On Sunday, August 23, a sporting event the magnitude of a Rangers or Knicks Game 7 took place in New York City. Thousands packed a sold-out Madison Square Garden, while hundreds of thousands more watched the live stream across the world. A large, passionately-engaged global audience of mostly younger well-off men…but just a few leading […]
Category: Brand Strategy
Megatrends Through 2030 – And How to Position Your Business For Growth
Megatrends – global, sustained, macro forces spread over long periods of time – are by their very definition “out there.” And for that reason, they are rightfully challenging for many companies to consider in their strategy development and business planning. First, there is no single, definitive source for megatrend identification and analysis. Instead there are […]
Sibling Rivalry Applied to Portfolio Management
In my experience, one of the hardest challenges for marketers working within or overseeing a portfolio of brands in the same category is being truly comfortable making choices around differentiation. Typically, the internal team can quickly tell you that brand #1 is for “Healthy Heather,” who knows vitamins are critical, and that brand #2 is […]
Uber vs. Taxis: Meeting and Exceeding Consumer Needs
Procter & Gamble Chairman, President, and CEO A.G. Lafley is well known for creating the “Consumer is Boss” mantra in the early 2000s, galvanizing the organization behind it, and delivering almost a decade of year on year double digit growth. Not surprisingly, services and products that think of the consumer as their boss, leverage unique […]
Virtual Reality: The Future of Market Research?
Does qualitative market research need to be done in-person or can virtual research be the new norm? With advances in technology, traditional face-to-face research may become a thing of the past. Ten years ago, traveling to focus groups and conducting one-on-one interviews were standard in market research. Today, virtual research is being conducted via online […]
Is that a Strategy or a Tactic?
Good marketers have a true passion for the programs that they develop and deploy. Seeing the TV spot you developed on air, the coupon you helped to create in the local circular, or the redesigned website finally go up can be highly satisfying, as can tracking what are hopefully the positive business results that these […]
How the Mattress Industry Was Caught Sleeping
The online mattress company Casper is altering the landscape of its mature industry by employing an innovative business model and strong marketing fundamentals. Certain consumers are now comfortable with making the big ticket purchase of a mattress online with minimal physical contact with the product, a giant step away from the typical “try before you […]
Strategic Insights Over Big Data
We now live in an era of Big Data, and like most strategists and marketers, I welcome more data and information regarding the market, customers, and consumers. But those data on their own are not enough to drive sustainable growth in a business – and neither are the high-level summary findings that typically come from […]
Strategy Essentials: Enterprise, Brand, and Marketing
It is not uncommon in business to hear, “We need a strategy” or “We need to update our strategy.” And by “strategy,” people are usually referring to a clear, over-arching statement of the choices a company is making regarding why, how, and where to use its limited resources. That strategy is what should be guiding […]
6 Tips to Get the Most Out of Your Sports Sponsorships
According to IEG’s 2015 Sponsorship Spending Report, North American sponsorship spending is expected to exceed $21B in 2015 (+4% vs. 2014), with sports sponsorships accounting for 70% of that expenditure. With so much riding on the business and brand building impact of these fixed costs, here are 6 tips to help get the most out […]
