Brands aren't built with advertising.

Brand awareness is. Specials are announced, rebates exclaimed, images and reputations somewhat formed. Pricing updated. New models introduced. Mostly, it is just noise.

Brands built? No.

Building a brand is not a pro-bono poster or a bus wrap or 15" TV spot. These are tactics. They need to be well executed, creative, impactful, simple, powerful...all that stuff...but that's not where the brand lives or is built. It's just branding and branding is the most overused, misunderstood term in marketing. Everybody hangs their hat on the term, and hardly anybody knows what it means.

The real secret, and the one that marketers have ignored for way too long, is the proper discovery and development of the brand...the essence, if you will and then the complete adoption of the brand promise throughout the organization - both internally and externally.

You can produce the most beautiful, most powerful, most memorable TV spot in the world and the moment that the brand that's advertised doesn't deliver on its brand promise...that investment is totally wasted.

So before you rush off to some award-winning, creative ad shop for the next best tactical execution, stop.

Develop your brand first. Internalize and operationalize it and then broadcast the promise. You'll see and feel the difference.

The difference doesn't shine in the lobby display case...it shines on the bottom line.

How big to you have to get before you get bad?

This is the thought I have as I think about the thousands of fellow Ohioans whose lives and families and careers are in jeopardy as GM and others try to ‘unstick’ themselves from this mess they have created.

Or maybe a better question - how big do you need to be?

Big is not always better. Best is better. Big just causes troubles.

Look at the countless number of brands that GM offers – it’s incredible to think that the world market needs to be sliced so thin so that there’s a different freaking truck for each person on the planet.

It reminds me of the route the publishing industry is taking with a magazine for each one of us – walkers, fly fisherman, truckers, chefs, travelers, sleepers, grandparents, accountants, you name it. Jeez. And it’s getting that crazy with cable TV channels, too. Soon, we’ll each have our own shows.

Let’s have Life, Look and Saturday Evening Post back and all will be right with the world. The hell with Natural Herb Daily, somebody will cover it – eventually.

Look at the brands of GM, the different divisions, the different styles and makes and models within a division. Great brands deliver a promise but can you tell me the difference between a Saturn Vue Green Line Hybrid and a Saturn Aura Green Line Hybrid and a Chevrolet Malibu Hybrid - how about a GMC Sierra 2 Mode Hybrid? Didn’t think so.

It’s tough enough to tell the difference between Chevrolet and Buick and Pontiac.

GM has to get back to basics. They originally competed with Ford because GM offered a variety of choices and models and a Ford was available in black. Period.

So how big do you have to get before you get bad? How big’s GM? There’s your answer. Get back to basics and be who you are and what you promise and nothing else.

Now I hear Starbucks is going to offer instant coffee. Introducing instant coffee is not the answer, Starbucks. Here we go again.