How to get brand ideas from UNhappy customers

on Responsiveness

"Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning." 

- Bill Gates

How to gain brand sophistication through simplicity

on Simplicity

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” 

-Leonardo daVinci

8 Ways to Balance Your Work and Family Life

A lot is being written and debated these days about working at home, life balance, and working moms.

Here are 8 suggestions on ways to balance work and family:

1. Put your family first. 
2. It’s your schedule—not your clients’. 
3. Plan your day in advance.  
4. Exercise each day.  
5. Take vitamins and eat right.  
6. Turn off your mobile phone from time to time. 
7. Team up with another practitioner in the office.
8. Give yourself a daily reminder.

In an article from Career Journal, published by The Wall Street Journal Online, writer Kevin Voigt offers this story:

"Ostensibly, successful people, if they do have an Achilles heel, it's work-life balance," says Michael Jenkins, Singapore-based Asian managing director of the Center for Creative Leadership, an executive training and research company. "You can't regain your children's childhood; no amount of professional success can compensate for the loss of that family time. At the end of the day, if you aren't a success at home as well, (success at work) probably won't count for much."

Source:

http://www.realtor.org/archives/slscoach20050425

Why your brand's customers value surprise

on Surprise and Delight

“Surprise is the greatest gift which life can grant us.” 

- Boris Pasternak

How to be more persuasive by being more transparent

on Transparency

"There is no persuasiveness more effectual than the transparency of a single heart, of a sincere life." 

-Joseph Berber Lightfoot

The best way to understand your brand's customers

on Listening

"The most basic of all human needs is the need to understand and be understood. The best way to understand people is to listen to them." 

- Ralph Nichols

"Left/Right Brain" ad from Mercedes-Benz

Take a closer look at this Mercedes-Benz ad created by Shalmor Avnon Amichay/Y&R Interactive Tel Aviv, Israel.


Enjoy this copy....


Left brain:

I am the left brain. I am a scientist. A mathematician. I love the familiar. I categorize. I am accurate. Linear. Analytical. Strategic. I am practical. Always in control. A master of words and language. Realistic. I calculate equations and play with numbers. I am order. I am logic. I know exactly who I am.

Right brain:

I am the right brain. I am creativity. A free spirit. I am passion. Yearning. Sensuality. I am the sound of roaring laughter. I am taste. The feeling of sand beneath bare feet. I am movement. Vivid colors. I am the urge to paint an empty canvas. I am boundless imagination. Art. Poetry. I sense. I feel. I am everything I wanted to be.


(I appreciate the share from http://streetanatomy.com/)

The inspiration behind great work

on Passion

"The only way to do great work is to love the work you do." 

-Steve Jobs

The idea behind responsiveness

on Responsiveness

"Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it." 

- Charles Swindoll

N-of-8 groups: elements of an impactful meeting

I really enjoyed working with Cindy B over the years to create impactful N-of-8 groups.

Here's some notes from the archives as we thought about the elements of one meeting.

The difference of storytelling

on Storytelling

"If you tell me, it’s an essay. If you show me, it’s a story." 

—Barbara Greene

The drive for simplicity

on Simplicity

"Less isn't more; just enough is more."

-Milton Glaser

3 things reps don't seem to value as much as the brand agency

Why do we need sales aids, iVAs, and non-personal promotion?

The reps don’t think they mean much to their targets. 

What are your thoughts?

How to know if you're a leader

on Leadership

"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." 

—John Quincy Adams

"Minding Design: Neuroscience, Design Education, and the Imagination"

I am a member of The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation and was quite interested to share this with our neuroscience innovation colleagues.

Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture and the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture hosted an international symposium dedicated to exploring the relationship between neuroscience and architecture. The symposium titled, "Minding Design: Neuroscience, Design Education, and the Imagination," was held in November 2012, at Taliesin West in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Architects and brain scientists have much to learn from each other and discussion addressed the implications of neuroplasticity on lifelong learning, how the environment changes the structure of the brain, how the imagination functions, and how to best nurture it and what is important for the designer to know and how best to teach it.

Minding Design explored the implications of these advances on the education of those who design our built world.

Here is a link to share with anyone interested in details

www.taliesin.edu/md

The surprise and delight of brand innovation

on Surprise and Delight

"A true leader always keeps an element of surprise up his sleeve, which others cannot grasp but which keeps his public excited and breathless."

-Charles de Gaulle

A revelation on authenticity

on Authenticity

"I had no idea that being your authentic self could make me as rich as I've become. If I had, I'd have done it a lot earlier." 

-Oprah Winfrey

N-of-8 success stories with KOLs

In many of my N-of-8 blog posts, I’ve shared success stories from working with Key Opinion Leaders a variety of markets. 

What they all have in common is a way to get the most from thought-leader interactions with a structured approach like N-of-8.

• Opinions can be applied to a change in practices.   
• Thoughtful questions can open up productive exchange.  
• Planned agendas should go beyond one-way presentations to gain meaningful insights and advice.   

Most of all, facilitated sessions with relevant exercises can move participants to want to stay active and work together to create something new and different.

A motivation behind transparency

on Transparency

"As a small businessperson, you have no greater leverage than the truth." 

-John Whittier

Advantage of teamwork in brand innovation

on Team Play

"Individuals play the game, but teams beat the odds." 

-SEAL Team Saying

Stay open to change

on Adaptability

"When you're finished changing, you're finished." 

-Ben Franklin

Global Branding vs. Local Customization

How do you weigh the benefits of a unified global campaign compared to the desire for local market customization?

Encouragement for gratitude

on Gratefulness

"I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder." 

-Gilbert K Chesterton