Brand Mix

Here's my weekly summary of interesting and entertaining posts and articles. More posts at the bottom of the page in "Martin's Shared Items":

1) A Practical Guide to Branding: BusinessWeek
BusinessWeek published a special report on branding this week in its small businesses section. Includes a slide show of small companies that have created big brands as well as this branding basics piece.

2) More and more and more outrage over the airlines: Various
You can imagine the brainstorming sessions going on. What else can we charge for? First it was checked bags. Everyone, it seems, has signed up for that. Now U.S. Air is going to charge $2 for soda. What's next? How about a charge for the restroom, perhaps coin operated?

3) The carbon footprint of food: Marginal Revolution
As interest in green issues continues to rise, knowledge and information rises too. These latest findings showing the lack of importance of transportation in the carbon footprint of food are bad news for farmer's markets but great news for Fiji Water.

4) Lars Wallentin profile: brandgym
It was good to read that my former Nestlé colleague, Lars Wallentin is still going strong and still promoting his strong opinions about package design. His creed: Simplify and amplify.

5) Brand Strategy a World Apart: Fresh Peel
A couple of weeks back, Laura Ries commented on how Chinese firms were following the Japanese model where: "everybody makes everything" which she sees as a bad thing because they are not focused. Chris Wilson offers an alternative perspective.