This industry vertical will explore the ways that brands are using data and personalization to enrich the customer experience and distinguish themselves from the other brands in the entertainment and sports category.

As a competitive Asian Type-A perfectionist, admitting I’m wrong can be painful.  But discovering I was wrong about some developments in the business world has actually led me to learn some valuable lessons.  I thought you might benefit from my new insights, so here are six calls I got wrong starting with McDonald’s All-Day Breakfast:

#1 McDonald’s All-Day Breakfast.  Last year, Stuart Varney, of FOX Business TV’s Varney & Co., asked me if I thought McDonald’s decision to serve breakfast all day would boost its brand.  I told him McDonald’s would see a short spike in sales because of the novelty, but then its business would go back to struggling.  Given that other brands had been serving all-day breakfast for years and given that McDonald’s had made only certain breakfast items available at certain locations, I didn’t think it would make a substantive difference.

What I didn’t factor in was that breakfast items would serve as alternatives for people who don’t like any of McDonald’s other products.  By making some of its most popular products available throughout the day, the company ended up boosting its overall sales 5% in Q4 of 2015 and they continued to rise 6.2% in the first quarter of 2016.

–> Lesson learned:  Don’t judge a solution by its face value.  If I had thought more broadly about how all-day breakfast might address McDonald’s other problems, I wouldn’t have been so quick to dismiss it as a solution.

#2 Starbucks VIA.  Back in 2009, Starbucks started selling VIA, its instant coffee products, and I cried “foul!”  Actually a colleague of mine wanted to write a guest post on my blog deriding the decision and I happily supported him because I agreed with him completely.  Our POV was grounded in the insight that the Starbucks brand was about more than just the coffee — it was (and still is) about the experience — and so, we believed packaged instant was an inadequate representation of the brand.  Our case was supported because this development arose when Starbucks was suffering from overexpansion and lots of other brand dilution problems.

We might have been the only two people on the planet that thought this — everyone else was buying VIA.  In its first 10 months alone, VIA sales were over $100 million — and it has only grown in popularity, with dozens of product varieties available and retail distribution expanding.  My personal confession is that I am sipping a VIA Instant Caramel Latte as I write this post.

–> Lesson learned:  Don’t underestimate a great brand — and a great leader.  Starbucks was able to pull off the VIA feat because CEO Howard Schultz and his team were committed to ensuring the product would be up to the standards of the brand.  They also knew their customers well enough to know VIA would make the brand more convenient, accessible, and affordable without cannibalizing store sales.

#3 REI Black Friday.  When the outdoor retailer REI announced last fall it was closing all its stores on Black Friday and paying employees to “head outside,” I praised the decision but predicted in a FierceRetail op-ed it “may be costly in the short-term due to the loss of sales, but it will almost certainly build great value for the brand in the long run.”  I’m so glad I was wrong about the first part of my prediction.  REI ended up experiencing a 10% bump in online traffic on Thanksgiving, a 26% rise on Black Friday, and 9.3% increase in revenues for 2015 as a whole.  And they just announced they are repeating and expanding the effort this year.

–> Lesson learned:  Expect customers to do the right thing.  While I’m sure some of REI’s success was due simply to the increased brand awareness generated by the extensive press coverage of its decision, the results also reveal how people are changing their purchasing behavior to align with their values.  I should have given shoppers more credit and expected them to reward REI for courageously living by its values.

#4 Domino’s Pizza Turnaround.  Remember when Domino’s ran those ads announcing their new pizza recipe?  The videos included footage from focus groups showing customers ragging on the chain’s pizza and Domino’s employees recounting all the negative feedback they’d gotten about their products through the years.  I railed on the company in a blog post saying, “By declaring how bad their pizza has been, Domino’s is essentially saying to its customers ‘you suck’…we’re made to feel like idiots for having bought the stuff…This violates one of the primary rules of brand communications I learned early on in my career.  That is, always make your customers feel like heroes.”

I don’t think I was wrong about that last point, but the company did manage to turn itself around.  It’s enjoyed significant improvements in customer satisfaction, company revenue, and business growth in the last few years in large part due to the Pizza Turnaround campaign.

–> Lesson learned:  Honesty and humility really stand out in a world where puffery and promotion are the norm.  I didn’t realize the company’s self-assessment and sincere apology would offset any potential backlash.

#5 Target CEO Brian Cornell.  I wasn’t optimistic when former Pepsico executive Brian Cornell was named as the CEO to revive Target.  I didn’t think a packaged-goods guy known for relying on analytics and data-driven decision-making would get the finesse of the Target brand.  I thought he’d emphasize improving the chain’s e-commerce capabilities and ignore the brand’s primary asset, its stores.   But he’s managed to do both — and to make a whole host of other changes that have turned the company’s fortune around.

–> Lesson learned:  As with Starbucks, I had underestimated Target and Cornell.  Hope I’ve learned my lesson.

And #6, the hardest to swallow — Donald Trump.  In my predictions for Brands to Watch in 2016, I wrote, ” Donald Trump most certainly won’t be the Republican Party nominee but what happens between now and when it comes time for him to disappear will be entertaining and educational about politics and culture today.”  It’s clear how wrong I was.

–> Lesson learned:  I’ve stayed away from political commentary since I got some backlash from what I thought was an innocuous article I had written last fall about Trump, so I hesitate to get into it too much now.  But since I really do want to share helpful insights for brand-builders, here are the brand-building conclusions I think can be learned from Trump’s ascendancy and Clinton’s loss:

• A polarizing brand is OK — and in fact, may be an asset — as long as those who love you out-number those who hate you.
• People have short and/or selective memories — and with the speed at which the news cycle spins these days, it’s easy to change the prevailing narrative.
• Don’t take your core customers (or supporters as the case may be) for granted.  If you don’t continue to cultivate rich and valuable relationships with them, they can be lured away.
• If people want something badly enough (like they wanted change in the case of the election). they will pursue it despite consequences.
• Marketers have been taught to avoid appeals based on F.U.D. — fear, uncertainty, and doubt– but if it’s veiled beneath a spirit of pride, power, and potential, it just might work.

What about you?  Care to share a call you got wrong and what you learned?  Don’t let me be the only one with egg on my face.  Please use the Comments section below.

The post mcdonald’s all-day breakfast and other calls i got wrong appeared first on Denise Lee Yohn.

Just a few of the intriguing headlines involving members of the TED community this week:

Advances in treating spinal cord damage. In Nature, Grégoire Courtine and a team of scientists announced that they had successfully used a wireless brain-spine interface to help monkeys with spinal cord damage paralyzing one leg regain the ability to walk. Compared to other similar systems, the wireless component is unique, allowing the monkeys to move around freely without being tethered to electronics. Speaking with The New York Times, Courtine emphasized that the goal of the system is not to fix paralysis, but rather to have better rehabilitation for patients. (Watch Grégoire’s TED Talk)

A new instrument to shed light on distant planets. A team of scientists and engineers, including TEDster Jeremy Kasdin, have used a new instrument to isolate and analyze the light emitted by planets orbiting nearby stars. The instrument, CHARIS, was designed and built by Kasdin’s team. By analyzing the light emitted by the planets, researchers are able to determine more details about their age, size and atmospheric composition. This operation was a test run, and is part of a larger scientific effort to find and analyze exoplanets. (Watch Jeremy’s TED Talk)

Bendable, morphing wings for aircraft. In Soft Robotics, Neil Gershenfeld and a team of researchers describe a new bendable, morphing wing that could create more agile, fuel-efficient aircraft — as well as simplify the manufacturing process. A long time goal of researchers, previous attempts used mechanical control structures within the wing to deform it, but these structures were heavy, canceling out any fuel-efficiency gains, and they added complexity. The new method makes the entire wing the mechanism and its shape can be changed along its entire length by activating two small motors that apply a twisting pressure to each wingtip. (Watch Neil’s TED Talk)

A deadly Ebola mutation. New research suggests that a mutation in the Ebola virus may be responsible for the scale of the epidemic that began in 2013 in West Africa. The research, conducted by a team of researchers that included TEDster Pardis Sabeti, showed that roughly 3 months after the initial outbreak, and about the time the epidemic was detected, the virus had mutated. The mutation made the virus better suited for humans than its natural host, the fruit bat, which may have allowed the virus to spread more aggressively. Working independently, another team of researchers came to a similar conclusion, but the role of the mutation in Ebola’s virulence and transmissibility still needs to be clarified. (Watch Pardis’ TED Talk)

The future of transportation. Bjarke Ingels’ firm (BIG) released its design plans for a hyperloop system that would connect Dubai and Abu Dhabi in just a 12 minutes, a journey that now takes more than two hours by car. With a system of autonomous pods, the group hopes to eliminate waiting time; their design reveal includes conceptual images and video showing from start to finish what the passenger experience would be like. BIG made the designs for Hyperloop  One, one of the companies racing to make Elon Musk’s concept a reality. (Watch Bjarke’s TED Talk)

The world’s tallest tropical trees. Greg Asner has identified the world’s tallest tropical tree using laser scanning, along with 50 other record-breakers. The tree, located in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, stands at 94.1 meters tall or, as Asner said for comparison, about the height of five sperm whales stacked snout-to-fluke. He measured the tree using a laser scanning technology called LIDAR (for Light Detection and Ranging), and since the measurement was taken remotely, they are unsure of the exact species of the tree, but think it is likely in the genus Shorea. Discoveries aside, Asner is still analyzing this new data about the forests, which he hopes to make publicly available so that policymakers can make more informed conservation plans. (Watch Greg’s TED Talk)

Have a news item to share? Write us at [email protected] and you may see it included in this weekly round-up.

By Gary Larkin, Research Associate, The Conference Board Governance Center Over the summer, one of the most interesting pieces of corporate governance literature was the Commonsense Corporate Governance Principles. The publication was the result of meetings between a group of leading executives of public companies, asset managers, a public pension fund, and a shareholder activist.  […]

By Marcel Bucsescu and Matthew Waxman This post originally appeared on LawFare on Sept. 19, 2016. On September 13, 2016, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced a set of proposed cybersecurity regulations for financial services companies that fall under the jurisdiction of the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYSDFS): Cybersecurity Requirements for Financial […]

The post Happy Thanksgiving! appeared first on The Good For You Network.

Ingredients:

-Organic cranberries
-Cascadian Farms* 100% organic apple juice concentrate

Optional:
-Strawberry liquor
-Orange liquor
-Fruit slices

Cooking Instructions:

-In a saucepan, slowly heat up the apple juice concentrate until it boils
-Lower the heat, add a package and a quarter of organic cranberries
-Cover and let simmer
-Within 3-4 minutes, take off stove and let cool
-Transfer to a glass jar or storage container and refrigerate

Why it’s Good for You:
-Cranberries: Contain antioxidants and anti-inflammatory compounds that promote brain health, are good for heart health, help to prevent urinary tract infections and boost mouth and dental health
-Apple juice concentrate: High in potassium and may help lower blood pressure, is high in Vitamin C, which may improve the body’s ability to heal, and Vitamin A, which is good for the eyes and skin

*Or any brand like it that is pure organic apple juice concentrate with no white sugar added

The post Good for You Cranberry Sauce: No White Sugar Added appeared first on The Good For You Network.

The Directors’ Collective™ has published the first installment of its Director Notes India series, Providing Guidance on Related Party Transactions. The publication is intended to be a resource for directors, general counsels, and company secretaries with regards to the new legal framework and corporate governance regime on related party transactions under the Companies Act, 2013 […]

In the latest video from Don’t Panic and PETA UK, Londoners were asked to try a new milk. They were more than happy to offer praise for the creamy drink, but when a disturbing “fact” about the milk was revealed, everything changed.

People were disgusted when they were told that the drink (which, we stress, was actually soya milk) came from a dog. But if the thought of drinking dogs’ milk makes you feel ill, why drink the milk from any other animal? After all, there is nothing “normal” about artificially inseminating a cow and forcing her to give birth, only to tear her beloved calf away from her so that the milk that nature intended for her baby can be consumed by humans instead. Humans are the only species on the planet to drink another animal’s milk, and cows’ milk is no more natural for us than dogs’ or rats’ milk would be.

Press: PETA Prank Points Out That Drinking the Milk of Another Species is Nasty London – A focus group for “Barker’s Farmhouse Milk” starts off on a positive note, with praise for the creamy white beverage – but once the taste-testers are told they’re drinking “dog’s milk,” the atmosphere curdles, and one woman cries out in dismay, “Would you ever drink that madness?”

The new prank video comes courtesy of PETA and asks,”‘Dog’s’ milks, cats’ milk, rats’ milk, cow’s’ milk – what’s the difference?

“Humans are the only species on the planet that drinks another animal’s milk, and cows’ milk is no more natural for us than dogs’ milk”. “Whether from a dog, a pig, a rat or a cow, the thought of drinking another species’ milk should turn anyone’s stomach”,” says PETA Director Elisa Allen. “PETA’s prank video reminds consumers that when it comes to milk, plant-based is best.”

PETA teamed up with top London creative agency Don’t Panic for the new campaign, which used soya milk in its production. Plant-based milks made from soya, coconut, almonds, oat, hemp and more contain none of the artery-clogging animal fat and cholesterol of cows’ milk, which also often contains traces of pus and bacteria from cows’ infected udders. Plant-based milks also spare cows from a lifetime of being forcibly impregnated until their bodies give out and they’re slaughtered for cheap meat.

CREDITS:
Agency: Don’t Panic London
Client: PETA UK
Project Lead: Ellie Moore
Creative Lead: Tom Loader & George McCallum
Director/Producer: Errol Ettienne
Design: Paul Howard & Chris Seaborn
Editor: David Graham
Grade: David Graham
Camera: Jake Martin, Elliot Felton & Oliver Morton

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By Katie Paine One of the more frequent requests we get here at Paine Publishing headquarters is: “Are there any industry benchmarks we can check so we know whether our numbers are good or bad?” My standard response is, “No. The only things you should be benchmarking against are your peers in your industry and […]