Content or Volume, what grows brand?

Many corporates spend more time planning their approach to digital media, and most if not half of those companies end up overwhelmed and never even starting the conversation online with their consumers. Content is important and ought to be planned carefully, but, the conversation needs to start. In a similar manner, when an individual plans for a date, he doesn't spend the night before rehearsing and planning the type of conversations he will have the next day including the flow of conversation. What is important is that you are able to honor your appointment and able to start a conversation. 

Brands need to start conversations rather than over-plan how the conversation will go and often end up without any conversation at all. Interesting to note that according to Fast Company, the number one factor that influences brand value is conversation, and second information.

Imagine having to fly to a business meeting sitting next to the board chairperson of the company you work for. What conversation will you have? Will you even have the courage to start a conversation? And about what, exactly will you engage on? Your ability and courage to even start a conversation will be a sign of your confidence and ability to hold a conversation.

The question then comes to mind:"Do introverts or extroverts succeed better in the work place?". Answers may vary based on the individual perceptions and belief, however, when it comes to interpersonal relationship, extroverts are more likely to draw attention. Whether it is for a good or bad reasons, that is besides the question. In the South African context, the member of parliament and leader of the political party called Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) Mr. Julius Malema, is probably the most notable and remembered person when one thinks parliament. And this is not necessarily because of the content or contributions he makes in parliament, but simply because he is more vocal and is able to get his points across in a robust way. 

Brands that are able to hold a conversation with their consumers online, are more likely to be perceived as more caring and as a result end up gaining more value in the consumers minds.

Whether personal or corporate brand, start a conversation and that is the beginning of your brand value increasing.

The Art of Good Client relations: Every good dessert is a result of good recipe

I love sweet things, they somehow improve my mood. And in a similar manner, as a consultant, you would not want the mood to change to be bad between you and your clients.
Whether you have a long lasting relationship with the client or you just won the account, there are basic principles if I may say, to retaining the account. Firstly, what brought you and the client is business. And at the heart of that relationship is the word: DELIVERY. And you do not want heart-failure, because once that happens, you may not be able to have the same relationship again. So, you need to keep delivering, and that is the key to keep your relationship working and rewarding. There are four suggestions or rather areas that need attention, and if you can manage to do them well, you can be somewhat assured of a sweet and happy relationship. Here they are: 1. Ask the right questions. 2. Understand the brief. 3.Deliver on time. 4. Manage obstacles.
It is almost impossible for your company to deliver good work if you did not understand the brief in the first place, and again, you cannot understand the brief if you do not ask the right questions. Asking the right questions does not always mean asking too many questions, however, it means asking the kind of questions that allows you to get the information that you need, which information will allow you to execute you job accurately. Remember that, clients may not be experts in the specific field, so, they may know in their minds what they want you do for them, but somehow fail to convey their message in a manner that is easily understandable. However, the sad reality is that, whether they managed to get their message across correctly or not, they still have expectations from you to deliver exactly what they have in mind. In short, you have to be able to read minds, and you can only do this through asking the right type of questions. That is the key to understanding your brief. Even with you understanding the brief, you at time become unable to deliver on the expected / agreed time. Chances are, you will anticipate your delivery time not being met. Take the courage to communicate with your client on time. Missing deadlines is not fashionable, but, you are most likely to be understood and forgiven if you communicated on time. Whereas, telling the client that you missed deadline after he/she is already aware because the deadline time has already past, may be detrimental to your business and ultimately, you relationship with the client.
Once you have managed this expectation, and ensured that the services are delivered in a satisfactory manner, remember to be consistent. That is the only way you build a good reputation and a strong brand.

It takes 20 yrs to build a reputation: How long does it take to destroy it?

Warren Buffett is often quoted saying: "It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently". To what extend is this statement true? Think about one of the world's renowned and reputable brand personalities, whom for one reason or another, had to fight to get their reputation out of the mud so to speak, the likes of Tiger Woods (One of the world's best golfer), Oscar Prestorius (Olympic blade runner), and, Bill Clinton (Former US President). All of these personalities at one point of their lives were revered highly by society at large, but their reputation took a plunge one point of their lives. and perhaps the BIG question we should ask ourselves is: What comes to mind, first thing when you see these personalities? When you think of Tiger Woods, do you see a womaniser or a cheat? Or so you see one of the world's best golfer? Well, to give you my answer, I see the best golfer. And maybe, someone may differ with my response.

The real crux of the matter is that, all the above mentioned brand personalities, have built such strong brands that their reputation or so-called bad acts that tainted their reputation at some point in their lives, are somewhat no longer as visible to the majority and may have fizzled out to some extend. What may serve as evidence of the strength of the brand personalities, it the time it takes for sponsorships/endorsements to pull out their investments from these personalities. We all now that there is no brand that would want to be associated to someone who would drag its reputation to the mud. However, with all the processes that are in place within large corporate entities, to issue urgent press statements with almost immediate effect upon hearing the bad news that cloud the personality who is their brand ambassador, in the case of the Olympic blade runner Oscar Prestorius, it took at least more than a day upon hearing about the alleged killing that Oscar committed, for the sponsors to confirm that they have pulled out their sponsorships.

When a brand is so strong, it takes more than a minute to destroy it. And the strength of a brand enables the some personal brand to return back to its full strength with ease. We may controversially conclude, that it takes more that a minute to destroy a strong personal brand. And it becomes easier for a very strong brand to return to full strength.

 

 

 

Brand Value: Personal Brand

A survey was published in August 2013 that had the following listing of South Africa's most valuable brands:
 1.     MTN
2.    Vodacom
3.    Sasol
4.    Standard Bank
5.    Absa
6.    Nedbank
7.    Woolworths
8.    First National Bank (FNB)
9.    Shoprite
10.  Mediclinic

Although it is clearly noticable from the list that two of the cellular phone network companies lead the pack, what is interesting to observe is SASOL being ranked number three in the survey. This observation proves that brand, is not subjective or limited to FMCG or retail products. Brand value can and is important in any sector of business or industry. The question then comes up. Can we then brand government? Is there any value in doing branding exercises for government even though the purpose of government is not primarily to do business but provide service. From politicians, CEOs, political parties and companies, the value of brand is ever important, and if brand is given proper attention, it could be the main reason for differentiation in any organisation. Merely focusing on effective sales and pricing strategies, distribution strategies can improve the business operations and ability to increase business, however, it will take a brand strategy to set-apart as it were, the products of one company to that of the competitor.
The age of branding is increasing widely, and more organisations are beginning to see the benefits even in those organisation or businesses that do not operate in FMCG space.

 

Brand is uniform without wearing similar clothes

We are all familiar with neat professional uniform that flight attendants wear. And if you are living in South Africa, you have seem different uniforms worn by various religious denominations. All the above mentioned, are examples of uniform. However, when we talk about uniform regarding brands, uniform is more than matching clothes worn by different poeple that work for the same organisation. Uniform is linked to consistency, alignment, synergy and the strategic direction that the brand intends to pursue in order to give customers a consistent experience that will make it easy for consumers to associate certain attributes, that will always influence the perception of consumers.
In short, although some brands mostly those operating in the airline industry have a specific way of clothing, the real uniform, happens in the mind. As consumers begin to associate certain colours and themes to a particular brand. For example, if you are liking in South Africa, should someone ask you, what comes to mind when you think about the colour Yellow, most if not all middle aged / adults will answer: MTN (which is the local network service provider). This is because the cellphone network brand has worked on ensuring the colour yellow has association to the MTN brand. I would also agree that uniform in design, layout and sometimes to the extend of sense of smell add great value in creating the kind of uniform that will eventually affect consumers minds, if done consistent enough and in a strategic manner. We can take for example the Woolworths brand that operates within the FMCG sector. You may be in any part of the country, the set up of the store, the sense of smell and often the customer experience is ussually the same everywhere, so long as it is the same store. Although this exercise may be for other reasons such as making the experience easy for customers to find items in the store, from a brand perspective, this kind of uniform, creates the consistency that customers know what to expect everytime they visit the store. And this makes their purchasing decision easy and as a result keep them coming back because they know what to expect. We may conclude that uniform in terms of appearance is important, however, uniformity in brand works better and best if it is mostly achieved in the mind of consumers due to a consistency in the brand experience.

What makes you different?

Have you ever thought or been asked the question: What makes you different? In job interviews you may be asked, what skills / value are you bringing to the organisation? In a social context, others may ask; who is he? what is he known for? All these questions relate to one GRAND question: What is your value proposition.
Do you know what makes you unique? Your response to this question, shows what qualities you hold dear to your heart. The quest to understanding and clearifying your value proposition in a manner that is authentic and visible to others, will secure you future earnings. In the work environment, when others know your value proposition, they need not doubt your abilities or capabilities to produre good quality work.
Your value proposition is and can be translated to your brand value, just as much as companies are surveyed and clasified in their value to the consumers. Companies with greater brand value generally attract quality employees, perform better in the stock market and consumers are more than happy to be associated with those companies. These companies become top of mind to consumers, and they choose them first over competitor products.
It is absolutely important to figure out what makes you unique, and, how will those unique qualities earn you greater dividents. This will be the beginning of building the brand called YOU.

Social Media: Overconnected or Effective Connection?

When we talk of social media, to some they think 'information over-load', but to others, social media is a symbol of effective communication in modern times. One could ask: is social media only for the youth? or has it been able to cross and bridge the age divide between the old and young generation?
Atleast for those who are commuting, you may be familiar with the scene of a young person, sitting all almost unaware or not paying attention to the happenings around them, busy fiddling with their phone, until they reach their destination. Whereas, the older guy sitting alone with his face completely covered with the newspaper he is reading, almost gives you a sense that, he is really interested in the current affairs issues in the papers and would not want to be interrupted. One may argue that at times, the feel of holding a newspaper in your hands and reading the news, is irreplaceable. However, with that said, you can find infact, more than newspaper online, by just a click of a button on your mobile phone. I can almost believe that, even the guy who likes reading his favourite newspaper every morning would like to read more than one paper to get other news if not different angles of the same story.
We can agree or disagree, social media has made life simpler by providing information quicker and making it easily accessible. Different people, use social media for different reasons, others enjoy just to be informed of what is going on around the world, as they read RSS feeds, others enjoy engaging in  conversations and providing their perspective or oponion. Whichever way you choose to use social media, the benefits of information being easily and readily available when you need it, is always a great feeling to have access to it.

Has Digital Media Taken Over TV & Radio?

Recently, effective marketing strategies are those that focus more on consumer engagement, rather than awareness. And this could be the reason why there is a huge speculation about whether TV and radio have been overtaken by the digital space.
An article in the Harvard Business Review titled: Branding in the Digital Age: You’re Spending Your Money in All the Wrong Places. Sparked more conversation amongst communicators about the value and effectiveness of different mediums qnd channels of communication.
In South Africa, a significant shift in the way brands communicate as started as more corporates begin to see value in engaging with consumers on the digital space. However, there are still questions that are raised in the corporate boardrooms regarding the effectiveness and justification of large spendings on marketing campaigns.
Fact of the matter is that, most of these channels of communication are integrated and often inter-dependant on each other to ensure effectiveness. Once more, the word integration is key in all brand communication activities. It is true that consumers would like to engage more with brands more now than ever before, however, there is still value in outdoor advertising, and TV adverts. The reasons are that, each medium of communication serves a different purpose, the purpose of running a radio, TV, outdoor and digital campaign are all for different reasons and the results will also vary in value.
So, we may conclude that the digital space has brought a new and different dynamic to the brand communications arena, but, there is still a need for the other mediums of communication. When it comes to the question of: Which medium adds more value and is cost effective? Most people may argue that the digital space adds more value and is cheaper, however, this is all dependant the purpose of the campaign, and the expected results.

Scent: Another touch point of a brand

Although I don't drink coffee, but I cant resist the aroma that awakens my senses every time I walk pass the coffee shops. Every time I go to the local shopping mall, almost immediately as I get off my car, it seems as though I am smelling the coffee even before I get anywhere near the shop.
This happens because our sense of smell has a direct link to us being able to recall events, people and places quicker. More insight on why smells has such a powerful effect is explained on the www.uniliver.co.za website: The reason scents work is the fact that your olfactory nerves connect directly with your brain, where scent impulses create virtually instant memories.
With this knowledge, is there an opportunity for brands to use scent as a way to make their consumers remember their store or experience with the particular brand, even though the brand is not necessarily a cosmetic brand? In order for brands to leverage this touch point which is one of our senses: smell; the brand will need to ensure that the scent/smell becomes part of the brand experience, and not just the smell in the shop. There is almost a series of steps and a well defined plan on how a specific scent will be used to be part of the customer experience. Almost a total or complete strategy that focuses in the touch point of smell will have to be formulated. Beginning with the brand identifying the kind of smell they desire the brand to be associated with, doing some research on what moods different smells can bring to people, and, if consumer will like the particular smell. If the brand has different stores, how will all the different outlets, stores maintain the same uniform in the look and feel, including the smell, that will make consumers have the same experience even if they happen to be in different geographical locations but find the same store.
Although smell may appear to be a menial and unimportant aspect of the brand, if used correctly it has power to be part of the signature and definitely influence the decision making of the consumers.
Aromatherapy has been in existence for a long time.

Anthropologists speculate that as early as 7000 BC, man anointed the body with fragrant ointments from oils and plants. The Greeks, Romans, Egyptians and Chinese all used essential oils not only for bathing and perfume, but for healing as well. Today, we refer to the power of scents on our mental and physical well-being as aromatherapy.  

Design Thinking: New way to market research

Design Thinking is a structured method with clearly defined goals over a periodic/specific timeline. Design thinking focuses on the people more than anything else. Whilst business models seek to solve problems, design thinking takes a few steps backwards and seek to understand the problem first before attempting to solve it. Design thinking focuses on the following pillars: observations, interviews, brainstorming, prototyping. And this is were research takes a major role in the beginning of the process of design thinking.
It may be true to some extend that not all business problems would be solved using this methodology. However, we cannot doubt the impact that design thinking will have in re-shaping the thinking of strategist and researchers of organisations moving forward.
Since design thinking is human centered, this approach could shape the thinking of researchers, making them more focused, customising their research tools to be in line with the intended goals. And as a result, allowing them to have research finding that have more value and feed into the strategy as it provides meaningful insights.
This approach makes sense as the purpose of many research undertakings are to find solutions to customer, or products that altimately will be used by customers. So, everything comes into full circle, to the HUMAN, who is at the centre or reason of research.
However, good research that is human centred does not translate into design thinking, there are more elements that complete design thinking as listed earlier (observations, interviews, brainstorming, prototyping).
Design thinking may not be easy to be used as a model in corporate organisation or large business. This is because they often have a different focus as mandated by the shareholders and board of directors. And this design thinking may be found pushed to the marketing department or communications department of the organisation, where the probaly not even enough people who understand the process of design thinking. What I am advocating is that, there is always a place for consultants/agencies in business, for reasons like producing results using design thinking and helping influence organisational strategies.

Innovation the key driver to business success

To be called an innovation, an idea must be replicable at an economical cost and must satisfy a specific need, this is according to businessdictionary.com.
We often use the words "creativity" and "innovation" interchangeably, however, creativity is about coming up with ideas while innovation is about "bringing ideas to life." While individuals may display creativity, innovation occurs in the organisational context only, by bringing creative ideas to life.
Innovation is linked to performance and growth through improvements in efficiency, productivity, quality, competitive positioning and market share. It typically adds value by changing old organisational forms and practices. Organisations that do not innovate effectively may be destroyed by those who do.
A 2007 Booz Allen study illustrated that the one key characteristic of successful innovators is that they had a rigorous process for managing innovation including "a disciplined, stage-by-stage approval process combined with regular measurements of every critical factor, from time and money spent.to the success of new products and services in the market."
From Booz Allen's study, it is very clear that innovation does not often happen by accident, it is a planned and well defined deliberate process. However, with this said, there still remains two challenges when it comes innovation. 1- most organisations do not have suitable key indicators that may be used to measure innovation. 2 - No strategic approach to innovation.
More often, innovation is seen as an add on, and not a key driver in most businesses. Without a proper strategy and key indicators that would measure innovation success, it is almost impossible to view innovation as a key function and tool to the business.
For innovation to be a priority in bussiness, it needs to be treated as such, only then will the results of innovation come. Organisational leaders need to champion the cause when it comes to innovation. That way, all organisational members will feel the freedom and need to come up with more creative ideas that may be translated into innovation.

Could Social Media play a more meaningful role in S.A politics?

A few years back when the now US President Barack Obama campaigned for the first time to be president; effective use of social media was attributed as one of the key drivers that led to his winning favour of the majority voters. Obama's campaigns used online activity to boost fundraising efforts, recruit volunteers & look for indications of whether they've been successful at voter persuasion. In South Africa, a large number of voters are between the ages of 20yrs - 39yrs (according to hrsc.az.za). Individuals in this age group are technologically savvy and have access to the internet. If these figures are a true reflection of the South African voter, would it be sensible to reach this market using social media? I do not doubt the ability of social media to reach this market, they usually use digital platforms to reach read news about different political party's news and manifestos. However, the question that remains unclear is the effectiveness of social media to persuade voters to follow, or end-up voting for a particular political party. Bear in mind that, in South Africa, not so many organisations, businesses or corporates have embraced the effective use of social media. Except for the First National Bank which went of to win the Best Global Innovative Bank. There are quite a number of organisations that have now started using social media as one of the channels of communication, but there are yet results to be shown on the achievements that reflect rewards that can be attributed to social media. Many politicians tweet on their own personal capacity about issues that relate to the political party they follow, however, official political party twitter handles are still not the source of information to the ordinary citizen. One may argue that official political party twitter handles do provide information, which is true and I agree, but, those twitter pages have not reached a point where they become the main platform of engagement to the point that the particular political organisation trends on twitter. And when I mean trend, I do not mean were people take the conversation any direction they want as we have often seen. What we are talking about, is a situation, were the political party in actually steering the conversation with responses and on-going engagements with ordinary citizens. Now coming back to the question at hand, could social media play a more meaningful role in S.A politics? YES, IT CAN. The ordinary citizen will feel like they are more informed about what the particular political party is doing. What is currently being discussed? Citizens will feel that their concerns and issues are being given the necessary attention. And more importantly, the ordinary citizen will feel a part of the discussion as they receive responses to their tweets. The citizen will then go on and share their story with the next person of how they received communication from the political party. In doing that, word of mouth spreads regarding the political party that is the subject matters. Unaware, the political party increases its political reach and footprint without being present physically, but, digitally.

PR what happened to 'spin - doctors'?

With the newspaper headline: Social media - the new frontier in reporting. One can sense that the impact of social media is very strong in the media and communication industry. In fact, the article on Business Day newspaper (www.bdlive.co.za), titled: Social media should not be reined in by the Press Code, say expert. May perhaps, be one of the recent examples emphasizing the power of social media and influence. Although platforms such as twitter have enhanced the speed at which news reach the public, it still remain a big challenge as to how crisis management is handled that is so often sparked by some 'unknown' individual on twitter. In the past, PR people would quickly put up a response release or holding statement after consulting their client and relevant parties, engage the specific print or broadcast media. And then be able to get their side of the story or response to the public. Whether the story will be spinned from negative news to positive?. That is besides the point, the reality is, a series of steps that is almost guaranteed is implemented and more often able to remedy the situation. Now, with the rise of social media, which is often an uncontrolled audience with a powerful voice. Managing a crisis for a corporate on social media can be challenging as it requires a different way of thinking and application of knowledge. It is nowonder some corporate organisations try to not engage with thier consumers through this new channel. They (corporate) hope that by not being visible on this platform, they curb the potential challenge and negative opinions that the consumers may post on social networks about the organisation. The truth is, social media does not create negetivity, it uncovers it. It is better for a corporate organisation to have presence on the social networks so to try and take the lead on the conversation that is taking place about the organisation independant of the organisation taking part or not. The PR industry has opportunity to first ensure that their clients particularly corporates understand the benefits of using this platform. In fact, social media should be the number one offering I would see to clients if I was a PR consultant. Think about it, this service if relatively cheap if not free to say the least. Unless you are running, promoted tweets or Facebook Adverts, setting up and gaining a following cost literally nothing. Now the new PR 101 1. Social media is all about manitaining a conversation with your followers (www.socialmediatoday.com). And if I remember correctly, one of the PR objectives from my 1st year PR class was: To build and maintain relationships. Social media allows you to do just that, build and maintain relationships. Even better, with social media, you are able to evaluate on an on-going bases if your messaging is relevent, creates conversation and formulate whatever response necessary for your audience. 2. For a long time, one of the major challenges of the PR specialists, was to quantify or attach monetary value to their hard work they put on different media campaigns. And social media allows this evaluation to be done without much effort or having to hire a research company to add up the data which may still remain questionable to other Executives within an organisation who are not of a communications background. 3. With social media, you can set targets and measure the number of followers. Measure engagement of consumers with the organisation, and lastly, you can measure the impact of the over-all campaign. The question still remains: Can PR people still spin today?. My answer is, Yes. However, the ability for one to gain credibility, confidence and a good reputation with your social media audience will have to be a process that needs to be worked at long before one hits a crisis. Does this sound familiar? My response is simply, a similar tactic that has always been there and used in PR. The only difference is the channel or medium used.

Nkgadimeng Brand Communications pty ltd

NKGADIMENG is a Setswana name meaning, to be looked at. Nkgadimeng Brand Communications is envisioned to be the agency that brands and business look to for brand communications solutions. To stay ahead, it is important to be futuristic, able to forecast trends and tailor make solutions that are fitting. Nkgadimeng Brand Communications "Creativity and Innovation:- the new normal" Our Philosophy To use design thinking and creativity as the key drivers to bring about innovative business solutions. A combination of various expertise from different disciplines is our conduit for innovative thinking. We thrive in creating value adding brand communications solutions that are sustainable and measurable. Mission To be the lead thinkers of integrated brand communications Vision To provide brand solutions to business through creative thinking, design thinking and innovation, using communication channels. Offerings: - Marketing strategy - Stakeholder Relations mapping - Brand Strategy - Digital media strategy - Website design - Brand activation / events - Personal brand management Our website is still under construction

Taking the #tag into the Executive meetings

Digital marketing is about integration, but trying to convince traditionalists of the benefits of digital marketing, can be a challenge in many ways. Part of the reason why it is a challenge to get the buy-in from top management is that digital marketing is seem as a platform that uncovers many ill feelings that consumers have about organisation or brands. However, one this that needs to be realised is that not taking part in the conversation online, does not mean the conversation is not happening. The best way, is to champion the cause and lead the conversation online. Yes, there are a number of risks that come with digital marketing or social media, but the best policy is to have a digital strategy, implementation plan and someone or people that will champion the cause, or drive the platform. There are however, other challenges facing brands when it comes to digital marketing as explained in the article by Denise http://www.imediaconnection.com/printpage/printpage.aspx?id=34877 The fact of the matter is that, digital media is here to stay and marketers have to find a way to leverage the platforms.

Does Brand really add value?

If you ask me, I will tell you YES. And that is the truth of the matter. Think about how Coca Cola had remained the No.1 most valuable brand in the world for more than 12 consecutive years only to be over taken by Apple more recently http://appleinsider.com/articles/13/09/30/apple-ends-coca-colas-13-year-reign-as-worlds-most-valuable-brandn How do you evaluate Brand Equity: 5 Stages of Brand Experience Brand equity is typically the result of brand loyalty, and with brand loyalty comes increased market share. In fact, there are 5 stages of brand experience that lead to positive brand equity: Brand awareness: Consumers are aware of the brand. Brand recognition: Consumers recognize the brand and know what it offers versus competitors. Brand trial: Consumers have tried the brand. Brand preference: Consumers like the brand and become repeat purchasers. They begin to develop emotional connections to the brand. Brand loyalty: Consumers demand the brand and will travel distances to find it. As loyalty increases so do emotional connections until there is no adequate substitute for the brand in the consumer’s mind. http://aytm.com/blog/research-junction/brand-equity-basics-1/

When design meets innovation

The article: Behold: A 'Wine Glass' for Coca-Cola, is a good example of how design and innovation can bring a whole new experience for consumers. Whether the new glass is able to capture the finish, sweetness and acidity of Coca Cola as Mr Riedel explains, that remains to be seen if not debated. However, we cannot ignore the fact that his innovation will impact the perceptions of the consumers, which may lead to consumers having a new and different experience with the Coca Cola beverage. We can gain more insight from the innovation that Vodka started working on with their different design in bottling. Their bottles are modern, trendy, stylish and attractive. Though I don't drink alcohol, I cannot help but admire the fresh nice designs of Vodka bottles. It is no doubt that design plays a vital role on innovation, it is as though the two work hand in hand.

Think different . . . . .

Here's to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes... the ones who see things differently -- they're not fond of rules... You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can't do is ignore them because they change things... they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do. Steve Jobs I not only like this quote but admire the courage of Steve Jobs to have been brave enough to come up with such a statement. This qoute I believe not only raised eyebrows but was in a way, a door opener to the new dawn of innovation and differentiation. Many corporates including individuals have always wanted to be different, but, were unsure of allowing others to see/perceive you as such, because it does not confirm to the norm or in agreement with what is acceptable. Creativity, innovation are now the words that often come up as we hear the name of Steve Jobs or the Apple Company. My sentiments are: it is ok to be different. After all, that's one of the characteristics of strong brands: Differentiation