Scott McKain, award-winning speaker and author, explains how to move beyond being distinctive and to take your brand and business to the next level, to become iconic by knowing your customer and audience and providing the Ultimate Customer Experience every time. What if merely “standing out” from your competition isn’t enough to take your brand and business to the highest level? How do you become an iconic organization or leader? Being distinctive in the marketplace used to be the pinnacle of success. In today’s global marketplace, that mountain has become significantly more difficult to climb. And, with the explosion of social media, the competition for attention -- and customers -- is more intense than ever before. Standing out is not only more challenging than ever, it now has less of an impact on sustained growth. To be a lasting company, leader, or brand on a positive trajectory today, one must become iconic. In his new book, ICONIC, award-winning author and speaker Scott McKain examines what an iconic organization or leader is -- and helps you attain and retain that rare status. If your company has slipped in its standing (for example, think Sears or Nokia), McKain teaches you how you can regain your position. This is accomplished through unconventional ideas such as: • Go negative for greater success • Do not “under-promise/over-deliver” • Quit selling your products and services ICONIC is filled with insightful advice and practical examples. It’s not a book merely expressing an unproven, unrealistic theory. ICONIC teaches the critical, specific steps required to attain the highest level of distinction. Each chapter includes study questions to be used in company-wide or departmental focus groups to help you achieve iconic status. And, the examples used are not merely another recitation of praise for Starbucks, Apple, Google, Southwest, and Amazon. You will discover the only two factors upon which customers and employees judge your organization. You’ll meet and learn from the millionaire chimney sweep…the valet parking attendant building an iconic craft brewery…the single store steakhouse in the Midwest with higher revenue than New York City’s famed Tavern on the Green…and many more. ICONIC delivers powerful, practical, and precise steps for anyone from a Fortune 500 CEO to a solo-entrepreneur. From major industries to network marketing, there are critical insights awaiting you in ICONIC. The goal of this book is to is to help you and your organization achieve iconic status through sound research and practical wisdom. After reading ICONIC, you will be ready to take your business to the highest level.

Iconic Events explores the social forces that have shaped the meanings around and enduring significance of events that have captured the public's imagination, including: Titanic, Pearl Harbor, Columbine, and September 11th. The book focuses on three interpretive phases including journalistic representations, political appropriations, and popular adaptations and pays particular attention to the development of dominant and resistive event narratives.

This volume is the first comprehensive survey of iconic books and texts. It traces their development and influence from ancient to modern times and compares their roles in multiple cultures and religious traditions.

Modern business gurus all cry for the need to innovate, to disrupt, and to act like a startup. It’s hard to argue with that kind of thinking. It’s sexy and exciting. But it’s wrong. Too many businesses become enamored by shiny new objects and end up overlooking the value locked away in their existing products. Maybe your business is one of them. Iconic Advantage® is a different approach that allows companies to leverage what they already have to create lasting differentiation and deeper relationships with their customers. It generates disproportionate levels of profit and protects you against market fluctuations. Many of the world’s most successful brands have been using it for years. Now, you can benefit from reaching iconic status, whether you’re a Fortune 500, local pizza parlor, or an aspiring Unicorn startup. “Soon has an uncanny ability to take mysteries and turn them into heuristics. He’s done it on innovation and design, and now with Iconic Advantage.”—Roger Martin, author of Playing to Win and Former Dean of the Rotman School of Business “This book explains why some brands are built to last and others seem doomed to perish. It’s a framework that every marketer can put into play right away.”—Adam Grant, New York Times bestselling author of Give and Take, Originals, and Option B with Sheryl Sandberg

A coffee table book that celebrates the history of Apple products, taking the reader on a breathtaking tour of some of the most visually stunning and important products from the wizards of Cupertino, starting with the Apple I through a wide range of Apple classics, including desktops, portables, peripherals, iDevices, product packaging, and even prototypes.

This book features a new series of drawings by African-American artist Leon Hicks exhibited at the Sheldon Art Galleries in St. Louis from February 24 - June 30, 2007. For 50 years, virtuoso artist, theoretician and Professor Emeritus in the Department of Art at Webster University in St. Louis, Leon Hicks has created works that are aesthetically beautiful and conceptually complex. This book presents a selection from three new series: "Iconic Caper/Dancing," "The Hip-Hop Allergories," and "Three Sinks X Series, Iconic Caper/Dancing: Special Series." Hicks has an M.F.A degree in printmaking and an M.A. in painting from the State University of Iowa and a B.S. in painting and sculpture from Kansas State University. He also studied Art History at Stanford University, La Romita School of Art and at Atlanta University. Hicks has exhibited nationally and internationally and his works are in numerous public and private collections.

Iconic Designs is a beautifully designed and illustrated guide to fifty classic 'things' – designs that we find in the city, in our homes and offices, on page and screen, and in our everyday lives. In her introduction, Grace Lees-Maffei explores the idea of iconicity and what makes a design 'iconic', and fifty essays by leading design and cultural critics address the development of each iconic 'thing', its innovative and unique qualities, and its journey to classic status. Subjects range from the late 19th century to the present day, and include the Sydney Opera House, the Post-It Note, Coco Chanel's classic suit, the Sony WalkmanTM, Hello KittyTM, Helvetica, the Ford Model T, Harry Beck's diagrammatic map of the London Underground and the Apple iMac G3. This handsome volume provides a treasure trove of 'stories' that will shed new light on the iconic designs that we use without thinking, aspire to possess, love or hate (or love to hate) and which form part of the fabric of our everyday lives.