Branding Strategy Insider

Each year, research firms such as CB Insights analyze why both startups and new products from mature companies fail. On average, about 80 percent of VC-backed startups fail (and those are the best of the startup world), and somewhere between 40 and 60 percent of new products launched by mature companies also fail. Invariably, the primary reason for failure is “no market need.” Take, for example, Gap’s “faded” jeans, launched in the early 2000s to tap...

It is just astounding that after more than 35 years, some marketers are still using the flawed funnel approach to how advertising works. This is one reason that real, credible, data-supported brand management must be taught in business schools. For decades, we have known that using the funnel approach to advertising, in hopes of building brand loyalty, is a form of mismarketing on a major scale. Sadly, we learned from recent Wall Street Journal reporting...

Most mid-market leaders are not short on ideas. They are short on confidence. They are being asked to move faster with less certainty, make bigger bets with less room for error, and separate useful AI-enabled opportunities from expensive distractions. They have growth initiatives to evaluate, pricing pressure to manage, customers to reassure, sales teams to equip, and the realities of an AI-informed future arriving faster than the organization can absorb them. The question is no...

Claire’s, the tween accessory retailer, is in turnaround mode. Again. Claire’s is hoping to pierce the boredom barrier among its target audience of not-yet-teenage girls. The Wall Street Journal wrote a glowing review of Claire’s new CMO and her laser-focused approach to meeting the needs and addressing the problems of global tweens. This is, of course, the correct approach. When in a turnaround, one vital element is focusing on the brand core. This article is...

The recessionary mindset we see in society and the marketplace is a significant reset of aspirations and expectations, but it is not the explanation for everything. It is, however, a big shift in how consumers are engaging with brands. Consumers have become more vigilant and scrutinizing. Hypervigilance is now the characteristic style of shopping and buying. AI is being used increasingly as a tool for fact-finding, comparisons, evaluations, and recommendations. Greater scrutiny is also seen...

Never confuse the customer. Once, at an advertising agency meeting with our IHG client, one of the agencies admitted that their commercials for Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express were confusing. The stated benefits for both brands in the ads seemed too similar. When asked what the agency’s solution would be, the answer was, “More money behind the advertising.” Of course. Let’s put more dollars into running confusing ads so the brand can sow even...

The standard diagnosis of checkout abandonment treats it as an engineering challenge. Forms are too long. Payment methods are missing. The mobile experience is too slow. Fix the mechanics, recover the revenue. This logic has driven an entire industry of checkout optimization tools and A/B testing programs. And yet average cart abandonment rates across eCommerce have remained above 70% for years, even as checkout UX has genuinely improved. The mechanical problems are being addressed. The...

Most companies lose momentum because their best thinking cannot get through the organization. The strategy is understood in the room, but not in the field. The portfolio makes sense to leadership, but not to the channel. The value proposition is clear in the deck, but not in the sales conversation. The customer experience is discussed as a priority, but not built into the moments where choice, confidence, and conversion happen. This is where brand problems...

For more than twenty years, The Blake Project carried the same identity into the world. It was there when we opened our doors in 2003. It appeared on our first proposals, our first client deliverables, and our earliest expressions of a point of view that has never changed: brand is not decoration. Brand is a source of meaning, preference, trust, differentiation, and economic value. Over time, that identity became familiar. To our clients, it signaled...

Brand strategy is entering a more demanding era. For CEOs, CMOs, and CFOs, the question is no longer whether brand matters. The question is whether brand can help solve the organizational problems that determine growth, profitability, customer trust, internal alignment, and enterprise value. That is the right question. Brand should not sit outside the economics of the business. It should help improve them. For many organizations, brand strategy has long been treated as a clarifying...

Financial geniuses on Wall Street appear to be happy that there is new leadership at Harley-Davidson, Artie Starrs as CEO. As with the appointment of the previous CEO, Jochen Zeitz, analysts and those with significant monetary Harley-Davidson stakes are thrilled with the recent CEO Starrs change in HOG leadership. In 2020, when Jochen Zeitz, a longtime member of Harley-Davidson’s Board, became CEO, the business press wrote that “Wall Street was elated by the news of...

AI has put an end to emotions in marketing, we are told. Just look at what LLMs rely on in making brand recommendations. It’s all about facts. Not about emotions. An analysis by Digital Bloom found that comparative listicles are far and away the most-cited content format by LLMs. How-to guides and FAQs were frequently cited as well. Omniscient found that for branded prompts the bulk of LLM citations come from editorial sites, online forums,...

What happens to a country’s brand when the story it’s spent decades building is reframed overnight by global press, mistaking proximity for understanding? It’s not hypothetical. Across the Gulf and beyond, businesses and institutions are confronting something no communications strategy, no campaign, and no rebranding exercise can fully resolve: that narratives built on stability, safety, and global openness are more fragile than they appear. The fragility only becomes visible under pressure. Honest or calculated. This...

My mother had many opinions on many issues. As a female lawyer in the 1950s, she expressed these opinions assertively. Although not a cook, she opined that a complete kitchen needed Pyrex baking pans and a set of CorningWare casserole dishes. Somewhere in the back of every cabinet, I have multiple sets of those white CorningWare nested casseroles with the blue cornflower emblem, along with a multitude of Pyrex measuring cups, bread loaf, and baking...

The invocation of values is a hallmark of enterprise positioning. Yet on its own, a values statement means very little — and can actually do harm to a brand’s reputation and thus its worth. Without an ethos of integrity, the values statement is a mere device, not a system — instead of a way for an organization and its stakeholders to connect — instead of serving as the driver of product or service design and...

It appears that Wall Street is disgruntled with Nike’s inability to perform according to its long-time mantra: Just Do It. The Nike brand turnaround is apparently taking too long for those who desire immediate financial reward: Just Do It Now. Nike’s turnaround will not be easy. The company remains a major global brand with a broad portfolio, but the market has changed significantly since the end of COVID-19. Strategies that worked during the pandemic era...

Growth is often celebrated as proof that an organization is moving in the right direction. More clients, more opportunities, more momentum, each reinforcing the belief that the organization is moving forward. All are typically read as signs of health, relevance, and success. Yet growth does not only expand an organization’s reach. It also expands the number of decisions that shape its future. Without a clear reference point, that expansion can quietly weaken the brand it...

Marketing rarely fails on its own. It reveals where purpose is being treated as language, and where it’s being treated as a discipline. When a campaign underperforms, most brand leaders look to adjust the marketing levers. Refine the positioning. Refresh the creative. Increase the spend. Sometimes those moves help. Often, though, marketing performance is surfacing something more structural. This article is part of Branding Strategy Insider’s FREE newsletter. Join the world’s smartest marketers and subscribe...

When it comes to AI and jobs, Boston University law professor James Bessen defined the terms of the debate in a 2015 paper published by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Bessen declared that technologies don’t kill jobs and cited the experience of ATMs and bank tellers as proof that technologies change jobs or evolve jobs, not eliminate them. If you’re not familiar with Bessen’s argument, he notes that, contrary to expectations, the growth of ATMs...

If you read The Wall Street Journal Magazine that accompanied the Saturday-Sunday Wall Street Journal this weekend, you were exposed to an ad from Cadillac for its new Celestiq model. Not surprising to see a luxury automotive brand advertising in The Wall Street Journal Magazine among the ads for Cartier, Armani, and Dior. What is surprising is that you must actually seek the brand name Cadillac. Yes, it is there. But the Cadillac logo is...