Our thinking appears in marketing articles and publications around the world

With the recent increase in merger and acquisition activity, this article discusses how marketers in non-merging companies should use this time to reevaluate their strategies to gain competitive advantage.

When you think about prepared Hispanic foods, Goya is the brand that most likely comes to mind. Many brands are at a similar impasse, investing significant resources in the quest to become authentic Hispanic brands. But they end up stuck in the middle, unable to connect with this demographic group and undifferentiated against competition. Why?

When thousands of people lost their jobs during the Great Depression, many of them started riding the rails across the country in search of work and food. Hobos, as they were called, had been hopping trains since the 1870s, working as migrant laborers wherever they could find a job. They often traveled by themselves, leading to the inevitable problem of knowing what to expect when arriving in an unfamiliar place. Some cities might be welcoming while others might be less hospitable. A farmer might feed those who worked his fields while others might turn you into the police. A secret language of signs was developed that informed hobos about what awaited them. To the casual observer, the signs were gibberish or graffiti; but to the hobo, they could mean the difference between a hot meal and a night in jail. And therein lies a key question for today’s companies to ask themselves:

With all the talk of the emerging role of the star CMO as a high-level strategic thinker, this article discusses what separates strategic CMOs from tactical CMOs, long-time CMOs to short-timers, and what gets the CMO a seat at the strategy table.

As the global financial meltdown spreads, it’s clear that financial brands have been profoundly damaged by a crisis of confidence among their stakeholders. Brands that until a few weeks ago were pillars of the community are today widely distrusted.  Marketing leaders didn’t get financial institutions into this mess. But they will be instrumental in repairing the damage.

Chiaki Nishino and Gabriela Henault suggest 5 steps to structure your Media presence and explains how your Social Media strategy should be designed to meet your business objectives.

Chiaki Nishino and Gabriela Henault suggest 5 steps to structure your Media presence and explains how your Social Media strategy should be designed to meet your business objectives.

The article discusses the challenges marketers in more traditional organizations face and introduces the concept of the visionary marketer and five shifts to overcome these challenges. A case study of Zurich Financial Services illustrates how also traditionally more product driven companies can perform the five shifts. *Please note this article is in German.

Innovation is a major hot button with businesses these days, given its critical role in driving organic business growth. As one survey of 940 senior managers found, all considered growing revenues through innovation as critical to success. Yet more than half were unhappy with their innovation investment returns.

In many companies marketing and accounting follow totally separate paths. Accounting is the process of managing income, expenses, assets and liabilities. Marketing is the customer-focused function. This separation is artificial because the two functions in reality are indivisible.

Individual brands, or even whole categories, that were once important for a particular consumer segment, become irrelevant as society evolves and tastes change. Should you completely lose your current brand equity association so you can become relevant to new consumers?

In this article, we discuss three strategies to help companies integrate corporate social responsibility with brand-building efforts.

Joseph Gelman discusses why some brands may not be relevant to consumers anymore and how this trend could be avoided. Through several examples of “old” brands, such as Telefónica, Ford, and Burger King, which managed to renew their image, Gelman studies different formula to make a brand become young again. *Please note, this article is in Spanish.

In this Q&A with Guy Kawasaki, David Aaker explains how to use branding as a weapon against your competition.

For some time now, marketers have talked about methods to measure the economic effectiveness of their programs and have looked for financial metrics suitable to report their activities to the board. A recent survey by the Columbus Business School indicates their success has been limited. Only 30% of the CMOs interviewed use financial metrics for reporting, and 57% of CMOs use no measure of Return on Marketing Investment to evaluate their achievements.

With the Hispanic population in the US expected to surpass white non-Hispanic inhabitants by 2030, marketers are scrambling for ways to tap into growing spending power while generating loyalty to their brands. Strong, enduring brand loyalty can be built among Hispanics, but not by using tactics that work for white, Middle America.

In this article, David Aaker argues that brand strategy is crucially important to an innovation. Without it, the strength of an innovation will be short-lived. 
*Please note, there is a fee to obtain the full text of this article.

There is a growing need for businesses, and particularly their marketing leadership, to look differently at what constitutes innovation, and create a culture that fosters and rewards it.

This article features several Kellogg experts, including Scott Davis, and outlines keys to success for great global brands.

In this article David Aaker shows the evolution of brand equity in Japan over the last five years and explains why brand building is a long-term project.