Sequins? What Sequins? Canada's New Spin on Triple Loops†

Figure Skaters Have a Tough Time Pitching The Sport's Muscle; 'Show the Masculinity'

Wall Street Journal, April 3, 2009 — Vaughn Chipeur says he has "to pound it out" every day to keep up with the competition. He endures two grueling practice sessions a day, six days a week. He's suffered a groin injury and his feet are sometimes wrecked after a tough workout.

One thing Mr. Chipeur doesn't typically discuss: his shiny costumes.

Mr. Chipeur is a champion figure skater on Canada's national team. Off the ice, he's been talking up the sport's bruising side at the request of Skate Canada, the country's governing body for the sport.

With Saturn, G.M. Failed a Makeover

New York Times, December 4, 2008 — General At least G.M. knows how difficult the challenge will be.

A quarter-century ago, G.M. started Project Saturn with the same goals. And it worked, for a time. Saturn owners, including many who traded in their Hondas and Toyotas to own the first models in 1990, became cheerleaders for the division’s customer-friendly approach, while the United Automobile Workers union gave up many of its traditional restrictions to help Saturn succeed.

Motors has promised Congress that it can recreate itself as a different kind of car company — smaller, with a more cooperative relationship with its union, and a lineup of fuel-efficient cars to compete with the best of the foreign brands

Stimulating Demand for the ‘64 Days of Crayola’

New York Times, November 24, 2008 — Remember the boy band Color Me Badd? A campaign for the best-known brand in coloring could be called Color Me Daily.

The brand is of course Crayola, which is commemorating the 50th anniversary of its ubiquitous 64-count box of crayons with advertising that celebrates “The 64 days of Crayola.” The campaign has its own logo of 64 colored dots, arrayed in 4 rows of 16, designed to look like a view from above of the crayons inside the box.

Rebranding the U.S. With Obama

New York Times, October 23, 2008 — We’re beginning to get a sense of how Barack Obama’s political success could change global perceptions of the United States, redefining the American “brand” to be less about Guantánamo and more about equality. This change in perceptions would help rebuild American political capital in the way that the Marshall Plan did in the 1950s or that John Kennedy’s presidency did in the early 1960s.

Tampa Bay Rays Get a P&G-Style Makeover†

Arsenal of Marketing Concepts Includes 'Brand Pillars' and Consumer Touchpoints

Advertising Age, October 6, 2008 — Under the guidance of a former Procter & Gamble brand manager, the Tampa Bay Rays have gone through the sort of transformation typical of deodorant sticks and shaving razors.

First off, the team got a new name — Devil is gone — and a fresh logo and color scheme, swapping green for blue. A list of "consumer touchpoints" was found via focus-group research and monitored to make sure the ballpark experience is fun for fans

At JetBlue, Growing Up Is Hard to Do

New York Times, October 5, 2008 — JETBLUE AIRWAYS was the darling of the airline industry until Valentine’s Day, 2007. And life for the carrier hasn’t been the same since.

On what is now known within the company as “2/14,” a winter storm paralyzed flights at New York City’s airports. Hit hardest was John F. Kennedy International, where JetBlue, which got its start in 2000, has its busiest hub. Its planes were snowbound at gates or stuck on runways, trapping some passengers.

The 2/14 fiasco set off a crisis — emotional, cultural and financial — that few start-ups might have survived.

OfficeMax Magic

Bob Thacker says his plans to make us love OfficeMax are right on target. An exclusive Q&A interview by Tim Manners.

Hub, September 1, 2008 — Twenty years ago, when he was a marketing chief at Target Stores, Bob Thacker says he used to hear the same thing all the time: “Target? Are you kidding me? It’s a discount store in Minnesota. It’s kinda dumpy.”

Well, it took 20 years to turn around Target, and Bob was right in the thick of that transformation from “kinda dumpy” to “pretty darn cool.” Today, as chief marketing officer of OfficeMax, Bob is once again relishing a Target-sized challenge. “We’re the third-place brand in a category that has no differentiation whatsoever,” says Bob. “Office supply stores have long been dubbed as dull and uninspiring. But if you do things that are totally unexpected and surprising, it suddenly begins to breathe humanity into a category... continue reading

The Second Coming of Khaki

New York Times, August 20, 2008 — ON Monday afternoon, as the ballyhooed new designs of Gap’s fall collection by Patrick Robinson began appearing at its store on Fifth Avenue and 54th Street, a line of customers stretched well around the corner — at Abercrombie & Fitch, that is, two blocks away.Fashion magazines have heralded the recent arrival of Mr. Robinson at Gap in reverential tones (he is actually called a “megabrand messiah” in the September issue of Elle), and the windows announce in big block letters that a “New Shape” is in store.

InBev, the Only Way to Bring Back Bud Is By Being Fearless†

Budweiser Soared When Its Owners and Agency Took Chances. It Can Happen Again

Advertising Age, August 11, 2008 — As un-American as this is going to sound, maybe the best thing that could have happened to the would-be King of Beers' parent company is to be acquired by a Belgian-Brazilian multi-/mega-brewer that, despite honeymoon promises to the contrary, should indeed turn its marketing upside down.

Sharper Image Lives -- as a Brand†

Wall Street Journal, June 26, 2008 — Retailer Sharper Image was left for dead in February. Now, four months later, the bankrupt purveyor of air purifiers and nose-hair clippers is coming back to life.

This time, though, it won't have stores with $5,000 massage chairs where customers can relax. Instead, Sharper Image will live on as a virtual brand name, its moniker rented to other retailers that want to spruce up the appeal of a vacuum cleaner, pet robot or pair of sunglasses.