11 for 11 : Brand & Marketing Trends for 2011

By Dr. Robert Passikoff
Author Ursula Le Guin wrote that “legends of prediction are common throughout the whole Household of Man. Gods speak, spirits speak, computers speak.” What Ms. Le Guin left out were consumers. Consumers speak too. Volumes if you know how to read them.
Predictive loyalty metrics allow marketers to decipher consumers’ emotions, expectations, and [...]

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.

Branding Breaks Through Middle Management Bottleneck - @ Issue

Middle managers are like waiters shuttling between the kitchen and dining room as the intermediary delivering the restaurant’s “brand.” In a corporation, middle managers deliver the company’s brand while managing a workforce charged with its tactical execution.

Brands Now Responsible for Providing Value, Meaningful Differentiation

By Robert Passikoff
Brand Keys’ annual Customer Loyalty Engagement Index presents some interesting findings for the new economy, in particular that shopper-consciousness has shifted from one of personal responsibility to ferret out value, to a brand’s responsibility to provide it.
For the 441 brands surveyed in 62 categories in the 2009 Brand Keys Customer Loyalty Engagement Index [...]

Brands Enter Here

by Glenn Geisendorfer & Gabe Goldman
The economy has now redefined accessibility for the global brand. In the past, to access a brand was to understand price and availability. In the coming year you’ll see a flood of “innovations”, new categories of products and all sorts of other methods, severely hampered by this old method, to [...]

Don’t Let Culture Vultures Get You or Your Brand Down

By Kaira Sturdivant Rouda
At some point or another, you will encounter human roadblocks I call culture vultures. You know who I’m talking about—the non-team players, the ones who lay down the sandbags for roadblocks, challenge change agents, and can’t think out of the box. Or, you might be one of these people (I truly hope [...]

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 [...]

A new, cool Wal-Mart?

by Andrew Bogucki, Principal, Creative Director CoreBrand
Retail monolith Wal-Mart has taken the plunge and changed its identity. While I’m specifically referring to the logo and the design elements that support it, it seems to be an indicator of an identity shift in the more universal sense.
While highly profitable, perceptions of the world’s richest company have [...]

Starbuck’s New Brew lacks Bite

by Robert Passikoff
Two weeks ago, in the hope that a new “signature” blend would help revive coffee sales and consumption, Starbucks served up a new “everyday” java called Pike Place Roast. To promote the launch, Starbucks gave away coupons for free coffee and hosted free tastings, hoping that a new product formulation would reinvigorate its [...]