You are the marketing manager of a well-known dinnerware brand and you get the idea, “Let’s put our name on a brand of public toilets!”   How much sense does this make to you?  Would an average 8th grader make this mistake? Well, the public toilets in the Charles DeGaulle airport in Paris proudly and visibly [...]

Why do auto companies fail to recognize rental companies as a great trial mechanism for their cars?   As a rule, the cars that companies sell to Avis etc are stripped down versions of their least expensive models guaranteeing that a renter will get the worst possible impression of their cars. Not always though.  Yesterday, Avis [...]

Here is a simple example.  I am in New Zealand on holiday.  I am watching a little TV mostly to see the advertising here.  And of course many of the brands are new to me. Last night I saw an ad for SKOF, a chiplike snack food that made a big deal of its differentiation, [...]

I was showing a friend tonight a Tervis™ tumbler, you know the plastic insulated drinkware that was originally introduced in 1946.  Here is a killer brand in its own right with thousands of sku’s, 99.9% solidly on strategy.  They have all different shapes of insulated mugs and glasses, even an ice bucket which also makes [...]

I was talking with a friend who grew up in China and moved here permanently six years ago, and she mentioned that she wanted pancakes for breakfast.  I suggested that she go to IHOP.  She knew the brand name and where two stores were near her home, but had never been there because she did [...]

Has anyone else noticed that the key differentiation that drove KINKO’s to market dominance has been eliminated by FEDEX since the merger? The five FEDEX/KINKO’s closest to my office now close at 6pm.  The always open option that made KINKO’s the choice of entrepreneurs and students everywhere has been eliminated at least in my neighborhood.  [...]

I went shopping for tooth paste today. As a human being, I hated it.  As a so-called brand marketing expert, I was disgusted. The major brands and companies have so jumbled and confused this category that it is impossible to shop with either precision or brand loyalty.  Even if you found an individual sku that [...]

“You don’t need more sleep.  You need more coffee.” is a new billboard campaign for the am/pm convenience store chain.  This is an excellent example of using advertising to build behavior.  Unfortunately it builds category behavior rather than brand behavior.  You can respond to this ad positively and stop and get coffee at any number [...]

In the previous post, we talked about an excellent new sku (Butter with Olive Oil spread) within a broad line of products by Land of Lakes, and how the fact that it is hidden in a line mostly of “me too” items will keep it from ever being a big idea. Here is an example [...]

Land ‘O Lakes has a new spread, Butter and Olive Oil that is so good tasting it is just unbelievable.  Try it.  I am not exaggerating.  The taste will blow your mind. There-in lies the enigma of modern marketing.  Land ‘O Lakes has so many sku’s that as a brand, they can stand for nothing [...]