Posts Tagged ‘business strategy’

CBS radio interview on marketing and branding.

Thursday, June 9th, 2011

Steven Sessions was invited to be interviewed by Chris Kelso on Talk Radio 650AM in Houston Texas to discuss Marketing. This is the full transcript of the live broadcast on June 8, 2011.

live interview on marketing and branding

(Welcome to “The Price of Business,” I’m your host Chris Kelso, we appreciate your tuning in to “Talk 650” powered by CBS radio, right now, someone I really, really want to talk to is Steven Sessions with the Sessions Group – Steven how you doing?) “Good Chris, thank you for inviting me.”

(Let me ask you to tell our listeners (more…)

GAP’s new logo design mistake.

Friday, October 22nd, 2010

On October 4, 2010 the Gap quietly introduced a new logo on their website. A curious initiative to be sure. There are excellent reasons for , but none of them applied to the situation at the Gap. The result was the Gap’s worst nightmare.

According to company spokesperson Louise Callagy, (more…)

When does redesigning a logo make sense?

Thursday, August 26th, 2010

The Girl Scouts organization is now over 30 years old. That may explain why the iconic logo has gone under the knife. But was it a good idea? When does make sense? And in the Girl Scout’s case, (more…)

Rebranding an organization which has a distinguished history.

Monday, July 19th, 2010

Branding has been shown to be a very effective activity in an organization’s efforts to increase its influence in a marketplace. This increased influence equals increased sales, increased awareness, increased understanding, increased margins, increased business valuation, etc. And this strategy is as effective for non-profit organizations as it is for companies.

The Young Men’s Christian Association is a charity well known by its initials, YMCA. And as is popular in the marketplace, names are shortened in common use. Jennifer Lopez is known as J-Lo. And the Young Men’s Christian Association has for years been known as the “Y.”

Now the Young Men’s Christian Association has formally dropped those four descriptive words in favor of the single letter “Y.” And they have modified the visual identity and logo as well. Is this a good idea? The short answer is (more…)

Companies raised their marketing spending in this last recession and saw sales increase.

Wednesday, June 30th, 2010

marketing-budgeting-300x193

When should a company increase marketing spending? Most companies during a recession think it is wise to reduce marketing budgets to save money, and the drop has been extreme as spending plunged 12.3% — the largest annual drop ever, more than three times more severe than the next worst drop of 3.9% in 1991.

But 26 of the top 100 marketers bucked the trend and boosted 2009 . 70% of those spending more saw a U.S. sales increase – double the success rate of those who reduced their spending according to (more…)

Leveraging a brand asset or forfeiting brand equity?

Friday, March 26th, 2010

leveraging the brand gatorade

What to do when faced with declining sales.

Sales in the “refreshment beverage” category are falling. The segment includes colas, energy and sports drinks, juices and bottled water. In 2009, for the second year in a row, sales were down. Down 3.1 percent according to a survey by Beverage Marketing Corp. This represents a steeper decline than was 2008. And there was one unusual statistic: (more…)

How a company name or product name can hinder sales.

Saturday, March 20th, 2010

Palm seems to be on life support.

According to the Bible, the first task given to man by God was all the things on earth. And he’s been doing that ever since. And it is very important work. A name represents characteristics and properties that identify a particular thing.

Selecting a name.

Many think coming up with a name for a company or product or service should be simple. Some may even think it’s not even very important, convinced there are “bigger’ issues than naming to deal with when launching a new venture. Those who believe that are hoping (more…)

Outperform the market.

Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010

In today’s marketplace a Brand is one of the very very few sustainable competitive advantages a company can own. Credit Suisse research shows an index of companies spending at least (more…)

What is more important in the marketplace, the Brand or the Product?

Sunday, January 17th, 2010

Houston made the short list of cities under consideration for the 2012 Olympic Games but ultimately lost out in the final culling. But then, regarding the 2016 Olympics, Houston didn’t even make the short list. This despite having the best collection of physical assets and excellent leadership. In 2006 I wrote an article for the Houston Business Journal about this Olympic site selection review.

event-logo-design

U.S. Olympic Committee Board Chairman Peter Ueberroth said of Mayor Bill White and Harris County Judge Bob Eckels, “They were spectacular. They were in a class by themselves in terms of administration. They were just so far ahead of any other city, it wasn’t close. … (more…)

Bank mergers and competition.

Thursday, June 29th, 2006
Originally published by the American Bankers Association, June 2004, also published by the Brandchannel and the Houston Business Journal. It was also published by several Asian websites and the Belgian Management and Marketing Association.

Wachovia Corp. has agreed to purchase competitor SouthTrust Corp. Hibernia Corporation acquired Coastal Bancorp, Inc. J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. is cleared to absorb Bank One Corp.

Whew! Banking is no longer boring.

The Chase merger will form the second-largest bank in the United States, with $1.12 trillion in assets. For Chase, this requires a significant investment in new signage, business cards, letterhead, envelopes, displays, imprints on about 51 million credit cards, etc. There will be employee issues and expenses as well.

And consider the thousands of other banks providing the same service: How will they compete? How can they compete? (more…)