“But if anyone from either party has a better approach that will bring down premiums, bring down the deficit, cover the uninsured, strengthen Medicare for seniors, and stop insurance company abuses, let me know.” President Barack Obama Last night President Barack Obama asked people to let him know if they had a better idea […]
You don’t have to attend Kellogg to know that it is hard to make a lot of money by giving things away. Selling products for nothing might make you feel good and it will often attract a crowd, but it is not a smart way to run a business. There isn’t any profit in that particular business […]
Last week Nestle announced that it was buying Kraft’s pizza division for $3.7 billion. Since that time a number of people have commented that the deal was not a smart one for Nestle. I disagree completely; I think the deal is a brilliant move by Nestle. Nestle is the clear leader in frozen meals in […]
It seems like everyone is launching a smart phone these days. Earlier this week Google started selling a smart phone. Today Dell rolled out a new one. Motorola is still aggressively promoting the Droid. Apple keeps investing in the iPhone. RIM is spending heavily on Blackberry. Palm, Samsung and Nokia are still in the game. HP and Cisco […]
I am not big into resolutions, but I think we all could benefit from this one: do not repeat Tiger’s mistakes. It is now becoming quite clear that the Tiger brand machine is coming apart and it will be a long time until it recovers. Yesterday AT&T announced that it was dropping Tiger Woods, following the lead […]
The good people at Kohl’s would be wise to consider the law of diminishing returns and slow the pace of email promotions. I’m always happy to sign up for promotional programs. I sign up in part to learn about good deals. But I mainly sign up to see what people are doing in terms of […]
I spent the last week in Turkey teaching a course on branding. While I was there a major snowstorm descended on Chicago. So I followed the storm, from a distance, by frequently checking the Chicago Tribune web site. And as the snow flew, who bought all the advertising space on the Chicago Tribune home page? It […]
It is always delightful when theory and reality align. I spend a lot of time in my courses at Kellogg discussing marketing theories. I also spend time explaining why the theories don’t always work. Every situation is unique, and sometimes companies violate basic marketing rules and succeed nonetheless. In the Tiger Woods case, the theory […]
Yesterday General Motors CEO Fritz Henderson stepped down. Apparently the GM board, concerned that things were not changing quickly enough under his leadership, asked him to step aside. Fritz was CEO for less than a year. Churning through CEOs is not the way to fix GM. General Motors has many, many problems. But perhaps the toughest […]
It is hard to imagine a stronger brand in sports than Tiger Woods. He is the perfect athlete: incredibly gifted, focused, disciplined, well spoken and of high moral fiber. The Tiger brand includes achievement, humility and a dedication to family. All of which makes the unfolding drama around Tiger’s car crash Friday morning very puzzling. What […]
We are just days away from the biggest retailing day of the year in the United States: the day after Thanksgiving, Black Friday. It is a huge retail day for many reasons: people have the day off, Christmas is just a few weeks away and everyone is feeling content and happy after spending a day […]
This weekend I flew from London to Frankfurt on Lufthansa, and I am now very puzzled. The flight was terrific. It left on time, the plane was clean and shiny, there were free newspapers at the gate, the flight attendants were friendly and helpful and the in-flight service was excellent. Despite the fact that it […]