(“brand book bites” are book reviews that highlight the most interesting brand stories in the latest best-selling books. Subscribe to my feed so you don’t miss these regular bulleted briefings on the books I recommend.) – the book: The Business of Belief: How the World’s Best Marketers, Designers, Salespeople, Coaches, Fundraisers, Educators, Entrepreneurs and Other Leaders Get [...]
brand as business bit: What do you get when you bring together Human Resources, Marketing, and Ops people for an event featuring best-selling business book authors, a talent show, a community service project, and lots of stickers, beads, and trail mix?! Summer Brand Camp, an annual “conference” for the restaurant industry staged by People Report [...]
In my latest QSR Magazine column, I lay out keys to social media success. Frankly it was a difficult column to write — not only because there are so many media options and new ones are emerging daily (I just learned about Ban.jo and Muuver this week), but also because there are so many ways to use these [...]
Change, like sh*t, happens – but unlike its inevitable parallel, change doesn’t have to be messy and unpleasant. In fact, I recently heard Joni Doolin of People Report/Black Box Intelligence make an important distinction that clarified the upside of change: change is passive, but transformation presents an opportunity for you to play an active role [...]
When you’re ready to make a significant investment in the future and engage outside marketing resources, take care to make a smart decision. To pick the right marketing agency for your firm, there are a few things you should consider. Take a listen: Tweet
In May, 2013, business leaders from the restaurant industry gathered in Chicago for the 2013 National Restaurant Association Show. Here are the best sound bites about leadership from the presentations and discussions by the CEOs of leading and emerging restaurant chains including Firehouse Subs, Corner Bakery, and Argo Tea. Leadership Lessons from the National Restaurant Association [...]
brand as business bit: The power of distinctive brand positionings jumped off the page of a recent BusinessWeek write-up about Costco getting sued by Tiffany & Co. for selling “Tiffany” diamond engagement rings. The article suggested Costco customers are pragmatic and deal-driven (“People who can spend [$40,000] on a piece of jewelry aren’t usually the sort to accessorize at [...]
(“brand book bites” are book reviews that highlight the most interesting brand stories in the latest best-selling books. Subscribe to my feed so you don’t miss these regular bulleted briefings on the books I recommend.) - the book: Can’t Buy Me Like: How Authentic Customer Connections Drive Superior Results – a salty read about marketing [...]
(Check out this new video. It’s one of a series of brand experience briefs in which I provide audit and analyses of new or interesting restaurant or retail concepts.) If you don’t operate out of a retail space, you may wonder how you can bring your brand to life and engage your target community. The [...]
“An amazing ‘invention’ that didn’t turn out to be an innovation” – that’s how one expert described Tata Motors’s Nano. Indeed, the current predicament of the $2,000 compact car that was introduced in India with great fanfare in 2008 holds some valuable takeaways for aspiring disrupters. Tweet
brand as business bit: How do you create desire? Diamond brand De Beers and Frances Gerety, the copywriter behind the company’s tagline, “A Diamond Is Forever” showed us how. A recent terrific piece in the NYT outlined their approach: appeal to emotions: “Sentiment is essential to your advertising, as it is to your product,” Gerety’s agency [...]
(“brand book bites”, a new blog feature of mine, are book reviews that highlight the most interesting brand stories in the latest best-selling books. Subscribe to my feed so you don’t miss these regular bulleted briefings on the books I recommend you read.) - the book: Monster Loyalty: How Lady Gaga Turns Followers into Fanatics [...]
brand as business bit: Showrooming isn’t going away — it’s the way people want and expect to shop now. So, what are brick and mortar stores to do to compete with e-tailers that undercut them on price — especially in consumer electronics where the prevalence of mobile price checking apps and online discounters have really [...]
Today’s interview guest unveils the strategies for uncovering consumer insights that drive innovation and help create distinctive customer experience. Steve Portigal is the founder of Portigal Consulting, a “bite-sized” firm that helps clients to discover and act on new insights about themselves and their customers. Over the course of his career, Steve has interviewed hundreds of [...]
(The following is the first in a two-part blog-exchange I’m doing with Annette Franz Gleinicki, a customer experience expert focused on improving customer and employee experiences. I follow Annette on Twitter and have learned so much from her writings. Because we have similar perspectives on customer experience, we decided share with our readers each others’ thoughts on [...]
