Why Price Reductions Haven’t Stopped The Bleeding at Tesla
Over the past few years, Tesla has implemented several major price reductions in a bid to increase market share by making electric vehicles more accessible to a broader market. But the results have been underwhelming. Despite lower prices, Tesla’s share of the U.S. electric vehicle (EV) market continues to shrink. The combination of reduced prices […]
How Netflix’s Drive to Survive Turbocharged Formula 1’s Brand Growth
Formula 1 was a niche sport in the U.S. in 2019, with limited awareness and an underdeveloped brand presence. Fast forward to today, and F1 has seen explosive growth in viewership, event attendance, and social media engagement. All of this has been largely fueled by the Netflix phenomenon Drive to Survive. But how has F1’s […]
Crisis, Recovery, and Resilience: How the McDonald’s Brand Weathered an E. Coli Outbreak
When the CDC issued a food safety alert on October 22, 2024, linking a multi-state E. coli outbreak to contaminated slivered onions in McDonald’s Quarter Pounders, the fast-food giant faced a difficult challenge to its reputation. Consumers reacted swiftly, and the hit to McDonald’s perceived product quality and overall experience led to a two-percentile drop […]
Walmart’s High-Income Shopper Surge: How the Retail Giant is Winning Wealthier Shoppers
For decades, Walmart has been synonymous with low prices and budget-conscious shopping—a go-to destination for families looking to stretch their dollars. But a seismic shift is underway. A growing number of high-income shoppers are filling Walmart’s aisles, signaling a transformation in how the retail giant is perceived. During Walmart’s Q3 2024 earnings call, CEO Doug […]
Three Tests to Optimize Your Brand and Performance Marketing Mix
The tension between brand and performance marketing has become one of the major corporate issues of our times. That’s why we co-authored a feature article for the Harvard Business Review on how to address it. The bottom line in that article is that brand and performance marketing could work better together by making the former […]
Brand valuation: how to do it and why
Millions are spent every year on brand valuation rankings. They are a nice reminder that brands are a valuable corporate asset. But they produce wildly different results, even for the same brand. For example, take a look at four of the most popular annual rankings: Four brands make every list: Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon. […]
Getting brand strategy metrics right
Most CMOs and their CEOs would agree that brand equity is a valuable corporate asset because it contributes to revenue growth, margin, and stability that would otherwise not materialize. If so, growing brand equity with a high ROI should be the governing objective of brand strategy. This requires a brand measurement system that gets brand […]
Getting brand ROI metrics right
Most business leaders agree that brand equity is a thing, having a lot of it is an even better thing, and it makes sense to invest in it. If they forget, numerous rankings of “the world’s most valuable brands” come around every year to remind them. But brand owners struggle to quantify the true return […]
Getting brand equity metrics right
In 1991, almost 60 years after P&G introduced the practice of “brand management,” David Aaker published Managing Brand Equity. He defined brand equity as “the commercial value derived from consumer perception of the brand name of a particular product or service, rather than from the product or service itself.” Marketers loved this because it made […]
Getting brand measurement right
In 1931, P&G executive Neil McElroy wrote an internal memorandum that launched “brand management” as a corporate practice. Because “you manage what you measure,” the practice of brand management inevitably led to brand measurement. This is commonly known as brand tracking. Today, almost a century after McElroy’s memo, hundreds of millions of dollars are spent […]