DAVID VINJAMURI

Adjunct Professor of Marketing,
New York University

President and Founder,
ThirdWay Brand Trainer

David Vinjamuri is Adjunct Professor of Marketing at New York University and President of ThirdWay Brand Trainers. David has more than 18 years of experience in marketing and management with companies including Coca-Cola, Johnson & Johnson, Citibank and DoubleClick. David trains corporate marketers at leading companies. David speaks widely, has been quoted in Business Week and was the featured speaker on the Queen Mary 2 in January, 2006.

Accidental Branding Launch

This is the official launch week for Accidental Branding. The launch day is Friday, March 28th. I will not be home in New York, but speaking at a conference in Las Vegas when the book comes out.

However, two weeks from today, I will make up for it by throwing a charity benefit for the launch of Accidental Branding. NYU is co-sponsoring and the event benefits Junior Achievement, an organization which helps build young entrepreneurs. I am honored that Carolyn Kepcher, the former Apprentice co-star will host the event. Three of the entrepreneurs I featured in Accidental Branding are flying in for the event: John Peterman (founder of J. Peterman), Craig Newmark (founder of craigslist) and Roxanne Quimby (founder of Burt’s Bees). Full details for the Accidental Branding launch are here and although the event is almost sold out, there are still a few tickets left.

In the next few months I will be in Las Vegas, Annapolis, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Denver and Chicago. If you’re a fan of the book, send me a note or find me on Twitter.

Book Excerpt: ToddAnd by Todd Andrlik

Todd Andrlik was extremely generous to offer me the lead-off spot in a new feature he is running on his excellent blog ToddAnd. Starting with Accidental Branding, he is now publishing short excerpts from marketing and branding books as well as pictures and bios. The excerpt of Accidental Branding is from the craigslist chapter. Thanks Todd!

Blog Review: Lead on Purpose by Michael Ray Hopkin

Michael Ray Hopkin adds an informative review with some helpful bullet points on Accidental Branding at Lead on Purpose.

Download Lead On Purpose PDF Book Review

Blog Review: Marketing on Purpose by Melani Ward

Melani Ward from Marketing on Purpose Melanie takes a different angle on my background with a concise review of Accidental Branding at Marketing on Purpose.

Download Marketing On Purpose PDF Book Review

Blog Review: Sly Marketing by Jens Berget

Jens contributes a thoughtful review of Accidental Branding on the SlyMarketing Blog.

Download Sly Marketing PDF Book Review

Blog Review: The Marketing Spot by Jay Ehret

Jay Ehret Jay contributes a nice review of Accidental Branding at The Marketing Spot.

Download The Marketing Spot PDF Book Review

Interview: WBIX-AM (Boston) Stu Taylor on Business

Stu Taylor on Business This morning I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Stu Taylor, on the #1 drive time business talk show in Boston and New England. Stu is a longtime radio personality and also has a nationally syndicated radio talk show called “Equity Strategies.” He has interviewed luminaries like Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric. It was a great conversation that spanned two segments and I’ll link to it as soon as it’s up on his website.

Seth Godin talks

Yesterday I had an opportunity to introduce Seth Godin at the speaker series that my company, ThirdWay Brand Trainers, runs. Seth stopped by to talk about Meatball Sundae, his new book. Seth - being Seth - was full of energy and incredibly insightful ideas.

The book is about the indiscriminate use of new media by brands that don’t really fit the ethos of the Internet. One thing Seth Godin said while talking about widgets (functional applications that can slot onto your my Yahoo, iGoogle page, blog, Facebook or in other places) is that he didn’t think marketing widgets would be successful because they were ungenerous where as successful widgets needed to be generous. In other words, a widget that shows the weather for my area is generous because it is useful without being demanding or pushy. A widget from the GAP which features a new sweater everyday is inherently ungenerous because it’s not that useful and demands my attention.

We discussed this issue in my NYU class ‘From Blogs to Buzz’ last night. I think the solution is that marketers need to focus either on their most passionate consumers or find generous applications that might still benefit them. For example, one of my students runs a loyalty program for British Airways. That brand could have a widget for its most rabid frequent fliers which tracks flights and frequent flier mileage and delivers targeted offers. But for the less-involved BA frequent fliers, they would need something like an aviation weather forecast that could be set by region or destination - to allow them to predict weather delays regardless of whose plane they were flying.