Brand strategist Karen Kang puts the importance of personal reinvention bluntly: “Consider yourself a free agent—no one else is looking out for your best interests but yourself. You need to be crystal clear about who you are and the value you bring to a world where constant change is the only norm.” That’s the premise [...]
May 06, 2013 | Categories:Brands, Features, Insights, Marketing | Tags: Apple, brand communications plan, brand strategy, BrandingPays, business school, Cake, change, companies of one, constant change, emotional value, Forbes, free agent, Genentech, hypercompetitive, icing, image, Intel, Karen Kang, Marketing, personal brand, personal branding, promotion, rational value, Regis McKenna, reinvention, reputation, self-marketing, Silicon Valley, values | Leave A Comment »
[Originally posted on the Huffington Post.] This is the 12th in a series of 14 posts expanding on Salzman’s forecasts for 2013 in her annual trends report, a program of global communications group Havas Worldwide. This year’s book, What’s Next? What to Expect in 2013, was published on 12/12/12 and is available at 120MBooks.com. Salzman [...]
Jan 14, 2013 | Categories:Fashion, Features, Marketing, Trends | Tags: Aboriginal art, Apple, art, Australia, authentic, Avatar, Brazil, Carl Jung, criminal justice, culture, essentialism, Fashion, First Peoples, George Lucas, intellectual property, Joseph Campbell, Mardi Gras, native, Native American, Picasso, place, real, Star Wars, style, Trends, trendspotter, trendspotting, tribe, virtual, What's Next? | Leave A Comment »
[Originally posted on the Huffington Post.] This is the eighth in a series of 14 posts expanding on Salzman’s forecasts for 2013 in her annual trends report, a program of global communications group Havas Worldwide. This year’s book, What’s Next? What to Expect in 2013, was published on 12/12/12 and is available at 120MBooks.com. Salzman [...]
Dec 28, 2012 | Categories:CSR, Features, Politics, Social Media, Technology, Trends | Tags: Apple, Arab Spring, corporate social responsibility, CSR, debt, economic crisis, Google, mindfulness, Occupy, positive psychology, simplify, spending, stress, Tea Party, Trends, trendspotter, trendspotting, What's Next? | Leave A Comment »
[Originally posted on PRWeek.com.] This is the first in a series of three posts that will discuss what I see as a PR émigré managing in a world where evolution meets revolution. You’ve heard it said that the future is now. That’s much closer to the truth than it was even a half-decade ago. I [...]
Oct 24, 2012 | Categories:Brands, Features, PR, Technology, Trends | Tags: Apple, future, Havas, iPhone, Media, newscrafting, normal, place making, PR, PR tools, PRWeek, public relations, supercities, Technology, the economy, The End of Normal, tools, trendspotting | Leave A Comment »
I have Sept. 12 circled on my calendar. The day that could change my life. The day I might decide to say “yes” to a certain someone who is going to be there for me, for better or for worse, all the days of … a two-year phone contract. When I heard that Apple might [...]
Sep 05, 2012 | Categories:Features, Marketing, Social Media, Technology, Trends | Tags: Apple, Apple iPhone 5, consumer behavior, emotion, Galaxy, Galaxy S III, Google Chrome, iPhone, iPhone 5, mobile, mobile technology, Samsung, Samsung Galaxy, smartphone, The Hunger Games, Verizon | 3 Comments »
[Originally posted on Euro RSCG’s Social Life and Social Media blog.] It’s the end of the summer, and well-rested students are loading up their trunks and heading back to school. In the upcoming weeks, campuses will be abuzz again—the summer silence replaced with the energy of a new school year. Amid the summer stories recounted [...]
Aug 27, 2012 | Categories:Features, Social Media, Technology, Trends, Youth | Tags: Apple, Babson Survey Research Group, back to school, Bill Gates, Bloomberg.com, college, college debt, diploma, education, entrepreneurialism, Facebook, Internet, Mark Zuckerberg, Microsoft, PayPal, Peter Thiel, Pink Floyd, Steve Jobs, students loans, Thiel Fellowship | Leave A Comment »
This is the seventh in a series of 10 posts about different aspects of CEO branding. How quickly could you come up with a dozen examples of great creativity? My guess is it would take you an hour at most if you have a good Internet connection. Your examples might include a few movies, books, [...]
Jul 24, 2012 | Categories:Brands, Features, Trends | Tags: Apple, branding, CEO, CEO branding, CEOs, Charleston, creative war room, creativity, Detroit, innovation, inspiration, office location, Omaha, Paul Orfalea, Pittsburgh, radical recruitment, recruiting, Tucson | Leave A Comment »
Fewer of us are using the telephone for the purpose for which it was created: talking. A new term, “telephobia,” has been coined; voice calls are down 12 percent since 2009, and a growing number of us consider voice mail antiquated and/or bothersome. Leading us to wonder: How many among us feel fear or anxiety [...]
Jun 18, 2012 | Categories:Brainsnacks, Marketing, Technology, Trends | Tags: Android, Apple, cellphone, cellphone trends, commerce, digital trends, Euro RSCG Worldwide PR, Facebook, Facebook Messenger, GPS, iPhone, Marian Salzman, oversharing, phone, phone trends, SEO, smart number, smartphone trends, SMS trends, talking on phone, telephobia | Leave A Comment »
Many of you reading this have worked in marketing, advertising or PR and have made a lifelong career out of building brands and selling products in many categories. But have you ever taken the time to think of what you have to offer the world as a product? Maybe it’s your ability to write great [...]
Jun 13, 2012 | Categories:Advertising, Brands, Features, Marketing, PR, Social Media, Technology, Trends | Tags: adland, Advertising, Advertising Age, Apple, Brand Me, freelancing, linchpins, Marketing, personal brand, Pinterest, polyglots, PR, public relations, self-curation, Seth Godin | Leave A Comment »
What can we learn from people who have created a brilliant Brand Me? In today’s highly curated world of social networking, it’s more important than ever to let your personal brand beacon hit new heights. Your brand can incorporate everything from the hobbies you pursue in off-hours (as if that exists with the always-on, 24/7/365 [...]
Jun 04, 2012 | Categories:Brands, Fashion, Features, Insights, Marketing, Social Media, Technology | Tags: ambition, Apple, Bethenny Frankel, blog, blogosphere, Brand Me, Brands, business, C-suite, CEO, confidence, creativity, customer service, Dunkin' Donuts, Erika Napoletano, fearlessness, good, good taste, innovation, Internet, Lauren Bush, LeBron James, LinkExchange, Marketing, Microsoft, Nike, personal brand, planning, Ralph Lauren, RedheadWriting, Richard Branson, SapientNitro, Skinnygirl, Social Media, Steve Jobs, Tony Hsieh, Virgin Atlantic, Zappos | Leave A Comment »
Google co-founder Larry Page is reportedly “obsessed” with Facebook, even “paranoid” about it. Seeing the social network as Google’s No. 1 adversary, the recently reminted Google CEO rolled out Google+ last year and revamped Google’s privacy policy, all in the name of stealing some of Facebook’s thunder. But for each of Google’s successes, Facebook appears [...]
May 16, 2012 | Categories:Brainsnacks, Social Media, Technology, Trends | Tags: advertising trends, Apple, C-suite, CEO, Facebook, Google, Google Plus, Instagram, Larry Page, Mark Zuckerberg, smartphones, Social Media, Tagtile, Twitter | Leave A Comment »
When Jay-Z and Beyoncé sought in January to trademark the name of their new baby girl, Blue Ivy, a Boston woman who owns an event planning business by the same name promptly filed a competing trademark application. And when a New Jersey couple applied to trademark the name of their best-selling snack, Pretzel Crisps, Frito-Lay [...]
Mar 26, 2012 | Categories:Brainsnacks, Brands, Trends | Tags: App Store trademark, Apple, Beyoncé, Blue Ivy, Frito-Lay, Google age, iPad, Jay-Z, Jeremy Lin, Michael Jordan, Pink Sprinkles, Pretzel Crisps, Princeton Vanguard, Sprinkles Cupcakes, trademark, trademark dispute | Leave A Comment »
It’s official: “fairy-tale story” and “self-publishing” can now be used in the same sentence. Exhibit A: English author Kerry Wilkinson, 31, outperformed all other authors on Kindle in the final quarter of 2011 when he sold 250,000 copies of his debut detective novel. This and other success stories are prompting 2012 to be called the [...]
Mar 05, 2012 | Categories:Brainsnacks, Marketing, Technology, Trends | Tags: Amazon, Apple, author, e-book, e-publishing, iBooks Author, Inkling Habitat, Kerry Wilkinson, Kindle, Nook, publishing trends, self-publishing, writer | Leave A Comment »
All that end-of-the-year optimism about e-book sales got a hip check when a new study found that 74 percent of bookworms have yet to purchase an e-book, even though the number of book buyers who also purchased an e-book rose 17 percent in 2011. E-book popularity varies greatly by genre, accounting today for 26 percent [...]
Mar 01, 2012 | Categories:Brainsnacks, Technology, Trends | Tags: Android, Apple, author, book, digital, digital books, e-books, enhanced books, iPad, iPhone, Kindle Fire, Mac computer, power buyers, publishing, Samsung Galaxy Tab, tablet, technology trends, writer | Leave A Comment »
Think of a question, any question. We’re willing to bet that Apple’s much-hyped Siri feature will answer you in her sultry, mechanical voice. After all, “she” holds the answers to a billion burning questions. One technology trendspotter has proclaimed 2012 the year that Siri “stuns the world.” Already it’s done wonders for Apple’s sales, helping [...]
Feb 16, 2012 | Categories:Brainsnacks, Social Media, Technology | Tags: Android, Apple, digital personal assistant, Dragon Go!, Evi, iPad, iPhone, iPhone 4S, Siri, smartphones, Social Media, Steve Jobs, technology trends | Leave A Comment »
Whether you’re familiar with the term “creative class,” coined by American urban studies theorist Richard Florida, you know the group we’re talking about. See that lady at your local coffee shop hammering out the next great American novel or the fellow over there in the corner working his Photoshop voodoo on an Apple laptop? They’re [...]
Dec 09, 2011 | Categories:Brainsnacks, Media, Technology, Trends | Tags: Apple, coffee shop, creative class, cultural trends, job market, laptop, Music, publishing, Richard Florida, Technology, writers | Leave A Comment »
After laying low for a couple of decades, the turtleneck is out of its shell and back on the streets (and runways) Stroll into a J.Crew this season and you’ll find tables splayed with turtlenecks of every sort. It’s true: This wardrobe workhorse has been reinvited into high fashion’s inner circle. Not only did Michael [...]
Nov 11, 2011 | Categories:Brainsnacks | Tags: Apple, Derek Lam, fashion trends, J. Crew, Michael Kors, Rag and Bone, Ralph Lauren, St. Croix, Steve Jobs, turtlenecks | Leave A Comment »
[Originally posted on the Huffington Post.] Behold the velocity of change, where technology has enabled a Mach 11 approach to spreading and receiving information. And as an outcome of all this now-or-now business, the rumor mill is not only buzzing but also shouting down the lane. It’s not at all unlike the virus portrayed in [...]
Nov 01, 2011 | Categories:Brands, Features, PR, Social Media, Technology | Tags: Anthony Weiner, Apple, Ashton Kutcher, buzz, change, China, Demi Moore, Facebook, freedom of speech, hype, Internet, iPhone, Kodak, Los Angeles Times, McDonald's, Occupy Wall Street, PR, public relations, Sina Weibo, Social Media, TMZ, transparency, Vladimir Putin, Whole Foods | Leave A Comment »
Emoticon Marketing As emoticons pick up steam, more marketers—and even scholars—turn to them for sentiment analysis If you believe the New York Times, there’s been an explosion of emoticon usage in the email exchanges of the dourest of colleagues; if you believe Jezebel,
Oct 26, 2011 | Categories:Brainsnacks | Tags: Apple, communication, email, emoticons, JELL-O Pudding Mood Monitor, Marketing, marketing research, mood, mood research, social marketing, Social Media, text messages, texting, Twitter | Leave A Comment »
Pursed for Success With more gadgets than two pockets can hold, some affluent males are toting bags that look an awful lot like women’s purses Man bags have become more socially acceptable, but it’s still a sore subject. Maybe that’s why so many names have been assigned to the modern man’s bag: the duffle, the [...]
Oct 18, 2011 | Categories:Brainsnacks | Tags: Apple, Burberry, clothes, fashion trends, Gucci, handbags, iPad, laptop, Louis Vuitton, luxury trends, male fashion, man purse, murse, purse, smartphones, Technology, Terrence Howard, the duffle, the messenger, the portfolio case, the pouch, the satchel, the tote, Versace | Leave A Comment »
Originally posted on the Holmes Report. I’m not sure anyone could have predicted the madness—the sheer intensity of the late-summer romance between fast-fashion-hungry shoppers and Missoni’s line for Target. From Manhattan to Memphis, the blink-and-it-was-gone pop-up collection from the Italian luxury goods maker was a hit beyond Target’s wildest dreams—testing the mettle and resourcefulness of [...]
Sep 21, 2011 | Categories:Brands, Features, Marketing, Trends | Tags: Apple, brand partner, Chrysler, customers, designer, Fashion, Fiat, Italy, Jeep, Marketing, Maserati, McDonald's, Missoni, Nike, partnership, pop-up, retail, shopping, Target, transcendent brand | Leave A Comment »
Originally posted on the Holmes Report. Remember that Talking Heads song “Once in a Lifetime”? It could be the anthem for marketers today struggling to figure out what to do in this techy, techy world. Is the ad biz having the equivalent of a midlife crisis as it searches for ways to reach, retool and [...]
Sep 09, 2011 | Categories:Advertising, Features, Marketing, Social Media, Technology | Tags: Apple, Austin, Bill Cosby, BlackBerry, Cannes, digital, DVR, Facebook, iPhone, Jell-O, Mac, McKinsey, PC, Silicon Valley, smartphones, Social Media, Technology, tweets, Twitter | Leave A Comment »
Among all the news coverage about Steve Jobs stepping down as Apple CEO, the most interesting to me was Piers Morgan’s interview with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. Remember him? (Oh, heck, some of you weren’t even born!) Remember when you first heard the name Apple? Why on earth would someone name a company after a [...]
Aug 29, 2011 | Categories:B2B, Brands, Features, Insights, Technology | Tags: Apple, Piers Morgan, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak | Leave A Comment »
Originally posted on the Holmes Report. As 2012 draws closer and we begin to watch who is going to run against President Barack Obama, it’s interesting to think of all the candidates as brands. After all, nobody was better than Obama at doing a fully integrated marketing campaign, complete with social media and an iconic [...]
Jun 27, 2011 | Categories:Brands, Features, Marketing, Politics, PR, Social Media | Tags: abortion, Alaska, Apple, Barack Obama, branding, Brands, candidates, Cannes Lions, Chiat, Clow, consumers, David Plouffe, economy, Facebook, gay marriage, iPad, issues, Jonathan Salem Baskin, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Osama bin Laden, presidency, Rick Santorum, Sarah Palin, Shepard Fairey, slogan, Social Media, transparency, USA Today, values, voters, Weinergate, Yes We Can | Leave A Comment »
