Brands are people first. Customers are people too, so customers tend to take their relationship with a brand personally. Therefore, it’s not a surprise that people praise their favorite smartphone brand, cringe over the thought of their cable company or even hate the mention of a particular bank. Startups, as well as every existing business, […]
Brand
Inside Kate Spade’s Secret Sauce of Success
Deborah Lloyd, chief creative officer of Kate Spade New York, joined Pavan Bahl, Marc Raco and Liz Bacelar on location at the Fashion, Culture and Design UNCONFERENCE in New York City Start With a Great Team Llyod’s job in Kate Spade is to “touch” everything a customer sees and to tell compelling stories across all the channels and platforms. Even before social media marketing […]
There’s ROI in Social Media: But It’s Much More Complicated Than That
On the desk of SMC’s analytics expert, James Dalton, sits a piece of paper. Printed on it is a quote that’s familiar to most of us in marketing and advertising: “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.” Setting aside the debate about who actually said […]
Direct-To-Consumer Distribution Cuts Overhead and Bullshit
A direct-to-consumer distribution model may offer your company an extremely successful business strategy. Read this article to learn more.
This NYC Startup Has an Idea That’s Tailor Made for SMBs
Ok, do you need a logo, and you don’t have the budget to hire a design firm. What small to medium size business, or startup just starting out, does? That’s where Tailor comes in, democratizing design through technology. Actually, through a powerful algorithm that analyzes your brand’s/company’s most important asset – its name – and […]
How to Build a New Startup in 5 Easy Steps
When I walked away from my startup in late April of 2013, I had reached a major crossroads. More than two years of my life had been invested into Habidy.com, a struggling social media company. I was in a place where many entrepreneurs had been before me: zero business prospects, zero income and a bucket […]
Most Top Brands Don’t Engage With Their Twitter Followers But You Should
A few weeks ago, Adrian wrote a post about engagement and social media. In it, he argued that the term “engagement” is a bit of a misnomer in social media; many brands wrongly assume that engagement means success, and accordingly that a lack of engagement means failure. And I agree–engagement is often a poor indicator […]
Social Media + Brand Awareness 101
Membership on social media has its perks. Of course, it’s not too hard to become a member–many people have. But when utilized correctly, the social media community can be an incredible group to have at your disposal. There are a lot of ways to use social media, but in terms of harnessing the sheer power […]
4 Startup Trends You Shouldn’t Follow
One of the most amusing and harmful trends in startup culture today is the redundancy of styling, branding and design. With so much regurgitation, it looks like most startups came out of the same plaid-wearing design firm. Even the videos all have similar hipster spokespeople, bouncy music and minimalist design. I am beginning to wonder whether […]
Connecting the Unexpected
This year’s PSFK conference, “Connecting the Unexpected,” was a gathering of creative thinkers, media strategists and young innovators. The major themes my mind gravitated towards: consulting with brands on digital innovation (as founder and CEO of mkThinkTank); physical/digital connectivity; crowdsourcing as a method of innovation; and the complex impact of digital content. The world around […]
Facebook Showdown- Impressions vs. Likes
Many brands get on social media expecting to create a Facebook page, post for a few weeks, and then suddenly have thousands of followers. But unless your product is on Shark Tank and goes viral, or you already have tens of thousands of fans lined up waiting for you to start a Facebook page–both of […]