The division of left brain / right brain in marketing, sales and advertising is dead.
Clients no longer appreciate, nor respect, the inability of agencies to follow traditional business practices, and be beholden unto "the creative process" - which means the agency will deliver the goods when they're good and ready.
Do you remember the exact moment you knew what you wanted to do for the rest of your life?
I do. It happened while watching a video. It took exactly seven minutes.
• Cut to 1984.
Hot off the heels of two communication degrees, my workday was a mix of entry-level activities; pulling cables, loading gear into vans, clipping on mic’s, getting lunch for the crew, and so forth. I was a kid trying to break into an incredibly competitive field.
Before I’m accused of promoting masochism, or suggesting that we all give up our worldly possessions in pursuit of design truth, let me clarify.
Designers are everywhere these days. The profession like many others, has become extremely portable.
My interview with Michael Adams was intentionally directed towards what I knew were key points in Ansel’s books
Well folks, today we at FastCompany.TV launched PhotoCycle, which Robert Scoble, Rocky Barbanica and I have been working on behind the scenes for months. Here’s the short version of the back-story:
On the Internet, your process is your brand. Have a good process, and people will keep coming back to buy, read, interact. Have a bad process, and you need to re-think your business or communications goals. Amazon, eBay, GE, iTunes, The New York Times, Google, epicurious.com, all have time-proven advantages over their competitors.
But one of the primary keys to a finely calibrated brand is consistency of message.
For a long time customer service has been a strong strategic tool for many service-based companies like USAA Insurance Company and the Four Season Hotels and resorts. However, today, product-based companies like Apple and Lexus are relying more on customer service as a complement to their products. The strategy works, although the line between product and service has become blurry. Today, what matters more is the total experience.
