branded for life

Many companies around the world have big programs for society, employees and the environment. But they have taxes to pay, increasing salaries and shareholders that demand higher profit. How can they do all these things and satisfy their shareholders? ...read more

I recently saw the documentary movie Food, Inc. It made me hate the quality of food we’re being offered in supermarkets and served in restaurants. What can we do as consumers to force businesses to improve the quality of food they give us? ...read more

My partners and I want to bring a Smoothies & Sandwiches franchise to Kuwait, but not sure on location. A mall brings in traffic, but rent is expensive and competition is intense. What if we follow the ‘Blue Ocean Strategy’ and open it away from competition to gain competitive advantage? What are your thoughts on that? ...read more

One of our non-Arab waiters sings in the restaurant around customers. We talked to him but we keep receiving complaints. Should we just fire him or penalize him?

My policy on hiring and firing is simple: hire slow, fire fast. Choosing the right people from the start is much better than trying to improve the skills of the wrong people. Having said that, once you hire the right employee you need to give him training, a brand culture manual or some sort of guidance that sets expectations. When it comes to non-Arab waiters, many of them are not highly educated, they speak limited English and/or Arabic and they come from completely different cultures. Maybe it’s acceptable to sing around customers in his hometown. Maybe it’s a self-control mechanism to calm himself when he’s nervous. Some people eat, others sleep; he sings. ...read more

The Internet Map according to Wikipedia

Since the burst of the dot-com bubble in 2001, most companies have been offering free information, free downloads, free samples, free memberships, free webinars [online seminars, just in case you were living in a hole with no internet connection for the past decade], free products, free services and almost anything you can think of has been offered to increase website traffic numbers – and hopefully sales. There was a clear sense of desperation that has been labeled with many different titles. Some have called it ‘A new era of marketing’; others are now calling ’social marketing’. The good news is that not all companies are showing their cold sweat. Yet, the strange part is that it seems we haven’t learned much from history. ...read more

We want to create a sound for our brand like Microsoft when you open the computer or like Zain and McDonalds at the end of their commercials. We gave this job to our advertising agency and we sat with studios and musicians. Nothing worked. Who can do this?

You went to the butcher and asked him to sell you a wedding dress. The butcher didn’t want to let you down so he cleaned his white apron, added a couple of sleeves from his own white shirt and gave it to you after spraying some of his wife’s perfume on it. That’s what happened. And that’s why you couldn’t get what you’re looking for. Specialization exists in the world for a reason. Advertising agencies should handle only advertising. PR agencies should do only PR. Branding agencies should do only branding. Sounds logical and common sense, yet not many agencies apply it. ...read more

One of our staff resigned and went to a competitor. The contract doesn’t say that she can’t. But is it ethical?

You rarely find the words ‘ethical’ and ‘business’ being put together in the same sentence these days. The problem with ethics is that it deals with moral principles; and that varies from one person to another. What you might consider ethically acceptable may not be to someone else. That’s why legal obligations and contracts work. They function as common grounds that judge behaviors and decisions. Ethics are open to arguments. The law is not. So, saying that, can the business world and ethics still co-exist? Yes, they can exist in your hiring policy, interview profiling-questions and in brand cultural manuals, but not in contracts. ...read more