Branding Strategy Source

Thursday, July 23, 2026

Has the Well of Marketing Ideas Run Dry?

I was scanning the Internet today to identify any new out-of-the-box marketing strategies and tactics. I am thinking that the well for innovative marketing strategies and tactics may have run dry. Why? Because everything I am seeing either isn't innovative or is something I wrote about as long as a decade or two ago. Here is a list of what I found. You tell me if you think some of these are new or innovative. But whether they are new or innovative or not, they are a good list of basic marketing strategies and tactics that could work for your brand.

brand repositioning
social media mastery
shoppable social posts
loyalty programs with gamification
immersive and experiential marketing
guerrilla marketing
sensory branding
scratch-and-sniff marketing materials
neuromarketing
AI-powered personalization and automation
voice search and smart-speaker optimization
hyper-personalization at scale
purpose-driven branding
producing, hosting and broadcasting events
interactive content
influencer marketing
use of videos
short-form video marketing
long-form videos
create deep-dive content
personalized email marketing
augmented reality for immersive experiences
strategic brand partnerships
strategic retargeting
product customization
virtual pop-up store
interactive storytelling with choose your own adventure
gamified rewards and challenges
contests and giveaways
brand photo contests
frequently asked questions
community-led growth
humorous roasts of competitors and customers
self-roasts on Tik Tok
user-generated content
loyalty programs
referral programs
seasonal campaigns
virtual events
case studies
customer testimonials
tie marketing to trends and holidays
go live on Facebook
get an assist from Messenger chatbots
storytelling
use humor
teach people something useful
create a channel trailer all about you
host an X roundtable
buy a branded hashtag emoji
run a Tik Tok ad
podcasts
guest posts and guest blogging
promote content with a listicle video
provide discounts and special offers to followers
periodic giveaways
hold an online workshop
host a trivia night
provide live tutorials
street art
project your brand (with a literal projector) on buildings and in public spaces
turn up where you are least expected
outdoor advertising
create thought leadership
online courses
write a book
absurd publicity stunts
newsletters
create a catchy song about your brand - AI generate it
implement and publicize sustainable and eco-friendly business practices
localized marketing
behind-the-scenes brand tours
interactive polls and Q&A sessions

Thursday, June 11, 2026

Mission, Vision, Values Revisited

I spent a career helping organizations and their leadership teams come to consensus on their brand's positioning (target customer, brand essence, brand promise, reasons to believe, brand personality and brand archetype). I worked with organizational brands more than product brands, and what I discovered in the process is that many organizations needed work on their mission, vision and values before pursuing the brand positioning process. So, I began conducting mission, vision, values workshops. I could do a separate post on just mission and vision. But today I want to focus on values.

Most organizations list their values as individual words that are then often amplified by a terse description. However, I found that most organizations pick from a small number of what I would characterize as standard values: leadership, innovation, quality, diversity, excellence, hard work, integrity, collaboration, accountability, continuous improvement, teamwork, flexibility, social responsibility, professionalism, etc. Frankly, this seems to be pro forma and does not communicate passion for the values.

This is when I started working with organizations to craft their values as "We believe..." statements instead. This has made a huge difference. These statements are much more powerful and very motivating for employees and customers alike.

I am going to provide you with one example of this. I was on Writers & Books board of directors for eighteen years, serving as its board president for two years. Writers & Books is a Rochester, NY | Finger Lakes community literary organization, promoting reading and writing as lifelong pursuits. During my stint on the board, I led the board and staff to create a new mission, vision and values statement. It is one of my all-time favorite examples of this. Admittedly, we spent months on it and the participants were all avid readers, writers and wordsmiths. But here it is. I think you would agree with me that the statement, and especially the values, gives you a strong sense of the organization and is emotionally compelling.

Writers & Books Mission, Vision & Values

Mission:

Writers & Books promotes reading and writing as lifelong activities for people of all ages and backgrounds to enrich their lives and the intellectual, social and cultural vibrancy of their communities.

Vision:

To be a leading resource that celebrates diverse voices and fosters thriving communities of readers and writers.

Values:

We believe...

In the power and importance of the written word.
In celebrating the value of the written word both as a communication tool and as an art form.
That storytelling is a vital aspect of human experience that unifies humanity.
That reading builds empathy and brings people together.
In creating a safe space for voices of all backgrounds, beliefs, origins and abilities.
In engaging children and youth to have a lifelong passion for literature.

I would encourage every organization to craft their values not as individual words but as "We believe..." statements.

Tuesday, June 9, 2026

A Startup Founder’s Perspective on Building A Brand

Guest Post - Jason Bunnell, founder of FLX Music

I was sitting in a Starbucks about 15 years ago about to meet a young woman at Sabre (the then parent company of Travelocity and IGoUGo) who was a designer in the Marketing department. We were meeting to talk about a side project I was about to launch. After being laid off with a significant portion of the Sabre staff before a hedge fund re-IPOed the company, this would turn into a full time startup that I recently resumed in the Finger Lakes as the FLX Music Group.

Natasha Sanchez was in a totally different department working in a completely separate location of our office building. We only met by chance, but I asked to meet her at Starbucks because building a brand was completely foreign to me. At this stage of my career, I had been entirely focused on Finance. The creative aspects of Marketing were as unknown to me as the native language of Myanmar. This was one of the most eye-opening marketing related conversations I had had since taking marketing classes in college.

After describing the project turned startup concept, she asked me to “describe how this brand should make you feel.” What was she talking about? “Well, how do you want your customers and users to feel about the product?” I did not see how any of this really mattered.

If you have ever watched HBO’s Silicon Valley, this was exactly what Thomas Middleditch’s character Richard Hendricks was thinking when he met with the designer to help design his box. In that episode, Richard meets with a designer who starts by asking if the box was an animal, what animal would it be. What!?!? Richard leaves the designer saying, “Just make me a box! I don’t care.” Richard later recalls the conversation with his other developer co-founders and they all dismiss the design project as a waste of time, but then they all suggest what animal they think best represents the project and none agree. The importance of design was starting to register with Richard. Later when meeting with the designer to see his prototype, it is just a plain black box. “This is just a black box! I thought you were going to design something. Take some pride in your work for God’s sake!”

I left that meeting with Natasha with a list of questions: What can I learn from my favorite brands that can be applied to this startup? How does FLX Music make me feel? How do I want customers and users to relate to this brand? It was one of the more overwhelming exercises in the early stages of my startup experience.

The first attempt at this startup failed. After moving to the Finger Lakes to help my Dad run several of his businesses, I decided to revise the concept, this time with a slightly different premise and with the name FLX Music. I liked the brands SubPop and Digg and felt they achieved, from a branding perspective, what I wanted to accomplish: a short name, a modern feel, and they were both smaller, scrappier brands. I wanted the brand to give users a sense of adventure and feel excited about what they could do in the Finger Lakes region. I wanted customers and users to feel this regional brand was more accessible and ethical than some of the larger national equivalents like Spotify and TripAdvisor.

The first version was actually FLX Radio. Dresden Engle, the founder of one of Rochester’s leading PR firms, pointed out that “radio” probably didn’t convey what it used to. Later, when asking two interns about the work they had done and comparing our product to radio, they both sheepishly admitted they had never actually listened to the radio. This was a huge surprise to me, maybe showing my age. Later, when recounting this to a friend, he pointed out that streaming had been out for 20+ years and students in their early twenties had grown up with music streaming. Honestly, Dresden’s recommendation did not click until then. So I updated the name to FLX Music.

I then worked with 99designs. They ran a competition where several designers contributed designs until I had one that I thought was perfect. The logo, which you can see above, has a music note with wifi waves coming off to the right. “FLX,” the common abbreviation for the Finger Lakes, is big and bold and “music” has a tech-like modern feel, similar to Digg. I am really proud of it and have gotten great feedback.

Branding for a new startup can be challenging, particularly for someone who would not label himself as a creative type, but clearly this can be one of the most important early decisions for a startup as it shapes your customers' and users' view of the business. It is important to get right and getting input from creatives is critical to a brands success and ability to connect with their target audience.

Wednesday, May 27, 2026

Unusual & Eclectic Blog Posts Over Time

Today, I thought I would share some of the more obscure, interesting or unusual blog posts out of the 725 posts on BrandingStrategySource.com. Here they are for your reading pleasure:

You can also search topics in the upper left hand corner of the blog window. Topics include brand management, brand strategy, brand differentiation, brand positioning, brand equity measurement, brand research, brand identity, tribal branding, marketing strategies and tactics, digital marketing, social media marketing, marketing for business founders and startups, place branding, college and university branding, PR, publicity stunts, and any other brand management or marketing topic you can think of. You can also search by brand name. I have referenced over 200 brands in these blog posts so pick a brand in which you are interested and search on it to see if I have written about it in a blog post.

Finally, here is the post that summarizes what I can say to date about brand management and marketing: My Thoughts on Marketing After 40 Years of Working With Over 250 Brands.

Thursday, May 21, 2026

50 Ways to Increase Revenues

In my other posts, I have explained many ways that one can increase sales through a wide variety of marketing strategies and tactics. In this post, I will focus on other ways to increase revenues.

Here are some approaches to consider:

Explore new markets and market segments for your existing products and services
Explore new, different uses for your products or services
Explore different distribution channels for your products or services
Explore geographic expansion for your products and services
Offer your products or services in different quantities or amounts
Create single use and multiple use versions of your product
Offer your product in different sizes or colors
Bundle or unbundle your products or services
Suggest add-on sales to the purchased product or service
Offer complementary products or services
Create variations of your current products and services
Charge for technical support
Adopt a subscription model
Charge a set-up fee for complex products
Offer training for a fee
Develop and sell new related products based on rigorous customer research
Partner with a non-competing organization to share customer lists and marketing expenses - cross-promote and co-market your products with them
If your product can become an "ingredient product," sell it as an add-on or component of another organization's product
License your product through third parties
Move up or down the the price spectrum, inviting higher-end or lower-end customers
Identify opportunities for upselling
Pursue circular entrepreneurship, creating sustainability and multiple revenue streams
Explore ways to add value to and charge a related fee to your suppliers and business partners
License the technology underpinning your product, while still selling your products separately
Offer customized products and services for an additional fee
Offer personalized products and services for an additional fee
Add highly stylized products to your product range - focus on in-demand designs or styles
Offer concierge-level services for an additional fee
Offer your products as private-label in addition to selling them under your brand name
Rent or lease unused spaces or resources
Create a timeshare program
Add a program element or special ingredient to make your product or service unique
Tie your products or services to different types of events
Identify and work with as many strategic partners as possible
Set up a franchise model for your product or service
Partner with trade associations
Pursue a tiered pricing model
Pursue price segmentation
Create high-end packaging to increase perceived value and charge a premium price
If your product or service is building a database, consider selling the information from that database as a separate revenue stream
Create a customer tribe, club or community
Create customer loyalty programs
Start a customer referral program
Offer volume price incentives
Offer as many forms of payment as possible, make payment easy
Offer delayed payment plans
Be available for purchase 24/7
Educate the customer about new or additional additional product uses
Help the customer to form a habit around product usage
Turn your brand into a self-expressive brand - this is also known as "brand as a badge"

Wednesday, May 6, 2026

Focus Groups to Determine Brand Messaging

Often brand messaging can be more difficult than one might imagine, especially for larger organizations that offer a myriad of products or services that appeal to different customer groups. And functional benefits may not be the most powerful things to promote to stimulate purchase and especially repeat purchase and brand loyalty. Often, it is shared values and emotional, experiential or self-expressive benefits that have the most power to motivate purchase decisions.

So, if the objective is to determine the optimal brand positioning and messaging, especially succinct and powerful messaging, the focus groups should include a discussion of the following:

Customer beliefs, attitudes, values, anxieties, hopes, fears, motivations and behaviors
How purchase decisions are made
What other product or services, if any, they considered in the purchase decision
What the purchase experience was like
What the product or service usage experience was like
Asking them how they felt while using the brand's products or services
Talking about the brand as if it were a person, identifying the adjectives that best define the brand
Identifying what they believe the brand's values are
Perceived relevance of the brand and its products or services
The need that led to considering the brand
Asking them to use only one word to describe the brand
Asking them how they would sell the brand to someone who was unfamiliar with the brand
Asking them what the most important things about the brand are to them

Another insightful question to ask would be, "What would the world miss most if the brand ceased to exist?"

Usually, you would want to talk with loyal customers, new customers and customers who have walked away from the brand after having purchased its products and services previously.

This will lead you to a potent motivating unique value proposition and messaging for the brand.

Did you notice that I did not include questions about the product's or service's functions and features? While this might become part of the discussion, these are rarely the things that sell the brand.

I wish you great success in gaining insight into customer's motivations for purchasing your brand's products and services.

Tuesday, April 21, 2026

34 Heritage - Failed Customer Service

This is a cautionary tale of what poor customer service can lead to.

I first bought a pair of 34 Heritage jeans from a men's clothing boutique in Portland, ME. The jeans were dressy and fit well. I loved them. They became my favorite jeans brand. Since then, I have purchased a couple more pair of jeans from the same men's clothing store via telephone orders. After that, I began purchasing them directly from 34 Heritage. Recently, I purchased two different pair of navy dress jeans. When they arrived, one pair was correct but the other pair was a washed out light blue casual pair of jeans, something that I would not wear. I immediately wrote 34 Heritage to make them aware of their shipping error. We exchanged email messages for about a week but ultimately, they would not exchange the jeans because I had cut the tags off the jeans, something in retrospect I would have been wise not to have done. I understand that 34 Heritage might have a process that guards against potentially fraudulent exchanges, however it was clear that the customer service representative thought I was lying throughout the customer service process. That was apparent in her written responses, which were curt, unfriendly and even sarcastic.

It didn't bother me as much that they would not exchange the pants shipped in error for the ones I ordered, but rather that they would not own up to their mistake, but instead accuse me of lying.

I can understand that not every company lives by the philosophy "the customer is always right." But not to accommodate me in any way and to be curt with me in writing when I was only trying to report a shipping error is inexcusable. I would have been a lifetime customer, but my patronage of their brand has now ended. If they had accepted the return they would have seen that the light blue jeans had never been worn and they would not have been out any money at all (well, except for shipping and restocking, but that would have been a result of their error). And, most importantly, they would have kept me as a satisfied customer.

The lifetime value of any satisfied customer can add up to a significant amount. And, in my case, because I have a substantial online presence and audience, this story could have a multiplier effect on lost revenues for them. It is a shame that 34 Heritage did not handle this differently. But these types of customer service experiences happen all too often with so many different brands. One failed touch point can have more of a negative effect than one might imagine. I personally believe that every brand's operating philosophy should be "the customer is always right." And customers and potential customers should always be treated with great respect. This helps build a strong brand franchise. Ultimately, the emotional connection to brands results from the quality of interaction at each point of customer contact with those brands. And when errors are made, quick and satisfying recoveries are essential.