Joan Kiddon

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Articles

Don't Abandon A Winning Brand Promise

Jan 21, 2025 | brandingstrategyinsider.com | Joan Kiddon |Larry Light

Why would a brand give up on a winning brand promise? Why not contemporize that winning brand promise? Why decide it is best to copy strategies from other brands when you already have a winning strategy that just needs some modernizing? These are some questions that perhaps Wall Street is asking about Target. While Walmart has performed admirably and is suggesting a rosier future, Target is in the corner with Macy’s and other retail establishments with less happy results and guidance.
How Big Brands Can Adopt Challenger Strategies

Jan 14, 2025 | brandingstrategyinsider.com | Joan Kiddon

According to Wikipedia and taken from a variety of business books and articles, “A challenger brand is a brand in an industry where it is neither the market leader nor a niche brand.
Brands Face New Levels Of Consumer Anger

Jan 8, 2025 | brandingstrategyinsider.com | Walker Smith |Joan Kiddon

An angry undercurrent of frustration with brands haunts the marketplace. This, perhaps, has never been more evident than in the recent murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, shot in the back in midtown Manhattan as he was walking to an investor conference. A 262-word manifesto found in the possession of the suspect now in custody appears to confirm early speculation that frustration with health insurance coverage was, at least in part, behind the shooting.
The Powerful Promise Of Civic Brands

Jan 6, 2025 | brandingstrategyinsider.com | Joan Kiddon

As we enter the New Year, let’s think about the significance of brands slightly differently. Let’s think about the reciprocal, significant connections between brands, cities and citizens of those cities. Let’s think about brands not as cars or toilet tissues or colas. Let’s think about brands as powerful, tangible and intangible elements of a city’s heritage.
How Arrogance and Short-Termism Destroy Brands

Dec 16, 2024 | brandingstrategyinsider.com | Joan Kiddon

The CEO of Stellantis, Carlos Tavares, is gone. Booted out of the company he helped create. Stellantis is the automotive entity that includes PSA Groupe (French auto brands Peugeot and Citroën) and Fiat Chrysler. Fiat Chrysler is the entity created after Chrysler filed for Chapter 11 in 2009. Fiat, under the leadership of Sergio Marchionne, took over the troubled Chrysler brand in 2014. Many people will not remember the Chrysler brand. Always the “third” of the three US automakers.
What Today's McDonald’s Can Learn From Ray Kroc

Dec 9, 2024 | brandingstrategyinsider.com | Joan Kiddon

The McDonald’s National Owners Association held their annual conference this past November 2024. One of the keynote speakers was to be Larry Light.
Why Your Brand May Suffer Commodity Status

Nov 18, 2024 | brandingstrategyinsider.com | Joan Kiddon |Walker Smith

In 2018, Harvard Business Review included an article on its website titled, “ When It’s Smart to Copy Your Competitor’s Brand Promise”. The authors were assistant professors of marketing at prestigious business schools. The thesis of the study was that it is just fine to copy your competitor’s brand. The authors did not seem to know the basics of brand building. They applauded the copying of features and benefits to build successful brands. What they wrote about was actually commodity selling.
The Trust Power Strategy Behind Leading Brands

Nov 12, 2024 | brandingstrategyinsider.com | Joan Kiddon

Trust is an important ingredient in our daily lives. We trust the advice of total strangers online when making decisions about restaurants and hotels. We trust the opinions of social media influencers. We trust that the brands we use will do what they say they will do. As trust in institutions, experts and leaders declines, brands have an enormous opportunity to become the most trust-powered sources of relevant and differentiated promises.
Revitalizing The Celestial Seasonings Brand

Nov 5, 2024 | brandingstrategyinsider.com | Joan Kiddon

If you are a person of a certain age, you remember that a food revolution took hold in the late 1960’s. Put aside the visions of bell-bottom jeans, sandals, intentional communities, patchouli, macramé, jugs of California wine, beads, peace, love, rock n’ roll, and the 1969 NY Mets. Think brown rice, tofu, beans, seaweed, herbs, tahini, hummus, alfalfa sprouts, tempeh, miso, nut loaf, lentils, sesame and sunflower seeds.
Starbucks Needs A Plan To Win

Oct 28, 2024 | brandingstrategyinsider.com | Joan Kiddon

There is a lot riding on Brian Niccol’s shoulders as he takes the helm at Starbucks. Barron’s, the financial newspaper, noted this week that Starbucks increased its dividend even though the brand did not have a decent fiscal fourth quarter.