place

Are you placing your brand in a “bad neighborhood?” The other day, I was contacted by a BBC reporter, Daniel Nasaw, working on a story about highway naming. At first I thought he had contacted the wrong person, but it turned out there was logic behind his query. The core question, sparked by a move by Virginia to allow corporate sponsorship of highways and bridges, was whether a brand should associate itself with a potentially unpleasant experience. 

Last week, during the NRF Big Show, there was a lot of talk about how to change retail to be successful in today's world. I spent a lot of time with Bob Phibbs and Marge Laney walking the floor and talking about what we were seeing throughout the show.

Years ago, I recall a devout Christian describing her experience in the Holy Land, where she touched the stone on which the body of Jesus reputedly had been placed. She described getting dizzy and weak in the knees from the contact. I don’t doubt that she was indeed deeply affected by touching the relic, although I suppose that the physical sensation she experienced was due to her beliefs about the significance of the stone rather than some kind of miraculous or paranormal happening.