blog – Brand Poets

Brand vs Company: The Ultimate Personality Contest

As a marketing and branding agency, one of the first conversations we have with our clients revolves around brand identity. At some point in the discussion, someone in the boardroom will summon the courage to [...]

Back-to-School Basics: Marketing for Educational Institutions

While students around the world are shopping for paper, pencils, and planners for the 2019-2020 school year, marketing firms are preparing educational institutions (preschools, grade schools, and universities alike) for the year ahead. Below are [...]

Get Real: Lessons Learned in Social Movement Marketing

Earlier this year, in conjunction with their #DreamCrazier campaign, Nike unveiled ten billboards from Downtown Los Angeles to Times Square. The ad features fencer and Olympic medalist Ibtihaj Muhammad, rejoicing over a victory while wearing her [...]

Think Small to Maximize Your Marketing Efforts

As business owners, we spend much of our marketing time and dollars introducing customers to our brand in a “big” way. Exhibit A: Your website, with carefully curated stock imagery, a high-quality introductory video, and [...]

“Your First Month is Free”: 3 Ways Small Businesses Can Use the Endowment Effect

You consider it for a moment. You tell yourself, it’s only a test drive. You’re not committing to it. “Sure,” you say. “Let’s do it.” On the outside, the salesman is cool as a cucumber. [...]

Nano-Influencers: Why It Pays to Be Nano-Famous

Do you have less than 10,000 (but more than 1,000) followers on Instagram? Do you have a passion for a topic that could be considered a niche market? Are you open to receiving nominal compensation [...]

Thanks for Your Feedback: The Dos and Don’ts of Reputation Management

There was a time when maintaining your reputation wasn’t so complicated. It meant that you kept a clean house, picked up after your dog, and generally behaved in ways that your neighbors found acceptable. Then [...]

Go Live!: Using Facebook’s Top Feature to Make Face-to-Face Connections

If you’re of a certain age, you’ve been to (or have been invited to) a Mary Kay party. At these at-home socials, you’re treated to an afternoon of pampering and showered with beauty tips, ultimately [...]

In 2019, Health Care Companies Must Prioritize Branding

Is your hospital on Facebook? Whether you’ve “liked” it or not, the likelihood is that your local health care center is active on social media—Twitter, Instagram, perhaps even Snapchat. Doctors, specialists, pharmacies, rehab centers, and [...]

#Hashtags101: How #s Can Propel Your Social Media Presence

Hashtags are eleven years old. They’re nearly teenagers. And for that reason alone, it’s about time we sit down and have “the talk.” Let’s talk about #HowToHashtag.Back in 2007, a man named Chris Messina—the self-proclaimed hashtag [...]

Selling the Vision: How to Deliver a Clear & Concise Presentation

There are those individuals—a handful, perhaps—who stood in front of the fifth grade classroom and delivered that book report effortlessly, with a permanent smile on their face and not an ounce of perspiration under their [...]

4 Bold Marketing Tips to Grow Your Family Business

When you think of the phrase “family business,” what values come to mind? For American consumers, those values tend to be trust, relationships, and quality. Numerous polls suggest that the vast majority of consumers would [...]

What Campari Gets Right: The Creativity, Artistry and Poetry Behind Branding

It’s likely that you know the name Campari. If you’re not a fan of their liqueur (or the Campari Group suite of alcoholic beverages), then perhaps you’ve spotted a reproduction of one of their world [...]

Suspense Marketing: Creating a Buzz About Your Next Big Thing

In early 2016, shoppers at The Grove—a popular, outdoor retail and entertainment complex in Los Angeles—found themselves in the midst of a crash landing site: A 17-foot-tall UFO sat buried in the central green space, [...]

What Superstar Athletes Can Teach Us About Branding

Miami city commissioners recently approved a public referendum on David Beckham’s Major League Soccer complex, which features a 25,000-seat stadium, retail, restaurant and office space, a hotel, and a public park, all built on what is [...]

Couture Goes Live: Embracing the Power of Social Media

Last October, at the inaugural Forces of Fashion conference hosted by Vogue magazine, celebrity designer Marc Jacobs discussed his frustration with the social media app Instagram and his reason for barring the use of devices [...]

Broadening Your Brand’s Reach with a Social Media Influencer Campaign

In the early twentieth century, vaudeville and silent film star Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle was at the top of his game. A predecessor and mentor to Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Bob Hope, Arbuckle’s influence on [...]

What the Royal Family Can Teach Us About Branding

Did you know that the Royal Family has its own website? They do. The address is “royal.uk” (catchy, right?), and it’s not your typical government website. While “whitehouse.gov” has some character, in terms of charm [...]

Mindful Marketing: Why Awareness and Authenticity Are Key in Advertising

If you live in a metropolis, or even in a fairly large city, then you likely passed a dozen yoga studios, three meditation centers, and at least one sound bath pop-up on the way to [...]

What Is a White Paper—and Why Should I Write One?

Remember those nights when you stayed up until 3AM, quarantined in your university dorm room, writing 15-page research papers about books you barely understood? In those moments, you likely wondered: What is it all for? [...]

Create Your Niche in 3 Steps

You are a realtor, broker or sales associate ready to launch your brand. You have a stellar logo that a friend created for you, business cards designed and printed at VistaPrint, and a Wix website [...]

Omni-channel: The Art of Crafting a Seamless Customer Experience

It happened in an instant. All of a sudden, the world was buying coffee with Starbucks accounts, accessible via a card we keep in our wallet, an app we store on our phone, or a [...]

You Click It, You Buy It: The Inevitable Rise of Mobile Commerce

Remember when shopping was complicated? You put the kids in the car. You battled traffic and fought over parking spaces. You went to the department store. You browsed. You bought. You went home. While none [...]

How to Avoid Social Media Scams in the Oversharing Age

Social media has revolutionized our culture in myriad ways, drastically altering the way that companies interact with consumers. But advantages comes at a cost...Read More

“You Can’t Swipe It” & Other Reasons to Reconsider Print Marketing

Love it or hate it, digital marketing is a must for brands. But don't cross print off the list just yet....Read More

3 Misconceptions About Finding Your Brand Voice

Brand voice is the tone with which a brand speaks to its audience, and it determines every aspect of a company’s communication: website content, blog content, newsletters, social media posts, packaging, etc....Read More

Smart Cookies: Making the Case for Remarketing

Ever feel like you are being followed online? Welcome to remarketing - the online advertiser's tool use to follow-up with previous customers… or make a second attempt at a sale with visitors who failed to purchase...Read More

To Snap… or Not to Snap?

Snapchatters consist of about 173 million daily active users around the world, including some major corporations that have joined the platform to target the platform’s millennial demographic. All of those brands have a vested interest in the 17 to 24 demographic...Read More

When Free Content Pays Off—and When It Doesn’t

Free content is not an original concept. YouTube hosts billions of free videos. Podcasts can be streamed free. Music can be streamed free...Read More

Say No To Neutrality

Consumers today are constantly being bombarded with messages of social activism. It’s one invitation after another to join an endless tug-of-war....Read More

There’s Always a Strategy

A good story doesn’t just appear out of thin air. Stories are the backbone of all branding, forged and crafted into the ideal message for the product. Without them, marketing campaigns can fall flat...Read More

Gripped By The Power of The GIF

In the era of social media sharing, the word GIF has become part of our vernacular...Read More

Just Pin It

Which outlet best communicates your message? Between Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Snapchat, the sky’s the limit for brand awareness and circulation...Read More

Boy or Girl?

Boys watch sports and drive fast cars; girls try on shoes and play with makeup. Girls like pink. Boys like blue. These broad, clichéd gender stereotypes...Read More

Why Not Wear It?

With tech companies pumping out new products each year or sometimes every couple of months, as it were the mode of receiving has shifted. "Wearables" is taking 2017 by storm...Read More

Virtual Reality’s Role in Marketing

Technology has made some remarkable advancements in the past two decades. No, we still don’t have hoverboards or flying cars (sorry, Doc Brown), but we do have virtual reality...Read More

Crowdsourced Marketing: Is It Worth The Risk?

We’ve all heard about the wisdom of crowds, from Wikipedia to an entire industry of television voting shows attempting to prove the theory...Read More

How To Fuel The Social Media Furnace

Each platform is unique with its “rules” while ever-changing algorithms make it more difficult to stay on top of the feed. Staying relevant is a full time job. Welcome to the modern world... Read More

Brand Awareness = Business Value

Considering a rebranding? How do you put a price tag on the value of your business? The very best strategic brands have one thing in common is a systems-based approach to the design of your brand...Read More

Design By Committee: When Collaboration Goes Awry

A healthy exchange of ideas from a vested team can be a recipe for a happy workplace and business success...Read More

How to Position Yourself Within a Brand

Having your own brand allows you to create a “mark” around yourself, your name and your career...Read More

Stop Advertising and Start Telling Stories

You finally pulled the trigger and purchased a quarter page ad in a local newspaper or activated that Google AdWords account that has been dormant for months. You are bold and determined to get your brand seen by more eyeballs. Bravo. Now, what’s your story?...Read More