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Jan 22, 2025 | 
brandingstrategyinsider.com | Steve Wunker |Walker Smith
Innovation in fast food is often measured by the sizzle of a new product launch or the sleekness of a digital ordering kiosk. Yet Southpaw, a fast-growing operator of franchised Taco Bell and Dunkin’ locations, is proving that true innovation can lie elsewhere: in how companies treat their people. This overlooked ingredient has propelled Southpaw to turn underperforming franchises into thriving businesses. In doing so, it has grown in its 14 years to own 190 locations with over 4,000 employees.
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Jan 16, 2025 | 
brandingstrategyinsider.com | Steve Wunker |Walker Smith
I believe a good life is like a good sentence – we craft it in the active voice, not the passive. Act on the world, rather than have it act on you. As we consider 2025, here are 3 questions for doing that in a company context:1. What Assumptions Will You Prove False? It’s so very easy to accept historical assumptions about an industry.
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Jan 13, 2025 | 
brandingstrategyinsider.com | David Stewart |Walker Smith
Everyone knows what a brand is, and few consumers do not have a few favorite brands for which they will pay a premium price or exert extraordinary effort to obtain. Consumers routinely talk about “loving” a brand or feeling incomplete without a specific brand. Such comments reflect more than just familiarity or loyalty; they suggest a deep emotional attachment.
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Jan 11, 2025 | 
statepress.com | Shane Brennan |Walker Smith
We sat through the worst football in program history,watching the Sun Devils go 16-25 in our four years at ASU.Underperformance and scandal riddled our tenure in football. UAdog-walked our Sun Devils at our last home game as students. Thirteen months later we watched the same team in the Peach Bowl taking Texas to the limit. The crowd in Mercedes-Benz Stadium was surprisingly strong for ASU. Everyone was there, even President Crow, to rally behind the team.
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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.
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Dec 2, 2024 | 
brandingstrategyinsider.com | Walker Smith
Is AI the end of Marketing? Answering this question in the affirmative puts you in fraught company. Many have proclaimed the end of marketing before. In a book on the cusp of the new century, maverick Coke CMO Sergio Zyman announced the end of marketing as we know it. The primary focus on creativity would give way to a primary focus on sales, he said. But since then, we’ve rediscovered the primary place of creativity in driving sales.
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Nov 29, 2024 | 
mdpi.com | Rania Hodhod |Walker Smith |Kirk C. Heriot |Helle Friis
1. IntroductionEntrepreneurship, as a field of study, has long been characterized by its emphasis on the creation of new businesses and the activities undertaken by individuals in this pursuit [1,2]. To delve deeper into the topic, it is crucial to understand that entrepreneurship is more than just starting new companies: it is a dynamic process of innovation, risk-taking, and value creation that may take place in both startups and established organizations.
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Nov 27, 2024 | 
brandingstrategyinsider.com | David Stewart |Walker Smith |Derrick Daye
The recent criticism of the new advertising for Jaguar has focused attention on when repositioning of a brand is necessary and effective. The positioning of a brand is defined by the psychological space the brand occupies in the minds of consumers: the unique identity of the brand in terms of what it is (and is not), what value it provides, and how it differs from competitors.
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Nov 21, 2024 | 
brandingstrategyinsider.com | Walker Smith |Dan White
Change sucks. But irrelevance is even worse. Today most firms, institutions and individuals are grappling with 3 levels of relevance. Does my firm have a relevant business model for the future? Does my company have the relevant organizational structure, talent mix and suppliers/partners to succeed tomorrow? Do we as leaders and practitioners have relevant skills and expertise to navigate the transformed world ?
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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.
