Awhile back, I wrote about James Bond Island in Pha Nang Bay in Phuket. Today, let’s look at a different destination that was re-branded closer to home. In the late 1970′s The Herschend family purchased a small, Smoky Mountain theme park called Gold Rush Junction. It had a steam train ride, a few general store [...]

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 discovered Ira Koretsky today, not a very compelling or memorable name is it?  How about if I said that I discovered The Chief Story Teller™ today?  That is how Ira brands himself. In fact, if  you go to the website of The Chief Story Teller, you will note that he does not use his [...]

A few years ago, certain bakeries started selling the top of muffins because so may people prefer them.  Problem was, no one could own the idea. That brings me to the Edge™ brownie pan, where an entrepreneur figured out how to make a pan that would bake brownies all of which had at least two [...]

Rustoleum Universal is to me an under-marketed potential Killer Brand. The promise of “covers any surface universally even” is new in the spray paint category, and the actuator over-cap on the aerosol can is just down right cool. The commercial does a good job of demonstrating that the canister can be sprayed at any angle, [...]

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 [...]

A restaurant in Chandler, Arizona, represents virtually every principle of Killer Branding.  Called the Heart Attack Grill, it features really good tasing food, that is absolutely bad for your arteries.  The alignment is awesome from the Single Bypass Burger (one patty) to the Quadruple Bypass burger (four patties).  Burgers don’t even have lettuce.  In fact, [...]

Clarins has introduced a new product for jet lag.  Finally someone addresses the insidious aging effects of flying.  But they have complicated this product with a lengthy, and to me, contradictory name. The product is called anti jet lag relief emergency booster.  I think “anti” jet lag and “relief” are contradictory.  Are they guarding against [...]

A few weeks ago I wrote a post about Wilson’s, the Leather People, beginning to show non-leather goods in their stores.  A reader has informed me that Wilson’s is changing all of their stores over to Studio branded stores and will carry a range of non-leather products. Regardless of the business need to move away [...]

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 [...]