Ad Age

 
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Why the Phaeton failed in the U.S. market
By Al Ries for Ad Age.com: 12/2005

Volkswagen just announced that it was withdrawing its luxury Phaeton model from the U.S. market. No surprise there. In the two years since its introduction in November 2003, VW has sold just 3,715 Phaetons.

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Atlanta gets it wrong with new brand pitch
By Al Ries for Ad Age.com: 11/2005

Last February, Mayor Shirley Franklin and the Atlanta Committee for Progress announced the launch of a public/private initiative "to create a new, compelling branding strategy and marketing campaign for Atlanta." The Atlanta promotional Web site is dominated by an animated display that flys the slogan "Opportunity. Optimism. Openess" together and then enlarges the three Os to dramatically morph them into the Atlanta logo.

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Darwin's theories applied to marketing
By Al Ries for Ad Age.com: 10/2005

Why are General Motors and Ford in trouble? Why did Delta, Northwest, US Airways and United Airlines go bankrupt? Why were C2 and Pepsi Edge such notable failures? One answer might be "divergence." Over time, every category breaks up into multiple categories, creating chaos for companies that try to keep their brands in the mainstream of the market.

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Forget evolution. It?s divergence that drives branding success.
By Al Ries for Ad Age.com: 10/2005

Why are General Motors and Ford in trouble? Why did Delta, Northwest, US Airways and United Airlines go bankrupt? Why were Coca-Cola C2 and Pepsi Edge such notable failures? One answer might be ?divergence.? Over time, every category breaks up into multiple categories, creating chaos for companies that try to keep their brands in the mainstream of the market. Divergence is the least understood, most powerful force in the universe.

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The sad saga of Saturn.
By Al Ries for Ad Age.com: 9/2005

Fundamentally, there are two ways to increase sales: (1) Expand the brand, or (2) Expand the brand?s market share. Most companies focus on the first way, expanding the brand. While this might seem to work in the short term, expanding the brand will eventually weaken the brand and leave it in worse shape than before the process began.

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Why don?t advertising agencies advertise?
By Al Ries for Ad Age.com: 8/2005

The only industry in America that doesn?t believe in advertising is the advertising industry itself. Because they don?t do any. Well, hardly any. And certainly nothing like the volume of advertising they convince their clients to spend. Advertising is the communications backbone of America. Virtually every large company spends anywhere from 2 to 16 percent of its sales on advertising. That is, every large company except Omnicom, WPP, Interpublic and Publicis.

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Apple iPod.
By Al Ries for Ad Age.com: 8/2005

Marketing people spend 95 percent of their time on brand maintenance when the real opportunities lie in brand creation. Look what the iPod has done for Apple Computer. In the first quarter of 2005, Apple sold 5.3 million iPods. This year alone, iPod sales should reach $5 billion. The iPod brand dominates its market segment, accounting for 91 percent of all MP3 players with disk drives.

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What?s a Hilton?
By Al Ries for Ad Age.com: 7/2005

A Hilton senior vice president for brand management and marketing was recently asked by a reporter, ?So what the hell is a Hilton?? ?People can?t necessarily articulate it,? conceded the senior vice president for brand management and marketing. The brand is defined, he suggested, ?if we collectively give people an experience that says, yes, I?m proud of what it says about me to stay here, it makes me feel good; I?m in charge of my stay.?

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What?s wrong with General Motors.
By Al Ries for Ad Age.com: 6/2005

What happened to General Motors happens to all companies, even yours. New products, new technologies and new distribution channels cause brands to become unfocused over time. And you can?t build a powerful brand by being all things to everybody. The minivan, the sport-utility vehicle, hybrid vehicles, four-wheel drive and a host of other automotive innovations were hailed by GM because they promised to broaden the market and increase sales. Choice, isn?t that what consumers want?

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An advertising-centric world.
By Al Ries for Ad Age.com: 5/2005

You might have missed it, but a 10-page cover article in The New York Times Magazine (April 10, 2005) accurately profiled the mindset of the marketing community. ?Watching What You Watch? was the article?s headline. ?How technology is about to radically change TV-audience monitoring -- and how that will transform advertising, the networks and, possibly, the very nature of television? was the article?s subhead.

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Marketing is in trouble.
By Al Ries for Ad Age.com: 4/2005

Marketing is in trouble. Marketing is getting squeezed between the top management function and the advertising function. Top management insists that marketing is nothing but common sense (and therefore anybody with a title can do it) and the advertising function insists that marketing is nothing more than advertising.

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The missing ingredient: Credentials.
By Al Ries for Ad Age.com: 3/2005

Three years after Barilla was introduced into the U.S. market in 1996, the brand became the No. 1 pasta in America. Not bad, considering the competition: Ronzoni, Mueller?s, Creamette, San Giorgia and American Beauty, among others. The previous market leader (Ronzoni) was owned by Hershey Foods, a formidable marketing machine. Furthermore, Barilla sells for 5 to 10 percent more than the competition.

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The convergence bubble.
By Al Ries for Ad Age.com: 2/2005

Remember the Internet bubble? Retail stores were dead; everybody was going to buy everything on the worldwide web. Many top executives were carried away by the hype. The CEO of Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) quit his job to become CEO of Webvan, an Internet company that was going to put the nation?s supermarkets out of business.

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So long, Carly Fiorina.
By Al Ries for Ad Age.com: 2/2005

You would think the Pope had died. Last Thursday, all the major newspapers announced H-P?s sacking of its CEO, Carly Fiorina. Not one story, mind you, but multiple stories. The Wall Street Journal, for example, ran seven separate sacking stories. The New York Times ran five. Why was Carly fired? You would think this intense media coverage would have uncovered every aspect of the fall of Fiorina. My cynical self thinks otherwise.

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The amazing Amazon.com.
By Al Ries for Ad Age.com: 1/2005

As part of its 75th anniversary celebration, Business Week is profiling the greatest innovators of the past seven-and-a-half decades. In its December 20, 2004 issue, the magazine profiles ?The Wizard of Web Retailing,? Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com. Which prompted us to take a closer look at Amazon.com In the decade since its founding in 1994, Amazon.com has racked up $17.5 billion in sales. Currently its stock market value is $16 billion

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