October 2026 - Branding Strategy Insider

Why AI Fails In Marketing: The Organizational Problem Leaders Overlook

October 29, 20265 min

The high rate of failure among artificial intelligence (AI) implementations in marketing and sales reveals a fundamental organizational problem that extends beyond the technology itself. Although AI offers substantial opportunities to improve marketing productivity, enhance customer understanding, personalize customer experiences, and increase revenue, many implementations fail to deliver their anticipated benefits. These failures are often attributed to inadequate data, immature technology, insufficient employee skills, unrealistic expectations, or difficulties integrating AI into existing systems and processes....

by Guest Author

Brand Equity

The Brand Equity Your Customers Control

October 27, 20264 min

There is a second body of equity that behaves differently. It is produced by customers, held on platforms the company does not control, consulted at the point of purchase more often than any owned channel, and, on any platform worth the name, not revizable by the company it describes. Most brand strategy treats this as reputation management, which is a category error. It is not the management of a message. It is an asset with...

by Joan Kiddon

Brand Management

When The Deal Becomes The Brand

October 26, 20268 min

Relying on deal after deal to attract customers is death-wish marketing. The more often a brand announces, “This is a great deal,” the more customers come to believe that the deal price is the real price. The regular price begins to look inflated. The brand’s perceived value declines. What appears to be a short-term sales success can become a long-term problem for revenue quality and profitability.

by Guest Author

Brand Strategy

How Jellycat Escaped The Commodity Trap

October 21, 20266 min

The teddy bear is more than 120 years old. Soft toys are one of the oldest, most crowded, and most price-driven categories in consumer goods, full of cheap lookalikes and characters licensed from film franchises. Asked to name a category where brand power goes to die, plush would be a reasonable answer.

by Joan Kiddon

Brand Strategy

Albertsons’ Real Problem: It Hasn’t Defined Its Market

October 19, 202610 min

Albertsons, the grocery chain, is in trouble. In December 2024, federal and Washington state court rulings blocked its proposed $24.6 billion merger with Kroger, leaving Albertsons to compete on its own in a highly competitive, volatile business. Nearly two years later, the problems have not disappeared. In its October 13, 2026 earnings release, Albertsons reported a 0.8% decline in identical sales, $52 million in quarterly net income and a comprehensive business review intended to accelerate...

Older Posts

November 2, 2026How Whirlpool Became Bigger But Not Better

October 29, 2026Why AI Fails In Marketing: The Organizational Problem Leaders Overlook

October 27, 2026The Brand Equity Your Customers Control

October 26, 2026When The Deal Becomes The Brand

October 21, 2026How Jellycat Escaped The Commodity Trap