Positioning Is an Exercise in Selective Destruction
The first time I heard Neil Young’s Archives Volume One on Blu-ray, I expected nothing more than background music. I had heard “After The Gold Rush” a hundred times. But…
Richard Why the Better Product Lost (A Fable)
In the Church of Dubious Miracles, a man once sold empty jars. Every Saturday he carried a wooden crate into the town square, climbed onto it, and arranged twelve jars…
The Name is the First Test of Judgment
In the 1970s, Chevrolet launched the Nova in Spanish-speaking markets. Despite heavy marketing, sales were abysmal. The reason was a linguistic accident: in Spanish, “no va” translates to “it doesn’t…
How Esso Made Gasoline Visible – Copy Breakdown
A giant tiger sits across the roof of a car, its paws hanging beside the windows and its striped tail curling around the bodywork. Above it, the headline gives the…
Escape Plans Are Built Backwards
The 1962 Alcatraz escape didn’t begin with digging a hole in a cell wall. It began with the destination: get off the island. That destination dictated the problems that had…