Brand Mix

We don't need none of your highfalutin talk or affected manners around here. Here are six posts with a clear message:

1) 30 Days to Better Business Writing – my new FREE eBook: Bad Language
Matthew Stibe has set out to rid the business world of "jargon, waffle, hype, verbiage and conventionality." He's doing it by making his eBook free to anyone who wants. It's good so I'm doing my bit to spread the word in the hope that those who most need to read it, will read it.

2) Diary of a Tweet: Clarity vs Twitterjunk: The B2B marketing Blog
We're in the "trough of technobabble" when it comes to Twitter. A crisp, 140 character tweet quickly gets RT'd into a horrible mess of gobbledy-gook. With examples.

3) Painfully Honest and Epic Mobile Home Commercial Rhett and Link (via brandflakesforbreakfast)
Go to Rhett and Link's website and you can nominate a local business for a free commercial, perhaps something like this one for Cullman Liquidation. So, take a look at this ad. Or don't. I don't care:



4) Doing Business Houston-Style In the 1970s: HoustonPress News
And while we're in this blunt frame of mind, let's step back in time and visit Edward Mike Davis, owner of the Tiger Oil Company. A series of memos he's supposed to have written back in the 70s show his no-nonsense management approach. Just one snippet here showing his compassion and camaraderie with his employees: "Do not speak to me when you see me. If I want to speak to you, I will do so. I want to save my throat. I don't want to ruin it by saying hello to all you sons-of-bitches." Clearly he was too soft on his employees because, just a couple of years after these memos, the company filed for bankruptcy.

5) Can You Believe How Mean Office Gossip Can Be? The New York Times
I'm sure that Edward Mike Davis would have had some choice words to say about gossip in the office. He would have hated it and, according to this article, he would have been right. A new study of gossip shows how negative and destructive it can be and provides a few tips on gossip management.

6) Contrasts in How Google Suggests Searches: Ben Casnocha
As Ben points out in this post, we don't lie to Google. We type in what we're thinking -- good, bad, and ugly so it's a great way to find out what's on people's minds. Here's how. When you start to type in something to the search box, Google suggests the most popular completions to the given prefix. Slate tested this out and found some interesting contrasts between "dumb" searches and "smart" ones. Type in "how 2" are find: "how 2 get pregnant" and "how 2 grow weed." Type in "how one might" and find "how one might discover a new piece of music" or "how one might account for the rise of andrew jackson in 1828."

That's it! Back soon with more stories from the world of brand strategy (and vaguely related areas). More thoughts and comments also available on Twitter (@martinjbishop).