Posted in branding, imitation, marketing, marketing innovation on Jul 20th, 2010
Quite often Spur Communications is asked to develop brand standards for our clients. The rest of the time we work with the brand standards that the client provides. Either way it’s great. It’s important to clearly define your brand and make sure everyone involved in the brand expression is on the same page. But every [...]
Posted in community, consumer behavior, consumer perception, customer interaction, imitation, marketing, social branding, social marketing, transformation on Jul 12th, 2010
The South African World Cup has come and gone. Spain is the World Cup champion for the next four years and Paul the Octopus has proven to be the most reliable gambler’s aid on earth, albeit below the waves. This is one final post on my observations of the World Cup and what it can [...]
Posted in SPURspectives, community, consumer behavior, consumer engagement, customer engagement, follower, imitation, leader, marketing, network, seth godin, social network, transformation on Jul 7th, 2010
Championship competitions are great for studying the microcosm of team cohesion. The World Cup may be the greatest study of all due to its global reach. This Cup’s German team is showing something very unique and I think reflective a change in how the world does business.
Teams have long been assembled like armies, with top [...]
Posted in branding, community, consumer behavior, consumer generated content, customer interaction, imitation, marketing, marketing innovation, network, transformation on Jun 23rd, 2010
We love them. We hate them. They’re suddenly everywhere. The vuvuzela has emerged as the defining element of South Africa’s World Cup. The constant, relentless, droning, B flat buzz of the plastic horns has everyone buzzing about them. They’re all over the news. The microphones for World Cup matches have been changed to accommodate them. [...]
Posted in branding, consumer generated content, consumer perception, imitation, marketing, marketing innovation, transformation on Apr 20th, 2010
“I’m not creative.”
“I can’t draw.”
“I’m not artistic.”
If I got paid every time I hear this I could stop building my lottery ticket origami collection. It makes me sad when people say these things. It makes me sad because it is not true and their beliefs rob them of their innate ability to express themselves and [...]
Posted in SPURspectives, Uncategorized, branding, community, customer interaction, imitation, leader, lifecycle, marketing, spur communications, transformation, withdrawl on Feb 15th, 2010
“If you come to a fork in the road, take it.”
~ Yogi Berra
Have you ever asked for advice from someone you trust only to ignore the advice and continue down the road you were on? When you heard the advice you knew it was the right thing to do. But you chose to ignore it [...]
Posted in SPURspectives, banking, branding, community, consumer behavior, consumer engagement, consumer perception, financial services, follower, imitation, investment, leader, lifecycle, marketing, marketing budget, marketing innovation, network, spur communications, transformation on Jan 27th, 2010
This is the tale of two banks. They both started at about the same time. One of them began as a remarkable idea and the other as a great way to make money. The remarkable bank spent a lot of time during their formation figuring out how to make a significant positive impact on their [...]
Posted in SPURspectives, community, consumer behavior, consumer engagement, consumer generated content, consumer perception, customer engagement, customer interaction, customer relationship management, donor engagement, follower, fundraising, imitation, leader, marketing, marketing budget, marketing innovation, network, non profit, nonprofit, social branding, social marketing, social media, social media hub, social network, spur communications, transformation on Jan 7th, 2010
In social networks, the number of followers that you have is inversely proportional to the depth of relationship that you have with each member. Or more simply, reach is inversely proportional to bond — as reach increases (you get more followers), bond decreases (you have less of a relationship with each follower). This isn’t news, [...]
Posted in SPURspectives, Uncategorized, community, consumer behavior, consumer engagement, consumer generated content, consumer perception, customer engagement, customer interaction, customer relationship management, donor engagement, follower, imitation, leader, marketing, marketing innovation, network, social branding, social marketing, social media, social network, spur communications, web on Jan 6th, 2010
What attributes come to mind when you think of a leader? The characteristics I hear most often are charismatic, powerful, dynamic, confident, outgoing, and assertive. This is great if you need a military general or CEO. But these aren’t necessarily the characteristics you need to lead your social networking efforts through social media. I’m not [...]
Posted in SPURspectives, branding, community, consumer behavior, consumer engagement, consumer perception, customer engagement, customer interaction, donor engagement, economic recession, financial services, follower, fundraising, imitation, investment, leader, lifecycle, marketing, marketing budget, marketing innovation, non profit, nonprofit, spur communications, transformation on Dec 30th, 2009
Oh, woe is me. These are the worst of times. What ever shall we do? Sound familiar? It seems that everywhere I turn I hear people obsess about the poor state of the economy. Hey, it’s really bad. I admit it. But, you shouldn’t let it limit your marketing effort. Why? Because the times are [...]
