The New York Times has an interesting article on the front page this morning: “As Consumers Cut Spending, ‘Green’ Products Lose Allure.” The article notes that sales of a number of environmentally friendly products such as Clorox’s Green Works have fallen sharply. https://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/22/business/energy-environment/22green.html?_r=1&hp The article presents the results of a study done by Sanford C. […]
I am always looking for examples of great marketing to include in my different courses. For the past few years, one of my favorite examples in the area of new business strategy has been Flip. Flip is a wonderful example of a company changing the rules in an established category. When Flip entered the video […]
Yesterday P&G announced that it was selling the Pringles brand to Diamond Foods. This is a good move for P&G and Diamond. It is bad news for PepsiCo. Pringles is a fascinating marketing story. Despite a very slow start, P&G supported Pringles for many years and eventually the brand caught on. P&G created great advertising […]
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? […]