You may have seen this article where Richard Branson bets on Virgin's survival after he sells his controlling stake. Willie Walsh, the chief executive of International Airlines Group, which owns British Airways, has suggested that after Branson's exit from the business, the Virgin brand would disappear.
As Apple's product line stabilizes, it faces many challenges from competitors seeking to win away customers with new and updated versions of similar products. Samsung, Google and Microsoft continue to be strong competitors across many arenas and other start-up ventures are shifting the young audience to new technology applications and products. Apple's main brand strenght, other than quality products, is the high level of creativity and innovation that inspires customers. How do you see this changing and evolving as Apple grows and its brand evolves?
Starbucks is in great trouble as the streets of London echoes from protesters demanding that the coffee giant pay more in taxes. It has recently become public that Starbucks’ UK division did not pay taxes in the last three fiscal years on the grounds of negative income reported. However, there is no need for desperation; the company is not going bankrupt. According to the manager of the UK division, the company is prospering better than ever; so well, as the management is considering exporting the UK business strategy and model to its greatest market in the US.
Following up on our latest article on James Bond’s intellectual property (here), it has become quite obvious that the marketers are trying to squeeze out every little drop of the James Bond brand to promote all type of products ranging from alcoholic drinks to perfumes to lavish wrist watches. When has the threshold reached trying too hard, to the point where it actually tarnishes the brand name by, in a way, making a mockery out of it as opposed to uplifting it?
Following the article on “A Broken Patent System” and the vast amount of patent related lawsuits between big companies, one question that has been surfacing is ‘have patents lost their main purpose?’
Patent applications are being driven by the profits that can be made from infringement instead of the push for innovation and rights ownership as they were originally intended.
