STRONGBRANDS    Professor Tim Calkins, Kellogg School of Management

Michael O’Leary, CEO of Ryanair, is in a bit of hot water. According to the Irish Independent, O’Leary recently called Ryanair passenger Suzy McLeod an “idiot” and “stupid.” When asked about this odd approach to customer service, O’Leary did not back down. He explained, “I had not been intemperate, I had not lost my temper […]

The Olympics is entering its second week, so it is a good time to take a look at the advertising. I’ll post my thoughts on a few of the spots this week. First up: P&G P&G became an Olympic sponsor in 2010. This year we are seeing the company’s first big campaign. The overall message […]

PepsiCo is entering the yogurt category. Last week a number of news outlets reported that the company will soon start selling yogurt in several cities in the Northeast. PepsiCo has formed a partnership with German dairy company Theo Muller and will sell yogurt under the Muller brand. This isn’t a small introduction; the two companies […]

Sara Lee announced today that it is changing its name to Hillshire Brands after it spins off its coffee division. This is a smart move but I wonder if the executives at Hillshire missed an opportunity. There was little chance the company would keep the Sara Lee brand. Sara Lee is closely associated with frozen desserts, […]

According to CEO Tim Cook, Apple will soon be launching some amazing new products. Yesterday at the D: All Things Digital conference Cook said, “The juices are flowing. We have some incredible things coming out.” Cook is clearly raising expectations for the new products. You don’t use the words amazing and incredible lightly. Is this a […]

The Wall Street Journal reported this week that Pfizer is giving up on Lipitor, dramatically cutting back on marketing support. This isn’t surprising. Lipitor, Pfizer’s multi-billion dollar cholesterol lowering medication, lost patent protection at the end of 2011. A number of generic medications will soon enter the market, so Lipitor won’t be able to maintain […]

Best Buy is certainly struggling.  The company’s stock was above $50 per share back in 2007.  Today it is trading at about $20. The company is closing stores and analysts are skeptical about the future. The company has a number of issues to address but I suspect the most important issue is what I call the […]

What do you say in your annual letter when you’re running a company that has delivered disappointing returns for investors and is getting clobbered by competitors? If you are Indra Nooyi, CEO of PepsiCo, you talk about all the positives. According to her just published annual letter, things are going quite well at Pepsi. She […]

A couple of weeks ago my wife and I bought a new car: a 2012 Honda CRV. The entire experience was remarkable, and it highlights the core marketing challenge we all face. Earlier this month we visited our local Honda dealer, Fletcher-Jones. We use Fletcher-Jones for service. We did a test drive on a new CRV and liked […]

Last week I wrote a post about my stay at the Minneapolis Hilton and how the front desk team didn’t respond when I informed them that my visit was rather disappointing.  I used it as an example of a missed opportunity in service recovery. Several hours after I put up my post, however, I heard from […]

Service recovery is incredibly important, especially in a world with blogs, Facebook and Twitter.  An unhappy customer can do a lot of damage. Sometimes there isn’t much you can do; the person is unsatisfied for one reason or another but you don’t find this out and so can’t address it.  It is hard to deal […]