It ain't what you do (it's the way that you do it)

Sometimes I feel very distant from my branding work. I just can’t get close enough to it. You can’t do branding by remote control, via email, telephone, Linked In or Twitter. It has to be done face to face. There are times when you’ve just got to thrash things out, kick the litter bin into the corner of the room, disagree, bang the table, throw it all away, taste it, smell it, spit it out and start again. Shake people up. Until you see beauty and they see sense. I’ve found this to be true more and more over the years. Way back when, doing too much, too young, I had none of the answers but all of the passion. But I’m compassionate towards that raw young self. I can look back at me and still say I’ve got a safety pin stuck in my heart for you, for you. That passionate me does not seem at all remote. Yesterday can seem further away. If I concentrate, I can still feel I’m up close to Terry Hall, 50 today. And Patrik Fitzgerald, 53 this 19th March. For me, there’s a branding breakthrough to make today. I need to avail myself of some of this attitude and punk poetry. That's what gets results.
Mark Griffiths http://www.idealconsulting.co.uk/

Everything's gonna be alright

John Lydon advertising butter. Iggy Pop flogging insurance. Now Marley's ghost is coming our way - but how and when we do not yet know. The word is out that the estate of Bob Marley has agreed to license the singer's likeness and name to retailers and brands 28 years after the great man's death. How will they select those brands? And how will they fit in with Marley's own brand? If the cap fits, let them wear it...Should be a fascinating space to watch.

Mark Griffiths www.idealconsulting.co.uk

Happy Birthday Jose Marti!

Jose Marti would have been 156 years old today. Who is he? One of the founding fathers of the revolution that freed Cuba from Spanish colonial rule. No, not that revolution. The one before it. If you've ever visited Cuba, you'll know that it is branded by three clear icons - the Cuban flag, that picture of Che Guevara, and stone statues of Jose Marti. Soon, not this year or next, but maybe in a decade, Cuba will see a lot more branding than its people are used to. In Havana, they queue avidly outside stores selling Adidas and Italian clothing brands. Clearly, as Cuba celebrates 50 years' freedom from the capitalist yoke, its people can barely wait to welcome it back. Yet, without Jose Marti and the Castro revolution that followed half a century later, the majority of Cuba's people would still not be able to read an Adidas label never mind crave one.

As the latest revolutionary slogan goes, "Un mundo mejor es posible".