Bank of America bought Merrill Lynch at the depths of the financial crisis. Times were tough for Merrill so BofA capitalized and conquered. Immediately they started a rebranding campaign. NO MORE BULL they said, you shall have a new flag. Well, the Merrill Lynch exec's didn't appreciate that and began lobbying for it to stay. I love it! Leaders fighting for their logo. It doesn't happen very often. But to the people of Merrill Lynch, the bull is more than just a logo. It's a symbol, it's a flag. It stands for them, their history and for what they believe. They've worn it with pride since 1974.

Well, the fight was worth it. Bank of America decided to reverse it's course. They're still have a new king but Merrill Lynch bankers may now print the bull on other side of their business cards. A small victory but a great lesson. To have been an employee of Merrill Lynch simply stood for more than working for Bank of America. They took pride in their company, and rightly so. They have a long, rich history of leadership and achievement. Merrill Lynch may have seceded ownership but not their identity.

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The story goes like this: Red Bull is getting ready to launch, and before doing so, wants to test people's reaction to the taste, packaging, & color of their new idea. Enter the Focus Group. They don't like Red Bull. Not the taste or the little can. Its just not a crowd pleaser.

What the Red Bull creators did next was crazy. They launched anyways – taste and little can intact. A billion dollar decision to go against the Focus Group results. And the birth of a new category of beverage.

Pepsi outperforms Coke in every taste test. But Coke outperforms Pepsi in the market.

Focus Groups loved New Coke. That was a million dollar decision to go with the Focus Group results, this time in the wrong direction.

Jonathan Ive, Apple’s senior VP of industrial design, said that Apple had found a good reason not to do focus groups: "They just ensure that you don’t offend anyone, and produce bland inoffensive products."

People don't like change, they don't like risk. Waiting for a big, risky idea to be approved by a group of uninvested people is like asking a cow to go downstairs.

There are no easy answers. Big ideas require big risk. Asking others to make the big decisions by proxy just hedges the bet in case the big idea is a big failure.

Its not a popularity contest. Its a contest of courage.

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And with that classic line courtesy of Arnold "Mr. Freeze" Schwarzenegger, I'd like to introduce a client we've been working with for the past several months. Ross and Robin form the dynamic duo that is ZeroCelsius, up in New Hampshire (where it is indeed 0º C all year round).

They're a wealth management company, but one that's a little different. They're almost the exact opposite of what pops up in your head when you think finance or money or management. One that's approachable, warm, funny, human. A "creative" wealth management company that speaks to, well, creatives.

While they don't always take themselves seriously, they're quite serious about their work. (Believe me, I've looked at enough charts and graphs and spreadsheets to know it's not all fun and games). Aside from being great to work with, it's also been a great learning experience.

But what's really cool about ZC is the unique focus they have and the story they tell. They've picked sides; they're not everything to everyone. And because of that, they're doing something that seems to be increasingly rare — they're interesting. It's a model quite different than that of the-customer-is-always-right, but because of that, they're able to work with the right customers.

We've been working together to polish the brand messaging and coming up with new, really unique approaches to engage their customers. It's exciting stuff, and I can't wait till we roll it all out.

That being said, I'll leave you with more words of wisdom from Mr. Freeze: "In this universe, there's only one absolute… everything freezes!"

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I had the privilege recently of working with a design class at Georgetown College.  I did a few chats with the classroom over Skype, giving them a tour of the Matchstic house, talking about life after college and gave them a task to design a poster that would express what they want out of a job and career.

I was most impressed by the work of Abby Watkins.  Below is Abby's poster as well as her description.  Great work Abby! Your Matchstic shirt will be coming to you soon!

My poster symbolizes an idea that my father taught me. He said: "Find a job that you love so you don't have to work". This is the plan I have for my career and future business. The text inside my larger letters describes some specific ideas and requirements that I have for my job. My goal is to have a job in the graphic design field, which is expressed in words like “Photoshop" and "creativity." There are also less precise words like “travel”, “friendships”, and “flexibility”; which could be found in a variety of careers.

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"A brand is not what you say it is. It's what they say it is."- Marty Neumeier, Author of The Brand Gap

So, Who is the "They"?

Capitalizing on every opportunity to create brand champions is the essence of a charismatic brand. In order for that to be fully realized you have to know every constituency involved along the way, not just your target audience (even though that's a start).

According to wikipedia, A Stakeholder is a person, group, organization, or system who affects or can be affected by an organization's actions. Basically the "They".

Identifying your stakeholders gives you a holistic look at your brand's reach and an opportunity to prioritize which group is most important. Then understanding the characteristics, needs, and perceptions of your stakeholders can add valuable key insights to the branding process with a high return.

Who are your stakeholders (not to be confused with Steak Holders)?

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Comcast just bought control of NBC-Universal from GE this past week for a whoppin $13.75 billion in cash and assets. Wow! I didn't realize how big Comcast was. Apparently they also tried to buy Walt Disney Co. back in 2004 for about $54 billion. These big moves on their part make business sense. Comcast is a cable provider, NBC is a TV show provider and Universal is a movie provider. Comcast wants to own the pipes and programming.

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Ready to open your own local coffee shop?

Say no more, you need Papyrus.

Yoga instructor?

Papyrus is the answer to your design dilemma.

Getting ready to start a sermon series on Joshua at your church?

Papyrus!

Billion dollar director making a strange movie about blue aliens?

What says other-worldly better than Papyrus?

Sushi?

Is there really another choice?

Designed by Chris Costello in 1982, the Papyrus font was originally hand-drawn over a period of six months by means of calligraphy pen and textured paper. Costello described his goal as a font that would represent what English vernacular would have looked like if written on papyrus 2000 years ago.

A sarcastic – yes – but true look at how something can be visually popular, successful, & even trendy and too often slowly creep from the simple enjoyment of it => copycats => obscurity. Reminding me that, like Alvin said yesterday, "restraint is increasingly important".

For more on the wild world of Papyrus use in design, you can check out: www.papyruswatch.com.

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Wednesday night, Kevin Gillespie gets to go on to the Top Chef finale because of a dish of two ingredients: carrots and beets.

Wut?

This Top Chef is arguably the best of its six seasons so far. It's particularly exciting for me because Kevin of Woodfire Grill is representing Atlanta. Not only that, he's defending the simplicity, authenticity, and craft that embodies the soul of great Southern culture.

Throughout the season he's been derided by competitors for his food being "too simple." Contestant Mike Voltaggio elaborates: "The food Kevin cooks is the food that I cook on my day off."

The lack of fireworks in Kevin's cooking is exactly what I love about it. That carrot and beet dish seemed basic, but deceptively so. It was unanimously praised by the judges for its complex flavor as well as being "stunningly beautiful."

As judge Tom Colicchio explained once, "Young chefs are often keen to use technological wizardry and forget how to just roast something and make it really delicious." Needless to say, this simple yet soulful food has garnered Kevin consistent wins throughout the season.

So it goes with design. We have a great set of tools at our disposal — powerful computers, powerful software, Google. Now, more than ever, restraint is increasingly important. Glossy logos, Photoshop trickery, totally awesome Flash — it's all useless if there's nothing behind it. Which is why the latest Transformers movie is about as interesting as the latest super-gradient-gloss "rebrand."

A good brand is comprised of simple ingredients. The design is technically sound, but clever and delightful. It need not be garnished to death or littered with distractions. It tells a great story, one that is honest and meaningful. And like that little dish of carrots and beets, it should just be really delicious.

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Is the process of designing brand identity a focus on the internal or the external? Too often it’s seen purely as a focus on the external as a marketing process. But the branding process is more focused internally. It’s about defining what you want to be known for and then building that into who you really are. You can’t say one thing and be another. It has to be authentic.

Recently I was talking to someone about the brand identity process, and his comment back to me was, “This seems more like a business plan than a marketing strategy.” Bingo.

Before you start thinking about marketing your organization, you have to first define who you are, who you aren’t, what you’re going to be known for, and why any of it matters in the first place. Once that’s complete, you’ll be amazed at how simple putting together a marketing strategy becomes.

The WHO comes first. Then the WHAT, WHERE, and HOW naturally fall into place.

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My Father is one of my heroes. Not only is he an amazing businessman and entrepreneur, he's also a well experience pilot. Not a big commercial airline type, but a small Cessna, hear about a crash on the news, type of pilot. It was his child-hood dream to fly, and for over 18 years he’s done it without a scratch. He has however had one really close call.

On Nov. 5th 2003, he was flying back from Williamsburg, VA with his wife, in what was considered not optimal conditions. He had zero visibility and had to rely 100% on his instruments to navigate through thick cloud cover over the mountains. He says it was like flying in a giant ping pong ball. A total whiteout.

The flight was going on as planned when suddenly a very strong up/down draft violently flipped the tiny four seater over, like a flapjack, completely upside down. In an instant, he was in trouble. He quickly regained control and orientation of the plane. Then the terrifying sound of a pilot's worst nightmare started to squeal in his ear, it was the stall warning. If you've ever heard this alarm, its like the "Code Red" siren from a WWII sub being shot at and preparing for impact. It screams "Something bad is about to go down". The plane stalled out, and my Dad was faced with the eerie silence of the killed engine and rushing wind of the plummeting aircraft. He restarted the engine and pulled out of the dive. Confused and still surrounded with zero visibility, he didn't understand why the plane stalled. As he pulled up, the stall warning screamed again and the engine died… again. This cycle of stalling out and restarting lasted what seemed like an eternity (in actuality about 20 seconds), until he looked down and realized one of his instruments he was relying on, the Attitude indicator, was broken and giving false readings. It is a gyro based instrument that instantly malfunctions if the plane breeches a 180˚ orientation. Deeming it “Divine Intervention”, for a split second he got a true bearing from the broken instrument and realized what was happening. Without that reading he surely would have ended his spotless flying record on that day.

Two things saved my Dad and his wife that day (and the moral of the story).

1. His Instruments- In everything, especially branding, you have to have objective tools to help navigate the subjective and zero visibility terrain.

2. His Training- Only an experienced pilot could have survived. There are no absolutes, especially in branding, and only knowledge and practice can produce the right results to an ever-changing landscape.

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