A Brand Built to Challenge, Not Conform
Back Market has become the UK’s largest refurbished‑tech retailer, yet brand awareness remains modest at roughly 18% in London and 13% nationwide. Head of Marketing Luke Forshaw emphasizes preserving a challenger mindset, refusing to soften the brand’s edgy tone despite market leadership. The company deliberately downplays price in its messaging, positioning sustainability and premium perception above discount cues. Its campaigns are crafted for out‑of‑home placements but engineered to travel organically online, and a recent visual refresh has cemented a consistent Mandara‑yellow, black‑white identity.
Culture Forces #1: The Rise of Trend Slop
The post introduces “trend slop,” a cultural force where leaders misuse generative AI to shortcut strategic decisions. It recounts a Krafton CEO who tried to evade a $250 million payout to Unknown Worlds by prompting ChatGPT for a takeover playbook, only...
Why Independence Is a Powerful Strategy
The Guardian’s brand team, led by Joel Midgley, is redefining how a legacy news outlet competes by treating platforms like Spotify and charities as direct rivals for audience attention and wallet share. A hyper‑focused outdoor campaign in New York—single‑city, high‑impact...
The Strategy Behind a Sleeping Giant
TomTom, one of only three global mapmakers alongside Google and Here, quietly launched its consumer device Tom by TomTom with the "Good Drivers Only" campaign. The $100‑priced unit focuses on alerts—speed cameras, hazards, traffic—rather than turn‑by‑turn navigation. Tayla Drew, head...
Nike VS ASICS; Why Culture Led Strategy Always Wins
Nike’s FY2025 revenue slipped 10% to $46.3 billion, with its Direct channel down 13% and Q3 gross margin falling to 40.2%. In contrast, ASICS posted FY2025 net sales of ¥810.9 billion (≈$5.9 billion), up 19.5%, and operating profit up 42.4%, while guiding another...
A Brand Reframing 50 Years of Heritage
Brompton’s chief marketing officer, Chris Willingham, has launched a global brand platform called “Life’s Unfolded” across 47 markets, shifting the narrative from the bike’s folding feature to the emotional experience of unfolding. He argues that marketers must translate brand equity...
Meta Spent $88 Billion on a Brand No One Asked For
Meta poured roughly $88 billion into its seven‑year Metaverse push, yet the platform never attracted more than about 900 daily active users. The effort failed because it tried to invent a new category without a clear consumer need, delivered a subpar...
Vinted: Turning Second Hand Clothes Into Gold
Vinted has turned the second‑hand clothing market into a growth engine, reporting $12.5 billion in gross merchandise volume (GMV) for 2024 and expanding into three new European markets last year. The platform’s unique model makes selling free for users and shifts...
How Jack Daniels Found Its Big Idea
Jack Daniel’s appointed Sophia Angelis as its first non‑US, female Managing Director in January 2020 and tasked her with modernising the heritage brand amid a global pandemic. She launched “Make It Count,” the company’s first truly global campaign, built on...