NBA.

Yet 10 years after they burst onto the Treasure Valley sports scene, the Steelheads and Stampede have emerged as integral parts of their community and turned Qwest Arena into a sports haven.
The Steelheads, who have won two ECHL championships in the past four seasons, have stopped what was a steady decline in attendance until a few years ago.

And the Stampede, who joined the Steelheads at Qwest Arena in 2005-06 and won 18 straight games this season, report increases in attendance, sponsorships and walk-up ticket sales.

"We've been through six coaches, three (arena) moves, three general managers, a league change -- and I think it's stronger than ever right now," Gates said.

The key, both franchises say: Treat your sports team like a business.

BUSINESSLIKE OWNERS

Steelheads forward Lance Galbraith helped the team win the Kelly Cup in 2004 and 2007. In between, he spent one year with Fort Wayne of the United Hockey League.

"One of the things that brought me back here was when you do leave, you miss how professional they are here," Galbraith said. "How they treat their players."

Said captain Marty Flichel, who has spent five seasons with the Steelheads: "We get treated like gold."

Horror stories are easy to find among minor league athletes and coaches.

Flichel moved to Tacoma in 2001, signed a two-year contract and bought a house. Less than a year later, the Sabercats shut down.

The owner of a United States Basketball League team that Gates coached walked out six days into the season.

And Stampede guard Randy Livingston was playing for Gary in the CBA when players weren't getting paid and was playing for Idaho when the Isiah Thomas-owned CBA folded in 2001. Some of his teammates had to stay in Boise for a couple of weeks working odd jobs to earn enough money to get home, he said.

"Isiah came from the inner city," Livingston said. "I thought he would be the last person to take away from a lot of guys trying to live the same dream he had when he was younger. It was disappointing. It was shocking, too."

The Steelheads and Stampede try to prevent those kinds of crises with a businesslike approach.
Ilett, for example, meets once a month with Gates and team president Steve Brandes to go over the budget and expenses line by line.

The Stampede's local ownership group has lost money just once, Ilett said (the team was owned by Thomas from 1999 to 2001). The season in the red was 2002-03, when the team restarted and made reparations to the season-ticket holders who lost money when the team folded in 2001.
The franchise never has paid its owners, Ilett said, but the Stampede did purchase a $100,000 floor for this season by saving their modest profits.

"We are very, very disciplined in how we operate business-wise," Ilett said. "The majority of teams in our league do not make money."

The Steelheads have always been profitable, team president Eric Trapp said.

"It's a sport, but it's got to be run like a business," ECHL commissioner Brian McKenna said. "You need to make sure that you've got year-round focus on the business, you need to make sure you look after your customers and you need to keep the product fresh and new and entertaining. The folks there in Boise do all those things."

The Steelheads, for the most part, let the hockey do their talking. It's a relatively new sport to Boise and the arena's open concourse creates a social atmosphere.

"They've done a good job of putting a quality product on the ice, but also making it a fun place for people to go as an event," said Steelheads fan Marty Reid, who has had season tickets since 1997.

The Stampede, on the other hand, spend more than $35,000 a year on halftime performers to augment the entertainment value of their games.

"That's just part of the business," said Gates, who has been with the team for eight years, including some time in the front office. "Is it cool that we've got someone from the Blazers down (playing for the Stampede)? Absolutely. Is it cool that we've got Quick Change (dancers) coming? Absolutely."

NEW, MORE STABLE LEAGUES

The Steelheads and Stampede have changed leagues this decade -- moves that have placed the franchises in more stable environments.

The Steelheads joined the ECHL in 2003-04. The ECHL is in its 20th season -- the WCHL only lasted eight -- and is well-established as a Double-A developmental league. The league has shrunk from 31 to 25 teams since the Steelheads joined, but is solid in the West.

The Stampede joined the D-League in 2006-07 -- a league that has the powerful backing of the NBA and helps develop some young players who have NBA contracts but wouldn't get sufficient playing time there. The league has grown from eight teams in 2005-06 to 14 teams this season and could have up to 16 teams next season.

Dan Reed, the D-League president, said franchise values have quadrupled in the last three years to more than $1 million. Attendance is up 15 percent from last season.

"Business is booming," Reed said. "People are realizing that this is, in fact, a different and better minor league than they've seen in basketball before."

People like Stampede fan Tim Garland, a project manager at Hewlett-Packard who has been going to games since the franchise started.

"I think if you look around the Valley, it's one of the best values," Garland said of Stampede games. "You're going to see guys who are playing in the NBA right now or are going to go up to the NBA in the future. I don't think you're going to see that anywhere else."

That direct tie to the NBA -- and the credibility it brings -- is the D-League's greatest value to franchises like the Stampede, whose fans still remember the mess the CBA became.

"The biggest challenge (for the D-League) is continuing to overcome the history of minor league basketball in many of our markets," Reed said. " It's a real credit to the Stampede that they've been able to operate as long as they have given some of the challenges in minor league basketball in the past."

Count Livingston among the believers. He doesn't expect any more payroll snafus or midseason collapses.

"Once they have that NBA logo and stamp on the team, I don't think that it will ever happen with this league just because they've invested so much," Livingston said.

The ECHL has strengthened in the West in recent years. While the overall league membership has dropped, the number of teams in the West has increased from seven to nine since the Steelheads joined, with Ontario, Calif., set to join next season.

"We've reached a certain level of stability," McKenna said.

ONE OF THE NATION'S BEST MARKETS

So has Boise, which seems well-suited to its current collection of minor league teams -- the three Qwest Arena tenants and the Boise Hawks Class A short-season baseball team.

Boise, in fact, was named the seventh-best minor league market in the country last year by Sports Business Journal. The publication looked at the city's economy, market characteristics (good population with no major league teams nearby) and attendance numbers.

Another key ingredient: Qwest Arena, which was a bit ahead of its time with its downtown location when the building opened in 1997. Downtown arenas have become the norm.

"That generally tends to succeed and is almost a necessary piece of it anymore," said Bill King, a senior writer for Sports Business Journal.

A team's facility, King said, is more important than its record in determining franchise success.
Another biggie, King said: "Where that team fits into the fiber of the community."
And that's where the Steelheads and Stampede have really helped themselves.

The Steelheads raised or contributed $201,453 for charities last season, communications director Bonnie Way Snider said. The Pink in the Rink jersey auction raised a team-record $27,641 earlier this month.

The Stampede have a community foundation that generates about $100,000 per year for charity, Ilett said. The ownership group donated money to help the Boys and Girls Club build its gym in Garden City, and the National Guard presented Ilett with the Idaho Distinguished Service Medal for the work he and the Stampede have done to help local soldiers.

And none of those good deeds account for the youth clinics, reading programs and other public appearances by the players.

The charitable and outreach efforts create visibility and a connection with the community that can pay off at the box office.

"If you give back to the community," Trapp said, "they're going to want to be a part of your team."

Said Ilett: "What we have finally done is we have branded this thing. Everybody knows who we are. They may not know if we won or lost last night, but they know who we are. We've become a part of the Valley."

CHALLENGES PERSIST

While the Steelheads and Stampede certainly look like community mainstays, there are some reasons for concern.

The Stampede owners average about 60 years of age, Ilett said. He has tried to lure some younger investors, but he also says selling part of the franchise to an NBA team is a possibility.
"We have to self-perpetuate this with people who are younger," said Ilett, 63.

And while the Stampede have increased attendance by 18.6 percent since joining the D-League, they rank sixth in the league with 2,844 tickets sold per game. That includes about 1,000 season tickets.

"The attendance could be a lot better," Livingston said. "This year, we've had a good product. People need to support the sport of basketball a little more."

For the Steelheads, their greatest strength is one of their greatest challenges -- consistency.
The product is fairly predictable. The franchise produces a solid, winning team every year with a mixture of familiar veterans and up-and-coming young players. The action on the ice has changed little in 11 seasons.

Attendance has slipped 12.4 percent since the novelty of the inaugural season. The economy is slumping, and the Steelheads are slashing season-ticket prices for next season for the first time in franchise history.

"It's harder and harder to figure out marketing," Trapp said, "to find new ways to get our message out that are effective."

But McKenna's experience as the ECHL commissioner tells him a franchise that lasts a decade usually has staying power.

The Steelheads are wrapping up their 11th season, the Stampede their 10th.

"It doesn't necessarily get any easier," McKenna said, "but the recognition and the brand is there and you're more accepted in the community.”

Commit - experience quitting

Changing habits and beating addictions is one of the most difficult things we do. Whether it is losing weight or quitting smoking, a drug alone is not enough - there has to be a support system.

The branding for Commit Lozenges is about associations. First, the ad communication dials into what associations commonly trigger a smoker's cravings. "I only smoke when I drink." "I like a cigarette after a meal." "I smoke when I'm out with friends."

Then, the website creates positive associations of quitting.

Commit offers not only a relief to cravings but includes on their website "My Quit Place" which provides a dosing calculator, a trigger detector, and a cravings pacifier, all of which are designed to help smokers break their habit.

"Quitting is a process, not an event," the website tells us. Great advice like this is all throughout the site. But my favorite is the Savings Calculator. This features lets you input the cost per pack of cigarettes and how many cigarettes you smoke each day. It then spits back how much money that is costing you each day, week, month, and year. For a society that is very financially driven, this is a great addition to the raft of reasons to quit.

Zomig – Redefining Speed

In the modern landscape of cable television, high-speed internet, technologically advanced business, and instant information, customers expect instant results. Everything is about speed. We want faster travel, faster acting drugs, faster lines, faster computers, faster growth, faster returns.

If you’re a migraine sufferer, or even if you have ever had a really bad headache, the last thing you want to do is wait for a pain reliever to take effect. But you also don’t want that effect to wane after just a few hours.

Enter Zomig Nasal Spray.

What do you think migraine treatment is? What do you think is fast? Zomig throws both notions out the door – instead of a pill, it is a nasal spray for acute migraine treatment. And instead of taking 2 hours to take effect, Zomig claims it can bring relief in just 10 minutes.

This brand ties back strongly to the element of "likeability." The claim is faster than fast, which is certainly attractive. Then, add the cute and cleverly costumed bunny. It is a winner.

alli Branding: Product + Experience

Are you ready? That is the question that alli, the only FDA approved diet pill, asks prominently on their website, MyAlli.com. “Have you got what it takes to follow the alli™ program? Before you begin, be sure alli is right for you. You don't just try alli to see what happens. You have to commit to a plan that's realistic; one based on gradual weight loss.”

Honesty. What a concept. But this is a perfect example of branding – a quality offering combined with a quality experience. GlaxoSmithKline knows that there is no wonder pill that magically makes you skinny. And they know that consumers know that (even if they don’t want to admit it).

So they have designed the alli brand with honesty as the cornerstone. You have to work to get thin. The OTC drug can help, “but it’s more than just a pill. It’s an innovative weight loss program. The pill works by preventing your body from absorbing some of the fat you eat. And the program includes an individually tailored, online action plan to help you lose weight safely and gradually.”

By painting an honest picture, they are not creating false hopes. And by including the customer in the overall experience, they are tying that customer to the brand in a powerful way.

This is the kind of branding that could move more pharma products “Forward. Fast.”

The secret’s in the ink – the partnership of “E Ink” and Kindle

You may have heard of e-books, but the technology of reading them has not been able to make electronic books accessible. Critics of e-books have cited sensory connection problems as the culprit for the lack of adoption. Books have a certain feel, a certain smell, and there is just something about turning a page. But it was the visual element that caused the biggest problem. Reading a book on a computer screen was hard on the eyes.

Enter E Ink Corporation, who creates “electronic paper display (EPD) technologies. Products made with E Ink's revolutionary electronic ink possess a paper-like high contrast appearance, ultra-low power consumption and a thin, light form.” The applications of this product go far beyond e-book technology, from signs to marquis and beyond.

But the innovations don’t stop there. Kindle is a pretty simple collection of existing technologies. It is a portable computer – nothing new. It is a web browser – nothing new. And it uses a cellular modem – nothing new. What is new is the whole package – a portable dedicated web browser that connects you to the internet and allows you to download and read books, newspapers, and blogs on a screen that reads like ink on paper. What’s more, you can bookmark pages and even make notes in the text.

What a package!

Case Study: Reolysin, a Cancer-killing reovirus

Pharmaceutical branding is a delicate balance between creating likeability and communicating scientific viability. That’s why it is so important that the consultancy who develops your branding understands the scientific concept of your product.

The case of Reolysin, a virus that attacks and destroys cancer cells, is a perfect example of a product that achieved this balance. In essence, administering this drug involves infecting the patient with a virus, and when you are talking about infecting a person who is already sick with cancer, it is a tough pill to swallow.

Oncolytics Biotech, the company that makes Reolysin, understood the difficult position they were in. They conducted extra long clinical trials to prove more conclusively that the product not only worked, but also that it was safe.

One of the major differences that comes with pharmaceutical branding is the target audience. For the most part, the audience is scientifically savvy. But drugs also have a public persona. And with all of the recent “Big Pharma” scandals of late, controlling the brand identity of products, especially new products that utilize new science, is vitally important.

Read more at the PharmaExec website.

Branding clinical trials -- promise doesn't mean bravado

Amid the torrent of media attention to failed drugs, mislabeled drugs, and drugs that do not do what they say they do, there are increasingly calls for more clinical proof. Everyone from insurance companies to doctors, from medical journals to patients -- they all want to know they are getting what they are bargaining for.

So, the pharmaceutical industry is responding with more new trials that attempt to make the case for their products.

Two recent head-to-head trials are apropos for discussion: Bristol-Myers Squibb’s PROVE-IT trial in 2003 and Merck/Schering-Plough Pharmaceutical’s ENHANCE trial concluded earlier this year. Both are examples of drug-versus-drug comparisons, and both suffered from the same fatal flaw.

The financial danger of a comparison study, of course, is that your drug fails. That is not a position you want to find yourself in. Failure is one thing, but what this brings beyond the immediate consequences is a raft of attention – and not the kind of attention you want.

Both PROVE-IT and ENHANCE set themselves up in a bet-the-farm proposition. Their trial campaigns carried with them extreme overconfidence. While I'm not qualified to comment on the study design, I can critique the brand design. We would never recommend branding a trial, head-to-head or otherwise, with such bravado, arrogance, and potential over-promise.

Read more about both these cases: ENHANCE Trial; PROVE IT Trial

Case Study: Novartis Foundation for Sustainable Development

The advances of the Pharma industry mean very little if the drugs don’t get to the sick people. And in third world countries, crushing poverty and rampant malfeasance often prevent proper distribution of drugs to the people who need it.



Recognizing a need, Novartis has created a foundation that focuses on providing “pioneering health projects in developing countries aimed at achieving specific goals in the fight against poverty and disease as well as at inspiring and improving development policy and practice.”

One of the ways Novartis achieves their goals is through educational events. They recognize that the efforts must be taken to the people, into the remote villages. It is not just about drug costs and drug supplies. Access is an important key, as is education.

Events are a powerful tool in energizing a group to action. By creating a compelling presentation -- using language that is meaningful to your audience -- you can achieve maximum message effect. The impact of groups can be felt through a powerful personal connection, and this method is often more meaningful than print materials or visual representations. Involvement is a key aspect to the power of group events.

Case Study: More than a logo

Xerox recently changed its logo, hoping its visual brand would help the public company identity catch up with the philosophical changes the modern Xerox represents.

The Xerox case illustrates a couple of points. First, forging a brand identity is a scientific process of learning what is meaningful to your customers. According to a January 8th article in PharmaLive, Xerox “spent more than 18 months interviewing some 5,000 people around the world about their associations with the Xerox name. Then they set about figuring how they could best retain the nice things it stands for (dependability and stability), jettison the not-so-nice (formal, somewhat stodgy) — and, most important, add attributes like modern, innovative and flexible.”

Also important to note with the Xerox case is that a brand identity is more than a change in philosophy and it is more than a logo. Xerox has not been a “copier company” for years, having grown beyond that and into networked printing solutions. Their philosophies had changed, but their identity stayed put.

I guess the point I’m trying to make is that brands are about the entire package. As my Forward. Fast.® tool suggests, the brand links together the qualities of industry reputation (Likeability), visual impact (Logo), caliber of products (Quality Offering), connections to meaningful partners (Associations), brand personality (Attitude), and product interactions (Quality Experience). The way customers analyze all of these elements as a whole is what they perceive as your brand identity.

The Good, the bad, and the ugly: line extensions of 2007

According to BusinessDictionary.com, a line extension is a “Multiproduct branding strategy whereby a firm markets one or more new products under an already established and well known brand name. The objective is to serve different customer needs or market segments while taking advantage of the widespread name recognition of the original brand. For example, maker of a popular perfume may introduce shampoos, bath soaps, body powders, etc., under the perfume's name. Line extension is encouraged by some marketing experts and frowned upon by others. Also called brand extension.”

A recent web survey listed out some of the best and worst examples of line extensions gone awry:

“The brands that did it right found a way to create innovative, succesful extensions that are in harmony with the core brand.” Ranking according to survey results showed the top 4 line extension of 2007 as:

1. PetSmart PetsHotel
2. Huggies Little Swimmers sunscreen
3. Disney's Fairy Tale wedding gowns
4. American Idol camp

On the other hand, the worst had some commonalities. “Too often new products stray from their core values "to the point where there is no relation to the brand at all," said Ries.” The three worst extensions were:

1. Precious Moments coffins
2. Humane Society Do Lovers Wine Club
3. Girls Gone Wild apparel

Read more about it at Brandweek.

Customer Research and Insights Analysis

If you’re tired of those endless customer service phone trees, check out this article from the December 3 Brandweek:

People Uproot Customer Service Woes By 'Weeding'

If you've ever tried calling a customer service department to complain about a product or service, you know the drill: Dial the phone number of the customer service department, navigate an endless maze of automated voice prompts, reach a live human and, finally, begin to explain your situation. If you zapped an entire lunch hour doing this, you're far from alone.

But there is a light at the end of this tunnel, and it's not a train steaming in your direction. According to Yankelovich, Chapel Hill, N.C., more consumers are taking control by finding and mastering ways to circumvent such problems as customer service obstacle courses. And, perhaps more important to retailers, more consumers have taken to "weeding," meaning they have a willingness to drop trusted products to go with companies that are substantive, accountable and honest.

According to Yankelovich's Consumer Empowerment Ratchets Up Expectations:
• 82% of consumers think it's important to speak with a live company
representative when seeking customer service.
• 27% are willing to pay extra for this.
• With more people shopping via the Internet, and with so many companies based
overseas, 71% say having customer-service reps in the U.S. is important.
• 25% are willing to pay more for this.

Consumer Empowerment also offers tips for retailers:
• Give customer-facing employees the flexibility to craft customized solutions.
• Give employees the opportunity for more impromptu dialogue and creative
problem solving.
• Provide automatically updated status reports to consumers seeking information
on where their case stands.

Still frustrated? Go to GetHuman.com, a list of more than 500 companies, customer service numbers and details on the fastest way to reach live company reps.

McDonald’s is taking on Starbucks with their McCafe

They’ve been working out the kinks with this latest brand innovation overseas, and now the biggest change in McDonald’s product offerings in 30 years is coming to America!



According to the Wall Street Journal, “Starting this year, the company's nearly 14,000 U.S. locations will install coffee bars with "baristas" serving cappuccinos, lattes, mochas and the Frappe, similar to Starbucks' ice-blended Frappuccino.”

McDonald’s has apparently learned from Starbucks’ successes: “The program attempts to replicate the Starbucks experience in many ways -- starting with borrowing the barista moniker. Espresso machines will be displayed at the front counters, a big shift for a company that has always hidden its food assembly from customers. McDonald's says it wants customers to see the coffee beans being ground and baristas topping the mochas and Frappes with whipped cream.”

Do they smell blood in the water? “McDonald's is entering the sixth year of a successful turnaround, while Starbucks has begun struggling after years of strong earnings and stock growth.”

This is a risky move, though. “It could slow down operations and alienate customers who come to McDonald's for cheap, simple fare rather than theatrics. Franchisees say that many of their customers don't know what a latte is.”

From the horse's mouth...

Book Review: The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914, by David McCullough

I fully expected to enjoy reading McCullough’s historical overview because I liked his style in 1776 and other books.

What was unexpected was the story’s value as a business book, too.

McCullough uses frequent mentions of actual companies and brands to remind us of the important contributions of the private sector in this engineering innovation.

From Chapter 1
Stowed below on the “Guard” was the finest array of modern instruments yet assembled for such an undertaking--engineers' transits, spirit levels, gradienters, surveyors' compasses and chains, delicate pocket aneroid barometers, mercurial mountain barometers, current meters--all "for prosecuting the work vigorously and scientifically." (The Stackpole transits, made by the New York firm of Stackpole & Sons, had their telescope axis mounted in double cone bearings, for example, which gave the instrument greater rigidity than older models, and the introduction of a simplified horizontal graduation reading allowed for faster readings and less chance of error.)


In the midst of appreciating the construction highs and lows, he also sheds revealing light on the level of ineptitude, malfeasance, and amazingly blatant lies told to early investors. Clearly, the vision was large and the leaders charismatic in selling it. But the headline from THE NEW YORK TIMES on November 22, 1892 shows the collapse to be on a scale of Enron in its day:

A BIG FRENCH SCANDAL
AFFAIRS OF THE PANAMA CANAL COMPANY TO BE EXAMINED. –
-- TURBULENT SCENE IN THE CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES
-- DELAHAYE'S SWEEPING CHARGES OF BRIBERY
-- SENATORS, DEPUTIES, MINISTERS, FINANCIERS, AND EDITORS ACCUSED.

Not such a small world anymore

No, I’m not talking about The World is Flat. More like the world is fat.

The "It's A Small World" ride at Disneyland will shut down the ride this January for 10-months so they can make the water canals deeper and build stronger boats. People are fatter nowadays and are causing the boats to bottom out in the middle of the ride.

Waist-lines are getting wider - the Los Angeles Times reports that the average sized man weighed 166lbs in 1960. In 2002 the average man weighed 191lbs.

Where else are you seeing the “growth” of America? Post a comment.

Alvaro Fernandez: 10 Brain Fitness New Year Resolutions

See this post on an interesting blog...

You have survived the 2007 shopping and eating season. Congratulations! Now it's time to shift gears and focus on 2008...whether you write down some New Year resolutions or contemplate some things that you want to let go of from last year and set intentions and goals for this year - as is a friend's tradition on the winter solstice. To summarize the key findings of the last 20 years of neuroscience research on how to "exercise our brains", there are three things that we can strive for: novelty, variety and challenge. If we do these three things, we will build new connections in our brains, be mindful and pay attention to our environment, improve cognitive abilities such as pattern-recognition, and in general contribute to our lifelong brain health. With these three principles of brain health in mind - novelty, variety and challenge - let me suggest a few potential New Years resolutions, perhaps some unexpected, that will help you make 2008 a year of Brain Fitness: 1 ...

Read the rest at HuffingtonPost.com

Brand Innovation Graveyard

For every world-transforming innovation, history is littered with notions that promised much but delivered little. In this month’s GOOD MAGAZINE, we’re reminded of the cautionary lessons in our capacity for folly. Some ideas that never quite made it include:

The Segway: Few products could survive the hype of the Segway’s debut. And yet still the faithful persist, whizzing past with their “I’m-traveling-at-four-miles-an-hour” grins. And all along we wonder: Isn’t this what bikes are for?





Pan Am Moon Ticket: Here’s a ticket to the moon, said Pan Am. Come back to us in 50 years. Fifty years later, no flights to the moon and, more important, no more Pan Am.





Y2K: A boondoggle of the first order. Governments and companies burned $300 billion to correct a problem caused because computer geeks failed to remember that time, in fact, continues.

Dymaxion House: For all of Buckminster Fuller’s genius, he failed to account for taste. Definition of a tough sell: an aluminum house built in the manner of a grain silo, with a bathroom that shrink-wraps your waste.


Oxygen Bars: It’s hard to look cool when you’re spending a dollar a minute sucking down a tube of otherwise free air. Also, the oxygen bartender is secretly laughing at you.

Alex Rodriguez’s Contract: $175,370 per game. $47,528 per at bat. There is such a thing as too much money, but apparently this wasn’t it, since A-Rod opted out to search for an even larger windfall.

Jet Pack: In a crushing disappointment to successive generations of Popular Science–ogling boys, this one never really, er, took off. What’s so hard about thermodynamics and jet propulsion?

Bloggies

Time again for another installment of the Bloggies! We take aim at food branding (for what are the holidays without food?). So, here’s a summary of our opinions expressed in blogs over the last few weeks.

►► Marshmallows in hot cocoa (it was unanimous)

◄◄ Starbucks: New TV Ads

◄◄ McDonald’s: WiFi in the Restaurants

►► McDonald’s salads (and “fresh” green billboards)

◄◄ KFC: Getting on the Healthy Bandwagon

◄◄ Pizza Hut: Double Deep pizza

►► FoodShouldTasteGood chips

►► Mayte’s cooking on our Mexico trip

The innovations of December

Sometimes it is good to look back in time to remember how we got to where we are today. Here are some notable Brand Innovations from Decembers past.

Dec 16, 1773 – Brand Evangelism heard ‘round the world: Colonists threw 342 crates of tea into Boston Harbor during the Boston Tea Party

Dec 3, 1818 – Brand of Lincoln in the making: Illinois became the 21st state

Dec 17, 1903 – Brand in Flight: Wilbur and Orville Wright made the first controlled, powered flight in history

Dec 21, 1937 – Brand Entertainment dominance begins: The film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was first shown

Dec 2, 2001 – Brand Gone Bad: Enron filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection

Innovations of 2007 -- Brands on the Run

Fortune Magazine has published a study of breakaway brands for 2007. After analyzing over 2,500 brands, here’s what they came up with as the top 10:

Brands Value gained (in millions) 2003-06 How they did it
1. T.J. Maxx $697 Expanded clientele with higher-end jewelry offerings
2. iPod $7,842 Kept the hits coming with sleek new video models
3. BlackBerry $4,933 Transformed glitchy business tool into must-have
device
4. Stonyfield Farm $61 Maintained organic street cred despite sale to Danone
5. Samsung $4,282 Created communities for fans of its TVs and
cellphones
6. Costco $3,409 Took treasure-hunt shopping experience to the web
7. Propel $249 Fitness water brand added calcium-enhanced line
8. Barnes & Noble $283 Lured families with play areas and Starbucks coffee
9. General Electric $7,579 Eco-friendly product push started to pay dividends
10. Microsoft $5,462 Xbox gave the company valuable consumer buzz

The research was conducted by Landor Associates, a strategic branding and design firm.

For more information on this survey, visit http://money.cnn.com/2007/10/31/magazines/fortune/microsoft_ge.fortune/index.htm