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Change is good.  It’s more than good – it’s necessary for growth.  Companies need to evolve their offerings in order to keep things fresh and their customers interested. But what happens when a company changes its business model in a way that strips away a valuable element of its brand equity?  Is it able to […]

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(Today’s post is the last in a mini-series of reviews of retail concepts that have caught my eye.  I’ve already covered 77kids in Times Square and new Starbucks stores in Seattle.  Hope you’ve enjoyed my takes on what makes a store more than a store – a real experience.) Central Market defies convention.  The Texas-based […]

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(Welcome to the second in a two-post series on how retailers manage the choice conundrum.  This is written by C. B. Whittemore, Chief Simplifier of Simple Marketing Now, a marketing communications consultancy focused on simplifying customer interactions with social media and content marketing.  The first post, REI Makes Choosing Easier, which I wrote, can be found […]

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Leading thinkers and practitioners gathered last month at Columbia Business School’s Center for Global Brand Leadership BRITE ’11 conference. It was billed as a forum “to discuss emerging trends in marketing, technology, society, and culture and how these trends can transform the ways that companies build and sustain great brands.” I found the perspectives on […]

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My husband, usually a calm, mild-mannered man, recently experienced something which left him completely frazzled and frustrated – he went to the grocery store. Usually I’m the family food shopper but thanks to a surgery I had on one of my feet, Chris had to take over some of the domestic duties for awhile.  And, […]