Ben & Jerry's Tries New Recipe for Store Design†

Brandweek, April 25, 2009 — Whether a person’s palate leans more toward Cherry Garcia or Stephen Colbert’s Americone Dream, Ben & Jerry’s gets the majority of its sales from prepacked pints sold at stores. Not that its parlors are a drip in the bucket. With 500 stores—250 in the U.S.—the Unilever brand with the Yasgur’s-farm-raised, do-good hippie vibe needed to revisit its roots so its cones wouldn’t get short shrift.

Retail as Habitat

The retail environment is a hothouse for national brands

Hub, December 15, 2008 — We now stand at the crossroads of perhaps one of the greatest economic declines in recent American history. It is fitting to reassess one of the more volatile questions faced today in the retail landscape: do store brands pose a significant threat to traditional brands in new ways, and if so, are brands destined to accelerate their decline, disappear in their current form, or evolve with new strategies?

Yes — this is a controversial discussion, but it is even more important now because of changes in the underlying market foundation and because of strategic implications for manufacturers in their approach to being seen by shoppers at retail.

If GM Has a Brand, It's General Misery†

Company Has Eight Brands, but No Brand Messaging

Advertising Age, December 2, 2008 — "How Detroit drove into a ditch" is the headline of an article in the Oct. 25 issue of The Wall Street Journal.

When the most respected business publication in the world writes a 2,000-word article on the problems of the U.S. automobile industry, you have to assume it knows what it's writing about. Especially since the author of the article is the Journal's former Detroit bureau chief and a man who is writing a book about America's car culture.

Failure to Communicate

New York Times, November 5, 2008 — Traditionally, brands have spoken in a "monologue" form to consumers. Print ads. TV commercials. Billboards. They talk at, or to, consumers. They say, "Here I am. This is what I am/do." This began to evolve when brands started asking people what they thought of products. While consumers suddenly had a voice, they used it the only way they could--to deliver monologues right back at the brand. Now, those simple monologues are evolving into a genuine dialogue.