Lands’ End and Sears
Sears today announced that it had filed paperwork with the SEC to spin-off Lands’ End. This is very good news for the Lands’ End brand. Lands’ End is a retailer based on Janesville, Wisconsin. Chicagoan Gary Comer started the company in 1963. It began selling equipment for boaters. By 2000, Lands’ End was a thriving […]
Volvo, Van Damme and the Future of Marketing
The world of marketing is changing. Traditional media vehicles are losing effectiveness as people communicate in new and different ways. Mass audiences are fragmenting into small segments. Developing a point of difference is harder than ever. Many business leaders are uncertain about the future. What will great marketing look like in the years ahead? Volvo’s […]
Reality Comes to U.S. Colleges
One of the reasons I find it challenging to teach marketing strategy is that the theories don’t always seem to work in real life. I teach that companies need to build profits, for example, but Amazon contradicts the point. Snapchat doesn’t even have revenue to speak of and is apparently worth billions. I tell students that […]
India: Six Surprising Things
I am just back from a three-day trip to India; I was in Kolkata to speak at the 2013 Brand Conclave. It was a terrific event. Here are a few things that surprised me: – Low income consumers in India generally buy the most expensive cement. I had an interesting conversation with a marketing executive from one […]
Brands in the News, Career Advice
Branding Lessons from Jay Z
This week rapper Jay Z is dealing with some difficult branding challenges. Later this month Barneys will start selling a new line of products designed by Jay Z. The collection includes a watch, raincoat, shirts and other expensive items. Last week, however, two people accused Barneys of racial profiling. The stories hit the front page and received a […]
Brands in the News, Defensive Strategy
A Bad Day for the Boy Scouts
The rise of digital media is only making it harder to build a great brand. The problem is that a single person can do something inappropriate that damages an enormous brand. This has always been an issue, of course, but digital technology has increased the risk because information can now travel faster and farther than ever before. This week […]
United’s Good Start
It is hard to miss United’s new branding campaign. It is everywhere. Last night I watched a United spot on TV, this morning I saw about 15 United ads on the train and this afternoon I found all sorts of United digital advertising as I surfed the web. You can learn more about the campaign […]
Frontier Changes Strategy
Frontier Airlines, the Denver-based regional carrier, is about to become very cheap. This week Bill Franke secured an agreement to acquire the carrier. Franke is a seasoned airline leader. Most recently he revived Spirit Airlines, turning it into an ultralow-cost carrier with exceptionally low fares, relatively poor customer service and lots of fees. The strategy […]
The Sochi Games: A Branding Disaster for the IOC
As I wrote several weeks back, the Winter Olympic Games is a branding problem for Russia. Now it is also becoming a branding problem for the International Olympic Committee. Russia, host of the upcoming Winter Olympic Games, earlier this year passed legislation banning discussion of gay rights. People found guilty of spreading “propaganda of non-traditional […]
Yoplait and the Hidden World of Defensive Strategy
Defending Yoplait is a top priority at General Mills but you wouldn’t know it if you look at the company’s annual report. Yogurt is an important business at General Mills. The category is growing quickly, which is fairly unusual in the world of food. General Mills recently acquired global rights to Yoplait, one of the […]
Nokia’s Branding Lesson
This week Nokia collapsed into the arms of Microsoft, selling its critical handset division to the software giant. Nokia’s decline was stunning. The stock traded at over $40 per share in 2007. It now trades at about $5. It once had a market share of over 30%. It now has less than 4%. This is […]
Hope for J.C. Penney
Things are looking grim for J.C. Penney. The company’s stock began the year at a price of about $20 per share and recently traded around $13. Earlier this month J.C. Penney reported that it lost $586 million in its fiscal second quarter with sales falling a disconcerting 12%. And hedge fund manager Bill Ackman dumped his […]