The F Rant - by Constantine Frantzeskos

The most valuable part of Tiffany is the colour blue. LVMH paid $US16bn for it.

26 November 2019

When LVMH bought Tiffany, LVMH’s CEO Bernard Arnault was particularly interested in Tiffany’s distinctive blue packaging.

Continue reading →

Delusional “brand purpose” is destroying businesses

21 November 2019

There’s a new scourge harming jobs and business. It’s a form of addiction. Not Opium addiction, but OPM addiction.

Continue reading →

In the Media: Jerusalem Post

15 November 2019

We randomly had drinks on a balmy Jerusalem evening with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his wife Sara and their guests: the former Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper and his wife, Laureen. Here’s how it happened.

Continue reading →

Private health insurers should innovate, instead of rent-seek

4 October 2019

PHI should be the central concierge that gathers data in order to better diagnose or prevent health issues.

Continue reading →

This is one of the very best pages on the internet: Everyday social experiments with unpredicted outcomes

2 October 2019

So many fantastic examples of: biases, logical fallacies, behavioural psychology, heuristical biases, and behavioural economic theories turned upside down. Source: What is the most bizarre…

Continue reading →

How to spot a good marketer? Through their definition of competition.

2 October 2019

Late one afternoon, I was sitting with group of executives from a large sports team with a global profile. In their slick office, they’d gathered…

Continue reading →

WeWork is a house of cards. It’s a fundamentally weak business model.

26 September 2019

For years I’ve been astonished by the valuations attached to WeWork, which is a very fragile business with a very fragile business model

Continue reading →

A Reading Room of the future

22 August 2019

What if we had the option of enhancing our reading space? Imagine a personal reading room where the environment changed, enhancing and exaggerating the experience…

Continue reading →

The way AOC argues environmental policy is really brilliant

28 March 2019

I’m not a fan of AOC. I think she’s a tremendously destructive policy maker, with a truly poor grasp on evidence, theory and practical application…

Continue reading →

One home for all of my news, please

17 March 2019

All you can eat news services with a subscription or micropayments model is really fantastic.

Continue reading →

Shoes of Prey – another example of why influencer marketing is a surefire way to go broke

13 March 2019

Influencer marketing is a low reach marketing tactic that appeals to a small number of frequent / highest users of the brand, but does not sufficiently grow the number of buyers / customers.

Continue reading →

Transformation: Ferrari is worth more as a luxury brand than as an automotive brand.

1 March 2019

This is so interesting – how do you increase the value of a company? By increasing profits? Or by increasing the perceived value (not necessarily…

Continue reading →

There’s a huge difference between what offends and what affects

8 November 2018

As Kellyanne Conway wisely said of Trump, he knows the difference between what offends and what affects. This is the key to his brilliant tactics….

Continue reading →

Apple News on OSX Mojave – the future of news and publishing?

5 October 2018

Apple News desktop app is very good. It automatically finds newspaper and magazine subscriptions and imports them into the app. The “Evening Digest” is excellent….

Continue reading →

Here’s how to check if your Facebook data was shared with Cambridge Analytica

11 April 2018

Facebook has provided a link where you can check if you (or your friends) shared your Facebook data with Cambridge Analytica. Apparently, mine has not….

Continue reading →