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In the human world, organic is better. In the business world, synthetic is better. Why? There are several reasons, so let me give you a high-level overview. Organic Eating serves an organic system – us. We are organic (well, most of us are…) so it is better to use organic things to sustain ourselves. Sure,
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By “master brand” I mean umbrella brand. The brand that covers multiple product lines that hold individual brands of their own. Take Proctor&Gamble, for example – few recognize the P&G name, but almost everyone knows Charmin, and Pepto Bismol. Understanding the attributes of your master brand is just as important as understanding those of your
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When I went to graduate school, I was given the opportunity to specilize in one of three fields: logistics, marketing, or sustainability. Those of you who know me can probably guess my reaction to the logistics offering – I’m fairly good at it, but I don’t enjoy all of the technical aspects that go into planning
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A lot of people tell me how funny the word “mindshare” looks. It’s a made up word that, apparently, has a completely artificial definition. I like things that way. It appeals to my deep desire for ultimate control over things (insert ominous, evil cackle). Really now, “mindshare” is one of the most valuable concepts in
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I’m a big fan of YouTube. I’ve always been impressed by the deluge of quality content put out by amateur video producers. As fun as it is, though, I never really thought about the business applications of YouTube until recently. We all loved show-and-tell in Kindergarten. We got to see what cool new toys everyone
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The negative aspects of your brand are just as important as the positive ones. Marketing missteps and managerial mistakes in the past should be embraced as learning opportunities, not errors. No company can ever be perfect, and forcing a squeaky-clean image of perfection on your brand can actually kill it – no one is perfect
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Finally, a metric for measuring the comparative equity in a brand name across markets, industries, and products. For years, people have talked about brand value and brand equity in difficult to define terms. Brand value was one of three things: 1) the current financial worth of a brand entity, 2) the future financial worth of
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I never really liked the way McCarthy’s four Ps of marketing (product, price, place, and promotion) were presented. It was all too theoretical and dry. Beyond that, no one seemed to care about the customer – as a customer myself, this always upset me. This morning, I got an email about a new marketing theory
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A colleague of mine forwaded me a very thoughtful article about Social Applications from the MIT Sloan Management Review. I have been trying to explain to people for a very long time the power of social networking sites, blogs, and user-contributed media. Apparently, people are starting to catch on. Here’s a great example of the
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A friend of mine recently brought a partnership between Mercy Corps and Wal-Mart to my attention. She was concerned about the partnership because the missions of both organizations seem fundamentally misaligned. Here are my comments on this specific partnership: Partnerships only works when the brands involved are marching towards the same goal. While Mercy Corps’