Category — Interviews
The New NASCAR
Steve Phelps navigates innovative pathways at NASCAR. By Tim Manners. Baseball, football, basketball, hockey — all are great American pastimes with amazing stories to tell. But it’s hard to name a sport more organically rooted in American popular culture than stock-car racing — popularized, as it was, by bootleggers trying to outrun revenuers in the 1930s and ’40s.
When that race ended, it was only the beginning of what is now, after football, the second-most watched sport. Today, the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing — NASCAR — claims tens of millions of fans across more than 150 countries.
And yet, as with any enterprise, keeping up demands new thinking. The 2008 economic meltdown was especially painful for NASCAR, striking as it did at the automotive industry, its very heart. Sponsorship and viewership flagged … read >>
January 3, 2012 Comments
Open Coke
After 125 years, Coca-Cola marketing chief Joe Tripodi says the best is yet to come. By Tim Manners. Five score and 25 years ago, John Pemberton devised a sweet, effervescent beverage, an innovative mix of syrup and carbonated water, flavored by coca leaves and kola nuts, which some believe he intended to market as a patent medicine.
The concoction actually was a variation on an earlier libation called Pemberton’s French Wine Cola, but prohibition prompted Pemberton to create a temperate version. Pemberton’s partner, Frank Robinson, came up with a catchy, alliterative name — Coca-Cola — and hand-lettered its logo in a fashionable Spencerian script.
Pemberton’s invention wasn’t exactly an instant sensation. During its first year, Coca-Cola sold only an average of nine glasses a day, at a nickel a glass, at Jacob’s Pharmacy in Atlanta. Today, however, using essentially the same logo and formula, Coca-Cola moves some 1.7 billion servings daily, and is widely regarded as the world’s most powerful brand … read >>
July 5, 2011 Comments
Procter on Purpose
Marc Pritchard of Procter & Gamble seeks deeper brand meaning. By Tim Manners. No longer is it good enough to make the best products. At Procter & Gamble, a brand is not a brand until it makes a difference in your life. A P&G brand must have a purpose that transcends its benefits.
This is why Pampers are now thinner, Tide is doing your dry cleaning and Mr. Clean wants to wash your car. Believe it or not, it’s also why you can smell like Isaiah Mustafa if you want to.
It may not be a new idea that a brand should solve your problems or make your life happier. But as Procter & Gamble marketing chief Marc Pritchard suggests, it is transforming the way marketing — if the term even still applies — is done at Procter & Gamble … read>>
May 2, 2011 Comments
Whole Goals
Michael Besancon of Whole Foods makes shopping good for you — and the planet. By Tim Manners. Coming out of the ‘60s, Michael Besancon was looking for something to do that would contribute to the betterment of the world. His search found its mark in June 1970, when he opened a vegetarian lunch counter at Follow Your Heart, an 800 square-foot natural-foods store.
Michael eventually bought the store with some partners and opened a second location before selling his interest some 16 years later. Being a serial entrepreneur, he went on to launch some restaurants, and then, in the early ‘90s, became a food broker.
One of his customers was a 27-store chain called Whole Foods Market, and Michael was smitten. “What attracted me to Whole Foods was the culture, because I was really not cut out for the corporate world,” says Michael. “I don’t like to be told what to do, and at Whole Foods you really determine your own destiny.”… read >>
March 1, 2011 Comments
Fun With Ford
Global marketing chief Jim Farley makes innovation the powertrain at Ford. By Tim Manners. The phone buzzes and it’s Jim Farley on the line. “Hey, Jim! How’re you doing?” “Me?” says Jim. “I’m high as a kite!” After a deft pause for comedic effect and a mischievous chuckle, Jim says he’s just having fun. “If we can’t have fun,” he says, “then what the heck!”
No question but that Jim Farley, global marketing chief of the Ford Motor Company, is having fun. And if he’s not high as a kite, he has every right to be. Two years after stunning the auto industry by leaving high-flying Toyota for low-hanging Ford, he and his compatriots do indeed seem to be defying gravity.
How did that happen? Well, it’s kind of complicated, but it does have a lot to do with a single, simple word: innovation … read >>
January 3, 2011 Comments
Born-Again Virgin
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Virgin Megastores sails where others sank. Dee Mc Laughlin tells how. An exclusive Q&A interview by Tim Manners. (more) |
January 7, 2008 Comments
Woz There, Done That
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Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak says good technologists are the best marketers. An exclusive HUB Q&A. (more) |
March 12, 2007 Comments
Hoo-Wii!
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Nintendo U.S. president and chief operating officer Reggie Fils-Aime on the hows and whys of Wii’s winning ways. An exclusive Q&A interview by Tim Manners. (more) |
March 5, 2007 Comments
National Football Intrigue
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Lisa Baird, senior vice-president of consumer products and marketing of the National Football League, says innovation is the name of the game. An exclusive Q&A interview by Tim Manners. (more) |
January 8, 2007 Comments
John Fleming
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March 6, 2006 Comments
