FORWARD THINKING
Your Customers Aren’t Bored of Your Brand. You Are.
A brown Gap hoodie, a Skittles Pride pack, and the most expensive mistake in brand management....
Good, Better, Best Is Not a Portfolio Strategy
Most businesses think they have a portfolio strategy because they have a pricing ladder. They don't. They have price points. What MacBook Neo tells us about helping people choose....
Younger Drinkers Aren’t Killing Alcohol. They’re Exposing Lazy Thinking.
The drinks industry has spent years worrying that younger people don't drink. The bigger problem may be that too many drinks brands don't know what they're for. A new thought...
Apple in Three CEOs
Steve Jobs rebuilt belief. Tim Cook scaled it. Now John Ternus inherits one of the most valuable businesses in the world and faces the question that defines every third-era leader:...
The Beer Test
I'm standing at the bar of one of the finest hotels in the world. Marble everywhere. A wine list thick enough to use as a doorstop. I ask for a...
When Everything is High-Protein, Nothing Is
Part two of my Expo West thoughts. When every brand adds protein, protein stops being a point of difference. This piece looks at the protein arms race, why it leads...
When Did a Waffle Stop Being Enough?
At Expo West 2026 I overheard a conversation that perfectly captured the state of the food industry. A man looked at a waffle and asked, “But what does it do?”...
Natural Is Just a Claim. Regenerative Is an Advantage.
Natural used to mean something. Now it's everywhere — and when everyone claims purity, the signal collapses. The brands winning the next phase of food growth aren't being less bad....
The “Milk” War Is Over. Now the Brand War Begins.
If your brand relies on the word "milk" to explain what it is, you don't have a brand — you have a category description with a logo on it. The...
