servingoperarealness

[servingoperarealness]

Corporate Identity and Brand Image

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/whats-difference-between-corporate-identity-brand-image-simon-morris

In this blog, Simon Morris, Managing Director at Godmother, discusses the confusion surrounding the terms corporate identity, brand identity and brand image and provides clear and helpful definitions for each.

According to Morris, corporate identity refers to the visuals the organization is putting out into the world. Corporate identity is something that the organization controls, and changing corporate identity, such as adopting a new logo or modernizing the design of the company’s visuals, can show that the organization is evolving with the times and is still relevant. This reminds me of walking through Manhattan neighborhoods and seeing the different between long-lasting businesses that are thriving and those that are not. For example, one of my favorite diners in the East Village has been around for over 60 years, and they’ve weathered economic downturn and increases in rent by keeping up with the times: their design is modern, with a touch of nostalgia, and their menus include classics alongside items doctored with new ingredients. They are always packed with costumers of all ages. Conversely, a similar diner down the street probably hasn’t changed its “corporate identity” in decades. The decor is tired, the menu uninspired, and while they may have retained regulars through the years, there are usually many empty tables.

Brand identity on the other hand, in Morris definition, is “the total proposition that a company makes to customers.” This includes the features, quality, service and support unique to the organization. An organization’s brand identity is how the brand wants to be seen by consumers.

Brand image, on the other hand, is controlled by the consumers and not the organization.

The first diner mentioned above continue to change its brand identity over the years as the neighborhood around it changed, though they have managed to maintain their essential brand image, which is a friendly place to get good, relatively inexpensive Eastern European food with a slight American touch.

[servingoperarealness]

Corporate Identity and Brand Image

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/whats-difference-between-corporate-identity-brand-image-simon-morris

In this blog, Simon Morris, Managing Director at Godmother, discusses the confusion surrounding the terms corporate identity, brand identity and brand image and provides clear and helpful definitions for each. 

According to Morris, corporate identity refers to the visuals the organization is putting out into the world. Corporate identity is something that the organization controls, and changing corporate identity, such as adopting a new logo or modernizing the design of the company’s visuals, can show that the organization is evolving with the times and is still relevant. This reminds me of walking through Manhattan neighborhoods and seeing the different between long-lasting businesses that are thriving and those that are not. For example, one of my favorite diners in the East Village has been around for over 60 years, and they’ve weathered economic downturn and increases in rent by keeping up with the times: their design is modern, with a touch of nostalgia, and their menus include classics alongside items doctored with new ingredients. They are always packed with costumers of all ages. Conversely, a similar diner down the street probably hasn’t changed its “corporate identity” in decades. The decor is tired, the menu uninspired, and while they may have retained regulars through the years, there are usually many empty tables.

Brand identity on the other hand, in Morris definition, is “the total proposition that a company makes to customers.” This includes the features, quality, service and support unique to the organization. An organization’s brand identity is how the brand wants to be seen by consumers. 

Brand image, on the other hand, is controlled by the consumers and not the organization. 

The first diner mentioned above continue to change its brand identity over the years as the neighborhood around it changed, though they have managed to maintain their essential brand image, which is a friendly place to get good, relatively inexpensive Eastern European food with a slight American touch. 

[servingoperarealness]

7 of Ina Garten’s Best Chicken Recipes

7 of Ina Garten’s Easiest Chicken Recipes You Have to Try This Friday

No one makes a roast chicken quite like the Barefoot Contessa herself. Simple or elegant, roasted whole with carrots and fennel or pan-fried with lemons and capers, nothing is more comforting after a long week at the office than chicken for two.

1. Perfect Roast Chicken Chicken, carrots and fennel. Enjoy a glass or three of white wine, then dig in. What could be more perfect?

2. Lemon and Garlic Roast Chicken

Turn the volume up on this classic by draping the chicken in – what else? – bacon!  

3. Roast Chicken with Bread and Arugula Salad

An easy, one-platter dish. The baguette soaks up all the delicious chicken juices while a crisp arugula salad will balance out your high carb guilt. 

4. Garlic Roast Chicken

Two whole heads of garlic infuse the chicken and

5. Chicken Piccata

[servingoperarealness]

The title of this article was a little too real for me after navigating the freelance AND Tinder waters for about four years, usually, and tragically, at the same time. 

What the advice in the article does touch on is the need for brevity and succinctness, something that is much more more time consuming than writing a 10,000 word paper. And, as the editors interview in the article suggest, the art of pitching, or promoting oneself, requires the writer to get to the point immediately. The writer is selling their idea, summed up in 8 to 14 words, before the editor, the buyer, loses interest and focus. 

[servingoperarealness]

To motivate self-proclaimed foodies who can’t tell a sauté pan from a frying pan to get in the kitchen, W+K London and Lurpak are challenging them to put their spatulas where their Instagrams are. 

According to the article, while many people are posting about, liking and discussing food and culinary techniques, few people are actually cooking more. W+K London is appealing to customers’ competitive streak, rathe than showing them, through advertisements, the advantages, whether health or economic, to making your own food. 

W+K London is taking this approach because they want people to cook with Lurpak’s products and that makes sense. But this sort of advertising rubs me the wrong way. People who consume and contribute to food-related media may be doing so in the same way that people consume art, theater and music: they want to observe the masters and enjoy their accomplishments without the risks.  Or, they may not have the economic means or the time to make their daily meals with a luxury product like Lurpak, and their consumption of food media is an act of escapism. Dinner tonight may be spaghettios and ice water, but they can retreat into a world of homemade pasta and roasted, seasonal vegetables. 

[servingoperarealness]

Happy Father’s Day!

[servingoperarealness]

Greetings from Glimmerglass!!! Michelle Johnson sings Aida in, you know, AIDA, here beginning on July 7! 

[servingoperarealness]

Can't stop listening to Francesco Merli (1888 - 1976), considered to be one of the greatest Otellos ever. 

I'm going to start listening to more pre-war tenors, baritones, and basses. So much magic to be discovered!!

[servingoperarealness]

MY FAVORITE. This whole scene is just beautiful, beautiful agony. Tebaldi and DiStefano give EVERYTHING they have.

My favorite moments:

2:40 "LOOOOOORIS, mio ben ti conosco!"

4:25 Tebaldi yells "Ero paaaaazza!"

And, of course, the entire final scene beginning at 5:00 "E vano! E vano! La morte è qui!"

Is there ANY line in all of opera that is more heartbreaking than "Loris, riscaldami tu?" (This is one of those instances where the English translation strips the phrase of all of its beauty. "Loris, reheat me." Loris, warm me up!" "Loris, I need your warmth!" Nope. Only the Italian will do!)

[servingoperarealness]

Magda Olivero. Ruining our lives once again. 

[servingoperarealness]

I'm in a FEDORA mood so here are a few scenes that RUIN me. 

I first listened to this scene, score in hand, on an A train going to Washington Heights last summer. I was stunned. Tebaldi was Fedora and DiStefano was Loris. It's another one of those plots that stretch the imagination, but there's so much truth in the words and the music that the bigger picture is inconsequential. 

[servingoperarealness]

Such a simple song. 

Tatiana Troyanos IS one of the greatest American singers of the twentieth century. Her voice will always be relevant and timeless. 

[servingoperarealness]

Ellen GREENE. 

Yes, so it's not opera. So what?

This is the kind of singing that I LOVE. I appreciate and enjoy technically perfect singing, but I LOVE broken voices that are full of raw, spontaneous, unbridled, steamy, devastating  emotion. 

What did Callas say?

"You must take [your] voice and break it up into a thousand pieces so that it will serve you in all the written phrases and expressions."

AND:

"They were disturbed by this strange interpretation which made them work a little harder, made them feel a little more instead of saying "oh what a lovely voice, oh what a lovely note, oh, how nice. Oh, how pleasant. Well, let's go home." Anything that disturbs a person in the beginning creates a reaction." 

So in the end this post WAS about opera. I can't help it, y'all!

[servingoperarealness]

“The purpose of technique is to free the unconscious.”

- David Mamet

[servingoperarealness]

Rosa Ponselle, a little Italian-American chick from Connecticut.

I just adore this tune. 

[servingoperarealness]

"When I Have Sung My Songs" by Ernest Charles. An Eileen Farrell STAPLE and another song that warms the environs of my heart.