Great product strategy begins with the outcome you want to create. At Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 1997, Steve Jobs was confronted by a belligerent developer in a super-awkward moment that could have easily gone sideways. What happened next, as they say, will amaze you. The critique was pointed and public (worth a watch if you haven’t seen it), but Jobs chose NOT to argue the specifics or justify past decisions. He didn’t defend at all. Instead, he stepped back, took a couple...
2 days ago • 1 min read
AI is changing how people learn stuff, but not necessarily how they buy. I came across an intriguing new study by researchers at Harvard Business School and Stanford examining exactly how people are shifting between AI tools and traditional search. The headlines and pro stars warn us AI is fast replacing search tools like Google. Um … that’s not really what’s happening. Drawing on a large dataset, the analysis reviewed a full year of first-party data across 973 websites representing roughly...
3 days ago • 1 min read
Obsolete products don’t disappear if they solve a different kind of need. Luxury watch sales have been climbing again. Rolex, along with brands like Patek Philippe and Audemars Piguet, continues to post strong demand despite the obvious, ironic reality. A smartphone is more accurate, and infinitely more useful. Both make an analog watch completely unnecessary. And yet, the category is growing. This isn’t a tech story, but a meaning one that marketers and product makers struggle to get their...
4 days ago • 1 min read
Performance improves when visuals attract and text resolves. Look at the Apple AirPods Pro 3 page and the balance is immediate. A clean product visual (that morphs into an animation loop on desktop). A short, specific claim: “The world’s best in-ear Active Noise Cancellation.” That line doesn’t try to explain everything about the earbuds. Not even close. It doesn’t list any specs. It doesn’t defend itself. The image pulls you in. And the words tell you why to buy. A new study I read on how...
5 days ago • 1 min read
The thing that matters is what gets meaningfully better for the customer. Last month, JD.com launched Joybuy across markets including the U.K. and Germany, stepping directly into competition with Amazon, Temu, and AliExpress. At first glance, it looks like more of the same, right? Another marketplace. Another app. And another wave of low-cost competition entering an already saturated space (two if you count your smartphone app Library). But I think the underlying model is different in a way...
6 days ago • 1 min read
Under cost pressure, spending gets reallocated toward faster emotional returns. On Wednesday L’Oréal reported 6.7% like-for-like sales growth, beating expectations as demand held strong across the U.S., Europe, and emerging markets. This is often described as the “lipstick effect” and it’s proving literally true. Consumers cut back in many areas while continuing to spend (often even spending more) on small indulgences. Like lipstick and other cosmetics. People aren’t simply spending less...
7 days ago • 1 min read
When your brand name doesn’t carry the benefit, your customer bears the cognitive load. A strong product name does more than label. It preloads the reason to care. The research is straightforward. When a name suggests a benefit, people are more likely to believe the product delivers it and far more likely to recall that benefit later. That second part is the lever. Recall is what shows up at the moment of need. Look at how often this shows up in the wild. PayPal signals ease and trust in...
8 days ago • 1 min read
When a brand embeds behavior into the product moment, is it helpful or overreach? KitKat has introduced “Break Mode” in Panama, developed with Ogilvy, turning its wrapper into a functional signal blocker for your phone. Not metaphorically, but physically. The packaging acts as a Faraday cage, using conductive layers and shielding materials so that when your phone goes inside, signals drop completely: calls, data, Bluetooth, GPS. You don’t toggle a setting. Just slip your phone in the...
9 days ago • 2 min read
The structure of a deal can change how valuable it feels, EVEN when the math stays the same. New research looked at something marketers tend to assume is straightforward: Discounts. Across multiple experiments and thousands of deal posts, a pattern shows up: A single 25% discount underperformed compared to the SAME total discount split into smaller, stackable pieces. By stacking, purchase intent increased by roughly 16 percent, and engagement rose even more. What’s happening here is not...
10 days ago • 1 min read
