Is AI Disrupting IBM, Or Strengthening Its Future?
There once was an upheaval at IBM; a David and Goliath moment. That was when personal computers, namely Apple, entered our landscape. The world became divided into Macs and IBM PC’s. The genericization of the ...
The End Of The Think Global, Act Local Strategy
One of the most difficult tasks for brand marketers is aligning an enterprise around a corporate Brand Purpose (North Star) and Brand Promise. Gaining adherents rather than mere acceptors is a difficult goal. Regions and ...
When Site Performance Becomes Brand Performance
Companies think of website performance as a technical KPI. It’s something developers measure after launch and marketers glance at when Core Web Vitals reports come in. That’s understandable, but it misses something important. This article ...
The Age Of Average Brands
In the early 1990s, two Russian artists, Vitaly Komar and Alexander Melamid, took the unusual step of hiring a market research firm. Their brief was simple. Understand what Americans desire most in a work of ...
The Four Warning Signs Of A Declining Brand
Jack Welch, renowned CEO of General Electric, used to say that your business should be #1 or #2 in your market. If not, get out. This belief was derived from the famous PIMS work begun ...
PepsiCo’s New Definition Of Relevance
In 1967, the song “San Francisco” by Scott McKenzie described “a whole generation, with a new explanation.” The line still captures a central challenge for brands today. Customers continually redefine what they want from the ...
The Decisions That Make A Brand Coherent
Some of the most consequential decisions a brand makes never arrive looking consequential. They appear as cost decisions. Growth plans. New operating models. Policy changes. Shifts in KPIs. Over time, these choices accumulate into patterns ...
AI Is A Platform Shift, Not A Brand Advantage
The buzzword in marketing right now is AI. Well, acronym, that is. But either way, AI is all the rage. Every firm of every sort is working hard to incorporate AI into every process, every ...
AI Is Not A New Marketing Problem. It Is A New Brand Interface.
Perhaps the most interesting thing about AI is that it is new yet nothing new. AI is certainly new to marketing, and bringing all sorts of new challenges with it, although it may not be ...
The New Rules Of Brand Engagement
With audience attention becoming increasingly fragmented across platforms and formats, visibility alone is no longer sufficient to ensure meaningful engagement. Brands continue to produce a high volume of content and activations, but the gap between ...