Are you finalizing corporate, marketing and brand development budget priorities for the upcoming year? Many of our brand consultancy clients are faced with the issue of having to do more with less – attract more customers, launch more products, refresh their marketing materials – all at a lower cost. In our consulting work, we’ve found [...]

Creativity in Business Problem Solving Creativity is an important cultural component for any organization looking to grow and expand. In truly innovative companies, creativity occurs naturally, every day, and is not concentrated within a particular function (e.g., Marketing or R&D) or relegated to certain times of the year (e.g., year-end planning, company offsites, etc.) Still, [...]

One of the more popular book series out today is the “For Dummies” set, published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. From “Wireless Internet Access for Dummies” to “Raising Smart Kids for Dummies,” over 200 titles exist, across books, videos, software and online instruction. And while “Brand Equity Extension for Dummies” isn’t one of them [...]

The strongest, most enduring brands and businesses result from a disciplined alignment of initiatives against marketplace requirements. While a brand strategy is useful to focus the organization against customer requirements, the Customer Value Proposition is necessary to link these brand strategies to business strategies. Brand Strategy Statement Limitations Companies will often spend considerable effort crafting [...]

Obtaining deep customer insight is a critical component of successful marketing, and is often a source of competitive advantage. The most successful market-driven firms use a variety of techniques to gain this insight, often relying on non-traditional methods for obtaining deep insight into their customer. One such method is the use of concept optimization research, [...]

Is your organization aligned with the underlying needs of your most important customers? Organizations must constantly monitor and anticipate changes in customer needs, with a deep understanding of customer “whys”. More often, organizations study the “whats” and the “hows” – what their customers are doing or how they’ve behaved in the past, vs. understanding why [...]

Target marketing is one of the most important, though often overlooked, components in developing a sound marketing plan. Targeting recognizes the fact that most companies have limited resources and therefore, need to “place their bets” where they will yield the highest return. Many companies are reluctant to select a defined core target segment, fearing that [...]