Here is a new and very definite KILLER BRAND that I recently discovered.  How can one company own a 62% share of a highly fragmented category? Meet Vic Firth.  Every heard of him or his company?  If you play the drums you probably have. Vic Firth drumsticks are the undisputed Killer Brand in the drumstick [...]

As we watch the demise of the newspaper in America amid the rise of blogs, it should be noted that the first newspaper published in America, “Publick Occurrences” in the year 1690, WAS BOTH A NEWSPAPER AND A BLOG. Publick Occurrences consisted of 3 pages of print articles with a blank back page for readers [...]

I have been trying not to write about the change in Gatorade’s brand architecture and package design, because I try to limit the number of my posts that are deeply critical. But tonight an associate called me to tell me that she went to the store to buy Gatorade AND WALKED RIGHT BY IT AND [...]

If you want to be a truly great marketer, become a stickler for words. The English language has multiple times more words that any other language because we have borrowed so many from other languages.  But each word means something different.   And the difference between using one word vs. another can make quite a difference. [...]

Yesterday, March 7, 2009, Barbie of Barbie Doll fame turned 50 years old.  My wife remembers wanting one desperately, even though she was already 11 years old at the time.  The Baby Boomers made Barbie something special indeed. Barbie sales are still going strong around the world, and particularly lighting up in emerging economies like [...]

My generation read The Little Engine That Could, that while pulling up a tough hill kept saying to himself, “I think I can, I think I can.”  You would assume that today’s business leaders, mostly in my generation, would remember the Little Engine That Could. You would think that they would step forward and seize [...]