It’s no surprise that the company behind the much-praised Aeron chair – Herman Miller – would embrace a compelling design ethos. The exquisitely-designed chair is featured in the Museum of Modern Art’s permanent collection, after all. And yet, I was captivated by a recent presentation by the company’s director of insight and exploration, Gretchen Gscheidle. […]
When a healthcare venture capitalist and a leading digital health company exec get together to put “Digital Health in the Hot Seat,” you’re sure to get an earful. In a session at last week’s Digital Health Summer Summit, Lisa Suennen, Managing Member of Psilos Group, and Don Jones, Vice President of Wireless Health, Global Strategy […]
(Here’s the latest in my series of Brand Experience Briefs — insights and analysis from my audits of new and interesting retail or restaurant concepts.) With a name like “Retail Center for Innovation and Technology Center,” there’s no question the new store from AT&T is intended to be like no other. And, it is indeed remarkable (a […]
If, as they say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, fast casual restaurants should be flattered by the recent efforts of McDonald’s and other quick-serve restaurants. Many fast feeders are trying to emulate chains like Chipotle, Smashburger, and Panera, since fast casual players have stolen share from them for the last couple of years […]
brand-as-business bit: A couple of sound bites connected for me recently. In a recent Bloomberg BusinessWeek piece entitled, “Has CNN’s All-News Strategy Become Old News?,” Alex Sherman writes about the cable networks’ reliance on “the story” to drive its audiences, unlike other networks that balance breaking news with opinions and personalities. Phil Grffin, president of […]
brand-as-business bit: “Do well by doing good” has become the ultimate rallying cry for corporate social responsibility (CSR) – and case studies from Walmart to Nike to Timberland prove it is possible to benefit society and the bottomline. What’s more, CSR programs can make companies more innovative: According to research featured in April’s Harvard Business […]
What happens when a 125 year old $35BB company wants to get entrepreneurial? When the company is Coca-Cola, it starts a new business unit, Venturing and Emerging Brands whose mission is to discover “the next big thing.” It’s the force behind the company’s recent acquisitions of Honest Tea and a new product at Whole Foods, […]
brand-as-business bit: While perusing the aisles at Target awhile back, I stumbled across these really great packages of healthcare products and fell in love: I was so pleased to read the story behind such an ingenious brand in Businessweek. (Be sure to check out the sidebar on the playbook of gimmicks used in most […]
brand-as-business bit: In Fast Company’s recent write-up on Red Bull, Red Bull Media House managing director Werner Brell is quoted as saying: “[Red Bull founder Dietrich Mateschitz] knew that success would be in how you market the product as much as the product itself.” It reminds me of a favorite quote of mine from Geoffrey Frost who […]
brand-as-business bit: Carol Roth wrote a ChangeThis manifesto that challenged some of the conventional myths about entrepreneurship. She took on the “follow your passion” movement, which suggests that you should earn a living from your greatest life passion. Roth points out: “Zappos.com is a business where passion followed opportunity but wasn’t the starting point. I […]