A glimpse into the minds of the Positioning Pioneers

  • The line-extension time bomb claims another victim, McDonald’s.

    Decades ago, I was kicked out of a Young Presidents’ Organization seminar for claiming that line extensions were destroying the McDonald’s brand. It’s too...

  • What’s the most under-utilized tool in your marketing toolkit?

    Music: The magic ingredient to make your television commercials more effective. Did you watch the last episode of Mad Men, especially the ending? As...

  • What put Donald Trump in First Place?

    Donald Trump kicked off his Presidential campaign by attacking Mexican immigrants. And the whole country was in an uproar. NBC fired him. Macy’s fired...

  • HP splits into a circle and a rectangle? Oh my.

    Hewlett-Packard is trying to become more focused by dividing itself in half. But dividing isn’t so easy. It is messy legally, corporately and mentally....

  • Hashtag Branding – How to not get burned

    Starbucks, like most companies these days, is obsessed with buzz. Not the kind you get from a double-espresso but the kind you find online...

  • Super Bowl 2015

    We saw fewer special effects, sexy girls and kicks to the crotch this year. And the few that took that route fell flat. What...

  • High Hopes for Marley

    The Weed Wars are coming. As the legalization of marijuana continues to move forward, we will see hundreds of homegrown brands turn into a...

  • What do chief executives have in common with accordion players?

    Hewlett-Packard plans to split in half, separating its PC and printer businesses from its hardware and services businesses. According to CEO Meg Whitman, the...

  • Burger King loses its way

    What kills most marketing programs is “change.” When you keep changing your slogans, you confuse consumers and after a while they don’t attention to...

  • Super Bowl 2014

    Unless you were a Seattle fan, the 2014 Super Bowl wasn’t a super game to watch. The puppy bowl was more competitive. So that...

  • Marketing to do list for 2014

    Find out what the top things you need to do to make your brand the best it can be in 2014.

  • iPhone was first, but so was Motorola.

    Motorola invented the category of cellphones. Nokia brought cellphones to the masses. BlackBerry invented the keyboard phone for email. Samsung brought better designs. iPhone...

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