Can a group of diverse and interesting New Yorkers sit around a table for dinner and have a SINGLE sustained conversation for at least two hours—no moderator, no side conversations—just a single, contributive, collective, shall I say it ... civilized, conversation on a given topic?
Mascots—those lovable anthropomorphized characters who push cereal, chocolate milk, and tires—are more than just cute tools for marketing to children.
Yoga is about controlling your mind. Marketing is about trying to control other's minds. End of story, right?
Not exactly.
"Products are made in the factory, but brands are created in the mind." —Walter Landor
Among all the things I experienced and vividly remember from the 2014 American Alliance of Museum Annual Meeting and Expo in Seattle, I would like to discuss one particular session. It was a session fascinating to me for reasons unintended by its designers.
"All strategies aimed at exploiting an innovation must achieve leadership within a given environment. Otherwise, they will simply create an opportunity for the competition."
In general, the difference between the good and the great can sometimes be a matter of how effectively you sweat the little things, the things that actually matter to people at the human level interface. We call this the tactical user-level interface. Sometimes this is the difference between a positive experience and a negative one. This difference matters for any brand.
Within the museum world there seems to be some reluctance to engage with contemporary culture in a deep way. But if you take a look at the museums that are thriving, you will find a willingness to do just that. The museums that are flourishing now exhibit a conscious responsiveness to and engagement with contemporary issues and concerns.
