Our Top 10 posts of 2023

This website was started in 2004.

That means, that 2024 marks the twenty-year anniversary of researching, writing and posting articles on this site...almost daily.

When you do the maths, that's a lot of content creation.

2023 was yet another super year for us - both on the research and writing side, as well as on the side of the strategic marketing work that we did with clients this year.

Thanks to our clients

We are very fortunate to be in the position to work with such interesting and diverse clients - both in South Africa as well as in the USA and the UK; from pioneering AI-tech disruptors to listed-South African corporate giants we have been lucky enough to have a front seat view of the inner workings of some truly great businesses.

Top 10 posts of 2023

As an informal round-up of the year, here are our Top 10 posts of 2023 - scored and ranked in accordance with popularity and engagement by community members and casual visitors to the site. Not all were written in 2023, but were this year's most in-demand pieces.

#1 How the Shoprite Group is reinventing itself for the future

This is a subscriber-only analysis of the core strategy the Shoprite Group are using to produce some truly astounding outperformance.

As a follow-up to this piece, we also have an entire book available that give you even more insights as to how this phenomenon was achieved and what key lessons can be learnt.

In partnership with Marius Du Toit (the author of the book) workshops are also available to organisations wanting to explore ways in which they can apply the Checkers Sixty60 case study to their own models.

How the Shoprite Group is reinventing itself for the future

The Group’s latest financial results show that they have grown sales by 10% and profits by more than 25%

CherryflavaJon Cherry

#2 The Checkers Sixty60 delivery bike is smart brand building

The Checkers Sixty60 brand building project has been relentless in its pursuit of market dominance in 2023. This post goes into our take on one of their greatest strokes of genius.

The Checkers Sixty60 delivery bike is smart brand building

Might Checkers Sixty60 have successfully reimagined an old supermarket promotional tactic?

CherryflavaJon Cherry

#3 How Uniqlo ruined South African clothing retailers for me

Our personal take on what Uniqlo does so right, and why even if local retailers try in vain to copy the formula, they just don't seem to be able to match the strategic brilliance that is Uniqlo.

How Uniqlo ruined South African clothing retailers for me

Your competitors might not be who you think they are.

CherryflavaJon Cherry

#4 What is the A24 strategy?

How did an indie movie studio become one of the most in-demand producers of film and TV content? We go into the secret sauce of just how A24 outperforms the industry with clever thinking and a strong brand.

What is A24’s strategy?

The movie business is tough; dominated by some very big players that have ‘owned’ Hollywood for decades, nobody in their right mind would want to wake up one day and decide to take on the likes of Paramount and Twentieth Century Fox. So how is it that a small studio,

CherryflavaJon Cherry

#5 The Amazon strategy on a napkin

The best strategy is no strategy; the second best one is incredibly simple and to the point. Ultimately you want to get to writing your strategy down on a simple napkin and getting buy-in from others just from that basic platform. This post is how Amazon does it.

The Amazon strategy on a napkin

How Amazon overcame their biggest challenge.

CherryflavaJon Cherry

#6 Mr Price's big ambition for the future

The Mr Price Group have got some lofty plans for the future (complete with nonsense statements and all), but looking past the flagrant plenitudes they wilfully include in their annual report, how are they thinking about dominating their category in the future?

Mr Price’s big ambition for the future

To be the most valuable retailer in Africa.

CherryflavaJon Cherry

#7 Strategically...what went wrong at Peloton?

Once the darling of Wall Street; the Peloton train came to an abrupt end as the pandemic restriction started to ease. Why? What went wrong?

Strategically...what went wrong at Peloton?

Let’s have a closer look at their strategy to figure it out.

CherryflavaJon Cherry

#8 Barbie's brilliant strategy

The Barbie Movie was 2023's runaway success story. What was the thinking behind Mattel's master stroke and what comes next?

Barbie’s brilliant strategy

Is this a masterclass in marketing strategy and business model reinvention?

CherryflavaJon Cherry

#9 Poppi - how a drinks start-up is building its social capital with Gen Z

Poppi is a small beverage brand with limited capital and capacity to spend on its marketing efforts - so how then did this company outperform the category and engage the notoriously fickle Gen Z customer?

Poppi - how a drinks start-up is building its social capital with Gen Z

Many brands just ‘don’t get the Gen Z crowd’, but they are their future customers.

CherryflavaJon Cherry

#10 How Lululemon plans to help the world feel well again

Canada's Lululemon as some aggressive ideas as to how it's going to get the world to adopt the idea of caring for itself more. This post analyses what their published approach appears to be.

How Lululemon plans to help the world feel well again

In this post we break down the published Lululemon strategy to get a better idea of how the brand plans to double revenue to $12.5B in just 5 years.

CherryflavaJon Cherry

Hope you enjoyed re-reading some of our 2023 hits; if you looking for even more - feel free to browse all of our tags here - that connects you with posts in lots of different categories.

We will be taking a long-overdue Christmas break here - getting out of a mad Cape Town for some peace and quiet out in the country and will be back again in early January.

Have a lekker festive season.