On The House is a team of Atlanta branding and marketing experts that donated a total of $100,000 worth of services to a local non-profit organization. The idea was to give a branding makeover to a non-profit that was doing great work, but was not reaching its full potential due to weak marketing materials. The winner would receive strategic brand consulting, brand identity work, logo design, website design, photography, video production, brochures, printing and trademark counseling all for free. The winner of the prize was the Swift School, a non-profit school in Roswell, Georgia that serves elementary children with dyslexia.

Success is sometimes your own worst enemy. Just ask the management and stockholders at Crocs. A hot brand can burns bright too fast and fizzles becoming a fad. Believe it or not, whether your brand will become a fad depends on your strategy more than you think. The good news is the fate of your brand is very much in your control. The bad news is it may be too late for Crocs.

Starbucks latest offensive isn’t against McDonald’s or Dunkin’ Donuts it is against itself. And if Starbucks weapon is as successful as it says it will be then they could be shooting themselves in the cup. It’s an insane idea for the world’s leading gourmet coffee chain to set-up a blind taste test in its own stores that it hopes it will lose. Losing a taste test devalues the loser as much as it praises the winner.