by Evelyn Starr | Nov 9, 2023 | Brand Experience
After picking organic raspberries in Concord, Massachusetts one sweltering August Sunday, my husband Dan and I headed for refreshment to the Main Streets Market and Café in Concord Center. Main Streets Market and Café bustles all day with customers popping in to take...
by Evelyn Starr | Sep 15, 2023 | Brand Experience, Marketing Insights
When searching for family activities for our Paris vacation this summer, I found a 3-hour chocolate and patisserie walking tour. My definition of heaven, even on a sweltering late June day. Happily, my husband and two twentysomething children were game. The tour...
by Evelyn Starr | Aug 22, 2023 | Brand Experience, Brand Growth & Rebranding
The closest I’ve come to liking Elon Musk was during his SNL opening monologue on May 8, 2021. But it was never that close. I admired his courage to appear on the show and willingness to mock himself. His performance humanized him. He was funny in some skits. Yet my...
by Evelyn Starr | May 20, 2023 | Brand Experience, Brand Purpose & Values
On May 20, 1993, my then-boyfriend Dan and I watched the Cheers finale along with 84 million other Americans. Unlike most of them, we watched from bleacher seats in front of the Bull & Finch pub, the Boston bar that inspired the series. NBC was going to broadcast...
by Evelyn Starr | Mar 17, 2023 | Brand Experience, Brand Strategy
As a mother of two young children in the early 2000s who worked from a home office, occasionally I would need a break. A few hours out of the house on my own to remember who I was without any obligation to feed, clothe, wash, educate, entertain, or otherwise support...
by Evelyn Starr | Jan 27, 2023 | Brand Experience, Marketing Research Tips
Zappos disappointed me recently, but not with their shoes or their service. I had ordered five pairs of sneakers from them with the hope I’d find one I liked that fit. To my joy, three pairs fit. I liked all three but only needed one. I kept the one I liked most. As I...
by Evelyn Starr | Dec 9, 2022 | Brand Experience, Emotional Connections
I may be single-handedly keeping the post office in business. Few days pass when I don’t mail a card to someone. I buy 5 books of stamps at a time and cards by the dozens. Cronin Cards, a small business selling cards specifically for business communications, is a...
by Evelyn Starr | Nov 16, 2022 | Brand Experience, Marketing Insights
I love when my newsletter readers send me ideas for future issues. Last April my neighbor Tina emailed me to share a recent experience at Panera. On a Sunday Tina placed an order via Panera’s app as she was finishing her grocery shopping. She arrived at Panera 5...
by Evelyn Starr | Aug 19, 2022 | Brand Experience, Marketing Insights
I used to joke that chocolate was a food group. I’m no longer joking. My diet contains a small daily dose of dark chocolate (or two) which I take with the devotion I used to give to a multivitamin. My husband Dan knows of my passion for dark chocolate and shares my...
