Design Thinking: Leadership’s Impact on Brand
David Lemley’s article, Henny Penny and The Recesionistas is featured at Popon.net in the site’s Insights section. In the article, Lemley discusses the art of leadership in tough times. He asserts that strong leadership today has the power to catapult average brands into tomorrow’s superstar brands. He begins by poking fun at those busienss leaders who would follow the herd mentality.
“The NY Times declares, “People are trading down, luxury is out, thrifty is the new nifty.” The National Retail Federation babbles, “The sky has fallen, now what?” Well, Adage is advising brands to hunker down, refrain from brand building and focus on promotional sales. Egad! Don’t they know what happened to Ducky Lucky and Goosy-Poosy?
During the last economic downturn I witnessed a handful of Foxy-Loxies reposition themselves to become market leaders. I would love to stand here and tell you that it was our great creative efforts that moved them to the top, but I would be lying. The truth is that much of their success came because they knew what to avoid.”This is the fourth article by David Lemley to be featured at Popon.net. The first article ends on a sassy note, typical of the author’s style., “Authenticity is not for wimps. It’s called long term business (Brand) strategy. Authenticity requires telling the truth about what you believe in, what you stand for and not changing your position for short-term gain. It’s something that advertising agencies typically do not excel at because there is no media spend. So, next time your ad agency starts talking about Brand as a media spend, it may be time to clean house.”