Good fit for them... engaging, but largely impractical.

At the risk of being shallow... it is a nice feeling. Congrats!

Having the courage to re-invent ourselves makes all the difference, Don :)

BTW - Matt Lauzon of Gemstar was singing your praises at the NECTIE event last night. You did a nice thing for him.

Agree, Porter's definition is the gold standard. Strategy is nothing more or less than making different choices than your competition. Everything else is execution.

He always added that a company's real strategy is revealed in it's actions and priorities, not in it's "Strategy Statement."

You know, Don... Knowing you made me think the Microsoft might not be as evil as I thought.

Now I know I was right the first time.

Late to this party, but wanted to say if there's anything I can do for you, just ask. In the meantime best of luck and enjoy the break, quite sure you'll be off on a new adventure soon.

Great post, and I agree that providing consumers with rituals in which they can participate adds emotional value to the experience, which is what brands are all about.

While this is not new with respect to products - the champagne cork comes to mind - it does seem like we're seeing more of it as consumers seek to participate more in brands. One dimension of this phenomemon, at least initially, is to create insiders and outsiders among those who know and do not know the ritual. Learning the tequila shot ritual - salt, shot, lemon - is a freshman year right of passage for most people. Oreo splitting is another, which we hand down to our kids.

In a way we're seeing this mutate to go beyond the ritual to the 'Temple.' Witness the Apple Store, which Microsoft announced last week it intends to emulate. BMW just spent several hundred million dollars on a German-based museum and overseas delivery headquarters, where new drivers can pick there cars up in person.

Sorry to have missed this, looks like a great group as expected.

Have fun on the Cape Warren.

I think that may be my favorite comment, ever.

Thanks, and there is. Just nothing I could buy.

They gave us Bacon-Cream Cheese potato chips from Europe, Ed. How could we not be influenced? Are we not men?

Your criticism is fair... by any measure of great advertising, none of these measures up.

I would submit, though, that the measure that matters with respect to this kind of marketing - call it "participatory advertising," if you like - is participation itself. Did the level of participation in these campaigns move the sales needle? I asked on 3 separate occasions, and while i never got a real answer, the smile on Ami Irazabal's (Pepsi Brand Manager) face gave me the sense that it did.

At a minimum, as you say, Pepsi is on a learning curve for such programs. I think that will prove to have been a prescient investment.