Woden

What allows brands to endure periods of rapid change is self-awareness about what truly makes them different in the eyes of customers, and finding innovative ways to deepen that connection.

The Next Retail Chain to Fail? Your Local Supermarket | Woden | Brand Storytellers After more than a century of catering to affluent Manhattanites, Lord & Taylor closed its flagship store on Fifth Avenue earlier this month. America’s oldest department store chain dates to 1824, but its contemporary incarnationhas as little depth and authenticity as its once-renowned window displ...

Groceries are a booming business, and many companies have implemented all sorts of tech and practices to make the process more pleasant and convenient for shoppers.

Groceries Are a $600 Billion Business. Here Are the New Ways Companies Are Cashing In Businesses are innovating the food-shopping experience to make it easier and more efficient.

It’s a real struggle that many companies face, and a fine balance — to become popular, relevant, and successful without becoming generic and therefore irrelevant, forgettable, and tractionless in the market.

Google It, Xerox It, FedEx It, Post-It: How Story Can Help Prevent Brand “Genericide” | Woden | Brand Storytellers Barry Manilow is known for chart-topping hits like “Looks Like We Made It,” but few may realize that many brand jingles we still can’t get out of our heads were also written by Manilow, such as “I’m stuck on Band-Aid, ‘cause Band-Aid’s stuck on me…” However, some of us might be sin...

No longer simply for paying members, WeWork has opened up a New York office space for the general public, complete with a cafe and displays of merchandise made by member companies.

You can rent a desk by the minute at WeWork’s first public location There’s no membership required at We Company’s new retail space, where visitors can rent desks and conference rooms–and browse products by member companies.

In the middle of the digital age, the Mall of America thrives not just as a center of retail, but as a center for dining, attractions, and entertainment — a model that others are planning to emulate.

VIDEO | This retail dinosaur is really a blueprint for supersized stores to come | Fast Company When Mall of America originally opened in 1992, it was widely thought of as a gimmick: Putting a mega mall in the Midwest during a recession was assumed to be lose-lose. But 26 years later, amid a retail apocalypse, the Minnesota monolith is still thriving.

All pivots occur around a fixed point on which everything turns. Understanding what this point is — the constant in a business that cannot change — is the difference between success and failure.

Find Your Constant and Pivot with Purpose | Woden | Brand Storytellers The scene is familiar in any popular bar on a weekend night: the crowd is four-or-five people deep, and there’s a single bartender trying to keep up with the patrons. It’s frustrating enough to order a cocktail in this situation, but even more so when the night is winding down. Departing drinker...

Being stalked around the internet by a product you viewed a few days ago comes off as creepy — and, increasingly, fails to provide the kind of ROI an advertiser might hope for.

The case against behavioral advertising is stacking up No one likes being stalked around the Internet by adverts. It’s the uneasy joke you can’t enjoy laughing at. Yet vast people-profiling ad businesses have made pots of money off of an unregulated Internet by putting surveillance at their core. But what if creepy ads don’t work as c…

Some brands have figured out a way to not only exist, but to flourish in the non-digital world — even in the face of the digital world’s ever expanding ownership of people’s lives.

Beyond the Browser: How Digital Brands Become Tactile | Woden | Brand Storytellers For the first time ever, digital giant Amazon has mailed out catalogues. With a Pottery Barn Kids-esque aesthetic, these catalogues include stickers that children can use to quickly tag their favorite toys. And Amazon isn’t alone: Facebook is placing printed ads at train stops to encourage people ...

In an effort to connect with savvy social media users, brands have become more conversational, personal, and off-the-cuff than ever before.

Brands Who Stan: How Entertainment Companies Started Tweeting in the First Person In 2019, it is not uncommon to see major accounts—like Netflix, MTV, and HBO—posting to social media in a casual tone. But when did they decide to use "I"? And why is it so effective?

In a world of faceless supermarket giants, Stew Leonard's has preserved their unique personality — and been the birthing ground for a number of well-known brands — by putting their customers first.

Inside the $400 Million Family-Run Supermarket That Helped Launch Martha Stewart and Paul Newman Stew Leonard's, America's most entertaining retailer, chose to grow slowly to preserve its family-friendly, quirky personality.

Once a business understands what drives and inspires their customers, they have to clearly express why and how the brand will help their customers achieve their own vision for success — and make them feel like a hero.

You Don’t Have to Race to Zero | Woden | Brand Storytellers In countless industries, companies are content to compete on price. Rather than looking for unique ways to differentiate, they are simply content to undercut their competition in order to gain even a fleeting advantage in the market. Businesses battling to capture their share of increasingly price c...