Some things
you know all your life. They are so simple and true
they must be said without elegance, meter and rhyme,
they must be laid on the table beside the salt shaker,
the glass of water, the absence of light gathering
in the shadows of picture frames, they must be
naked and alone, they must stand for themselves.
-Philip Levine, The Simple Truth
C.S. Lewis once said that if you want to understand a cat, you have two basic choices. You can dissect it. Or, you can put a mouse in front of it and see what happens.
When it comes to understanding customers, employees or people, in general, the same two categories apply. Many companies use the dissection method; segmenting audiences into discrete bits. But the real breakthroughs seem to occur more often as a result of simple observation of people living "in the wild."
If you want to understand a cat, get a mouse.
If you want to understand people, watch them in action.
Brand adds value. How much is open to debate. What’s not debatable is the importance of leadership in building brand value.
Great brands are built by leaders who understand the strategies and tactics of creating dynamic brand communities.
(The Coke illustration comes from Marty Neumeier) 
