Spend enough time around any mature, successful industry – radio included – and you’ll find an environment that isn’t necessarily welcoming new ideas unless those new ideas are attached to a firm business plan. On one hand, how can you blame folks for this? After all, shouldn’t everything we do at one stage or another add value to the consumer experience? And shouldn’t that value come back to us in the form of dollars? Well, maybe not right away. And maybe not directly. Reven

This is Part 2 of my special conversation with branding guru and author Tom Asacker. If you missed Part 1 go here. Tom and I talk about his new book, The Business of Belief: How the World’s Best Marketers, Designers, Salespeople, Coaches, Fundraisers, Educators, Entrepreneurs and Other Leaders Get Us to Believe Watch the complete Q&A here, or skip to Part 2 of the abbreviated transcript below. If consumer desire precedes interest, how does the marketer effectively tap in to t

Tom Asacker is an advisor to major brands like Procter & Gamble, UPS, and G.E. and the author of many thoughtful and incisive books on branding and marketing. He is one of the brightest minds in any business, and his latest book is his best yet: The Business of Belief: How the World’s Best Marketers, Designers, Salespeople, Coaches, Fundraisers, Educators, Entrepreneurs and Other Leaders Get Us to Believe Watch the complete Q&A or skip to Part 1 of the abbreviated transcript

I’ve been writing a lot lately about the tie-breaking value of doing the “unnecessary” – The idea that doing what’s not necessarily “important” (at least not yet) can eventually become the decisive difference making your brand more desirable than all the others. Doing what’s “unnecessary” means doing what you don’t have to do. Or do you? Witness the astounding number of “unnecessaries” in Jeff Bezos’ most recent letter to shareholders, including this: When we’re at our best,

Recently I caught up with my friend Tom Asacker (who has a great new book coming out, by the way – more about Opportunity Screams in this blog soon). We were discussing my belief that, contrary to common belief in the radio industry, awareness for a radio brand is produced by passion for that radio brand, not vice versa.  Yes, you read that right.  Passion first – awareness follows. Or, as Tom puts it, “desire stimulates interest.” And desire doesn’t come because of unlimited