Then Rohde's brought a 400 pound Bengal tiger into Eisner's office.

The reality that Rohde's envisioned could only be realized by Eisner through a taste of that reality. Rohde's had captured Eisner's head before. With the tiger, he captured his heart. The Animal Kingdom theme park was launched in 1998.

In Jonah Lehrer recent book, Imagine, he shares that many times creative ideas come to us in fully formed, complete thoughts. The idea flashes into our brains seemingly out of nowhere, surprising in its totality. And therein lies the biggest challenge of pitching ideas: an idea may be fully formed in the imagination of the creator, however, that clarity cannot be transported to another individual and retain its level of inspired vividness.

We often need the tangible – something real in front of us that shows us the problem, the idea, or the solution in a way no single dimensional can provide. We need realness.

The amazingly insightful IGNITOR team at The Coca-Cola Company taught me this lesson. And I got the chance to put it into practice. It was amazing to see how much my excitement for an idea was passed along through bits of reality. The realness did the work.

Ideas brought to life through something you can touch and feel. An idea that can communicate without words. The power of realness.

Presentations are not easy. Use too many bullets and its boring. Too few facts and it may seem too blue sky. Under-prepare and you appear scattered. Over-prepare and there will be little if any energy left in the room.

Good presenting requires a well designed plan ready to execute, and then the human flexibility to be able to roll with the punches in front of a live audience.

One of the hardest things to do is avoid talking past the sell. My tendency is to want to complete my entire presentation – the full version I spent hours, sometimes days refining. I want to go through it just like I planned. And then I get in front of other people and something else happens entirely…what I wanted in the first place: an idea lands, it sticks. Someone connects emotionally and starts to get energized and excited. This is the moment that will define the outcome. Keep rocketing past that energy to the finish line of a presentation and the golden moment may just be missed. That a-ha moment when the audience becomes the champion of the idea – a participant in it coming to life – and not just a passive attendee.

If an hour meeting was planned and an idea lands in 10 minutes, let it stand at that. I didn't come to take up time and get through my presentation – I came to share, inspire, and launch an idea into action.

Image as seen in AMC's Mad Men, Episode 4: Mystery Date | Ginsberg talking past the sell in his pantyhose pitch.

Organizations tend to describe themselves via bullet point lists chocked-full of all the services they provide. The thinking seems to go, "Surely if they see *all* we can do for them, they'll be impressed with at least one of those things and want to work with us". This approach is an information exchange only. Boredom typically ensues.

Customers don't want to know everything you can do for them, at least not at the beginning of a relationship. They want to know what makes you special, what you do that's really remarkable, what makes you different from the other guy. This is where brand authenticity comes into play.

Brands need to represent a true, but engaging story of who the company is – not just a bulleted list of years in the business, services offered, and clients served.

Customers are engaging with your competitors, not to mention a more hidden competitor – their attention. Your customers are bombarded with thousands of ads and brands every week. How will you stand out? Can you stand out of you're not radically focused? Would you even pay attention to the story you're telling?

Artwork by Gavin Potenza

Saying ‘no’ to the wrong prospective customer can save a business from losing both money and employee morale.  On the other hand, saying ‘no’ to a great prospective opportunity during a season of tight bandwidth can close the door on a chance to grow exponentially.

Learning how to interpret other people’s ‘no’ is equally as important.  When someone says ‘no’ it may simply be a misunderstanding of their exact need or problem.  A supervisor’s ‘no’ may simply mean ‘not right now’.  Pushing into these responses and not accepting them on the surface can mean the difference between an opportunity missed and one gained.

In similar fashion, saying ‘no' to short-term profits to avoid long-term brand dilution can keep a brand on-track. Learning when to say ‘no’ to certain projects can mean the difference between stagnated growth and an opportunity to focus on work that will lead toward a better brand position.

‘No’ is harder to say than ‘yes’.  People generally don’t like hearing the word.  But with time, practice, and respect, ‘no’ can become a great asset and ally toward building a stronger brand and a better business.

For months I have been hearing Atlantans share their excitement about Southwest Airlines coming to Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson airport. Targeted commercials have been running – building up to the appropriate Valentine's week official launch (Southwest has a long marketing history with the word ‘LOVE').

Its rare that a brand's reputation so precedes itself that customers are anticipating its arrival into their market. I can't remember the last time I heard so many people excited about a new brand emerging into a region.

I love Delta, and am proud that Delta calls Atlanta home.

But Southwest is certainly distinct and will no doubt give me pause before I book my next trip. And from the sound of it, a lot of Atlantans are thinking the same.

Flash Mob @ Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson airport this week:

Rob tells story after absorbing story about his life in and around the movies. One particular story he tells of his first breakout role in ‘The Outsiders' especially caught my attention. In it, he shares an account of his experience with Francis Ford Coppola, the director of the 80′s teen classic. Coppola never watched the actors' live performance of a scene. Never. He exclusively watched the scene as it appeared on one of the monitors. Why? Because this is how the audience would see it – not live, but onscreen. Coppola would opt most days to watch the performances not on set, but in his trailer where he could focus his attention exclusively on the performance as seen on a monitor.

From this, I took note. The actors' performances might have appeared amazing live, on set – as it was being filmed – but looked terrible or told the wrong story when actually viewed onscreen.

Context always matters.

While creative work, ours included, may look amazing in isolation on a white background – it may not be functional on a website, or be competitive when in the market, or be memorable when seen in the context of a consumer's busy life.

Context always matters.

Today, every director follows Coppola's then original approach – they watch the performance on a monitor and pay little, if any, attention to the actors' live performance.

Referenced from Rob Lowe's autobiography: Stories I Only Tell My Friends

Image from @cubagallery

I have little patience for self-interested art trying to find its way into the branding conversation. Branding is selfless, in that it is interested first in what is authentic, second in how to represent that authenticity on behalf of an organization, and third (last) on how one's own talents can be used to accomplish this goal.

I love art, and have a deep appreciation for it. I consider the artists I work with to be immeasurably talented. But what makes them exceptionally unique is their ability to listen, understand, and represent – with clarity and distinction – the personality of an organization that exists outside themselves. This requires an ability to set aside one's own personal agenda for a better portfolio, and instead, focus on making that organization better.

I like this about branding. Finding beauty in the most unexpected of places – business.

Starbucks was gaining ground for two decades before their decline came along. What's most interesting to me is that the decisions that escalated their brand decline were made during a period of high growth and a growing stock price – decisions like: creating a record label, a magazine, they started selling too much merchandise (like stuffed animals) in their stores, and started making smelly breakfast sandwiches. Starbucks started looking and smelling less like a European coffeehouse, and more like a fast food chain. The romance was being lost as the brand was commoditized.

And when the economy did decline in 2007 & 2008 – the Starbucks brand was diluted to the point that it was seen as little more than an expensive cup of coffee at a fast food chain. Their stock price soon began to tumble and the brand saw some of its worst days.

When Shultz returned as CEO in 2008 – his first order of business was to return the brand back to their roots – back to the romance of the European coffee experience. He quickly retrained Barista’s on how to make a proper espresso, updated equipment, instituted a return to freshly ground coffee in stores, and attempted to reduce the smell of the breakfast sandwiches. All of this designed to return Starbucks to their brand’s essence.

Even with those changes, Starbucks spent some time in the valley before they began their rebound.

Paranoia may be unhealthy, but it can be a good thing in branding. Otherwise, a brand's best days may produce such a sense of anesthesia that no one can sense the cliff's edge coming.

Disciplined adherence to strict branding rules; logos applied to as many surfaces as possible always in the same manner; experiencing a brand in the same way over and over again – these used to be the rules that equaled unparalleled strength in a brand. Today the rules have changed. Great brands are nimble, and yet still focused – flexible, and yet still dogmatic. They allow for the consumer's voice while still influencing the conversation.

Coke did this in style when they embraced a user-created Facebook page as their own (rather than shutting it down, crying copyright infringement). Coke maintains brand guidelines that keep three core elements intact – the red, the script, and the contoured bottle shape – and then leaves room for expression and variance.

I love a recent article I read by Fast Co. that puts it this way – ‘Branding Is About Creating Patterns, Not Repeating Messages‘. Marc Shillum went on to say:

Consistency in human behavior is not derived from repetition alone; it is about the formation and recognition of coherent patterns…Patterns are the way our brains perceive actions, thoughts, memory, and behavior to ultimately inform belief. They allow for differences while creating a whole.

Brands still need consistency, but in a consumer-driven era where a brand's every action is on public trial – that consistency needs to be expanded to include room for expression.

Relevant brands breathe.

One opinion, on one stance, led to one post, and later led to a viral revolt against the brand.

It used to be wise to ride out the storm – give things a chance to see if the steam would let out of them on their own accord. No more. It took only days for the post to result in such a high level of consumer activism.

Howard Schultz tells a similar story in a 2010 interview with HBR:

Bloggers were putting holes in the equity of the brand, and it was affecting consumer confidence, our people, everything. I woke up one day and went to my desk, and I had 75 to 100 e-mails and phone calls about an issue I had never heard of. There was a sensational story in the Sun, in London, that Starbucks was wasting water through something called the “dipper well.” My phone rang, and it was a reporter asking me to comment on the dipper well. “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I said. The reporter said, “Mr. Schultz, I suggest you Google Starbucks real fast.” The Sun claimed that we were pouring “millions of litres of precious water down the drain” as a result of the method we used to sanitize equipment. The report was wildly exaggerated, and we had been working for several years to find a better solution, but we suddenly became the target of conservation groups. We had a real problem. The lesson was that the world had changed. Something that had happened in London had created a worldwide story that positioned Starbucks with venom and disrespect.

Brands are formed in the minds of consumers – and there the power remains.

A great example of how little control a brand has, but how important it is to influence brand perceptions with speed, authenticity, and passion.

*Cited from HBR's Lessons from the GoDaddy Customer Revolt