Today legendary fruit seller Harry & David filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. There are two very important branding lessons in this story. 1. Savvy marketing can create enormous value. Harry & David does something remarkable: the company gets people to spend $30 for a few pears. A box of 7 to 12 pears currently runs […]
I’ve spent quite a bit of time in airports over the past couple weeks; I was teaching a course in Germany so I made four trips across the pond. As a result I’ve had a chance to get a good look at United’s new brand design. My prediction: it won’t last long. Airlines need good […]
This week luxury brand Christian Dior fired star designer John Galliano for making anti-Semitic comments. The incident provides some important lessons about managing a brand in today’s fast moving media world. Lesson 1: It is very easy to damage a brand. An apparently drunk Mr. Galliano said some highly inappropriate things while out one evening. The […]
Today Wal-Mart announced that its U.S. division is continuing to slump. For the seventh consecutive quarter, same store sales declined. This of course is not good news. There are many factors behind the move, but I suspect one of the primary issues driving the decline is Wal-Mart’s growing focus on private label products. Wal-Mart grew with […]
I posted my thoughts on the 2011 Super Bowl ads on the Kellogg Super Bowl Advertising Review blog. You can see the post here: https://kelloggsuperbowlreview.wordpress.com/
We are just days away from the biggest advertising event of the year, the Super Bowl. The advertising circus is already well underway, as brands try to get their message out ahead of the game. Still, the big event is the game itself. Going into the game there are several advertisers to focus on. Chevrolet: […]
Every once in a while you see a piece of advertising that just works. The commercial grabs your attention and delivers a message. It all looks easy. Ford’s new truck campaign is a great example of this. The spots do everything a piece of advertising needs to do. First, the campaign has enormous breakthrough; the […]
Over the past few weeks, my wife and I have been bidding on a rather nifty house in Chicago. We finally reached an agreement with the sellers but at the last instant another buyer showed up with a significantly higher offer and got the house. This was a huge disappointment for me. When I look back on how […]
Toyota announced today that it was launching a family of cars under the Prius brand name. The company will add a new larger hybrid, the Prius v (a mini-SUV) and the very small Prius-C. Toyota will also add the Prius PHV, a plug-in variety. You can read about the full line here: https://www.toyota.com/upcoming-vehicles/prius-family/ Is this a good idea? […]
Clorox released second quarter earnings guidance today and the results were not good. Clorox also announced that it was taking a goodwill impairment charge of about $250 million due to the Burt’s Bees acquisition. The Clorox press release quoted CFO Dan Heinrich stating, “The Burt’s Bees business remains a very solid contributor to Clorox’s results, with […]
The Wall Street Journal reported this week that financial giant UBS is out with a new dress code for its Swiss employees. You can read the article here: https://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704694004576019783931381042.html The UBS code is rather impressive; it is 44 pages long and includes lots of advice on dress and person hygiene. It document reviews how to […]
This week Seattle’s Best coffee has been in the news; the brand is rolling out a new simplified packaging system. Seattle’s Best is adopting a new level system, featuring different coffee blends at different amounts of intensity. The move is all part of an effort to reinvigorate the Seattle’s Best brand and, perhaps more importantly, […]