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Basics of Branding: A Practical Guide for Managers is a 6-chapter book published in 2013 by the Business Expert Press and written by Jay Gronlund, president and founder of The Pathfinder Group and instructor at New York University. Gronlund provides an in-depth analysis of branding and the requirements of successful brand development. He explores critical concepts including market positioning, brand equity, and content marketing as well as the implications of continuing changes in the market environment due to technology. Using illustrative examples from well-known brands and summarizing important research, he provides practical guidance and insight for both managers and students. In Chapter 5, Branding in the B2B World-New Opportunities (18 pages), the author explains how business-to-business marketers can develop strong brands and increase marketing efficiency by following the branding practices of consumer marketers. He outlines five ways for managers to adopt these practices: First, gain an in-depth understanding of customers. Second, maximize the value proposition. Third, communicate consumer value prevent buyers from demanding lower prices. Fourth, align marketing and sales operations to avoid the more costly and less efficient "silo" mentality. Finally, deepen the consumer relationship to build brand trust and generate loyalty. The author explains key aspects of each best practice and includes practical guidance for application in business marketing.

Basics of Branding: A Practical Guide for Managers is a 6-chapter book published in 2013 by the Business Expert Press and written by Jay Gronlund, president and founder of The Pathfinder Group and instructor at New York University. Gronlund provides an in-depth analysis of branding and the requirements of successful brand development. He explores critical concepts including market positioning, brand equity, and content marketing as well as the implications of continuing changes in the market environment due to technology. Using illustrative examples from well-known brands and summarizing important research, he provides practical guidance and insight for both managers and students. In Chapter 6, Marketing Today: Branding for Digital Marketing and Social Media (11 pages), the author considers how technological advances in the past decade have impacted branding. He explains how mass marketing has evolved into more targeted micro-marketing and how the internet has impacted purchasing behaviors. He looks at the rise of content marketing and how it applies to six types of marketing. He says that increasing market segmentation challenges managers to deliver more tailored messages to more individualized customer groups, and presents five critical concepts to help managers engage customers as well as outlines important implications for branding. He also provides five issues to consider when contemplating branding in social media. He concludes with a list of 20 principles to guide the development of strong brands.

Line managers are taking on duties that once belonged to human resources. They can benefit from emerging best practices and can start by asking and answering the five key questions the author explores.

An analysis of more than 25,000 earnings calls made by publicly held U.S. companies reveals that the tone of calls is markedly different depending on the time of day--and stock returns over the next quarter reflect that tone, with negative calls associated with abnormal negative returns. Managers should consider these findings when scheduling calls and be aware that, for example, a 3 PM call is likely to have a far more negative tone than an 8 AM call.

A series of studies reveals that the warning labels added to risky products can make those products more appealing to consumers. The mere inclusion of a warning builds trust, because consumers feel that the seller is being honest--and over time that trust becomes more prominent, while the substance of the warning fades.

A new study reveals that people who start companies pray more often and are more likely to believe that God takes a personal interest in them.

The personal traits your top people possess matter much less than what they actually do every day. Kevin Sharer, former chief executive at Amgen, argues that your greatest job as a CEO is to define the behavior you want the leaders of your organization to exhibit--not by dictating the behavior from on high but by involving the leaders themselves in the process of defining it.

How Walmart listened to its critics and demonstrated that taking on large social issues, such as providing help in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, recycling, and hiring war veterans, can be compatible with building a strong business.

Surprising facts about Africa, which promises to be the world's next growth hot spot.

IRL develops products that provide fully automatic detection, reporting and prediction of unwanted incidents (e.g., forestry wildfires) and help authorities to manage the critical infrastructure in an efficient and cost-effective way. By 2012, IRL had obtained its first contract from the Guangdong Academy of Forestry; it had also introduced angel investors, and funding was available for expansion. With a strong product for wildfire prevention, IRL wants to move quickly to penetrate into forestry markets, including 10 provinces in the People's Republic of China; Malaysia; Australia; and countries in Africa, the Middle East and South and Central America. For reasons associated with the nature of emerging economies, IRL decides to let local system integrators ("SIs") in each market own and serve the end customers, that is, the local government agencies. To mitigate credit risks, IRL also allows direct procurement of hardware by the SIs from IRL's manufacturer. As the company is considering whether to address the market potential of developed countries, such as Australia, it is pondering whether it should follow the same business approach it has adopted for the emerging economies. In addition, the company has an opportunity to raise up to US$7 million in capital in the near future. IRL has only spent around US$1 million since its inception. Should the company take this opportunity and raise the capital all in one go? What factors should the founders consider before making up their minds about this opportunity? With seven core critical infrastructure sectors that the company might target－including transportation, water resources, power supplies and natural resources mining, agriculture, oil and gas, border security, and critical facilities－IRL sees huge market potential ahead. Facing the happy problem of market potential overwhelmingly disproportionate to its size and resources, what should the company do in the short-, medium- and long-term?

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A handful of global players dominated the telecommunications infrastructure industry in 2007. The benefits to scale were significant: substantial funding requirements were necessary to sustain continuous innovation and development of networks, products and services; key customers themselves were globalising (e.g., operators such as Telefónica and Vodafone); and low-price competition from Asia (e.g., Huawai) increased pressures towards consolidation. In 2006, French Alcatel and the US firm Lucent Technologies joined forces and in 2007 Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) was established.

Big data has unleashed a torrent of infographics--most of them awful.

Cervus Equipment Corporation has grown its business substantially over the past 10 years through regional acquisitions and strong organic growth. The company was founded to manage and consolidate farm equipment dealerships in western Canada but, in partnership with original equipment manufacturers, has branched into the construction equipment and long haul trucking manufacturing industries and has moved into New Zealand and Australia. The board of directors is now looking for the new chief executive officer (CEO) to chart an innovative growth strategy that will see the company triple in size over the next five years. The market fundamentals to support this growth are quite strong and realistic; however, the growth opportunities in the company's traditional Canadian markets are not sufficient and its customers' requirements are being driven to new levels of complexity due to a technology revolution happening within the industry. At the same time, its experience overseas has ultimately provided an opportunity to develop a greater understanding of the differences in international markets and new cultures. The CEO needs to come up with a growth plan that puts Cervus Equipment into non-traditional markets or new industries while addressing the changes happening in the industry.

The director of the investment wing of a financial-services provider must decide whether his firm should continue to invest in the former frontrunner in the personal-computer industry or switch strategies and invest instead in an up-and-coming competitor. At a time of significant technological change and slowing global growth, the director and his team of analysts set out to create an in-depth assessment of the personal-computer industry in order to make an informed decision about their firm's optimum investment choices.

The Black Iris Systems vignette describes a brief scenario where the CEO of Black Iris Systems, Malcolm Briggs, receives opposing emails from two of his board members re: their differing points of view about their participation in the board. The scenario causes him to evaluate the role of board members and his goals for the organization.

Donatella, LLC will be losing a key board member in about two years, and the current board members must work to find a new member to replace him with someone with similar operational experience. After finding Peter Jeter, the company struggles with how to pay him, as detailed in an email chain between the board of directors. Sara Johnson, Donatella's CEO, becomes stuck in a situation of choosing to overpay this new board member, upset her board members, or restart the hiring process.

Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) was struggling. The national oil company of Mexico, Pemex held total reign over the Mexican oil and gas industry. The largest company in Latin America, it employed 140,000 people, made up 3% of Mexico's GDP, and provided nearly 40% of the funds for the Mexican government's budget. But production of oil and gas had been dropping for years, and the single field which had made up more than 50% of total production just five years ago, Cantarell, was in rapid decline. Pemex had been a cash cow for the Mexican state, but was notoriously inefficient and potentially corrupt. For the first time since the 1938 revolution which had nationalized the Mexican oil and gas industry, there was serious consideration of undertaking fundamental change at Pemex. 'Change could mean everything from altering the Mexican constitution to taking the company public.

During the month of November, many men in Canada and around the world participated each year in Movember by growing moustaches and collecting pledges. As a not-for-profit organization, Movember Canada strived to raise both money and awareness for men's health, specifically prostate cancer. The community development manager for Movember Canada faced an interesting challenge. The participation of more women represented a significant opportunity to make a large impact with monetary fundraising, but it also provided an important chance to change attitudes towards men's health. However, many organizations relating to women's health were already well established and successful at reaching out each year for support from female demographics. The manager needed to determine how the organization could attract and involve more women in battling a health issue that was not their own. Compounding the challenge was the efficient and simple campaign operated by Movember Canada, which relied on a lean team and low administrative costs.