Brand Strategy is Confusing, Here’s Why

Be sure you don’t miss any of the action: make sure you subscribe to receive future issues. When it comes to strategy, there seems to be mass confusion in the marketing industry. Many people use terms like brand strategy, branding, brand management, and brand plan interchangeably. It’s not good. Compounding the issue is the fact that strategy as a core …

The Multiple Audience Challenge

Be sure you don’t miss any of the action: make sure you subscribe to receive future issues. Brand positioning can be tricky to get just right. And it can get even more complicated if you have multiple audiences you may want to target. This exact question came up during a recent positioning lesson in my brand management essentials course. A few students asked about the …

Finding The Big Creative Idea

Be sure you don’t miss any of the action: make sure you subscribe to receive future issues. Creative reviews are known to be one of the most fun, yet also most stressful meetings. Junior brand leaders often want to be included in these meetings. After all, many would-be brand managers dream of working on new ad campaigns. But once you’ve attended a …

Choosing The Right Strategic Target

Be sure you don’t miss any of the action: make sure you subscribe to receive future issues. Most marketers know that you should define your target audience using some kind of profile, template or framework. But, assuming you already have (or Googled) a template to use, how do you know the target that you chose is the right one? This …

Gaining Alignment On Your Ideas

Be sure you don’t miss any of the action: make sure you subscribe to receive future issues. So many great marketing ideas never see the light of day. It’s an unfortunate side effect of working in large organizations. The pro of a large company is that you have stability, but the con is that it often takes too many people …

How To Think Like A Strategist

Be sure you don’t miss any of the action: make sure you subscribe to receive future issues. As brand leaders, we often hear that we need to “be strategic,” but we often don’t get much guidance on what that actually means. Some brand managers are natural strategic thinkers, while others can spend an entire career figuring it out. So below …

How To Lead 1:1s With Your Manager

Be sure you don’t miss any of the action: make sure you subscribe to receive future issues. If you’ve worked in brand management for any decent amount of time (or even just business in general), you’ve probably heard the advice that you need to “manage up” or “manage your boss”.  While I believe this to be true, I’m not sure …

Tips for Tough Conversations

Be sure you don’t miss any of the action: make sure you subscribe to receive future issues. The first time you get a direct report, it can be both exciting and scary. It’s a sign you’ve been trusted with management responsibility. But what if you’re assigned an under-performer? Most new managers are tempted to “play nice”. They want to be …

Top Creative Brief Mistakes

Be sure you don’t miss any of the action: make sure you subscribe to receive future issues. Many brands are planning out their campaigns for 2023, which means many brand leaders will soon begin writing creative briefs for their agencies and creative teams. At this stage hopes are high, and leading new creative campaigns is supposed to be one of the fun …

How to Get Promoted in Brand Management

Be sure you don’t miss any of the action: make sure you subscribe to receive future issues. Annual reviews and goal-setting often come around this time of year. And if you ask most ABMs and brand managers what their goals are, chances are more than a few of them will mention their goal is to get promoted. Most managers will …