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Mercedes canceled its subscription service, Mercedes Collection. The two-year old pilot offering fee-based access to 30 different models, insurance, roadside assistance and maintenance had about 100 participants. Mercedes Collection gave people a car-driving option other than a purchase or a lease.

Brand revitalization requires finding and satisfying a new, important customer need. Brand success requires being the best at something relevant and differentiated. It means never taking your eye off of changing customer needs.

In 1966, a year before the Summer of Love and two years before the original Woodstock, two gurus of the macrobiotic lifestyle, followers of the great George Ohsawa, opened a health food store called Erewhon. Erewhon is meant the title to be understood as the word “nowhere” backward even though the letters “h” and “w” are transposed. It came from the Samuel Butler book about a utopia. One of the fictional Erewhon’s tenets was that everyone was responsible for their own health and wellbeing.

Hotels have experienced significant losses due to coronavirus. But, there are signs of recovery. A report on the travel industry generated by McKinsey & Co., the global consultancy, covers airlines, hotels, vacation rentals, tours and activities, online travel agencies (OTAs), car rentals, and ridesharing and cruises. According to this report, there are “… signs of latent demand for travel: Customers are interested and willing to travel again when they are allowed to do so, even before a vaccine is available at scale.”