There once was an upheaval at IBM; a David and Goliath moment. That was when personal computers, namely Apple, entered our landscape. The world became divided into Macs and IBM PC’s. The genericization of the Mac alternative led to a proliferation of non-IBM PC offerings from Dell, HP and others. IBM, the Goliath and “owner” of the PC, gave up. Eventually, IBM’s laptop division was sold to Lenovo. The IBM focus became mainframes and its...
One of the most difficult tasks for brand marketers is aligning an enterprise around a corporate Brand Purpose (North Star) and Brand Promise. Gaining adherents rather than mere acceptors is a difficult goal. Regions and local sectors tend to push back on global brand dictates, even if the centrally-sent statements ring true.
Brands seem to fall victim to some of the clearest, most detectable, beyond-doubt brand-building principles. Netflix is our latest example.
The adage that history repeats itself is no more apparent than the current state of affairs at Nissan North America. The Wall Street Journal’s interview with Christian Meunier, head of Nissan NA, is so frighteningly similar to 1999 that I had to catch my breath. Yet, as with a lot of executives and marketers, the current plight of a troubled brand is a new situation, as if this state of affairs has never happened before,...
Jack Welch, renowned CEO of General Electric, used to say that your business should be #1 or #2 in your market. If not, get out. This belief was derived from the famous PIMS work begun in the 1960s. Initiated at General Electric, PIMS, Profit Impact of Marketing Strategy, focused on identifying factors that would impact economic success. ROI (Return on Investment) was the primary measure of success, alongside Return on Sales (ROS) and real (organic)...
