Why America Is Addicted to Olive Garden

Fast Company, July 1, 2009 — On a Tuesday morning in April, the presidents of three of the largest restaurant chains in the country slip into an unmarked white van in Orlando, Florida, and embark on an unprecedented mission — sharing their latest trade secrets.

You know their brands: $3 billion — plus Olive Garden, with its heaping bowls of pasta and all-you-can-eat breadsticks; $2 billion — plus Red Lobster, which introduced middle America to the wonders of fried shrimp; and nearly $1 billion LongHorn Steakhouse, whose variations on a theme include steak stuffed with fontina cheese and wild mushrooms.

You probably don't know they're part of the same company, Darden Restaurants. It's the country's largest full-service restaurant operation, the 29th-largest employer in the United... continue reading

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.

With the Car Industry in Trouble, Nissan Rolls Out the Mobile Device

New York Times, April 7, 2009 — FORGET about thinking outside the box — or inside it, for that matter. Nissan Motor is betting an estimated $20 million during the worst automotive sales slump in a generation that a spirited campaign can get drivers to forgo the box for the cube.

Actually, it is the Cube, as in the Nissan Cube, a cute, smallish car scheduled to go on sale on May 5. And scratch the word “car,” for the campaign to introduce the Cube in the United States, which begins on Monday, takes a big step, er, outside the box by calling it a “mobile device.”

CMO Survey: Traditional Branding is ‘Broken’

Marketing Charts, March 4, 2009 — An overwhelming majority (87%) of US CMOs and marketing managers believe that branding initiatives need to be more flexible today than in the past, and 63% think traditional brand positioning and advertising are losing their effectiveness and are “broken,” according to a survey from the Verse Group and Jupiter Research.

Chrysler to Market Brands Under One Umbrella†

Will Sell Them Together at Dealerships, Create More Ads Showing All Three

Advertising Age, February 3, 2009 — DETROIT (AdAge.com) — At a reporters' roundtable in Detroit today, Chrysler Vice Chairman-President Jim Press said the auto industry has too many brands — before saying Chrysler, rated by auto experts as the weakest of Detroit's carmakers, won't trim any of its three. Instead, he said, the automaker's solution to the problem of too many car brands is to bring Dodge, Jeep and Chrysler under one umbrella for sale at its dealerships.

Green Pragmatism

Eco-savvy consumers should be at the center of your brand strategy.

Hub, January 22, 2009 — Despite its Hollywood trendiness, the average person doesn’t go out and buy a Prius just to feel good about reducing his or her carbon footprint. Most people buy cars that meet their motoring needs and end up choosing a Prius because its environmental proof-points align with their personal requirements.

It’s the classic emotional/rational balance: a high-mileage vehicle from a respected, reliable manufacturer means lower consumption of greenhouse-gas producing (not to mention high price-volatility) fossil fuels.

The Prius appeal is a perfect example of green pragmatism, because the vehicle’s environmental benefits are used for more than just a “feel good” green spin — they are rational product proof-points. As a result, the consumers’... continue reading

Four Strategies for Beleaguered Banks†

Financial-Services CMOs Need to Make Their Cases With Courageous Marketing Plans

Advertising Age, January 9, 2009 — There's an old British saying that where there's muck, there's brass. Right now the muck is the financial-services industry, and the brass is the massive opportunity in this $10 billion category for groundbreaking branding and marketing — one that rivals the defining of the dot-com era. Financial services, once one of America's most admired and valuable industries, has lost its luster and international standing, creating a multibillion-dollar brand vacuum.

Key of IKEA

Bill Agee of IKEA says innovation begins with a culture of courtesy and a sense of community

Hub, January 5, 2009 — It’s not every day that hot, spicy cinnamon is the first thing you smell when you go shopping for furniture. But it is the sweet scent of sticky buns in the oven that greets shoppers as they approach the front doors of IKEA’s New Haven, Connecticut, store.

Bill Agee, marketing chief of IKEA U.S., agrees that sugar and spice is not a bad way to say “hello” to customers, but says it’s just a coincidence. “It’s not planned,” he says. “It’s just that the HVA system wafts out into the parking lot at some of our stores.”As Bill puts it: “At IKEA, it’s this idea that, ‘you do a little and we do a little’ … and together we save.” A Princeton poli-sci major who went into the advertising agency business before joining IKEA about 15... continue reading

The Difference Between Building a Business and Building a Brand†

Don't Confuse the Latter With Celebrity Index

Advertising Age, January 5, 2009 — Are you building a business? Or are you building a brand? Silly questions, you might be thinking. Naturally, you are trying to do both.

But that might be a mistake.

What's good for the business is not necessarily good for the brand. And vice versa.

McCann Offers Peek at Lives of Latin America's Poor†

Interpublic Unit Forms Bodega Division to Tutor Clients in Marketing to the Region's 'Emerging Consumers'

Wall Street Journal, December 8, 2008 — During presentations at McCann Worldgroup's office in Bogotá, Colombia, staffers have taken to letting a chicken loose to hunt and peck around clients' feet.

In Mexico City, the big advertising agency hired a local merchant to install racks of potato chips and otherwise transform its conference room into a bodega, or corner grocery store. Clients lunch on tacos served on a plastic table mat.

The point of these exercises: to give big marketers some insight into the lifestyles of Latin America's low-income consumer.