Conviction to the Extreme

As part of my Strategic Brand Concepts class, I read Conviction a white paper written by Kelly O'Keefe. A brand's conviction is defined by O'Keefe as "an internal conviction about how to run a business based on [the company's] own values, not on the whims of the customers." Well, I discovered a brand who has taken conviction to the extreme.

Situation: While a grocery worker was on break a store manager requested help with
stopping a shoplifter

Conviction: Whole Foods Market enforced its policy that under no circumstances should
an employee ever physically touch a customer

Result: Grocery worker fired for stopping shoplifter

How far is too far to take a brand's conviction? Given the regional nature of the story, there may not be any major negative impact to the brand; however, does the brand really wants to risk that?

Bull's eye on Bull-shit

As usual, I am catching up on my industry trade emails at the wee hours of the morning. Today I came across "Target Tells a Blogger to Go Away," an article in the New York Times. This picture is what sparked the controversy.


Amy Jussel, Founder of ShapingYouth.org believes the advertisement has strategically placed a woman's crotch at the bull's eye and contacted Target directly for comment. You say toe-mae-toe and I say toe-mah-toe.

There is no sexual innuendo in this print ad. I saw a woman making a snow angel over a company logo.

I see blogging as an expansion of the word-of-mouth channel. As one person who said, "Bloggers are people with electronic megaphones, no more, no less." And I wholeheartedly agree.

Über Preparation

For the record...

For those who don't know me, I'm a planner and extremely goal-oriented. I like to know where I'm going and how to get there. If an obstacle confronts me, I'm more likely to strategize a way around it than to blow it away.

I am determined and dedicated to succeed in life. Definition of success: Wealth through a loving, supportive family and a passion for living my life with no regrets. The no regrets part is why I opted to leave a satisfactory job (and a nice salary to boot), in search of an emotionally lucrative career. Now I'm at the Brandcenter. I have no regrets.

I'm enjoying the experience, learning tons, and forever thankful for the thrill of a good challenge that reminds me to work better and not longer.

Laughter is Good Medicine

Here are a few video clips that kept the laughter going longer than most.

Smokin' Innovation

One of the great things about having a part-time job as a Google Quality Rater is that it exposes me to topics, sites, information and products I otherwise would not know existed. One such product is NJOY.

Stop laughing, blushing or whatever you may be doing right now. I'm not not talking about the sex toys njoy. I'm talking about NJOY - the electronic cigarette / cigar, which debuted at the 2008 International CES show last week in Las Vegas.

SIDEBAR: I am NOT a smoker so keep in mind that some of my comments are definitely in line with the anti-smoking regime.

The biggest benefit of NJOY is it's healthier than smoking (no carcinogens), which means no cancerous side effects. Other joys is that no lingering odor in clothes & hair, no smoke only a visual vapor and nothing flammable only a LCD light that glows red with each puff.

The negatives are currently limited to the visual vapor that has the scent of smoke and the rumor of TSA approving the device for airline use. If there is a scent, I don't want to be trapped with it for hours on end even if it isn't harmful to my health.

Now for the fun part: Can you imagine what the tobacco companies are planning to do to squash this new innovation? Will it be a cat fight, a stealth low blow, or a sparring of words and intellect? They're probably pow-wowing now to create a "just in case this blows up into something big" strategy. For now, they will simply wait and see how their most loyal smokers respond to NJOY - IF they even heard of it.

See it in action:

Hit the ground running or get out of the track!

My first days of class are complete. This semester I have Intro to Brand Management, Accounting for Communications, Strategic Brand Concepts, and Media Planning & Research. Boy do they make you hit the ground rolling! Over two days I had 4 classes and about 7.5 hours of instruction (normal is 12 hrs, but this was an "easy week".) Here's what I mean:

Assignments due next class period:
1 Brand Culture Analysis - Rolls Royce
1 Fragrance concept, design, and marketing plan - Coty
1 Strength & Weakness Analysis - Circuit City
9 Media Strategies covering three different objectives
1 Article Analysis
4 In-Store Visits - Best Buy, Circuit City, The City & Rolls Royce
2 Website Reviews
9 Chapters to read
6 Handouts to read
2 chapters worth of end of chapters problems
3 Team Meetings & Counting
Research, research & more research!!!

Oddly enough I'm not complaining (at least not yet). This semester is shaping up to be an excellent catalyst to get me running with the advertising wolf pack. Not to mention I'll have some really great work to include in my currently non-existent portfolio book representing the skills I will have further developed during the first year.

It's always the people

I spent time in NYC over the break and realized one thing at the end of it all. I REALLY MISS NYC!! Well, it's probably more the people who are in it than anything else. My friends and extended family, my Sorors and former co-workers. Don't get me wrong...the city itself has MUCH to offer especially compared to little ol' Richmond, but for me it's rarely the place. Always the people.

The Birth of the Brandcenter

Well it's official! The VCU Adcenter is now the VCU Brandcenter. I had the pleasure of having an impromptu tour of the school 10 days before the first day of 2nd semester. Not everyone had that luxury or rather skill to sweet talk a few workers with "please" and "thank you".

Sneak Peek: The Brandcenter

Happy New Year!

Since I recently relocated from New York City to Richmond, I decided to give the "Dirty Rich" an opportunity to prove me wrong by attending the 2nd Annual Carytown New Year's Eve Ball Drop.

Even though I lived in NYC for longer than I will admit on a blog, I never had an interest to attend the Times Square ball drop. Primary reasons have always been too cold and too crowded. I figured Richmond would be different and it was.


Unlike NYC where you have to arrive in Times Square early afternoon to get a prime location for the evening festivities, I arrived to Carytown shortly after 11PM. There was still space in the streets and no one was bumping me. The temperature was cold, but I knew NYC was even colder.

A little after 11:30PM the crowd finally arrived. There was bumping and shoving, but nothing too bad especially since I once again found enough space in the crowd to call my own.

11:45PM: Okay...did I feel the energy in the air of the new year approaching? No. Luckily I was with Adcenter classmates who kept things entertained.

11:55PM: There is no musical performances, no one on stage talking (at least that I could tell), and no sign of the New Year's Eve Ball that was on top of the Byrd Theater.

Midnight: Oh, wow! A not completely round ball made of Christmas lights finally rose....yes rose to the top of a pole. There was no count down, no screaming, just confusion. Everyone in my group grabbed cellphones to confirm it was actually midnight. How can a city have a grandstand celebration for the new year, but not bother to do a countdown!!

12:05AM: First fight of the year broke out. Happy New Year!