Marketing Strategy

Sustainable Success: What we can learn from Germany’s top drugstore chain Here I can be myself, here I like to shop. An extremely successful slogan, inseparably linked to German drugstore chain dm. 45 years after its foundation, the company has a network of 3,500 stores in 13 countries with almost 60,000 employees. And despite stiff …

Sustainable Success: What We Can Learn from dm, Germany’s Top Drugstore Chain Read More »

Credit: 360b / Shutterstock.com The home improvement market in the German-speaking world is crowded and full of fierce competition. The regular winner of the raging marketing battles is Hornbach. While its competition focuses largely on efficiency and prices, Hornbach relies on the appeal of a brand with a distinctive profile and quirky commercials. Its success …

Hitting It Home: 4 Winning Principles behind German DIY Retailer Hornbach’s Marketing Read More »

Credit: olgaarkhipenko / stock.adobe.com Since its introduction in 1964, the Birkenstock sandal with its cork footbed and leather straps was considered sensible, but ultimately unfashionable footwear only donned by square family fathers, hospital personnel and anti-consumption hippies. When, in 2012, the tide turned, a hype erupted around the chunky shoe with its comfortable footbed. Since …

Orthopaedic goes Catwalk: 4 Reasons for the Improbable Breakthrough of Birkenstock Read More »

Credit: Chris Redan / stock.adobe.com Rotkäppchen (the German name of the fairy tale heroine Red Riding Hood) sparkling wine is the ultimate success story of an East German brand that has managed to emerge strengthened after the many ups and downs of 125 years of corporate history. After a low point in 1990, when the …

A Fairy Tale Success: How Rotkäppchen Became Germany’s Leading Producer of Sparkling Wine Read More »

Credit: alexanderuhrin / stock.adobe.com Guerrilla marketing, sports sponsorship, content marketing. For over 30 years, Red Bull has been setting numerous milestones in marketing and branding and has become a blueprint for start-ups eager for marketing success. Why add another to the many articles that are already in circulation about Austria’s most famous brand? Rather than …

More than Just Marketing: The 5 Pillars of Red Bull’s Success Read More »

Credit: yalcinsonat / stock.adobe.com When Spotify was founded in Stockholm in 2006, things looked grim for the music streaming market. Filesharing sites such as Napster had been shut down by court order, and players such as Apple and Pandora used a pay per download or exclusive payment system. Twelve years later, Spotify’s streaming service was …

Innovation, Emotion, Agility: Spotify’s Rise to Fame Read More »

Credit: Shutter B / stock.adobe.com What is it that makes some teams so effective while others struggle with inefficiencies, conflicts and a general lack of success? These are questions many companies and managers are constantly facing. With their large-scale project “Aristotle”, the online search giant Google decided to get behind the secret of successful teams …

Building the Perfect Team: 4 Principles, Tried and Tested by Google Read More »

Credit: Michael Mulkens / stock.adobe.com Founded in 1986, the Washington DC burger chain was voted the most popular fast food restaurant in the US for the second consecutive year in 2018. In doing so, the company and their simple menu buck the trend towards luxury burgers as well as healthy eating. Since 2016, their expansion …

Hungry for More: How Five Guys Burger Chain Goes Global Read More »

Credit: Natalia / stock.adobe.com Marketing for Medium Sized Companies Fountain pens, pens or rollerball pens may be, in the eyes of many, things of the past, for which there is no more room in the world of smartphones, Alexa and speech recognition technology. But by tripling their turnover over the last ten years, long established …

Lamy Pens: Writing History in a Declining Market Read More »

Credit: radub85 / stock.adobe.com Ups and downs With the company nearly 70 years old, Adidas is as robust and successful as ever before. While competitors such as Nike and Under Armour struggled with sales losses in the traditionally competitive US sportswear market, Adidas achieved an annual sales increase of 31%, continued to secure market share …

On the Ball: 4 Reasons for Adidas’ Long-term Success Read More »