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“Buy Canadian” is Here to Stay for Many Consumers
A year ago, buying Canadian was a reflex. When American tariffs hit, several Canadian provinces pulled products off…
Turning customer signals into revenue
What’s the next big use case for AI now that many retailers have optimized their back-office workflows? In…
What If We Could Design for Emotion-based Outcomes?
Why the next great marketing advantage may lie in the one variable we’ve never truly measured. For all…
The Emotional P&L of Flying
Why Airlines Keep Losing Trust – and What That Reveals About Us When we looked at thousands of…
Sentiment Signals: The Next Layer of Intelligence
Beyond performance metrics like accuracy and latency lies a subtler yet more powerful layer: emotional trust. In intelligent…
July 7, 2026
Sales, Marketing & Loyalty Should Buy CX a Pony
I’ve spent a lot of years inside the customer technology industry watching two extraordinarily powerful capabilities develop in…
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…
Marketing With Intent: Starting With the Outcome in Mind
Third in a Series: Change What They Feel In the first two articles in this series, we covered…
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…
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: What Makes a Successful Product Launch (Hint: It’s Not What You Think)
When it comes to last year’s least successful new product launch, my vote goes to Stoli Group’s (yes, that Stoli!) $150 million bourbon and…
Passikoff: Measuring REAL Loyalty
Brand Keys measures brands – and how loyal their customers are to them, because loyalty matters. We’ve done…
In Trust We Calculate – Rebuilding Confidence in the Age of AI
Welcome to the final installment in our series on AI and human behavior. If Parts 1 through 4…
Is Agency Is the New Loyalty?
This has been bugging me for a while. We talk about loyalty as if it were a program…
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?…
Passikoff: The Venn of Loyalty
I want to talk about marketer-types who revere/use/misuse/ignore/are-just-plain-stupid-about loyalty. I thought I’d use a visual tool to catalogue…
Do Consumer Expectations Even Matter?
Every brand executive will tell you that they are “committed to meeting and exceeding customer expectations.” It’s the…
Passikoff: Put the Research Down Before You Hurt Somebody
Doing do-it-yourself is hot. DIY projects have surged nearly 22% over the past five years. It makes sense…
AI’s Double Impact: From Data to Customer Insight
Lindsay Bayuk, CMO at Fullstory – on the Customerland podcast In the rush to make sense of customer behavior,…
The Real AI Revolution Isn’t Efficiency – It’s Understanding
A conversation with Resonate CEO, Bryan Gernert The pace of AI-driven change in business isn’t just fast –…
Why Emotional Intelligence Still Wins in the Age of AI
A Conversation with Mike Lytle, CEO of TP USA In a world racing toward full-on AI everything, the most…
Passikoff: Expectations of Happiness
Expectations offer deeper insight into the emotional drivers of brand loyalty, engagement – and yes, happiness. When Walt…
July 8, 2025
Designing AI for Emotion – Why AI Needs to Feel Human, Not Just Sound Smart
Welcome to Part 4 of our series on AI and human behavior. We’ve talked about behavioral shifts, personalization…
What Consumer Spending Patterns Are Really Telling Us
At first glance, consumer spending data might seem like just another economic metric. A number to quote in…
Personalization Psychology – When AI Knows You Too Well
Welcome to the second installment in our series on how AI is reshaping human behavior. If Part 1…
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…
When Brands Out-Patriot the Government
In a year marked by economic anxiety, political division, and institutional mistrust, the most surprising finding from Brand…
Passikoff on Brand “Temperature”
The 1st Baron Kelvin who (unless you were a physics major, and I don’t count many of those among…
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
Beyond NPS: Why Customer Feedback Needs a 360-Degree Revolution
Net Promoter Score (NPS) has established itself as a popular metric for evaluating customer loyalty, satisfaction levels, and…
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
Passikoff: The Brands / Votes Conundrum
In 1959 ad agency Dancer Fitzgerald Sample introduced the Trix rabbit. General Mills had launched the cereal five years earlier…
October 15, 2024
Grocery Attitude Shifts Point to Some Large Opportunities on the Horizon
What if you could revolutionize your food habits to match your fast-paced life? This episode promises to reshape…
September 6, 2024
The Penultimate Guide to Retail Brand Authenticity
As a marketer, how important is brand authenticity to consumers? TLDR:Brand authenticity is a crucial factor in influencing…
Bridging the CX Gap: Aligning Intentions with Consumer Realities
Can the gap between what CX professionals aim to achieve and what consumers actually experience be bridged? Join…
Passikoff on Vacations, Brands & Bears
When you hear the word, “vacation,” what springs to mind? Exotic locales? First class airline seats and luxury…
Passikoff: Holiday Brand “Wieners”
July 4th is coming up. It’s a big deal. Independence Day. Official birthday of the United States. Federal holiday.…
June 25, 2024
The Broken Promise of Loyalty: Why It’s Failing and How to Fix It
A bit of context before you read this. I have a lot of respect for loyalty marketing professionals.…
Passikoff: Meaningful Brands (Always) Win
As I mentioned in my last column, we released our 23rd annual Most Patriotic Brands list last week, posted…
June 11, 2024
The Good News and the Bad News about AI
Which do you want first? Research tells us that depends. On whether you’re the giver or receiver of…
Media at the Intersection of Latinx and LGBTQIA+
Brands and Media Can Make a Difference Given the current backlash against LGBTQIA+ and its impact on the community,…
December 13, 2023
The Science of Holiday Gifting: Unwrapping what Really Drives our Buying Behaviors
Understand what Need State you are uniquely positioned to serve, and which consumer target is most likely to be seeking that emotional payoff.
Consumer Trends: The “Why” Behind Drink Choices
While the lines between sports and energy drinks might be blurring, decision science explains why, and what to…
Decoding the AI Impact on Customer Advocacy: Insights from GoDaddy
Ever wondered how AI could revolutionize customer experience? Get ready to be enlightened by our guest, Mel Si,…
