Branding Strategy Insider

Category Benchmarks are the reference point for the category. They define quality expectations. They anchor price ladders. They shape what “normal” looks like. They are widely distributed, culturally familiar, and top-of-mind. Their risk is gradual dilution of differentiation. This paradox is structural because the systems that protect their current position often make long-term growth harder. This article is part of Branding Strategy Insider’s newsletter. Join the world’s smartest marketers and subscribe here for actionable insights delivered directly...

Let’s stop pretending this AI rush is brave. It isn’t. It’s terrified. Across marketing holding companies, executives are racing to adopt AI not because they understand it, but because they’re scared of being the last one without a slide. “We can’t afford not to,” they say; executive code for “I don’t want to be blamed.” This isn’t strategy. It’s signaling under pressure. And it’s going to be catastrophically expensive. Big organizations don’t move toward truth....

When an iconic brand begins to fade, the decline is rarely dramatic. In iconic brands, financial performance often lags changes in cultural relevance and brand meaning. Revenue may hold steady. Market share may appear stable. Awareness remains high. Yet competitors begin shaping the future while the incumbent defends the past. For leadership teams, restoring an iconic brand is not a communications exercise. It is a strategic mandate. What Is An Iconic Brand? An iconic brand...

I am occasionally asked which metric I consider best for tracking consumers. There’s no hesitation with my answer. It’s new home starts. Let me explain why. First, what is it? The metric of new home starts is exactly what it sounds like—it’s the number of privately-owned homes that began construction in a given period of time. (I prefer monthly.) In broad strokes, there are two types: single-unit and multi-unit. Again, these are exactly what they...

Recent brand news is full of brand value chatter. Chatter, not serious discussions. Why? Brand executives still seem disconnected from how customers perceive brand value. Consumers understand that value, not price alone, is the priority. Consumer-perceived value is based on the total brand experience relative to the total brand costs (price, time, and effort). Brand executives also misunderstand customers because they believe their brands have a specific segment, which is the “value customer.” No. Everyone...

The most important component of long-term sustainable advantage for any firm, regardless of its size, is its ability to attract, retain, inspire, and grow talent. Talent is the sustainable advantage. It is talent and only talent that creates and/or preserves every other form of sustainable advantage, whether it be innovation, new ideas, or superior service. If a Brand is experience it is employees who ideate, create, design, and deliver the experience. If cost management is...

Brands that lead today do three things exceptionally well. They create an emotional advantage that customers cannot get elsewhere. They establish a distinctive advantage that customers recognize as meaningfully different. They build a connective advantage that keeps the brand relevant over time. These are not communications outcomes. They are strategic decisions.  At The Blake Project, we see this pattern repeatedly. Brand positioning determines how a brand competes, what it stands for, and why customers choose...

My mentor Clayton Christensen taught us that disruptors win by being cheaper. They enter the market at the bottom with “good enough” alternatives that cost less, then gradually move upmarket, as Toyota’s economy cars eventually gave rise to Lexus. Yet urgent care is disrupting American healthcare even while charging somewhat more than a traditional primary care visit, and the strategy is working brilliantly. To understand the trend more deeply, I interviewed Dr. Andrea Giamalva, who...

Last week, I discussed the new brick-and-mortar Amazon entry: a big box store with a large helping of Amazon logistics, data mining, and merchandise expertise. As part of that Amazon discussion, two brand stumbling blocks came under scrutiny. One: Amazon’s continued lack of understanding of customers in brick-and-mortar grocery stores. Two, Amazon’s lack of designing and articulating brand-relevant differentiation. The latest news is that Amazon is closing all of its Amazon Fresh and Amazon Go...

This past weekend, more than sixty Minnesota-based CEOs signed an open letter calling for “immediate de-escalation” and cooperation after unrest connected to federal immigration enforcement operations and two fatal shootings. The letter is restrained. It doesn’t perform moral certainty. It doesn’t posture as a conscience. It doesn’t sound like the world can be solved in a paragraph. It reads more like an attempt to hold the center of the room while everyone in it is...

A recent furor over Tottenham Hotspur’s use of “Can’t Smile Without You” is, on the surface, an easy story. A songwriter, who happens to support Arsenal, objects to Spurs playing ‘his’ song. Lawyers mutter about licenses. Fans roll their eyes. Tabloids sharpen the rivalry angle. Case closed. Except it isn’t. Because beneath the banter sits a far more interesting and unresolved question: when does licensed use become cultural appropriation, and when does a brand’s legal...

Picture a golf course at dawn. Traditionally, you’d hear the rumble of diesel engines as heavy mowers lumber across fairways, compacting soil and guzzling fuel. At Royal Porthcawl in South Wales, site of the 2024 Women’s British Open, something different happened. The fairways were cut overnight by a fleet of small, silent robots — the first time a major championship has been maintained this way. This wasn’t a startup’s moonshot. It was the culmination of...

Once again, Amazon is startling the retail landscape. Now, it is the arrival of a big brick-and-mortar store: 230,000 square feet. The reporters say this square footage is about the size of two Target stores and larger than an average Walmart. This new Amazon megastore is headed for an exurb of Chicago, IL. For almost 10 years, Amazon has been educating itself and experimenting with brick-and-mortar, non-online retail establishments, grocery, and non-grocery. Not all of...

From all my years in research and consulting, I think I’ve learned a thing or two about marketing worth sharing. Enduring fundamentals, mostly yet often overlooked. So, this year, I’m sharing some for your consideration. I hope they’re helpful. This week’s thought: Marketing is the conscience of business. Business leaders are one of the least trusted groups in America. This has long been true. There are many reasons why, but the constantly refreshed rogue’s gallery...

In December 2024, Omnicom merged with IPG, eliminating approximately 4,000 jobs. Among those displaced were hundreds of brand strategists who had spent their entire careers honing the art of positioning, differentiation, and cultural resonance. They didn’t lose their jobs because they weren’t talented or dedicated. They lost them because the infrastructure they relied on—the promise-making apparatus of the advertising age—collapsed from obsolescence. This wasn’t a cyclical downturn. It was structural. And understanding why requires an...

New Year. Same tendencies for trouble. Not a surprise. The lack of understanding of brands and the disregard for brand-building growth and maintenance principles continue to plague organizations, leading to unprofitable, short-term performance. Forget, for the moment, the amazing digital, technical, and AI disruptions and innovations: there are basic brand principles that must not only be observed but also acted upon at your peril to enduring profitable growth. There are overarching problems that happen when...

There was a time in recent marketing history when the CMO’s role was to be the Chief Storyteller. Thankfully, those days are over. There are many who believe that during the “era” of creative titles for the CMO role, the CMO function suffered and still needs more corporate respect. However, brands are now even more obsessed with telling their story. This desire to articulate the brand to customers and Wall Street is leading brands to...