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Just Do It

Al Ries writing in Ad Age says it’s imperative to describe one’s brand in three words.
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Powerful, long-lasting brands are built by owning a word in the mind.
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About David Burn

David Burn is the co-founder, editor, and publisher of Adpulp.com. David joined the ad agency business in 1997 as a copywriter and then worked for seven agencies in five states prior to launching Bonehook in 2010. Today, David is a writer, brand strategist, and leader of creative teams in Austin, TX.

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  1. Scrubber says

    David Burn?
    “Advertising’s Useful Idiot”
    “Lacks Bias Check-o-meter”
    “Practices Intolerant Tolerance”
    Outstanding fun!
    -Your Budweiser lovin’, Fox News watchin’ pal -or- “Conservatively Oriented Adguy”

  6. Carl LaFong says

    Carl LaFong; Total babe magnet.
    Hey, your’e right! It does work! Thank you, Al Ries!

  7. Johnnie Moore says

    Thanks for the prompt David.
    I’ll go one better. Two words: Positioning, schmositioning.
    That old “owning a word in the mind” idea, again.
    Just because it’s possible to sum up some successful brands in pithy phrases doesn’t prove that’s why they are successful.
    But this positioning idea has been the justification of no end of uninspired interruption marketing. The future, I hope, is not one of trying to own bits of each other’s minds.

  8. David Burn says

    The future, I hope, is not one of trying to own bits of each other’s minds.
    When you put it that way, Johnnie, it does sound gross. I think it’s the verb. To own implies property and a customer’s mind is not, in fact, property. Yet, I don’t want to get lost in semantics. For example, is it any different to occupy top-of-mind? Is the marketing message a mere visitor, not a new landlord, in this case?

  9. Tom Asacker says

    David. You can have top of mind (e.g. when I say “soup” you think “Campbell’s.”). Just because you know it, doesn’t mean you desire it.
    I’ll take depth of feelings. Feelings drive profitability in a markeplace bursting at the seems with lookalike products and services.