Be what your customers are not
Occasionally I’ve seen it noted that the more normal, safe, and suburban someone’s life, the more gruesome and unpleasant the novels they like to read. There’s a great line in the sitcom Peep Show where socially awkward Mark thinks to himself: “Look at me; I’ve got a girlfriend. A proper girlfriend reading a best-seller about […]
If in doubt just be weird
A rotting lion carcass, being devoured by bees. I was surprised to learn the other day that this is what is depicted on the logo of Lyle’s Golden Syrup. Not exactly what most would consider appetising, but it does have a certain logic to it. The origin lies in the Biblical tale of Samson, who […]
The targeting paradox – why the best brands appeal to almost nobody
If I was going to recommend just one piece of research to my clients – or indeed any business – without hesitation, it would be this: Find out who buys your product. It’s a fairly common theme for research, but even so, I’ve found that surprisingly few brands have a good handle on it. Pretty […]
How to maximise success through asymmetric bets
We live under the illusion of control. We believe that we design our lives, we design our companies, we design culture, and we design human civilisation itself. The way we do this, according to the belief, is that we analyse the situation, make a plan, and then execute it – and in doing so create […]
How to go where your competitors can’t
Thanks to the new Netflix drama The Queen’s Gambit (and the fact that new TV shows are starting to slow to a bit of a trickle), there’s been a lot of interest in chess recently. Now in general I think chess analogies map quite poorly onto business – as do those of military and sport. People […]
Why Most Businesses Have No Strategy
All businesses have a brand. All have a product. All have people, sales, marketing, and various other building blocks which add up to “a company”. But not all – in fact very few – have a strategy. I don’t mean to say here that most businesses have bad strategies (though quite a lot do). I […]
Originality Is Overrated
A couple of years ago I heard an executive from Quorn speak at a conference. Normally talks like these are just boring propaganda pieces, but his was usually thoughtful and candid. One point he made that stuck with me was that whilst people, in general, are eating less meat, pure veganism isn’t actually growing. Quite […]
Nike and the concept of “cultural innovation”
When I want to make a point about strategy, I often refer to a famous brand in order to do it. So does everyone of course, and because there are so few brands out there who are strategically interesting, the same names always get repeated. To be honest I always feel a bit embarrassed to […]
The journey to irreplaceable: how F&B brands can own their position on shelf
Coke famously started life as a pharmaceutical product. Tiffany’s was a stationery store. Nokia, a paper mill. Together they represent particularly acute examples of a truth that applies to all companies: They evolve into something they didn’t intend. Nobody knows this better than food and bev brands. It’s exceptionally rare for an initial concept to […]
Why are startup brands so boring?
All startup brands are the same. This was the implication of a Bloomberg article about the rise of what it called “the blands” – the army of VC backed DTC brands you see everywhere exemplified by the likes of Casper mattresses, Harry’s razors, Allbirds, and Brandless. I’ve been thinking a lot about that idea, so I […]