Strategic Brand Consultancy
Last week we talked about Starbucks’s recent experiment of serving alcohol in some of its locations. We ended up recommending them to create a second brand. We also said, on our next article we will focus on a successful line extension from Canada: Tim Horton’s, one of Starbucks’ archrivals. For those of you who are …
Continue reading "Smoothies and Tim Hortons… Success or failure?"
As a citizen of a developing country, I am used to being treated as an afterthought by my municipality. Usually, everyday people like myself feel “blessed” when the governing bodies of our cities offer us a new service. At least, that is what they “think” we should feel. If the City decides to extend the …
Spoiler alert: Customer experience has become the bread and butter of branding. You can have a beautiful logo, a smart tagline, a wonderful package and a state-of-the-art product. Yet, if you fail to deliver a pleasant customer experience, your brand cannot go too far. This applies to all brands, whether they are B2B, B2C, product …
Continue reading "The role of customer experience in branding"
Last week, I had the enriching experience of guest lecturing at McGill University. The engagement was not only enjoyable but also intellectually stimulating, especially considering the insightful, career-oriented queries raised by the business students. This piece aims to simplify and elucidate the various career paths available in the realm of branding. Main Roles in a …
Previously we claimed that people fly Porter primarily because of convenience and not chicness. Also, we recommended that you could force your customers to trade off attributes so that you can find what they genuinely want. Let's dive a little deeper and see how smart guys at Bain & Company can help you. If there …
Continue reading "How to discover what your customers really want?"
Last week we talked about the good branding decisions Porter Airlines make. However, we ended by saying that nobody's perfect. Porter is not an exception. Here is why... Decades ago Trout and Ries wrote that a brand's greatest enemy is the Wall Street (Bay Street in Canada) Finance guys want you to grow and they …
Continue reading "What can you learn from Porter Airlines? – The Bad"
What is status? According to Wikipedia it is the honor or prestige attached to one's position in society. (one's social position) In consumer societies status can be achieved by owning certain brands. For instance, if you drive a Ferrari, you are considered as a higher status person than an owner of a Sebring because buying goods that others …
There is a tea shop in Montreal’s Chinatown. Its name is Speacialtea. We found that shop totally by chance. Since then we have been regulars. There are a couple of things that make that shop special and it is very easy for your business to replicate those. First, for a tea lover that shop is …
In 1999, B. Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore wrote a book named, “The Experience Economy.” In a nutshell, the book argued that offering, solely, products or services is no longer enough for a brand to demand a premium. Authors claimed that, instead, brands should create memorable experiences for their customers. They went a step further …
When you create a new company or product: A branding expert can offer you many services including: conducting research, clarifying strategy, naming, tagline development, designing identity, business card and website design and creating customer touchpoints. When you decide to change the name of your brand: Some names don’t age well. Some names don’t have passports. …
Continue reading "When do you need to hire a branding expert?"