My Daily Emails

Some of the biggest innovations are happening when proven technology finds a completely new home. When I think about Volkswagen, I imagine cars. Maybe SUVs or minivans. But definitely not

New research suggests authenticity alone doesn’t cut it. Winning brand stories match how buyers evaluate the product. We’ve all heard the advice, and many of us have said it more

What if the best way to attract attention is to make people work just a little harder? A few weeks ago, I wrote about Volkswagen’s legendary 1959 Think Small advertisement. It stood

AI search is changing how people discover products, and advertising will be changing with it. I received an email from OpenAI this week inviting me to create my first ChatGPT

New research shows that people with higher intelligence are more willing to adopt better solutions. I’ve written many times about status quo bias and how powerful it is in product

Children can become lifelong customers before they’re old enough to understand they’re being persuaded. A new U.S. bill is reigniting an old marketing debate. The proposed Childhood Diabetes Reduction Act

Innovation wins attention. But durability and usability earn LOYALTY. I’ve long admired James Dyson. He challenged an industry that had forever accepted mediocrity, spent years perfecting a radically different vacuum, AND

New research suggests that before your product reaches a buyer, it increasingly has to persuade a platform. There was a time not long ago when marketing seemed SO straightforward …

Even the world’s most recognizable brands keep refining what made them so famous in the first place. I grew up loving me some Coca-Cola. When New Coke replaced the original in 1985,

Algorithms are amazing at making products popular. They’re way less effective at preserving what made buyers care in the first place. I just read a great research paper on how

We all tell ourselves we’re learning from those endless business clips. New research suggests endless, rapid-fire series of shorts can do our brain more harm than good.   It feels like

Shopify’s new DoorDash integration gives independent retailers something that once belonged almost exclusively to Amazon and the biggest chains: fast local delivery. Not long ago, same-day delivery felt sort of

Great logos balance memorability with readability, and HOW your product is discovered changes how much each one matters. I’ve been working with a client on a logo for an exciting

People don’t love marketing that knows their name. They DO want products and messages that are genuinely relevant to their lives. A freshly published review in the International Journal of Research

The best brand collabs don’t have to feature the hero. Sometimes they feature the customer. My family has really gotten into the latest Spider-Man movie series starring Tom Holland. Like many fans, we’ve

Consumers don’t always need a better product. Maybe they just need a reason to take notice. There used to be a Marks & Spencer store near where I live. Loved that store,

Dynamic pricing may maximize revenue, but customers decide whether the experience still feels fair. I’m okay paying more for a thing that’s actually worth more. But I DO mind paying

Great positioning captures the change in a customer’s life, not the sophistication of the technology. One of the most admired product positioning lines ever written came from Steve Jobs during the launch

Google’s latest update closes one of the biggest measurement gaps in social media marketing. Only a week ago, I wrote about a growing problem. Brands are pouring millions into social

The best product ideas can begin with paying attention to one key insight rather than to a market report. We’ve seen a lotta celebrity product launches lately. Most are really

Apple’s latest leak likely won’t hurt iPhone sales. It does reveal something powerful about how desire gets built. A hacker recently breached Tata Electronics, exposing piles of confidential files tied to

Subscriptions are wildly profitable for businesses. But many buyers are questioning the tradeoff. Companies just LOVE subscriptions. Why wouldn’t they? Predictable recurring revenue, better forecasting, higher lifetime value. Fewer feast-or-famine

What’s inside may count, but what buyers value depends more on what their peers see. Why will someone happily drop $12K upgrading wheels, trim, and paint on a brand new

Jarlsberg’s “protein” relaunch looks sneaky to some folks, but it raises a good question: when buyer priorities change, shouldn’t your product story do the same? A social post about Jarlsberg got me

Expectation shapes experience way more than most of us realize. Why will someone spend $200 on face serum… … then buy the cheapest painkiller on the shelf? That question has

Many of us claim to be practical shoppers. Then we happily pay thousands more for something nobody has ever touched. Confession time. I talk a lot about being pragmatic, but

The next battleground for product visibility is a conversation instead of a search result. Let’s say you spent $2.3 million on influencers this year. So, your product showed up in

Slate’s radically stripped-down EV truck is one of the most interesting vehicle launches in years, because it challenges every assumption about what North American truck buyers supposedly want. I guess

Columbia’s Cannes-winning anti-flat-earth campaign shows how brands can strengthen loyalty by creating shared signals that attract insiders and repel … almost nobody. Not far from where I live, along a

The biggest challenge for AI glasses has little to do with technology and everything to do with TRUST. Meta is pushing hard on AI glasses. Last week’s releases include upgraded Ray-Ban Meta smart

Apple’s latest campaign suggests great brands don’t always protect consistency by repeating themselves. For decades, Apple has built one of the most disciplined brands in the world: Minimalist…Polished…Controlled…And always highly intentional. You

GLP-1 drugs are marketed as healthcare, but their impact is creating a consumer-demand shock across fast food, snacks, alcohol, grocery, apparel … and beyond. I can barely watch a sporting

The things that ease our conscience can open our wallet. But what if those are at odds? Have you noticed that the companies talking most about sustainability also seem really

Heinz built a global campaign around a simple visual truth most people never noticed, reinforcing something powerful: category leaders often win by owning the ritual. In my hometown, there’s a

The strongest brands become mental shortcuts. Your brain fills in the blanks. In Argentina and Brazil, Coca-Cola recently launched a clever campaign in football stadiums where red is effectively forbidden. That’s a

IKEA’s World Cup campaign turns national flags into shoppable product collections, showing how smart merchandising can transform cultural pride into participation. I have a love-hate relationship with IKEA. I curse the

Dior transformed one of the world’s most beloved children’s books into luxury fashion, proving nostalgia becomes remarkably powerful when paired with elite positioning. My wife and I read Eric Carle’s

Few campaigns have changed a brand’s image as completely as Old Spice Man. When I was a kid, Old Spice was literally Grandpa cologne. I can still picture the red bottle on

The feeling of ownership often begins way before ownership itself. The new Ferrari Luce has gotta be the most criticized car in the world right now. That’s impressive considering nobody has driven

The smartest brand collaborations remind us fondly of somebody we used to be. There are certain products that stay with us for life. For many people, LEGO is one of them. Crayola

The best sports marketing puts the product in the middle of the ritual. You might know what beer goggles are. Usually they kick in after a few drinks and make

One of the greatest ads in history succeeded by calling out the status quo. In 1959, Volkswagen ran what would become one of the most celebrated advertisements ever created. You’ve probably seen

KFC goes all-in on the brand asset customers fondly remember carrying home. When I was a kid, my family and I devoured bucket after bucket of KFC. We didn’t eat much

Window packaging does something more than show the product. It adds a sense of ownership before purchase. A new marketing study found that consumers consistently preferred products in transparent packaging

Often a product fails because the market isn’t into it. And sometimes because the timing is wrong. Few product failures have achieved the legendary status of Google Glass. It belongs in

Your brain decides where a product ranks before you even look at it. Over the past year, the trade war turned grocery shopping into something a little … different. A

Customers don’t build loyalty around free stuff nearly as much as brands THINK they do. Most loyalty programs still operate like corporate junk drawers. Collect enough points and eventually you

Connecting comes from understanding who your customers actually are IRL, rather than who they dream of being for thirty seconds. If you’ve never shopped at Aldi, it’s one of Europe’s most

The strongest brand rivalries turn products into exciting cultural stories. A fascinating new marketing study proves something many of us see instinctively: consumers pay far more attention when brands publicly

A crafty marketing move is making people briefly say: “Wait… what???” Heinz and Heineken just launched one of the strangest li’l brand collaborations I’ve seen in … maybe ever. A six-pack of Heineken