Warren Kornblum on The Standing Apart Podcast

Podcast Show Notes:

Most businesses assume their biggest branding challenge is awareness. Warren Kornblum thinks that’s almost the wrong problem to solve.

After a career spanning global brands including Toys R Us and Serta Simmons Bedding, Warren has spent decades studying why some brands earn deep, lasting loyalty while others fade despite heavy marketing investment. His answer centres on a concept he calls Share of Heart: not just being thought of, not just being bought, but being genuinely liked — and the difference that makes when a market gets tough.

In this episode, Warren and Nigel cover:

• The distinction between Share of Mind, Share of Wallet and Share of Heart, and why only the third creates durable competitive advantage
• Why awareness can be bought but belief cannot
• What Warren witnessed at Toys R Us — and why people still approach him two decades later as though they’ve lost a friend
• The internal familiarity trap: how management gets bored with brand assets long before customers do
• What connected the decline of Kodak, Sears and Blockbuster, and what each could have done differently
• Why the contact centre is one of the most revealing tests of whether a brand’s promise matches its practice
• Why emotional branding is fully available to small businesses — and why ideas and relationships cost nothing to deliver
• Why AI makes authentic human connection more valuable, not less
• The one thing any business leader can do on Monday morning to start building genuine loyalty