Building a strong, compelling brand is like pouring the foundation of a house. It is the bedrock upon which all else in marketing rests. It's also like laying down musical tracks in the studio. There are those who say it's alright if you don't get exactly what you want in the tracking sessions; with the studio technology available now, you can always fix it in the mix. Believe that? No? Well, we don't either.

Brand-building is not just coming up with a clever name or cool graphics. It's a process that includes market strategy, landscape analysis, product development, and most important of all, strategic creative.

So what does that mean, strategic creative? The core work of strategic creative is to create a company and/or product identity which, in and of itself, clearly defines what that entity is, strongly differentiates it from its competition and makes it highly compelling to consumers.

Tactical creative, on the other hand, is the clever comic scenario at the front end of a television commercial that engages the viewer to gain his or her attention and stimulate interest in a specific product or product set. It's job is to leverage the brand identity a company or product already has in order to advertise it, promote it, sell it.