A great brand delivers a lot, not just to lovers of the brand but also to its owner. Consider Apple’s price premiums and multiple brand extensions beyond its initial MAC computers. GE Health, through its R&D and savvy acquisitions, built a compelling brand with huge scale versus niche competitors. Service, sales and pricing advantages result. Its scale buys market protection as well, as many start-ups exit with a GE acquisition. And who, as a TOM’s Shoes employee, wouldn’t feel proud, loyal and excited to go to work? But how do we measure a great brand and compare brands’ relative strengths? What levers must those who manage brands move through their actions and investments? Deborah Macinnis of USC described three factors creating brand admiration in her webinar for Marketing Science Institute. The talk introduced Macinnis’ new book Brand Admiration: Building a Business People Love….
Top 5 Productivity Sinkholes
Whichever way you measure national productivity, it’s growing at a snail’s pace both in absolute terms and compared to past growth rates. (See Sidebar.) And that’s not a good thing as increases in productivity improve our standard of living. SIDEBAR: Measures of Productivity Labor productivity, the measure most often cited, captures the amount of goods and services produced (output) with the number of hours worked to produce those goods and services. Multi-factor productivity compares output to the amount of combined inputs (labor, capital, energy, materials, and purchased services) used to produce that output. Economists argue this measure better captures the impact of technology advances. Not all experts agree productivity is an issue. Bloomberg blogger and investment expert Barry Ritholtz argues that productivity is higher than we think because our current measures fail to capture innovations in the digital world that have changed how…