Always a sport of the rich, as most are in today's times, it became a sport of the uber-rich. The cost in the 2010 America's Cup was so prohibitive that long time sponsors UBS, Nestle and Banco Santander took a pass. When sponsors drop out you know you are in a world of hurt! This year the qualifying races - the Louis Vuitton World Series - was canceled as countries like China, Spain, Germany, South Africa, Italy and New Zealand said no mas!

The last twenty years of America's Cup history reads like ten miles of bad road. Bad decisions followed by worse decision making. Millions spent in court. The shift from 12 meter class boats to 110-foot trimarans with 223-foot hard wind sails. Technology ruled the day and fans rued the day it happened. They took the sport out of the sport of sailing. Money was the ruination of the America's Cup.

At one time, personalities like flamboyant Australian Alan Bond, Ted Turner on his boat Courageous in 1977, and skipper Dennis Conner ruled the seas off Newport and Freemantle, Australia. It was fun and made for great theater. You cared about the competitors and the competition.

People tuned in on TV. In 1987, with Dennis Conner trying to win back the cup down under, EPSN signed an unprecedented deal to air 70 hours of coverage of what was at that time yachting's premiere event. They sold out all the time and averaged 1 and 2 ratings even though the events were aired live - which meant they went off around midnight to 2 a.m. on the East Coast. The America's Cup helped validate fledgling ESPN network. In 2010, there was no media coverage in the U.S. or Canada. It was reduced to coverage on a YouTube channel. Talk about irrelevance.

There is no debating that sponsors and money were always a part of the America's Cup and always will be. What's missing today is a brand value return for fans and sponsors alike. From a product life cycle perspective, the America's Cup is far past decline. It's essentially in the brand graveyard, being rendered meaningless in the sporting world.

Can it experience a brand renaissance? There is talk of going back to monohulls again. With Ellison and his Golden Gate Yacht Club in control, there is initial talk of bringing the America's Cup races back to Newport, R.I. and returning to a best out of nine races rather than best of three. Branding history tells us that it is hard to return to your roots. With the America's Cup brand having already been washed away to a great extent, it is a sail worth taking.

Dove is tapping into the territory that Nivea for Men has owned for a long period of time. The opportunity is ripe. Men are spending more money on themselves and their personal grooming. Hair removal products for men is one of the fastest growing niche segments. According to the International Spa Association, one-third of all customers are men. Men- only spas, like Nickel Spa in NYC and the Grooming Lounge in Washington D.C., are springing up to meet this new demand. Men are realizing that good grooming means good living. Women certainly take note as well.

Women are still the principal shoppers for consumer products packaged goods. Will women buy Dove Men+Care products for their significant others? Transitioning traditional women's products and brands over to men is tricky and littered with failures and missteps.

Does anyone remember the ill fated Talbot's for Men stores? Believe it or not, there were twelve of them at one time offering high quality men's clothing in traditional fashions. It was thought to be a great strategic brand extension strategy. Why is that? The overwhelming percentage of shoppers in men's stores is women shopping for men (greater than 60%). Apparently they didn't frequent Talbot's for Men, now in the retail graveyard.

The same holds true for Liz Claiborne. The Liz brand has tried for years to sell to men. Claiborne Men, "Claiborne" and Claiborne by John Bartlett are just a few of the men's brand incarnations, none of which have gained appreciable traction. The crossover from women to men isn't for the faint of heart from a branding or strategic orientation.

Dove Men+Care is entering the market at the right time - the climate is right and the interest in men's grooming has never been higher. To be successful, the product needs to sell to women and men equally. It needs to be distinctive and stand on its own merits, not just tap into the halo of the Dove women's products.

Noted UCONN women's basketball coach, Geno Auriemma, is in the game with sauce inspired by his mother. It's hard to believe that Rick Pitino doesn't have one, or Al Pacino, or Robert Deniro for that matter. No Soprano's line of sauces either.

Restaurateurs have entries in the category as well. Frank Pellegrino is the owner and impresario of Rao's, the 'impossible to get a reservation to' restaurant. You have to be a made man or be well connected to someone to gain a coveted table in Rao's. But you can simulate the experience at home with the Rao's sauce and cookbook. Here in Hartford, Frank's, a great Italian restaurant that's long been gone to restaurant heaven, has been reincarnated through their special pasta sauce.

It seems as though to be a star on the Food Network, you need to have your own sauce. Emeril Lagasse checks in with Emeril's pasta sauce in various iterations. Italian favorite, Lidia Bastianich, serves up Lidia's Italian Table and just this month Giada DeLaurentiis is introducing a line of cookware, cutlery and sauces for Target.

Why all the players? Market estimates for overall pasta sauce sales range from $1.6 to $1.8 billion in the 07-08 timeframe. What was once thought of as a mature market in the mid-decade struggling with the effects of the low-carb diet is now definitely on the rise. Four out of five households report using sauce and the percentage is on the rise. The recession is a friend, not a foe.

The category is not for the faint of heart. Prego, Campbell's offering, dominates along with Ragu. Their sauces feature every possible ingredient extension from mini-meatballs to mushrooms and garlic. Their facings run in the hundreds as compared to a three facing for Emeril's pasta sauce or a five facing for Rao's sauce. If you're going to be a niche player, be one that stands out. Believe it or not, Hulk Hogan used to have a restaurant called Pastamania featuring his own sauce! You can't trade on celebrity alone. You'll get shelf space, but sustaining it is the tougher task. The sauce better be as good as homemade.

Education and training are always vital elements of future enterprise success. There is a proliferation of new titles in the training sector. If you need knowledge, like the Tin Man in the Wizard of Oz, hire a CKO - Chief Knowledge Officer. If you employ a strategy of "life long learning", a Chief Learning Officer fits the bill. Need to put a tent around all things training? A CTDO is for you. That's Chief Training & Development Officer to the uninitiated.

As customers become fewer and spend less, C-Suite attention is all about the customer. Hasn't the customer always been right? Yes. If you believe in this fundamental truth, there are now CCO's - Chief Customer Officer's, but the role is expanding to own the entire customer experience through Chief Commercial Officers. They have the enviable task of owning the responsibility for every aspect of dealing with customers, from sales and marketing to customer service and product development. Isn't this what the CMO's - Chief Marketing Officers - were being tasked with? There is a distinct blurring of C-Suite roles and responsibilities. If all this is dizzying to consider, you can always call on the CHRO - Chief Human Relations Officer!

You can be sure the CCO's - Chief Commercial Officers - will be using CRM (Customer Relationship Management). They need to deliver ROI. If that doesn't work, they can turn to ROO - Return on Objective. They might even take a trip to ROME - Return on Marketing Expenditures.

It makes your head spin. It worked well in the past with only a few C-Suite positions. You have to wonder, with all of these influences and titles, if it runs the risk of driving companies toward the dreaded "group think" mentality. Rather than practicing market disruption, decisions get beaten to death by committee. Companies run the risk of having too many voices at the C-Suite table. CEO's would be best served by employing a trusted Chief Counselor Officer, an influence they could count on to tell it like it is - with no bias, agenda or desire to improve their personal agenda. Think about the role that a consigliore plays in the Mafia. Preferably, this person would be from outside the corporate "family." A voice of reason that many companies sorely lack in today's ultracompetitive market climate.

The Company Men is getting serious buzz at Sundance. According to reviews, it is a socially harrowing drama of the business of corporate downsizing at GTX Corporation, a shipping conglomerate with tentacles in several industries. It stars veteran actors Tommie Lee Jones, Ben Affleck and Chris Cooper, one of today's finest character actors. They all attempt to survive after a round of devastating corporate downsizing. This is the story of those who are fired rather than those who are doing the firing as in Up in the Air. Think of The Company Men as a companion movie - one that pits survival against pride and starting anew in middle-age. The emotion is what is so riveting. It connects business on a very personal level. It portrays the shear bleakness of the current economic recession in which many find themselves, no matter what business they're in and at what level they work. No release date has yet been announced.

The carnage from Wall Street is a subject sure to garner the attention of Hollywood studios. Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps is set to debut in late April. Yes, everyone's favorite business villain, Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas), is back. This time the movie takes place 20 years after the original, revolving around the 2008 stock market crash. The Gekko character acts as more an anti-hero by attempting to warn Wall Street before its soon-to-be stock market crash. Having been sprung from jail, he finds his standing reduced from the lofty perches he once commanded. Is that enough of a spoiler?! Will he have a second life in business, one that features him as a protagonist rather than in the antagonist role, the one that Michael Douglas played so well in the 80's when greed was seen as good?

The economic and social debate of business is played out everyday on various media business channels in the electronic, digital and print worlds. It makes great business sense for the movie industry to probe the moral fabric of this great economic downturn. This recession has affected all of us in very different ways. These are stories that demand to be told and learned from. There are many lessons learned to be applied in the business world of the future. These are not happily-ever-after stories, much like the classic movie Glengarry Glen Ross that depicted the machinations behind the scenes at a real estate office. Anyone in business who has had to deliver sales numbers shudders with thoughts about Shelley Levine, played by the great Jack Lemmon, pleading, "I need the good leads, give me the Glengarry leads. They are the good leads." You feel for him in a very personal way, almost willing him to make the sale. It makes for the ultimate emotional connection, one that touches both the heart and the mind. Watch for business to be played out in various ways on the big screen in the coming months and years. The stories are hard and raw, but need to seen and contemplated.

The e-reader is in the brand infancy stage, having come on the scene in 2007. Not surprisingly, Amazon's Kindle, the first offering, holds an overwhelming 60% market share as reported by Forrester. (Amazon does not release Kindle sales figures.) Sony's Reader is the distant second, even with a price point of $200 which is $50 less than the Kindle. Barnes & Noble has entered the fray with the Nook, available at 700 retail outlets, with an offering of over one million eBooks. The Nook dwarfs the 390,000 that Amazon offers its consumers. There is real money to be made. EBooks are handsomely profitable ventures. At $9.99 or less, it has the very real potential to cannibalize book sales. It sure beats paying $25-plus for a hard cover.

It is all doom and gloom for book publishers? At first glance, yes; but the facts don't entirely bear this out. The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown sold a staggering two million copies in the first week of release. Only 100,000 copies were electronic versions which equates to 5%. The industry average for eBook sales ranges from 3% to 5%. It's a small fraction of total sales, but enough to get marketers to take notice.

You would think that things would be rosy for Jeff Bezos and the folks at Amazon. After all, the e-reader/eBook category is only a few years old. This is supposed to be the growth cycle when profits flow. Coming out of CES in Las Vegas is the marketing heading that Apple's new tablet product is being touted as the "Kindle Killer." I caught a glimpse of it on TV and I was absolutely mesmerized by the quality of the graphics which featured Sports Illustrated in electronic format. It was better than the print edition with graphics clarity that jumped off the page. I was sold. The profile was sleek and elegant and replicated the physical reading experience of a book or newspaper. It may cause me to rethink my mindset about never wanting to curl up in my favorite chair with an e-reader!

Market dominance in the technology segment is fleeting at best. The product life cycle is often a very sharp rise followed by a precipitous fall. Nowhere is that better exhibited than in the e-reader niche. With their tablet entry, Apple has the potential to wreak havoc much like they did in the music industry with iTunes. It is the eat or be eaten mentality. Who wins this war? It's too soon to tell. The e-reader/eBook category is exploding with lots of great brand names going head to head in an emerging market. It's certainly worth following. We'll probably even see it covered in business schools in the years to come. Marketing history is being played out in real time.

Amway went through an ill-fated name change earlier in the decade. They walked away from both the equity and the baggage that existed with Amway. Many Independent Business Owners have gotten rich and are living the good life because of the opportunities afforded by Amway. Today, there are three million Amway business owners. Many make money off other members - that's the beauty of multi-level marketing. The levels of distribution selling steps run deep - ten, fifty and or hundred step distribution. Like any savvy marketer, Amway tiers its distributors. You can be at a diamond, platinum or emerald level.

Today, Amway plays the brand game really well. Given the negative halo of Amway's past, present and potential future, they've become a strong proponent of a branded house strategy. Behind Nutrilite, Amway is the world's leading brand of vitamins, minerals and dietary supplements with sales that exceed $3 billion. Artistry, their skin care/cosmetics brand, brings in over $1 billion.

The Donald himself, Donald Trump, has taken notice of the direct selling segment. Recently, he started the Trump Network that came out of Ideal Health - a 12-year old Massachusetts based nutritional product company. Amway has some serious competition. That is one reason you see Amway paying $40 million for the naming rights to the new Amway Center in Orlando. That's what you expect from close to
$8 billion brand enterprises.

Is everything rosy with Amway? That is hardly the case. Not all distributors prosper. Many drop out. The investment is significant, including $497.00 in "marketing packages." The highest tier levels live off the efforts of the newbies! It is eat or be eaten. Eric Scheibeler has written the definitive look inside Amway - Merchants of Deception. He should know; he was decorated and honored at the Founder's Emerald Level.

Is multiple-level marketing level right for everyone? Just like any business, it works for some and not others. The elements of risk are readily apparent on the Trump Network site - "Trump Network does not guarantee you'll earn an income." The best Amway Independent Business Owners go far beyond their circle of friends. They market their products through feature and benefit selling. They build on relationships rather than take advantage of them.

It is interesting to recognize that Amway is an abbreviation of the words 'American way'. The road to success in this country has been paved time and time again by working day in and day out. Selling is hard, in whatever category you find yourself. Whether it is Avon, Mary Kay, Amway, or any business. There are no shortcuts to success. Passion, diligence and hard work - that truly is the American way.

That isn't stopping the power brands in the category from winning consumers' hearts and minds for achieving the ultimate in kitchen design. Much like the Vikings themselves, Viking is a dominating force. The Viking range is the ultimate kitchen symbol. A true passion brand that knows its customers - the foodies!!

Viking engages on so many levels. You can touch the brand through Viking Cooking Schools across the country and travel through trips sponsored by Viking. Viking.com offers all this up via Viking Life. Who doesn't want to live like a Viking and conquer new worlds!

Every kitchen on the tour featured Sub-Zero refrigerators in the footprint - sometimes standing at attention side by side like sentries. Elegant and sleek in stature and design, Sub Z's rule in today's designer kitchen. You know you've arrived when consumers give you a nickname - "Sub Z" is the Fed Ex of the kitchen world. Who would have ever thought 30 years ago that a refrigerator could have an emotional connection with a consumer? Sub-Zero even features their sister brand, Wolf, which is giving Viking a go of it in the kitchen range niche.

These kitchens featured warming drawers and heat lamps and butler's pantries with wine coolers and cappuccino/espresso machines. Any one of them could have qualified to be on a cooking show at the Food Network. I felt as if I were in Kitchen Stadium.

Need an espresso? Just order up a Miele appliance featuring the Nespresso® capsule system. After all, Miele's brand positioning is "Anything else is a compromise." Bosch is in the game as well with products that they claim are "Invented for life." Design is their calling card point of difference.

No where did you see a GE product in any of the kitchens. It is the fleeting nature of the brand game being played in kitchens across the country that GE must compete. GE Monogram is still a player, but not in the high-end game. They've tried to fight this perception through their GE Monogram Design Center at the NY Architects & Design

Building in New York City. They are now the hunter rather than the hunted. GE doesn't hold the same brand position they once did. The brand leadership position is often fleeting as GE has intimately learned.

The game will continue to change in kitchens and the brands that serve them. The trends for the kitchen category, according to the National Kitchen and Bath Association, include black and white design concepts, steel counters, tin ceilings, polished chrome and glass.

The other common link among the kitchens was the use of islands - some of them big enough to qualify as a Caribbean island. Trends are everywhere if you look hard enough for them. It is another lesson in ensuring that you're constantly looking for the next big thing in marketing. The category changes as quickly as the market climate. Can kitchens get any bigger or grander? Ten years ago, who would have predicted the explosion in outdoor kitchens? Perhaps tailgate kitchens are next. It is all about being distinct rather than extinct.

T.J. Maxx is betting the holiday season on the "Maxxinista" It is built into everything they're doing in communications - T.J. Maxx - Where Fashionistas become Maxxinistas. The "Maxxinista" is everywhere - throughout the site, Facebook, Twitter. It is executed well creatively by having a memorable ring to it by driving name recognition for T.J. Maxx. I can't see people connecting emotionally with being a "Maxxinista", but it does raise the consciousness of the T. J. Maxx brand. It has a way to go before it surpasses the line that T.J. Maxx used for years - "You get the max for the minimum at T.J.Maxx."

Target, long known as the retail brand that has made it "chic to shop cheap," has their own "ista" campaign in play. Target thrives on the anti-Wal-Mart shopping experience position, appealing to a segment of the American populace who hate shopping at Wal-Mart. Their "ista" offering this season is based on being a "Frugalista." They're treating "Frugalista" as a guerilla-type communications tactic within their style boutique on www.target.com. They use style guru Nina Garcia as the spokesperson for outfitting the new "Frugalistas"!!! The executions feel scripted and appear forced. The people seem reluctant to being identified as "Frugalistas". After all, frugal is sometimes construed as an ugly word.

I can imagine the accusations flying between these two retailers about copycat ideas. That pressure extends down to the agency partners. There is nothing you fear more in this business than hearing the dreaded - "I've seen that idea before." There's an old saying that there are no original ideas, only ideas that have been reworked or redone. This couldn't be further from the truth. In over a 30-year career, I've seen creative people work passionately, hours upon hours, developing conceptual ideas. It is all about the idea.

Is it a coincidence when campaigns like the "istas" happen? Both make perfect strategic sense - market climate driven, the need to save money, yet personality laden with women wanting to be stylish. Two agencies and two brands came up with a similar creative approach to arriving at the same selling idea. It happens more than you'd ever think in the advertising business. It will be fascinating to watch these two campaigns play out over the holiday season. Which one provides the most sales life will be the ultimate metrics test. Does the "Maxxinista" fashion appeal win out or will the frugality of "Frugalista" carry the day? The consumers will decide, as they always do.