This is gonna be bad, “I guarantee it.”  Men’s Warehouse has gone and violated several major tenants of The Primal Code of branding.

Over the years I’ve become a fan of Patrick Hanlon’s approach to branding, Primal Branding.  I’ve blogged about Hanlon before, but the impact his Primal Code can have on a product or institutional brand is hard to deny.

At just about every place I’ve worked, (Harley-Davidson, Sea-Doo, Wellcraft, Donzi, The University of Florida, Moffitt Cancer Center) the primal code abounds and because of that, success has followed.

Hanlon’s premise is pretty simple.  “When people believe, they belong. When they belong to the group that surrounds your product or service, they are willing to advocate their belief to others.”  The elements that lead people to believe can be found in the Primal Code:

• The Creation Story: Where are you from?
• The Creed: What do you stand for?
• The Icons: Logos, sounds, smells, tastes.
• The Rituals: Repeated interactions with your enterprise.
• The Pagans: Who are the believers? Who are the outcasts?
• The Sacred Words: Specialized words from your belief system.
• The Leader: The risk taker, catalyst, iconoclast, visionary.

So where has Men’s Warehouse gone wrong?  Duh.

The Creation Story — now history

The Creed — “I guarantee it.” now history

The Icons — A bearded George Zimmer, now history

The Sacred Words — You’re gonna like the way you look. I guarantee it, now history

The Leader — Now history

Give it a while and we’ll see how Men’s Warehouse reinvents itself to reflect The Code.  Good public relations may help, but unless Zimmer is willing to play ball with the new team, Men’s Warehouse is in a heap of trouble…”I guarantee it.”

1 of Many

Passion Rules!

Lehigh Valley Health Network  is partnering with Moffitt Cancer Center to enhance cancer care by joining the newly launched Moffitt Oncology Network. Lehigh Valley, based in Allentown, Pa., is the first member of the network outside of Florida.  As a member of the Moffitt Oncology Network, Lehigh Valley will have access to Moffitt’s experts and best practices, which include multidisciplinary cancer care, peer review, clinical pathways and quality assurance standards.

The Moffitt Oncology Network extends Moffitt’s knowledge and expertise to physicians and providers with the goal of offering the best personalized cancer care. Lehigh Valley’s physicians will collaborate with Moffitt physicians on patient care and novel clinical research.

Key elements of the relationship include:

• Joint clinical research-driven cancer care
• Utilization of Moffitt Clinical Pathways
• Quality management strategies including physician education and audits
• Development of strategic Centers of Excellence

[Read more →]

Tallahassee – The Coalition to Heal Healthcare in Florida, Inc., has introduced a new television commercial shining a light on the impact of proposed Medicaid cuts on the state’s most vulnerable citizens: its children.

The spot notes that seven in 10 Floridians enrolled in the Medicaid program are pregnant women and children, therefore cuts would affect these two groups the most. The Coalition, a statewide bipartisan organization, is working at the grassroots level to stop unprecedented cuts to Florida’s Medicaid program.

“It’s bad enough that Medicaid cuts would harm those Floridians who are least able to find other ways to obtain health care. But the harm that cuts will cause to children is inexcusable and cannot be ignored,” said Bruce Rueben, president of the Florida Hospital Association.

The commercial will debut on February 17.   It is part of a broader Coalition effort against Medicaid cuts that includes a website, social media engagement platforms and an earlier TV commercial. The Coalition’s overall message to legislators is No More Cuts.

The video, “The Children’s Wing,” can be viewed at www.healflhealthcare.com. [Read more →]

That’s the question PR Daily publisher Mark Ragan asked his Twitter followers last week, using the hashtag #3WordsPRProsHate.  The suggestions poured in.

Here are five of the most commonly mentioned words and 3-word phrases:

1. Spin
2. Unique
3. Guru
4. Synergy
5. Innovate

1. Off the record
2. Return on investment
3. Let’s circle back
4. Low hanging fruit
5. Competitor was mentioned

I ABSOLUTELY agree with Mark’s list, but wonder how many MEDIA IMPRESSIONS his column received.

IRREGARDLESS of the results, don’t you think its time we all GOT BACK TO BASICS and stayed FOCUSED ON THE FUTURE!

Oh, WHATEVER. LIKE, YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN.

1 of Many

Passion Rules! [Read more →]

As a Floridian, I am deeply concerned about recent proposals
to balance the state budget by once again considering cuts to Medicaid. I
urge the Florida Legislature to oppose any further reductions to this program.

Medicaid provides hospital care to our most vulnerable neighbors. Eight out of ten
people who receive care through this program are children, elderly or
disabled. It is a vital service that has already been cut dramatically in
previous legislative sessions.   

In fact, I learned that the program has been cut $966 million since 2005,
including $500 million just last spring. Cuts of this magnitude will
undoubtedly hurt the hospital care available to us all. 

The loss of staffing and services cannot be isolated to just the patients covered
through Medicaid. I know that many of my friends and neighbors share my concerns,
 as it will affect them too.  [Read more →]

Moffitt Cancer Center, Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute and Florida Hospital have announced they will collaborate on the creation of a Personalized Medicine Partnership of Florida (PMP Florida). The partnership will conduct collaborative research to accelerate discovery and develop new treatments in the areas of cancer and metabolic diseases, including obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

PMP Florida will revolutionize health care by creating partnerships among Florida-based centers of excellence in medical research and clinical care. Together, the organizations will develop and utilize new molecular and genomic technologies to discover, translate and personalize interventions for preventing and treating debilitating diseases more efficiently to improve health care outcomes while reducing costs.

PMP Florida will leverage Moffitt’s Total Cancer Care™ to develop similar research and clinical protocols in other disease areas including metabolic diseases. The partnership will hasten the discovery and development of new treatments by bringing together the complementary strengths of Florida Hospital’s large patient population and clinical research expertise; Sanford-Burnham’s fundamental research expertise and technology platforms; and Moffitt’s biospecimen bank, data warehouse and personalized medicine capabilities.

“As a statewide resource for cancer research and treatment, Moffitt seeks to foster relationships such as these to maximize the state’s investment in the overall health and well-being of patients,” said William S. Dalton, Ph.D., M.D., CEO and center director of Moffitt. “We feel this partnership will enhance Florida’s national and international reputation in the discovery, translation, delivery and dissemination of personalized care.”
[Read more →]

Here’s a blast from the past.  One of my many Tim Tebow posts from the ole’ Gator Grotto blog.

Unless you’ve been sleeping under water with your nostrils just above the surface, you know the Gators won the BCS Championship last week down in Miami.  And unless you’ve been sleeping under water you know that the famous quarterback from UF,  Tim Tebow, was the game’s MVP.

And unless you’ve been sleeping under water you know that Tim Tebow is an amazing young man who loves his family, cares about the people around him, cares even more about people who have not been as fortunate as him in their lives, and is a devout Christian.

The famous quarterback, Tim Tebow, has created quite a stir with the eye black that he wears under his eyes when he’s playing the game.  While eye black is the stuff athletes put under their eyes to reduce the reflections from the sun or other bright lights, Tebow has used eye black to proclaim his faith.

Throughout the season the famous quarterback, Tim Tebow,  has worn Phil 4:13 on his eye black.  If you didn’t already know, Phil 4:13 is a bible verse that states; I can do everything through him who gives me strength. [Read more →]

Watching yesterday’s NFL Playoff game where Denver quarterback and Gator great Tim Tebow continued to amaze brought back fond memories of The Gator Nation branding campaign at the University of Florida.

While Tebow was not directly involved in the campaign itself, his success — on the field and off — helped draw attention to the university and helped propel the campaign into the stratosphere.  I may be a little prejudice here, but I believe that campaign is still the finest higher education branding campaign in the nation.  No tricks, no gimmicks, pure Gator.

Anyway, we produced a little video back in 2009 that featured “A day in the life of” theme.  Naturally, everyone thought it was a day in the life of Tim Tebow.  That video still exists and is just another example of how one person, even one as big as Tim Tebow, can be part of something even bigger and have fun while doing so.  Do you think Tebow is having fun today!

Take a look.  I think you’ll enjoy.  And Go Broncos!

A day in the life of . . . Tim Tebow. A day in the life of Tim Tebow

1 of Many

Passion Rules!

As Congress debates the fiscal 2012 appropriations and attempt to develop a long-term deficit reduction plan, members must deal with critical issues facing the nation. One issue is the support of biomedical research, which saves lives, improves quality of life and can serve as the foundation to improve the economy.  The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) provide leading academic and research institutions with the financial support necessary to build the infrastructure to conduct life saving medical science that potentially will affect all of our lives.

In the 40 years since the National Cancer Act was signed into law, impressive progress has been made. More than 12 million Americans are cancer survivors today because of the nation’s investment. Yet, as important as funding is to the research that will find the cures to diseases that affect Florida’s residents, Florida falls behind other states in attracting NIH federal dollars.

A recent article in the St. Petersburg Times quotes Mary Woolley, president and CEO of Research!America, discussing a survey showing the disparity in Florida’s population versus funding received from the National Institutes of Health.  The survey demonstrated that Floridians support education in the sciences and believe science careers to be important for the state economy. Without funding, however, Floridians will never realize these benefits.

At Moffitt Cancer Center, the only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center based in Florida, we are determined to advance the cancer research that will save lives.  In spite of flat funding of the NCI and NIH by Congress, Moffitt Cancer Center has continued to grow.  In 1996, when Moffitt began investing in research, we received less than $10 million in grant funding.  Today, we have over $80 million in grant funding.  Moffitt has increased its NCI grant funding by more than 81 percent during the past five years, raising the cancer center to 22nd in the nation in NCI-funded institutions. [Read more →]