Superior insight provides the platform for competitive advantage. Companies with outstanding customer insight usually place a premium on asking – and answering -the right questions of consumers.

How insight impacts business decisions

Often, the clarity this provides leads to counterintuitive business decisions: Competitors head down one path, while the pro-file companies pursue another direction or chart a […]

What is the root cause of moderate or stalled business growth?

After many years helping companies grow, our research and experience at EquiBrand consistently shows the answer is: an overreliance on downstream marketing.

Many companies see their business as largely fixed. This causes them to focus on the wrong problem, using downstream marketing tactics to fight […]

Strategic patterns that work – and win – in upstream marketing can be found in several top companies EquiBrand has profiled.

Through in-depth case studies, we captured insight from hundreds of client executives and industry experts, including a deep dive on seven key companies:

• Amazon
• Apple
• Google
• Nike
• Southwest
• Starbucks
• The Walt Disney Company

What we discovered […]

Begin with the end in sight. That’s a central theme in upstream marketing.

It involves envisioning where you want to be in the future and then working backward to fill the gap, using a create-test-and-learn approach.

Begin with the end in mind…

Sound familiar? If you know Stephen Covey’s bestseller, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, you […]

Upstream marketing: Is it a strategy or a process?

Actually…it’s neither.

Rather, it is a set of:

• Principles
• Framing questions
• Underlying practices

…all of which must be applied consistently. It is about identifying opportunities and fulfilling customer needs. It takes place at a much earlier stage than downstream marketing by developing a clear market segmentation map, and then identifying and […]

When it comes to strategy development, there is a great statement that applies: “A problem well stated is half solved.”

Meaning, when a problem is clearly defined, it’s that much easier to answer.

What is the first step you take when you have a problem to solve? Not everyone will have the same answer.

Consider Albert Einstein, who […]

Who doesn’t want to improve their business performance? There is an innovative, very effective way to meet this one objective every business owner has: Upstream marketing.

When executed well, upstream marketing:

• Delivers substantial new revenue and profit streams that extend far beyond the core business
• Opens up uncontested “white space” market opportunities, making competition irrelevant

After adopting upstream marketing […]

In today’s world, business and marketing changes happen much faster than it did when leading companies like Apple, Amazon, and Google were in their early stages. The “digital economy” – which has become one of the key drivers of our economy – was just beginning to take shape. The emergence of AI will only increase the […]

Amazon, Apple, Google, Nike, Southwest Airlines, Starbucks, and The Walt Disney Company.

How have these companies – and others like them – been able to consistently grow their business compared with others in their respective industries?

3 Core, Game-Changing Principles

As different as these companies are in terms of the products and services they offer and the markets […]