I've Said It Before, Let Me Say It Again

Brand.

One word. One image. One focus. The future.

To that end, post 400 -- hopefully later this week -- will begin a series of comments on how that works in the new media world and for college athletics.

Meanwhile, digest this appetizer from Bloomburg News courtesy of our director of new media, Blair Cartwright. He emails this link last night.

The gist of the story is in bad economic times, the strongest brands have the best performance and the brands that put resources into building image perform at the top. Local giant Walmart, of course, fairs well in this article.

The money quote:

“When the economy tanks, the really strongly branded companies take much less of a hit than price-cutters,” said Frankel, who has worked with companies such as Walt Disney Co. and Honda Motor Co.