Strategy on The Findings Report

The Gospel of Product Management

Fri, 21 Nov 2025 21:20:00 -0800

Let’s be honest. We’ve fetishized Product Management. For far too many companies, it has become the organizational center of gravity, particularly in tech. With no offense to the hard-working folks who occupy the title—many of whom are exceptionally talented, and many of whom I consider friends and inspiring leaders—the industry has elevated the PM role to savior status. But much of this elevation happened because of an obsession with process-optimization and productivity.

Safety Brands

Sun, 04 Mar 2018 16:23:00 -0800

While doing some research for a client a few months ago, I engaged in an email dialog with one of my research respondents. We occasionally receive feedback from people who take our surveys. Usually, it is a complaint about how long the survey was or an expression of dissatisfaction because they did not qualify for our study. This email was different.

“Do people really feel this strongly about brands? Just asking.”

Confessions of a Strat-o-Saur

Sun, 12 Feb 2017 15:28:00 -0800

Design-o-saur is a pseudo-pejorative expression in the branding community. It’s both an insult and a badge of honor. We use it to refer to old-school identity designers—the ones who came up in an era heavily influenced by the Swiss and hyper-focused on logos. There aren’t many design-o-saurs still with us. That’s why it’s a badge of honor. These lucky few followed the footsteps of legends like Walter Landor, Saul Bass, Paul Rand and Raymond Loewy. It’s entirely true to say they don’t make them like that anymore. But the term is also a bit of an insult because there is an increasing feeling that that approach to brand identity design is becoming less relevant. It’s facing extinction.

Beyond Challengers. A cycle of brand types

Sun, 18 Dec 2016 08:40:00 -0800

America loves a challenger. Indeed, some are explaining the election of Donald Trump as a result of our abiding admiration for those that thumb their nose at the establishment. As a nation, we have been glorifying challengers since the day those daring patriots dumped the King’s tea into Boston harbor. Today, entrepreneurs point to Steve Jobs, who told us it was “more fun to be a pirate than join the Navy,” and who advertised his signature product by celebrating “the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes, the ones who see things differently.”

Dollar Shave Club: Part IV

Thu, 06 Jun 2013 17:15:00 +0000

For those who follow my blog, you know that I have a fondness for the gang at Dollar Shave Club. For those who are new to the conversation, in 3 previous posts I discussed how this new brand took a fairly commoditized product (razors) and developed a compelling brand experience that has won legions of fans. What I love most about the brand is the consistency of the experience it delivers and the authenticity of its brand voice.

Dollar Shave Club: Part III

Sat, 11 May 2013 03:50:00 +0000

When I was doing interviews for the release of Brand Real, I was frequently asked which brands are “doing it right?” It’s a tricky question. The response from most is “Apple.” I purposefully don’t say that. I look for great branding in unexpected places. And it was about this time last year that I started talking about Dollar Shave Club. Like many others, I was struck by the introductory video that went viral and made the company an instant sensation on YouTube. But I liked DSC for more reason than a clever video. I became a member and I was delighted by the consistency of branding at every touch point in the experience—from web to package.

The Naming Exchange

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 16:29:00 +0000

I have a confession to make. I am terrible with names. Though I never find it difficult to create brand names for clients, I struggle to remember the name of the person I just met. Most of the time, I feel anxious that I will get someone’s name wrong, so I end up referring to them in the most generic way possible. “That’s a really interesting point … you … guy with the pink shirt.”

In defense of Super Bowl commercials ... when executed well

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 05:03:00 +0000

There isn’t a bigger forum for television advertising than Super Bowl commercials. It was once Carnegie Hall and the Grand Ole Opry rolled into one—a place for brands and their agencies to raise the stakes and entertain the largest television audience in the world. Some of the most memorable advertisements of all time debuted on a Super Bowl broadcast. So, why was 2013 so lackluster?

Let’s roll back the clock about a dozen years. 2000’s Super Bowl XXXIV is a great case study year—one that set the stage for what ills us now. Just a few months before the dot-com boom would crash, 2000 would go down as a year when advertisers clearly went “over the top.” Flush with cash from a hot economy and an insane startup mentality, agencies convinced their clients to go big or go home. Budweiser unveiled “ Wassup,” 7-Up asked us to “ Show Us Your Can”, and a bevy of .com companies that aren’t with us today proved just how irreverent they could be thanks to work done by a lot of disruptive advertising agencies who are also not with us today. It led many critics to decry the blatant waste of media dollars and argue that advertisers needed to tone down the frenzy. In truth, it was pretty crazy.

What it really means to be a Challenger Brand

Fri, 07 Dec 2012 17:47:00 +0000

Some might say there’s a rebel in all of us. At some point in your life you probably felt the urge to break the rules. Maybe you crossed the street when that hand was flashing on the signal. Or maybe you zealously removed the tag from your mattress. Each of us, in our own way, has a wild side.

That’s why it is no surprise that a lot of business managers are enamored with the challenger brand. It’s the lovable outlaw of branding, thumbing its nose at the establishment and disrupting the status quo while being idolized as the quintessential cool kid of the category. The concept of a challenger brand is anything but new. Adam Morgan has written prolifically about what makes a challenger brand since publishing his findings from a global study of 50 companies in 1999. But I’ve noticed rising interest in challenger brand strategies over the past year or so. I’m asked a lot about them at speaking events and during interviews, and I’ve heard many a prospective client tell me they think of themselves as a strong challenger.

From Mad Men to Brand Real

Fri, 20 Jul 2012 15:17:00 +0000

I had the privilege of writing a piece for the July issue of European Business Review, which was released today. I returned to my favorite topic: how branding is a strategic discipline that must be managed by the most senior leadership of an organization. I’ve been really excited to hear more leaders and critics alike discussing the meat of a brand, instead of the sizzle. I firmly believe we are at a moment in time in the business community where leaders are re-evaluating how they go about building strong brands. Some of these evaluations are by choice, others by compulsion. Because “the brand” has become so important to any successful business, I am hopeful that more leaders will recognize it is not something that lives exclusively in the domain of the marketer.

Typecasting and Brand Architecture

Mon, 18 Jun 2012 15:18:00 +0000

Human beings are natural categorizers. We introduced our planet to the Dewey decimal system, the periodic table of elements, and an onerous set of entertainment awards. We can’t help ourselves. We even sort people into types. Conservative or liberal. Lover or fighter. Pisces, Sagittarius, or Virgo. These categorizations do more than create order for us. They create meaning. When we learn someone is a Pisces, we might assume that the person is moody, creative, and quiet, even though the person could just as easily be loud and analytical. Though we are often counseled to avoid stereotypes, stereotyping is an example of our natural human instinct to understand something and attach meaning to it as a result of the category to which we think it belongs. Brand architecture relies on this categorization instinct. It preserves and creates value for brands in a portfolio by suggesting how people should categorize them.

The Hunt for Real Creativity in Advertising

Mon, 14 May 2012 20:16:00 +0000

My Monday morning ritual is deeply ingrained. I arrive early to find a stack of advertising and media trades to digest before launching into my client work for the week. One of those trades is AdWeek. I’ve been reading it for years but only recently noticed a new behavior on my part. When I come across the review of the week’s featured campaign I have to fire up my browser and search for the spot online so that I can view it. In years past this would have never been the case. I would have seen the spot during my television viewing. Lately, I can’t recall which advertisements I’ve seen on television.

Great Brand Experiences Change Behavior

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 22:08:00 +0000

What is “brand experience?” While a lot of managers talk about the importance of brand experience, it’s awfully hard to find agreement about what, exactly, brand experience is. At the simplest level, brand experience lives exclusively in our minds. It is impossible for me to know whether or not your brand experience matches mine because how we perceive the brand is so subjective. A brand experience affects what we think, feel and do as a result of interaction with the brand. Of these three dimensions, perhaps none is more valuable than the “do” part.

What Avon Can Learn from Instagram

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 18:02:00 +0000

With most of the business press focused on the $1 billion acquisition of Instagram yesterday, you might have missed the big news surrounding a 126 year-old social networking company that generated more than $10 billion in revenue last year. Avon Products announced a new CEO: Sherilyn S. McCoy, who was previously a senior executive at Johnson & Johnson. McCoy has a big job ahead of her. Avon has struggled with declining sales, unsolicited takeover offers, and decreasing consumer relevance. What can this dowager brand do to become strong again? I suggest that McCoy look sideways at three relevant brands who have focused on their promise to develop fierce customer loyalty.

Stuck on You

Sat, 31 Mar 2012 18:38:00 +0000

How attached are your customers to your brand? How about your employees? Your shareholders?

Brand attachment isn’t a concept that’s familiar to most marketers. In fact, when I bring it up in discussions with potential clients they often ask me what I’m talking about. Yet, attachment is a far more important concept for a business manager or owner than most of the other health measures we think about it.

Scout's Honor

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 21:03:00 +0000

Imagine that you and I can eavesdrop in the team rooms of some of the world’s leading brands. We sit there inconspicuously listening to the conversations they have about their brands. We’d keep a tally of the keywords that pop up again and again. Invariably, we’d see that positioning, promise, purpose, strategy, image, identity and personality would have very high scores. Our glossary would also certainly include words like voice, values, attributes, and architecture. But there’s one word that I’d be willing to bet we’d never hear in all our snooping: honor.

Stake Promises, Not Positions

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 18:32:00 +0000

A brand promise is not the same as a brand position. It is a common nugget of brandlore that the two phrases mean the same thing. They do not, though they are related to each other. A position asserts a line of argument (as in “what position shall we take in this message?”) or it pinpoints a location in perceptual space (as in “which position do we or shall we occupy in the mind of the consumer?”) Positioning thrives on “open space”—perceptual territory that your brand can claim because it is unclaimed by competitors. Imagine you operate a brand in an environment where every competitor uses a red logo. To effectively position your brand, you might choose to make your logo blue because that color is “ownable.” This example is a gross oversimplification of positioning, but it illustrates one reason a position is different from a promise. You position to be different and to stand out. It’s an essential activity, indeed, but it is possible to reposition a brand by focusing on purely cosmetic changes and not deliver any real, incremental value. In contrast, when you make a brand promise, you still stake a position, but you also create a covenant with consumers. You commit to deliver value.

You Say Blackwater, They Say Academi

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 15:20:00 +0000

The Wall Street Journal is reporting this morning that the company formerly known as Blackwater, now known as Xe, is changing its name again to Academi.

Forget the politics and the controversy surrounding Blackwater for a minute. The name change game is one of my pet peeves in branding — so much so that the first chapter in Brand Real, my upcoming book, I call attention to the folly of repeatedly changing your identity in the hopes of regaining credibility with key stakeholders. In fairness, Academi is managed by a new executive team and it’s owned by a different set of investors. CEO Ted Wright says the name change is meant to signal that the company is “boring” and that the new company won’t end up in the headlines.

5 Great Branding Books

Mon, 28 Nov 2011 02:18:00 +0000

If I wanted to learn more about branding, what book should I read? That’s a question I get asked a lot. I try as hard as I can to bite my tongue and not say, “well, mine, of course!” Instead, there are 5 books I almost always recommend. I’ll share them with you, too.

1/ Truth, Lies and Advertising by Jon Steel. Though it is known primarily as the bible for advertising account planners, I think Steel’s book offers a lot for brand strategists, too. He focuses your attention on how to find the big idea and translate that idea into something that can be expressed creatively.

Toward Sustainable Branding

Sat, 23 May 2009 00:56:52 +0000

“Realistically, this thing must live for three to five years.” He was the CMO of a rapidly growing technology company and his disclaimer came shortly after he approved our strategy recommendation. He justified it with two reasons. First, he needed a shelf life of three to five years to justify the financial investment. But his second reason was far more interesting. “We’ll be bought by then and we’ll either have to lose the brand or re-invent it to match the new company.”

Extensions and Deep Cues

Sat, 11 Apr 2009 16:03:55 +0000

When times are tough, many brands decide it is time to refine their brand architecture. Brand architecture describes the system companies use to relate a portfolio of brands to one another and to the master brand. A lot of attention is paid to brand architecture in lean economic climates because it is expensive to support multiple brands and when budgets are tight a refined brand architecture can lead to greater economies of scale.

Branding in a Troubled Economy

Fri, 06 Mar 2009 21:24:54 +0000

Last week I had the opportunity to speak at the Texas Public Relations Association conference. I spoke on the topic of branding when times are bad. Many assume that branding is less important when budgets are tight and jobs are on the line. Evidence from past recessions, however, advise otherwise. Part of the problem is that people associate branding with advertising. Advertising is only one thread that unwinds from branding. When executed well, good brand strategies affect organizational behavior and drive innovative thinking. Good brand strategies also reduce costs over time.