The Big Bang Brands: What Shoppers Want This Holiday Season

by James Gregory
Even with the rumors of the new administration considering yet another stimulus package to help increase consumer spending, it will take more than a Christmas bonus from the government to get consumers to open up their wallets this holiday season. Consumers are focusing on the “biggest bang for your buck” concept this holiday season; the retail industry [...]

Brand President and Sub-Brand Vice President

By Robert Passikoff
(see end of post for current leader)  John Kennedy was the first US President to become a brand. Kennedy’s team understood the power of the media and approached it with the strategic and tactical gusto of a new product launch. What they did not know then - but happily we know now - [...]

A League of Their Own - Purse Strings

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My guest for Today’s PurseStrings is Aliza Freud, founder and CEO of SheSpeaks, a women’s insights and word-of-mouth marketing network. SheSpeaks helps companies spark women’s interest, obtain candid feedback, grow word-of-mount awareness and build long-term brand advocates.

Real You: Strong cologne, thumping hip-hop, and 20-somethings with perfect bodies wearing store merchandise. What store are you in?

By Kaira Sturdivant Rouda
If you answered Abercrombie and Fitch, you just made their marketing department very happy. Illustrating environmental branding at its best, every component of the store from the merchandise and furnishings to the employees and music reinforces the brand. It is the reason why young people go there in droves to shop. Other [...]

How Savvy Consumers See Palin

by Andrea Learned
Every four years, we Americans take our well-practiced consuming cleverness and leverage it to make decisions that will have much longer term national and global repercussions than our choices in material possessions. As consumers, many of us have learned to see marketing for what it is, and now demand much higher standards of [...]

BRANDS! Stand Up and be Accountable!

“SEC Moves to Pull Plug on U.S. Accounting Standards” was the headline in The Wall Street Journal’s cover article, August 28, 2008. What does it mean for branding? A bonanza!
The implications for this change are huge because present U.S. Accounting Standards currently do not account for improvements made to the brand. Because this lack of [...]

Want a Brand Conversation? First Listen

Brands need to listen before they speak if they want to spark sustainable conversations with consumers — and leverage the exchange for all its worth. As in any conversation, when we talk we’re only repeating what we already know. When we listen, we’re learning. When brands listen to consumers before beginning to talk to them [...]

Can I Have Some More, Please?

by Robert Passikoff President, Brand Keys
Starting in August Dunkin’ Donuts is officially tossing the health-football to the consumer by offering good-for-you menu options alongside those warm glazed donuts and dripping Boston creams. The menu debuts August 6th and includes a turkey sausage egg-white sandwich or a vegetable one. Both will be under 300 calories with [...]

Could “Sex Sell” More Savvily?

by Andrea Learned
After this week’s blogosphere discussion of the BMW ad (see my LOW post and my Huffpo piece, if you are interested), and input from a few men who did admit, that - indeed - sex still sells for them (but not the Lolita thing so much), it made me wonder: Could sexual innuendo, [...]

Giving CMOs Their Due

by Andrea Learned
It turns out that the average tenure of a chief marketing officer (CMO) is 22 months. What are brands expecting from these poor people that they’d replace them so quickly? (The moon is not an option, by the way.)
According to Richard Guha, the president of Marketing Executives Networking Group (MENG), brands aren’t giving [...]