Stefan's Branding Blog

Branding, the Woz Way

You gotta read this interview of Steve Wozniak. My take? If you wanna create (invent, innovate, discover etc.) something (such as a breakthrough technology or an iconic brand or both) you gotta:

• be good at something. Real good. Magically so. You can't just fool the world into allowing your brand to become big and successful
• have a bit of luck (chance, accident) on your side. In the least, be in the right place at the right time
• err on the side of joking (humor, pranks, laughs etc). Important quote: "Humor is closely related to creativity."
• although it's ever harder these days, every now and then do things randomly, outside-the-rules, outside-the-pages-in-the-book
• define everyone's role very well, from the very beginning (I can tell you that worked wonders for Grapefruit, too)
• not look to hit it big too intently
• believe in your own power to (tremendously) change things as an individual, no matter how humble you appear to be in the world
• stay true to a variety of stakeholders, including yourself. It is important.
• never forget how important education is, and will be, to you and everybody else, forever
• get a shot of passion and commitment at intervals
• sometimes fight for your life, or you'll never cherish it to its fullest
• acknowledge your competition and whatever good things they do--because they do.

But maybe that's just Woz, and the world is entirely different.

Nation Branding by Flag

Just picked up an interesting viewpoint on Kosovo's new flag over at Economist.com.

Adopting a flag is one of the very first branding actions a new nation can make, so yes--I too think it's an important decision to make. But in Kosovo's case, all I see is haste, amateurism and a desire to mimic the EU.

Not to mention the fact that a map on a flag is usually a sign of trouble. Why? The only other countries that have or had such flags are Cyprus, Bangladesh and Cambodia. I'm sure you can see the link between them and Kosovo.

When You Write...

do it well, be it strategy or copy for the brand you manage. Take not one, but 39 (yes, 39, despite the funny numbering) good pieces of advice from this primer on storytelling.

Chuckle not. Admit that, if brand strategy reports followed this advice, they'd be all the rage among client boards and execs.