Chicago’s Misguided Attack on Dollar Stores
To make good strategic decisions, it is important to identify the potential options and then think deeply about which one is best. Not thinking through the implications can lead to bad choices. The simple, obvious answers that seem right often aren’t. Chicago’s City Council provides a good example. The group recently passed a series of rules […]
Evaluating the 2024 Super Bowl Ads
The Super Bowl remains the most expensive, the most watched, and the most important marketing event of the year. For the 20th year, students at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management gathered to review the advertising. The focus: business impact. Will the ads succeed in building the brand and the business? Using ADPLAN, a framework […]
The Top Super Bowl Advertisers #1 – 3
For the past 20 years, students at Kellogg have been evaluating all the Super Bowl ads to determine which were most effective. Which ads did the best job building the business and the brand? I am counting down the top advertisers, the brands that received the most grades of A and B. Below you can […]
The Top Super Bowl Advertisers #4 – 6
Students from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management have been evaluating Super Bowl ads for the past 20 years in the Kellogg Super Bowl Advertising Reivew. In this series of videos, I am counting down the top advertisers; these are the brands that have received the most grades of A and B from the panel […]
The Top Super Bowl Advertisers #7-9
For the past 20 years, students at the Kellogg School of Management have been evaluating all the Super Bowl Ads in the Kellogg Super Bowl Advertising Review. In honor of the 20th year, I’m counting down the top advertisers. These are the brands that received the most top grades from the panel. I’ll post a […]
2024 Brands to Watch
Each year I highlight some brands to watch. These are brands facing unique situations as the year begins. You can see my 2023 list here, along with a look back at what actually happened here. Below are my 2024 picks. Harvard It has been a rough stretch for Harvard. The university has been attacked on […]
Looking Back at my 2023 Brands to Watch
Recently I’ve started off the new year by highlighting some Brands to Watch. These aren’t necessarily the best or worst brands, they are simply brands that I project will be heading into an interesting stretch. As we begin 2024, it is time to look back at my 2023 Brands to Watch and see how I […]
A Huge Branding Move by McDonalds
Last week McDonalds opened the first CosMc’s, a new restaurant concept built around drinks and snacks, in Bolingbrook, Illinois. CosMc’s serves items including coffees, lemonades, cookies, pretzel bites and ice cream. This is a huge move from McDonalds, and it makes a lot of strategic sense. You can learn a lot about brand portfolio strategy […]
Making Sense of Girl Math
If you’ve spent much time on Tik Tok this fall, you’ve likely seen videos about Girl Math, a set of rather debatable financial principles. Here is an example. Now it is easy to dismiss Girl Math as just bad financial thinking, but it isn’t that simple. Some of the insights behind Girl Math are valuable […]
Why Teslas Sell and EVs Don’t
There is a strange situation developing in the world of electric vehicles. As companies ramp up production and the government showers the market with incentives, demand isn’t expanding as fast as expected. This all seems strange. Tesla managed to sell a lot of cars, at high prices. As EV prices decline, demand should expand dramatically. […]
Ironman’s Branding Challenges
I am back from a trip to Hawaii; I flew back last Sunday, just in time for my Monday class. That isn’t a best practice but it all worked out ok. I was in Hawaii to see my daughter Claire compete in the Ironman World Championships in Kona. She did great, surviving (the most important thing) […]
Getting Rid of a Tough Business
I’ve had an old Tommy Hilfiger shirt hanging in my closet for about 10 years. I could never figure out when to wear the shirt; it had a bold pattern and didn’t go with anything. Then it started to get dusty, which is always a bad sign. Last weekend I gave up and donated it […]