Here's how to think about supporting local. Getty images

Businesses everywhere are struggling to survive during these strange times. From the largest global companies to the local mom and pops, these organizations are on the brink of losing the good fight.

Brands we all rely on — including J Crew, JC Penney, Neiman Marcus, Modell's Sporting Goods, and Gold's Gym — have filed or are expected to file for bankruptcy protection in the coming days.

Those are some of the national brands. Local brands come and go with such frequency that many times only the most loyal of consumers are the only ones that realize their demise outside of the owners and employees.

What is a local brand?

Echoing throughout our everyday quarantined lives is the mantra to support your local community businesses. What exactly does that mean? A neighbor of mine is the general manager of a large national retail store in our community. It is not a local business…or is it? I certainly do not want him to fail and lose his job due to a corporate decision to shut down locations. That would affect hundreds of folks in our area that work there.

Then there is the local flower shop that is a one-location mom and pop that a family has poured everything it has into building their retail dream. Now, they face a nightmare of losing it all if things do not turn around soon enough.

What does this all have to do with brand equity?

The equity in your brand is that perceived value customers place in your services or products that makes your brand stand out. It includes brand loyalty, perceived quality and your overall brand awareness. It is why a customer choose one brand over another as price is removed from the equation.

As consumers venture out from the COVID-19 isolation more and more each day, they have decisions to make. Decisions like "Where am I going to spend my money?" This gets even more compounded by the shocking number of furloughed and unemployed people that only weeks ago were humming along fine. Discretionary income is almost becoming a thing of the recent past, meaning every dollar spent beyond rent and food is under extreme scrutiny.

It is at this very point that brand equity can make or break a local business. We all know that the coming months will be trying, and brands are simply trying to hang on to make it through the unprecedented downturn. But guess which brands will come out of this with a chance to realize even more greatness down the road? Those companies that realized from day one the importance of their brand. How people perceive it. How to build value beyond the physical goods or services. The culture of their brand and whether it permeates the organization and every brand touchpoint with consumers.

Think of building brand equity like you would when shopping for home insurance. You do not go get insurance on your home after the fire destroys it. You plan ahead and build home equity by mitigating risk. The same holds for brand equity. You plan ahead and place the importance of an effective brand strategy at the very top of your business priorities.

I have worked on brand strategy from global brands to local and regional brands and you would be surprised to see how brand strategy is undervalued regardless of company size. Too many times (actually, almost always) I see companies large and small treat the brand and marketing strategy as an afterthought, once accounting, purchasing, HR, manufacturing, sales and more are given their proper due.

Brands face pressures daily from all sides including competition, government regulations, changing consumer preferences, technology, advertising expense and more. So those brands that have the focused leadership to build a strong brand platform, as a priority from day one, will win in the long term.

The higher the level of your brand equity in your marketplace, the more likely a consumer will migrate toward your business as they begin thawing their wallets from the pandemic freeze of uncertainty. Spending is under more scrutiny than most of us have ever seen, and brand stewards that have built a strong platform of awareness, value, service, quality and overall experience stand the best chance to earn that sale from loyal customers that appreciate brand equity, even though those customers may not understand how to actually define it.

It's not too late.

While you have the time, even though the slow crawl back to some sort of normalcy can seem overwhelming, prioritize your brand strategy. Spend time each day as you would with accounting and sales to consider how to improve the equity, the value, of your brand among your customer base.

Ask yourself how you can differentiate. What are the ways you can value-add to your services that make your product even more memorable with consumers? What about employee training? Consider whether or not your people believe in your business and have the passion to exemplify those brand attributes you clearly demonstrate day in and day out. Are you following up with customers to build loyalty and learn about how to improve?

Look at the competition, regardless of size, and build a list of what makes your brand better. Then continue to find ways to express that. There is still time if you prioritize differently.

There's an old sugar-packet saying I heard early in my career that I still use today, over 40 years later that goes something like this:

"He Who Has a Thing to Sell
And Goes and Whispers in a Well
Is Not as Apt to Make the Dollars
As He Who Climbs a Tree and Hollers"

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Mike Albrecht is currently a partner and director of business development at Houston-based 9thWonder, a large general market advertising and PR agency based in Houston with offices around the globe. 

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Houston palliative care company integrates with Epic platforms

epic scale

Patients and medical teams using MyChart and other Epic Systems' software will now be able to access Houston-based Koda Health's AI-enhanced end-of-life planning platform.

The Houston-based palliative care company, which was born out of the TMC's Biodesign Fellowship, has integrated its advance care planning platform with Epic, one of the most widely used electronic health record (EHR) systems in the U.S., according to a news release.

Epic estimates that more than 325 million patients have a current electronic record in its systems.

“This is a significant milestone for our mission to make advance care planning scalable, meaningful, and seamless,” Tatiana Fofanova, CEO and co-founder of Koda Health, said in the release. “By integrating into systems already used by care teams, we help eliminate friction and ensure that care delivery honors what patients truly want—especially during serious illness and at the end of life.”

The partnership will streamline processes for both patients and clinicians. Users will be able to drop advance care plans directly into the Epic charts, which will be accessible through MyChart for patients and proxies and through Epic Hyperspace/Hyperdrive for care teams. Doctors can also initiate and manage advance care plans through a simple Epic order for patients.

According to Koda Health, its platform saves an average of $10,000 to $15,000 per patient. Roughly 85 percent of users complete advance care plan documents when using the platform, which is four times the national average.

“We developed Koda to give providers the time, training, and tools to guide these critical conversations," Dr. Desh Mohan, co-founder and chief medical officer at Koda Health, added in the statement. "Our integration now makes it possible to operationalize ACP at scale—aligned with value-based care goals and clinical reality.”

The company announced a partnership with Dallas-based Guidehealth, which integrates into primary care workflows and allows providers to identify high-risk patients, coordinate care and reduce administrative burden. Guidehealth works with more than 500,000 patients

Koda Health was founded in 2020 and closed an oversubscribed seed round for an undisclosed amount last year, with investments from AARP, Memorial Hermann Health System and the Texas Medical Center Venture Fund. The company also added Kidney Action Planning to its suite of services in 2024.

Xfinity goes all-in with new national internet plan

Everything's Included

Following the successful launch and positive consumer reaction to Xfinity’s new 5-year guarantee, the nation’s largest Internet Service Provider (ISP) has launched its everyday pricing (EDP) structure with four simple national Internet tiers that include unlimited data and the advanced Xfinity WiFi Gateway for one low monthly price.

This move is part of the company’s broader strategy to give consumers simple, predictable, all-in plans for the best WiFi in the market. All plans include a line of Xfinity Mobile at no additional cost for a year.

“We said we were going to go ‘all-in’ on a new pricing strategy and we are delivering with our 5-year price lock and our new everyday price plans," says Steve Croney, chief operating officer, Connectivity & Platforms at Comcast. "Now all our Xfinity Internet packages are built on simplicity and transparency — no hidden fees, no confusion — just the best, most reliable and secure WiFi that sets a new standard for the ultimate connected experience. We’re coming out swinging with a superior WiFi product that easily beats the competition at an even better price point for customers.”

 Xfinity pricing table Graphic courtesy of Xfinity

Xfinity delivers the fastest, most reliable* WiFi experience with multi-gig speeds, a low-lag connection for gaming and streaming, the capacity to connect hundreds of devices in the home, and unbeatable wall-to-wall WiFi coverage.

The Xfinity WiFi Gateway blankets the home with cybersecurity protection and provides other advanced WiFi features and parental controls, all easily accessible in the newly redesigned Xfinity app, allowing customers to optimize and manage their WiFi experience in the home.

An unlimited line of Xfinity Mobile is also included at no cost for a year with these plans.

Only Xfinity Mobile customers have access to WiFi PowerBoost, a game-changing feature which increases Xfinity Mobile speeds up to 1 gig — no matter the plan they choose — when they are connected over WiFi in the home or anywhere else on the Xfinity WiFi network, the largest and fastest in the nation.

With 90 percent of mobile traffic traveling over WiFi, Xfinity Mobile is created for how customers use their mobile devices, combining the nation’s best WiFi with the most reliable 5G network.

Consumers can sign up for Xfinity Internet and Xfinity Mobile online at www.xfinity.com or at their local Xfinity store.

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*www.opensignal.com

Houston startup funding surpasses $1B in 2025 despite national slowdown

by the numbers

Houston-area startups raised more than $1 billion in venture capital during the first half of 2025 — almost double the haul for the first half of last year.

According to the new PitchBook-NCVA Venture Monitor, Houston-area startups raised $417.2 million in the second quarter of this year, compared with $281 million during the same period last year. In the first quarter of 2025, local startups collected $607.5 million in venture capital, compared with $281 million during the same period a year earlier.

Based on those figures, Houston-area startups picked up slightly over $1 billion in VC during the first half of this year, compared with $535 million in the first half of 2024.

Nationally, startups gained almost $70 billion in VC in the second quarter, down 25 percent from the same period a year ago, the PitchBook-NCVA Venture Monitor says.

Nizar Tarhuni, executive vice president of research and market intelligence at PitchBook, explained that “the VC landscape continues to navigate a fragile recovery” and is constrained by economic uncertainty.

However, startups in certain sectors are poised to attract a great deal of attention and venture capital over the next several years, according to the report.

“Companies operating in AI, national security, defense tech, fintech, and crypto — sectors aligned with the administration’s priorities — are attracting disproportionately more investor interest, and this trend will likely continue throughout President Donald Trump’s term,” the report says.

The AI sector accounted for 64 percent of VC deal value in the first half of 2025, according to the report.