Second-place companies often are late because they have chosen to spend valuable time improving their product before launching it. As my former partner Al Ries and I wrote in Positioning: The Battle for your Mind, it is better to be first and establish leadership.
Nine years ago, when I knew I was going to become CEO of this company, I spent three days with its legendary founder, David Ogilvy, at his château in France. It was March, it was cold and rainy, and we spent the entire time indoors talking about the business. At one point I asked him a question point-blank: David, if you were going to say one thing to me, what would it be? He didn’t...
Almost 40 years after Cadbury and Schweppes joined forces, the two are once again going their separate ways.
When evaluating the potential effectiveness of different campaign ideas, The Blake Project uses the following questions:
Zale’s, the king of middle-market jewelry, tried to sell more expensive jewelry. They had little success.
