I learned about the value of “customer service as exception” back in my Mr Ching venture days from Pepsico, our investor.  For instance, a customer comes into a Pizza Hut at 2:30pm and asks for a personal pan pizza which the company does not make after 2:00pm.  The manager is trained to explain the 2:00 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]