Entries by Jay York

Amazon’s Grocery Future

The latest news in brick-and-mortar retailing is that Amazon is “doubling down” on grocery. According to an interview in Financial Times, CEO Andy Jassy indicates that Amazon is planning to “go big” in grocery. Current formats such as Amazon Fresh and Amazon Go have not been the game-changers that Amazon and observers expected. The 2017 […]

AB InBev Embraces Occasion Segmentation

AB InBev is the owner of over 500 drinks brands including national beers (Budweiser, Stella Artois, Corona Extra) canned cocktails, craft beers, energy drinks, etc.. In an interview for The Wall Street Journal’s C-Suite Strategies section, the CMO of AB InBev discussed the changes in the Group’s brand marketing. One significant change is the focus […]

The Hermès-NFT Trademark Suit Did Not Change Brand Legality

There is no legal definition of a brand. This is a marketing sin. Maybe you think the issue of brand legality is not relevant for your marketing efforts. Or, maybe you think that new legal cases testing the limits of trademark law in a techno-digital world are for Intellectual property lawyers, theorists or academicians. The […]

Lincoln Channels 1989 Infiniti Debut

Once upon a time, someone at Ford Motor Company may have known what the Lincoln brand stood for in the customer’s mind. But, that was then. Over the years, defining Lincoln has been a challenge.  In 2019, Lincoln decided the brand would be American Luxury. That was an undefined title. It was left to the […]

Whirlpool And The Need For Ease Of Mind

Whirlpool makes home appliances. A lot of these home appliances are “smart.” This means the appliances can be connected to your in-home WIFI and stream your behaviors and your appliances’ “health” back to Whirlpool.  Unfortunately for Whirlpool, it appears that customers are not buying into this “relationship.” Customers have either disabled or not synced the […]

Stitch Fix Continues To Find Itself In A Serious Brand Fix

Stitch Fix, the online personal shopper clothing brand, has a problem. The brand is losing active customers, closing warehouses, laying off staff and is bringing back its founder as CEO to right the ship. Data indicate that since the height of pandemic shopping, Stitch Fix lost 95% of its value. The Wall Street Journal states […]

Spark by Hilton: Hotels Must Focus on Need-State Occasion-Driven Segments

Hilton just introduced a new hotel brand in its Elevated Essentials group of hospitality offerings. The Elevated Essentials category comprises Hilton Garden Inn, Hampton by Hilton, Tru by Hilton and the latest entry, Spark by Hilton. The overarching description of the Elevated Essentials group is “Signature amenities and services in all the places you want […]

The EV Challenge: Brand Loyalty Is More Than Trial

Let’s discuss brand loyalty. It used to be a principle of marketing that a brand needed trial and repeat before you had brand loyalty. In fact, at the haven of marketing, P&G, the concept was three tries before you could feel comfortable that a customer had become a loyal customer. And, this makes sense. Brand […]

Do’s and Don’ts for 2023

It has been a wild year for marketers. Based on events of 2022, here are some do’s and don’ts to keep in mind for 2023. Do’s Do know the business in which you do business. Please be specific. For example, you are not in the restaurant business; you are not in the fast food business; […]