Entries by Jay York

Brands and Warnings Labels: Europe’s Nutri-Score and Lessons From The US

Beginning in 2017, Nutri-Score, the European food labeling system, went into effect.  Nutri-Score is a color-coded, front-of-pack labeling system created to alert consumers to the nutritional content of food. Nutri-Score is a red light-green light approach that the EU hopes will help consumers make better food decisions. According to FoodNavigator.com, Nutri-Score ranks food stuffs from […]

Brand Pioneering In Today’s High Tech World: Advantageous?

Technology brand-businesses are today’s most valuable, leading entities. According to the financial firm, Charles Schwab, Tesla, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and Alphabet rule the roost. Were these brands the pioneers in their categories? Or, were these brands early leaders or followers? What does the success of our current brand-business behemoths tell us about making it for […]

Pricing In Perilous Times

Price hikes are par for the course these days. Brands from Nestlé (maker of Kit Kat, Nespresso) Unilever (maker of Dove Soap, Ben & Jerry’s, Hellmann’s), Procter & Gamble (maker of Tide, Swiffer), Mondelez, and Reckitt Benckiser (maker of Air Wick, Lysol and Durex condoms) are raising prices.  But, as these brands know, price hikes […]

The CMO as Confusing Mess Organizer

It is well documented that a Chief Marketing Officer has a relatively short shelf life. This is not due to the irrelevance of the job. In fact, the CMO is ever more important today. The problem with the Chief Marketing Officer is the job description.   The job description has become very complex and confused.  This […]

High Tech Brands Are Recognizing the Importance of Brand Preference

It was not too long ago when several business pundits decreed that brand loyalty was dead. Their reasoning hinged on their observations that people tend to go for the latest and greatest gadget rather than stick with their known brand. For those brands that bought into this nonsense, too bad for you. Brand loyalty is […]

Meta Needs A Plan To Win ASAP

Reading the transcript from Meta’s February 2, 2022 Earnings Call, one can understand why analysts shivered with negativity and why investors shed the enterprise’s stock. The press describes the Earnings Call as a “gloomy” prediction for the upcoming year. Meta indicated less profit, more, stronger, creative competition, Apple’s privacy changes, a slowdown in Meta’s social […]

Welcome to the Age of Me’s: Me and Meta-Me

Horizon Media, the media services agency, just issued a report outlining the latest trends to which brands must respond. Two of these trends, Restivism and Untact, create the platform for one of branding’s biggest challenges. Brands need to market to my physical and virtual shared experiences. Brands must address my simultaneous experiences in the real […]

Brands Need Creativity and Cross-Functional Teams

In a recent marketing report, Deloitte, the multinational professional services network, shared information from its Global Marketing Trends Executive Survey. At the core of the discussion – Building the Intelligent Creative Engine – How unconventional talent strategies connect marketing to the customer – is how to generate and integrate creativity while needing the analytic skills […]

Falling Beyond: Turning Around Bed, Bath & Beyond

Even the best of strategies can take a hit when something unpredictable happens. This is why business leaders must be able to create and implement prearranged, deliberate strategies while being open to and able to evolve when disruptions happen or when crises alter the brand’s landscape. Having strategic dexterity is an imperative. In April of […]

Niche to Normal: Quick Service Chains Address Meatless Meals

Buckets of the Colonel’s chicken-less chicken? Signature Chipotle Bowls with pork-less pork? Yes, these two behemoth quick service restaurant brands are leading the way to meatless. It has been 50 years since the publication of Frances Moore Lappé’s seminal food bible, Diet For a Small Planet. Ms. Lappé’s book was a consciously and conscientiously coherent […]