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 [...]

Animal crackers with which we are all familiar were not a brand.  Animal crackers are a commodity with many different manufacturers over the years, even a few now, but the niche category has been all but owned since 1902 by Nabisco with its Barnum Animal crackers.  WHY??
In 1902, Nabisco created a special package of Barnum’s [...]

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 category.
Vic [...]

The Chicago Lyric Opera House has been home to Jenny Lind, Enrico Caruso, and other great voices thru history.
It also enjoys one of the truly great slogans or copy lines that I have ever heard.  “If these walls could talk, they would sing.”

Can a woman’s handbag be a Killer Brand?  Of course.  Anything can become a Killer Brand.  The Chanel Bag, known as the 2-55 bag because it was first designed in February, 1955, is a true Killer Brand.
It was built on the expecation that if you owned one and used it, you distinguished yourself as a [...]

I am no fan of political advertising, and I am not taking sides, but today I was forwarded a link which represents one of the greatest examples of marketing mechanics I have ever seen.  The link was to a CNNBC (sic) video entitled, “Obama’s loss traced to Frank Lane.”  You clicked on the link and [...]

Since the real estate market is in the pits, its a good time to look at someone who has actually adopted Killer Brand strategy in the housing market.  There is a builder in Atlanta ($250k to $1M+) who understands branding because he started his career as the Assistant Brand Manager on Minute Rice.  He went [...]

Aristotle in his Principles of Rhetoric explained that persuasive communications are best contructed from three priciples, Ethos, Pathos and Logos.
Ethos consists of giving the audience permission to listen to you.  Pathos consists of giving the audience an emotional reason to agree with you.  Logos consists of giving the audience points of logic to support their [...]

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 [...]