Differentiation is good. Very very good. I made the point in my post about the Ottawa Shawarma scene that in a crowded, undifferentiated marketplace, finding a catchy gimmick is a great way to get people to remember you. This unfortunately is the other side of the “personal branding” coin. Yes, I noticed it. Yes, I [...]

Coffee giant tries to get mojo vibrating again Once, Starbucks was just a local coffee shop in Seattle. Then it became a mega-brand, standard-bearer for the premium coffee category worldwide. But lately, the “star” has been fading, and even the “bucks” are drying up. So now the chain will be re-launching a few of its [...]

A Rant about Canadian Brands for Canada Day 2009 So you ask: “Mad at Switzerland? What could anyone possibly have against the Swiss” – those lovely Alp-ine purveyors of Rolex watches, Nestle chocolate, and fastidiously discreet banking services? Sorry Switzerland. It’s not about you. It’s about you beating the pants off Canada in the global branding [...]

First, though, let us take a moment to grieve for the famed Crunchberry, recently determined to be not real fruit.  Gasp! A California woman recently filed a complaint with the U.S. District Court that she had been purchasing ”Cap’n Crunch with Crunchberries” for the past four years in the belief that she was eating real, live [...]

And when I say “consumer” I mean “consumer”. But unlike the objects of our host’s consumption, this way of thinking should never be a “sometimes food” for smart differs. But the big question is: which of these plates are you going to buy?

In a busy world of brands, differentiation is generally thought to be a good thing – so goes the title of this blog. But differentiation in the North American auto industry has brought about a sort of cannibalistic competition among brands owned by the same manufacturer. Take Ford’s Mercury brand as an example. In today’s [...]