Aha! :: Elliance Blog

In our view, branding is the process of: attaching an idea to a product or service e.g. achievement for Nike, freedom for Southwest Air. creating expectations and promises around a product or a service creating strong to impenetrable differentiation in the marketplace What’s your definition?

Data is cheap.  Just log into Google Analytics and see for yourself.  Awaiting you are mountains of free data points about your website’s visitors, sessions, referrals and keywords, organized neatly into tables and sortable by hour back into the dark recesses of web history.  Mountains of data.  All at your fingertips.  All free. But you […]

It’s a scene as familiar as your drive to work. The conversation is marked mainly by questions. A 17-y.o. high school senior and his parents discuss college as they clear the family dinner table. What are his options? Why isn’t he interested in business? “Artists starve… how many times do I have to tell you?” […]

Years ago, at my very first real job, there was one particular person who was known to be Creative. She was the go-to person for ideas, big and small. She led all the brainstorms, complete with tables full of idea starters. She could give you five taglines on a moment’s notice. She could take a […]

As consultants to higher education institutions, we often begin new engagements by going to campus to try to understand the bigger picture at the college of university. We want to see both the forest and the trees, and then we base all of our work is based on that deep understanding. I know my friends […]

Colleges and universities have found brand religion. However, branding of higher education institutions is more challenging than creating consumer product brands. Why? Because higher education institutions serve an extraordinarily large number of stakeholders and make decisions by building consensus. Following these 10 steps to build a college brand may be harder than it sounds: Recognize […]

One simple truth, so many ways of saying it. Here are a some you may recognize and others you may not: “Keep your eye clear, and hit ’em where they ain’t” said the baseball legend William Keeler. “The purple cow”, a book written by Seth Godin of “Permission Marketing” fame. “Zag when others zig”, the […]

In today’s revolutionary new marketing landscape, consumers have become more confident, capable and impatient. They know what they want, based on the fabulous wealth of data in search, and the trusted reviews of their peers in social networks. Even while traditional marketing continues to over-saturate every aspect of their lives, consumers are increasingly enlightened to […]

With the maturing of the digital age, traditional public relations, or PR 1.0, has evolved into PR 2.0. The traditional rules of PR for building reputation in key areas and conveying values have fallen to the way side, and a new paradigm has emerged. Instead of relying on media relations contacts as gatekeepers for the […]

Inspiration by German industrial designer, Ingo Maurer, who focuses on lighting design. Enjoy.