Big Idea: product launch

Break the Stranglehold of the Status Quo
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What I’m about to say may shock you coming from someone whose job it is to jumpstart brands: If you’re reigniting a brand you will probably fail. According to the Harvard Business Review, 80% of brands launched die and only 8% of those attempt to rejuvenate. Why? The status quo is nearly impossible to fight. People hate change. It’s not just an uphill battle, it’s an uphill battle in slippery mud with rocks being tossed down at you and wild, crazy, rabid animals coming out of the woods and eating your shoes. The question is, why? Why is it so[.....]

Missoni Impossible: Can a Launch be too Successful?
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Ok I admit it, I was in line at my local Target Tuesday before they opened, praying I too would get my hands on a few choice pieces of Missoni merchandise.  I am a self-proclaimed fashionista so this partnership between Target and Missoni was my opportunity to own a little piece of iconic fashion history.  Little did I know that the pieces I was able to buy might now become valuable collector’s items. Calculated hysteria? Who can’t understand what’s in it for Target?  Lagging sales to Walmart and a recession has everyone spending less but still wanting more. Target has[.....]

Is Your Brand Training to Win or Just Happy to Compete?
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Why is it that a lot of brands seem to lack the drive to compete? Marketing departments that are run by people who will kill you at racquetball, trounce you in a 5K or dunk over you in a game of basketball become shrinking violets when faced with a rival brand. Marketing decisions that should literally take minutes, instead take months, bogged down in research and discombobulated decision-making. The “run-it-up-the-flagpole” culture that exists in America today has created a sort of corporate genetic mutation. Brands that should be lithe and agile, instead have mutated into weak-muscled, milquetoasts and are in[.....]