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 listed on the stock market despite fierce competition, and with an issue price well above expectations. How can Spotify’s success be explained? Is it the Netflix of the music industry? And how will they meet the challenges of the future?
Choco Leibniz, Puff Pastry Biscuits and the famous Leibniz Butter Biscuit: Over 90% of German-speaking households know the name Bahlsen according to the company website. Their annual production volumes and sales are growing, they export to the US, Europe, Middle East and now Asia. Founded in 1889, this family-owned business relies not only on tradition and nostalgia to stand up to powerful competitors such as Nestlé, Mondelez or de Beukelaer. What other factors are responsible for the Bahlsen’s success?
Rimowa products are often referred to as “Porsche among suitcases”. And with good reason: their smallest hand luggage sized model now costs about 400 Euro. For an aluminium version, modeled after the historical original, you even need to fork out up to 800 Euro. Nevertheless, the suitcases with the famous groove design are conquering more and more luggage carousels and can be found in First as well as in Economy Class. Why? We take a closer look at the Rimowa phenomenon.
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 into the Middle East and Europe is in full swing, with 100 new branches opening every year. What are Five Guys doing right?
When Tech Conference Web Summit took place again in Lisbon last week with around 70,000 participants, the event was one of the most successful industry events globally. A long way up from its humble beginnings 10 years ago, when the first Web Summit staged a meeting of a few hundred tech bloggers, journalists and industry leaders in a Dublin hotel during the Irish economic crisis. The rise of an obscure industry event to a globally recognized startup exchange – how did this happen? And what can young entrepreneurs learn from Web Summit’s success?
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 pen manufacturer Lamy from Heidelberg, Germany, proves that with innovation and targeted marketing, even a shrinking market can be navigated successfully. What’s Lamy’s secret? We investigated a bit.
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 at the expense of its competitors, and also exceeded analysts’ expectations in 2018. The company was mostly making losses in the 80s and 90s. How did they overcome this crisis? And how can we explain Adidas’ current success?
Ingenious Marketing Success Stories
Airbnb, the online marketplace for booking and renting private accommodation, has become a symbol of the sharing economy. Ten years after it was founded, with a current estimated US $ 30 billion in value, the company and their mission called Belong Anywhere have transformed the tourism industry – causing stirs and controversies abound along the way …
Ingenious Marketing Success Stories
The founding story of the natural cosmetics company Burt’s Bees is one out of the picture books: beardy beekeeper, honey stall owner and activist Burt Shavitz picks up the hitchhiking artist Roxanne Quimby in 1984 – at the end of the journey the two were not only a couple but also business partners. What began as a small candle factory in Maine, USA, developed into a niche supplier of natural cosmetics and finally broke into the English speaking mass market in the mid-noughties. According to the company, its core and cult product, a lip balm made of beeswax, now sells every second. What can Burt’s Bees success teach us?
Ingenious Marketing Success Stories
Times are tough for sugar, with consumers becoming more and more health-conscious. However Haribo, the family-owned German sweets manufacturer, is still riding the wave of international growth. Haribo has subsidiaries in 22 countries across Europe and Asia, as well as in Australia and the US, with a turnover of over 2 billion per year (2013). What’s Haribo’s secret recipe to success? We went on the hunt.
