Great packaging must establish an intimate relationship with consumers. Packaging is the only brand touchpoint where consumers are actually physically engaged with your brand 24/7. From its purchase, to its storage, to its usage and to it being discarded, your packaging forms a personal relationship with consumers. Packaging must take advantage of this opportunity. It must grab attention, make that right first impression and ultimately establish an emotional connection.

In today’s “Big Data” world, it’s easy to get lost in the cacophony of numbers and statistics. Companies look for an all-encompassing dashboard to divine brand health, but with advances in data visualization and an ocean of accessible data, the options can be overwhelming.

The few, the proud. The ultimate driving machine. The relentless pursuit of perfection. Just do it.

Great taglines deliver a simple, crisp communication of your value proposition. Great taglines don’t just happen. Capturing the essence of a brand in a handful of words requires a firm understanding of who you are (The Marines), what you do (BMW), how you do it (Lexus), and why (Nike). Only then can you turn your attention to the creative expression.

There are few areas of design and branding more subjective than color. Despite long-standing scientific studies of color and its effect on human behavior and psychology, the saturation of brands in any given market and the continued flattening of cultural boundaries make color selection for an identity a less-than-scientific endeavor.

Hiring managers should take into consideration that hiring practices have a strong correlation to some commonly used strategic branding practices. In fact, the similarities in branding 101 and a hiring manager vetting a group of candidates and selecting one for employment are strikingly familiar. It all comes down to the consumer (i.e. the potential employer) selecting one brand (i.e. the potential employee) over another who best meets specific needs. There is no doubt that candidates must represent themselves as preferred brands in the eyes of Human Resources regardless of the industry or position for which they are applying.

Deciding whether to grow or to remain hunkered down is a key issue for America’s business leaders today. Companies can do more to take their future into their own hands and move forward faster in the economy by addressing their brand. Here are five critical steps that a company can take to drive growth through branding.

Social media is dispersed and fluid. Brand management is centralized with limited flexibility. Yet these worlds must co-exist. As companies become increasingly social, communication is no longer the exclusive domain of Marketing and PR. Maintaining a consistent voice across all vehicles, social and otherwise, is a key challenge and hurdle for many brands. Here are five tips to help you make sure that your social media efforts contribute positively to your brand experience.

Your brand agency has just presented a handful of new logo options, complete with all kinds of enticing visual, verbal and even audio stimuli. There are one or two designs that hit you the right way. But this is a business decision, not a personal one. When selecting a new logo for your organization, gut instinct will always be a factor. But don’t let it overwhelm your professional judgment.

Everyone names something. We name our kids, our pets and our softball teams. However, when it comes to developing a corporate or product name, businesses need to approach the task with the same gravity and rigor they apply to any major business decision. A business name can be created to provoke emotion or spur attraction, but the process of developing a name should be a rational decision. Here are five tips to keep subjectivity at bay and end up with a name that does what it needs to do: Help communicate your brand and business strategy.

Marketing budgets are under attack and the best response is to provide proof that marketing will predictively build brands and create corporate value. CoreBrand’s continuous, quantitative research over the past 20 years shows that 70% of marketing budgets go underfunded and brands achieve less than their potential, creating a continuous struggle to justify additional spend.

Building a business means more than growing sales and profits. It can literally mean how a business is put together. Businesses are built through acquisitions, by establishing new products and services, adding new divisions or re-organizing operations. Sometimes these changes to the original company can look like ill-conceived additions to a house — creating an odd architectural mix of styles or discordant design. A company’s business architecture affects its brand architecture, impacting how a company structures its brands and how all those brand names, or divisional names, relate to each other. Here are five ideas for making sure the blueprint for your brand architecture will keep your business on a strong foundation and poised for future growth.