Stefan's Branding Blog

Imagining Things Yet To Be

Our capacity (as individuals, organizations or brands) to dream, imagine and re-imagine things around us is one of our most powerful tools for adaptation and subsequent long-term survival. It doesn't only apply to (creative, artistic) individuals.

That as a musing on Bruce Sterling's article on design fiction, as noted by yours humbly via the Weekly Wire twitterfeed (syndicated to your immediate right, wink-wink).

Shaking It Up

Sounds like a mission statement:

take an existing, mundane business and turn it on its head.

That's what Apple is doing to the mobile app industry, as per GigaOM. Re-thinking an industry. Taking a better look and actually seeing a value-creating opportunity where others see nada. It's as much branding as it is business strategy and it's a huge differentiator in a world where even tiny differences are extremely hard to get by.

On a related note, I have a Nokia E71 and have no intention to switch to iPhone. However, I'm pissed at having extremely few choices when it comes to apps for my smartphone.

How Historic Black Swans Impact Brands

There's intense talk about a Twitter-powered, anti-communist revolution (or at least civil unrest) in the tiny Eastern European Republic of Moldova.

Regardless of the outcome, it's a boon for the aforementioned brand, if the media's going to stick to 'Twitter-powered' instead of 'social media-powered'. Completely unpredictable, yet hugely impactful, at least in the neigboring EU and CIS countries.

A true Black Swan.

(Not Quite) Off-topic: My Favorite Comic

My favorite webcomic is XKCD (other non-web comics I like are Dilbert and Pearls Before Swine).

Like all great creative endeavors, XKCD started as sheer fun and came to be a full-time business. Why I think it got me? Easy: I find myself in it (as many other surely do), only much smarter and funnier than in reality :)

Last issue brilliantly strikes a sensitive chord, as I live in an overcrowded city where a parking spot is definitely not guaranteed to anyone at any time: