Almost exactly 10 years to the day of her final episode that aired just last week, I submitted the paper below to the professor of my 'Ethos of Brand' class. We were asked to choose a prominent brand identity on which to write a research paper. Fascinated with the...
Authentic Insights
Status or Success | What Do You Value?
Status seeking, the wish to belong, the asserting and cementing of one's membership in the group is a deep-seated and very natural drive whose origin and universality go beyond man and are explained by the most basic of drives, the drive to survive. -Tibor Scitovsky,...
Lose the Lines | Authenticity in Customer Service
Throw away the script A simple trip to the drive-through ATM should only take a few minutes. A couple of months ago I stopped by my local Wachovia to make a deposit. The cars were backed up worse than the Chick-Fil-A next door is during lunch. I remembered it was the...
Emotional ROI | A True Return on Your Investment
The Business Case How and why do companies measure their return on investment? Businesses and savvy professionals seem to obsess over the concept of ROI – return on investment. Companies want to see that the money they spend is also adding to their profits. Example:...
Inspiration or Inception | Whose Dream Are You Living?
It’s not often that I agree to see a movie in the theater, but recently I trusted my intuition and went to see Inception. Loved it. I won’t go into a full-blown explanation and critique of the film; I’ll simply share what you need to know in order to understand what I...
Perception and Projection
The Paradox We are constantly perceiving what is around us, while simultaneously projecting our own self-composed narratives onto what we see. It's difficult to know the difference. Is there one? Or are we talking about two sides of the same coin? The Snapshot View...