Lessons Learned from Week 6 of Brand Management

Week 6 was about a lot of the touchy-feely stuff which makes a big difference in getting a brand's ideal to ring true with customers. The speaker from GSD&M was extremely eloquent and taught about the importance of leadership to run a business that makes an important difference in people's lives; this message definitely jived with me, and the talk was quite engaging.

Grow: Must do #3: Communicate the ideal to engage employees and customers

• Model human loving relationship
  
• Keys: active involvement in advertising and viral potential
  
• Genuine intent to improve people's lives
  
• Innocent fruit drinks impacting society
  
• Walk the walk in other communications
  
• Funky labels
  
• Relevant and interesting, not sales 
  
• Unity of voice
  
• Good writers critical
  
• Brand ideal creative brief guides new communications projects

Delivering Happiness: Platform for Growth: Brand, Culture, Pipeline

• Culture book, party
  
• Ask anything
  
• Customer service as core loyalty
  
• Culture is brand
  
• Core values

Communicating your ideal

• Everything we do is media
  
• Everything communicates
  
• Engaging w/ people
  
• High standards for communications
  
• 1 to 1 always the best

GSD&M

• What is real underlying problem that needs to be solved?
  
• What do we have that consumer really wants that competition can’t deliver?
  
• Be a hugger
  
• 10 hugs of life
  
• Have to hug yourself
  
• Hug your family, ALL of them
  
• Hug friends
  
• Hug receptionist
  
• Hug where you come from, hug your flag
  
• Hug your fears
  
• Go in front of mirror, say “I’m afraid XYZ” and let it go
  
• Hug your failures
  
• There’s a difference between coming up short and failing
  
• Failure is lying or hurting someone; coming up short is just not winning business
  
• Hug your future
  
• Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t do something
  
• Hug your “first”
  
• First time rode bike
  
• First time felt important
  
• First time something special happened to you
  
• Hug your finals
  
• When parents pass away
  
• 4 types of hugs
  
• Mind hug: just think nice things of them
  
• Heart hug: hold thought in heart
  
• Touch hug
  
• Bear hug
  
• Power of purpose in business
  
• “Capitalism”
  
• Conscious capitalists in business to improve people’s lives
  
• Croney capitalists about improving own life
  
• What’s the purpose of business?
  
• Create value for all of our stakeholders
  
• 5 fundamental human values
  
• 4 kinds of companies
  
• The good: purpose to serve others
  
• The true: the people who explore, those who are looking for the truth
  
• The beautiful: great ad agencies, Apple
  
• The heroic: business model to improve the world
  
• If someone helps you out, you need to help them out
  
• Take the competition seriously, but not yourself
  
• Have fun, enjoy people
  
• Stay humble, stay hungry
  
• Never miss a kid’s birthday
  
• Are you improving someone’s life today?
  
• Artistotle: where your talents and needs of the world intersect, therein lies your purpose
  
• Don’t be average at what you’re bad at; hire someone; spend all of your life doing what you're good at
  
• You get burned out doing what you’re supposed to be doing but what you’re not good at
  
• Great creative briefs important
  
• Southwest brief: “Our purpose is to give people the freedom to fly.”
  
• Harley: “We fuel freedom.”
  
• Their goal: create compelling and contagious work that builds the business
  
• Having purpose statement sets creatives free
  
• Singing
• Gotta know the words to the song
  
• Gotta sing when it's your turn
  
• Gotta listen to each other
  
• Sounds good when you sing together
  
• Nice when you have a good song to sing
  
• Good versus piercing insights
  
• Do purpose piercing work with anthropologists
  
• When you live your life with purpose it opens the heart