Big In Print
Al Ries
We're So Quick to Crown Social-Media Successes That We Forget What They're Actually Based On
While both Old Spice and "The Hunger Games" ran brilliant social-media efforts, it should be pointed out that one started out as a Super Bowl spot and the other is a best-selling book franchise.
Nothing Exciting About Burger King's Menu Expansion
Following the leader is not a successful marketing strategy -- here's why.
When It Comes to Names, Corporations Just Aren't People
It's highly unlikely that a marketing campaign will change the way consumers refer to a brand. How many people call Dunkin' Donuts "DD?" or Gatorade "G"?
The Best Bet for Sears? Ditch Its Softer Side
The common remedy for a company in trouble is "more." What else can we do? Who can we buy? How can we expand? That's getting it exactly backwards.
Marketing Myth-Busting: Kodak Wasn't Slow to Digital; It Was the First One In
Everyone has opinions on the subject of Kodak and its bankruptcy. Most of them are wrong.
The Most Effective Way to Sell Brand USA's Image
Try to say everything and you end up saying nothing. Make your message real, and you not only connect with people but entice them with the suggestion that there is more to learn about your brand.
Hi-Lo: How You Can Target Both Ends of the Market
Developing two brands, one at the high end and one at the low end, is probably an easier task than trying to take on the market leader in the middle of the market.
Let's Get Real: It's Not Marketing We Do Today, It's Branding
"Marketing" is too narrow a term to describe the role it plays in forging the essence of a company's role and identity and should be replaced with "branding"
If Bigger Is Better, Why Are Companies Breaking Up?
Is it better to buy or to sell? Either way can be helpful provided you keep your marketing strategy focused on building a corporate brand. Not on assembling an unrelated group of companies which may be profitable today, but won't necessarily fit together under a corporate tent tomorrow.
Just Words? Rating the Republican Nominees on Their Slogans
Al Ries takes a look at positioning skills of the Republican field and finds most of them lacking.
In Marketing, Freakonomics Trumps Logic
Logic has nothing to do with marketing. Broadening a category dilutes the category, making it seem less authentic, less desirable.
Do You Have Everything Except a Marketing Strategy?
We don't see many marketing people calling the shots on products, names and distribution channels. Instead, marketing people tend to focus on "communications" issues.
Discountitus, the Disease That's Sweeping the Marketing Community
In industry after industry, the discount is the focus of the advertising. That's no way to become a category leader.
Have We Killed Brand Advertising?
Companies no longer advertise brands. They advertise various products their brand names are attached to.
Want to Expand Your Business? You Should Narrow Your Focus
Recently, the Conference Board asked 704 CEOs to rank a number of business priorities. The No.1 priority of their list: "Business growth." Who can argue with that objective? But the real question is "How?"
Northwestern's Medill's New Name Encompasses Everything but Says Nothing
Is this what Medill is teaching its students? That as time goes on, names need to be expanded to include additional activities an organization is getting into.
Would Amazon Be Stronger With Multiple Brands?
While positioning has become famous, the line-extension trap and other principles of positioning are mostly ignored. Take Amazon.com, "Earth's biggest bookstore." It didn't take long for Amazon to move onto bigger and better things: computers, electronics, home and garden supplies, groceries, health and beauty aids, toys, clothing, jewelry, sports equipment. But what if Amazon had followed up its book success with the launch of product-specific websites.
Retail America Is Having a Big Sale -- but for How Long?
Like most marketing fads, the coupon craze is typical of the follow-the-leader thinking rampant in the marketing community -- if everybody is using coupons, then they must be an effective marketing tool. And they are -- in the short term.
Social Media Will Usher in Golden Age of Global Branding -- if Marketers Get Message Right
A great ad campaign will make a bad marketing strategy fail faster. What should Burger King's marketing strategy have been? And what is the role of social media anyway?
Apple's IPad a Great Example of Divergent Thinking
The tablet computer of 2002 was a convergence product. It combined the functions of a pen computer with the functions of a standard laptop computer. The tablet computer of 2010 is a divergence product. It's as if Apple took a laptop computer and cut off the keyboard and threw it away, then put a handful of the laptop's more important components into the screen itself.
