In my career I cannot count the times that an agency brought in a storyboard with a big idea in it, but buried somewhere, or possibly as a non-associated tag line. Your job as a client is to FIND THE BIG IDEA even if they don’t.  Believe it or not, it is easier to see [...]

If you want to be a truly great marketer, become a stickler for words. The English language has multiple times more words that any other language because we have borrowed so many from other languages.  But each word means something different.   And the difference between using one word vs. another can make quite a difference. [...]

Yesterday, March 7, 2009, Barbie of Barbie Doll fame turned 50 years old.  My wife remembers wanting one desperately, even though she was already 11 years old at the time.  The Baby Boomers made Barbie something special indeed. Barbie sales are still going strong around the world, and particularly lighting up in emerging economies like [...]

What will Starbuck’s do next to weaken one of the truly great Killer Brands to emerge in recent years? First, they established the brand with strong, full bodied, european styled coffee for a different and more compelling expectation.  That lured enough coffee drinkers to make them a big time brand. Then because they didn’t appeal [...]

“Hey, I’ve got a new idea.  Let’s confuse our brand and our users!” exclaimed the brand manager at Nabisco.   “The Company already owns Nabisco Sociables, which since introduction have been a small snack or party cracker in shapes and savory flavors.  Let’s have another of our brands, Ritz, bring out a line of crackers [...]

The back panel copy on the new Triscuit Reduced Fat package made me want to barf.  Which is not good in the food business.  Here is the copy.  You decide. “Headline:  A Tasty Romance Awaits Copy:  The unique flavor, the satisfying crunch . . . Triscuit is just the kind of break your day needs.  [...]

This post is not about marketing, but just something I wanted to share. Animals in the zoo are living so much longer than they would in the wild that vets are beginning to see signs of aging that they have never seen before.  Monkeys developing dementia.  Animals with grey hair coming out.  Gorillas going into [...]

I love stories about products that were developed as something else and then discovered to have a larger usage.  Examples include Roundup developed originally to clean rust off of metal fences, then discovered to be a systemic herbicide; Viagra developed as heart medicine, then discovered to treat erectile dysfunction, etc. Now there is Tecnu (also [...]

POM must be given credit for convincing the public to drink pomegranate juice.  But I passed this bus board the other day in NYC, and thought to myself, “What are they doing?” Excuse the photo for it is not at all clear.  You have a beauty shot of a POM bottle.  It says that it [...]

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 [...]