Insights
Insights
Notes on research, brand, and growth from the M2 team.
Website Development: Build a Lead Engine, Not a Brochure
A business-first website development approach turns a static brochure into a 24/7 lead engine that cuts friction and lifts qualified enquiries.
Web Analytics: Turning Behaviour Data Into Decisions
Web analytics turns behaviour data into decisions. Learn what to track, how to avoid vanity metrics, and when to act on user friction points.
Strategy Is Not an Action Plan: 3 Misconceptions That Stall SMEs
Three misconceptions keep mid-sized companies busy and undefended — and the one question that separates a strategy from a to-do list.
The New Normality: Rebuilding Marketing for Changed Demand
New normality consumer behaviour has changed demand for good. The source case gives three moves: empathetic messaging, hybrid O2O, 90-day plans.
Amphibian Strategy: Surviving in Two Habitats at Once
Amphibian strategy means operating in two habitats at once: lean survival below water, innovation on land. The source case lists three capabilities.
Chess Principles in Marketing: Placing Scarce Resources
Chess principles in marketing — center control, developing every piece, and the gambit — a way to place scarce resources several moves ahead.
eMetrics: A Scorecard a CEO Can Read in 5 Minutes
eMetrics creates a concise marketing scorecard that helps CEOs read performance in 5 minutes, focusing on outcomes over activity.
The Hourglass Model: The Sale Starts After Checkout
The hourglass marketing model moves the finish line past checkout: know, like, trust above the waist, repeat, refer, advocate below.
Branding Is Not a Logo: The Three Layers That Create Pricing Power
Branding is not a logo, a packaging set, or a sponsorship. Three layers decide whether customers pay more — or switch on price.
Evolutionary or Revolutionary Rebranding? Google vs Viettel
Evolutionary vs revolutionary rebranding, read through Google and Viettel: the business driver decides, not the aesthetics of the logo.
Emotional Marketing: Why Empathy Beats Production Value
Emotional marketing runs on radical empathy, not production value: the human truth customers never say, and how sincerity beats polish.
Military Strategy in Marketing: Force Concentration & Four Battlegrounds
Military strategy applied to marketing in one move: concentrate force on a single segment, then choose the right of four battlegrounds.
Five Defensive Strategies for the Market Leader
Defensive marketing strategy for the market leader: position, flanking, preemptive, counteroffensive and self-attack — with when each one fits.
Apple's $19 Cloth: What Premium Pricing Actually Sells
The $19 polishing cloth sold out. It was never competing with a cheap cloth — a case study in anchoring, free PR, and brand equity.
Facebook to Meta: Brand Architecture as Crisis Insurance
Facebook meta rebranding brand architecture, read through the Meta rename: decoupling the parent, containing crisis risk, and the new name's limit.
Value Migration: Follow the Value, Not the Product
Value leaves old business models quietly. A value migration business strategy tells you which stage you are in, and when to reposition.
ACB's Break From Banking Stereotypes
Vietnamese retail banking all looked and sounded the same. ACB's stereotype breaking campaign traded polish for real stories — the case reading.
VPIM 2023: Designing Emotional Brand Touchpoints
A research-backed view of how VPBank used emotional touchpoints in VPIM 2023 to turn a sports event into meaningful brand engagement.
Turning a City Race Into a Strategic Brand Asset
How a city race becomes a strategic brand asset: VPIM 2023's standards, experience design and community purpose turned sponsorship into brand equity.
The Strategy Integration Model: Ending the Business–Marketing Divide
The strategy integration model closes the divide between business strategy and marketing strategy through three pillars and one filter.
Rebuilding Consumer Trust: Proof Over Promises
Consumer trust in advertising is at a low. The trust-building protocol replaces empty promises with transparency, proof and accountability.
Greenwashing: How to Claim Sustainability Without Lying
Greenwashing examples show what kills a green claim: vague absolutes. Claim sustainability with supply-chain proof and numbers instead.
Scent Marketing: The Overlooked Sense in Brand Experience
A research-based look at scent marketing: how smell links to memory and emotion, and how to use it strategically in brand experience.
Digital Marketing Audit: 4 Checks Before Spending More on Ads
Four checks to run before the next ad budget: owned media, paid & search, data & MarTech, benchmarking — and the 20–35% of cost they usually uncover.
Brand Positioning in Practice: From 3Cs to a Statement That Holds
How to build a brand positioning statement that holds: the 3Cs, a perceptual map, and a claim you can defend, own, and price on.
Viettel's Rebrand: When the Business Model Changes, the Identity Follows
When Viettel dropped a 20-year logo and slogan, the debate missed the point: the business had already changed. A rebrand case study.
Workforce Advantage Index 2026: 3 Productivity Paradoxes & C-Suite Dilemmas
Key takeaways from the Workforce Advantage Index 2026 survey at the Vietnam HR Summit: from misdirected diligence and unmanaged AI traps to bridging the workforce data gap before C-Suite.