brand-as-business bit:  last week Best Buy‘s new CEO Hubert Joly met with analysts and journalists to share his plan to turnaround the struggling electronics chain (you can check out a debrief of his presentation from Businessweek). His plan features several smart moves — the highlights: expanding Best Buy’s private-label business, which includes the Insignia and Rocketfish brands […]

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Yogi Berra once lamented that, “The future ain’t what it used to be.”   Today companies have a related complaint:  “Brand loyalty ain’t what it used to be.” No longer can brands expect long-term loyalty, even from its most faithful customers.  As economic pressures mount, competitive landscapes shift, and life simply happens, it may seem pointless […]

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Martin Bishop, author of the blog Brand Mix, recently posted about some new research on brand loyalty.  An implication from the research findings is that you can steal brand loyalists from the competition […]

old carton design

I’ve noticed something lately — name brand food packaged goods are changing their brand visual identities to what seems to me to be a more generic brand look.  […]

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11.14.08

fan of joe’s

Last week, Whole Foods announced its dismal 4th quarter results — net income for the quarter fell 96% to $1.5M and comparable store sales (the key metric for retail business health) […]