Hilton’s Missed Opportunity
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 […]
Dunder Mifflin Paper
Quill, an office supply company owned by Staples, announced today it was introducing Dunder Mifflin paper. Dunder Mifflin, of course, is the fictional company featured on NBC’s popular show The Office. So is this a smart move? I think so, for three reasons. First, it will create enormous PR buzz. The news is already showing up in […]
Black Friday Fades
Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, is a day unlike any other. It is the one day of the year when everyone in the United States is expected to go shopping. And many people do. Stores feed the frenzy with aggressive deals, encouraging people to get out early and line-up for the biggest savings. The […]
Three Notable Articles
Today’s Wall Street Journal has three notable articles about branding. All three are worth a read. The first article is one about the challenge of creating a powerful brand experience when shipping items through the mail. This is a significant issue; when a customer purchases a product at a high-end retailer, the buying experience is an […]
Walmart’s Healthcare Opportunity
This morning NPR reported that Walmart was planning to become a major player in healthcare in the United States. This afternoon Walmart denied the story, saying the document NPR saw was real but “overwritten and incorrect.” Reuters quoted Dr. John Agunobi, president of Walmart U.S. health & wellness as saying, “We are not building a […]
A Thermostat’s PR Triumph
Thermostats are not the most exciting devices. I would put them right up there with water heaters and door hinges in terms of overall interest, things that fall in the category of “items you need but don’t think much about.” This is why I am so impressed with what Nest pulled off this week. Nest […]
Groupon’s Problem
Groupon is gearing up for an IPO. My advice to the team planning the offering is quite simple: move quickly. Andrew Ross Sorkin has as an interesting article on Groupon in today’s New York Times. He notes that Groupon has a number of rather significant issues, including a fairly low cash balance and a working […]
Losing a Brand Builder
Yesterday we lost one of the great brand builders of our time. Steve Jobs was a master in terms of design and technology. He was also an exceptionally gifted brand manager. Jobs did four things incredibly well in terms of branding. Perhaps most importantly, he believed that branding and marketing mattered. Under his leadership Apple consistently invested in […]
Did Amazon Get the Price Right?
Last week Amazon announced the launch of the Kindle Fire, a tablet device targeting Apple’s very successful iPad. One of the most debatable parts of the launch is the price: Amazon set the price at $199, significantly below Apple’s cheapest iPad, which sells for $499. Many people have attacked Amazon for the pricing move, declaring […]
A Risky Move by Netflix
Netflix today announced that it was splitting the company into two business units operating under two different brand names. The internet video streaming business will retain the Netflix name. The traditional DVD business will now be called Qwikster. You can read the email CEO Reed Hastings sent to current Netflix customers at the end of this post. This […]
State Farm’s 9/11 Tribute
Yesterday was a difficult day for marketing executives: what is the appropriate way to mark the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks? Most advertisers wisely decided to ignore the event. State Farm, however, invested heavily in a 9/11 spot and stood out as perhaps the most prominent advertiser of the day. State Farm certainly invested. […]
HP’s Valuable Lesson
When it comes to marketing strategy, there are three critical steps. The first step is developing a powerful strategy. The third step is executing well. The second step, however, is sometimes overlooked: selling the plan. HP CEO Leo Apotheker recently demonstrated why selling the plan is so important. On August 18, HP announced that it […]