By any measure, the Burberry brand would be considered a global powerhouse. The British fashion house boasts strong international recognition and differentiating attributes that resonate across borders and age groups. Although it’s a 150+ year-old heritage brand, Burberry knows it’s more than the past. It’s about the way people feel. The company has been generating excitement and desirability-not to mention sales-by doing rare and exceptional things. Thus making its audience feel the same way.

By Interbrand’s brand metrics, Burberry’s value increased 20% over last year and jumped five rankings, moving up from 100 to 95 on the 2011 Best Global Brands table. Interbrand believes brand is an asset and like tangible corporate assets it can be valued. Its value is a combination of three measurements: Brand Strength (equity; the ability to secure future earnings by competing well in the marketplace); Role of Brand (how much the mark counts in the consumer’s purchase decision); and Economic Earnings (no explanation required).

However, if you’ve been watching Burberry’s remarkable performance for the last couple years, you probably don’t need a detailed analysis to see that Burberry rose in the league table by investing in and leveraging Role of Brand. The idea of Role of Brand is widely understood at a general level. The specifics of Role of Brand — how it is measured, how it is changed and how it is used in management — are less understood by brand watchers.

This is great video from Au Bon Pain describing where the brand is headed. We partnered with the bakery café to create an engaging and differentiating “marketplace” concept with a focus on giving the store more personality, distinction and improving the ease of shopping. Au Bon pain’s CEO, Sue Morelli describes the company’s focus on their three brand pillars and the importance of the environment and service to the brand experience.

The new concept gives the brand credit for the things that it does really well. We’ve created destinations for core competencies and we’ve made it easier for customers to navigate the experience, inviting them to buy more.

The new design is bright, welcoming and energized with color and comfort.Communication zones clarify the offer and enable customers to build their order with speed and convenience. The old pencil-and-paper sandwich ordering method is replaced with wireless devices. This new efficient system allows customers to maximize their dwell time in the space and explore the complete Au Bon Pain offering. New, deeper trays with handles enable customers to build their orders easily.

Working in the world of retail design and branding has completely ruined shopping and dining out for me because the service, something that we always preach to our clients as being one of the major keys to success, always falls short of what I know it could/should be. Nothing spoils a potentially great experience quicker than employees who don’t engage or even seem to care. And nothing makes for a better experience when a retailer gets it right!

When it comes to restaurants, specifically quick serve restaurants (QSR), I always hope for the best, but most of the time end up with poor customer service. I get that the business doesn’t exactly attract Harvard MBA’s, but that shouldn’t be the issue. The issue is how you, the brand manager, train and manage your employees about the interactions they have with your customers. It should be the central focus of how you run your business. It’s simple. Happy employees lead to happy customers, who come back to spend more money at your business. Ambivalent employees lead to customers who feel unappreciated, who will not come back and spend more money. Why doesn’t the idea catch on?

One QSR company that understands how this basic human dynamic works, and consistently delivers it every time is Chick-Fil-A. I never go inside Chick-Fil-A (just because I am too busy) I always use the drive thru. That means that my interactions with employees happen in about 20-30 second spurts, that are always more enjoyable than any other drive thru or dine in QSR experience I ever have.

The Store of the Future is there when my wife suggests one fine day (in a sweet and casual tone) that we should “update the floor tile in the bathroom.” It is there as I begin to visualize how the new bathroom will look. It is there when I have to pick out paint, fixtures, cabinets, countertops, shower doors and oh yeah, tile. More importantly, it is there long before I have to decide where to shop for these products for my now full-scale bathroom renovation.

The Store of the Future is a convergence of technology and possibility that materializes exactly when you need it.

Today we live in a world of consumer co-creation. Retailers can’t wait till the shopper hits the store to see what’s available. It is now all about being there at the moment the consumer realizes a need, and shepherding them along an adaptive path to the store, all while keeping the wolves from luring the them off into the forest of competing brands. Today, more than ever, retailers need to find creative ways to keep shoppers—even their brand loyalists—engaged all the way through the transactional process. That is the power and the risk of digital touchpoints in retailing.

If retailers are willing and able, they can invest in effective digitally-based methods for reaching further into the shopper’s path to purchase, closer to that decision point of “should I or shouldn’t I?” and influence the decision to buy. Keep in mind, however, that it’s the brand strategy behind the digital touchpoints that will drive more transactional traffic—not the digital tools themselves.

Is any publicity good publicity? This week, the soft drink industry is putting this to the test.

With broadly covered news stories linking diet soft drinks to increase risk of stroke, and now cancer concerns over caramel coloring used in colas, many see the soft drink industry in need of damage control.

The timing of these news stories, right after the perennial Super Bowl adfest from Coca-Cola and the leak of Coca-Cola’s top secret formula, almost seems calculated for maximum effect on the public’s psyche. But will this news actually lower consumption and hurt these giant brands? I doubt it. Scary stories about how our favorite foods are our worst enemies have become part of our culture (see Woody Allen’s 1973 film, Sleeper, for a contrarian view of a future where junk food has been discovered to be healthy).

As far as damage control, don’t expect anything overt from Coke or Pepsi. Whether the claims add up to a true health risk or just another study for the ages, the stroke and cancer claims do not create immediate telegenic victims with smoking gun perpetrators.

It continues to amaze me. Every morning when I get my daily Groupon—no matter what brand the deal is for—every offer sounds exactly the same. Even when the offer is upscale, like custom tailoring or fine dining, its description is written in nearly unintelligible dude-speak. There is no alignment between the marketing piece (the coupon) and the brand that is being offered.

Why are retailers big and small so willing to give up control of their brand? Especially to a company that doesn’t take their client’s brand images into consideration. Some would argue that these deep discounts are harmful to brands, training consumers to expect the kinds of deals that eat into a retailer’s margins. I think the strategy is sound, but it’s the message and tone that are off.

In light of the recent Groupon Super Bowl ad fiasco it seems that this callousness might run even deeper. I wouldn’t be surprised to see significant pullback from Groupon. At least until the company figures out how to present its clients in their best light.

How many brides are eager to be ironic? We will soon find out as Urban Outfitters launches its new line of wedding dresses next week on Valentine’s day. Urban is planning on selling unique “heirloom” style dresses starting online and eventually in stores. The mass produced yet vintage style gowns will be priced between $1,000 and $4,000.

For a brand that has built itself on ironic and often irreverent merchandise I would expect to see dresses that mocked tradition. One might feature a silk-screened slogan of sorts and another would be perma-paired with polka-dot leggings, but this is not the case. These gowns don’t look like Urban Outfitters, most likely because they are designed by the more refined, yet bohemian Urban brand Anthropologie.
Wait…so…if Anthropologie designed them (and it’s obvious) why are they being sold under the Urban Outfitters brand?

Even if brides-to-be can see past the obvious disconnect, Urban may still be a long way from sealing the deal. Remember, this isn’t an everyday transaction. This isn’t the perfect dress – it’s the dress. Women have been thinking about this one dress for most of their lives and the process is just as important as the final product. Buying a dress online may work for the bride who isn’t interested in taking her closest gals out for a day of fittings and personalized service, but for those that are, how will Urban deliver? However, offering the wedding line in stores may only add to the problem. Will a wedding dress feel special when it’s merchandised near an “I survived spring break” tank top? How will it look in the fitting room with the other girls and boys in their skinny jeans?

Put your customer first. Period!

I’ve never been a big consumer of sweet carbonated drinks. We didn’t keep any at our house, because it’s not that healthy. But something happened last year that changed all that. PEPSI THROWBACK! Not only is it healthier for the planet because it isn’t made with high fructose corn syrup, the fact that it’s made with real sugar makes it taste better.

Pepsi Throwback was initially available as a limited time offer product, so whenever we could find some we would stock up like we were trying to fill a bomb shelter. Well, pretty soon it was discontinued and we were left without our beloved PT.

What’s crazy is that for me to switch to and then seek out Pepsi is a BIG DEAL. My whole life I have only ever purchased Coca-Cola. And then Pepsi discontinues it! Why would the company mess with a strategy that got me to switch/commit to their product? Isn’t that the holy grail?

Recently, I saw an online series called Jack and Suzy Welch’s “It’s Everybody’s Business.” It’s a series of business webisodes that brings together Jack Welch (former CEO of GE) and his business-book author wife with top executives of companies to solve a certain business issue the company is struggling with. In one episode, the Welch’s met with Pepsi, to discuss how to rejuvenate growth in a declining category (soda). The company explained that Pepsi Throwback was a huge success compared to other product launches, but was discontinued. When Jack asked, very plainly, “If it was such a success, why isn’t it a part of the regular product line?” he got a series of excuses around supply chain and money. His reaction to this “forest for the trees” thinking was, “Figure out how to make it happen. It’s clearly what your consumers want!”

An ad that seems to be making ripples around the water cooler recently is the new Nissan Leaf ad that ends with the Leaf owner hugging a polar bear. The first time I saw it, I thought, “Ugh, cliché.”

But after seeing it a few more times it really has struck me, and I think others too, as a powerful and effective advertisement. What makes it so powerful?

I don’t think it’s the obvious, cliché, preachy, environmentalist message. Sure, that aspect has an impact, and as an “idea on a napkin” it’s cute. But if the ad were just that, a polar bear hugging a Leaf owner, I think it would be unremarkable.

Rather, I think what makes this ad such a powerful one is the subtle storytelling and extra moments of silence and set-up at the beginning of the piece. The carefully crafted and lonely vignettes of the polar bear exploring the unfamiliar urban landscape is a situation all too familiar to so many of us today. We have all found ourselves at one time or another aimlessly wondering about in an unfamiliar place, feeling like a tiny spec of dust floating on the breeze blowing through time. This anthropomorphic projection of loneliness and doubt we give to the polar bear provides a powerful empathetic connection and relationship to the bear as a character.

It’s this subtle novella like arc of the story that makes this otherwise cliché idea for an ad, a true winner.

Aesthetics aside…My gut thought is that this is a very strategic move akin to what Apple did a couple years ago when they removed the word “computers” from their name, wanting to be more broadly know as a tech brand and not just a computer company. With Starbucks offering more and more food options, a new wine and cheese concept and trying to get more of our different day-part bucks, I think the logo move is a smart one. They already have awareness of their mark (green circular object on a white field) and also the white cup with a brown holder around it…so why not take a page from Apple’s book but go one step further.

I suspect this will have very little affect on the coffee chugging public, as long as they get their iconic white cup with a brown holder (that’s Starbucks REAL identity if you ask me).

It will be interesting to see if Kohl’s will have a better holiday season than their competitors this year. Their chosen message is not great price. They are making their liberal return policy a point of difference. In a world of deals, low price guarantees, extended hours, layaway and other value claims, is it risky making return policy your trump card?

Likewise, Best Buy is making “product support available Christmas Day” its headline. Both of these brands seek to humanize themselves by showing a more empathetic side to retail.

I’m sure I will still be bombarded with deals from these guys via direct mail and Sunday inserts, but I find it interesting that they are investing national media dollars in non-price messages. Like four-wheel drive in New York City, both retailers are touting benefits we hope we don’t have to use, but will make us feel more empowered when we do have to make a return or call tech support to help us with our gift giving when we stumble.

U.S. brands have very little time to gear up for the branding opportunity of a lifetime—the 2012 U.S. Grand Prix in Austin, Texas. It’s been absent from the Formula 1 tour since 2007, and it could be the MOST important single sporting event for American brands in a long time.

Of course, does America really care about F1? Statistics show that motorsports in general are losing favor with Americans. Heck, even NASCAR is losing eyeballs. But the global scale of this single event will still get a massive amount of coverage in its first year.

The international flavor and cultural exchange taking place in Austin will be a huge opportunity for brands looking to break into or ratchet up their international presence. This isn’t just about America, it’s the entire go-fast planet focused on us.

For American technology firms whose focus is hi tech things that go fast, like computer processors, cell phones, cable and internet providers, ISPs, and search engines etc. etc. the Grand Prix is an opportunity to make a statement to the world. Americans are always harping about being leaders in the technology fields, but as brands we balk at the opportunity to stand at the starting line and support a sport always on the bleeding edge of technological innovation.

Sunday mornings usually find me sitting on the sofa with the Sunday paper, digging into my favorite section—the ads. While most people throw them away without even looking at them, I eagerly page through the paper with baited breath in search of ads and coupons. Seeing all the great deals is the motivation I need to start my weekend shopping.

Like most people, I clip out the coupons with good intention of using them, but usually end up forgetting them at home or in my purse. Nonetheless, I really like to see what’s new. While flipping through the coupons last Sunday, I was a bit surprised to see this Campbell’s Soup ad:

As soon as I spotted the phrase “Browse our 4 easy segments” I recognized the fingerprints of a brand manager—the word “segments” gave them away. Farther down the ad you see how they break out the segments into “healthy kids,” “classic favorites,” etc. This ad is a perfect example of how we understand our shopper, but it takes things too far.

When asked for my favorite brand, I am always quick to respond with Nordstrom. In my mind they achieve highest honors on my list of favorite shopping venues. I have several reasons for loving them so much (and driving over an hour to get to the nearest one).

The sales associates are not only helpful in locating items, and friendly when checking out, but they are thoughtful – they provide new ideas and bring items you haven’t seen to your attention. The stores are well organized and easy to shop – fixtures are typically spaced well enough apart to allow for viewing of all the product, the product itself is organized into meaningful departments and sub-groupings, and the fixtures are not so overstuffed that you can easily pull out and replace items you are considering.

And unlike some of its luxury department store competitors, it’s not so elitist feeling that you’d be ashamed to walk in wearing jeans and a t-shirt on, a non-designer handbag on your arm. In general, the brand makes you feel like you deserve to shop this way, that you are a treasured customer and guest.

So given all this, imagine my shock and horror when the Nordstrom brand promise that is so clear and well articulated in their stores came crashing down when I entered a Nordstrom Rack. To be fair, I didn’t expect it to be the same level of polish, finish or service, but I did expect it to deliver against the familiar organization and level of quality that the products it sells deserves. Instead I was greeted by a flea market environment punctuated by product strewn all over the floor and on top of fixtures, barely enough room to walk between rounders, and an overwhelming desire to run from the space that felt like nothing better than a “last stop outlet where clothes go to die.”

There was little hope of finding a good deal unless you were willing to commit hours to the task of searching. Any warm and fuzzy feeling I had about Nordstrom itself and what it could offer me, was destroyed in the 95 seconds I could tolerate being in the place.

The more CPG client workshops I attend, the more aware I become of the tension that exists between protecting or gaining distribution versus managing the brand experience in retail. It is the classic tension between delayed versus instant gratification. But are they really separate issues?

Few manufacturers have the cachet to successfully demand that their retail partners afford them carte blanche to create in-store experiences around their brand. In fact, most retailers are becoming more assertive with their own control of the store experience and merchandising standards.

The reality is that distribution choices will always impact a company’s brand, and even impact or influence the success of product innovations meant to move the brand forward. I am more convinced now than ever that your brand and marketing challenges will be determined by where you choose to sell a product and who makes up the competitive set in that environment. For example, does private label dilute your name brand benefits and equities?

Confession time: I find myself fascinated by the recent trend of social shopping websites, in particular Gilt Groupe, an “invitation only” online retailer that offers daily sales on limited quantities of high end fashion items at deeply discounted prices.

When the clock strikes noon, shoppers can put an item in their carts (if they are lucky enough to get it before selling out—a common occurrence by 12:05PM). Once in the cart, the item is reserved for 10 minutes. If the item is not purchased within that time frame, it goes back into the general market to be snatched up by a more determined buyer.

There is no time for “do I really need this?” contemplation—the goal first and foremost is to get the item in the cart, hoping that the 10 minute hold time is enough to make an informed decision. Gilt even encourages multiple transactions by waiving the shipping charge for additional items purchased within the hour.

I have gotten caught up in the hype. I’d like to think that knowing what levers a retailer is pulling to get me to buy (scarcity, immediacy, peer pressure, etc.) makes me savvier and therefore less inclined to make an impulse purchase. But in this case evidence has not borne that out.

While our annual 2010 State of the Retail Industry report delineates the challenge for retail brought about by consumer behavior changes in reaction to the great recession and the rapid adaption of mobile technology—many of those challenges will take several years to address. To find seven things that retailers can do right now, we asked our experts.

Scott Jeffrey, Chief Creative Officer

Push for differentiation. There is no time to rest on your laurels. Realize that innovation isn’t a stage, it’s an ingrained brand behavior. In fact, stop thinking of innovation as a “next step” all together–”step” as in a phase of something that stops and starts, or merely cycles through.

My ideal retail brand would be one that never completes a store design prototype. The “never done” mentality is always asking, “What else? What else can we do to make it better?” That type of thinking requires courage. Belief in the importance of change. Granted, not every one of your new ideas will be a game changer, but once you entertain doubt and back off, you pretty much lose momentum. Particularly now, when the customer expectations are so far ahead of what most retailers are delivering in terms of the brand experience.

The minute you rest on your laurels and let your brand and your stores get outdated, you have a really big, hardest-to-do maneuver on your hands: a turnaround. If you have a fleet of any size, you’re in danger of being too big and too rigid to manage a turnaround. But if you’re a constant seeker, a brand that remains loose and nimble, the maneuvers are much smaller and easier to manage. Your creative adjustments and transitions will be happening all the time. Knock down any silos in your way and get to that mindset as soon as you can.

Bill Chidley, Senior Vice President, Shopper Sciences

Consumers’ rapid adoption of the smartphone means it’s time to start thinking about connecting and communicating through that little screen. To make the most of the opportunity to drive demand, mobile optimization should be a top priority for your brand. It’s all about being in the game. Don’t try to justify mobile initiatives with ROI. Move forward with a reasonable hypothesis and prepare to learn and adapt.

Don Rethman, Senior Vice President, Architecture

Consider doing a site survey. Do your shoppers expect to share their shopping experience instantly? Do you plan to make fast calls to action in the store? Your building needs a wireless-based backbone to support that, with wireless connectivity that allows for transitions. This goes even beyond the creation of mobile hot-spots. Buildings must have a distributed, robust and flexible IT infrastructure which will allow technical access to all spaces. It helps if you’re working with architects who are aware there is such a thing as a path to purchase so they can help create a store that increases productivity and doesn’t skimp on the brand experience.

Amanda Yates, Vice President, Strategy & Analytics

It’s vital to map the “customer journey” to understand where best to make the wireless investments, as well as other investments that help your brand drive choice. Mapping will provide the insights that will help you gain advantage and protect sales by offering shoppers what they want in the modes they desire. Not every retailer will need a full-blown program, but each must understand the needs of its customers, what information and access they are looking for and where or how they want to access it. Once these insights are known, the appropriate level of investment and how to spend it will become much clearer.

Dave Nixon, Executive Director, Digital Strategy

The multi-channel ideal is a seamless transition from the physical shopping experience to the virtual experience through every digital touchpoint–one that’s painless for the shopper and profitable for the retailer. However, for most retailers that’s not the first thing you can do. There will be silos to take down, brand strategy work and brand engagement initiatives to adopt before that nirvana is reachable. I’d like to elucidate further on what Bill says (above)—“Get in the game.”

Companies that spend too much time planning their next technology steps will find themselves playing catch up to those that are already moving. One of the main benefits of digital is the ability to deploy it quickly and then modify or adapt the solution depending on the performance metrics for success. In that respect, adopting new digital platforms into your channel strategy is less expensive and presents less risk than physical channels. The time is now to leverage digital technologies for increasing revenue, efficiency and customer loyalty.

Kris Medford, Ph.D., Director of Shopper Sciences

Get to know your shoppers again. Segmentation that is a few years old is downright archaic so make sure your insights are recent and actionable. Who are your shoppers—both those in your store today and those you want in the future? What’s important to them from a digital perspective, and how can you use digital help to make your brand be more relevant to their lifestyle?

Justin Wartell, Senior Consultant, Brand Strategy

The physical store needs to evolve from its position as the “jewel in the crown” to a “tool in the arsenal.” For retailers, the most important thing that can be done right now is to (re)examine the relationship between the physical brand experience and all of the other expressions of the brand. Brand experiences are inter-connected organisms that create an overall customer feeling about the brand. By understanding the role that retail plays in the context of the other touchpoints that are, or can be, deployed, retailers can drive loyalty, reputation, efficiency and value across their organizations.

Brand assets and touch points are like words in a sentence. By themselves they might have their own independent meaning, but when combined they add up to convey a larger meaning and message or voice. Everything a brand says or does has an impact on a brand’s voice.

Historically brands and the business they represent were viewed by the general public simply as a business, with basic economic and strategic issues to deal with. However, right now we are witnessing a shift in the way consumers think about brands. Consumers are now seeing brands more as living, breathing entities with personalities and voices all their own. As a result, brands are being asked to act more like good citizens and have an overall net positive impact on the world or at the very least to limit their negative impact.

It wasn’t that long ago that the majority of consumers had no clue about a product’s life cycle. They didn’t know or care where their food came from. They had no idea what a brand’s policy on energy was of if it recycled. Consumers didn’t think about human rights issues in the factories of the developing world.

The other day I was on one of my favorite “guy style” sites and came across something called Un-branded jeans. These jeans were an attempt by a company to create a product that had no brand associated with it. It’s a noble idea and I can appreciate it. But the problem here (and I’m sure you are thinking the same thing by now) is that in their attempt to specifically create something un-branded, they have in fact created a brand. DOH!

Unbranded in this case is not the same as generic. These are hipster jeans.

Straight raw selvedge denim jeans from Unbranded, featuring a stiff feel meant to be worn without washing for several months. Has a five pocket silhouette, belt loops, brown contrast stitching, and four button front closure with brass hardware.

This got me thinking about what constitutes a “brand.” Typically brands have a set of attributes like an logo, colors, fonts, materials, tone of voice, etc. In the case of un-branded jeans though, their brand was purely their product–well, part of a brand is knowing who your target audience is so you can appeal to them, and these are obviously intended for stylish young males who can afford $80 jeans.

However, even though they left out most of the traditional branding elements they HAVE created a brand by trying NOT to create a brand. (I know, kind of blows your mind doesn’t it?)

On a recent trip through LAX, feeling like a co-star in the George Clooney flick Up in the Air, I began the habitual routine: head to self check-in, find a seat near the front of the plane, drudge to security, get my identity squared away, enter the waiting game, strategize about which line is shortest at the security check and prepare my belongings for scrutiny.

I’m pulling out my computer and liquids; taking off my shoes and jewelry; and—what’s this?! The security bins aren’t the normal smudged grey. Rather, each display a shiny, newly installed advertisement—for none other than the Skechers Shape Ups.

Putting aside the misconceived brand marriage of health and wellness with Skechers, let’s consider the advertising locale: the airport security bins. At no other point during my airport visit do I feel more vulnerable, valueless and at edge than when standing barefooted with my personal belongings projected for the viewing pleasure of four complete strangers. While I grow increasingly more concerned about how the TSA agents stare at the x-ray of my purse like it’s this summer’s blockbuster while I’m waiting there shoeless, Skechers wants me to consider wearing Shape Ups. I almost feel mocked.

On June 18, Pixar Animation Studios released the third installment in their flagship franchise, simply titled “Toy Story 3.” Now that the reviews are in, Pixar just missed the mark in producing the first movie trilogy to receive 100% fresh ratings on the popular movie rating site Rotten Tomatoes. A 100% rating is near impossible for any individual movie, considering the ratings on Rotten Tomatoes are not a single opinion but an aggregate of hundreds of movie critics’ ratings. Doing so for all three movies in a trilogy, or even coming this close, would seem to be an impossible task. And yet, they came within inches.

Also, this eleventh feature-length offering from Pixar has all the indications of another smashing financial success. While any individual moviegoer may have some negative opinions about some of Pixar’s movies, it’s hard to argue against the overall universal acclaim and the respective worldwide box office returns.

So how does Pixar do it? Three simple words: Story is king.

The world knows I love Apple. I fiend over the stickers they give me when I buy a new Apple gadget. I’ll talk about why I love Apple with total strangers. And I’m quite sure my family and friends think I might be emotionally unstable with my constant pro-Apple rhetoric. But one of the reasons I like Apple, is I get Apple. And I believe that “getting” a brand is the all-important step that must be in place before we can love a brand.

We interact with thousands of brands every day, some by our choosing, some not. At any given moment you can step back and identify several brands you’re engaged with—the one you’re wearing, what you’re using, what you’re watching, eating…it goes on. What are these brands about? What do they stand for? Do you love them, hate them? Do you care? And ultimately, “Do you get it?”

I would like to offer up a 3-step formula that leads to success and the coveted “getting it-ness.”

1 Be Passionate. No, be wildly passionate about something, not 10 things. One great, brand defining something. What is the basic thing your brand does? It’s great when that idea is differentiating, but even if it,s not, what is it? And once that idea/attribute/principle is identified, talk about it, make sure it’s not a secret. Internally and externally, it should be the signature thing that your employee or customer would say the brand is.

2 Simplify. Get rid of everything that doesn’t deliver on that one great passionate idea! Stop trying to do everything for everyone. I know, you want every 15-year-old and 55-year-old to enjoy your brand, right? Wrong, what you really want is a core set of customers that connect with your brand in a powerful way and so they can mutually feed off of the engery and passion both of them create. When that magic happens, an amazing thing happens. Those customers demand that their friends, family and anyone who will listen to them use your brand. But if the brand’s message isn’t simple, then no one will ever understand or care enough to be excited.

There’s little doubt about it, Corporate Citizenship has become a force within many brands and organizations. Some of these efforts are very large in scale and highly publicized (think Pepsi Refresh project). Others are as simple and small scale as creating an office recycling program. Either way, it seems as if people within organizations of all sizes and types are actively seeking out opportunities to be better corporate citizens. The momentum behind the movement seems so great that it almost seems assumed that something must be done by each and every brand and organization.

One question must be asked, though, when considering whether or not your brand should engage in an activity; what is my motivation for doing this? That’s right, I said it. As much as it pains me to say, your brand better have very specific reasons for being a better corporate citizen, or you may be doing more harm than good.

I’ll spare you the lecture that economist Milton Friedman would give on this topic. I’ll just say that anything that takes a brand’s eye off of the singular focus it was created to achieve makes the brand a little less competitive in its market and a little less viable as an ongoing concern. In an ever more competitive world, it doesn’t take much of a slip to lose your competitive edge and set you back. So, if you’re considering doing something in the Corporate Citizenship realm, you need to ask yourself a very important question. “What is my brand getting in return for this effort?”

The problem I see with the body of knowledge on the topic is that nobody really knows how much these efforts drive purchase.

The new Stoli ad on tv caught my eye the other day. If you haven’t seen it, it depicts Hugh Hefner sitting down and having a drink with himself. Smoking jacket Hef on one side and a suited Hef on the other. The conversation gets at the idea that Hef wants the same things as any regular guy, companionship and the like. (I for one, think he’s set the bar stratospherically high in that dept, but that’s just a hunch.) It’s a thought-provoking display and it made me wonder what a conversation with a brand might be like.

I think that the idea of persona is evident in many brands, but not all brands might have that much to say. Having a distinctive personality or tone of voice can be such a huge competitive advantage in a crowded marketplace. I look at the personality that Starbucks has been able to create over the years and compare that to their Seattle’s Best rebrand. Both sell a similar product, but their voices are much different with how they talk and relate to their customers. If I sat down with both brands, the conversation from one to the other would be vastly different I think.

Once. Twice. Yes, starting very soon, Apple will have done it for a third time: changed the way we buy and listen to music. Apple acquired digital music startup Lala in December and shut the site down in May, leading tech pundits to speculate on the coming of “an iTunes in the cloud,” once the streaming music service is incorporated into Apple’s business model.

Although Apple won’t comment on its plans, as a loyal Lala.com user and Apple fan, I’m fully expecting to enjoy a cloud-based iTunes experience in the near future, and I think it’s great that Apple continues to advance their retail strategy and break paradigms of the industry by sourcing great ideas, making them profitable and bringing them to a larger audience.

Forty-two. This answer to the question of life, the universe and everything from Douglas Adam’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is a classic illustration of the disappointing results that arise when a project is not sufficiently defined.

Business questions are the key to defining business problems so that they can be understood and solved in ways that are actionable and beneficial. An example business question is, “Which of these store designs will most increase store visits by current customers?” When well drafted, they deliver guidance to successful strategy, design, research, analytics and operations problem solving. Business questions do these things by aligning resources to needs, making sure everyone has similar understanding of what is to be accomplished, and ensuring that the work to be done will solve the problem at hand. It is easy, however, to run into problems while developing these questions.

Common problems in business question development are:

• Not creating or communicating the business questions.

• Using absolutes as goals for the solution.

• Failing to prioritize success criteria.

• Being ambiguous.

There wasn’t an Evolutionary War for a reason. In the pre-dawn of U.S. history, the new settlers wanted more than to just evolve the British rule, it had to be overthrown. A new start, a clean slate. Imagine the pressure that those founding fathers must have felt when deciding that enough was enough, let’s try something new. Today, many brands find themselves in the same place. The status quo isn’t working. It’s time to differentiate. But I wonder if the ideas of “revolution” and “evolution” aren’t being confused.

Carpenter to focus on Interbrand North America

Retailers looking for great examples of wirelessly connecting with their shoppers have three great brands to look to: American Eagle Outfitters, Netflix and Amazon.com. The continue to differentiate their shopping experiences with intimacy, responsiveness and relevance.

Even with millions of items for sale, Amazon connects intimately with customers, from its one-click ordering to its ability to become more relevant with each visit. The result is a “barrier to exit” that other brands envy.

American Eagle excels at aggressively integrating multi-channel marketing tactics into both its traditional and digital campaigns. It connects at all the right touchpoints, which goes a long way towards achieving brand loyalty. This year, AE included a mobile filed in its loyalty program, and used mobile as a point of entry into sweepstakes as well as an alerts program. Calls to action were posted on social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter in the form of banner ads, status updates and tweets.

Interbrand Design Forum Ranks the Most Valuable U.S. Retail Brands; Walmart Remains the Top Retailer, Target Leaps to Second Report shows that the strong brands got stronger, while the bottom 25 fell.