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...
1 day 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...
3 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...
4 days ago • 1 min read
A leadership change can unlock decisions that have been economically or culturally out of reach. Will this one? Apple has named John Ternus as its next CEO, with Tim Cook stepping aside after 15 years and moving into an executive chairman role. Cook’s era may not have delivered amazing innovation, but did bring phenomenal scale and consistency. The company expanded its core products into global platforms and reached valuation milestones that totally reshaped expectations for what a tech...
5 days ago • 1 min read
Two technically identical claims can create very different levels of trust. I came across a deep study that tested something most product teams I know would dismiss as a formatting preference. “10 grams of protein” versus “ten grams of protein.” Same product and literally the same claim. But totally different outcomes. Across multiple experiments, ads, and even analysis of tens of millions of reviews, the version using digits consistently performed better. It drove higher clickthrough rates,...
6 days ago • 1 min read
The risk is being unable to move when the future arrives. Qurate Retail Group built QVC into a powerhouse by mastering a format that still dominates product sales today. A host, a product, urgency, and instant purchase. That same structure now thrives inside TikTok Shop, Amazon Live, and social commerce feeds everywhere. The thing that really changed was the delivery. Screens moved from cable TV to mobile, and the experience became more immediate, more personalized, and always within reach....
7 days ago • 1 min read
What happens when central distribution controls the demand itself? For years, Bath & Body Works staunchly resisted Amazon. The logic was sound, and the kind I encourage. Control the experience, protect margins, and OWN the customer relationship. Don’t build your business on rented land, competing against others and even Amazon’s house-branded copycats to feather a billionaire’s nest with your ad money. In this case, something changed in a big way. The CEO now says it’s impossible to gain...
7 days ago • 2 min read
Even a perfect solution can get erased by something bigger than the problem it solves. Years ago, I bought a Tile after losing my wallet, which had somehow slipped behind the clothes dryer. Not long after, it proved itself. This time I left my wallet at a grocery store, but the staff couldn’t locate it. After a few awkward minutes I triggered the chirp. It led us straight to a drawer behind the customer service counter. The product worked exactly when it needed to. A brilliant mentor once...
9 days ago • 1 min read
Markets reward narrative shifts faster than customers ever could. Allbirds (the minimalist wool sneaker company) just announced it’s pivoting out of shoes and into AI infrastructure, with plans to rebrand as “NewBird AI.” No joke. Neither is what I’m going to tell you next. Shares surged over 800%, despite no demonstrated capability in AI. Just weeks ago, the company sold its footwear assets for $39 million after losing 99% of its value since its IPO. Nothing about the product improved....
10 days ago • 1 min read
