Now what?

How Boeing can be fixed was the subject for dozens of people interviewed by The Wall Street Journal. The Wall Street Journal spoke with “… current and former Boeing leaders, airline executives, employees, suppliers, safety regulators and others….”  The newspaper’s interviewers asked: What should Boeing do to turn itself around?

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The Wall Street Journal sorted respondent comments into five groups: 1) Think big, 2) Fix the culture, 3) Forget production deadlines… for now, 4) Revamp the design process and 5) Restore trust.

These important action areas must be part of an agreed strategic action plan. Boeing needs to implement the Six Rules For Brand Revitalization, immediately.

The Six Rules For Brand Revitalization guide brand rejuvenation and create a brand-building mind-set. Each of the Six Rules has a series of “Practices” – ongoing actions. Rules without actions are just theory. Brand is not theory. Brands are promises of relevant differentiated experiences. How you run your brand is how you run your business and vice versa.

The Six Rules are:

Rule 1: Refocus The Organization – Financial discipline, operational excellence, leadership marketing, Brand Purpose, and goals

Rule 2: Restore Brand Relevance – Thorough knowledge of the market, needs-based occasion market segmentation, Brand Promise

Rule 3: Reinvent The Brand Experience – Innovation and renovation, marketing, Trustworthy Brand Value Equation, fair value, total brand experience

Rule 4: Reinforce A Results Culture – Measurable mile-stones, balanced Brand-Business Scorecard, recognition and rewards

Rule 5: Rebuild Brand Trust – Internal/external, Trust Capital

Rule 6: Realize Global Alignment – Freedom Within a Framework, Plan to Win: Eight Ps, the Collaborative Three-Box Model

You might be thinking that a focus on brand is the least of Boeing’s problems at this crucial time. Brand is never an afterthought. Boeing’s now well-known, well-detailed operational issues are affecting Boeing’s reputation and profitability. Brand reputation is an indicator of the health of a brand.

A healthy business relies on four “must-haves”, one of which is Reputation:

• • Be a credible source: Provide stakeholders with confidence that its information is true and that its promises are delivered.
  • Have an excellent reputation for quality and leadership: Behave in the same way, every time.
  • Be a pillar of integrity: Keep stakeholders’ best interests at heart.
• Have a responsibility ethic: Be an effective global citizen

Boeing seems to have deficits in all four of these areas. Boeing does not appear to be perceived as believable. Although Boeing’s CEO is quite passionate, are shareholders believing what they are hearing but not seeing? Boeing’s reputation is unhealthy. There have been and may still be serious issues with cultural cohesiveness. Is taking responsibility still an unresolved issue? Do global customers still feel a sense of uncertainty in dealing with Boeing?

Shareholders do not like uncertainty. An unhealthy business is an uncertain financial bet. This is why it is imperative that Boeing implement against the Six Rules in order to reassert its health and its provenance for excellence and safety in flight.

Three of The Six Rules are implicit within the interviewees’ comments. With the interviewee comments, we can begin to develop a Boeing Brand Revitalization strategy to revitalize and re-establish the Boeing brand.

Rule 1: Refocus The Organization

Refocusing an organization around common goals is the first step for Brand Revitalization. What are our Common Goals? What is our Common Brand Purpose?

People need to know what is going on and where they are going. Employees do not mind an organizational refocus, especially when the situation is in flux or is on a downturn. But, employees do expect to know in what direction they are rowing. Is the company on a road to financial health? Are we allocating resources to key areas? Do we all share the same vision for the brand’s future?

Refocusing an organization requires organizational realignment behind improving financial discipline, dedication to operational excellence, leadership marketing including revitalized brand goals (purpose and promise). Telling employees that “we are at low point here.” And, saying publicly that Boeing has to “get its house in order” and “clean up its act,” as CEO Kelly Ortberg did, helps everyone face the facts. But, without a full understanding of what all this means for employees, the calls for remedial action are unhelpful.

Organizational excellence is a critical issue. As suggested by respondent comments, quality is suffering at Boeing. “Shareholders over safety” has apparently been the strategy. “Speed over quality” has been the mantra. CEO Ortberg told investors that eliminating layers of bureaucracy (a good thing) has placed Boeing in “.. a better position to make faster decisions.” Yet, no one remembers how fast you do something if that something is the wrong thing. Following the Six Rules allows the right people to do the right things in the right way for the right reasons.

As many interviewees suggested, Boeing needs to figure out just what are its goals in the new world in which Boeing now plays. The Wall Street Journal writes that “for decades, Boeing was an aerospace pioneer.” Boeing is no longer thought of as an aerospace pioneer. It is really easy to lose your pioneering advantage. History is littered with the headstones of pioneering brands. MITS was the first personal computer. Chux was the first disposable diaper. Ampex was the first video recorder. We do not remember these brands as Apple, Pampers and Sony became leaders. (Gerard Tellis and Peter Golder wrote about the pioneering advantage – or lack of – in their famous 1996 article, First To Market, First To Fail? in Sloan Management Review.)

Having a new brand direction is important. There is no substitute for the power of a clear and consistent definition of a new brand direction and destination. The same goes for organizational alignment. Nothing is more powerful than a properly aligned organization.

As the interviewees alluded to, a Boeing organizational refocus will provide: clarity of purpose; a common brand and business vision; a common set of goals including quality and safety; move everyone toward the same North Star; set priorities, insure brand consistency across geography and time; measurable objectives.

Rule 4: Reinforce A Results Culture

When there is a conflict between culture and strategy, inevitably culture wins. Research shows the link between culture and employee behavior.

A results culture is one that evaluates performance based on producing measurable results. It means having a clear relationship between executive rewards and brand-business performance. A results culture rests on measurable milestones and rewarding people based on performance where progress is tracked in a Balanced Brand-Business Scorecard.

People manage what management measures, recognizes, and rewards. Define how progress will be measured. It is not enough to produce the right results. It is important to produce the right results the right way for the right reasons. It is important to produce the right business results. It is also important that these results are based on a strong brand foundation. A Balanced Brand-Business Scorecard evaluates whether the brand is producing the right results the right way.

Interviewees agree that Boeing has a culture problem. One troubling cultural issue is the reluctance of employees to report safety and quality problems along with a “blaming” culture. There appears to be agreement that safety must be everyone’s job. Without safety, Boeing will struggle in its recovery.

Interviewees agree that Boeing lost its “ingenuity and  quality” when Boeing management decided to focus on shareholder value, financial engineering and cost-cutting. Those financial wizards at Boeing overlooked the facts: You cannot cost cut your way to enduring profitable growth; Without brand value there is no customer value and without customer value there are no shareholder value results.

Your people come first. Not financial shenanigans. As one respondent reported, Boeing’s mindset has been to focus on the cash register rather than excellence and safety in flight. If employees do not feel that they are moving forward and respected, the brand will not move forward.

Rule 5: Rebuild Brand Trust

Trust is fundamental in building and maintaining long-term relationships. Trust enhances the quality of a relationship and minimizes perceived risk. Boeing has a trust deficit. Boeing’s trust deficit presents an enormous opportunity for Boeing to become the “trust-worthiest” source of a relevant and differentiated promise.

Boeing’s provenance is a good place to start. Boeing’s provenance is trustworthy evidence of Boeing’s authentic character, expressing what Boeing stands for internally and externally. Boeing’s provenance is its principled foundation of trustworthiness.

Boeing should reestablish its provenance, using that provenance to create the roadmap for moving forward. The provenance of a business is its consistent, motivating, relevant, distinctive heritage, based on its past theme. The power of provenance is not about preserving everything from the past; it is about preserving the best of the past for the present and the future.

Customer-centricity, as a prerequisite for growth, requires trust. Businesses are expected to act like trusted partners. A brand-led business culture that puts customers and users at the heart of all actions, helps embed trust building.

Trust is essential. Being a trustworthy source acts as a multiplier with regards to customer-and-user-perceived value. Trust is a key component of value. If there is no trust, there is no value. Why? Because people are willing to consider and support – personally and financially –  brands they trust. If there is no willingness to rely on, to trust, a brand, then there will be no personal and financial support. No brand trust leads to no financial support leads to no shareholder value. Trust is a relationship criterion more than a transaction criterion.

Building trust as a source of corporate, organizational wealth is an important driver for enduring, profitable growth. Trust Capital is one of the components of organizational wealth. Creating Trust Capital allows an enterprise to generate a trust reserve that helps through crises of brand or corporate character. A trust reserve of Trust Capital builds strong relationships over time. Trustworthiness is a key component of Brand Power.

A powerful brand is more than a trademark; it is a trustmark. Trust is an important prerequisite for building long-term brand loyalty. Without trust, there can be no brand loyalty. When you trust a brand, you become committed to that brand. Trust is the most important prerequisite for building long-term brand loyalty. Brand loyalty is profitable.  Trust takes time to build but can be destroyed in seconds. Saying “trust me” is not a viable nor credible solution.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the respondents defined four constituencies where trust is lost. Boeing lost trust with airline travelers due to crashes and a frightening incident on an Alaska Airline flight when a door fell off the plane. Boeing lost trust with its plane-buying customers. Boeing lost trust with the US military dues to massive overcharging. And, worst of all, Boeing lost trust with its employees. A member of the National Transportation Safety Board stated on the record, “They have a workforce that doesn’t trust Boeing, that is afraid of retaliation. As long as that continues… they’re going to have problems.”

Focusing on Financial Discipline and Operational Excellence are absolute necessities for Boeing right now. But, as with other turnarounds, Boeing must also understand and create Marketing Leadership actions to resurrect the Boeing brand. This is because all the work on Financial Discipline and Operational Excellence are on behalf of the Boeing brand. Engineers and factory workers are not designing and building airplanes. Engineers and factory workers are designing and building Boeing airplanes. Without the Boeing brand, Boeing runs the risk of becoming a commodity supplier.

The Six Rules and their associated Practices help create organizational cohesiveness, brand passion, corporate pride and quality. When people work together and move in the same direction toward the same destination with passion and pride, things fall into place.

Brand revitalization drives financial management, service management, personnel managements, product developments, distribution managements, pricing strategy, marketing management and operational excellence. The business of everyone associate with the brand is to drive enduring profitable growth of the brand to ever-greater heights.

Shareholders want a positive prediction for the future. The only future you can predict is the one that you create for your brand. You need adherence to The Six Rules to do this well.

Contributed to Branding Strategy Insider by: Joan Kiddon, Partner, The Blake Project, Author of The Paradox Planet: Creating Brand Experiences For The Age Of I

At The Blake Project, we help clients worldwide, in all stages of development, define or redefine and articulate what makes them competitive at critical moments of change from the inside-out. Please email us to learn how we can help you compete differently.

Branding Strategy Insider is a service of The Blake Project: A strategic brand consultancy specializing in Brand Research, Brand Strategy, Brand Growth and Brand Education

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Revival strategies are for brands that have been going in the wrong direction at an accelerating pace. Revival strategies are for badly needed, urgent turnarounds. A turnaround strategy has a few critical steps. The first step is clear: Stop the bleeding. Of course, stopping the bleeding requires organizational and financial disciplines.

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Along with organizational and financial disciplines, stopping the bleeding requires a maniacal devotion to the brand core. The brand must defend the core of its enterprise. The brand must emphasize its core, enduring brand truths. Focus on the core equities: internal cultural equities and external customer equities. Focus on what makes this brand special, its brand strengths and then mobilize the organization around these strengths. Focus on the core customer.

When a brand is in need of revitalization, begin by focusing on the core.

Keeping the brand core strong is essential to taking care of the brand’s health. And vice versa: to take care of the brand’s health, keep the brand’s core strong. The brand core must be re-energized, protected and strengthened. It is the brand core that will profitably finance a turnaround and provide the platform for the future. Begin by focusing on what the brand’s core customers love about the brand.

There are reams of data showing the value of a core customer. Seminal research from Frederick Reichheld on the lifetime value of a loyal core customer essentially showed that as brand loyalty increases, the likelihood of defection decreases.  Mr. Reichheld concluded that reducing defections by 5% could increase profits by 25% and more. Other research indicates that loyal core customers are 8 times as valuable as those who just consider the brand.

The reverse is true as well. Losing a small percentage of core customers will account for a disproportionate amount of lost income.

Kohl’s and Target are learning this lesson at the moment. Loyal customers of Kohl’s want their Kohl’s back. Target customers may be yearning for a reignition of the brand’s provenance.

Stellantis, owner of Dodge, Jeep, and Chrysler, is planning to bring back customer-favored vehicles ignored during the tenure of its previous CEO. As The Wall Street Journal pointed out, “Jeep is reviving its Cherokee-sized SUV. Dodge is bringing back the gas-engine version of its Charger muscle car. And Ram is hitting pause on its all-electric pickup truck.” The head of Jeep North America said, “It’s no secret, the relationships that we have with our dealers, our suppliers, the general people who have been associated with us for the last few years, that needs a lot of love and attention.” Data reported in the Wall Street Journal indicate that “Stellantis had only two of the top 20 models sold in the U.S., according to data from industry research firm Motor Intelligence. Jeep and Ram didn’t even crack the top 10 among brands.”

Core customers already know what is great about the brand. The goal is to restore and repair their relationship to the brand, reinforce what they like about the brand, and encourage them to frequent the brand more often. Past data show that It costs 3-4 times as much to attract a new customer as it does to keep a customer loyal. Recently, data indicate that with multiple digital and platform options, these costs can range upwards of 7 times more to attract a new customer versus an existing customer.

It is easier to get a customer who already uses your brand to buy a little more often than to try to attract a new customer who does not use your brand at all. In a revitalization program, the brand’s objective must be to stop the shrinking of the customer base and to increase purchase frequency. A small increase in frequency can make a huge difference to brand viability and profitability. The road to enduring profitable growth rests on more customers who are more loyal and more profitable, generating more high-quality revenue growth leading to enduring profitable growth.

For example, in 2017, at a downward moment, craft website Etsy recognized the need to increase frequency among core customers. Etsy stated, “… we disclosed that about half of our buyers only buy once a year on Etsy. And, we really believe there’s an opportunity to bring those buyers, our existing buyers, back to buy more things on Etsy.  So making it so that our existing buyers come back more than once, I think, is a big opportunity. Because half of them only come back once.”

Starbucks is running newspaper ads right now that welcome back core customers lost during the last CEO’s tenure. The ad copy tells lost customers that “The Starbucks you love is ready.” The copy tells us that the services we loved and that were removed are now back. The ad ends with the line, “Hello Again.”

It is a cliché to say covet your core customers, but it is critical.

At CoverGirl, CEO Sue Nabi, asked her team “… to think about what was at the core of CoverGirl’s identity.” Born in the early 1960s by Noxzema, CoverGirl was a brand used by, well, cover girls. CoverGirl promoted itself as “clean makeup” creating that “girl-next-door” fresh, youthful look. It was the look of models such a Christie Brinkley, Cheryl Tiegs, Cybill Shepherd and epitomized in the faces of Breck Girls. Later CoverGirl faces included Tyra Banks, Rihanna and Taylor Swift, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Times change. The power of cover girl models is now transferred to Influencers. And, CoverGirl is using these influential persuaders to rejuvenate the CoverGirl brand. CEO Nab has directed the team to recruit “thousands of influencers” who use their visibility on TikTok and Instagram to both demo and endorse CoverGirl products. The CoverGirl premise is the same. CoverGirl has just modernized to match the changed mindsets of contemporary core customers.

Burberry is taking a similar approach. The Burberry brand’s new CEO, Joshua Shulman, told The Wall Street Journal that in order to return to “sustainable, profitable growth” Burberry will be focusing on its core. “ Our recent underperformance has stemmed from several factors, including inconsistent brand execution and a lack of focus on our core outerwear category and our core customer segments.” According to comments from Burberry, The Wall Street Journal wrote that Burberry indicates the brand had “moved away from its core products over the past several years” resulting in “disappointing results.”

Yahoo finance reported these 2025 remarks from Burberry:

Burberry CEO, Joshua Schulman said: “Since launching Burberry Forward in November, we have moved at pace to advance our strategy to reignite brand desire, improve our performance and drive long-term value creation.

“We are encouraged by the response to our Always Burberry Weather outerwear campaign and Wrapped in Burberry festive campaign. These activations resonates with a broad range of luxury customers leading to an improvement in brand desirability and strength in outerwear and scarves.

“The acceleration of our core categories reinforces our belief that Burberry has the most opportunity where we have the most authenticity and that our strategic plan will deliver sustainable, profitable growth over time.””

Customers’ needs may alter. Markets may change. New products challenge the status quo. No matter how a brand landscape morphs, there are some evergreen brand marketing principles that must never be forgotten.

Adore the core is one of these essential principles: keep the brand core strong. A brand’s core must be continually re-energized, protected and strengthened. It is the brand core that will profitably finance a turnaround, keep a brand growing and provide a platform for enduring profitable growth. Ignore what core customers love about your brand at your peril.

Of course, brands must attract new customers while creating more brand loyalty among its core customer base. But, when a brand is in trouble, the first priority is to stop the hemorrhaging of the customer base. Love your core customers if you expect them to love you.  Ultimately, the brand is more customers, more often, more brand loyal, more revenues, and more profitability. When a brand is losing share and sales, the first focus must be to shore up the core customer base. In other words, adore the core or your brand is done for.

Contributed to Branding Strategy Insider by: Joan Kiddon, Partner, The Blake Project, Author of The Paradox Planet: Creating Brand Experiences For The Age Of I

At The Blake Project, we help clients worldwide, in all stages of development, define or redefine and articulate what makes them competitive at critical moments of change. Please email us to learn how we can help you compete differently.

Branding Strategy Insider is a service of The Blake Project: A strategic brand consultancy specializing in Brand Research, Brand Strategy, Brand Growth and Brand Education

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Whether my meetings are with CMOs or Heads of Marketing, CEOs or Heads of Brand, I’m constantly amazed by their inability to decide on or define who their audience really is. I find this astounding, because these are the people who really matter to the brand (I know of course your internal audience, your partners, your shareholders, among many others are important). These are the people who are going to pay you to deliver them something. Whether that is a product or a service, it is their financial contribution that is going to keep your business going (hopefully).

Who Is Your Brand For?

Before you start to work on anything you are trying to ‘sell’ to your audience – be that the brand proposition, your organization’s offering, or your business’ actual product or service – you must, must, must define who you are hoping will buy it.

Always define your target audience first. Always.

Don’t Go Too Wide Or Too Narrow.

Now, defining your audience can be quite difficult (but it can actually be quite simple). If you set your net to reach as many people as possible, then there is a degree of ‘wastage’. You will be speaking to a good deal of people who will never convert to a sale, nor will they have any interest in your brand. But, if you go too narrow then if you’re not careful then you may miss out on people who could convert to a sale, or who could be brand evangelists.

Reach too many people and you’re wasting money. Reach too few people and you’re wasting opportunities.

Every business or organization is different, and so every one needs a bespoke analysis of their audience. But there are approaches you might take in order to define your audience.

Maybe, Define Who Your Audience Isn’t.

One approach is to actually define who your audience isn’t rather than who your audience is. I’ve written about this approach previously, but put simply this method defines your outsiders, and anyone else becomes your target audience.

Depending on your industry or offering, these people might be outsiders because they simply can’t afford what you offer, or they have a preference that’s opposite to your offering (eg meat producers and vegetarians), or even that them being associated with your brand would be detrimental to your brand (see Burberry and UK football hooligans). There are many valid reasons people might be ‘outsiders’ for your brand, both practical and emotional.

This is just one approach and will only be right for selected businesses or organizations.

S And T Before The P.

What holds true, whatever approach you take, is the fact that you need to do some targeting of your audience. There is a reason the old marketing structure of STP still holds true today. Because it is still right.

• Segment the populace.
• Target those people who you want in your audience.
• Position the brand (or product or service. Although that would be an S) to appeal to them.

Audience-First. Always.

If you are in charge of a business or an organization. If you are responsible for taking that business or organization to the market. Please do some work on defining your audience first:

• What are their attitudes?
• What are their behaviors in your category?
• Are there specific demographics that are important?
• What media do they consume?
• Might you have one or multiple audiences?
• What are their key characteristics?
• What is their mindset and worldview and situation?
• What information do they typically need to make decisions on purchase or involvement?
• What factors might they compare when considering you and the competition?
• What are they worried about (that your brand/product/service can fix)?
• How might they like to be recognized?
• How can they see that you understand them (that so many others don’t)?

One thing you don’t need to worry about is what they are called. If your audience identification is someone in your marketing department writing a lengthy bit of prose about your ‘audience profiles’ or ‘audience personas’, and then giving them catchy names or titles, please do stop.

Paul Bailey is Brand Strategy Director at Halo – a brand-first agency in the UK, who with bold strategy and commercial creativity improve audience experience and business performance through brand.

At The Blake Project, we help clients worldwide, in all stages of development, define or redefine and articulate what makes them competitive at critical moments of change. Please email us to learn how we can help you compete differently.

Branding Strategy Insider is a service of The Blake Project: A strategic brand consultancy specializing in Brand Research, Brand Strategy, Brand Growth and Brand Education

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Additionally, an establishment brand is the antithesis to the challenger brand, the market leader being the primary example of an establishment brand.”

The Wiki information page alerts us to the fact that the challenger brand concept appeared in 1999 by virtue of Adam Morgan in his book, ‘Eating the Big Fish.’ Mr. Morgan identified “… three specific challenger brand criteria: 1) state of market: the brand is not a market leader nor a niche brand; 20) state of mind: the brand has ambitions beyond conventional marketing resource; and 3) rate of success: the brand has experienced significant and rapid growth.”

Challenger brands thumb their noses at conventional wisdom, accepted definitions, what has worked in the past, entire industry cultures and the status quo.

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Basically, a challenger brand is a brand that dares to makes changes that other brands cannot or will not make. A challenger brand takes on seemingly impossible obstacles. A challenger brand is provocative in its purpose and promise. A challenger brand disputes current beliefs. A challenger brand opposes the existing states of affairs, the marketplace, landscape or business category in which a brand operates. A challenger brand is competitive, aggressive, confident and exciting.

And, so the woes of the big brands, Nike and Adidas. Leading in size – being big – is good. But, a brand must lead in popularity as well, being perceived as innovative and conveying an appealing identity.

According to The Economist, Nike and Adidas have not only been challenged by outsider brands like On and Hoka, but have committed strategic mistakes including “making a mess of their distribution.” A focus on direct-to-consumer sales allowed retailers to stock shelves with these new competitors.

Data show that Nike’s shares have dropped by 27%. Combined, Nike and Adidas sales fell 63% from highs in 2018.

The Economist refers to On and Hoka as challenger brands. But, the magazine’s use of the phrase “challenger brand” does not go far enough in describing just how powerful a challenger brand can be. Of course, it helps when your competition is self-immolating. Nike And Adidas provided ample space for the challenger brands to fill. However, the problems with Nike and Adidas must not diminish the extraordinary accomplishments of On and Hoka, both driven by the challenger mindset.

Hoka and On are a brand-and business-based David and Goliath story.

Apparently, Nike and Adidas are up close and personal with this: “Challengers are gaining ground including established brands like New Balance and Asics as well as new ones like On and Hoka.” The barrier to entry is not that high: “Booming demand for trainers (the UK term for sneakers) has given challengers an opening. Low barriers to entry have helped them seize it. Social media have made it easier to establish a running brand….”

Further, the challengers are hitting Nike and Adidas using innovation.“ Hoka sells with comically high thick soles. Hoka has turned ugly into impressive. On’s latest superlight marathon shoes are made by a robotic arm using a single piece of thermos-plastic fibre.” The backstory is that On’s founder used garden hose as soles to make a triathlete’s shoe.

Observers including analysts say that Nike is no longer an R&D leader. And, Adidas is now relying too heavily on its variety of fashion-style sneakers. Established brands sometimes fear making changes, relying on what worked yesterday to create profits.

Just to spice up the competitive options, The Wall Street Journal reports on Skechers as challenging not only Nike but even the challenger brands, Hoka and On. Skechers identified a target market in which neither the established brands nor the challenger brands have any interest. “Nike has superstars. Hoka has tapped into hardcore runners. Tech bros are willing to pay up for On shoes. Skechers thrives on retirees looking for comfortable kicks and families looking for something more affordable for their children.”

Having said this, The Economist does indicate that both Nike and Adidas are taking note and, albeit belated, actions. While Nike and Adidas focus on revitalization, the challengers brands are moving ahead with fashion-style-oriented shoes of their own, where the profit margins are higher.

The financial newspaper, Barron’s, indicates that Nike has signed a new deal with Academy Sports & Outdoor, an outdoor and athletic goods retailer. Academy Sports & Outdoor is a lower-cost option than Dick’s Sporting Goods. Nike, which has made some serious mistakes with its distribution, has now signed a partnership deal with Academy. Having said this, Barron’s does state that investors are hopeful Academy will soon carry Hoka and On.

It may turn out that these David brands fall into the same trap as the Goliath brands they are currently slaying. These insurgent brands are only nimble because they are dancing rings around the big brands. But big brands can be nimble as well. Size is not the issue: mindset is. And there is nothing like being at the edge of a cliff to generate creative ways to keep from falling.

There are those who still say that brands can be big or brands can be innovative, and that it is not possible to be both big and innovative. They say that Goliaths cannot be nimble.

These same naysayers state that when a brand becomes big, it becomes cautious and risk-averse. They repeat that when brands are big, brands can be slow, inward-looking, and not creative. But, those who say you cannot be big and innovative are wrong. Big Goliath brands can show the world that they are innovative.

Big brands can use their size and strength to make changes of magnitude. Because of their size and strength, big brands like Nike and Adidas have the opportunities to be better and to be greater. Big brands’ size and strength allow the acceptance of risk and offer the ability to resist adversity. Size and strength give big brands a greater variety of talent upon which they can draw.

Big brands’ size and strength make them a company of opportunities. Yet, as has happened, size and strength are meaningless if brands do not leverage the benefits that come from size and strength.

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Product and service innovation is not the sole property of the small, agile companies, start-ups, or entrepreneurs. Those who say that you cannot be both big and innovative are wrong. Those who say that giants cannot be nimble are wrong.  It is a management choice to become cautious and risk-averse. They have a lot to protect. Small, entrepreneurial companies have no choice. They must take risks to grow.

Big brands can become challenger brands. It takes a mindset change and the ability to reallocate resources. Here are 5 things big brands can do to break the bigness barrier and become brand brawlers.

1. Change the new product/new service development process to start with consumer-needs-based/problem-solution-based occasion-driven innovation.
2. Understand customers so well in order brands can anticipate unexpressed yet unfulfilled customer needs and problems.
3. Stop selling what the brand knows how to make. Start making and selling what customers will want to buy.
4. Institutionalize change. Change the mindset to being a challenger mindset: as a big brand it is no longer a leader, but it is not a niche brand.
5. Continuously renovate and improve existing brands. Brands are dynamic, active promises. Product and service brand innovation is lifeblood for brands.

As The Economist ends its story, “Trainer Wars,” the sentiment is that Nike and Adidas, now motivated and focused may yet win the trainer (aka sneaker) wars. “The challengers may yet lose their footing.”

Contributed to Branding Strategy Insider by: Joan Kiddon, Partner, The Blake Project, Author of The Paradox Planet: Creating Brand Experiences For The Age Of I

At The Blake Project, we help clients worldwide, in all stages of development, define or redefine and articulate what makes them competitive at critical moments of change. Please email us to learn how we can help you compete differently.

Branding Strategy Insider is a service of The Blake Project: A strategic brand consultancy specializing in Brand Research, Brand Strategy, Brand Growth and Brand Education

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Is it possible that Amazon now has a successful new grocery format?

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In 2016, pre-Amazon, Whole Foods tried smaller format stores, 365 by Whole Foods Market. Amazon pulled the plug on this concept after purchasing Whole Foods. To be fair, it was several years later that Whole Foods changed the purpose and promise of the 365 brand. But, the idea of an own brand store was not what customers wanted, since you could do better at Costco with Kirkland or your quirky Trader Joe’s. Data showed that a 365 brand store was just “not unique.”

Soon after Amazon’s Whole Foods purchase, in a far-ranging interview with The Wall Street Journal, Jeff Wilke, then chief executive of worldwide consumer at Amazon, spoke about the benefits of having Whole Foods in the Amazon tent. Mr. Wilke said, “I hope we’re going to learn about how physical stores work. They (Whole Foods) know a lot about food, produce – supply chains at a very large national scale. We’re going to learn with them how we can efficiently – and in a very high-quality way – deliver groceries to our customers.”

Since that interview, Amazon added a variety of brick-and-mortar stores to its retailing portfolio. Amazon created bookstores and self-service groceries in New York and Seattle respectively, There were Amazon 4-Star stores in New York (featuring products receiving 4-star ratings) and an Amazon Fresh grocery store in Woodland Hills, California. In 2021, there was press speculation that Amazon might even tackle the department store brick-and-mortar format.

In that same year, in the throes of Covid-19, according to an interview in Financial Times, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy indicated that Amazon was planning to “go big” in grocery. Current formats such as Amazon Fresh and Amazon Go had not been the game-changers that Amazon and observers expected.

Mr. Jassy stated that part of the problem with Amazon Fresh and Amazon Go was that many of the stores opened during the pandemic. But, at the time, some perceptive observers noted that Amazon did not yet truly understand grocery. For example, some said the focus on technological convenience, such as smart shopping carts and ‘just-walkout’ intelligence, led Amazon astray. As Financial Times pointed out, no one says they are going to the grocery store because of the smart shopping carts. Plus, there is a lot of person-to-person in a grocery store. People have questions about a lamb chop, a Cornish hen, a Dover sole or that cantaloupe melon that a smart cart cannot answer. Customers want conversations with the people behind the deli sandwich counter or the person in charge of the wine section. People like the small talk amongst themselves while cruising the carrots and cucumbers.

Now, Amazon’s-Whole Foods’ latest concept for shaking up grocery has a lot of potential that does not rely on a smart shopping cart or fast delivery. The new Amazon-Whole Foods format is profitable, “exceeding expectations.” The new Whole Foods format is a concept that has longevity in France, but has not been (successfully?) attempted in the US. Amazon may be starting a new twist with convenience grocery. A convenience store idea for grocery may be the best idea yet if you look at the fighting for ownership of 7-11.

Years ago, the French grocery brand-business Monoprix created a brand extension called Daily Monop. A Daily Monop store addressed the problems of:

• What can I have for dinner that requires no work, is a French meal and is not American fast food?
• Can I very quickly buy a French meal on my way home from work for two individuals with a glass of wine for each of us, a loaf of fresh bread, French cheese?
• Can I find a French meal for one that I can pick up at the airport after my flight home arrives?

Daily Monop offers a modern French meal offered in individual servings… including individual glasses of wine securely wrapped for carrying home. Daily Monop offers gracious, high quality pre-packaged meals fast. As Steve Ells, founder of Chipotle used to say about fast food: “There is nothing wrong with fast. It’s the food.” Daily Monop solves for that.

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Daily Monop was enough of a successful format in the early 2000’s that even McDonald’s’ global CMO was intrigued with Daily Monop as a potential customer-perceived rival in McDonald’s competitive set.

In the same vein, Amazon’s new idea – an Americanized version of Daily Monop – is urban-located, solving for quick-serve-trips with focused small footprint stores. This is what grocers’ lingo refers to as “fill-in” shopping. Fill-in shopping is when a customer makes frequent grocery store trips buying only a few items each visit. For some retailers, the small store concept is a logistics nightmare. But, if any brand can solve logistics, it is Amazon.

The Wall Street Journal reports, as Bloomberg reported a few years ago,  that these new Whole Foods stores will be called Whole Foods Daily Shop. “The Daily Shop will offer a similar but slimmer assortment of products ranging from fresh produce and frozen food to pre-packaged meals and Whole Foods’ 365 branded products. The locations will not have buffet bars or meat counters.” Whole Foods Daily shop inventory will tend to reflect a Whole Food store price-wise but with a smaller array.

Whole Foods Daily Shop will have cashiers, self-checkout and Amazon One, the brand-business’ palm print payment system. The fact there will be cashiers is a sign that Amazon possibly sees that too much technology can potentially be a detraction from grocery shopping, which has always had human contact as a plus.

Considering that Amazon has been the leader in delivering items fast and same day, it is ironic that the Whole Foods and Amazon executive responsible for growth and development told Bloomberg the following,” The introduction of home delivery has changed customers’ mentality. People want things fast.” This spokesperson indicated that she had been thinking about a Whole Foods smaller footprint, convenience store for well over a decade

Meal convenience has been an American staple since the 1950s when diets were surprised by TV dinners and Pillsbury cake mixes. To overcome the fear that convenience foods might be perceived as a low quality, easy way out of traditional cooking and baking, Pillsbury let you know that “Nothing says lovin’ like something from the oven.” It helped that kids said, “Thank you, Mom” after the slogan. Brands have been solving for ways in which to make meals easier ever since.

In the early 2000’s, a global appliance maker tested a meal convenience concept of an oven (cooker) that could be turned on from your mobile phone. This oven would solve the problem of making dinner when you are running late at the office or due to transporting children to-and-from afternoon activities. You could be at your desk or on bleachers at a baseball field and turn on your oven. In discussions with potential customers, it became apparent that this oven was a really irrelevant concept. Customers indicated that if they were running late, they would not be cooking at all; they would be having take-away meals.

Daily Monop was a solution; the oven was not.

The facts are that people are not actually cooking as much as people used to cook. People tend to choose food assembly. Hence, Blue Apron. Or those grocery packaged salad kits (Dole or Fresh Express) with a salad base, crunchy toppings, possibly cheese and salad dressing. People are looking to heat and chill food that is brought home or delivered home to be served.

A few years ago, The New York Times reported on Wonder, a concept by Marc Lore who managed Walmart’s online business for a while after Walmart bought his jet.com business. Wonder is Mr. Lore’s vision for redefining and recalibrating eating at home or in some of the Wonder locations. Again, Mr. Lore’s vision reflected the insight of Steve Ells that it is not about the speed of the meal preparation; it is about the quality of the food being prepared. Mr. Lore wants customers to feel that the meal they are eating is high-end restaurant quality.

People continue to look for solutions to their meal occasion problems – think needs-based occasion-driven segmentation. People purchase solutions for food occasions and food portions that change every day, solving for their daily needs.

If you do not want to cook or follow the recipes or open pre-measured packets, packages and packaging of Blue Apron, you will be focused on take-away meals. This continues to be a growing market.

The solution for mealtimes seems to be food that is ready for me when I want it, where I want it, so that the food meets my daily changing eating requirements. This appears to be what Amazon’s Whole Foods Daily Shop is hoping to address.

Whole Foods Daily Shop, like Daily Monop, is the store as lunch box, bento box, dinner box, food hamper. And, there is hyper-proximity: Whole Foods Daily Shop, like Daily Monop, will be local, focused and nearby; in other words, where you are or will be at this moment.

Whole Foods Daily Shop will be close. Closeness evokes “personal.” Additionally, Whole Foods Daily Shop will provide two additional benefits: modularity and mobility.

Modularity means food in individual pieces. This is partitioned food; food for sharing; food for saving. Food for now; food for later. Tastes that build on one another. There is a reason a Kit Kat bar is scored for easy partitioning.

Mobility means food that travels with me. This traveling food is always the right temperature; always the right fit for the moment.

Whole Foods Daily Shop may be the concept that makes its mark in grocery. Food hamper, hyper-proximity, modularity and mobility: the benefits that make meal-occasion decisions easy. Amazon certainly has the scale and scope to make this concept a reality.

Contributed to Branding Strategy Insider by: Joan Kiddon, Partner, The Blake Project, Author of The Paradox Planet: Creating Brand Experiences For The Age Of I

At The Blake Project, we help clients worldwide, in all stages of development, define or redefine and articulate what makes them competitive at critical moments of change, including defining a vision that propels their businesses and brands forward. Please email us to learn how we can help you compete differently.

Branding Strategy Insider is a service of The Blake Project: A strategic brand consultancy specializing in Brand Research, Brand Strategy, Brand Growth and Brand Education

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