Branding

Timelessness. It’s an ideal that any brand hopes to embody. Timelessness signals staying power when trends fade and…

In those times when maximum effort is not enough, and this happens to everyone and every enterprise, what heartens first is observing others — partners and competitors — who have endured the same condition and prevailed. In the cases where redemption eludes, the second point of heartening is the comfort found in venerating the one element that adheres to every vestige of an endeavor: values. Enterprise values typically express the core beliefs, principles, and ethical...

Not to beat this Cracker Barrel fiasco into the ground anymore, but there is a problem when brand marketers use age as a definer of relevant values. When Cracker Barrel and its crack consultants decided that modernizing the Cracker Barrel brand meant jettisoning the totems of Cracker Barrel’s provenance, those involved made a mistake. It is possible to be old and new at the same time. This article is part of Branding Strategy Insider’s newsletter....

In the early 2010s, entrepreneur Stewart Butterfield and his team of developers were building an online game called Glitch. Butterfield’s team eventually decided to shut Glitch down after it struggled to gain traction with users over years of effort. But amid that failure, the team noticed something interesting: the internal messaging system they had built to collaborate on Glitch was really effective. In fact, it solved many of the communication problems they had experienced in...

The most effective enterprise strategic plan flows from purpose, vision, and values. These guideposts provide context for long-term priorities; objectives and key results to be achieved through well-defined projects; and key performance indicators to measure how it is all going. And as the circulatory system for projects and teams, processes — their efficacy and unexploited potential — are critical to the success of the plan. Effective workflows within each process are the secret of performance. The...

Interbrand has just unveiled its Best Global Brands 2025 report, titled “Radical Realities“, revealing this year’s 100 most…

For decades marketers have found certain stages in a person’s life where they are more susceptible to messaging and marketing. Whether it is the impending birth of a child to a physical re-location there are times where people are more open to change or to paying attention. Marketers also recognize that there are moments of interaction where up-selling or cross-selling is likely to be more successful, such as when someone is opening an account or...

For some serious insight into the challenges facing grocery packaged goods, the Barron’s recent interview with Robert Moskow is an important read. One of the points made in the interview is that packaged goods’ focus on competing with own-label grocery brands seems to push a lot of buttons, except for innovation. Packaged goods seem to be fighting fights of the past rather than focusing on the future, in which packaged goods brands can win. Packaged...

From all my years in research and consulting, I think I’ve learned a thing or two about marketing worth sharing. Enduring fundamentals, mostly yet often overlooked. So, this year, I’m sharing some for your consideration. I hope they’re helpful. This week’s thought: Change is overrated. Marketers love fads and fashions. Change is the watchword of marketing. I’m in the trends and futures business, so I’m not unhappy about this. But part of studying trends and...

Let me be blunt: the annual ritual of demanding a marketing plan from the CMO is a boardroom charade masquerading as strategy. The corner-office crowd think they’re extracting a roadmap—a neat, glossy prediction of what the company will do, spend, and achieve. They think they’re judging the plan. Wishful thinkers. The plan is a distraction, a fetish of the naive who believe the world bends to their spreadsheets. The real game, the actual signal amid...