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As 2025 draws to a close, several brands are focusing on revitalization. Why? Poor strategies, sour executions, ignoring basic, evergreen, brand principles, and other given reasons like the weather, tariffs, and, sigh, still COVID. Kohl’s, Cracker Barrel, Macy’s, and Bath & Body Works are redesigning themselves for enduring profitable growth. At the center of these brand rejuvenations are desires to improve brand experiences. As the CEO of Bath & Body Works told The Wall Street...

For twenty years, the CPG innovation failure rate has remained between 70% and 90%. During that same period, the industry adopted many frameworks – Design Thinking, Jobs To Be Done, Blue Ocean Strategy, and Horizon Mapping. Each framework was positioned as a way to make organizations more effective in translating consumer opportunity. Each was implemented with training, toolkits, and ceremony. But the failure rate has held steady. The problem is not with the frameworks themselves....

There may be no more important function within a brand-centric company than marketing to influence future financial (cash flow) success. Financial results are routinely explained by four drivers: volume, price, mix, and cost. Marketing’s effect on volume and price is well understood. Expressed most simply in economic terms, effective marketing increases brand preference, pushing the demand curve upward and to the right. The brand owner can then choose to capture this improvement as an increase in volume, an increase...

If you have spent any time dealing with AI digital entities to solve your brand problem, you will not be surprised to learn that we, customers, are totally frustrated with customer service. The Wall Street Journal recently wrote about our unhappiness with customer service. The title of the article is “American Customers Are Madder Than Ever.” After all, we can buy things and hold them in our hands on the same day of purchase. But...

Over the past two decades, I’ve partnered with restaurant operators across the spectrum from emerging concepts to national…

Branding Strategy Insider helps marketing-oriented leaders and professionals define, strengthen, and grow brand value. One way we do that is by answering real questions from readers navigating real challenges inside their organizations. Today, we’re hearing from Jennifer, a VP of Marketing in Boston, Massachusetts, who has a timely question about building an internal innovation incubator. We are exploring the creation of an innovation incubator inside my organization, what guiding principles should shape my approach? Thanks...

Amid all the issues surrounding air travel over the holidays, one thing that makes flying worth considering is safety. We do not need to place safety on our list of holiday air travel woes, a list that is already extensive. Yet, just before Thanksgiving, the press reported on new and improved safety elements from Boeing. If you recall, and who possibly wants to while actually sitting on a Boeing-manufactured plane, Boeing had several serious –...

HEA. MoC. BBW. MLM. If these acronyms seem like gibberish to you, it means that you’ve probably not…

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: Marketing turns ideas into business. Ideas are the heart and soul of marketing. It’s all about intangibles—lightbulb moments of inventive strategic inspiration. It’s a lot of brainwork, and thus, marketing is easily mocked....

This month, Starbucks announced that its coffee delivery business is now a $1.0 billion business. Yes, that’s right, $1.0 billion. With a “B.” And, even more striking, in its most recent quarter, Starbucks also announced that said delivery business grew by almost 30%. Now, some out there might be thinking, “Okay, that’s interesting, but what’s the big deal?” Well, the big deal is that the implications of this statistic go far beyond just selling coffee. The Experience...