Starbucks Lessons from Australia Starbucks rapidly opened 87 stores in Australia from 2000, only to close more than 70% in 2008. Was the failing entirely the fault... 30 August, 2019
Understanding the Hidden Power of Brands One of the hidden powers of brands is that consumers use them to continually form and re-form their self-identity. What about brands for... 14 June, 2019
Using the Brand Identity Prism The brand prism consists of six facets, some are in the control of you, the company, others are on the receiving side of... 15 April, 2018
What is a Brand? A brand is the set of perceptions that are unlocked by your name, your symbol, or your signifiers.... 15 April, 2018
Branding Nonprofits – Case Study of ‘The Salvos’ Nonprofits face many difficulties when branding. Some of these are unique as the value proposition for a nonprofit is unique to that sector. It is a social exchange with an intangible, higher-order reward as its value proposition. The key issues are values and vision, trust and transparency, organisational culture and structure. 02 November, 2014
The Elephant Whisperer On 2nd March 2012, The Elephant Whisperer, Lawrence Anthony, passed away from a heart attack at his home in Zimbabwe. He was 61. 26 July, 2014
A Classic Neuromarketing Experiment In 2004, researchers at Baylor College recruited 67 people. They took them into the biomedical laboratory and divided them into four groups. All groups were asked the same question about two almost identical cultural products. 09 May, 2014
Campaign Deconstruction: Pantene Whipit While checking your Facebook Newsfeed, you may have come across the Pantene #Whipit ad that has now officially 'gone viral'. Here's the background.... 19 December, 2013
Cheap Tactics Now, you’ve plotted your vision on the map, you know your engine pretty well or at least you know what type it is, and you’ve got a comfortable position to steer yourself right into the heartland of that target market. 04 December, 2013
Small Business. Super-sized Brand There are a lot of components that make a brand. In order to make a powerful and durable brand, you have to put in the work. It's not design work, not initially. But it boils down to your vision and your understanding of your customer and your knowledge of the market and the other players in your arena. Let's start with Vision So what is vision? It’s the thing that initially filled you with inspiration to start your business. 04 November, 2013
The Case of Yahoo! About this Case Yahoo! was born in the early 1990s, surrounded by empty pizza boxes. It was the brainchild of founders David Filo and Jerry Yang, computer science PhD students. 10 September, 2013
Making Sport Sponsorships that Work This article looks at the challenges of creating an enduring sports sponsorship partnership. The difficulties involve finding ‘strategic fit’, articulating this well and then leveraging and activating the association for both parties. The investment – both financial and in-kind - is seen as a significant stumbling block as is the need to thoroughly enmesh two separate organisations and proactively align their goals and activities. 21 May, 2013
The Dirt on Loyalty Programs Here are some of the best and worst practices of loyalty programs. 10 May, 2013
How McDonald’s Copes with International Tastes Fast food master of the universe, McDonald's began as one single drive-in restaurant in California. If you had have driven up to the menu board in 1954, you would have seen a long list of standard menu items including 15-cent hamburgers, cheeseburgers, pies, chips, milk, and milkshakes. 01 May, 2013
International Marketing Whirlpool Whirlpool Corporation is the world’s number two appliance company, selling $18 billion of ‘white goods’ each year, including washing machines, microwaves, refrigerators and stoves. It is number one in the USA, where it is headquartered. 20 March, 2013
Blue Ocean Strategy The authors of Blue Ocean Strategy argue one game-changing point. Stop competing in overcrowded markets. 28 October, 2012
Managing Customer Experiences When a customer experiences your service, they are receiving messages all around them. 04 May, 2012
IKEA – Strategy in a Nutshell IKEA's founder, Ingvar Kamprad, died in January 2018, aged 91. After starting from the humble Swedish beginnings, his entrepreneurial flare led to a multibillion-dollar global empire. Did you know the name Kamprad is a variant of Comrade? His passing marks a good time to review the strategy of IKEA. How radically it differed from other furniture businesses at the time of its conception makes for a good strategic case study. 01 November, 2011
Brand Marks Since early mankind, people have used symbols to distinguish their individuality, their clan, their territory, and strength - from cave paintings to flags, to the marks on a beast, to the label on your clothing. They arouse emotion and trigger recall. They are both a mark of trust and a promise. That's why it's worth investing in a solid brandmark. 19 August, 2011
Riot Lessons The riots in London remind me of when I was a Year 12 Legal Studies student in 1993, a year after the LA riots. 01 August, 2011
Deep Insights the Bridge to Fan Loyalty It's been mentioned a number of times by different writers of the prevalent "'marketing myopia' in the sports industry. One of the symptoms of this short-sighted thinking means the core stakeholders (the fans) are not well understood in terms of needs, wants and motivations. 07 June, 2010