I honestly cannot remember which of my bosses early in my career told me this, but it is one of the sayings that has always stuck with me.  “One’s a dot. Two’s a line. Three’s a trend.”

It’s what I’ve said for years, whenever I felt someone was jumping to conclusions too quickly, based on too little data/information.  It’s a natural instinct really – especially when the news is good.  One positive response, one encouraging remark from a research participant, one week of great sales data…  Whatever it is, when it’s encouraging and it supports what you want it to support the tendency can be to just run with it.

It was a problem 20 years ago – and it’s even a bigger problem now.  The data starts coming in immediately and the temptation is to react.  But we know we shouldn’t.  This saying has always been a reminder to me of that fact.  I hope it serves you well.

This saying also has deeper meaning to me as we lead up to our 12th annual Brand ManageCamp conference.  It took a lot of years before I was able to admit to myself that we had uncovered something here.  That we had put together an event that could draw the best and brightest minds in brand year after year.  But as I look back at the hundreds and hundreds of testimonials over the last decade-plus, it’s clear that we are delivering a service that brand marketers need and want.  And that means a lot to me.

I can’t help but think that BMC2014 speaker Denise Lee Yohn also had something like this proverb in mind when she did the research for her book “What Great Brands Do.”  It’s easy for people to hone in on specific, individual things that seem to lead to success for this company or that.  But Denise wanted to dig deeper, to look for the attributes, actions, and traits that were consistently evident across a wide range of companies and brands that have been successful over time – not just for an instant.  She was able to identify 7 of these constants and she is going to share them with us in September.

Don’t miss Denise Lee Yohn and 12 other amazing speakers at Brand ManageCamp 2014, Sept 18-19 in Las Vegas.  We are once again running our “Stay for Free at BMC” promotion. If you are among the first 100 people to register before May10th, you will take advantage of our lowest pricing ($500 off full conference price) AND we will pay for up to two nights of your stay at the MGM Grand! (see website for details).

If you like the image above, please pass it along!  Also, I hope you’ll consider liking it on Facebook.  You can also follow us on Twitter and join our group on LinkedIn.

I hope we get to see you in Las Vegas!