Have a safe and happy holiday weekend! Here are some stories of interest and worth the packaging community shared this week. Does your company or agency have a blog? Share the link with us so we can start following it as well.

Behind the DisneyXCoach Packaging This collaboration is creating a stir among the fashion crowd, says Design Packaging. The 75-year-old leather goods brand Coach chose Disney as its partner for this special anniversary because of its all-American appeal.

The Toast Maker – A gently amusing poke at brand story telling Has the strategy of storytelling “run out of steam and brands need to move onto the next great stroke of authenticity?” asks Truly Deeply. This cheeky video has circulated previously, but the agency’s take on it makes it worth a second look.

The Unconscious Power of Brands A favorite link of the week, because it stars our 2016 Packaging That Sells keynote speaker Daryl Weber. Here, he helps brands learn how “our customers’ minds actually work, not how we’d like them to work in a perfect world,” says Entrepreneur.

5 Gaps Between Brand Strategy Theory And Practice The industry is “packed with consultants and decision makers who profess familiarity with everything required to build powerful brands – and yet on closer inspection, the numbers of truly successful brands remains low,” says Branding Strategy Insider. “So, given what we know now, why is it still so difficult to create high-performing brands?”

Is Your Brand Working to Positive or Negative Energy? Are you operating on energy driven by succeeding in an exciting new prospect, or is your work dominated by fear of falling behind in the market? To get brands to thrive, Emotive Brands works with clients to “address the human factor that underlies all their known business issues: the fact that the employees and customers involved don’t now care enough about the brand to help it resolve its issues.”

How Real Brands Are Retaining Customers: 8 Strategies From Starbucks, Amazon & More “How do you create a customer retention strategy that keeps your current customers engaged?” asks Hubspot. The article goes on to list two handfuls some of the biggest brands are using today.