Strong Leaders make a Weak Showing

With all the finger pointing that’s going on now across the aisle and up and down the Mall in Washington, let’s not forget to ask our business leaders where they were before things got this bad.

What strong leader decided not to ship jobs overseas? Are they the same ones who received the tax benefits because they were supposed to be creating new jobs? (Oh, you wanted to create the jobs in the USA?)

What leader said “no, there’s something wrong with giving this person a mortgage they can’t afford.”? Instead they took the easy route not once, but many times. The last being with their hands out and taking money from a government that couldn’t afford to hand it out. Childish behavior is for children, not strong leaders.

What leader has the strength to say to his stockholders and shareholders “well, if we have more cash now because we’ve been asking our workforce to do more with less, then let’s use it to start something new and hire from within the community.”

It’s easy to be hyper critical of leaders who don’t lead, but now that we’ve been put to shame in front of the whole world, those leaders who’ve been hiding can come out now and take some of the blame.

Tunneling Your Way to a New Brand

As CEO, you see your brand like almost no one else. You see it all; the way it is now, the progress from the past and the path it needs to follow to meet your vision. It’s good to be up high. Ask a pilot.

Now think about your staff and your employees. How do you think they see the brand? Not like you, we know that. They see it as if they’re looking through a tube. Their brand vision is tunnel-vision. They can’t see past the next project or beyond the walls of their cubicle.

Depending on their role in the company, they may not even know what new initiatives are under way or that IT is rolling out a new program. And in a way it doesn’t matter because they don’t need to know until they need to know. But what does matter is that they understand why new things are happened and how they can help.

Removing the tunnel vision that plagues your employees and they’ll have a greater sense of belonging, ownership and empowerment.

If you need internal branding, ask @BurningBushman to light the fire.

Teeing Up Your Brand – Use Your CEO Vision and Stripe It

CEO vision is integral to your corporate branding. But let’s not talk brand strategy and branding here. Let’s go golfing.

Here we are on the first tee box at the club or your favorite course. Depending on how things are going, you’re either here a lot or a little. Either way, your time management skills have brought you here to tee it up with the fellas. This is one of life’s great joys. You’re starting with a clean card. No bogies, no doubles, no triples and no snowmen. You are about to create your own future and it starts right here on #1.

So what’s your pre-shot routine? Strategic thinking requires one. You’re not just going to put the ball in the ground and swing away, are you? No. If you listen to TV commentators and have read any golf tips, you need to stand behind the ball and picture it flying to a landing area. It’s called pretending and we all should have developed this branding skill back in pre-kindergarten. You probably use it here, why not in a corporate setting?

So let’s leap to the office. CEO vision in the board room is the same CEO vision that’s required on the first tee. What is so fun about both is that they’re free, they’re not constrained by corporate identity or personal branding needs and there’s no limit to what it can do. They both can be anything you want, so why not dream big?

But there’s always trouble out there. Your corporate branding is always under attack from competitors internal and external. Every stroke you make is determined by the last one and will affect the next one. Being CEO magnifies your game.

In golf, trouble is a lake, a bunker, the rough or a line of blue spruces. They draw your vision to them and leave an impression in your mind. If you think “don’t hit it in the water”, you usually do. If you think stripe it down the fairway, you have a better chance of doing just that. Your intuitive mind is much more powerful and dependable than your thinking mind.

When your CEO vision leads to your strategic thinking which then needs to be translated into your corporate branding. Start with a clear mental picture of where you want your brand to land. Right in the middle of the fairway is just as easy, if not easier, to envision than a shot that has to slice, land and then roll some thirty yards behind a maple.

Strategic thinking on the tee box will help you navigate whatever challenge is in front of you. Bring your CEO vision to life and kick off your corporate branding the right way by combining your vision, corporate strategy and the power of a simple brand. Of course there will be doubters, even you will have some at #1 or just being #1 in the office. But give your CEO vision a chance. Share it with your branding team. Share it with your brand consultant. Share it with your spouse or even with the boys on the 19th hole. The more you share it, the more it comes to life and can become real.

Standing there on the brink of a corporate branding tee box, let your mind take you to the short grass to start. Put your CEO vision, your corporate branding and your personal branding into that vision. If you know you hit a soft fade, account for it. Corporate branding is like a golf course and a golf game. It is a long road, there are many hazards to avoid in the journey, and even the best ones get caught up in them once in a while. Your strategic thinking will allow you to see the whole course, your personal brand will allow you to play it the way you like and in the end, your brand will be exactly what you allow it to be, so let it be great.

Stiff as a Board – the visionary’s ultimate challenge

Once upon a time, this past Monday, there was a board meeting at a non-profit organization where one of my closest friends is in charge. He’s not the Executive Director, but he runs the place. He has a better vision of the future than the newly appointed ED. The board was assembled in person and on the phone to hear their new brand and, ultimately, give their approval. I’m an optimist.

The organization is in deep financial trouble. The Treasurer’s report preceded my time, so that reality really should have been top of mind for them. I won’t go into the details, but part of what branding does, and I do, is to reveal the differentiating factor that a business, struggling or not, non-profit of for-profit, needs to discover and exploit to make some noise out there. In their case, to give the donors a reason to write checks.

And there it was, a real beauty. Organic, defensible and sustainable. Branding success was a board meeting away. Then the Troll spoke up. “That’s not who we are, that’s not all we do.” The Troll was there to collect its attention and ignorance.

“Troll”, I said, “Troll, what you’re saying is that you want to keep doing the same thing, and the same thing will yield the same results.” Troll was not moved. Troll was on a roll.

There will be more meetings and another board review of where this limping organization will go, but to overcome the Troll next time, here’s two thing I’ve learned for next time:

Never try to present a new brand when it is only rating a line- item on the day’s agenda. It needs to be a priority.

Since the Board is not the expert nor the visionary for the organization, nor are they marketing experts, take advantage of those weaknesses. Increase their own fears and inclinations to doubt themselves with one simple sentence uttered early on: “I can tell by your answers to the survey questions, that some of you get it, and some don’t yet.”

Killing all Trolls is not the goal. Trolls are needed, but all need to be defeated.

Great Leaders Make Great Brands

You know how they say that dogs sometimes look like their owners? Same thing is true about branding. Branding starts at the top, and the best thing a new CEO can bring to the branding table is a strong personality. One that is easily read and understood so that those underneath him can assume the same identity.

I have yet to see a chief executive’s personal brand not reflected in their brand management, branding strategy, or corporate vision. When he or she is seen and felt in the brand, you have a strong brand, good or bad. When the CEO doesn’t drive branding, it hurts all over and you can see it. There are of course exceptions. If you know of any, let discuss.

Great leaders make great brands because of strength of character and vision, plus the conviction to see it through. It start with their personal brand which infuses into their employees and migrate out to the public.

Strategic branding is the summary of the business goals laid down by the strategic planning committee, the CEO and the Board and more. These players will have a major impact on the brand, the mission and the vision, and each in their own way. As Chief Executive, your mere presence in these rooms at meeting times is where your leadership skills are needed for the brand’s sake.

Every person in every branding meeting has an agenda. It is up to the CEO to fly at the highest level in the room and look out for the brand from 40, 000 feet. See the whole battle field and don’t give up an inch of ground in your vision.

Let’s discuss
BurningBushBrands.com
dave@burningbushbrands.com

CEO Vision drives Top>Down Branding

While there may be a steering committee, a strategic direction committee and a marketing committee to all make happy, the one person Burning Bush makes happy is the CEO. Despite all the other layers of stakeholders in the branding process, the CEO is still the vision- giver.

Branding is funny in that it has to come from the top but then has to be built from the bottom. If the CEO doesn’t bring his or her A-game to the process, the folks who look up to that office for their leadership and paychecks just won’t buy in. CEO strength of vision is step on in any successful branding process.

The branding process is a joy to be a part of and behold, but if you as the CEO don’t drive it from the top, it won’t ever reach out and touch the masses – inside or outside the company.

Burning Bush to Rebrand Taco Bell

A recent Facebook promotion by Taco Bell proved three things:

Their food is so bad that they couldn’t give it away.
Second, this one social media promotion failed, giving the rest of us lessons in what not to do. I thank them.
Third, Taco Bell needs to rebrand.

Below is the original LinkedIN CMO Site blog by @MitchWagner that inspired my decision to rebrand Taco Bell. I will be rolling out the new brand, and the process that Burning Bush Brands uses along with it.

Stay tuned.

http://www.thecmosite.com/author.asp?doc_id=230667&cm_sp=Traffic%20Drive-_-Newsletter%20Clickthrough%20Newsletter-_-Content%20Link

Vision is Easy – Close your Eyes

If you’re a CEO and you wake up one morning and don’t recognize your own company, it’s time to rebrand. The first thing you’ll need is a vision of what you want to company to look like and how you want it to be different.

The hard part is actually coming up with that vision. So here’s a suggestion: close your eyes and allow yourself to drift and wander into a place you never thought the company could be. A new market, a new product, a new set of values. Dream big and bold my friend and great and wonderful things will come your way.

There’s a saying that goes: “be careful how you are born.” The beautiful part of that when is when it comes to branding, you can be reborn. You can rebrand and express a brand new vision at any time.

Burning Bush offers a brand consulting experience that is simple and powerful. Come with a vision and we’ll give it a voice.

Strategy Needs to be Simple. Like war.

As @burningbushman, working in the average everyday media world, I can’t help but notice that so many companies appear to complicate things beyond necessity. What I am finding that I am very good at is getting to the heart of the matter and then making it beat. While we’re on the subject, think about your heart. It does one thing: it pumps blood through your body. It doesn’t make it, make it better, doesn’t clean it, doesn’t add oxygen to it. It just does one thing and it does it pretty good. When it’s done, you’re done. That’s simple.

So the lesson is, like the headline, keep it strategically simple. KISS. Burning Bush Brands writes strategy plans that can be followed by a child, as long as that child works in either a small business or a multi-national conglomerate. The simplicity is deceiving, but branding is storytelling and if your story is interesting, it doesn’t need to have too many plot twists and turns.

Most war strategy goes like this: throw everything we got at dividing their line, encircle them, and finish them off. Might take four years, but anyone can remember it and make it work. Think about it. What’s your company’s branding and marketing strategy? I don’t know either. 🙂 BurningBush Brands can help you get one and stay on the path.

Can’t Make a Viral Video

I know, I know, I’m behind the times. I just now found out about “Will It Blend?” campaign. And there’s not much to be said about it. It’s a good idea, simple and it’s about the brand. That’s the bad news because now, all those clients who want a viral video will point to BlendTec and say, just like theirs please.

Can’t do it. Can’t make a viral video, so don’t ask, stop asking, stop thinking about it. The best that you can do is make a video and put it out there and hope it meets your goals. Blendtec’s goal was greater brand awareness. Their secondary goal was to provide some entertainment along the way. Absolutely the right way to approach social media. Their results are amazing. 700% increase in sales?! Wow. You can’t make a video that does that, even they didn’t make a video that does that. Think about it.