Personal growth: game on!

In times like these, the need to reinforce your core strengths and build additional strengths is critical. Since we work with Peirce College in Philly, helping people get their Bachelor's Degree and create a career path for themselves, we play frequently in this sandbox.

The sandbox is getting bigger.

I've noticed recently that places like Phoenix (see banner ad), Strayer and now Kaplan University are turning up the heat. These places aren't your traditional universities. They're a new breed of educational resource that is catering to the non-traditional students out there who may not have the time or resources to attend college the way college was done in the past. Point being, personal growth isn't reserved for just MBA-seekers. I particularly like what Phoenix is doing (www.phoenix.edu). They're absolutely working very hard to build a brand. To that point, this is an awesome photo of a woman with a look of determination in her eyes you don't usually see in typical stock photos used in most college viewbooks.

Personal growth is big. Where else do you see this trend going on?

Empowered Health and Living Brands

Talking with a colleague of mine last week, our conversation led to an interesting
place, one that continues to stick with me:

EMPOWERED CONSUMERS POWER BRANDS.

That was it. The simplicity of the idea caught me off guard. But it made a lot of sense.

It cleared a lot of what I've been thinking about lately with regard to brands, and why some win and some lose. Brands like Apple, Whole Foods, NIKE as well as Dell and Scion (build your own) underscore a powerful concept at work today. Brands that are able to empower their customers and make them feel a part of the brand, are more successful than those brands that don't.

Let's face it, successful brands have a way of putting the consumer in a position of power that ultimately power the brand beyond its competitors.

I call them Empowered Health & Living Brands. These are any brands in any category that give consumers information, education and confidence for the purposes of making their life better and more enjoyable. The above brand, Vitasana multivitamins, talks about "adding a little life to your life." While the ad was done a few years ago during the height of the growth of natural supplements, the tactic still rings true today.

Powerful brands get that way by empowering consumers.