From a 2007 reality pilot to a $5 billion shapewear company — the definitive map of how Kim Kardashian's public image was built, broken, rebuilt, and converted into an operating business, phase by phase.
In 2011, Kim Kardashian stripped down for a Skechers Super Bowl ad. A decade later she wasn't endorsing brands — she was building one worth $5 billion. The arc between those two facts is the most instructive story in celebrity endorsement.
As most of us have felt the rush of love, we easily empathize with lovey-dovey couples, shy guys buying flowers for their loved ones, girls with dreamy eyes, or the ever present red hearts that we know from our first cartoons. But there are aspects of Valentine’s Day that always get to you, no matter how deeply in love or romantic you are.
Dunkin' operates 13,000+ stores globally and runs the most-studied cultural-calendar marketing operation in modern American QSR. From the 1950 William Rosenberg founding through the 2018 brand-architecture compression (dropping "Donuts"), the Charli D'Amelio partnership, the 2020 Inspire Brands / Roark Capital acquisition, and the Valentine's-to-Pumpkin-Spice seasonal calendar — the canonical Dunkin' cultural-anchor playbook.
Affectiva's technology, Affdex, can also be used to study emotional responses of consumers as they try out new products or try new business software.
The Space Shuttle Challenger exploded January 28, 1986. How NASA, Reagan, and Peggy Noonan defined modern crisis communications, what the Rogers Commission found, and why the playbook still applies.
Walmart's January 2011 five-year healthy-food reformulation commitment, joint with Michelle Obama's Let's Move \u2014 the cleanest example of the Leslie Dach corporate-affairs doctrine that anchored the company's pre-McMillon reputation work.
Steve Jobs co-founded Apple in 1976, was ousted in 1985, returned via NeXT in 1996, died October 5, 2011. The operating doctrine he built outlived him by 15 years and is now passing through its second CEO succession.
The 2011 thesis that Facebook would overtake Google was directionally right about the structural threat — and wrong about the source. The challenger turned out to be the answer-engine layer: ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AI Overviews. The three-factor framework was correct. It just got applied to the wrong company.
Every January, brands stumble over MLK Day — running sales, posting vague tributes, or staying silent when they shouldn't. The pattern hasn't changed much since Kmart ran an online sale in 2011. Here's why it keeps happening and what the right approach looks like.