The central problem of brand-building is getting a complex organization to execute a simple idea. Marty Neumeier More Quotes by Marty Neumeier More Quotes From Marty Neumeier Designers don't actually solve problems. They work through them. Marty Neumeier designerdesignproblem To achieve originality we need to abandon the comforts of habit, reason, and the approval of our peers, and strike out in new directions. Marty Neumeier peerscomfortneeds The most innovative designers consciously reject the standard option box and cultivate an appetite for thinking wrong. Marty Neumeier bad-assbadassthinking A brand is a person’s gut feeling about a product, service or organization Marty Neumeier gutsorganizationfeelings The best design tool is a long eraser with a pencil at one end. Marty Neumeier designtoolslong Branding is the process of connecting good strategy with good creativity. Marty Neumeier strategycreativityinspirational Brand is not what you say it is. It’s what they say it is. Marty Neumeier brands Design is the underlying skill that activates innovation. If you want to innovate, you've got to design. Marty Neumeier innovationdesign Convincing isn't really possible in an age of customer control. Customers hold most of the cards today. They have good visibility into their choices, and they can easily share information with each other. Not only that, they don't like to be sold. But they do like to buy. Your job shouldn't be to convince customers to buy, but to help them buy what they want. Marty Neumeier choicesagetoday A genius is someone who can tolerate the discomfort of uncertainty while generating as many ideas as possible. Marty Neumeier tolerategeniusideas The narrow gauge mindset of the past is insufficient for today’s Marty Neumeier musicplaypast When enough individuals arrive at the same gut feeling, a company can be said to have a brand. Marty Neumeier individualenoughfeelings You can't be a leader by following a leader. Marty Neumeier leader Design can also be used to invent strategic futures, make complex decisions, and craft a bold corporate vision. We need to move design up the ladder of influence. Marty Neumeier designdecisionmoving Without design thinking, the only sane response to a problem is to make a smaller, "safer" move. Smaller moves don't get you very far. They key is to let out the leash on imagination, but not take it off the leash. Imagination is the only path to innovation. It's a good example of something that humans do better than machines. Marty Neumeier imaginationmovingthinking A brand is a person's perception. Of course, it makes marketers nervous to think that marketing is out of their control, but that's why the discipline of branding has emerged. Marty Neumeier disciplineperceptionthinking I see "demand creation" as a 20th-century construct that's bound up with advertising. It's an outmoded view of marketing that says, "First, we build a product or service, then we advertise it into people's lives." Embedded this view is the belief that companies control brands. This is a myth. My message all along has been that brands are actually created by customers, not companies. Companies only provide the raw materials - the products, messaging, behaviors - that people use these to create brands. Marty Neumeier marketingbeliefpeople In a sense, traditional business is design blind. Marty Neumeier designblind Cultures are naturally resistant to change. The same shared mental models that allow large numbers of people to work together efficiently can also keep people from imagining new ways of working together. In many corporate cultures, new ideas are viewed as heresy. But it doesn't have to be that way. Marty Neumeier working-togetherculturepeople Designful companies are those that weave design thinking into the fabric of the company. In a designful company, innovation is rewarded instead of punished. Risk taking is the norm instead of the exception. Some companies have already embraced this type of culture change with impressive results. Marty Neumeier designriskthinking
