• For making every football Saturday during my four years at Penn State unforgettable, whether we won or lost, and we mostly won.
• For all he did for the “kids” who towered over him as his Penn State players.
• For  his selfless contributions to support excellence at Penn State.
• For his commitment to academics and the achievement of his players.
• For the way he ran on the field with the team.
• For the thrill of winning a national championship my senior year.
• For giving me a sense of pride in my school that began at age 18 and is still with me today.
• For scaring the crap out of me when I walked down my dad’s basement and glimpsed from the corner of my eye a life-size “pop-up Joe” in the shadows.
• For being a fellow Italian who made my dad proud.
• For being a role model of perseverance.
• For the way 50,000 people in Beaver Stadium would shout “Jopa” and the other 50,000 would shout “Terno.”
• For his rolled up pants, white socks and black shoes.
• For the way he screamed at players who taunted the opponent or celebrated too much.
• For being carried on the shoulders of his team more than once, and the joy on his face.
• For being strong while being humble.
• For his fight and his unwavering loyalty to white and blue.

Thanks for the moments. We’ll miss you, Joe.

What is branding?  Heart & Mind® Branding.

Check out #whatiwantfromajob a new hashtag we created on Twitter. We’re asking people what it is they want out of a job. Why would a branding company care about that? Because branding must first happen in the hearts of the people in the company. Only that way can they deliver the brand experience outside it. Miss that and you miss everything.

One client we had from years ago had a tremendous opportunity with a great service business. It should have been a great place to work. Sadly, they focused entirely on the numbers at the expense of why they were doing what they were doing in the first place.  Naturally as you would expect, the client didn’t understand us when we tried to infuse purpose into the workplace. He didn’t see how that would help boost his business. He just wanted a website that drove more leads. Hmm, how could he not see that even if the website drove business, the attitudes of his employees–great people, but uninspired–were the ultimate turn off?

We didn’t work for this pitiful leader for much after the website project. Kind of an integrity issue if you know what I mean. And yes, we got him his leads, but the company went nowhere. So you see, #whatiwantfromajob will be interesting to follow and interesting to learn from, because happiness in the workplace is a precursor to becoming a breakthrough brand.

What is branding? Heart &  Mind® Branding.

2.0 has appeared in the HBO series “Oz,” on the Showtime series “Jeremiah” and in the movie “Johnson County War” among others. Luke appeared to have found his new brand and a more mature audience. But then in 2006, it was as if he stepped into his past to star in NBC’s “Windfall,” a show about a group of friends whose lives change post college after they win the lottery.

Rumors abound that he’ll make a guest appearance on “90210.” He says he won’t reprise his role as Dylan, and that’s a good thing. That’s not where the Perry brand needs to go. Fifteen years ago he didn’t fall victim to fickle fans who one day ogled his poster and the next day tucked it in the back of the closet with the rest of the 90’s stuff. Perry was smart, he left them in search of his next brand reinvention. How many times in business have brands held on to the cushy, comfortable gravy train long after they should have jumped off? How many times have brands been blinded by the money and forgot about their heart? Blockbuster Video, Borders and Newsweek are all teetering because they kept doing what made them money and missed the inevitable market shift. They forgot about finding and serving the new customer until it was too late.

Perry, his agent or both were smart.  They knew teen-idol status is short lived, so they shifted ahead of the curve. That meant brand reinvention time, and unfortunately, it’s not as easy as Madonna has made  it look over the years. Finding that next point of relevance is risky. And it often takes a complete brand transformation—around a strong foundation—to find a new audience.

Luke Perry continues to work at his brand. My guess is that Luke 3.0 is in incubator right now. It’s like the quiet period before a company goes public. But here’s a note of caution. The world is moving quickly and you can get left behind even if you are on the treadmill; it’s worse if you appear to be off it entirely.  Luke needs to burst back on the scene to gain relevance fast.  All the best Luke, but know I’m not just talking to you. I’m talking to myself and all of us as brands, too.  Big breakthroughs always require big leaps.

What is branding? Heart &  Mind® Branding.

The brand lost its way in the 1970′s.  It was purchased by Converse in 1972, but later had to be sold off when the US government filed an antitrust suit claiming that if both companies combined they would have a monopoly for sneakers.  Soon, instead of every kid needing a pair of PF Flyers, they needed a pair of Converse All-Stars.  PF Flyers continued their downward slope until New Balance bought the rights to the brand in 2001 (which had been dormant since 1992) and resurrected it in 2003.  Regardless of their roller coaster ride, movies like “The Sandlot” have given PF Flyers a permanent place in our modern culture.

PF Flyers are well on their way to making a comeback.  They went back to the heart of their company and recently did an Archival Reissue re-launch of the most popular styles from the 50′s and 60′s. You can find PF Flyers anywhere from Zappos to Neiman Marcus. Will PF Flyers ever have the status they did in the 50′s and 60′s? Stay tuned…

Check out vintage PF Flyer commercials!

What is branding? Heart & Mind® Branding.

The “Tell You Everything” Tell All. “Slept 8 whole hours!” “Had oatmeal for breakfast.” “Paid my bills.” If you think this is fascinating, it’s not.  While some events may be interesting, your multiple Facebook friends probably don’t care if you’re going to sleep or about every meal you had to eat today.

The “My Life is Awesome” Person. We all have triumphs that we want to let people in on.  In some cases, Facebook is a great way to let people know something special that is going on.  Keep in mind though, after a while your friends get sick of you rubbing it in that you just got a promotion, have a new car, your relationship is perfect, and are going on yet another vacation.

The Over-Friender. People with friends between 150-300 are believable.  You have high-school, college and post-grad friends.  Those of you who are more social can have in the 300-400 range.  Those of you with 500, 600, 700 + friends…you’re not fooling anyone.  You can’t possibly care what all of those people are doing.  Meeting someone in line at the grocery store does not mean you need to immediately find and friend them on Facebook.

The Tell-It-All Person. “Hitting up Walgreens for tampons.” While that is true, no one in your social network wants to know that information.  In fact, you probably lose friends weekly for the inappropriate posts.  If you have a fight with your spouse, find out a friend is cheating, or have a weird mole that needs to be checked out…please keep that information limited to the people who actually need to know.

The “Needs a Dictionary” Person. “R U going 2 go 2 the seminar 2 get new biz on friday?”  While the rules of digital speak are different than writing an essay, does it really take that much more effort to spell out the word “you” or capitalize the day of the week?

The Reporter. “Kate Gosselin is causing so much drama on ‘Dancing with the Stars” is not something you should be concerned with posting.  In fact, if people really want to read that information they’ll check out people.com.  With all of the ways to get news these days – text message alerts, daily email updates, google alerts, not to mention countless websites for every subject matter possible, do not kid yourself in thinking you are or need to be the source of people’s news.

The “Debbie Downer” Person. “My life sucks!”  “Could today get any worse?”  “I can’t wait until this week is over.”  We all have bad things happen to us.  If you feel the need to talk about it, call a friend or send an email.  Don’t bring the rest of us down.

The “Photo Freak” Person. Pictures from an event are always fun to see on Facebook.  Pictures of your friend at an event spilling their drink and falling over are not.  Facebook is a public place, please don’t prevent your friends from getting a job or being judged by their current colleagues because every moment of their personal life is publicized and posted immediately courtesy of you.

The “Event Sender/Game” Person. Between the games (Farmville, Café World, Mafia Wars), causes “Sign my petition” “Take this quiz,” gifts “Accept this heart” “Accept this drink” “Accept this pair of shoes,” and “Come to my event, even if you live in another state”…Facebook can be a full-time job.  If you have the time to send out 50 hearts, shoes, invite everyone you know to an event and play games on Facebook all day, good for you.  The rest of us however have jobs and responsibilities.  Let Facebook be a site to connect and look at some photos, not something like going through your spam folder.

So what should you post on Facebook?  Like we mentioned before, it’s anything so long as it’s in moderation.  If it’s a celebration, go ahead and post those pictures.  If it’s 60 pictures of your child or dog at once, don’t.  We’re not saying you can’t post a picture of your child or dog, but we don’t need to see an entire album dedicated to their first bath.  Listen to that little voice in your head.  If you feel like you’re showing off, you’re over-indulging, you’re over-posting…you probably are.

What is branding? Heart & Mind® Branding.

Wozniak and Jobs established Apple in Cupertino, California on April 1, 1976. They started out with the Apple I computer in 1976, followed by the Apple II in 1977 and the Apple III in the early 80’s. They went public in December of 1980, and created the most millionaires than any other company in history. They were the first to use a Graphical User Interface (GUI) instead of the standard text interface. But what they’ve been great at doing all along is creating a stand out brand!

To launch the Macintosh 128K, they paid $1.5 million for the infamous Super Bowl XVIII commercial. Directed by Ridley Scott, the commercial tells a story of non-conformity unlike anything else has (Link to commercial). The Super Bowl commercial isn’t the only ground breaking branding that took place. Apple also spent more than $2.5 million to buy all of the advertising pages for Newsweek magazine. Apple has been ahead of most in all things technology. The first laptop, the Macintosh Portable, launched in 1989. The first PDA, the Newton Message Pad, launched in 1993.

The brand did lose its way for a bit, you might say they lost their heart. In 1985, Steve Jobs was asked to resign by the board because of tension with the new CEO, a more mind-based leader. Jobs went on to buy Pixar and next create the company that Apple eventually sourced their software for their OS X operating system. IBM had caught up with Apple and took the lead. But, in 1996 Steve Jobs was brought back on board. He stepped in as interim CEO, and that position has never changed. He paired Apple with Microsoft, and spearheaded production of newer, more innovative products. He brought the heart back to the company.

Like the company’s evolution, their logo and products have evolved to the cutting edge brand they are today. Here is a look at some of their past and present products and evolution of the logo.

What is branding? Heart & Mind® Branding.