Lisa Merriam

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LDM (at) MerriamAssociates.com

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B2C Branding

Urban New Service — Leading African-American News Source in Under a Year

Congratulations to my client Urban News Service on their historical achievement: In less than six months, they have become one of the largest distributors of news content to African-American owned newspapers in the country. Here is the the interview with one of three founding principals (the others being Andre Johnson and Joe Ruffin). Eric Easter emphasizes the importance of seasoned journalists  telling black stories in print and embedding reporters in our  communities for the long haul. Hear the Eric …

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Can the Chipotle Brand Recover?

Can the Chipotle brand recover with recent company marketing moves? Chipotle Mexican Grill’s sinking sales and falling share prices follow a bacterial outbreak that sickened customers in at least 11 states. When news of widespread food poisoning at the “food with integrity” restaurants first broke, the internet filled with rumors of a chain-wide shutdown. Those …

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Chipotle Brand Failure: Saying All the Right Words, but Not Doing All the Right Things

The Chipotle brand failure brand gives new meaning to a brand backfire with 30 more people reported sick in Boston today. It turns out, the “food with integrity” branding idea looks better in the advertising than it does in reality. “Aspirational branding” is a ticking time bomb Building a brand about what you want to …

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Marketing Sherpa Case Study: SEO for 308% Increase Web Traffic

How to increase Web traffic is the subject of MarketingSherpa’s latest case study of Knockout Pest Control‘s local search and digital marketing work. Marketing Sherpa is a research company that tracks and shares “what works in all aspects of marketing.” They selected our client Knockout Pest Control to profile on how to build business–and better …

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Deflategate–The Newest in a Long Line of Gate Scandal Names

Deflategate–the shameful scandal involving under-inflated footballs that Tom Brady, Bill Belichick, and the entire Patriots organization unbelievably have no knowledge of and no responsibility for–is the latest in a long line of gate scandal names. As noted in this post from the past, Watergate opened the floodgates for gate scandal names–Deflategate will surely not be …

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Branding Scandals: Gruber-Gate and Gate Scandal Naming Since Watergate

Watergate tops most top ten US scandal lists, which may explain the ubiquity of the ___-gate naming meme for scandals. Gruber-gate is only the latest in a long list of scandals with “gate” in the name. Scandal Naming–The -Gate Construct The -gate construct for scandal naming got its start shortly after Watergate and Nixon’s impeachment …

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Adrian Peterson and Vikings Brand Sponsorship: Guilty Until Proven Innocent

Brand sponsorship requires a rush to judgement. Though Adrian Peterson has not been found guilty of a crime, brands can’t afford to serve as a backdrop to the drama of indictments and investigations. Radisson’s brand did literally serve as a backdrop to yesterday’s press conference by Vikings general manger Rick Spielman as he discussed child …

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