A cookie is never just a cookie – especially when it’s wrapped in decades of brand equity. Last month Mondelez International Inc., maker of iconic packaged food brands like Oreo and Ritz, filed suit against Aldi supermarkets, alleging that Aldi’s store-brand cookies...
The top 6 of the metrics that matter Part 3 of the “Marketing as a Profit Center” Series In the first two articles of our series, we established that marketing must move beyond vague goals like “brand awareness” or “engagement.” To become a true profit center,...
3 ways to effectively balance digital tools with the food and service your customers love Until recently, restaurants operated with a simple formula: stock up, serve fast, and keep loyal customers coming back. Fast forward to 2025, and restaurant consumers still...
For too many businesses, marketing remains an expense item—a necessary cost of doing business – not a strategic driver of profit. But what if marketing wasn’t just an expense? What if, instead, it operated as a profit center—accountable for delivering measurable,...
If end-of-year sales results against the 2024 marketing budget were lackluster, it may be time to shift thinking on budget planning. For decades, a rule-of-thumb for setting marketing budgets has reliably been a simplistic percentage-of-previous-sales formula. We’re...
6 ways to optimize marketing ROI during economic uncertainty Depending on whom one asks, anywhere from 30 to 35 percent of North American firms plan to increase marketing budgets for 2025 – apparently the lowest number to do so of any region in the world. Why the...
