Love ‘em or Hate ‘em: Brand Polarization
June 30, 2022
Batman or Spiderman? Wonder Woman or Captain Marvel? These are age old questions that friends and comic book lovers will passionately debate for years to come. If you don’t have people arguing about your show or your brand, it’s likely it won’t be one that is remembered. When Game of Thrones was airing on HBO Read more
Is Any Publicity Good Publicity?
June 8, 2022
“There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about..” – Oscar Wilde There’s no such thing as bad publicity, right? Well, maybe. Publicity used to be hard to come by before the internet. Now, everyone can have an opinion on your product and share Read more
Are You Ignoring Your Customers?
May 31, 2022
Imagine a pre-pandemic corporate office: cubicles, glass-walled offices, maskless people busy being busy. Now imagine that there’s a phone ringing somewhere in that office, non-stop, all day, every day. But no one ever answers it. It just keeps ringing plaintively, endlessly. Impossible, you say? No company would ever ignore an endlessly ringing phone? Don’t be Read more
The Trouble With Twitter: Does It Really Work?
July 13, 2021
Since its inception, Twitter has become synonymous with self-expression, initially in 140 characters or less. In 2017 Twitter opted to let people express themselves with as many as 280 characters. Hashtags run supreme, making it easy to identify a particular topic by using a hashtag that is fitting for the topic. Although Twitter can get 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
How Much Product Choice is Too Much, Or Too Little?
August 27, 2020
The rule of thumb in business and marketing is the more choice you give your customers, the better. Recent studies and the experience of several Fortune 500 companies have shown that’s not always true. In fact, it seems at a certain point, the more choice you offer consumers, the more complex and confusing their decision-making 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
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
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
