Warren Kornblum, CEO, Shadow Branding
| Episode Type | Expert Insight Interview |
| Guest | Warren Kornblum, CEO, Shadow Branding |
| Guest Website | shareofheart.com |
| Listen | View on Sales POP! Podcast Page |
Key Takeaways
- Warren Kornblum defines share of heart as emotional brand loyalty that goes beyond share of mind and share of wallet to a genuine customer connection.
- Brands that earn share of heart gain forgiveness: Kornblum says customers stay loyal even when the brand is not the lowest price.
- Kornblum revived the Toys “R” Us jingle and Jeffrey the Giraffe, and the Times Square store his team built became the top family tourist attraction in New York.
- Kornblum calls AI phenomenally enabling but says machines lack empathy, so every company needs a trigger point where human touch takes over.
Episode Overview
Why do customers remember some brands forever while others vanish in months? Warren Kornblum, CEO of Shadow Branding and former Global CMO of Toys “R” Us, answers with emotional brand loyalty, or what he calls share of heart. Kornblum, who joined Toys “R” Us in 1999, shows how purpose, trust, and empowered people turn one-off transactions into lasting affinity.
Key Insights
1. What separates lasting brand loyalty from a trendy transaction?
Warren Kornblum draws a clear line between transaction and affinity. Trendy brands sell the latest jeans or t-shirt and fade, while brands that earn share of heart become almost part of the customer’s family. That connection buys forgiveness: Kornblum notes you do not have to be the lowest price or run the last ad, because the brand transcends day-to-day transactions and becomes part of how people live.
2. What is share of heart in marketing?
Share of heart, Kornblum’s own term, goes beyond the classic measures of share of mind and share of wallet. Early in his career, Kornblum decided that if customers not only think of a brand first but genuinely like it and feel connected to it, the brand moves way beyond those other shares. Like a good friend, it gets held to a higher standard, so it must earn that trust every single day.
3. How did Toys “R” Us rebuild emotional brand loyalty?
Kornblum gave customers back what they loved. Arriving in 1999 as Amazon, Walmart, and the internet pressured the toy business, he restored the “I Don’t Wanna Grow Up” jingle and brought back Jeffrey the Giraffe, both of which had been shelved. His team then built the Times Square store that later became the top family tourist attraction in New York, and swapped research surveys for watching kids play with toys.
4. How do you build customer trust across an organization?
Kornblum builds trust on one rule: say what you do and do what you say. His witness test asks employees across an organization about the mission statement, and three responses follow: robotic recitation, a blank response that shows the statement means nothing to them, or a passionate retelling in the employee’s own words. Only the third proves people embrace the purpose, and that trust, earned daily, becomes belief.
5. Where does AI belong in customer experience?
Kornblum calls AI phenomenally enabling but insists it does not build the connection, because machines do not have empathy. He argues every company needs to be fluent in AI, not necessarily expert, and must set a trigger point where a frustrated customer reaches a human. At Rooms To Go, he found a call center that refused to measure agents on call speed, protecting relationships over pure efficiency.
Pull Quotes
“The most important person to me as a marketing practitioner, I think to all marketing practitioners, is the customer.” – Warren Kornblum, CEO of Shadow Branding
“Give the brand to the customer. That’s the biggest thing.” – Warren Kornblum, CEO of Shadow Branding
“Research is a really valuable tool, but it’s no substitute for sound human judgment.” – Warren Kornblum, CEO of Shadow Branding
“We need efficiency in the system, but not at the expense of relationships.” – Warren Kornblum, CEO of Shadow Branding
Emotional Brand Loyalty: Key Facts from Warren Kornblum of Shadow Branding
| Statistic | Detail | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Year Warren Kornblum joined Toys “R” Us as Global CMO, as the board refreshed senior management amid pressure from Amazon, Walmart, and the internet | Warren Kornblum, Sales POP! interview, 2026 |
| 2006 | Year Kornblum left Toys “R” Us; twenty years later, people can still hum the “I Don’t Wanna Grow Up” jingle | Warren Kornblum, Sales POP! interview, 2026 |
| About 50 years | How long Toys “R” Us, founded by Charles Lazarus, had operated before Kornblum arrived | Warren Kornblum, Sales POP! interview, 2026 |
| Top family tourist attraction in New York | Standing the Times Square Toys “R” Us store held for many years after Kornblum’s team built it | Warren Kornblum, Sales POP! interview, 2026 |
| 3 responses | Outcomes of Kornblum’s witness test on mission statements: robotic recitation, a blank response, or a passionate retelling in the employee’s own words | Warren Kornblum, Sales POP! interview, 2026 |
| January 2026 | Release of Kornblum’s book, Notes from the Brand Stand | Warren Kornblum, Sales POP! interview, 2026 |
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John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist, he has conducted over 1500 video interviews of thought leaders for Sales POP! online sales magazine & YouTube Channel and for audio podcast channels where Sales POP! is rated in the top 2% of most popular shows out of 3,320,580 podcasts globally, ranked by Listen Score. He is CSMO at Coevera. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.
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