Gross-Out Food Wars

It started with KFC’s bun-less “Double-Down,” two pieces of fried chicken with a burger in the middle. Next came Friendly’s “Ultimate Grilled Cheese Burger Melt” - a hamburger between two grilled-cheese sandwiches.

Decision Day for LeBron

By Dr. Robert Passikoff
LeBron James will end an unprecedented free-agent frenzy tonight by revealing whether he will remain with the Cleveland Cavaliers or sign elsewhere. James will announce his future NBA plans during a one-hour special on ESPN at 9PM, Thursday. Proceeds for sponsorship for the special will be going to the Boys and Girls [...]

It’s a Capital Mistake To Theorize Before One Has Data

It’s a Capital Mistake To Theorize Before One Has Data. And Sometimes When You Do!
By Robert Passikoff President, founder Brand Keys
The first part of this column title comes courtesy of Sherlock Holmes. The second part comes from Brand Keys. We’ve been warning clients for years about the enormous difference between what consumers think and what [...]

The Limits of Loyalty - BP’s Oil Spill

By Robert Passikoff
BP has spent years positioning itself as a friend of the environment, an energy company that goes “beyond petroleum,” a company that pledged to find cleaner ways to produce fossil fuels.
They’re the company with the environmentally friendly green and yellow sunburst logo. That logo has stood along American highways as an avatar for [...]

Earth Day - Top 25 “Green” Companies

By Robert Passikoff
Forty years after the first Earth Day, greater pressure is being applied to brands to address environmental problems along with the problems of dirty clothes, financial services, technology, and convenient, quick- serve meals.
Yes, more consumers hear the phrases “fuel-efficient,” “organic,” “energy-efficient,” “natural,” “green,” and “sustainable” more these days, consumers are on to all [...]

Advertisers Fumble ROI with Super Bowl Ads

By Robert Passikoff
62% of Advertisers will Fumble ROI
Not all programs are right for all brands, even if it happens to be the Super Bowl. The 8th annual Super Bowl Engagement Survey, conducted by Brand Keys, Inc, reports that when it comes to the monetary return advertisers will get on their advertising investments in the Super [...]

Loyalty; The First Great Gift We Can Bestow

While Santa has the backroom covered with his brilliant reindeer transportation system, and has never known an image problem, it’s his ability to create loyalty, generation after generation, that needs no research to verify. That’s one question even a child can answer.

Tiger: Getting (and Giving) the Benefit of the Doubt

By Robert Passikoff
In “When a Human Brands Bogies” last Tuesday we noted, “[sic Tiger] Woods as super-athlete cum Human Brand, resonates with values that sports fans and non-sports fan adore: skill, planning prowess, the ability to get of out of sand traps with a single stroke. PR traps, too. These values -beyond his ability to [...]

Brand Loyalty: Cell Phones trump Search Engines and Cosmetics

By Robert Passikoff
Wireless handset brands iPhone (#1), Samsung (#2), and Blackberry (#4) accounted for a third of 2009’s top 10 Loyalty Leaders, in the 13th annual Brand Keys survey by Brand Keys. This year’s findings indicate that customer values intrinsic to technology brands were seen to best meet, and even exceed, customer expectations for [...]

Good Marketing that Really Sucks

By Robert Passikoff
Everywhere you look the overbite is back in fashion. This time coming with more than just incisors in an extra-long and a strong distaste for garlic.
Today’s vampire culture has evolved into a buff crowd of populars, seemingly as interested in cool couture as they are in blood donations. True Blood, the smash-hit [...]