Here are 5 ways likeable brands are like likeable people.

1. They’re good listeners. Who wants to listen to someone else talk about how great they are, how great their accomplishments have been, how amazingly talented their kids are? Those are the types of conversations – the “one-way” kind – I try to escape, and fast. Conversely, people who take a genuine interest in others, […]

Tips to make your company more attractive to young prospective employees.

Attracting decent talent has never been harder. For many automotive OEM suppliers, a new image is called for. A change from grimy, outdated factories with antiquated machinery and repetitive line jobs to clean, dynamic and rewarding. Some companies are changing their images accordingly. In a national television campaign, General Electric featured a Millennial named Owen […]

Rebranding can impact your company in wondrous ways.

If your brand hasn’t had a refresh in a decade or more, you might want to take a closer look at the companies you’re supplying. Over the last several years, OEMs have been making huge technological strides forward. Today’s cars, trucks and SUVs are as much engineering marvels as they are gems of mass manufacturing. […]

The more ways you apply the essence of your brand, the stronger your brand will be (and the more it will help sell product).

Studies show that brand consistency across many channels is a significant factor in consumer spending. Hear, hear and heck, yeah. I’ll say it again: Brands which are consistent in their look and message get a bigger share of an average consumer’s wallet than brands that aren’t. There are so many places the brand essence of […]

“Owning” a color can be one of the most powerful branding tactics.

Some of the strongest brands in the world “own” a color. Coca Cola owns red. Apple owns white. Tiffany owns its own shade of robin’s egg blue. UPS owns brown. The Masters – yes, a golf tournament is a brand – owns green. What color does your automotive OEM supply company own? Color is a […]

Make it brief and all about your customer and you’ve got yourself a decent mission statement.

Architect Bob Borson. Sir Richard Branson. They both have a strong opinion about mission statements. In a 2014 blog post, Borson wrote: “I think Mission Statements are silly – particularly if you make them public and part of your marketing strategy.” I agree about the silly part. Mission statements typically say what every business in […]

To win more business, make your brand more customer-centric.

Your prospective customers don’t care about you. They probably don’t care about your competitors, either. In their communications, most companies make the same mistake: They talk about themselves, about how they’re the best in the business, how their team has an astounding number of years of combined experience, how easy they are to work with, […]