The Ueber-Brands Podcast

Haven’s Kitchen is a Cooking School, Café, Shop, Event Space… and Headquarters to a budding packaged foods label in Chelsea, NYC. But founder Alison Cayne says it is really about being a place for gathering and gaining confidence by learning how to cook good food, simply – A life skill that has come in handy to the mother of five. You are forgiven to think “another one of those ‘wholesome food’ start-ups.” But this venture was started in 2011 when the average urbanite was just warming up...

German frozen foods brand FRoSTA ... and all of that without being required to do so. - Quite the opposite. It is FRoSTA that lobbies for laws that would provide more transparency on ingredients and methods across the industry. "Wow - This must be one of those premium-priced, artisinal Honest Food brands that makes Big Food industries' life miserable", you might think. But - wrong again. FR0STA is part of the traditional food industry establishment. As Felix Ahlers, CEO and Chairman of...

Tom Szaky tells us that him and fellow student Jon Beyer scratched together a few thousand dollars from friends, family and from winning some business plan competitions to buy a continuous-flow composting system from its inventor in 2002. The idea was to use worms to process the organic waste from the dining halls at their university - Princeton - and beyond into fertilizer. They called the company TerraCycle and Tom sketched what he described to us as "a stylized worm eating itself" to...

Douglas Atkin became interested in how some brands attract a cult-like following long before social media and digital brands became all the rage. He wrote a book about 'The Culting of Brands' in 2005. -- So it came as no surprise that he told the founders of Airbnb that he would rather research what drives commitment among the brand's loyal hosts and guests than do some strategy development exercise when they asked him for it in 2012. They liked the idea. In fact, they made him their Global...

Attaching a higher purpose to your product in your Promotions seems like the ‘flavor du jour,’ the latest ‘P’ in the Marketing Mix. We see Audi promote equal pay and Pepsi reconciliation, while Lush calls out police spying and Gillette ‘toxic masculinity.’ I admit, I have chosen these recent advertisements because they have so tremendously backfired that most readers will be aware of them and because they illustrate what happens when the so-called brand purpose turns out to be puffery… at...

In this interview Peter Rahal, co-founder of RXBAR tells us how the nutrition bar was conceived (in his kitchen, of course) and how it made its swift four-year ascent to becoming a brand so talked-about and appealing that Kellogg could not resist buying it for a whopping $600 million in 2017. This brand creation story seems seductively simple: A single-minded focus on a specific product offering missing in the market. A simple package and communication – a few ingredients on the front...

"I don't do 'experiences' or 'storytelling'... I hate when people say 'your package is beautiful'. We are not about 'status' ... we are all about selling the best product!" Such statements might surprise, coming from Ramdane Touhami, a serial creator of Prestige and Lifestyle brands who has more recently focused on transforming businesses long on history but short on relevance into coveted Prestige brands - notably Cire Trudon and Buly - that stand out offering inspired, total ......

Can the principles of Ueber-Branding be applied to B2B brands, to elevate them in the minds of professional buyers and make them ‘priceless’ … or at least less dependent on price? That’s a question we get asked quite a bit. The short answer is “Absolutely, Yes!” … But, we know, people are hungry for examples that illustrate the point, that talk about an industry “that is not sexy or high tech” and about “small companies with limited budgets.” That’s because many marketers feel that they are...

Can Ueber-Branding be applied to any industry and brand? How about people as Ueber-Brands? How do Ueber-Brands elevate themselves above the rest? How do they attract people? – Not only as buyers but as employees? … These are just some of the questions Patrick Brigger asked me in a recent interview for his blog getAbstract ‘life‘ … that tag meaning that I got to answer some personal questions, as well, which I will mostly spare you from listening to in this shortened edit (link to full...

'Brandless' is the only 'brand' you can buy at the eponymous e-grocer. As co-founder Tina Sharkey explains, young 'Brandless' is not about the absence of identity or meaning and being a brand in that sense. Rather, it is about changing the way in which a brand connects with constituents and is distributed. Which, in her words, is no less than a 'revolution' in which Brandless seeks to 'abolish the brand tax' (see chart below) used by 'regular brands' to make up stories (aka advertising) and...

‘Brandless’ is the only ‘brand’ you can buy at the eponymous e-grocer. As co-founder Tina Sharkey explains, young ‘Brandless’ is not about the absence of identity or meaning and being a brand in that sense. Rather, it is about changing the way in which a brand connects with constituents and is distributed. Which, in her words, is no less than a ‘revolution’ in which Brandless seeks to ‘abolish the brand tax’ (see chart below) used by ‘regular brands’ to make up stories (aka advertising)...

Victor and his wife Sarah are in love with making jeans the old, slow way in their Raleigh Denim Workshop. They sewed them themselves and proudly signed every pair when they started out in 2007. But in the meantime, they employ some two dozen people and 'getting to use the signing Shapie' has become a rite of passage, of sorts, to becoming one of them - a true 'jeans-smith'. And that's just one of the intriguing stories and quirky details Victor shares in our interview (click the play button...

Uwe Ellinghaus is CMO of Cadillac and on a mission to revive this icon of American luxury. But rather than starting with automobiles, his vision of Cadillac is one of "an experience that young people associate with modern luxury, ... of a brand that happens to also make cars.' That sounds like a page from our 'Ueber-Brands' research, so we dig deeper in our interview (click play button below). Ellinghaus tells us that he does not count on rekindling the flame of lapsed Boomer drivers or...

Yes, Burt really existed. The wild-bearded man on the brand's logo was a documentary photographer turned beekeeper after moving from Manhattan to Maine and leaving the trappings of a rather privileged upbringing behind him to live in a converted turkey coop in the backwoods (where he also died in 2015). But it is unlikely that you or I would ever hear about Burt and his bees and it is certain we would not be able to moisturize your lips with one of the iconic balms that bear their name, if...

David Batstone is not one to be easily typecast. As you learn more about David you might get a bit perplexed not only by the uncounted, very public projects in which he plays a leading role or the multitude of positions he holds but by their often different, seemingly opposing character: theology scholar, journalists, venture capitalist, ethics professor, businessman, human rights activist… Among many other things, David is Founder and President of ‘Not For Sale‘ a non-profit organization...

Patagonia is the quintessential Ueber-Brand. This brand is fascinating and we have written extensively about what we think drives and sustains its success in our latest book as well as on our blog. But it is quite another thing to hear it all directly from 'one of the family' - quite literally. For Vincent Stanley is not only Patagonia's 'Director of Philosophy', previously VP of Marketing and Communications as well as co-author with company founder Yvon Chouinard of "The Responsible...

Audemars Piguet is up there, even in the already elevated world of 'haute horlogerie' and the Swiss Alps. Le Brassus in the high valley of Joux is the birthplace and still the place of hand-crafting AP watches as Tim Sayler, Chief Marketing Officer of the brand is proud and precise in pointing out to us. And pride, precision and a strong sense of place are some of the key ingredients we talk, as we discuss what has made this brand and how it stays up there in the firmament of desired objects...

If you are familiar with the ‘Hero’s Journey’ as described by Joseph Campbell, then the trials and tribulations Johan Buelow went through to concoct and share the perfect batch of liquorice – and create a thriving company on the way – will sound mighty familiar. It … Continue reading →

What do if you like cocktail parties or ‘having a drink with the mates’ but not the alcohol that usually goes with them? Ben Branson often felt silly, sometimes socially stigmatized with his glass of (sugary) water, juice or ‘mocktail’ in hand – who … Continue reading →

One of the founders commented ‘You don’t know shxx from Shinola!‘ during a meeting – This is how an American saying lead to the rebirth of the formerly popular shoe polish it is referring to … at least according to Bridget Russo, CMO Shinola who shared … Continue reading →