Once again, Amazon is startling the retail landscape. Now, it is the arrival of a big brick-and-mortar store: 230,000 square feet. The reporters say this square footage is about the size of two Target stores and larger than an average Walmart. This new Amazon megastore is headed for an exurb of Chicago, IL.
In December 2024, Omnicom merged with IPG, eliminating approximately 4,000 jobs. Among those displaced were hundreds of brand strategists who had spent their entire careers honing the art of positioning, differentiation, and cultural resonance. They didn’t lose their jobs because they weren’t talented or dedicated. They lost them because the infrastructure they relied on—the promise-making apparatus of the advertising age—collapsed from obsolescence.
For twenty years, the CPG innovation failure rate has remained between 70% and 90%. During that same period, the industry adopted many frameworks – Design Thinking, Jobs To Be Done, Blue Ocean Strategy, and Horizon Mapping. Each framework was positioned as a way to make organizations more effective in translating consumer opportunity. Each was implemented with training, toolkits, and ceremony.
Probably no surprise to those who chronicle our fractured behaviors, we have become unwilling to compromise. As uncompromising consumers, we want benefits that contradict and complement at the same time. We want brands to consistently deliver a paradox promise.
The world of marketing has evolved, and today the companies that supply marketing communications and brand strategy are very different. There was a time when ad agencies were also the chief brand builders for their clients. It was called the 20th century. But that era is over and even big and brilliant agencies are no longer qualified to work on brand strategy.
