Hmm, do you detect a theme to the blogs listed below? If you're working on your company's or product's brand, these sites offer advice, insight, real-world examples and more. Check them out:

Brand Autopsy

Brand Infection

Brand New

BrandCurve

BrandNoise

In Part One of this series, I talked about three common ways to create product and company names: from people's names, from connecting two words, and by creating a blend or portmanteau. As naming exercises go, those three techniques are among the most basic. In this installment we move into Intermediate Naming: techniques that require a bit more mastery of the workings of language but can reward you with distinctive, memorable names. Continue reading...

Marty Cooke is the chief creative officer of an agency called SS+K in New York City-but don't call it an ad agency. Marty's firm brings together a wide range of communications disciplines to provide what he calls "asymmetric communications." How does this work? We called Marty to talk about his agency's approach, and how language comes into play. Here's our conversation: Continue reading...

These women write about how to market, brand and communicate to, well, women. Check out their influential blogs:

Wonder Branding

Marketing to Women Online

Learned on Women

Lip Sticking

A Visual Thesaurus subscriber's comment to an earlier column of hers inspired Nancy to write this piece. Thanks to both! -- Editor

I've shamelessly borrowed my title from David Ogilvy, who used it as a chapter title in his best-selling 1963 book, Confessions of an Advertising Man. Ogilvy founded one of the world's most successful ad agencies; his clients included Rolls-Royce, Shell Oil, and Sears. Many of his do's and don'ts are timeless: Select the right agency in the first place. Brief your agency very thoroughly indeed. Don't underspend. Tolerate genius.

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Subscriber Larry Oakner graciously sent us this terrific piece on branding -- and how the Visual Thesaurus can help. Read it carefully: Larry's been building brands for over three decades and is the author of And Now a Few Laughs from Our Sponsor. Thanks Larry! -- Editor

How do you describe a personality? You might call a witty conversationalist "clever." Your friend who bungee jumps? "Courageous" or even "fearless." The grandfather who counseled you on life's mysteries? "Wise," of course. We differentiate people's personalities by using words that describe their actions that set them apart. Branding works the same way.

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Steal Thunder, a brand-development company in California, writes a blog about "brand moves that get our attention." Here one of the partners writes about inspiring branding from, well, not exactly the world's sexiest retailer: "So I enter the local Smart&Final and have to walk past the checkout, and as I glance up I see the little tagline on the checker's LCD, right where it pays to be reminded: 'The Smaller, Faster Warehouse Store.' So many of the companies we work with struggle to position themselves simply. They want to get to that nirvana of 'one simple, repeatable idea' that not only sets them apart from everyone else, but helps the right customers love them." Read the entire post here.