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Insights

Notes and perspectives from the Value Proposition Studio.

Notes from the studio.

01 / 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 scarcity
Supreme
Supreme: 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 toA German maker of contoured footbeds became a fashion staple, starred in the Barbie film and listed in New York in October 2023. A case on a premise that stayed still while the culture moved toward it.Portfolio and rhyming
Google
Google gives away platforms to protect the business that pays for themAndroid and Chrome cost their users nothing and carry Google's services to billions of screens. In 2026 Gemini is being pushed through the same channels. A case on the Platform Turn, and on the launches that never repeated into a beat.Premise, promise, proof
Blockbuster
Blockbuster earned millions from late fees and paid for them with its promiseIn 2000 Blockbuster collected about 800 million dollars in late fees and turned down the chance to buy Netflix for 50 million. A case on a revenue line that worked against the promise it was meant to serve.Value to Market
A Value Proposition session with Tactical materials on the table
The 6% rule: what Meta's Metaverse teaches about upstream budgetA healthy project spends 6% of its budget on the Value to Market strategy, upstream. Meta's Metaverse bet shows what happens when the downstream bill runs ahead of the value question.Premise, promise, proof
No Man's Sky
No Man's Sky paid for its launch promise in a week and repaid it over ten yearsHello Games launched No Man's Sky in August 2016 below what players had been led to expect, then spent a decade adding free updates until the game reached its highest player numbers. A case on the expectations gap and the slow arithmetic of proof.Adoption
Canva
Canva: the design tool that started from what users could not doCanva grew to more than 265 million monthly users by making design possible for people who were never trained in it. A case on adoption, on ability as the real bottleneck, and on what changes when a beginner's tool starts courting professionals.Portfolio and rhyming
Xiaomi: how a phone company made a car rhymeXiaomi went from software to phones, to a web of connected devices, to electric cars, and each step echoed the one before. A case on portfolio rhyming, and on what the rhyme cannot settle.Category design
Technogym
Technogym 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 leftPop Mart scaled Labubu production a hundredfold and watched resale prices halve. A case on scarcity as the product, and why adding supply can destroy the value it was meant to serve.Core values
Brunello Cucinelli
Brunello Cucinelli: a value proposition built as a villageCucinelli sells cashmere at the top of luxury and declares a philosophy of dignified work, then pays for it in wages, buildings and a school. A case on core values, costly proof, and what a short seller's report tests.Positioning
Bud Light
Bud Light in 2023: one sponsored post, two audiences and an undeclared premiseIn April 2023 a single Instagram partnership set off a boycott of Bud Light, which lost its place as America's best-selling beer within weeks. A case on premise, channel spillover and why a response that tries to please every audience can lose all of them.Channels
Michelin Guide
The 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 buyHermès has never sold the Birkin like an ordinary bag, and in 2024 a US lawsuit described its allocation as a requirement to buy other products first. A case on scarcity as the product and the price of access.Core values
Gucci
Gucci: three creative directors in three years, and the cost of resetting a houseUnder Alessandro Michele, Gucci's sales nearly tripled. Then came a quiet reset, a second change of designer and two years of steep decline. A case on how a fashion house can evolve its values without losing its audience.Portfolio and rhyming
Microsoft
Microsoft sold the same assets three times: as licences, as subscriptions, as cloudWindows and Office became Microsoft 365, the servers became Azure, and since 2023 Copilot is sold across all of it. In fiscal 2026 Azure passed 100 billion dollars of revenue. A case on a portfolio that climbs, and on the launches that had nothing to climb from.Category design
Swatch
Swatch in 1983: the cheap plastic watch that changed what Swiss meantIn March 1983, with the Swiss watch industry shrinking under cheap quartz competition, a plastic watch with 51 parts went on sale in Zurich. A brand history on category design, and on proof built into the way a product is made.Channels
Nike
Nike went back to sport, and back to the shops it had leftNike's push to sell direct cut back its wholesale partners, and by 2024 growth had stalled. A case on channels as part of the value proposition, and on the premise a brand returns to when it loses its footing.Portfolio and rhyming
Sony
Why isn't Sony Spotify? The company that sold every format and missed the listeningSony owned the Walkman, the CD and a record label, and still left music listening to Apple and Spotify. PlayStation shows what the same company does when it reads the job right.Rebrand
Meta
Meta named itself after a future, and a pair of glasses filled the nameIn October 2021 Facebook, Inc. became Meta and promised to be metaverse-first. Five years later the name is carried by glasses and AI. A case on what a company name holds, and on which way value flows between a parent brand and its products.Premise, promise, proof
Back to Starbucks
Back 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 portfolioSnap launched camera glasses in 2016, wrote down unsold stock a year later and kept releasing new versions. In June 2026 it opened preorders for 2,195 dollar AR glasses. A case on launches that rhyme, and launches that repeat.Channels
Tupperware: the party built the brand, and the brand never found another roomTupperware left the shops in the 1950s and sold through home parties for decades. When the parties faded the company tried the shelf twice, and in September 2024 it filed for bankruptcy. A case on a channel that carried the whole proposition.Core values
Tesla
Tesla in Europe: when the founder's public persona becomes a core valueTesla's European registrations fell steeply in 2025 while the electric car market grew. Several causes overlap, and one of them is the CEO's political profile. A case on what happens when a founder's persona becomes part of the brand's core values.Premise, promise, proof
Southwest
Southwest 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 proofCostco charges people for the right to shop, and has kept its hot dog and soda at 1.50 dollars since 1985. A case on a premise customers pay to accept, and on a proof anyone can check at the exit.Portfolio and rhyming
Disney
Disney sells the same story in four registers, and each one sells the nextFilms feed the parks, the parks feed the merchandise, and since 2019 streaming sits on top of all three. In March 2026 the head of the parks became Disney's chief executive. A case on the Flywheel, the portfolio pattern that rhymes because every part draws on one hub.Premise, promise, proof
Moncler
Moncler: how a down jacket for mountaineers climbed into luxuryMoncler was born in 1952 to equip people working at altitude. Under Remo Ruffini, from 2003, it became a luxury group with revenue above three billion euros. A case on climbing the Promise Ladder while keeping the first rung.Category design
A Diamond Is Forever: De Beers designed a category, and lab-grown stones are testing itIn 1947 four words tied the diamond to the engagement ring. Seventy years later a machine can grow the same stone. A case on category design and on a value that depends on a story.Adoption
Peloton
Peloton built for the demand of 2020, and 2020 did not lastLockdowns pushed Peloton's revenue past 4 billion dollars and its market value toward 50 billion, then the gyms reopened. A case on adoption, on demand that belonged to a moment, and on the premise that should have sized the factory.Core values
Harley-Davidson
Harley-Davidson: a brand worn as an identity, and the generation that wears itHarley-Davidson turned a motorcycle into a way of life, with owners' clubs, a sound and a look. A case on core values that tie a brand to one generation, read through LiveWire and the 2024 dispute over diversity policies.Premise, promise, proof
Gorillas: groceries in ten minutes, and the questions the promise raisedGorillas became a unicorn in under a year by promising groceries in about ten minutes, then cut jobs and was sold within two. A case on a benefit so strong that customers started looking for the catch.Positioning
Samsung 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 joinA Swiss start-up entered a running market led by giants, put its technology on the outside of the sole and took Roger Federer as a shareholder. A case on visible proof and the weight of an investor's money.Category design
Aperol Spritz
Aperol Spritz: Campari sold a time of day, and the bottle came with itAperol was a regional bitter from Padua until Campari bought it in 2003 and put all its weight behind one drink. A case on designing a category around a ritual, and on owning a recipe you cannot patent.Premise, promise, proof
Burberry
Burberry went back to the trench coat, one rung down the ladderAfter a hard 2023 and 2024, a new chief executive and an exit from the FTSE 100, Burberry's Burberry Forward plan returned to outerwear and British heritage. A case on core values and on the Promise Ladder of luxury.Rebrand
Old 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 forIn 1989 Unilever put a thick Belgian chocolate shell on an ice cream on a stick and sold it to adults. A case on perceived benefits, willingness to pay and the category that followed.Adoption
Quibi raised 1.75 billion dollars for a moment that disappeared at launchQuibi launched in April 2020 with premium shows cut into episodes under ten minutes, built for phones on the move, and shut down six months later. A case on a premise that rested on a context, and a new format the market had no way to learn.Rebrand
Cracker Barrel
Cracker Barrel: the Old Timer was an asset, and the redesign spent itIn August 2025 Cracker Barrel took the man leaning on the barrel out of its logo and reversed the decision about a week later. A case on the core values an old identity carries, and what a rebrand removes along with the drawing.Portfolio and rhyming
Ferrero and Kinder: how values pass down a family of brandsKinder carries Ferrero's trust and adds childhood; Kinder Surprise adds play on top of both. A case on value inheritance in an umbrella architecture, and on the 2022 recall that showed the same channels carry damage.Channels
Astronomer
Astronomer: the whole world learned the name, and nobody knew what it soldA Coldplay kiss cam made a data software company famous overnight in July 2025. A case on awareness without a proposition, and on how Astronomer pointed the attention back to its product.Core values
Polaroid: the phone won the instant picture, and the slow print came backPolaroid went bankrupt twice and stopped making film in 2008. A group of enthusiasts bought the last factory and relaunched a slower, less predictable product. A case on how a value wears out and how a new one can live in the same object.Channels
American Eagle
American Eagle: a promise about jeans, and the noise that came with itIn summer 2025 American Eagle built a campaign on a pun, 'Sydney Sweeney has great jeans', and found itself in the middle of a culture fight. A case on what the promise was, and what the channel noise added and cost.Core values
Airbnb'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 moatASML is the only company that makes the EUV machines advanced chips depend on. A case on a USP-led strategy, and on why even a unique machine is defended with customers, suppliers and shared roadmaps.Rebrand
Twitter
Twitter became X, and the verb went out with the birdIn July 2023 Twitter replaced its bird with an X and renamed tweets as posts. A case on the brand assets a rebrand can throw away, and on what a name carries that a logo does not.Premise, promise, proof
Barilla: the brand that promised home, at home and abroadIn Italy Barilla sells the family table; in the United States it sells Italy. A case on a fourth-rung promise, the narrow room it leaves, and what happens when a promise built for one market is read in another.Channels
Duolingo
Duolingo: 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 brandWeight-loss drugs such as Ozempic and Wegovy changed how millions of people eat, and food brands rushed to reposition. A case on positioning when the customer's jobs move, read through Nestlé's Vital Pursuit and the 'GLP-1 friendly' label.Positioning
Nintendo Wii
Nintendo Wii: the console that counted the people who did not playIn 2006 Nintendo launched a console with less power than its rivals, at half the price of the PlayStation 3, and sold more than 100 million. A case on a premise written for non-customers, and on how hard it is to keep them.Pricing and scarcity
Netflix
Netflix ended free password sharing and had its best year since 2020In 2023 Netflix began charging for accounts shared outside the household, against widespread predictions of a backlash, and added about 29.5 million subscribers that year. A case on pricing and on what customers were really paying for.Positioning
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola at Christmas: the brand that arrives when the joy is already thereFor almost a century Coca-Cola has placed itself inside moments people already love, from Sundblom's Santa to the Christmas trucks. In 2024 and 2025 it remade the trucks with generative AI, and the reaction showed where this kind of brand power is fragile.Core values
McDonald's
McDonald's has changed for fifty years, one value at a timeCalorie counts, espresso, fresh beef and a return to the value meal: McDonald's has added values under pressure without dropping the ones its customers came for. A case on how values evolve over long horizons.Positioning
Ryanair
Ryanair tells some customers no, and fills its planes with the restRyanair has never pretended to offer comfort: a low fare, a paid extra for everything else, and a social media voice that teases its own passengers. A case on the premise as a business model, and on how far a premise can be stretched.Moat
Ferrari
Ferrari builds one car fewer than the market wants, and the wait is part of the carFerrari has kept supply below demand for decades, with waiting lists and limited series offered to buyers chosen by their history with the brand. A case on scarcity as part of the promise, and on a moat made of time.Premise, promise, proof
Intel 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 leasesWeWork reached a 47 billion dollar valuation in January 2019, withdrew its IPO that September and filed for bankruptcy in November 2023. A case on a promise, an offer and a business model that described three different companies.Category design
Dubai
Dubai chocolate: a category born on TikTok, and who gets to own itA small Dubai chocolatier made a pistachio and kataifi bar, the internet named it after a city, and within a year the big chocolate makers were selling their own. A case on who owns a category born on social media, and scarcity as the product.Core values
Victoria's Secret
Victoria's Secret: retiring the Angels, then bringing them back on new termsIn 2021 Victoria's Secret retired its Angels and replaced them with a collective of accomplished women. In 2024 the runway show returned, Angels included, with a different cast and framing. A case on Value Swapping: when to change a value and when to change only what carries it.Premise, promise, proof
Domino's
Domino'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 moatIn 1959 Volvo fitted Nils Bohlin's three-point seatbelt and opened the patent to other carmakers. A case on proof as the moat behind a promise, and on what it costs to keep one for sixty years.Portfolio and rhyming
Fiat 500
Fiat 500, 2007: a relaunch that rhymed with 1957Fiat presented the new 500 in Turin on 4 July 2007, fifty years to the day after the original. A case on portfolio rhyming, a name that carries a family, and how far a rhyme can stretch.Adoption
Guinness
Guinness and Gen Z: a slow pint becomes a game, and the kegs run shortBetween 2023 and 2025 young drinkers in Britain turned the Guinness pour into a social ritual, and in December 2024 Diageo had to limit what some pubs could order. A case on rituals, adoption and what a shortage tests.Rebrand
Tropicana
Tropicana redesigned its carton and shoppers could no longer find itIn 2009 Tropicana removed the orange with a straw from its Pure Premium carton. Sales fell about 20% in under two months and the old pack came back. A case on the assets customers use to find you on a shelf.Premise, promise, proof
KFC's 'FCK': a chicken chain without chicken, and an apology that waited for the fixIn February 2018 a change of delivery partner closed most of KFC's restaurants in the UK. A week later the chain apologised with three rearranged letters on an empty bucket. A case on repairing a broken promise in the right order.Portfolio and rhyming
Taylor's Version
Taylor's Version: how to out-build an asset you no longer ownTaylor Swift lost the masters of her first six albums and re-recorded them. Read as music on a staff, it is the cleanest rhyme in recent business history.Adoption
Amazon decides the pace of the conversation, and in 2025 it paid for the exitOne click, Prime and a cancellation flow regulators called a trap: Amazon built its value on controlling how customers interact with it. A case on the regulator posture, its power and the line where control turns into backlash.Premise, promise, proof
Stanley 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 elsewhereIn 1959 Doyle Dane Bernbach sold the Beetle to an America that wanted big cars by saying plainly what the car was. A case on an honest premise, a refused value, and proof you can picture.Channels
Spotify Wrapped
Spotify Wrapped: the campaign customers publish for free every DecemberSince 2016 Spotify has handed each listener a summary of their year, and since 2017 it has called it Wrapped. A case on channels and proof built from the customer's own data.Portfolio and rhyming
Dyson: one engineering value, carried from vacuums to hair, and where it stoppedDyson moved from vacuum cleaners to fans, hairdryers and stylers on the strength of one value, and made that value visible in every product. A case on product proof, portable value, and the two launches that found its limit.Category design
Red 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 itIn March 2022 Swatch and Omega put the Speedmaster's design into a colourful Bioceramic watch at a fraction of the price, and Speedmaster sales rose. A case on bridges between brands and the perimeter that protects the original.Core values
Balenciaga
Balenciaga in 2022: a value without a boundaryIn November 2022 two Balenciaga campaigns, one with children holding teddy-bear bags and one with a court ruling on child abuse imagery among the props, set off a global backlash. A case on core values, the limits they need, and the decisions that followed.Core values
Patagonia told customers not to buy its jacket, then gave the company awayOn Black Friday 2011 Patagonia ran a full-page ad in The New York Times that said 'Don't Buy This Jacket'. In 2022 its owners transferred the company to a trust and a nonprofit. A case on proofs that cost, and values that hold under pressure.Premise, promise, proof
Zara
Zara: speed is the promise, and the factory next door is the proofZara built its value proposition on newness, then made the supply chain carry the evidence: design near the stores, production close to Spain, deliveries twice a week. A case on proof that lives in operations.Positioning
YETI
YETI: a cooler priced like equipment, built for the guide and bought by everyoneTwo Texan brothers took the cheapest object on a fishing trip and priced it like equipment. A case on a premise written for a few serious users, and on what stays defensible once the design is copied.Channels
Bottega Veneta
Bottega Veneta left social media in 2021, and the conversation stayedIn January 2021 Bottega Veneta deleted its Instagram, Facebook and Twitter accounts without explanation. A case on a channel decision read as a value, and on letting other people carry your brand.Positioning
The milkshake that competed with bananas and bagelsClayton Christensen's best-known teaching story is about a fast-food chain that tried to sell more milkshakes by asking buyers what they wanted. A reading of the anecdote, what it teaches about competition, and how to use it without treating it as data.Category design
Oatly: 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 departmentWith the Game-Key Card, Nintendo turned the cartridge into a key that points to a download. A lesson in how companies empty their own moats.Core values
New Coke
New Coke: the taste test was right, and the customers owned the valueIn April 1985 Coca-Cola replaced its formula with a sweeter one that had won blind taste tests, and brought the original back 79 days later. A case on core values that belong to the customer, and what research cannot see.Video
Futurespective: framing a company's values from the futureHoang Huynh's assignment for the MIT Leadership and Innovation Masterclass (2019): an exercise in framing, using a futurespective to communicate values and company vision.Premise, promise, proof
Liquid Death
Liquid 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 rhymedIn the early 2000s LEGO diversified into parks, in-house games and toys with few bricks in them, and came close to collapse. A case on portfolio rhyming and on returning to the core you already own.Adoption
Google Stadia
Google Stadia: a promise of faith from a company with a public record of closuresStadia launched in November 2019 as console-free gaming in the cloud and closed in January 2023 with full refunds. A case on adoption, and on trust as an asset a company carries into every launch.Portfolio and rhyming
Kodak built a digital camera in 1975 and kept protecting filmA Kodak engineer built a digital camera prototype in 1975, and Kodak filed for bankruptcy in 2012. A case on the portfolio a company protects, and the value its customers carried somewhere else.Category design
Nespresso: the same capsule failed in offices and won at homeNestlé launched Nespresso in 1986 and struggled for years, until the business stopped selling an office machine and started building a category: espresso at home, sold through a club and later through boutiques. A case on category design and the moat after the patents.Premise, promise, proof
Jaguar Type 00
Jaguar Type 00 and the rungs a brand cannot skipJaguar replaced its whole value set in one stroke and claimed an identity it had no proof for. Read through the Promise Ladder, the rebrand is a jump over every rung in between.Pricing and scarcity
IKEA's flat pack: when the customer's effort is part of the price and the valueIKEA has shipped furniture in flat boxes since the 1950s and asks customers to build it themselves. A case on effort as part of the value proposition, and on what researchers named the IKEA effect.Moat
Absolut
Absolut: twenty-five years of ads about a bottleFrom 1980 TBWA ran more than 1,500 print ads for Absolut, and nearly every one starred the bottle. A case on a product you cannot see, an asset you can, and the discipline of one format.Core values
Gillette, 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 inRolex publishes no figures, changes its watches slowly and appears only where excellence has rules. A case on the steeple, the power figure of a brand that assumes its legitimacy, and on what it costs to keep the posture.Rebrand
Gap's new logo lasted a week, because the blue box belonged to its customersIn October 2010 Gap replaced its blue box logo with a new wordmark and brought the old one back about a week later, after an online backlash. A case on the assets customers feel they own, and on asking them to fix what you changed.Positioning
Häagen-Dazs: a Bronx ice cream with an invented Danish nameIn 1960 Reuben and Rose Mattus gave their dense, expensive ice cream a name that means nothing in any language and sounded like Scandinavia. A case on borrowing a value from elsewhere, and on the product work that made it the brand's own.Pricing and scarcity
Erewhon
Erewhon: 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 proofIn 2004 Dove moved its brand from product claims onto a value: real beauty. A case on a brand that lives on one value, and on what happens when the proof around it slips.Channels
Dollar Shave Club
Dollar Shave Club changed how razors are sold, and the category followedA 2012 video, a monthly subscription and a one-dollar price took on Gillette's hold on the razor market. Unilever bought the company in 2016 and sold a majority stake in 2023. A case on a channel and a price that became the category's premise.Core values
Crocs
Crocs owned the ugly clog, and the punchline became a businessCrocs went from a 2008 loss and years of jokes to record sales by leaning into the shoe everyone mocked. A case on a rejected value turned into a premise, on identity, and on the channels that carried both.Premise, promise, proof
Burger King's Moldy Whopper
Burger King's Moldy Whopper: an ad that let the product rotIn February 2020 Burger King filmed a Whopper decaying for over a month to announce it had removed artificial preservatives. A case on proof that costs the brand something, and on what such a proof commits you to.Category design
BlackBerry owned the keyboard, then the phone stopped needing oneBlackBerry led the early smartphone market with a physical keyboard and secure email for companies. After the iPhone the premise of the category changed, and the strengths that had built the lead stopped counting.Category design
Nokia
Nokia sold four in ten of the world's phones and still lost the smartphoneAt the end of 2007 Nokia estimated it held 40% of the global handset market. Six years later it sold its phone business to Microsoft. A case on how the strengths that protect a leader can hold it in place.Portfolio and rhyming
Barbie
Barbie: the film that turned a doll into a franchise Mattel could tellIn July 2023 Greta Gerwig's Barbie became the year's biggest film, and Mattel presented it as proof that its toys are intellectual property. A case on portfolio rhyming and on the cultural promise a franchise then has to keep.Positioning
Avis
Avis, '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 useThe Vision Pro had the best designer, the strongest brand and excellent execution. The MOA Model explains why the market still did not come.Core values
Think Different: Apple spoke its values a year before it could prove themIn 1997 Apple was losing money, its catalogue was a maze, and its first big campaign after Steve Jobs' return showed no computer at all. A case on core values as the first asset of a turnaround.