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Insights

Notes and perspectives from the Value Proposition Studio.

Notes from the studio.

01 / Latest insights

Category design · Oct 8, 2026

GoPro built the action camera, then watched its crown become a standard

GoPro created and named a category, held about 75% of it, and fell to about 6% in three years. A Category King case on why the throne comes without tenure.

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No. 111Category designA king that lets its defining value become the entry ticket for the whole field has already started handing over the crown.October 8, 2026

Core values · Oct 5, 2026

Abercrombie & Fitch: from a premise that insulted to a premise that welcomes

In the 2000s Abercrombie & Fitch made exclusion its selling point, and by 2014 it was in decline. Under Fran Horowitz it changed its audience, its product and its tone, and reached record sales in the 2020s. A case on premise, repelling and the difference between filtering and insulting.

Core values · Sep 27, 2026

Coca-Cola Zero goes red: a textbook case of Value Swapping

In July 2026 Coca-Cola dressed Zero in the flagship red, finishing a move that began in 2016. How a brand keeps its core value and changes the product that carries it.

Lululemon

Positioning · Sep 21, 2026

Lululemon: a premise written by yoga teachers, and what happens when it gets wider

Lululemon grew by recruiting local instructors as the face of each store and selling to people who practised. Between 2024 and 2026 its home market stalled, rivals took share and the founder fought the board. A case on premise and the cost of widening it.

Pricing and scarcitySupreme: two owners in four years, and the arithmetic of selling scarcityVF Corporation bought Supreme for 2.1 billion dollars in 2020 and sold it to EssilorLuxottica for 1.5 billion in 2024. A case on why a brand whose product is the drop resists the growth plans that make acquisitions pay.Positioning
Birkenstock
Birkenstock: the orthopaedic sandal that fashion kept coming back toPortfolio and rhyming
Google
Google gives away platforms to protect the business that pays for themPremise, promise, proof
Blockbuster
Blockbuster earned millions from late fees and paid for them with its promiseValue to Market
A Value Proposition session with Tactical materials on the table
The 6% rule: what Meta's Metaverse teaches about upstream budgetPremise, promise, proof
No Man's Sky
No Man's Sky paid for its launch promise in a week and repaid it over ten yearsAdoption
Canva
Canva: the design tool that started from what users could not doPortfolio and rhyming
Xiaomi: how a phone company made a car rhymeCategory designTechnogym sold a word before it sold a machineIn the early 1990s a fitness equipment maker from Cesena put "The Wellness Company" on its logo and spent thirty years making the word true. A case on category design, and on what happens when your category's name becomes everyone's vocabulary.Pricing and scarcity
Labubu
Labubu: Pop Mart made the rare thing easy to get, and the value leftCore values
Brunello Cucinelli
Brunello Cucinelli: a value proposition built as a villagePositioning
Bud Light
Bud Light in 2023: one sponsored post, two audiences and an undeclared premiseChannelsThe Michelin Guide: a tyre company that gave people a reason to driveIn 1900 André and Édouard Michelin handed out a free guide for motorists. A case on building the channel that creates demand for your product, and the credibility that channel needs to survive.Pricing and scarcity
The Hermès Birkin: when the wait is part of what you buyCore values
Gucci
Gucci: three creative directors in three years, and the cost of resetting a housePortfolio and rhyming
Microsoft
Microsoft sold the same assets three times: as licences, as subscriptions, as cloudCategory design
Swatch
Swatch in 1983: the cheap plastic watch that changed what Swiss meantChannels
Nike
Nike went back to sport, and back to the shops it had leftPortfolio and rhyming
Sony
Why isn't Sony Spotify? The company that sold every format and missed the listeningRebrand
Meta
Meta named itself after a future, and a pair of glasses filled the namePremise, promise, proofBack to Starbucks: the room was the promise customers paid forBrian Niccol became Starbucks' chief executive in September 2024 and launched Back to Starbucks: a shorter menu, ceramic mugs, handwritten notes and more staff. A case on the third place as the brand's original promise.Portfolio and rhyming
Snap Spectacles
Snap Spectacles: ten years of a product looking for its place in the portfolioChannels
Tupperware: the party built the brand, and the brand never found another roomCore values
Tesla
Tesla in Europe: when the founder's public persona becomes a core valuePremise, promise, proofSouthwest made free bags a promise, then started charging for themIn March 2025 Southwest Airlines announced fees for checked bags after years of advertising that they flew free, and in January 2026 it ended open seating. A case on what a brand loses when the promise it breaks was also its proof.Pricing and scarcity
Costco: a membership card as the premise, a hot dog as the proofPortfolio and rhyming
Disney
Disney sells the same story in four registers, and each one sells the nextPremise, promise, proof
Moncler
Moncler: how a down jacket for mountaineers climbed into luxuryCategory design
A Diamond Is Forever: De Beers designed a category, and lab-grown stones are testing itAdoption
Peloton
Peloton built for the demand of 2020, and 2020 did not lastCore values
Harley-Davidson
Harley-Davidson: a brand worn as an identity, and the generation that wears itPremise, promise, proof
Gorillas: groceries in ten minutes, and the questions the promise raisedPositioningSamsung spent a decade mocking Apple, and Apple stayed the referenceFrom queue jokes in 2011 to the UnCrush ad in 2024, Samsung has made Apple the subject of its advertising, then quietly deleted some ads once it made the same choices. A case on adversarial bandwagoning and the frame a challenger borrows.Category design
On Running: a shoe that wears its proof, and a champion who paid to joinCategory design
Aperol Spritz
Aperol Spritz: Campari sold a time of day, and the bottle came with itPremise, promise, proof
Burberry
Burberry went back to the trench coat, one rung down the ladderRebrandOld Spice talked to the woman holding the basket, and an old brand found a new voiceIn February 2010 Old Spice launched an ad that addressed women about a men's body wash, and turned seventy years of age into a claim of experience. A case on choosing the recipient of a promise when the buyer and the user are different people.Pricing and scarcity
Magnum
Magnum: the stick ice cream that changed who it was forAdoption
Quibi raised 1.75 billion dollars for a moment that disappeared at launchRebrand
Cracker Barrel
Cracker Barrel: the Old Timer was an asset, and the redesign spent itPortfolio and rhyming
Ferrero and Kinder: how values pass down a family of brandsChannels
Astronomer
Astronomer: the whole world learned the name, and nobody knew what it soldCore values
Polaroid: the phone won the instant picture, and the slow print came backChannels
American Eagle
American Eagle: a promise about jeans, and the noise that came with itCore valuesAirbnb's Belong Anywhere: a value promise, and the fees at the last screenIn 2014 Airbnb rebuilt its brand around belonging. Over the following decade cleaning fees and checkout chores tested that promise, until the company changed how it shows prices. A case on core values and proof.Moat
ASML
ASML: a monopoly in lithography that still keeps digging its moatRebrand
Twitter
Twitter became X, and the verb went out with the birdPremise, promise, proof
Barilla: the brand that promised home, at home and abroadChannelsDuolingo: the owl is the channel, and in 2025 it carried two messagesIn February 2025 Duolingo staged the death of its mascot and won the internet for two weeks. In the spring an internal memo about becoming AI-first reached the same audience. A case on channels and the values a mascot carries.Positioning
GLP-1
GLP-1 and the food aisle: when the customer's job changes under the brandPositioning
Nintendo Wii
Nintendo Wii: the console that counted the people who did not playPricing and scarcity
Netflix
Netflix ended free password sharing and had its best year since 2020Positioning
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola at Christmas: the brand that arrives when the joy is already thereCore values
McDonald's
McDonald's has changed for fifty years, one value at a timePositioning
Ryanair
Ryanair tells some customers no, and fills its planes with the restMoat
Ferrari
Ferrari builds one car fewer than the market wants, and the wait is part of the carPremise, promise, proofIntel Inside: how a part nobody sees became a reason to buyIn 1991 Intel began paying PC makers to put its name on their ads and their machines. A case on proving an invisible component, borrowing the shelf of your customers, and what visibility costs when something goes wrong.Premise, promise, proof
WeWork
WeWork promised a higher consciousness and signed fifteen-year leasesCategory design
Dubai
Dubai chocolate: a category born on TikTok, and who gets to own itCore values
Victoria's Secret
Victoria's Secret: retiring the Angels, then bringing them back on new termsPremise, promise, proofDomino's read its worst reviews on air, and the new recipe did the restIn December 2009 Domino's ran ads in which its own executives read customers calling the pizza tasteless, then changed a recipe it had used for decades. A case on closing the gap between promise and perception, and on why the admission only worked because the product changed.Premise, promise, proof
Volvo
Volvo gave away its best safety invention, and made safety its moatPortfolio and rhyming
Fiat 500
Fiat 500, 2007: a relaunch that rhymed with 1957Adoption
Guinness
Guinness and Gen Z: a slow pint becomes a game, and the kegs run shortRebrand
Tropicana
Tropicana redesigned its carton and shoppers could no longer find itPremise, promise, proof
KFC's 'FCK': a chicken chain without chicken, and an apology that waited for the fixPortfolio and rhyming
Taylor's Version
Taylor's Version: how to out-build an asset you no longer ownAdoption
Amazon decides the pace of the conversation, and in 2025 it paid for the exitPremise, promise, proofStanley Quencher: same factory, new channel, a brand people wearStanley went from roughly 70 to 750 million without changing the product. A case on Cultural Resonance, the fourth rung of the Promise Ladder, and on what the channel does to a promise.Positioning
Volkswagen
Volkswagen, 'Think Small': a premise that told most buyers to look elsewhereChannels
Spotify Wrapped
Spotify Wrapped: the campaign customers publish for free every DecemberPortfolio and rhyming
Dyson: one engineering value, carried from vacuums to hair, and where it stoppedCategory designRed Bull: a Thai tonic, a new category, and the stories that sell the canRed Bull brought a Thai energy tonic to Austria in 1987, built the energy drink category in the West and then began producing the stories that sell it. A case on category design and channels.Moat
MoonSwatch
MoonSwatch: how Omega lent its legend and kept itCore values
Balenciaga
Balenciaga in 2022: a value without a boundaryCore values
Patagonia told customers not to buy its jacket, then gave the company awayPremise, promise, proof
Zara
Zara: speed is the promise, and the factory next door is the proofPositioning
YETI
YETI: a cooler priced like equipment, built for the guide and bought by everyoneChannels
Bottega Veneta
Bottega Veneta left social media in 2021, and the conversation stayedPositioning
The milkshake that competed with bananas and bagelsCategory designOatly: a carton that argued with the dairy aisle, and a café that proved itFrom 2012 Oatly rewrote itself as a voice against dairy, entered the US through coffee shops and went public in 2021, then struggled to turn the category it opened into profit. A case on category design and channels.Moat
Nintendo Switch 2
Nintendo Switch 2: the moat drained by the purchasing departmentCore values
New Coke
New Coke: the taste test was right, and the customers owned the valueVideo
Futurespective: framing a company's values from the futurePremise, promise, proofLiquid Death: the canned water that wins by telling you to go awayLiquid Death turned the purest commodity there is into a 1.4 billion brand with no product advantage. Its real asset is a premise that repels.Portfolio and rhyming
LEGO
LEGO went back to the brick, and its films and games finally rhymedAdoption
Google Stadia
Google Stadia: a promise of faith from a company with a public record of closuresPortfolio and rhyming
Kodak built a digital camera in 1975 and kept protecting filmCategory design
Nespresso: the same capsule failed in offices and won at homePremise, promise, proof
Jaguar Type 00
Jaguar Type 00 and the rungs a brand cannot skipPricing and scarcity
IKEA's flat pack: when the customer's effort is part of the price and the valueMoat
Absolut
Absolut: twenty-five years of ads about a bottleCore valuesGillette, 2019: one word kept, a value changed, and a split audienceIn January 2019 Gillette turned its thirty-year slogan into a question about men's behaviour. A case on evolving a core value, and on the risk of jumping to a new one in a single film.Moat
Rolex
Rolex explains nothing, and the market leans inRebrand
Gap's new logo lasted a week, because the blue box belonged to its customersPositioning
Häagen-Dazs: a Bronx ice cream with an invented Danish namePricing and scarcityErewhon: the 20 dollar smoothie that proves what it promisesA Los Angeles grocer sells celebrity smoothies at around 20 dollars and people film themselves buying them. A case on price as proof of a promise, and on where Erewhon sits on the Promise Ladder.Core values
Dove's Real Beauty
Dove's Real Beauty: twenty years on a value, and the cost of every slip in proofChannels
Dollar Shave Club
Dollar Shave Club changed how razors are sold, and the category followedCore values
Crocs
Crocs owned the ugly clog, and the punchline became a businessPremise, promise, proof
Burger King's Moldy Whopper
Burger King's Moldy Whopper: an ad that let the product rotCategory design
BlackBerry owned the keyboard, then the phone stopped needing oneCategory design
Nokia
Nokia sold four in ten of the world's phones and still lost the smartphonePortfolio and rhyming
Barbie
Barbie: the film that turned a doll into a franchise Mattel could tellPositioningAvis, 'We try harder': a promise built on admitting you are secondIn 1962 Avis told America it was only number two in car rental and turned that into its reason to be chosen. A case on an honest premise, a promise you can check, and the risks of defining yourself against the leader.Adoption
Apple Vision Pro: a flawless product nobody had a reason to useCore values
Think Different: Apple spoke its values a year before it could prove them