From Appreciation to Aspiration: Unlocking Your Organization’s Potential

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters enjoyed tremendous growth. From its humble beginnings as a coffee shop in 1981, the business bloomed into an enterprise worth more than $100 million. But, by 2000, serious challenges began to emerge. The business’ very success could have been its undoing: If Green Mountain failed to increase efficiency as it scaled, […]

The Rise of the Social Brand: What Instagram Reveals About Connecting with Customers

The baby-blue bears were first sighted in 2016. They appeared in Instagram posts from no fewer than three Kardashian sisters. Soon, Vanessa Hudgens, Emily Ratajkowski, and a host of other celebrities supplied their own Instagram endorsements. In the months that followed, SugarBear Hair vitamins would become the “bestselling hair vitamin online,” – a distinction the […]

5 Ways Social and Behavioral Sciences Can Transform Your Marketing

Richard Thaler has news for you: Your brand probably isn’t selling to Spock. A founding father of behavioral economics, Thaler has dedicated his career to documenting the irrational quirks of human psychology (to which the sensible Vulcan hero would be immune). For too long, he argues, economists and executives alike have ignored the impact of […]

5 Common Mistakes in Building Brand Trust

In July of 2016, Wells Fargo was the envy of many financial institutions. Relatively untarnished by the post-Recession ire directed at many of its peers, the company’s stock had surged 26% since the depths of financial crisis. Merely 15 percent of consumers felt negative sentiments towards the brand, while 60 percent viewed the brand positively. […]

Successful Brands Begin with Strong Values

There is a heightened focus today on how to align touch points in every channel to create a powerful and seamless brand experience. However, despite all the talk about marketing and IT converging, Big Data and the like, there is one inescapable fact that must be considered in order to create a truly meaningful omni-channel […]

Why Having a Brand Story is
Your Most Important Asset

St. Lucia has been called the Jewel of the Caribbean, and it is indeed an island that perfectly embodies all the ideals of an island. However, a sparkling location and glorious beaches are only small parts of why The BodyHoliday is one of the most unusual stories in the annals of Caribbean tourism. The hotel’s […]

Building Brand Loyalty:
Start with Customer Communication

Back in the year 2000, during branding’s medieval period, I authored a book called “Emotional Branding.” It was met with reasonable success, probably because it was the first book ever written on the crazy notion that brands are all about feelings rather than mere transactions. Perhaps it was ahead of its time, but to paraphrase […]

Storytelling: The Secret Weapon of Successful Intrapreneurs

I recently attended the Front End of Innovation 2016 Conference in Boston. There were some very thought provoking and compelling keynote speakers. From Alex Clay, author of The Misfit Economy: Lessons in Creativity from Pirates, Hackers, Gangsters and Other Informal Entrepreneurs to Frank Stephenson, Chief Design Officer at McLaren Automotive who talked about the importance biomimicry […]

Shopper-Centric Thinking Begins With Human Empathy

I recently attended the Shopper Marketing Expo in Minneapolis, and was particularly struck by Peter Hoyt’s,comments on the first day. Peter, the Path to Purchase Institute Executive Director and CEO, indicated that we are undergoing a tectonic shift in marketing because of the shopper empowerment revolution. And, as a consequence, product manufacturers can no longer […]

Beware of Shiny New Things

At the recent Hub Live Retail Experience Symposium in New York we heard persistent warnings throughout many of the presentations—do not chase the shiny new thing just because it is the new thing! Retailers certainly need to create digital and omnichannel experiences but not fall for the notion that technology alone will create authentic experiences […]

A Summary of PMRG: Patients. Technology. Behavioral Psychology.

Last year, the PMRG Connect conference focused on helping market researchers become strategic leaders within their organization. This year, they extended the theme by helping those newly minted strategic leaders utilize new technologies and methodologies to uncover rich insight and make critical business decisions in a constrained environment. The Technical Maturity of Healthcare  It began […]