Are the big brands collapsing under the pressure? It really made me wonder after reading this Adage article.  After trying everything from cheap marketing stunts to most recently launching the 500-calorie Double sandwich, Kentucky Fried Chicken seems to have failed its main objective: to prevent additional market share loss.  The lack of consistent brand positioning strategies, not to mention the promotional disaster when the chain failed to deliver on the free samples they promised on Oprah’s show, is causing the KFC brand to slip in market share and creating opportunities for it’s competitors.  Chick-Fil-A, a smaller chain, that offers high-quality sandwiches, great service and cleaner stores, is poised to take advantage of  KFC’s losses.

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“The world stands aside to let anyone pass who knows where he is going”

– David Starr Jordan

How often do you read a quote and say to yourself, “Whoever said that was nothing like me, so this quote doesn’t apply to me”? If you’ve EVER said that then you’re wrong. It always applies to you. Do you think that David Starr Jordan, President of Stanford, meant what he said only for certain people?

Anyone can be that person that the world moves for. Whether it’s me as a kid in Queens trying to make my own clothing, Bill Gates in Seattle messing with computers in ’74 or you reading this right now.

Source: becksmithhollywood.com

Branding expert Daymond John talks a lot about the success stories of branding when it comes to products and companies.  How about naming celebrities that do a great job of branding themselves?

“The Kardashians,” instantly replies the “Shark Tank” star.  “They automatically come to mind.  You’ve got to think about it – they actually are really not known for anything…”  So true!  “…and yet they’ve become America’s sweethearts, America’s ‘Brady Bunch’ of today.”  What a scary idea.

He continues, “Kim has become a fashion icon, a beauty icon.  They can brand family, they can brand Hollywood, they can brand beauty.  None of it has to be because they sing or dance or anything else.”  As John notes in his first book, “Display of Power: How FUBU Changed a World of Fashion, Branding and Lifestyle,” “We all have the same engine under the hood.  It’s just that some people understand how to tap into that power.”

John is certainly tapping into his power in a major way.  He’s keeping up with the demands of his own FUBU business empire while on the road promoting his powerful new “The Brand Within” book – wherein readers learn how they, too, can make hay via branding.  He expects to stay just as busy traveling, speaking, meeting and appearing for the next couple of months.  He says he’ll know within six weeks what’s in store as far as the next season of his addictive ABC “Shark Tank” show, in which entrepreneurial wannabes and inventors endeavor to get John and his fellow sharks to invest in their wares.

If you can recognize the potential in something before anyone else, all you have to do it is tap in to that resource and the rewards will come your way. Being the first person to get access to a market, a material, a client or a concept will give you that much-needed head start. Then you’ll have the ability to maneuver outside the constraints of the bottom line.

At the same time you have to know whether or not what you’re looking at is really going to take off. Is this diamond in the rough just a pebble in the dirt? Be absolutely sure that what you’re trying to get is what you really need.