The Best of Sense
The business world has hardly remained static over the past 40-50 years. But, to recycle a cliché, some things never change—such as the power of corporate identity to affect behavior, impel growth and create value for a company. Neither has the mission of Sense changed. In its first issue, then called Design Sense and published by Lippincott & Margulies in 1956 when the firm was nearly a decade old, Sense carried these words from company founder J. Gordon Lippincott: Every issue must contain at least one important insight that will help senior managers and their companies perform better. A heady mandate—and one that guides Sense to this day. Following are highlights of some of Sense's most memorable past issues.
Design Sense 18:
Design for World Markets.
On the eve of the 1960s, U.S. manufacturers found themselves fighting a marketplace battle far rougher than they had ever known. As war-torn Europe rebuilt its industrial capability, its goods were successfully finding a market in the U.S., while American exports were losing customers abroad to foreign competition. This early edition of Design Sense argues for a reassessment of U.S. industry's approach to design, branding and identity in the context of an emerging global marketplace. Plus: an overview of the World's Fairs from 1876 to a preview of 1964's fair in New York, with the products of a postwar world.
Design Sense 25:
Communication Pitfalls of Mergers. How to Avoid Them.
Many strategically sound mergers ultimately fail because they cling to an old corporate name that no longer fits their expanded array of companies and products. A look at how several successful mergers in the 1960s avoided naming missteps and created powerful new corporate identities. Also: How Nescafé launched an innovative packaging design concept.
Design Sense 26:
How Major Companies Change Their Names.
An analysis of successful—and not-so-successful—name changes by New York Stock Exchange-listed corporations in the late 1950s and early '60s. Also: excerpts from Innovation in Marketing, by Harvard Business School Professor Theodore Levitt.
Design Sense 49:
What Wall Street Says—and Does—About the Corporate Image.
How do investors and security analysts weigh corporate worth? By a company's financial performance, certainly—and by the market forces that affect it. But, as four prominent Wall Street opinion leaders note, corporate image is also a critical, if often overlooked factor in the Street's take on companies. Special: an analysis of corporate image on the price/earnings ratios of 11 major corporations.
Sense 60:
Where Are U.S. Banks Going Today?
The answer appears to be almost anywhere theyre allowed. By the late 1960s, some of the nations largest banks were venturing into areas far removed from bankings traditional turf, such as insurance and credit cards. Six financial leaders offer their thoughts on this trend and its implications for corporate image.
Sense 62:
Enter Superbrand: A Unique Marketing Concept That Builds for the Future.
Supermarket chains and other large retailers expanded and diversified rapidly in the late 1960s, giving rise to a new marketplace entity: the superbrand. Among the earliest and best-known examples was Supermarkets General Corporate, later known as Pathmark. As it showed, superbrand marketing required a new approach to identity management—but the rewards, both immediate and long term, could be enormous.
Sense 72:
Closing the Image Gap.
As a company grows and evolves, a carefully structured, deftly executed corporate identity program can yield significant cost savings while providing a distinct competitive edge. An in-depth look at some corporate identity successes, including FMC, American Express, United Technologies and Pizza Hut.
Sense 73:
Selling the Sizzle and the Steak.
A well-designed store is more than just a pretty face. As applied to retailers, environmental marketing design is a professional discipline concerned with creating selling environments that attract customers, support marketing objectives, reinforce corporate identity and boost sales. Also: a self-test to gauge the effectiveness of your companys retail environmental marketing design.
Sense 78:
Retail Power.
It takes more than advertising to build a commanding marketplace presence. Four retailers—two large, two mid-size—demonstrate the power of a total communications approach that integrates every medium through which they project their image and identity, from product names, to signage, to employee uniforms. Also: a pictorial feature on Lippincott & Margulies communications programs from around the world.
Sense 82:
Why Don't People See Your Company the Way It Really Is?
It happens often: a well-managed company with outstanding performance and profitability is widely misunderstood. Perhaps the public sees only past struggles, or mistakes the part for the whole, or places the company in the wrong industry. Such misperceptions can hamper a company's appeal to consumers and investors. As six case studies show, a positive corporate identity can bridge the reality-perception gap and provide a key to profitability, growth and even survival.
Sense 85:
The Corporate Name: To Change or Not to Change.
Each year, hundreds of companies, large and small, change their names—a process that can be expensive, time-consuming and emotionally wrenching. But as companies are reshaped and redefined by management changes, mergers, diversification and restructuring, an outmoded name can be a liability. A look at how three major corporations re-assessed—and decided to change—their name, and the benefits they derived.
Sense 86:
Deregulation and Diversification: Communicating in an Environment of Change.
Since the late 1970s, deregulation has transformed and revitalized many U.S. industries, creating myriad new opportunities and challenges. As they rapidly move into new areas, deregulated companies and industries face the urgent task of accurately defining and communicating their identities. How companies in three deregulated industries—energy, telecommunications and financial services—adapted their corporate identities to reflect evolving marketplace realities.
Sense 87:
Takeovers: Are They Restructuring Corporate America?
Takeovers and mergers can be a healthy aspect of the business scene—but some are a serious threat to management and investors. Either way, the wave of takeovers that began in the 1980s has reshaped American industry and public perceptions of long-established industries. Four prominent chairmen offer incisive commentary on the broad significance of takeovers and corporate restructuring.
Sense 91:
What Makes a Brand's Image Valuable?
Of all the assets a company owns, few are more irreplaceable than the image of its brands. How are winning brands created? What can management do to grow and sustain brand value over time? These and other questions are addressed in interviews with leaders in three diverse industries—consumer package goods, the media and financial services. Also: highlights of a provocative Conference Board symposium, "Bringing Identity Into Focus."
Sense 93:
Employees and Image: The New Corporate Ambassadors in the Marketplace.
A committed workforce is key to a companys competitive advantage. But how does a company create a culture that brings out the best in its employees and casts them as enthusiastic ambassadors to the world at large? Industry leaders—including Johnson & Johnson and The Gillette Company—discuss how a culture of employee respect, reward and motivation can yield marketplace success. Special: How a Canadian retailer turned its logo into a statement of status—an emblem of a club to which employees want to belong.
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