On Brand with Nick Westergaard

You might not know Marc Hershon by name but chances you are familiar with his names. That’s because Hershon is the man behind some of the most memorable brand names of our time including BlackBerry, Swiffer, and Dasani. What’s in a name? More than you might think. Marc Hershon breaks it down on this week’s episode of the On Brand podcast. About Marc HershonMarc Hershon is senior manager of naming and verbal identity in the San Francisco office of Landor, where he’s responsible for using storytelling and creativity to develop brand voice, copy, taglines, names, and nomenclature systems for corporate and consumer brands.Marc comes to Landor from Lexicon Branding, where he worked for more than 20 years and served as creative director from 2010 to 2014. During his time there he helped to create such memorable brand names as BlackBerry, Swiffer, and Dasani. As a solo consultant for several years, Marc worked with clients such as Garmin, Sony, and Christopher Ranch to create nüvi, Crackle, and Monviso, respectively.Marc’s creative endeavors reach beyond brand names. His several screenplays produced made-for-TV movies for the Hallmark Channel, including Santa Jr., Monster Makers, and Wedding Daze. In 2009, he coauthored a business book entitled I Hate People!, a how-to manual on how to deal with difficult people in the workplace. Marc is an award-winning editorial cartoonist for the Half Moon Bay Review, publishing a weekly panel for the past decade and a half.When he’s not writing and drawing, Marc can be seen performing and teaching improvisational comedy in and around San Francisco. For the past three years, he has also been host and executive producer of Succotash, a comedy podcast that features other comedy podcasts and interviews.As We Wrap …Recently Dave Cutler gave the show a shout about our recent episode featuring everyone’s favorite brand evangelist Guy Kawasaksi. Thanks for listening, Dave!Did you hear something you liked on this episode or another? Do you have a question you’d like our guests to answer? Let me know on Twitter using the hashtag #OnBrandPodcast and you may just hear your thoughts here on the show.Last but not least … Subscribe to the podcast – You can subscribe to the show via iTunes, Stitcher, and RSS. Rate and review the show – If you like what you’re hearing, head over to iTunes and click that 5-star button to rate the show. And if you have a few extra seconds, write a couple of sentences and submit a review. This helps others find the podcast. OK. How do you rate and review a podcast? Need a quick tutorial on leaving a rating/review in iTunes? Check this out. And don’t forget that this podcast is brought to you by our Brand Driven Digital events series, learn more about the industry leading Social Brand Forum and our other trainings and workshops now. Until next week, I’ll see you on the Internet! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this week’s Social Sound Bite – recorded live at the KXIC studios in Iowa City – Jay and I discussed emojis in email subject lines. Specifically we looked at a new study from email marketing platform MailChimp on how and when emojis are used in email. It even included which emojis are used most often in email marketing. Listen for the full sound bite and enjoy these useful links to the news, trends, and tips included in this week’s show. Beyond the Sound Bite MailChimp’s Most Popular Subject Line Emojis (MailChimp). Why the Apple Watch is taking the emoji to the next level (Daily Dot). Remember, the Social Sound Bite is just the appetizer! On Monday morning we’ll serve up a fresh new episode of the On Brand Podcast. This week we’ll have Marc Hershon — the man who named the BlackBerry — on the show.Last but not least … Subscribe to the podcast – You can subscribe to the show via iTunes, Stitcher, and RSS. Rate and review the show – If you like what you’re hearing, head over to iTunes and click that 5-star button to rate the show. And if you have a few extra seconds, write a couple of sentences and submit a review. This helps others find the podcast. OK. How do you rate and review a podcast? Need a quick tutorial on leaving a rating/review in iTunes? Check this out. Until next week, see you on the Internet! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“Branding is blocking and tackling.” Guy Kawasaki would know. As a brand evangelist for some of the biggest brands in history including Apple, Android, and Wikipedia, Guy knows that “bringing the good news” is a lot of work. I couldn’t wait to talk to the quintessential brand evangelist about what it takes to do his job on this week’s episode of the On Brand podcast.About Guy KawasakiGuy Kawasaki is the chief evangelist of Canva, an online graphic design tool. Formerly, he was an advisor to the Motorola business unit of Google and chief evangelist of Apple. He is also the author of The Art of Social Media, The Art of the Start, APE: Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur, Enchantment, and nine other books. Kawasaki has a BA from Stanford University and an MBA from UCLA as well as an honorary doctorate from Babson College.As We Wrap …Recently Mattias Kindell gave the show a shout about our recent episode featuring social psychologist Heidi Grant Halvorson. Thanks for listening, Mattias!Did you hear something you liked on this episode or another? Do you have a question you’d like our guests to answer? Let me know on Twitter using the hashtag #OnBrandPodcast and you may just hear your thoughts here on the show.Last but not least … Subscribe to the podcast – You can subscribe to the show via iTunes, Stitcher, and RSS. Rate and review the show – If you like what you’re hearing, head over to iTunes and click that 5-star button to rate the show. And if you have a few extra seconds, write a couple of sentences and submit a review. This helps others find the podcast. OK. How do you rate and review a podcast? Need a quick tutorial on leaving a rating/review in iTunes? Check this out. And don’t forget that this podcast is brought to you by our Brand Driven Digital events series, learn more about Digital Strategy Boot Camp and the industry leading Social Brand Forum now. Until next week, I’ll see you on the Internet! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this week’s Social Sound Bite – recorded live at the KXIC studios in Iowa City – Jay and I discussed a couple of new features on Pinterest. As a driver of 40% of social commerce, brands of all shapes and sizes are looking to promote their wares via Pinterest. This week the social network announced enhanced paid advertising features as well as the ability for businesses to schedule pins using tools like Buffer. Listen for the full sound bite and enjoy these useful links to the news, trends, and tips included in this week’s show. Beyond the Sound Bite Here’s Buffer’s announcement — Introducing Buffer for Pinterest (Buffer). Beyond Buffer, other marketing platform partners were announced as well including Percolate, Sprinklr, Spredfast, Curalate, Ahalogy, Expion, Newscred, Shoutlet and Tailwind. View the whole list at AdWeek. Remember, the Social Sound Bite is just the appetizer! On Monday morning we’ll serve up a fresh new episode of the On Brand Podcast. This week we’ll have Guy Kawasaki on the show.Last but not least … Subscribe to the podcast – You can subscribe to the show via iTunes, Stitcher, and RSS. Rate and review the show – If you like what you’re hearing, head over to iTunes and click that 5-star button to rate the show. And if you have a few extra seconds, write a couple of sentences and submit a review. This helps others find the podcast. OK. How do you rate and review a podcast? Need a quick tutorial on leaving a rating/review in iTunes? Check this out. Until next week, see you on the Internet! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“I’m a teacher in everything I do.” As an international speaker, author, consultant, and educator, Mark W. Schaefer does a lot of teaching. On top of that, he’ll join us in Iowa this fall as a keynote at the Social Brand Forum. I couldn’t wait to talk with Mark about his new book The Content Code, marketing curriculum, and everything in between on this week’s episode of the On Brand Podcast.About Mark W. SchaeferMark W. Schaefer is a globally-recognized author, speaker, educator, and business consultant who blogs at {grow} – one of the top marketing blogs of the world. He teaches graduate marketing classes at Rutgers University and has written four best-selling books including The Tao of Twitter (the best-selling book on Twitter in the world) and Return On Influence, which was named one of the top business titles of the year by the American Library Association. His clients include Dell, Adidas, and the US Air Force. He has been a keynote speaker at prestigious events all over the world including SXSW, Marketing Summit Tokyo, and the Institute for International and European Affairs.Mark is also the author the new book The Content Code and a keynote speaker at this fall’s Social Brand Forumhere in Iowa.As We Wrap …Recently Roberto Cuestas favorited the podcast and gave as shout! Thanks for listening, Roberto!Did you hear something you liked on this episode or another? Do you have a question you’d like our guests to answer? Let me know on Twitter using the hashtag #OnBrandPodcast and you may just hear your thoughts here on the show.Last but not least … Subscribe to the podcast – You can subscribe to the show via iTunes, Stitcher, and RSS. Rate and review the show – If you like what you’re hearing, head over to iTunes and click that 5-star button to rate the show. And if you have a few extra seconds, write a couple of sentences and submit a review. This helps others find the podcast. OK. How do you rate and review a podcast? Need a quick tutorial on leaving a rating/review in iTunes? Check this out. And don’t forget that this podcast is brought to you by our Brand Driven Digital events series, learn more about Digital Strategy Boot Camp and the industry leading Social Brand Forum now. Until next week, I’ll see you on the Internet! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this week’s Social Sound Bite – recorded live at the KXIC studios in Iowa City – Jay and I discussed a couple of new features on Twitter. First, users can now opt-in to receive Twitter direct messages from users who don’t follow them. This could have a big impact on brands using Twitter direct messages for customer service. We also looked at a new feature that will help the network crack down on cyber-bullying.  Listen for the full sound bite and enjoy these useful links to the news, trends, and tips included in this week’s show. Beyond the Sound Bite Twitter’s New Direct Messaging Feature Is an Opportunity for Brands (The Wall Street Journal) Can Twitter clamp down on online bullying? (Marketing Interactive) And this week were were also joined in studio by my daughter who got to see the station’s “pit” (Instagram) Remember, the Social Sound Bite is just the appetizer! On Monday morning we’ll serve up a fresh new episode of the On Brand Podcast. This week we’ll have author, strategist, and Social Brand Forum keynote Mark W. Schaefer on the show.Last but not least … Subscribe to the podcast – You can subscribe to the show via iTunes, Stitcher, and RSS. Rate and review the show – If you like what you’re hearing, head over to iTunes and click that 5-star button to rate the show. And if you have a few extra seconds, write a couple of sentences and submit a review. This helps others find the podcast. OK. How do you rate and review a podcast? Need a quick tutorial on leaving a rating/review in iTunes? Check this out. Until next week, see you on the Internet! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“A name introduces you to the experience.” In short, words and the stories we create with them matter. Jonathan Littman would know. He’s named just a few things over the years. As the author and co-author of nine books he’s a leading thinker on how innovation happens and how brands can use storytelling to create narratives that snowball. As you can imagine, I couldn’t wait to chat with Jonathan on this week’s episode of the On Brand podcast.About Jonathan LittmanJonathan Littman is the co-author of The Art of Innovation and The Ten Faces of Innovation, two bestsellers about the legendary design strategy firm IDEO that have combined international sales of over 700,000 copies.Jonathan has been nominated for a Pulitzer, won two Computer Press Awards, and a New York Press Club Journalism Award and the Peter Lisagor Award for Exemplary Journalism. He is the author and co-author of nine books, including two popular books about famous computer hackers, The Fugitive Game and The Watchman. A former Contributing Editor for Playboy, Jonathan has also written for the Los Angeles Times Magazine and Forbes and numerous technology and business publications. He is currently launching SmartUp.life, the innovation hub, an online resource for inspiration, creativity and innovation generation for companies and individuals.Jonathan is the founder and CEO of Snowball Narrative and leads innovation, branding, and publishing projects. Clients include Gillette, Estee Lauder, Garmin, Sony, M31, TrendHunter, Lululemon, Leadership Business Consulting, Gap, and Deckers Brands.Jonathan has given numerous keynotes, executive briefings, and seminars in the United States and Canada on innovation, storytelling, and entrepreneurship. He has also made more than a hundred appearances on television and radio on such national shows as All Things Considered, Fresh Air, Talk of the Nation, CNN, Fox, ESPN, and CNBC.As We Wrap …Recently Sean Carpenter of Coldwell Banker gave a shout-out to our Justin Foster episode. Thanks for listening Sean!Did you hear something you liked on this episode or another? Do you have a question you’d like our guests to answer? Let me know on Twitter using the hashtag #OnBrandPodcast and you may just hear your thoughts here on the show.Last but not least … Subscribe to the podcast – You can subscribe to the show via iTunes, Stitcher, and RSS. Rate and review the show – If you like what you’re hearing, head over to iTunes and click that 5-star button to rate the show. And if you have a few extra seconds, write a couple of sentences and submit a review. This helps others find the podcast. OK. How do you rate and review a podcast? Need a quick tutorial on leaving a rating/review in iTunes? Check this out. And don’t forget that this podcast is brought to you by our Brand Driven Digital events series, learn more about Digital Strategy Boot Camp and the industry leading Social Brand Forum now. Until next week, I’ll see you on the Internet! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“How do we create the perception of trust?” That is the million dollar questions for individuals and brands alike. And it’s a central question addressed in Heidi Grant Halvorson’s new book No One Understands You and What to Do About It. I couldn’t wait to talk to this successful social psychologist speaker and author about trust, perception, first impressions, and everything in between on this week’s episode of the podcast.About Heidi Grant HalvorsonHeidi Grant Halvorson is a social psychologist who researches, writes, and speaks about the science of motivation. She is the author of the new book No One Understands You and What To Do About It, as well the national best-seller Nine Things Successful People Do Differently. She is also Associate Director of Columbia Business School’s Motivation Science Center, and a frequent contributor to Fast Company, Harvard Business Review, and Business Insider.Heidi is a member of the American Psychological Association, the Association for Psychological Science, and the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, and was recently elected to the highly selective Society for Experimental Social Psychology. She received her PhD in social psychology from Columbia University.As We Wrap …Recently Andrea D. Smith tweeted after listening to last week’s interview with Siegel+Gale’s David Srere saying that she “loved it.” Thanks Andrea! We love hearing that.Did you hear something you liked on this episode or another? Do you have a question you’d like our guests to answer? Let me know on Twitter using the hashtag #OnBrandPodcast and you may just hear your thoughts here on the show.Last but not least … Subscribe to the podcast – You can subscribe to the show via iTunes, Stitcher, and RSS. Rate and review the show – If you like what you’re hearing, head over to iTunes and click that 5-star button to rate the show. And if you have a few extra seconds, write a couple of sentences and submit a review. This helps others find the podcast. OK. How do you rate and review a podcast? Need a quick tutorial on leaving a rating/review in iTunes? Check this out. And don’t forget that this podcast is brought to you by our Brand Driven Digital events series, learn more about Digital Strategy Boot Camp and the industry leading Social Brand Forum now. Until next week, I’ll see you on the Internet! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this week’s Social Sound Bite – recorded live at the KXIC studios in Iowa City – Jay and I discussed a new retweet feature from Twitter plus speculation on the social network’s acquisition. As Twitter’s stock price crept up Tuesday, so did rumors of a potential takeover from not one but two different suitors including Google! Listen for the full sound bite and enjoy these useful links to the news, trends, and tips included in this week’s show. Beyond the Sound Bite Twitter officially lets you retweet with comments now (Mashable) Twitter’s stock price rises after Google buyout rumours – not for the first time (The Guardian) Google buying Twitter would be like Microsoft buying Yahoo (Business Insider) Remember, the Social Sound Bite is just the appetizer! On Monday morning we’ll serve up a fresh new episode of the On Brand Podcast. This week we have psychologist, speaker, and author Heidi Grant Halvorson.Last but not least … Subscribe to the podcast – You can subscribe to the show via iTunes, Stitcher, and RSS. Rate and review the show – If you like what you’re hearing, head over to iTunes and click that 5-star button to rate the show. And if you have a few extra seconds, write a couple of sentences and submit a review. This helps others find the podcast. OK. How do you rate and review a podcast? Need a quick tutorial on leaving a rating/review in iTunes? Check this out. Until next week, see you on the Internet! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“If you lie, you die.” While severe, truer words have never been uttered about brand building in the digital age. Siegel+Gale Chief Strategy Officer David Srere joined us for a conversation about simplicity, organizational purpose, brand experience, and, of course, how one goes about quantifying all of this. Enjoy this week’s episode of the On Brand podcast.About David B. SrereDavid first learned the art of simplicity from a college history professor, who refused to read beyond the first three pages of any assignment his students turned in. “If you couldn’t say it in three pages, it just wasn’t worth saying,” he recalls. David did more than just learn the lesson; he became a lifelong proponent of the power of a clear, credible, compelling story.As Chief Strategy Officer, David applies that philosophy to his oversight of Siegel+Gale’s strategic practice areas and activities. A noted authority in the corporate branding field, he has pioneered the notion of organizational purpose as an integral part of the brand development process. David believes that “giving employees an emotionally based reason to come to work every day, to make them feel part of something meaningful and larger than themselves, is the difference between good companies and great companies.”Under his leadership, Siegel+Gale recently expanded into China—the latest achievement in a career that includes terms as Co-Managing Director of the New York office and Group Director, Strategy. David continues to work on what he describes as “Big Think” engagements for clients including American Express, SAP, Motorola, and HP. He writes and speaks regularly about organizational purpose, strategic differentiation and corporate values, and is regularly quoted in the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, and other major business publications.As We Wrap …Recently, Colin Haas reviewed the On Brand podcast over at Jay Baer’s Marketing Podcasts — an amazing search engine for podcast discovery (the only one of its kind, in fact). We are honored that Colin liked what he heard so much that he gave us a 9.9 rating! Thanks for listening and rating the show!Did you hear something you liked on this episode or another? Do you have a question you’d like our guests to answer? Let me know on Twitter using the hashtag #OnBrandPodcast and you may just hear your thoughts here on the show.Last but not least … Subscribe to the podcast – You can subscribe to the show via iTunes, Stitcher, and RSS. Rate and review the show – If you like what you’re hearing, head over to iTunes and click that 5-star button to rate the show. And if you have a few extra seconds, write a couple of sentences and submit a review. This helps others find the podcast. OK. How do you rate and review a podcast? Need a quick tutorial on leaving a rating/review in iTunes? Check this out. And don’t forget that this podcast is brought to you by our Brand Driven Digital events series, learn more about Digital Strategy Boot Camp and the industry leading Social Brand Forum now. Until next week, I’ll see you on the Internet! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices