On Ventura Blvd in the LA area, one can experience two different burger concepts in a few blocks that are worth examining. One is Fat Burger. The other is Habit. The Fat Burger unit is minimal and dated. The food is good. Once you stop in, the marketing is clear, the concept makes sense. They [...]

I passed by an auto body shop today called Pro Collision. It had a sign with a very clever line, “We meet by accident.” I am sure that the agency and the client really were excited about this line. Admit it. It’s cute. But does it set up any expectation, compelling or differentiating about Pro [...]

Prudential has a new campaign that follows the principles of Killer Branding pretty closely. Prudential always had good Linkage with “Own a piece of the Rock,” but the story was a little generic, not that differentiating or compelling.  I have always liked the mnemonic device of the Rock of Gilbralta.  It shows how a brand [...]

In my lifetime, I don’t think that I have seen a brand rise and fall to the extent as has CNN. Ted Turner did the world a favor when he conceived of and supported the development and success of CNN. It is reported that it took CNN 14 years to turn a profit. Turner stuck [...]

On the last calendar day of 2007, I would like to give kudos to a KILLER BRAND. It’s not delivery, it’s DiGiorno. Market research probably showed that consumers thought that fresh delivered pizza, no matter the brand, was better than any brand of frozen pizza from the grocery store. So instead of focusing on an [...]

This year marks the celebration of the 100th birthday of Nieman-Marcus. Unlike many of our department store brands and specialty store brands, Nieman-Marcus has stayed on the same strategy for 100 years. The orginal partners created it to be a high-end specialty and fashion store. It still is. They have survived four generations of owners, [...]

I discovered this store in Barcelona, Spain. It was a very well explained and merchandised homeopathic medicine store. Happy Pills Stores are a great example of focus, alignment and linkage. Every one who has seen this store has probably walked into it at least once. I did.

In my book KILLER BRANDS, I sugggest that focusing your brand’s differentiation on a compeling expectation is more powerful than focusing on the traditional ideas of benefit and/or attribute, because the concept of “expectation” interprets benefit from the “prospect’s point of view.”  What expectation will cause a prospect to choose my brand? Men’s Wearhouse is [...]

The new Rubbermaid FastTrack organizing system is a great example of making a new item in a branded line of products behave like a brand itself.  The advertising shows a man with everything in his garage organized on the walls with the FastTrack system.  You immediately sense the benefit of organization and that you too [...]

Keep It Simple Stupid. How many times have we heard that? Enter Hannaford Supermarkets, a chain out of Maine, with a whole new way to simplify. Hannaford has differentiated itself by rating products on the shelf (25,000 so far) as to their nutritional value. No nutritional value, a product gets zero stars. Most nutritional value, [...]