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 [...]

Slouching Toward Brand Accountability

By James R. Gregory, Founder and CEO CoreBrand
Many departments within a corporation will argue the need for accountability in marketing, but none steps forward to take ownership of how to account for brand equity.
Theoretically, the CEO is responsible for the value of the corporate brand. Unfortunately, it is a rare CEO who understands how brand [...]

Put the Brand on the Balance Sheet

The idea of putting the corporate brand on the balance sheet is an audacious proposition. One that can revolutionize marketing, change the role of everyone responsible for the health of brands, and make the US more competitive in the world.

BP - Brand, Business and Culture Misalignment

Branding is all about creating alignment of your company’s business processes with its corporate culture. British Petroleum (BP) provides a case in point of a brand that got way out front of its business process and culture to produce tremendous exposure to risk.

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]