Brand management

The key to selling well-designed, well-crafted products at high margins is the aesthetic coherence of the company and its goods. Embodying that ideal...

Brands are not just names slapped on products by the marketing department; they embody the value those products have for your customers. That may be more true for high-tech products than it is for soap.

Normally, the Olympic Games are a positive force in marketing. Worldwide marketing expenditures increase as official sponsors and unofficial free-riders attach themselves to the Olympic logo, to particular sports, national teams or individual athletes. Global brands, in particular, see the Olympics and World Cup soccer as the two most important international sporting events; brand linkage […]

The mantra "Every product must stand on its own bottom line" may no longer be the one to chant. Nowadays, broadening your portfolio can increase both...

It’s fashionable today to enthuse over globalized markets and cite glowing examples of standardized marketing winners around the world. True, some markets are globalizing, and more companies are taking advantage of them with signal success. But the rosy reports of these triumphs usually neglect to mention the complexities and risks involved; for every victory in […]

How does your company stack up?

Leaders need to rethink who gets to contribute — and how.

Walt Disney, the man, was equal parts technological genius and ancient story teller. He drew upon stories that reverberated with our humanity and told them in sizzling new ways that shaped memorable experiences. Simultaneously he knew how to leverage every powerful method of engaging the consumer and he swarmed them with multiple modes of his […]

One of the most common pieces of feedback we get from our readers is that you want to know more about how to put the ideas and advice from our magazine articles into practice in your own organizations. We have been exploring ways to do just that and want to share some of our early […]

The most successful companies in business today have something in common. This trait doesn’t just make them better than the competition; it makes them fundamentally different. Where traditional companies push out messages and products, these companies pull customers in. Instead of treating customers as passive targets, they treat them as active participants. Like the sun […]

Resolving the team’s branding problem.

The Idea: Ten years into an ambitious advertising campaign, Aflac still had low name recognition. Would a noisy duck do any better?

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz on the challenges of leading a turnaround at the company he made a household name.

The cautionary tale of CES.

It was a tiny article in the August 27 edition of The Wall Street Journal, but for me it carried an important message. GSD&M, the feisty advertising agency based in Austin, Texas, announced that it was officially changing its name to GSD&M’s Idea City and hiring a “chief ideas officer.” What’s the big deal? For […]

Five tips for positioning yourself in international markets.

Stars are using their influencer status to launch their own products and capture more profits for themselves.

“Brand America” stems from the notion that a country’s name can evoke strong associations not only about its government but also its companies and its people. For US businesses operating abroad, a powerful Brand America can provide that extra edge when competing with local or other countries’ products. Unfortunately, for most of the past decade, […]

Successful brands are a paradox: always consistent yet always mutable. One of the best models for that elusive balance is the artisan brand. Artisan brands possess a signature look and feel that seems to be the creation of an individual sensibility yet also permits variations on form and execution within a set of consistent design […]

It’s harder to create a strong identity for an entire company than for a product. This tool kit can help you get there.