Robert Passikoff

Brand Keys

Robert Passikoff, Founder and President of Brand Keys, Inc., pioneered research in loyalty and engagement, creating the Brand Keys Customer Loyalty Engagement Index®,the Sports Fan Loyalty Index®, and the Women's Wear Daily Fashion Brand Engagement Index®. His first best-selling book, Predicting Market Success provides marketers a 21st century perspective on predictive loyalty metrics. His newest book is The Certainty Principle: How to Guarantee Brand Profits in the Consumer Engagement Marketplace.

No More "Kodak Moments"

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Posted on 2012-02-14

Kodak is going to stop doing what they were once the first to ever do. No, not produce Kodachrome. They stopped that 10 years ago. They’re stopping the manufacture of digital cameras.

“Did Kodak manufacture digital cameras?” I hear you ask. They invented digital back in 1975. But because they had a 90% share of the US film market they relied on film and developing chemicals to make a living. Digital remained an afterthought. Well, it’s not an afterthought any more. It’s more like the actual marketplace.

Yes, the competition got the better of them to the tune of Chapter 11 bankruptcy. So Kodak made it official: digital cameras, pocket video cameras, and digital picture frames will all be phased out in an effort to "focus on profitable lines of business.” And if you’re wondering what “profitable lines of business” they’re talking about, so are we!

Kodak says that it plans to license its name to other manufacturers. But if you’re stumped about who would choose...

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J.C. Penny’s, the ACME Department Store of the 21st century

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Posted on 2012-01-31

We were going to start today’s blog with a title in the form of a question. Something like, “Would you like a simpler system of price promotions when you go shopping?” or “Wouldn’t it be nice not to have to worry about coupons when you shop?”

We went with another title because the problem was that we couldn’t come up with a question where any rational consumer would have actually said “no.” We mean, come on, who wouldn’t answer “yes” to simpler pricing and not having to clip, save, and carry coupons.

But the reason we were having a problem coming up with a good "bad" question is that those are the questions we don't use, the kind that get you excellent answers to meaningless questions. All asked and collected properly, but not actually reflecting the emotional reality of the marketplace or the expectations of the consumer: a fact that Ron Johnson, the ex-Apple, new-J.C. Penney CEO might want to consider when making plans for the company.

Mr. Johnson announced...

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Borders Postmortem, A Failure of Loyalty

2 comments 1,953 reads

Posted on 2011-07-25

It's been said that a good book tells the truth about its hero and a bad book tells the truth about its author. But the liquidation of a 40 year-old bookstore chain ultimately tells the truth about the brand anad how it was managed.

Last Friday Borders bookstores began liquidation sales at their remaining 399 retail stores. Former Borders VP and Chief Merchandising Officer and current interim CEO, Mike Edwards, sent out an email to Borders Rewards customers, which was an interesting spin on events. But to paraphrase Oscar Wilde, a thing is not necessarily true because a brand dies for it, so here are some portions of his letter and some of our observations from a loyalty and engagement perspective.

"I want to personally thank you for your loyalty and support. . . "

Observation: What loyalty? It's been more than half a decade since Borders declared an actual profit, and has lost a billion + dollars since. That's occasional shopping,...

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