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Brand Magic: the Anti-Brand Cometh

Op Ed by Liz Nickles

August 12. 2021

I remember going to an opera rehearsal that the great Maestro Sir Georg Solti was conducting. Pavarotti was singing. Pavarotti rolled onto the stage with a huge cooler full of drinks and food, which he kept onstage during the performance. I was told he actually sometimes ate during the performance. He sat in an oversized chair, like a throne, that was not in the script, but he demanded. He also had a large white cloth which he waved around and mopped himself with. Solti kept muttering darkly about these accoutrements, which he felt were unnecessary dramatics.

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Battle of the Intergalactic Brandzillas

Op Ed by Liz Nickles

November 19, 2020

Where is Mothra when we need him? Mothra was the below -the-title star of the Godzilla sci-fi movie series, a supersized moth flapping in Godzilla’s wake with a mission to protect humanity from monsters that threaten it. He seems to have gone into retirement somewhere beneath Japanese waters, but we could have used him in the nuclear run-up to the 2016 presidential election—and today. Maybe he free-lances in the gig economy?

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Expert Marketer Magazine
EMM 5 - Q1, 2014
View the article (in pdf format)


Branded From the Beginning
By Liz Nickles with Savita Iyer
Winter 2013

One of the best ways to get a brand in the game is to be there from the start, literally. Today, there is an infinitely scalable benefit to this because the Web allows immediate and incalculable access to a person’s life. Branding starts immediately, when Dad, or whoever is the family chronicler, whips out the video camera or the iPhone and records the baby’s first breath. As I write this, the Optimum cable service is running a commercial in which a new parent announces, “She was on Facebook before she was born.” Once the video is uploaded onto Facebook’s Timeline, a virtual brand is born—and broadcast to the ages.

Click here to view the full article from the Conference Board Review


You Say Tomato; They Say Tomahto…
How to sing from the same song sheet in a post-merger culture

It’s not an
uncommon story:

A merger is announced—two important corporate names join forces to create a superpower. Management and shareholders are highly optimistic about the new value proposition. Meanwhile, below the line, it’s another story—the story of oil meets water. One company dresses casually; the other is strictly suit and tie. One is entrepreneurial; the other, hierarchical. One values the 18-hour work day; the other places a premium on work-life balance. In the company dining room, rumblings are overheard at different tables:

To view this article on merger culture issues by Liz Nickles, please click here.


The Impact of Generation Y
Once upon a time, there was work and there was life, and rarely the twain met. If you didn't leave your work at the office, you took it home in a briefcase. Work was almost a physical thing, a creature, an entity—sometimes a monster you wouldn't want intruding on your life. The briefcase would thump onto the table in the hall by the front door. There it would sit, big, ugly, and intrusive. An interloper.

To view this chapter on work/life balance from Liz Nickles’ book, THE CHANGE AGENTS, please click here.


Insight


By Liz Nickles

Change is not just in the air. It’s hit the ground running—already in the DNA of what was once a seemingly impenetrable group—the elite, high net worth client. Driven by a spectrum of factors from gumption to globalization, today’s most affluent men and women are forging a new profile that wealth managers and financial institutions must not just acknowledge, but embrace, creating products, services and experiences that meet the needs of this transformational group. Financial advisors who  really want to know their client had  better get to know the new new client. Here, a capsule summary of key concerns:

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The View from Everest: A C-Suite Perspective

By Liz Nickles

everestThe air is thin. The risk is great. The path can be treacherous and is not often clear. The skills to succeed involve talent, teamwork, leadership and decision-making under constant stress and blinding-pace change. A misstep can be fatal, success inspirational. Climbing the 29,035 feet to the summit of Mt. Everest, the world’s most challenging peak—or helming a global organization in the most challenging times the modern world has known—have much in common. Today’s C-level executives—CEO, CFO, COO, and their peers—inhabit a rarified atmosphere and face unique challenges.

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Jackie Started The Legend of JFK 'Camelot'
Ben Zimmer
Nov. 22, 2013

In the remembrances of John F. Kennedy's presidency this week as the 50th anniversary of his assassination passes, one word continues to resonate above all: Camelot.

The name of King Arthur's mythical court city has its roots in medieval romantic literature, but thanks to skillful media manipulation by Jacqueline Kennedy after her husband's death, "Camelot" remains a potent mythmaking metaphor for the Kennedy administration.

The name first appeared as "Camaalot" in a 12th-century French poem about Lancelot written by Chrétien de Troyes, but etymologists are unsure if that was intended to refer to a real-life British location, such as Colchester (known in Latin as Camuladonum) or Cadbury (situated near the River Cam).

Click here to view the full article from the Wall Street Journal

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