Articles by Black Dog Strategy & Brand

We don’t “invent” brands at BlackDog; we excavate and humanize relevant brands that have a story to tell, focused priorities, and a genuine contribution to make. We don’t fabricate myths and we don’t contrive hype. We partner with enlightened organizations that see their vocation as a service and community as a passion.

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Black Dog Strategy & Brand has written 66 articles for AdTalk

Black Dog Strategy & Brand

The Highest Standards

by Black Dog Strategy & Brand

Children’s brands have the potential to shape children’s lifelong interests, thoughts, goals, desires, habits, and health… Driving destructive trends and bombarding children with advertisements for unhealthy products impacts their lifelong wellness and society as a whole by impacting the lifestyles, capabilities, and objectives of our future decision-makers. Children’s brands should be held to the highest [...]

Give Em Something To Talk About: What’s in a Good Press Release?

by Black Dog Strategy & Brand

Organizations that churn out a tired press release every time a deal is sealed, or donation made, are relying on an outdated way of working that just won’t cut it in the new world order. It’s time to do away with the generic, self-serving, homogenized, bland, corporate press releases that have plagued us all for [...]

Raising Inspired Young Women

by Black Dog Strategy & Brand

Raising girls is tough. Raising confident, curious, inspired, courageous, authentic, well-rounded, well-educated young women who don’t feel pressured to conform to the world’s view of perfection is beyond daunting. We’re looking for parents of 7th, 8th, and 9th grade girls willing to talk honestly about parenting girls. We’re setting out to radically improve the lives [...]

Simple Questions For 2012

by Black Dog Strategy & Brand

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Solving Your Upstart Brand Woes

by Black Dog Strategy & Brand

As a general rule, BlackDog doesn’t brand upstarts. Here are some resources to help get your brand new brand off the ground though… If you can’t find the answer to the brand query you’re muddling over, puzzling out, and Googling till the cows come home, send it our way. BlackDog’s 365 blog is an ongoing, [...]

Who Do You Love?

by Black Dog Strategy & Brand

Approximately sixty percent of Americans believe in love at first sight.[1] Fifty percent report that they have actually experienced the powerful phenomenon.[2] But, drill the statistic down to those in long-term relationships and you find that only 11% report that their lasting relationships started in an all-knowing instant.[3] Proving that for most of us love [...]

The Better You Are, The Better You Look

by Black Dog Strategy & Brand

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world… it’s the only thing that ever has.” Margaret Mead It took me 30 minutes this morning to buy wheat pita bread at the grocery store. Not because the lines were long or the aisles congested, but because every brand of bread [...]

45 Heart-Warming Minutes with the Queen of Patient Care: Wendy Leebov

by Black Dog Strategy & Brand

Progressive hospitals keep it real. Investing in meaningful strategies that tap the passions of working cultures is the only way to deliver persuasive differentiators and drive preference in any industry. Especially hospitals, where the lifting is heavy, the work is long, and the high call is “personal”.  Effective brand and patient experience programs must first find [...]

Owning your piece of the “pinch”, explicitly

by Black Dog Strategy & Brand

The hardest thing about Brand Development isn’t the time intensive research…. It isn’t being consistent yet flexible… innovative yet timeless. The hardest thing about Brand Development isn’t creativity, charisma, social media, new marketing, old ideologies, fierce competition, or even too many cooks in the kitchen (although that is a much too oft encountered obstacle)… nope. [...]

Top Shelf Redux: Communications Reads We Recommend

by Black Dog Strategy & Brand

“Conscientious Objectives: Designing for an Ethical Message” by John Cranmer & Yolanda Zappaterra… An inspired look at the correlation between messaging, design, and social ergonomics. Cranmer and Zappaterra brilliantly tackle the design world’s accidental mantra: “if it looks good, it is good.” Written to fill a glaring gap, this book addresses the impact of design on [...]

5 Extraordinary Years

by Black Dog Strategy & Brand

“In ordinary times, most men and women do not have radical questions about their identity.” Sam Keen “In every society, however, there are extraordinary men and women who, for a variety of reasons, stand outside the social consensus, shatter the norms, and challenge the status quo.” Sam Keen BlackDog was founded for such a time [...]

Narrativity: You’re Too Good For Boring

by Black Dog Strategy & Brand

Narrativity: [nar-uh-tiv-uh-tee]: 1.) the degree to which your brand spunk, funk, credibility, attitude, and vibe shines through your messaging. 2.) Your voice, your verbiage, your tone. While preparing for a wine-touring camping trip to Watkins Glen, I began perusing the websites of the nearby Seneca Lake wineries and plotting my prioritized must-see, must-visit list for [...]

Brand Is An Inside Job

by Black Dog Strategy & Brand

It has been surprising to realize just how many business leaders are struggling with the same question: “What’s the point?” The question, asked any number of ways, is usually followed by a long  list of reasons and arguments for convincing the working masses to show up every day to do what “should” be done, that [...]

365: What signs indicate it’s time to evolve a brand?

by Black Dog Strategy & Brand

How will I know when it’s time to brand or re-brand? What are the signs? If we agree that a brand is simply the central organizing principle that engages teams internally and customers externally then it makes sense to “evolve” your brand when your business is ready to evolve. When a significant change in course [...]

365: What’s a brand touchpoint?

by Black Dog Strategy & Brand

What exactly is a brand touchpoint? A brand touchpoint is anything, absolutely anything, that you do in the course of conducting business that gives a customer a reason to think more or less of you. Does your grocery store schlep food and goods? Or do you bring health and nutrition to the hungry masses? Does [...]

Hey, I Have Standards.

by Black Dog Strategy & Brand

“Acceptance of prevailing standards often means we have no standards of our own.” Jean Toomer Will anyone search out your sponsors’ products and services simply because you permitted their logo to grace your stage, your ad space, your playbill? Sometimes advertising, sponsorship, and strategic partnership slumming happens because the bills have to be paid, sometimes [...]

This Beer’s For You… and This Survey, Too

by Black Dog Strategy & Brand

Only 7% of the US beer market is comprised of craft beer devotees. Yet, this savvy market is hopping at an ambitious rate of 11% annually as the commercial beer market shrinks 2% year after year. We want to know more about craft beer imbibers to build a kick ass craft beer brand for 3 [...]

Preachin’ to the Choir: University Brands and their Industry Audiences

by Black Dog Strategy & Brand

Breakaway brand successes occur when brands with something to say begin speaking to audiences outside their close-knit school of thought. Far too often, brands spend their all their communications efforts on preaching to the choir. Over, and over, and over again. Remember our Outside Perspective blog? The disruptive technologies that radically move markets forward typically [...]

When Did Condom Brands Start Ignoring Cultural Trends?

by Black Dog Strategy & Brand

Why are condom and tampon brands so far behind the eco-friendly times? A cultural shift has happened and it’s made us all increasingly aware of our social and environmental impact. The 2009 Global Edelman goodpurpose* study found that “83% (of consumers are) willing to change consumption habits if it can help make the world a [...]

365: Do you ever get over whelmed by finding ways or trying to be inventive and original?

by Black Dog Strategy & Brand

There are so many companies with so many brands that it is hard to believe there is much “new” out there. Do you ever get over whelmed by finding ways or trying to be inventive and original? Finding ways to help relevant, authentic brands tell a unique story is rarely overwhelming, in fact it is [...]

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