There’s a vast expanse between the transactional moment when a consumer likes, friends, or follows a site and the instant that same consumer becomes a brand evangelist, entering into a state of emotional commitment.READ»
There’s a delectable irony in the fact that Facebook’s IPO was announced the same week as the Super Bowl. While they are both the subject of obsessive media attention, they actually represent two radically different versions of the future of branding and advertising.
READ»
The prosecution lost because they acted like product managers, PowerPoint logic in tow. The product manager says, "Buy our widget for all these rational reasons." But the defense understood that the case rested on the strength and believability of the Casey Anthony brand.READ»
Suddenly, a change in a corporate logo becomes
headline news. Last week,Starbucks' decision to drop the words "coffee"
from its brand identity - announced with great caffeinated fanfare by Howard
Schultz - ...READ»
Maybe the insightful
Freaknomics boys can explain this to me, because I don't
get it.
The Dodd-Frank bill (also known, felicitously,
as the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009)
is eliminating a ...READ»
I found two recent articles about two radically
different corporate practices to be indicative of a fundamental divide in how
brands conduct themselves in the public sphere.
Or more accurately, are seen
to conduct ...READ»
The airline industry – which is deep in a reputational cesspool – is normally the victim of its own incompetence.Now, it is also being punished by the incompetence of Homeland Security.The too-little-too-late security measures ...READ»
“The General Motors Corporation today displayed the prototype of a small car intended to someday match similar Japanese cars in cost and match or exceed them in quality.”So wrote The New York Times on November 4th, 1983. And ...READ»
Last Friday at 6AM Starbucks officially re-acknowledged its
brand limits.
With the opening of “15th Avenue Coffee &
Tea” in Seattle, the company has gone public with the admission that it requires
a new, Mata ...READ»
Hey you - a 60% owner of General Motors. Are you worried about the innovative dynamism
of the post-bankruptcy, government-owned GM?
Are you anxious about whether they are truly committed to excellence? Have
no fear, ...READ»
Something new is happening on Skittles.com. The company isn't putting its real estate to work as a marketing platform--singing the vast and socially beneficial aspects of Skittles.
Instead, they have turned their homepage over ...READ»
Is it at all possible for simplicity to emerge from the twisted
processes of the corporate mind? I asked
myself this question (again) after reading last week about Cisco’s purchase of
Pure Digital, the company behind ...READ»
I’ve been haunted by a story I read in the New York Times business section a week or so ago. Dr. Gregory Berns, who runs the Center for Neuropolicy at Emory University, cooked up an experiment to determine what fear does to our ...READ»
There was a story in a recent Wall Street Journal about a new technology that lets insurance companies reward safe drivers with “deep discounts.” Progressive and GMAC will be rolling out a digital back seat driver that tracks ...READ»
Politicians used to take their lead from marketers. It was the Madison Avenue image-factory that led the way, teaching consultants and candidates how to shape their advertising, how to use sophisticated tools of persuasion to ...READ»
