When Lookalikes Bite Back: What the Mondelez v. Aldi Lawsuit Says About Private Labels and Retail Strategy

When Lookalikes Bite Back: What the Mondelez v. Aldi Lawsuit Says About Private Labels and Retail Strategy

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 ROI Playbook: Measuring Marketing Success

The ROI Playbook: Measuring Marketing Success

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,...
Old-school service and new-school tech: A marriage made in food service heaven

Old-school service and new-school tech: A marriage made in food service heaven

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...
The ROI Playbook: 3 ways that marketing drives incremental profit

The ROI Playbook: 3 ways that marketing drives incremental profit

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,...
Let it snow, but don’t let a frozen marketing budget derail 2025 goals

Let it snow, but don’t let a frozen marketing budget derail 2025 goals

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...
Beat ‘em and join ‘em: Online retail needn’t be the enemy of brick-and-mortar

Beat ‘em and join ‘em: Online retail needn’t be the enemy of brick-and-mortar

The following is the final article in a 3-part series called “Attention Shoppers… The Competitive Strategy Approach to Addressing the Elephant in the Room of the Retail Crisis: The Customer Experience” One of the greatest retail debates of the last decade is over the...