Currently Domino’s Pizza is one of the hottest (!) brands in the food business. It is financially outperforming tech companies such as Amazon and Facebook, is venturing into the robot business and has recently been applauded for crafting a “brand icon” similar to Apple or Google. And that all after going through some really tough times… Read More »
My role as head of public diplomacy involves work on “country branding” – so basically developing a country brand that enables the country’s businesses and organizations to be more successful in the international marketplace, but also projecting a more holistic national identity with cultural, business, education and many more elements. I recently came across an… Read More »
Klaus Kleinfeld, former CEO of German industry giant Siemens, resigned from his position as CEO of Arconic a specialty metals producer spun-off of aluminum producer Alcoa Inc. Kleinfeld resigned after a letter that he had written to Paul Singer, founder of $33 billion hedge fund Elliott Management. Elliott owns a 13 percent stake in Arconic and had launched a… Read More »
With so much going on on social media it is always a challenge to keep track of what you published on the various platforms and what your plans are for the upcoming days and weeks (or months). A good social media content plan therefore bridges the gap between your big picture strategy, your overall campaigns and messages,… Read More »
By accident I recently came across an article that I have first read a few years ago, published in MIT Sloan Management Review. And I still find the core idea a very current one: how project management can benefit from brand management. The basic idea is that there is a market for projects inside any… Read More »
It has been a horrible week for communicators at United Airlines, when the overbooking of a plane led to a PR disaster (likely the biggest “shit storm” ever in the airline industry – so far). When the airline tried to place a crew on a fully booked flight from Chicago to Louisville it started to look for… Read More »
A particularly smart way of adapting your marketing messages to short-notice changes in your marketing environment is through humor and closer emotional bonds. A great example of this is the campaign that Royal Jordanian has been running in reaction to Donald Trump’s #travelban. You would think there isn’t much that an airline could do to… Read More »
People who follow my blog (or read my textbook) are well aware of the fact that corporate reputations can be a major source of value creation for companies. It deserves therefore to be managed just like other assets of a company! A recent study by the Institute for Public Relations supports this thesis, by attempting to… Read More »
I recently came across an interesting conversation at the Reputation Institute about the role of leadership in reputation management (and development). The starting point for this is that RI estimates that roughly 2/3 of a company’s reputation is determined by company factors rather than product factors (And on a side note: RI also has found… Read More »
Mark Bonchek and Cara France published their thoughts on means to achieve creative marketing on the HBR Blog. Their five theses or recommendations can be summarized as follows: Create with (not just for) the customer – This is all about involving customers right from the early stages of product development, using their experiences, expectations and… Read More »