Branding Archives - Page 3 of 20

28Sep 2023 by Bob Cargill

Coach Prime – A Great Football Coach, A Great Personal Brand

Coach Prime. Great football player and baseball player back in the day. And now he's a great head college football coach at the University of Colorado Boulder. He's a great personal brand, too. He's not afraid to speak freely and frequently. He's always in the headlines, always on social media, always in the news, always on our minds. And because he's such a strong personal brand, his words carry weight. He has a huge impact on all of those around him. Me, you, all of us can be like Coach Prime. We just have to speak up, put ourselves in front of the camera, share our knowledge and expertise with our followers and fans, and be conspicuous in our presence whatever we do, wherever we go. That's how to be…

28Aug 2023 by Bob Cargill

The Importance of Having a Strong Personal Brand

Boston, Branding, Marketing, Social Media

My wife, Barbara, asked me recently why it was so important to have a strong personal brand on social media. Among other things, I told her that you can't be in front of people in real life, IRL, all the time, but you can be in front of them and heard by them almost all the time on #socialmedia. So you want to share content online on a steady, continuous basis that is a positive, accurate reflection of who you are as both a professional and a human being. I had a lot more to say about the topic, of course. Here's my answer to Barbara's question in its entirety...

15May 2023 by Bob Cargill

Ridiculously Awesome Branding by Northeastern University

Boston, Branding, Marketing

Meandering around campus at Northeastern University in Boston recently, I noticed the paw prints of the school's mascot, Paws, painted along the walkway, which made perfect sense to me. After all, the Husky is the school's official mascot and nickname. But I have to admit, I was impressed by the lengths that the school went to in putting those prints on the ground. That is branding at its absolute finest, make-believe paw prints as if the school's mascot had come to life and was actually making its way around campus with students, faculty, administrators and others. How can your business, organization or institution leave tracks so that members of your audience can't help but be reminded of your presence wherever they go? Online or in the real world (IRL), what…

25Mar 2023 by Bob Cargill

Getting Customers to Wear Your Brand

Boston, Branding, Marketing

Many professional hockey fans will wear their favorite team's jersey, especially when they attend a game, like the scene I saw the other night when I was walking around outside the TD Garden in Boston. All those Boston Bruins fans milling about wearing black and gold jerseys like the players themselves. Why? Well, as fans, they're proud to wear that jersey, to wear the black and gold. They want to feel that sense of belonging to a close-knit community, a community of loyal Bruins fans. And frankly, they know they look wicked cool wearing that jersey. Tough. Rugged. Again, like the players themselves. Okay. So you're not a professional hockey team, but you do have products and services to sell. How can you do what the Bruins do with their…

17Feb 2023 by Bob Cargill

Making It a Pleasure, Not a Pain, for Your Customers and Clients

Boston, Branding, Business, Communications, Customer Service

I was on the MBTA Commuter Rail Green Line recently heading home from work from Boston's Government Center station to Woodland in Newton. I've taken this route home, this train, the MBTA's Green Line, a lot, but never had I heard the driver of the train announcing the stops the way this particular driver was announcing them. She had a ridiculously awesome personality, a tone of voice that was making me feel like we were on a happy, celebratory tour of all the stops along the route of our luxury ride home, like those stops actually meant something to us as commuters about to call it a day. She wasn't reciting those stops in a listless, monotone voice like it was just another part of her job. Quite the contrary.…

24Sep 2022 by Bob Cargill

Carhartt: A Great Brand in More Ways Than One

Branding, Marketing

Workwear. Work clothes. Work gear. All of the above is what Carhartt makes. All of it is very high quality and very popular. Popular because it is so good-looking and long-lasting, but also because the brand itself is just so damn cool. I mean, I feel like I'm always seeing the logo somewhere on what people are wearing, from complete strangers on the street to the college students I teach to my own two sons. And now I'm proudly displaying it on a new hat I recently bought. Now I'm one of the cool kids. My point is this. Carhartt may say what they have to offer is for the tough and hard working among us, but I'm sure they know that their stuff is being bought for its looks…

03Sep 2022 by Bob Cargill

The Dairy Queen Brand Extension

Branding, Business, Marketing

My wife, Barbara, and I recently had lunch recently with my mom at the same Dairy Queen in Bellingham, Massachusetts that my family went to back in the day. Only now it is a Dairy Queen Grill & Chill, not just a place to get soft-serve ice cream, milk shakes and other frozen treats. Talk about a big brand extension. I mean, this company has been around since 1940 and has over 7,000 locations today. When I was a kid, we'd get whatever we wanted for our birthdays. That was awesome. This time around, we got whatever we wanted, too.🙂 And I thought it was great. And the service, too. We got cheeseburgers. No ice cream. Times have changed. We went there for a meal, not dessert. The consumer in…

13Aug 2022 by Bob Cargill

Attracting the Attention of your Audience

Advertising, Branding, Business, Marketing

If you don't attract the attention of your audience in advertising and marketing, you won't have any customers and clients. It's that simple. And in this day and age, it's more difficult than ever to stand out among the competition and clutter, to get people to notice what you have to offer them. However, I couldn't help but notice a truck recently that was conspicuously parked in the huge, empty parking lot along Sudbury Street outside of Mill & Main, the old, historic mill complex in Maynard. Bull Spit. That was the name on the truck. Bull Spit. Catchy name for a business. Right? Attention-getting to say the least. Both the double entendre of the name of this brewing company and the fact that this truck was so strategically parked…

28Jul 2022 by Bob Cargill

Be Like Kevin

Branding, Business, Marketing, Social Media

Kevin Cronin is the lead vocalist and front man for the ridiculously awesome rock band, REO Speedwagon. He's a great performer and a great guy. But that's not why I want to talk about him today. I want to talk about how great he is on social media. Brands, businesses, professionals, people...everybody likes listening to Kevin and his legendary band perform, right? But not everybody knows how much they can learn from Kevin about how to use Facebook, Twitter and the like. It was more than 40 years ago when I saw REO Speedwagon at the Boston Garden. They put on a spectacular live show then, as I am sure they still do today. Yes, they're still touring, and I would love to see them again in concert. But in…

Category: Branding