I learned this morning that new products guru Margot Chapman jumped off the Golden Gate bridge ending her brilliant career.  I will miss her.  We were friends for almost 35 years. Margot first made waves back in the late 60′s inventing Warm Fuzzies, the very first sheepskin bedroom slipper with the wool inside.  Yes, all [...]

What if you are sitting at your desk and someone says, “let’s brand fragrance.”  You reply, “you mean a certain fragrance?”  “No” they say, “let’s brand all fragrance.”  Sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it? Well consider what Muzak did years ago when they created the idea of using music in the background in the workplace.  Muzak is [...]

I was working today with Julie Paige Grant, one of our newer people.  We were struggling through the first draft of a Brand Backbone Strategy document for a project of hers.  I sympathized, “This is not easy.  That’s why so few people do it, actually write down a brand strategy document for the long haul.”  [...]

In one of my favorite all-time marketing books, Macy’s, Gimbles and Me, Bernice Fitzgibbons (“It’s Smart to be Thrifty” for Macy’s, and “Nobody, But Nobody Undersells Gimble’s”) is interviewing a new writer for one of her copy departments, probably back in the 40′s or 50′s, at least during the heyday of Department Store advertising before [...]

The following advice comes from Fawzia Gulsha, a friend in Dubai, who is both a royal princess and a very successful real estate agent in Dubai. “The starting point of great success and achievement has always been the same. It is for you to dream big dreams. There is nothing more important, and nothing that [...]

I  love this business.  Yes, I must suffer through the Gatorade fiascos, and the Tropicana near disasters, but every now and then, you stumble across something wonderful,  Today, I discovered Whistle Creek walking sticks and canes out in Estes Park, Colorado. I have a heath nuisance that might force me use a cane, and I [...]

I ate the other night at the Montgomery Inn in a surburb northeast of Cincinnati. The Montgomery Inn is actually a KILLER BRAND. People from all over come there just to have their barbecued ribs. This is a great example of focus.  The Montgomery Inn is a full-service full-menu restaurant.  Very upscale, in a very [...]

Over the past few days, we have seen a good example of real leadership exposed.  A sea captain offers himself as a hostage in return for the release to safety of his crew.  Make no mistake about it.  This is what real leaders do, and take note that the captain could only assume at the [...]

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 [...]