"Business thinkers complain their creative types are too slow by business standards, inflexible, and way too cynical about the moneymaking goals of the company. And that’s usually not too far from the truth.

"Creative types lament that their bosses see everything they do as “just a billable deliverable”. Worse yet, clients agree with the boss! No one appreciates great design or beautiful code (yes, programmers are artists too).

"Artists fantasize about clients and bosses that “get it”. Business leaders want someone who will just “get it done”.

"Brand ownership is a balance. Creative, technical and even artistic results must be balanced with the relevance of day-to-day business demands."

Author, educator and art director/brand strategist, Robin Landa, spoke with some of the industry's top creative directors and compiled their best advise in a downloadable document available from Amazon.com for $0.49.

Here's a small slice:

Robin Landa: “What’s your philosophy about advertising?”

John Butler: “It has to be likeable. It has to inform and inspire. It has to have some emotional hook to it that makes consumers interact with it. It can’t talk down to the consumer. There’s a great quote—although I can’t remember who said it—but it’s hanging on my door: “He who writes the stories defines the culture.” I think that pretty much sums it up. We are given a voice, and we have to be responsible in how we use that voice.”

Butler, a partner in Sausalito's best agency, nails it in his succinct dissertation.

Olivier,

I have a customer who had the same problem. His patent ran out and the orient copied his product exactly (as a matter of fact the tooling was even a little better). And of course they were now much cheaper.

So we put all our efforts into building a relationship with the customer. We put a fresh new logo in position and embossed it into every product, so that the customer would recognize the difference. He put a lot of energy into making the product in a superior range of colours and configurations. Packaging was more engaging. He still keeps up this innovation and has build the brand on being the latest, setting the bar if you will. The brand is used by more professionals in it's market than the competition.

After about 4 years of struggle we are recognized by our target audience and they identify the product by it's brand name (not the old name). His market share is up each year over the last even thought the product costs "more" than the orient's version. Defeating the commodity has worked again by addressing the brand and finding a means to differentiate your products.

It is an on-going battle but we can win if we are true to the brand from every touch point and differentiate strategically.

Australian business magazine BRW has released its list of the Fast 100 - top Australian companies that are innovating their way to success. After pointing out that "problem-solving and constant curiosity are at the heart of innovation for fast-growing companies," BRW goes behind the scenes at 100 up-and-coming Australian companies that have made innovation a key component of their future growth plans. At the end of the article, BRW provides a handy innovation scorecard:

75% Of BRW Fast 100 companies say they have developed a unique product or service

20% Say revenue growth this year will come from new products and services

78% Personally champion innovation

75% Search the world for new ideas

93% Encourage employees to be creative and innovative

72% Are satisfied with the financial return on their investment in innovation

6. Play

“If it seems easy and fun, I’ll ask someone else to play.”

Having fun, sharing laughter, is a mark of a team of people that are sharing an experience. Fun is one of the strongest forms of social glue and if you’re not having fun, it’s going to be hard to consistently create fun experiences for others.

Adidas has shown a great sense of fun with its Adicolour range, a pair of white trainers that came complete with a paint palette, so that people could decorate them and create something special. The whole project was socialised online in the shape of a competition to find the best custom-job according to 60,000 public votes. Adidas took the winning entry and made 50 pairs—half of which were presented to the winner and half of which went on sale in NYC. The spirit of the product continued into the campaign featuring outdoor poster sites upon which people were invited to add their own graffiti.

"People like to congregate around objects, play with them and create their own meaning."


8. Work At It

“ If I’m going to be involved—you need to be involved.”

It’s important for brands to realise that participation is hard work, maybe harder work than traditional marketing. Brands that think they can just set up the forum and let their customers do all the work are going to be disappointed. Co-creation is not about someone else doing the job for you, it’s about working in a different way to get better, more fulfilling results.

"The hard core of customers will be way more enthusiastic than you are."

"If the market doesn’t know what’s good about you, you’re having to work too hard for too little return. You won’t change that overnight, but if you start now, in five years you’ll be far better off."

"Brand building is a six-step process that is part art and part science. (Company X) assists clients with building a successful brand foundation and works with them over time to help ensure that the branding “sticks.” As a brand partner, we can help a business transform itself into a branding success."

"Maybe a donkey is a mix between a pig and a bunny."

When you want to buy a new BBQ, whom do you ask? If you want to know which smartphone to buy, what blog do you read? And if you're looking for a school in which to enroll your child, whose advice do you seek?

Those people you're calling, emailing, or reading—they're special... the alpha crowd: They are influencers. Not just one person or type, influencers are many people who form a unique profile. Parts of that profile are common across the entire group of influencers, and many are specific to the category we're talking about. So, the school advice might come from the BBQ expert, but probably not.

In this Web 2.0 era of ready access to information everywhere, anytime, we've got a new class of people to whom business and marketing people can and should pay attention.

Those of you old enough to remember, there was a time when you couldn't Google up information to find out what the opinion makers and advocates were thinking. Amazon didn't exist, so we couldn't see what others worldwide thought of a book and learn of its sales ranking. Instead, we had to go to places like churches or synagogues, grocery stores and book clubs, and ultimately hang around with neighbors to find out what "the news" was.

That's because influencers were active, engaged members of local communities. They've always existed—opinion makers and opinion leaders. What's different now? Today they have a much bigger bullhorn available to them—it's called the Web. Where they once talked to 100 people in a month, they can now reach thousands or tens of thousands with a single click, comment, or ranking process.

(...) These alpha influencers are the key to other customers' awareness, consideration, preference, and purchase. They advocate, rank, sort, evaluate, and ultimately create marketplace adoption. They come in the form of users, developers, channel partners, and press people. Many PR people have thought of influencers as "their audience" or writers, but influencers are way more than analysts and writers. They are ultimately the tip of the market.

(...)Influencers are key conduits of information. (...) Influencers know many people and are in contact with hundreds, sometimes thousands, of people in the course of a week. They have a powerful multiplier effect, spreading the word quickly across a broad network when they find something they want others to know about. (...) Four in ten have a connection to a professional association. This is a sign of their restless intellectual interests. Influencers continuously take input from what they see, hear, read, and keep turning it over in their mind for new insights and ideas. They are sometimes entrepreneurs.

Influencers and alpha consumers are people who place importance on values: enduring love, knowledge, authenticity, stable personal relationships, learning, and freedom. When you can get them to pay attention to your offer/product/solution, you have the opportunity to shape the market.

You don't build anything worthwhile by copying other people. Yeah, sure, it may seem like the safe thing to do, but it isn't.

Bleh.

Welcome to the fabulous world of the "also in".

Welcome to the wonderful world of the "why bother".

Okay, sure, not every product needs to be extraordinary. Not every product needs to be unique. I guess you could set out to publish a magazine that's a lot like Newsweek or Men's Health or Fast Company... only more "average". You could set out to produce a movie that's a lot like Titanic or Sling Blade or Gladiator, but... you know... more "average". You could set out to copy Subway or Jersey Mike's or Quizno's and make a subway sandwich, but... just a little bit more bland. A little bit less special. A little bit cheaper too, while you're at it. I guess that would be swell.

To make up for the blandness, you could always pay an ad agency to try and pick up the slack for you and miraculously come up with a brilliant viral campaign that may or may not have people flocking to your stores.

Yep, you could do that.

I guess you could wake up one morning and decide that your work, the fruit of your labors, could be just... um... average. No more, no less. As long as your business makes money, who cares, right?

Forget the great American novel. Forget the Chrystler Building. Forget the iPod. Forget the Canon EOS 1D. Release your movies straight to video and your books directly to the bargain house. Tell your kids to shoot for a C+. It's okay. Average is good enough.

Instead of designing your own products, find cheaper ones already being manufactured by someone else and pass them off as your own. Hope that no one will notice. As long as the profits are good, why not? Yep, I guess you could convince yourself that it's okay to go that route.

It isn't like you need to actually think about where your company is going. It isn't like you need to give any thought to the relationship you have with your customers. What role you play in their world. Instead, you can just watch what your competitors are doing, and copy their every move. You can keep cutting corners. You can keep telling yourself that's the safe thing to do. The smart thing to do.

You can keep telling yourself that if you make your products cheaper, you will sell more of them. After all, that's how your competitors are stealing your customers, isn't it?

Or is it better design?

Or is it because their stores have red walls?

I forget.

Why be relevant, after all? Why be relevant when you can just play it safe and follow the leaders?

Hmmm.

Is that what we learned to do in business school? Is that what we learned about in History class? In English comp.? Is that the lesson we've learned from watching millions of hours of sports on TV? Succeed by waiting to see what someone else will do to see if it's safe to try it too?

Really?

Is that what a a CEO or a CMO is paid to do?

You don't have to answer that.

Not if you don't want to.

Instead, think fast and tell me how many skyscrapers there are in New York City.

(For the sake of expediency, let's just say that there are LOTS.)

How many of those skyscrapers can you actually name?

Only a handfull?

Why is that?

Of the thousands of companies you'll encounter in your lifetime, how many will you actually remember as being worthy of mention? Of having been a pleasure to deal with? A few dozen at most?

Why is that?

Of the tens of thousands of people you will meet in your lifetime, how many will you end up being truly impressed by? How many will you come to count as friends?

Again, why is that?

What does that tell you about average?

What does that tell you about the value of average?

Consider a few names: Starbucks. Target. BMW. Apple. Pixar. Ben & Jerry. Kenneth Cole. Nike.

What is it about these brands that makes them so special?

Is it their ability to crunch numbers? Nope.

is it their ability to copy the guys who came before them? (Um... who would that be?)

Are their products the best in the world? Again, no.

Reality check: Most of your local coffee bars make much better coffee than Starbucks. Target's clothes are no better than old Navy's. BMW arguably isn't Porsche. Apple is nowhere near Microsoft's sales. Pixar doesn't always hit the mark. Haagen-Dazs makes the best Rum Raisin ice cream and Mayfield is pretty awesome too. DKNY, Express Men and Banana Republic give Kenneth Cole a run for his money. Most serious runners wear Mizuno, Asics or new Balance on their feet, not Nike.

So what is it?

Is it their ability to stand out? Sure, but that's only a symptom of their success.

What's key is their ability to a) create something special that their customers won't be able to find anywhere else, and b) do it over and over again.

That's the promise of these brands.

When you buy me, I promise that...

You will look hip.

You will sleep better.

You will save time.

You will smell fantastic.

Your cold symptoms will vanish.

You won't have to worry about quality.

Without a promise, a brand isn't a brand. It's just a mark.

There is no such thing as an "also in" brand.

Okay, now that you've read it, say it.

Really. Say it outloud:

"There is no such thing as an also in brand."

Very good.

When you're an "also in," what is your promise? What is your purpose?

"We're kind of like Subway."

"We're kind of like Power Bar."

"We're kind of like CNN."

Think about it.

I don't care if you're a mechanic or a graphic designer, a chain of dry-cleaners or a rental car service. If you aren't there for a reason (other than just making money), you're doomed. It may not be today or tomorrow or next week, but someone with a purpose will come along to eat you up. A real brand. A real business.

It's just a matter of time.

If you're going to be a mechanic, be the best damn mechanic in your zip code. Or the most honest. Or the friendliest.

If you're going to design logos and layouts for clients, be the edgiest in your field. Or the fastest. Or the most pleasant to work with.

If you're going to open up a dry-cleaning business, either offer the best quality pressing or the fastest turnaround. Make drop-offs and pickups velvet-smooth. Make your customers want to come back and recommend you to their friends.

I could talk to you about the role that pride plays in building a brand, but I'll save that for another day.

The point is that being an "also in" company doesn't cut it. Not if you want to grow. Not if you want your company to go anywhere.

Not if you want to survive.

Copying other companies isn't a strategy, it's a death sentence.

Word to the wise: Don't be a follower. There's no safety in being second.

Thin-slicing refers to the ability of our unconscious to find patterns in situations and behavior based on very narrow slices of experience. The goal of this meme is to get all of us to slow down this process to actually see some of the patterns we recognize long before we consciously know we see them. Caution: Remember the Warren Harding Error – some of what we think we see isn’t really there!

1. Does anyone care about this place? The moment I walk into an office, a retail store or a manufacturing plant I’m looking for evidence that people there “give a damn”. For me that means the place is clean, in good repair, and is presentable. “Presentable” probably comes from my formative years when I was often asked just before leaving the house, “Do you think you look presentable?”

2. Are there thinkers here? I value thinkers, readers and articulate people. Are there books and magazines around? Do they looked used or are they just for show? I seldom see any books in client offices so I’ve come to grips with the fact that reading is not considered work. However, I still look for some tiny evidence that people read and think.

3. Is this a place where creative ideas are welcome? There’s just “something” about a place that tells me new ideas and creative thinkers are welcome. Sometimes it’s suggested by the décor of the business. But even with plenty of “fun” in the decoration, at times, I still “feel” they are just a bunch of “stiffs”. I’m always thin-slicing for a left-brain dominated work space.

4. Are these people paying attention to me? This one doesn’t take a lot of slowing down for me to recognize - I am acutely tuned into it. Reception areas, phone calls, greetings, and eye contact all get factored in a nanosecond.

5. Are these “owners”? I always look for an ownership attitude. Do they act like owners or simply hired hands? Owners want me to take the tour of their plant, see their new offices, admire their latest project. I can smell ownership a mile a way.

These days, with everybody out to prove how "old school" they are via t-shirts, game controller buckles, game cart collections and even Mario score comparisons (sorry guys, but CliffyB beats you all, sez Nintendo Power), it can be hard to stick out of the crowd -- until now. From the very kids responsible for the brash commercialism behind the NES Buckle, comes the NES Advantage Belt Buckle, which brings a bit of arcade nostalgia to the front of your pants. Honestly, we never found the controller to be much of an Advantage at all, unless you count those isolated incidents where it was wielded as a weapon against a particularly sucky Contra companion -- not that that ever happened, of course -- but there's no arguing with the look here, and you really never know when you and a couple turbo buttons will be needed to wield control over the Statue of Liberty. The buckle is available now for $50.

Tunebuckle. We've seen all manner of gadgety belt buckles, and we've seen plenty of iPod cases in our day (four or five at least), but man oh man were we waiting for the day when the two would be come one superfluous accessory and send us into the Second AgeTM. Just how much will the genre defining "Tunebuckle" set you back? $50 smackers, and it comes equipped with either a white or black to belt to match, or compliment, your iPod nano's shade. We're not even going to call these guys out on their "Waist Management" tagline because in the Second AgeTM there will be no player haters.

Ah, watches: the original gadget. Sometimes we just don't want a SPOT watch or a Fossil/Palm Wrist PDA, sometimes we just want a little something classy that'll tell us the time straight up and maybe look good while we're holding a martini. And some wood inlays, and analog moving parts and such? Don't think twice about that namesake, though, the Nixon Rotolog's still tastefully modern enough to win over the coveted Engadget seal of We'd-Wear-It-Out approval, right next to the LED belt buckle and to a lesser extent, the Bling-Bling Medallion.