Entries by Jay York

Kohl’s And Activists Acting Badly

Activist investors are circling Kohl’s, the largest department store chain in the US.  The activists’ complaints focus on Kohl’s share price not doing as well as they wish. In other words, Kohl’s activist investors are not making as much money as they would like to make. These investors are pushing for an entirely new Board […]

Champion of Breakfast

Let’s talk about breakfast. Coronavirus changed our work habits. Goodbye to the commute. Hello to Zoom and Google Duo. Goodbye to that brewed Venti. Hello to instant coffee. Breakfast at fast food restaurants took a big hit. However, Wendy’s breakfast – a newcomer to the morning meal – managed to leverage itself into a breakfast […]

Rescuing A Brand By Reimagining Its Purpose: Kirin and Innovation

In our fast-changing, volatile world, brands need customer-insight driven innovation. Innovation breathes life into brands. Innovation keeps brands relevant in the eyes of customers. But, not all innovations need be inventions. Some innovations can be reimagining existing processes and technologies for new uses. Innovation is the use of a better, and as a result, new […]

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 […]