A glimpse into the minds of the Positioning Pioneers

  • What’s missing in most marketing programs? Verbal imagery.

    I’ve written about the superiority of visuals over verbals. And my daughter Laura Ries has written a book on the subject, Visual Hammer. But...

  • Striking Out Cancer with a Visual Hammer

    Every cancer center has a mission, vision and core values. If you looked them all up, they are all pretty similar. It is tough...

  • HP splits into a circle and a rectangle? Oh my.

    Hewlett-Packard is trying to become more focused by dividing itself in half. But dividing isn’t so easy. It is messy legally, corporately and mentally....

  • Hashtag Branding – How to not get burned

    Starbucks, like most companies these days, is obsessed with buzz. Not the kind you get from a double-espresso but the kind you find online...

  • A milk bottle and a green jacket illustrate the best way to get into a mind.

    At the Indianapolis 500 on Memorial Day weekend, one of the most memorable visuals was winner Ryan Hunter-Reay drinking a bottle of milk. Sponsors...

  • Marketing to do list for 2014

    Find out what the top things you need to do to make your brand the best it can be in 2014.

  • Yahoo! From fun to serious and dark.

    Yahoo took a memorable, unique logo and after 30 days and 30 designs ended up with a rather average, boring, uninspired one. Marissa Mayer...

  • New name but no visual hammer – YouSendIt makes a change.

    The brand with a generic name YouSendIt but a nice visual hammer (paper airplane) is now Hightail. A better brand name, but it sadly...

  • 2013 Superbowl Ad Preview

    When it comes to Super Bowl ads you can always count on seeing several things: Celebrities, special effects, babies, animals, sexy girls and dudes...

  • Wounded Warrior Visual Hammer

    When you combine a focus, name, verbal nail and visual hammer, you can build a brand that cuts through the mind and goes straight...

  • And the winner is…

    Obama’s “forward” slogan won him four more years in the White House did what most slogans do not. It cut both ways. It said...

  • The Fro-Yo Wars Explained

    Frozen yogurt is a popular summertime treat and personal favorite of mine; it is also a category that has experienced tremendous growth with new...

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