Positioning problems rarely announce themselves. They show up disguised as a packaging problem, a distribution problem, a pricing problem, or even a product problem. Brands can spend a year and a lot of cash fixing the symptom while the underlying problem stays exactly where it was.

This is especially common with consumer brands. A product isn't moving, so the team changes the package. Distribution isn't growing, so the team adds another retailer. Margins are getting squeezed, so the team adjusts the price. None of those decisions are wrong on their face, but they can be expensive ways to avoid a more fundamental question: are we positioned to be chosen?

A bull rider, an electrician, and a Gen Z shopper walk into a store. It isn't the beginning of a joke. It's Ariat's next decade, and the store is 10,500 square feet in Mall of America.

Every so often I go deep on a company just to see if I can see where things are going. This morning it was Ariat, and I came away thinking they are one of the more interesting brand stories in consumer right now, so I thought I'd share it.

A quick reminder from our friends at Apple on how to lead with emotional branding (and sell) instead of listing features, using techie gibberish, and presenting screen shots. You'll notice they change it up a bit after the fold, but they always use language that connects their products with feelings rather than performance.

Hiring! Sales Director, US (remote)