Author View (Jon Ward)

There’s a spectacular seminar on branding and marketing running in the United States right now. It costs millions of dollars to stage with public classes across the nation, and it continues until November 4. You’ve guessed the seminar’s title: it’s the Presidential election. There are serious issues at stake, of course, and we don’t want to trivialize those. At the same time, who can miss the dimension of pure marketing? No one in business should ignore the daily lessons we are getting on building brands and winning customers, with instant market feedback from almost daily polls. Here are some of the topics covered more...

Contributing EditorBrands are for the big guys, right? Proctor & Gamble, General Motors, Starbucks, Gap, Trump. Wrong! If you have a business, you have a brand. If you have a career, you are the brand. Anyone out there in any market of any kind has a brand. It may be making you money, or losing you money, but your brand is there. So what exactly is a brand? Many people confuse branding with graphic design. I still have clients come to me saying, "Can you design us a brand?" They are asking for a logo, and my response is always what more...