Brands Taking a Social Stand: Risks and Benefits
October 23, 2020
There is no doubt that consumers like to feel connected to the brands they are buying. According to a recent Sproutsocial survey, 64% of consumers want brands to connect with them, and 70% feel more connected to active brands on social media. All well and good, but what do we want our brands to say? Brands are Read more
Brands Taking a Social Stand: Risks and Benefits
October 22, 2020
There is no doubt that consumers like to feel connected to the brands they are buying. According to a recent Sproutsocial survey, 64% of consumers want brands to connect with them, and 70% feel more connected to active brands on social media. All well and good, but what do we want our brands to say? Brands Read more
The Goldilocks Principle: Finding the ‘Just Right’ Spot
February 20, 2020
Much of the human experience resembles a bell curve: things on the upward slope might not be interesting at all, while move too far to the right and things can get downright scary. This is true for brands and products as well. What is a brand’s sweet spot? How can a company assess factors like Read more
A Brand Apart: How Brands Can Stand Out from the Competition
February 5, 2020
Rising above and standing apart are critically important in today’s increasingly crowded market. Going with the flow and being part of the crowd are recipes for a failing brand. But how, specifically, can a brand set itself apart? Be Different We often associate products with a particular feeling or attitude. Mattresses = comfort. Roses = Read more
Adapting and Coping with Cultural Change
January 15, 2020
COPING WITH CULTURAL CHANGE It’s said that death and taxes are life’s only certainties, but we’d like to add shifting cultural attitudes to that list — after all, the things people embrace or reject change over time, often in unexpected ways. And even the most successful businesses need to be able to cope with these Read more
Why Some Stores Thrive In a Tough Retail Environment
December 19, 2019
The holidays and retail shopping go together like hot chocolate and marshmallows. But recent trends have not been kind to retailers. We read about the impending death of retail channels nearly every day. We’re told that brick and mortars retail is in a steep decline, that consumers are buying everything online, and that Read more
Super Powering Your Business: Lessons from Superheroes
December 4, 2019
Super Powering Your Business: Lessons from Superheroes Teleportation, X-Ray vision, time travel, telepathy, regeneration—let’s face it, superheroes are cool. They can do things we only wish that we could. It’s a fun, escapist adventure to see life through their eyes. But even superheroes have their weaknesses, which just makes them that much more endearing. While Read more
Why is Whiskey Winning?
November 3, 2019
When you look at spirit sales, whiskey is right there at the top of the heap in terms of success. According to the New York Post, in 2016, sales of whiskey were up 7.7 percent, which outpaced the rest of the spirits industry quite handily. With those numbers staying on track, the question everyone Read more
Turning Customers into Brand Advocates
September 4, 2019
In September of 2016 Walmart acquired Jet.com — one of the fastest growing startups in history — for approximately $3 billion. Much has been written about what constitutes “the secret sauce” behind Jet’s rapid growth (before the Walmart acquisition they’d garnered 3.5 million loyal fans). Jet CEO Marc Lore attributes the company’s success to its Read more
Coming Distractions: Living in Virtual & Augmented Realities
July 25, 2019
Elon Musk recently revealed his plans to implant computer chips in human brains starting next year—a key milestone towards the science fiction vision of a brain-computer interface that will allow direct communication between a human brain and a computer. But while a viable brain-computer interface is probably still some ways away, advances in augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) are coming fast Read more
