316 The Real Deal: Authenticity

The secret to Tiger Woods’ success as a golfer is that he can make a golf ball soar, spin, curve- heck, he can make it deal cards if he wants to. But what’s the secret to Tiger Woods as a brand? It’s authenticity. This week Terry O’Reilly explains the importance of a brand living up to its promise- of actually being everything it says it is. Terry will even summon the courage to tell of his riveting childhood disillusionment after ordering a family of Sea Monkeys from a comic book.

315 Big And Small

For more than a century, advertisers have fallen to the lure of hyperbole: over-inflating the importance of their brand. They made cheap currency of claims such as bigger, faster, stronger, better-tasting, harder-working, brighter, softer, newer, more-economical and longer-lasting. As Terry O’Reilly points out, some very small help is on the way. A newer, better, smarter generation of advertisers are finding ways to leverage the ’smallness’ of their brand, and still get noticed without hyperbole.

314 Brand Loyalty

Brand loyalty is the greatest prize a marketer can earn. Yet nowadays, it’s increasingly rare. This week, Terry O’Reilly explains the tangible- and intangible process of forming loyalties between brands and customers: and what goes into that ‘gut’ feeling that makes people reach for one brand over another, when all else is equal. He’ll explain how brands such as Apple and Harley Davidson cultivated vast tribes of loyal followers, and how it is that some brands prompt disloyalty.