Take a listen to this interview with Jeff Kelley, the founder and head of Sanuk. You know Sanuk as the fun and funky sandal brand made of unique materials like wire mesh and yoga mats. You may also have seen Sanuk’s tongue-in-cheek print ads including cartoons and sponsored athletes including Donovan Frankenreiter and Matt Meola. […]
brand-as-business bit: A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of speaking at the Digital Health Summer Summit. My session, “Key Triggers,” was designed to discuss the challenges of consumer adoption and monetization facing products like the Nike+ Fuelband and apps like MyFitnessPal as well as electronic health records and medical devices. But as […]
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 […]
“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. […]
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 […]
In a highly instructive HBR article, Harvard Professor Nava Ashraf outlines three particularly effective behavior-changing tools: […]
(Here’s a slightly different brand experience brief. Instead of providing a video audit and analysis of a unique retail or restaurant brand experience, I contrast two direct competitors.) The New Balance and Nike stores across the street from each other in New York City’s Flatiron district delivered unique brand experiences in their own way. Check […]
In the fast-growing playing field of mobile, the business prospects seem infinite. But developing a viable, scalable business amidst all the possibility isn’t easy. This is something Mitch Thrower knows all too well. As the CEO and founder of BUMP Network, Mitch is facing some serious business challenges. That’s why he opened up his efforts […]
Why do so many tech start-ups fail? What advice do entrepreneurs need to heed? These and other topics are covered in an interview I conducted with Ian Andes, President of 4iiii Innovations. 4iiii is the maker of several digital fitness products including the Sportiiiis, glasses that enable cyclists to keep their eyes on the road […]