Latest Posts
We Know What Customers Cost. We Don’t Know What They’re Worth.
It’s time to start measuring customers the way we measure every other investment. Loyalty programs, incentives, retention offers,…
Passikoff: America at 250 -The Brands That Earned the Flag
Patriotism isn’t just something Americans observe on July 4th, It’s something they live on July 5th, and every day…
Passikoff: Patriotism as Brand Strategy
As America approaches its 250th anniversary, marketers may want to rethink what makes a brand feel patriotic. Brand…
We All Live in Customerland Now
“Nobody gives a sh*t about brands anymore.” A few weeks ago I found myself wondering whether it might…
Brand Keys’ New Segmentation Reveals What “Patriotic” Actually Means to Consumers
25th annual Most Patriotic Brands survey identifies nine distinct paths to patriotic perception – and the rankings don’t…
Passikoff: Real vs Borrowed Brand Patriotism
Authentic American identity matters more than ever. Especially as the United States approaches its 250th anniversary. Patriotism is…
The Next AI Retail Transformation Is Happening Right Now
By Jessica Leitch Over the next decade, retail will leave behind today’s channel-based model and its distinctions between physical…
What If Your Fastest Growth Lever Is Inclusion
Editor’s note: Global Accessibility Awareness Day is May 21 so this piece is timely. But this conversation opened my eyes…
Passikoff: On Patriotic Brands
This July, as the United States will mark its 250th anniversary, Brand Keys marks the 25th anniversary of…
Passikoff: Branding, Without the Illusions
A scoutmaster asked his troop what three things they’d want if they were alone and lost in the…
Passikoff: Listening for Silent Loyalty
The English version of “silence is golden” first appeared in an 1831 poem by Thomas Carlyle. Forty years…
How to Avoid “Good Enough” Marketing and the Race to the Bottom it’s Creating
Last fall, I sat down with Mike Giambattista right here at Customerland for a conversation about “The Collapse…
February 26, 2026
The Thousand Quiet Saves
Brands rarely implode in public. They erode in private. A confusing bill.A reminder that arrives too late.A chatbot…
Stores Aren’t Broken. But the Mental Model Might Be.
This piece is based on a recent conversation with Justine Melman, CMO at Optimum Retailing. What stood out…
Passikoff: Measuring REAL Loyalty
Brand Keys measures brands – and how loyal their customers are to them, because loyalty matters. We’ve done…
Infrastructure Is the Strategy
Why Retail’s Next Advantage Won’t Look Like Software Retail has spent years talking about experience – personalization engines,…
The Best of Customerland (So Far)
This year, Customerland crossed a meaningful milestone: 53 published episodes! It’s been a year of massive shifts – AI…
December 29, 2025
When The Cart Becomes the Channel
Why Smart Carts Mark the End of “Unmeasured” Retail A conversation with Yaniv Zukerman, CMO at Cust2Mate For…
Passikoff: Greetings, Marketers!
Greetings, marketers, both old and newHere’s a 2025 year-end review. The best-known holiday poem is generally considered to…
Passikoff: ‘Tis the (really long) Season
Brands like Coca-Cola and Macy’s helped entrench Santa Claus in popular culture, and Christmas became a retail juggernaut,…
Passikoff: A Brand That Doesn’t Need Gimmicks
Tomorrow is Veterans Day – a national celebration honoring the patriotism, courage, and sacrifice of America’s veterans. I…
November 10, 2025
After Omnichannel – Why Brands Must Redesign for Agentic Customers
In my recent Customerland conversation with Ben Wiener, Managing Partner at Cognizant Moment, one theme kept resurfacing: the ground beneath marketing is…
Rewriting the Math of CX
My conversation with Ken Lain, Senior Vice President and Head of CX, Customer Service and Operations at Verizon…
Passikoff: Marketing’s Haunted House
There’s an old joke that goes, “I had a nightmare I was at work. Then I woke up.…
October 20, 2025
When Research Finally Meets Reality
What SightX and ZS Are Really Solving Insights professionals are skeptics by design. When your work is picked…
Passikoff: The Loyalty Code
In 2025, loyalty isn’t earned once and stored away. C’mon, this isn’t 1983! A little reality check, huh?…
Do Consumer Expectations Even Matter?
Every brand executive will tell you that they are “committed to meeting and exceeding customer expectations.” It’s the…
The Architecture of Signal
Clarity is underrated – not because people don’t value it, but because most teams have stopped expecting it.…
How Website Analytics Grew Up – and Started Solving Real Problems
Lessons from our conversation with Dave Anderson, VP of Product Marketing at Contentsquare Every company claims to care…
Performative or Patriotic? What Today’s Most Trusted Brands Get Right
We just released the results of our 24th annual Brand Keys Most Patriotic Brands survey. I usually write…
June 10, 2025
When Brands Carry the Flag – What the 2025 Brand Keys Survey Really Tells Us About American Patriotism
In a year where everything seems political – and almost nothing feels unifying – consumers are still rallying…
The Art and Science of Smart Planogramming
The retail landscape is undergoing a significant transformation, with AI-powered tools revolutionizing how stores approach merchandising and customer…
How Luxury Brands Can Make Connected Products and DPP Compliance Profitable
Luxury brands hold a unique place in the hearts and minds of consumers as they are often viewed…
The Post-Sale Frontier: How Connected Products Redefine Consumer Relationships
The rapid growth of connected products and increasing sustainability legal requirements have many businesses wondering where to start. While…
When Brands Out-Patriot the Government
In a year marked by economic anxiety, political division, and institutional mistrust, the most surprising finding from Brand…
The Emotional P&L of Food Delivery
It turns out that food delivery’s bottom line is less about speed and more about trust. Food delivery…
Passikoff: On Brands and Politics
“Politics makes strange bedfellows.” That’s an 1870 quote from American journalist, Charles Dudley Warner. At the time he…
April 8, 2025
This Earth Day, Fast Fashion Faces a Reckoning
Forever 21 was once the crown jewel of fast fashion—celebrated for its trend-chasing, affordability, and the thrill of…
Passikoff on Brand “Temperature”
The 1st Baron Kelvin who (unless you were a physics major, and I don’t count many of those among…
AI in Retail: From Analytics to Autonomous Decision-Making
For those of us who’ve been watching the AI revolution unfold, the shift from analytics to autonomous decision-making…
Passikoff: The Brand Also Rises
This is my 100th column for Customerland. Coincidently it’s the 100th anniversary of Ernest Hemingway’s first major book, In Our Time. A…
February 18, 2025
Retail Media’s Rapid Growth Faces Familiar Challenges
The retail media landscape continues to grow at a breakneck pace, with brands increasingly shifting their budgets toward…
February 4, 2025
Big Changes in the Ways We Interact with Brands – the 2025 CLEI Results
In today’s fast-paced market, understanding brand loyalty is no longer just a matter of measuring customer satisfaction; it…
January 29, 2025
Redefining Loyalty Programs Through Purpose and Sustainability
Can the evolving expectations of Gen Z redefine the way brands approach consumer loyalty and sustainability? This week,…
January 22, 2025
Decoding Gen Z Loyalty and Engagement
Editor’s Note: This was one of the most fascinating – and instructive – conversations in recent memory. I…
Passikoff: Getting 100 on the Brand Test
Think about the number 100. What comes to mind? Completeness? Totality? Your perfect score on that spelling test…
January 14, 2025
The Rise (and Further Rise) of Commerce Media Networks
In this episode of Customerland, we sit down with Eric Brackmann, VP of Commerce Media at Koddi, to…
December 11, 2024
Brand Authenticity: Countering Greenwashing
According to Kantar, 67 percent of consumers worry that brands engage in social issues only for commercial reasons. And in…
Passikoff: The Dangers of the Human Brand
Have you had your 15 minutes of fame? I was referencing the cultural idiom, “In the future everyone…
November 12, 2024
