Brand Mix

Six of the Best: Thanksgiving edition

2009-11-26T07:34:00.000-08:00

Photo: Thanksgiving '08 by reneémudd (Flickr)

Thanksgiving-themed stories:

1) Let's Talk Turkey: Snopes.com (via Fritinancy)
Rumor/urban legend buster Snopes.com verifies that people do, in fact, call Turkey hotlines with the strangest of questions. Of the many listed in the post, my faves are: How to carve a turkey with a chain saw? and Can motor oil be used as a baste? (possibly from the same caller?)

2) New York Bar Owner Says He Will Unveil Nation's First 100-Proof Turkey: Fox News
O'Casey's Tavern in Midtown Manhattan is offering what it believes is the nation's first 100-proof turkey. It's being infused with fruit-flavored, 100-proof Georgi vodka for three days before being cooked. Thoughtfully, the tavern is offering free taxi rides to anyone who eats the turkey.

3) Thanksgiving eating strategies: bloggingheads.tv
Ezra Klein and Mark Bittman discuss how, if you wanted to, you could eat less at Thanksgiving. It's all about you, in rational-mode, plotting ahead of time to outwit your irrational self. Strategies discussed include: keeping food off the table (so you have to get up to some more), using small plates and then increasingly "creative" ideas like chopsticks and tight shirts.

4) Biden Pardons Single Yam In Vice Presidential Thanksgiving Ritual: The Onion
"'Under my authority as vice president of the United States of America, I hereby grant this yam full and unconditional clemency,' a smiling Biden declared as he gently patted "Spud," a Beauregard sweet potato grown in Louisiana."

5) United Airlines works to reconnect with customers and restore battered reputation: Chicago Tribune
As a long-suffering United Airlines frequent flyer, I'd love this to be true. It would really be something to be thankful for. Heck. To get into the spirit of the season, let's give United the benefit of the doubt for a change. Perhaps this time things will change for the better.

6) The Muppets: Bohemian Rhapsody: Muppets Studio
YouTube is all the better for having the Muppets setting up their own channel. An escape from reality. Definitely something to be thankful about, especially if future videos are as good as this one.

That's it! Back soon with more stories from the world of brand strategy (and vaguely related areas). More thoughts and comments also available on Twitter (@martinjbishop). Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Extended warranties are too expensive. Why are consumers so happy to buy them?

2009-11-25T07:13:00.000-08:00

Photo: TVWall2 by justshufflingin (Flickr)

Did you know that extended warranties are often more profitable for retailers than the products the warranties are for? According to Business Week, profit margins on warranties are as high as 60% so they account for a disproportionate amount of retailer profits. (For Circuit City, before it went out of business, warranties apparently accounted for all of its profits.)

So it's clear why retailers try and power sell warranties. But why do we consumers continue to buy them and why are we prepared to pay a price so disconnected from the actual cost? We've been told for years that these things are a waste of money but we just don't listen.

Some insights into this question come from a new paper in the Journal of Consumer Research. The authors--Tao Chen, Ajay Kalra and Baohong Sun took a look at purchase data from an electronic retailer and they've concluded that the decision to buy a warranty depends a lot on the shopper's mood. Turns out that people are more likely to buy warranties on fun products (like flat screen TVs) than for functional products (like computers). The authors think that people buy warranties for the fun products because they care about them more and would feel a greater sense of loss if they broke and weren't covered. That means that the price we're prepared to pay for a warranty reflects our expected pleasure from the product purchased rather than from a rational assessment of whether it's likely to break or not, thus providing retailers their profit opportunity.

Any chance that retailers can wean themselves off these over-priced warranties? No. But they could and should do better and not exploit their customers failings. One way forward would be to add more value to warranties. The best example I could find is AppleCare. Rather than just a basic warranty coverage, Apple adds outstanding service and support from its experts. That adds value and it's a big hit with customers.

Meanwhile, when it comes to extended warranties, I'm just going to say "no," however happy I am with what I buy.

Businesses move forward with purpose

2009-11-19T06:45:00.000-08:00

Photo: Vintage Woman Soldier Veteran Bugler, WAF U.S, Air Force 1950s by Beverlykahuna (Flickr)

Two powerful forces are combining to push businesses to catch up with Peter Drucker's ideas about them serving a higher purpose--just in time for his 100th birthday (which would have been today).

Drucker was a strong proponent of businesses going beyond maximizing quarterly profits for shareholder benefit. Why? In his words (from this HBR tribute): "Most people need to feel that they are here for a purpose, and unless an organization can connect to this need to leave something behind that makes this a better world, or at least a different one, it won’t be successful over time.”

So what forces are pushing companies in this direction?

1. The Recession: The recession may be technically over but the current economic conditions continue to impact both consumer confidence and marketing budgets. As Landor-colleague Allen Adamson points out in this Forbes article, such conditions foster purpose-driven branding: "a company whose employees can answer the question, 'Why are we here?' will be the company that makes stronger connections with consumers in search of solutions to life's new normal issues." This Advertising Age article and this WARC News item list a growing number of companies that have become mission-marketers in the U.S. and the UK including P&G, Unilever, Heinz, Wal-Mart, General Mills and Sony.

2. Changing Media Dynamics: The challenge with social media for traditional marketers is the "social" bit. It's less about broadcasting and publicizing, more about 1:1 conversations and dialogue. And the fact is you just can't have a very interesting chat about a box of cereal or a can of soda. As Dove shows, there's much more social media potential talking about real beauty than there is talking about the new range of beauty bars and lotions. As the media change and evolve, so will brands.

To what purpose?

Back to Drucker. The sort of purpose he had in mind was not something superficial as represented by so many mission statements that companies have today. But something grand-- like GE's ambition to be: "the leader in making science work for humanity."

I'll leave you to pick through the current crop of examples (here and here) to decide which of them seem grand vs. less grand. But, to give you some guidance:

More grand if:

The purpose is connected to the intent of the founder (or a later visionary): Pre-recession, Wal-Mart went though a few years where it was struggling to define itself. Should it move more upscale? Should it be more like Target? But then it looked back at its history and chose to embrace the vision of its founder, Sam Walton, which was, yes, to offer low prices but with the intent of helping people provide better lives for their families. With a renewed sense of purpose, Wal-Mart now has direction and energy for its marketing programs and employee engagement with its "Save money. Live better" tag line. Charles Schwab is another company that has rediscovered its purpose by considering its heritage.

Less grand if:

It's mainly about saving money: An umbrella campaign that features all the products in a portfolio can be much less expensive than spending money on each product individually. It's a temptation for companies looking for ways to cut their marketing budgets. All they need is some kind of mission-statement-thingy that can cover all their stuff. With this kind of thinking, they usually end up with something bland and uninspiring to customers and employees alike. Or, as Jack Neff describes in the Advertising Age piece, mission statements that: "Can provoke eye rolls nearly strong enough to cause head trauma among journalists, not to mention the more cynical or maverick elements within corporations."

In case you missed it: 10 Peter Drucker quotes (from earlier this week)

10 Peter Drucker quotes to celebrate his centennial

2009-11-17T07:47:00.000-08:00

Photo: Taxi - Rear Window by pixonomy(Flickr)

Peter Drucker was born 100 years ago this Thursday in Vienna, Austria. He was a pioneer in social and management theory, a prolific writer of books and articles and a good source of quotes, many of which are still relevant today. Here are ten that resonate with me:

The purpose of a business is to create a customer
Business has two functions: marketing and innovation
Trying to predict the future is like trying to drive down a country road at night with no lights while looking out the back window
The best way to predict the future is to create it.
The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself
Suppliers and especially manufacturers have market power because they have information about a product or a service that the customer does not and cannot have, and does not need if he can trust the brand. This explains the profitability of brands.
Most of what we call management consists of making it difficult for people to get their work done.
Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things
There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all
Company cultures are like country cultures. Never try to change one. Try, instead, to work with what you've got.

Six of the Best: The clarity edition (+ FREE book!)

2009-11-14T08:39:00.000-08:00

We don't need none of your highfalutin talk or affected manners around here. Here are six posts with a clear message:

1) 30 Days to Better Business Writing – my new FREE eBook: Bad Language
Matthew Stibe has set out to rid the business world of "jargon, waffle, hype, verbiage and conventionality." He's doing it by making his eBook free to anyone who wants. It's good so I'm doing my bit to spread the word in the hope that those who most need to read it, will read it.

2) Diary of a Tweet: Clarity vs Twitterjunk: The B2B marketing Blog
We're in the "trough of technobabble" when it comes to Twitter. A crisp, 140 character tweet quickly gets RT'd into a horrible mess of gobbledy-gook. With examples.

3) Painfully Honest and Epic Mobile Home Commercial Rhett and Link (via brandflakesforbreakfast)
Go to Rhett and Link's website and you can nominate a local business for a free commercial, perhaps something like this one for Cullman Liquidation. So, take a look at this ad. Or don't. I don't care:

4) Doing Business Houston-Style In the 1970s: HoustonPress News
And while we're in this blunt frame of mind, let's step back in time and visit Edward Mike Davis, owner of the Tiger Oil Company. A series of memos he's supposed to have written back in the 70s show his no-nonsense management approach. Just one snippet here showing his compassion and camaraderie with his employees: "Do not speak to me when you see me. If I want to speak to you, I will do so. I want to save my throat. I don't want to ruin it by saying hello to all you sons-of-bitches." Clearly he was too soft on his employees because, just a couple of years after these memos, the company filed for bankruptcy.

5) Can You Believe How Mean Office Gossip Can Be? The New York Times
I'm sure that Edward Mike Davis would have had some choice words to say about gossip in the office. He would have hated it and, according to this article, he would have been right. A new study of gossip shows how negative and destructive it can be and provides a few tips on gossip management.

6) Contrasts in How Google Suggests Searches: Ben Casnocha
As Ben points out in this post, we don't lie to Google. We type in what we're thinking -- good, bad, and ugly so it's a great way to find out what's on people's minds. Here's how. When you start to type in something to the search box, Google suggests the most popular completions to the given prefix. Slate tested this out and found some interesting contrasts between "dumb" searches and "smart" ones. Type in "how 2" are find: "how 2 get pregnant" and "how 2 grow weed." Type in "how one might" and find "how one might discover a new piece of music" or "how one might account for the rise of andrew jackson in 1828."

That's it! Back soon with more stories from the world of brand strategy (and vaguely related areas). More thoughts and comments also available on Twitter (@martinjbishop).

Marriott launches Autograph Collection: a tricky proposition

2009-11-12T08:15:00.000-08:00

As a brand architect, I've always loved Marriott International. Here's a company that's really explored all the brand architecture options. See how, on this frequently-used chart of mine, the company has managed the relationship between the Marriott brand and its hotel properties up and down the price/quality spectrum. Its lower-priced hotels get a Marriott seal of quality endorsement but are kept at some distance. The JW Marriott uses the founder's name to signal a more upscale product and the Ritz Carlton stands alone.

With its extensive brand portfolio and the careful use of its flagship brand, Marriott has managed to compete successfully across a wide range of properties, providing consistent, appropriate and predictable quality to different customer segments. But what to do with those pesky, growing number of people who prefer independent, boutique hotels and who yearn for something that they would describe as less cookie-cutter. What to do about them?

Well, here's what Marriott has decided. It's launching a new brand called the Autograph Collection which will bring together high-end, unique properties in an upscale franchise. From a business perspective, this looks good. The high-end properties benefit from the marketing and operating efficiencies of tapping into Marriott's powerful infrastructure. Marriott benefits by partnering with these hotels to attract this tough-to-reach, independent-minded segment.

From a branding perspective, it's tricky. How can one of the strongest hotel brands successfully appeal to a segment of people who are trying to escape strong hotel brands? How can its new brand stay low enough key that it doesn't get in the way of the individuality of its independent hotel partners but still drive business?

In this Washington Post article, Don Semmler, Marriott's executive vice president of brand management, says that the purpose of the Autograph Collection is to bring a level of consistency to the new hotels, which the company hopes will build trust in the new brand among potential customers. He told The Post: "The universe of independent hotels has a lot of variation, some good, some bad. Our research tells us they want a trusted expert to help them navigate, so there is no disappointment."

That speaks to another problem. Will a company that has been so successful at delivering consistent hospitality experiences be able to stop itself from driving out all the quirks, inconsistencies and peculiarities that give these independent hotels the character that makes them attractive in the first place?

"Gimme 4." Sesame Street Turns 40

2009-11-10T08:03:00.000-08:00

Sesame Street kicks off its 40th anniversary season today (Tuesday, November 10) with a guest appearance from first lady Michelle Obama. Ricky Gervais, featured in this outtake video, will be on later in the season (with a modified script!).

Sesame Street is the longest-running children's program on US television and, over the years, it has won 122 Emmy Awards as well as a lifetime achievement award. It's been going long enough that its first generation of viewers now have children of their own who watch the show.

What can we learn from Sesame Street's incredible success? Like any standout, there are some special circumstances, tough to bottle and repeat. When it launched, it was a show that was in the right place at the right time with the right people. But perhaps there's something to learn from its ability to survive and thrive all these years?

As Seth Godin has pointed out, many organizations fail to keep delivering exceptional experiences over time: "Here's a rule that's so inevitable that it's almost a law: As an organization grows and succeeds, it sows the seeds of its own demise by getting boring. With more to lose and more people to lose it, meetings and policies become more about avoiding risk than providing joy."

Sesame Street has avoided that fate, finding new ways every year to keep the show joyous. Through, I think:

1) Sticking to a mission with a few, core, strong values: In the case of Sesame Street, it's making learning fun with equality, tolerance and hope. The mission and values lie at the heart of the organization, provide its purpose and ambition and have helped guide its path as times have changed.

2) Keeping things fresh, dynamic: The death knell of TV shows is often the over-pursuit of "fresh" as writers burn though every possible angle to keep things hotter than hot. Sesame Street has managed to keep the energy flowing without boiling over. Great guest stars help.

3) Balancing tradition vs. change: Over the years, Sesame Street has managed to respect its traditions without being imprisoned by them. Malcolm Gladwell said that the essence of Sesame Street is: "The artful blend of fluffy monsters and earnest adults." That's still there but, over time, much else has changed from this season's hip-hop beat for the theme song "Sunny Day" to the use of computer-generated-imagery animation and many other changes to format and curriculum.

4) Fostering team commitment: Many people on the show have been there since the early days. Carroll Spinney still gives life to Big Bird and Frank Biondo has been a camera operator on the show from the first episode. Creator Joan Ganz Cooley, now 79, is still board chairman. Such continuity helps the show stay focused on its original mission and has protected it from the "lets start over" mentality that's often the route of constantly-changing teams.

5) Delivering the goods: If Sesame Street didn't deliver on its goal to help children learn, it would never have survived this long. There have been over 1,000 studies on its educational influence that would have exposed significant flaws. From the beginning, the show has described its curriculum in terms of measurable outcomes and then used research to test its performance. Many of the changes to the show's structure and content have come from these research findings.

6) Staying focused: Finally, Sesame Street has always targeted a very narrow band of customers, specifically 2-4 year-olds and their parents. The show has resisted the temptation to branch off from this tight demographic. Growth and business development has instead come from licensing (over 100,000 products) and market expansion (more than 120 countries internationally).

Happy 40th, Sesame Street!

More Muppets tributes and stuff:

1) Can the Muppets Make Friends in Ramallah: The New York Times
Sesame Street has developed 26 international co-productions. These co-productions are adapted for the local audience with local actors, themes and settings. This article explores the particular challenge of developing a show for Palestinian kids, realistic enough to resonate to them while sticking to the show's core values of optimism and tolerance

2) 101 Muppets of Sesame Street: National Post
All the characters from all the years in one handy, visual guide. Pretty amazing. Source: Muppet Wiki from Wikia (also amazing in its own way)

3) Sesame Street, Droid get Google's love: CNET News
Big Bird, Bert and Ernie are some of the characters featured so as doodles on Google's home page over the last few days. Bert and Ernie had to share their time with the Droid.

Six of the Best: Thanks for all the fish edition

2009-11-06T07:20:00.000-08:00

Photo: Just Taken Pics: Flickr

An edition about dolphins, mice and men. I report. You decide:

1) Deep thinkers:The more we study dolphins, the brighter they turn out to be: guardian.co.uk (via Marginal Revolution)
Anuschka de Rohan describes the various, amazing ways that Kelly, a bottlenose dolphin, has devised to get more fish. After being taught to retrieve trash for a fish reward, Kelly realized that a small piece of paper trash got the same reward as a large piece. So now, when she finds any paper in the pool, she hides it under a stone and tears it off, piece by piece to get lots and lots of fish. And now she's using some of the fish she's given to bait gulls which she then grabs for a huge fish payout!

2) I only read it for the articles: Mind Hacks
Mind Hacks comments on an article in The Economist which shows how easily we can fool ourselves and rationalize our behavior. Researchers asked male students to rate two different sports magazines, one of which "just happened" to be a special swimsuit issue. The students chose the swimsuit issue but they justified their choice by referring to the other differences between the magazines (breadth of coverage, number of articles). Not that surprising but, as The Economist points out, it's more evidence of: "how people behave in ways they think might be frowned upon, and then explain how their motives are actually squeaky clean." This research should remind us that what people say about why they do something is often an unreliable guide to what actually influences their behavior. (You can read the original study on this pdf file.)

3) Tiny Irrationalities That Add Up: Texting While Driving: predictably irrational
This is, in part, a Public Service Announcement. Don't Text and Drive. It's dangerous. Dan Ariely starts his post by referring to a story in The New York Times which describes the UK's new, get tough policy on drive-texting and a particular case where a 24-year old design student died after a texting driver plowed into her car. It's another example of how we can make irrational decisions, this time potentially leading to tragic consequences. Dan's post explores the ways in which we can combat this particular problem, from graphic media campaigns to developing voice-activated texting (which would bypass the problem altogether).

4) 25 ideas for 2010: Hyperopia: Wired.co.uk (via Mind Hacks)
The latest issue of Wired (UK) explores 25 ideas for 2010, everything from neurosecurity to bionic noticing. Not as indigestible as it sounds. This "hyperopia" idea is about those who suffer from excessive far-sightedness and incorrectly think that frugality today will lead to longer term benefits. New research suggests that the future you won't thank you for your sacrifices and will wish you had partied harder and longer. Another idea from the series worth reading is the one about digital forgetting which argues that the ability to store photos, conversations and social network interactions forever is more of a curse than a blessing and asks: Do we need to remember how to forget?

5) Going to Extremes: Psychology Today
I'm going to start and end with dolphins but I must have a mouse story for this edition. Here's one that talks about how mice have shown us that while moderate exercise boosts immunity, extreme exercise is actually worse than being completely sedentary. In a recent experiment, mice on a moderate exercise program were better protected against a flu virus than those on an extreme program. Listen to the mice and take it easy.

6) So long and thanks for all the fish: Fihssticks

"Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so." Douglas Adams

That's it! Back soon with more stories from the world of brand strategy (and vaguely related areas). More thoughts and comments also available on Twitter (@martinjbishop).

A rose by any other name would not smell as sweet to Rachel, and definitely not to Rosemary

2009-11-03T07:50:00.000-08:00

A few years ago, by what I considered at the time to be an interesting fluke, I, Martin John Bishop, managed the MJB coffee brand. According to new work reported in Kellogg Insight, this was not a fluke. It was destiny!

In yet another example that we humans are just completely hopeless really, a team of marketing academics has shown that your name can influence your everyday choices and even life-shaping decisions. As Professor Miguel Brendl, one of the authors of the research says: “It’s a bizarre idea, but your liking for the letters of your name, which is really driven by your liking for yourself, might spill over to objects and influence your choices.”

A series of four studies show that it is not a coincidence that Marks and Marshas prefer a Mars bar to a Snickers bar when stressed or hungry or that women named Louise are disproportionately likely to move to Louisiana. The phenomenon is being called name-letter branding.

The theory: The idea is that positive self-esteem translates into people's preference for letters that are in their name. When asked to rate their liking of letters in the alphabet, people consistently chose letters in their own name. This letter-liking can be strong enough that it can transfer to objects that include the same letters. The transfer emerges under two main conditions: when people experience a strong need for the product or when they need to boost their self-esteem.

The research: In one experiment, people's self-esteem was threatened by asking them to write about an aspect of themselves they would like to change. This threat made people look for ways to feel more positive about themselves and this led 64% of those tested to prefer a tea whose name shared the first three letters of their name (e.g. Jonathans preferred Jonoki to Elioki). In another experiment, the researchers found that preferences for the name-letter brand were boosted when respondents were prompted to rely on their intuition rather than reasons.

The implications: “Even though, as you can imagine, the name-letter effect is not very strong and only works when people trust their feelings,” says Brendl, “it can have interesting implications for managers. For instance, it can be applied when choosing a name for a product aimed at a well-defined segment of customers, such as early adopters. It could also be useful for direct mailers, who can use different names to sign their sales pitches.” And, as Brendle points out, “name-letter branding should be particularly relevant when dealing with business categories related to ego, such as beauty, sports, and luxury products.”

As I read this research, I thought about a recent post from Landor colleague, Mich Bergesen (note the initials) talking about the "i-convention" and the trend towards everything being named "i"-this and "i"-that. The convention continues to be popular even though it's already past what may have been thought to be a sensible limit because it so perfectly expresses human nature. "No matter what era we were born in, it seems we are all part of the iGeneration—it truly is all about us." Instead of name-letter branding, the i-phenomenon took it up one level.

Meanwhile, back in the Bishop household, which still has some MJB golf balls, coffee cups and other ~~tchochkes~~ sales-driving premiums from the coffee management era, this research may explain our rediscovered appetite for fondue. It's made by Emmi, all the letters of our 6-year old daughter's name.
Research Source:
Brendl, C. Miguel, Amitava Chattopadhyay, Brett W. Pelham, and Mauricio Carvallo. 2005. “Name-Letter Branding: Valence Transfer When Product Specific Needs Are Active.” Journal of Consumer Research, 32: 405-415.

Six of the Best: Trick or Treat? edition

2009-10-31T06:17:00.000-07:00

Photo: peasap (Flickr CC)

It's Halloween. Pumpkins all over America are being hacked and slashed to pieces. Thousands of Ghosts, Spidermen and Balloon Boys are ready to head out and hunt for tons and tons of candy that will help keep dentist chairs fully occupied in the months to come. To celebrate the occasion, here are six posts, tricky or treaty in some particular and sometimes obscure ways:

1) How Trick-or-Treating Started: Smithsonian.com
Apparently: "Trick-or-treating is a modern day holdover of the practice of propitiating, or bribing, the spirits and their human counterparts roaming the world of the living on that night." This post describes various different theories on how trick-or-treating started and also references this 2006 New York Times article which talks about how Halloween, like an invasive species, is gradually displacing the British tradition of Bonfire night much to the chagrin of traditionalists.

2) Why celebrate Halloween? Seth Godin
Most of what we believe, Seth argues here, is based on what other people believe. "This groupthink is the soil that marketing grows in. It's frustrating for someone who is hyper-fact-based or launching a new brand to come to the conclusion that people believe what they believe, not that people are fact-centered data processing organisms."

3) With Video, a Traveler Fights Back: The New York Times
Perhaps more Ripley's Believe It or Not than trick or treat but, incredibly, United Airlines managed to lose the luggage of the man whose guitar it so famously broke a few months ago. Not just lose the luggage but also make a complete mess at dealing with the situation. The good news is that it gives Dave Carroll more song material.

4) 5 Ways To Use Twitter's New List Feature For Marketers: Influential Marketing Blog
Twitter's new list feature is a treat for some. Rohit Bhargava's post is worthy of inclusion just for the phrase: "You can segment your firehose." Twitter has gotten to where it's got to by being extremely simple. But the deluge (or firehose) of information it spews out is a problem that lists may possibly help to solve. Rohit describes a few ways to use lists. I set up two lists myself: @martinjbishop/brand-gurus and @martinjbishop/branding-501.

And now, to get into the spirit, here are two videos:

5) This is Halloween: The Nightmare before Christmas

Well, that's just fine
Say it once, say it twice
Take a chance and roll the dice
Ride with the moon in the dead of night

6) Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps): David Bowie

I could have also gone with The Zombies and Time of the Season - nice video!

That's it! Back soon with more stories from the world of brand strategy (and vaguely related areas). More thoughts and comments also available on Twitter (@martinjbishop).

Tips from a POMQueen: The success of POM Wonderful

2009-10-27T07:57:00.000-07:00

Photo: Pomegranate Seed 3x: saltyseadog (Flickr CC)

What's are the seeds of marketing success? How do you launch a product made with a fruit that few people have even heard of? What lessons can we learn from the success of POM Wonderful?

Lynda Resnick (aka the POMQueen) was a keynote speaker at the UCLA Anderson Alumni Weekend this past week. She has an amazing track record. In addition to POM Wonderful, she's also had hits with Fiji Water, Teleflora and The Franklin Mint. But of all these hits, POM Wonderful may have been the highest level of difficulty. Before it was launched in 2003, only 12% of the population even knew what a pomegranate was. It's expensive ($3.00+ for a 16oz bottle) and it's a strong, acquired taste.

As I listened to the presentation, I was struck by the mixture of insight, pragmatism, ambition, inspiration, determination, bloody-mindedness, patience and luck that factored into the success. Here are six things she talked about:

1) Own the land: The Resnicks (that's Lynda and her husband, Stuart) discovered pomegranates accidentally. They bought farmland that happened to include some pomegranate trees. For the first few years, they just sold the pomegranates as fruit. But then they noticed that they produced at a healthy yield/acre. The opportunity sensors were activated.

2) Trace the lineage: The next trigger was an Italian friend of theirs. She waxed lyrical about pomegranates and talked about their mythology. In ancient times, pomegranates were symbols of everything from fertility and royalty to hope and abundance. Was there some truth to the legend of the pomegranate? Could any health benefits be scientifically validated?

3) Dip into the royal purse: The company then spent $25 million in scientific research to find out whether there were health benefits that could be turned into product claims. These studies have shown positive results in a whole slew of conditions including heart disease, prostate cancer, diabetes and erectile dysfunction. There certainly is substance to the health angle.

4) Off with their heads: The marketing team started experimenting with various pomegranate concoctions that would have broad appeal and could be competitively priced. Nonsense, said Ms. Resnick. This has to be the real thing, not some watered down juice. One of her key principles is intrinsic value. 100% juice has it. A touch of pomegranate in a grape juice wash doesn't.

5) Two orbs in the veggies: Other than the pomegranates themselves, the two most distinctive things about POM are is its double orb shape and the fact that it's sold in the produce aisle. While the distinctive bottle shape is a great example of using packaging structure for distinctive effect, the more interesting story is about the placement. Having decided to go the 100% route, the product then had to be sold refrigerated. Rather than fight for placement with hundreds of other juice products, they chose to put it in the produce aisle where they already had other products and existing relationships with the buyers.

5) Sentence first -- verdict afterwards: Although POM has spent large sums on scientific research, it didn't spend anything on consumer research to test demand. Instead it chose to go straight to an in-market test. The plan was to field the test in California and the expectation was that the product would be popular with older people looking for healthy products. But a grocery strike forced a change of plan and they ended up launching in New York. Turned out it wasn't older, health-seeking consumers who drove demand. It was 28-year olds who bought it because it was chic.

6) Believe impossible things: Could one of the large CPG companies have succeeded with a product like this? I think it's doubtful. In my experience, the financial and risk management culture of most of these companies would either have killed the product before launch or starved it soon after. I'm pretty sure that, when I was a brand manager, I would not have been able to get the money for the scientific study, I would not have been able to launch without strong research results, I would not have been able to develop a product without mass appeal, I would not have been able to launch with such expensive packaging and I would not have been able to switch test markets from one coast to the other. In short, unlike Ms. Resnick, I would not have been able to recognize the true value in what I had.

Note: A more complete account of POM Wonderful's successful launch can be found in Lynda Resnick's book: Rubies in the Orchard. I haven't read the book myself but the Amazon reviews suggest that it gives insight not just on the marketing activities that made POM Wonderful a success but also on the personality and drivers of the POMQueen herself.

Six of the Best: Those were the days edition

2009-10-23T07:46:00.000-07:00

Early edition this week because I'm off to LA for a UCLA reunion weekend to reminisce and compare.

1) Those were the days: Mary Hopkin
As the helpful notes say on the video, this song, produced by Paul McCartney, was a UK hit in 1968. And, no, that wasn't the year I graduated.

2) Why Budgeting Drives Us Batty: Harvard Business
Love budgeting? This took me right back to my Nestlé days: "As one manager said, 'We start budgeting around the middle of the year and finish around the same time the following year.' " Never was so little accomplished by so many for so long. According to Ron Ashkenas, some companies like HP and GE have found ways to make the process easier and faster. In the spirit of humanity, they should send out missions to convert those needing help.

3) Post-recession branding: What Next? Part 1: The brandgym blog
Remember the recession? It's over! (Maybe) Anyway, not too soon to start thinking about branding post recession. Here David Taylor shares the results of his survey of 60 UK Marketing Directors where he asked them: "What comes next?" Four strategies stood out: Sharpening the positioning, growing the core, boosting differentiation and fueling the fan club of employees and consumers.

4) London Underground: To save your rep, you have four hours: Thought Gadgets

Where have those days gone where you used to be able to abuse passengers on the underground without having the altercation plastered all over the Internet? Honestly, it's ridiculous. You can't even smash a guitar these days without some idiot writing a song about it and then another 5.8 million idiots watching it. Or not pay your restaurant bill for a couple of days and get away with it tweet-free. Nuts.

5) Which is easier to understand? Google Wave (41%), Combinatorial Game Theory (59%)
I remember, way back when, having an argument with a co-worker about whether email would ever amount to anything. (I was the cutting-edge guy arguing "for" the motion.) I also remember that, in those early days, we had to send a printed copy in one of those brown, internal envelopes of everything we emailed, just in case the person being emailed didn't check his/her mailbox. Well now Google is trying to reinvent email with the Wave. Main criticism is that it's just too complicated. (If you're listening to the background music on the link and trying to remember the song, here it is.)

6) Almost the Truth: The Lawyer's Cut: Monty Python
Now, if you've been reading my posts and committing them to memory, you will recall that I already posted about this new DVD celebrating Monty Python's 40th anniversary last week and that post made reference to an earlier post on the same subject. I also mentioned, to my FTC readers, that no money or goods had yet changed hands for my review. I'm happy to report that this is no longer the case and that I do now have a free copy of the DVD. I haven't opened it yet but I can assure you that it's the finest, most incredible piece of documentary work I've ever been freely given. But, if anyone cares to send me the latest work by Ken Burns on National Parks (which I haven't had nearly enough unallocated Wednesday night space to watch), I am more than prepared to re-evaluate.

That's it! Back soon with more stories from the world of brand strategy (and related areas). More thoughts and comments also available on Twitter (@martinjbishop).

Never underestimate the power of a great story

2009-10-21T12:38:00.000-07:00

Video: Canal +

In the burger wars, Wendy's squares off

2009-10-20T07:29:00.000-07:00

Video: You Know When It's Real. Wendy's

"Come on. Let's face it. You know it's real by how we make it. When it's real. You know when it's real."

There's absolutely no reason, when I think about it, that burgers should be round and that round burgers look more real than square ones. But I'm used to round burgers so, unfair as it is for Wendy's, I think square ones look artificial.

Which gets Wendy's off to a bad start when it tries to persuade me, with a side-by-side comparison, that its square burgers are more real than "the other guys" round burgers. It turns out that I, sample of one, don't measure reality by the way burgers are made. More by the way they look.

Putting aside my (hopefully for them) perverse reaction to the hamburger shape, what is the prognosis for Wendy’s new positioning? As pointed out in a recent story in The Wall Street Journal, Wendy's has struggled to define itself since the death in 2002 of Dave Thomas, its founder and former pitchman. Is focusing on freshness and quality and "poking fun at the competition" going to help them revive the brand?

I'm doubtful. Would asking Melinda Lou to pitch be a better bet? What do you think?

SOTB: It's not what you know edition

2009-10-17T08:23:00.000-07:00

Photo: Culture Tubes Hey Paul (Flickr CC)

As you all know, it's who you know. And this was the week for meeting virtual friends in real life, specifically Grant McCracken who I met on Thursday along with a group of others interested in those cultural matters on which he is such an expert. So, to celebrate:

1) Business as the new rocket science: Grant McCracken
Some of the issues and themes we talked about on Thursday were also on Grant's mind in this post. Things like: How to monitor the constant churn of culture and markets where "new developments sweep through us like storms off the North Sea." For that, Grant proposes: "A 'big board' that identifies what changes are coming, how quickly we can expect them to arrive, and what to do when they get here."

2) Everyday Culture Officers: New Facebook Group
The conversation continues and now you can join in! After our get-together on Thursday, Cynthia Young set up this Facebook group to carry on the cultural chat. It's a group for those who "understand the importance of culture and the role it plays in the world of business."

3) For The Sake of Making It Easier: Optimistic Anthropology
The aforementioned Cynthia Young's most recent post starts: "Oh the inventions and processes we humans devise in order to make life easier and to take back our time from performing tasks. But, oh the crimes we commit to make a life easier, to be a bit lazy and avoid thought or work. When is making things easier right and when is it wrong?" This accompanied by a photograph of four Segway riders, clearly a strong case for the prosecution.

4) The twitimpact phenomenon on brand at light speed: brand as business bites
Then, on Friday, it was great to catch up with Denise Lee Yohn who was visiting SF from San Diego. This post, about how fast news travels in these Twitter-fueled days, was guest-written by Dan Phillips of Skybend. Not only does Dan coin a new word to describe the impact of Twitter (twitimpact) but he also gives us this analogy: "A minor slip-up in brand awareness is like peeing in the pool, no amount of chlorine can get the pee out." Nice. All while telling us what Jane Adams should have done once she (apparently) did what she shouldn't have done.

5) Almost the Truth: The Lawyer's Cut: Monty Python

You only have to write about something once these days and you'll be on someone's radar screen. In this case, that "something" was my post about Monty Python turning 40. That prompted an email asking if I'd be interested in posting a behind the scenes clip promoting a new 3-disc set chronicling the history of Monty Python. Of the three to choose from, I thought this one where John Cleese is explaining how getting sick as a pepperpot led to the famous cheese shop sketch was the most interesting, although Stephen Coogan doing the "undertaker' was pretty good as well. IFC will be showing the documentary in a 6-part series starting October 18th. (Note to FTC: No money, free DVDs or any other form of compensation was given (unfortunately) in return for this plug. Willing to update as necessary. Brittney?)

6) A Day at the Office: sfeder331

OK. I don't know these guys at all. But, as this video made the rounds this week, most people had more or less the same reaction: That looks like a group of people it would be fun to know and work with. Powerful!

That's it! Back soon with more stories from the world of brand strategy (and related areas). More thoughts and comments also available on Twitter (@martinjbishop).

It's Pumpkin time again

2009-10-15T08:00:00.000-07:00

A Brand Mix Classic (!) first published on October 22nd, 2007. (My photo)

There was a time when most fruit and vegetables really were seasonal. Back in the UK, strawberries were only around for a few weeks around Wimbledon, raspberries just for a few weeks after that. It was sort of exciting and special when they showed up.

Now, most things are available year round. I don't think there's every a time when I can't buy strawberries in my local supermarket, for example. It's not so special anymore - they've become a commodity and, like other commodities, something to be bought when the price is right.

But pumpkins are still seasonal. So strongly associated with Halloween and so not something you want to eat everyday they remain locked in their October slot. Special enough that we even spend a day going out to the fields to find the perfect one.

SOTB: The mainly "M"s edition

2009-10-10T08:55:00.000-07:00

This week's Six of the Best features Miley, marshmallows, the Moon and Marge. Plus misguided FTC rules and dead flies sunbathing from Muhr:

1) Miley Cyrus Quits Twitter, World Ends: Yahoo Tech!
Yes, it's true. @mileycyrus has closed down her Twitter account. It may have been a boyfriend-prompted, spur-of-the-moment decision for her but it's caused agony and heartbreak for many of her 1.1 million followers. Their pleas for her to start tweeting again (#mileycomeback) became one of the top Twitter trending topics of the week but has fallen on deaf ears so far. Relationship marketing at its finest.

2) Blogged and Sold: The New York Times
Choire Sicha thinks that the Federal Trade Commission’s efforts to regulate online endorsements are misguided. As an example, he thinks of "poor" Gwyneth Patrow whose " weekly GOOP newsletter is filled with heartfelt recommendations of services, products, experts and restaurants. This means one free garganelli at Babbo and, blammo: the F.T.C. may clap her in what are most likely non-hypoallergenic shackles." If the same rules are applied to celebrity dressing, he wonders if: "Come the Golden Globes, will our nation’s most important celebrities be forced to wear disclaiming signage?" (For those who want to read the FTC perspective, it's here)

3) Don’t! The secret of self-control: The New Yorker

Oh, The Temptation from Steve V on Vimeo (via Ben Kunz)
This video reproduces the experiments of Walter Mischel described in (comprehensive) detail in The New Yorker article. It turns out this test is predictive of future success and that kids that are able to distract themselves from eating the marshmallow have already started developing the self control that makes so many other things possible later in life.

4) Marge Simpson will bare it all for Playboy: USA Today
The Marge Simpson centerfold is "obviously somewhat tongue-in-cheek," Playboy's new CEO, Scott Flanders Flanders says. "It had never been done, and we thought it would be kind of hip, cool and unusual." Or desperate?

5) NASA "Moon Bombing" May Have Hit a "Dry Hole" National Geographic
Well, now the President has won the Nobel Peace prize, we've got to find something unearthly to take our aggression out on, I suppose.

6) Dead Flies: Muhr Photography (via brandflakesforbreakfast)

That's it! Back soon with more stories from the world of brand strategy (and related areas). More thoughts and comments also available on Twitter (@martinjbishop).

VW drives into the middle of the road

2009-10-06T08:01:00.000-07:00

Photo: Max by mcchots (Flickr CC)

Volkswagen's U.S. chief executive, Stefan Jacoby describes his intentions to reposition VW from niche to mass appeal in an interview with the Washington Post, perhaps leaving behind Max, the star of recent campaigns. Here are selected highlights of the article with the thoughts running through my (current Audi and 3-time VW owner) head as I was reading the article:

Article: Germany's Volkswagen is "an icon brand" and "there are a lot of great stories and memories" about the Beetle, Jacoby said in an interview. But, he added, "to play a bigger role here, we need to modify and adapt to American consumers' needs."

Me: Uh, oh. This doesn't sound good. Why does adapting to consumer needs mean ditching great stories and memories?

Article: Here, there is more cruising and long-distance driving. In Europe, there are more tiny roads and you drive more actively than in the United States," Jacoby said. "We Germans drive and we are not drinking in the car," he added. "Americans have breakfast and coffee in the car. We have to adjust to this."

Me: VW has been in the U.S. market since the 1950s. This can't be where they've gotten to in terms of insight. And what's with the "We Germans" attitude?

Article: Jacoby, 51, offered few details about the cars, other than that they will be among the first Volkswagen vehicles built specifically for American taste. The cars will have a decidedly less European feel, with a more user-friendly steering wheel and entertainment system, an accelerator and brake pedal that are farther apart, and larger cup holders."

Me: Larger cup holders? And haven't they had enough of the distance between accelerator and brake issue after this? More importantly, isn't European a key defining characteristic of a VW and an important reason that people buy the cars? What do they want instead of a European feel? An American feel, represented by, say, GM?

Article: Audi officials say they do not intend to duplicate the Volkswagen strategy in Americanizing the cars.

Me: Phew! Leave my Audi alone!

(Apologies to Mr. Jacoby if the Post article does not fairly or accurately reflect his opinions.)

Monty Python turns 40

2009-10-05T21:49:00.000-07:00

Monty Python's Flying Circus was first aired on the BBC on October 5, 1969. Here's what they did for/to Spam:

And here's a Life photo collection to celebrate the anniversary.

SOTB: Twilight Zone edition

2009-10-03T08:32:00.000-07:00

One Friday night, back in October 1959, America slipped into the Twilight Zone for the first time. Some have never left....

1) Twilight Zone Intro: YouTube

"There is a fifth dimension, beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call the Twilight Zone."

The series, created and often written by its narrator and host Rod Serling, ran for five seasons. According to my YouTube research, this was the first season's intro sequence. The more familiar "dee-dah-dee-dah-dee-dah etc"music intro was used in the second season.

2) Cheating Death - Snus & Placebo Effect: The Colbert Report

The Colbert Report

Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Cheating Death - Snus & Placebo Effect

www.colbertnation.com

Colbert Report Full Episodes

Political Humor

Michael Moore

This week's "Cheating Death" segment of The Colbert Report featured Camel Snus, new tobacco pouches that are: "Perfect for when you need a nicotine fix and when you don't mind looking like the pig-faced people from the Twilight Zone."

In the same segment, he covered the news that placebos are getting more and more effective, a topic also discussed in Wired and Mind Hacks. As the Wired article says: "The fact that an increasing number of medications are unable to beat sugar pills has thrown the (drug) industry into crisis." The drug makers have done such a good job convincing people that their drugs work that now they are getting better even when they only take a sugar pill meaning that the same drug makers can't beat the statistical hurdle rates that would allow them to launch new drugs. Very TZ.

3) Why The Saturn Brand Was Destined To Fail: Mark Ritson
Earlier this week, "Saturn was Plutoed" (from @fritinancy) when Penske pulled out of the deal to buy the brand from GM. Although many people loved the brand for its cars and its "no-dicker stickers," Mark Ritson says: "Weep not for the loss of Saturn." He thinks the brand was doomed from the start (back in 1985) because it was never set up to be profitable. Rather than succeed in its mission to defend GM against Japanese imports, it turned out to be an expensive failure that stopped GM fixing its core business problems. Mark Ritson says Saturn is a classic example of a failed fighter brand, a topic he covers in more depth in this HBR piece. (I've written about fighter brands as well.)

4) Commentary: Starbucks Via Instant Coffee - Breaking the Brand: David Vinjamuri
Back in the 50s, when the Twlight Zone started, instant coffee was in its heyday. Since then it's been gradually fading away. So it's surprising and curious that Starbucks has chosen to launch VIA, its own instant coffee. David sees the VIA launch as the culmination of a series of steps that has gradually take the company away from its original mission and towards being a convenience brand that will compete head-to-head with McDonald's and Dunkin' Donuts.

This BusinessWeek article sheds some light on the VIA launch. It seems like the technical challenge of producing an instant coffee that tastes as good as ground coffee has fascinated Howard Schultz for a long time. So, when the company finally succeeded in this mission, there was no doubt that the product would actually be launched regardless of the brand implications.

5) Does IBM have elves? Do ads bleed meaning? Grant McCracken
Turns out that the guy who is playing the "pious MD in a lab coat" for IBM is also playing an elf in a Castrol oil ad who's thinking with his dipstick. Grant asks whether this matters or not. I remember a kind-of similar problem when we had signed up Dixie Carter for a Coffee-mate ad and she didn't want to do the ad as Julia Sugarbaker, the character from Designing Women that she was known for at the time.

6) 100 GREATEST HITS OF YOUTUBE IN 4 MINUTES (now with list!) Hadouken!
#1 on the Viral Video Chart is this video mash-up with more than 1.5 million views to date.

That's it! Back soon with more stories from the world of brand strategy. More thoughts and comments also available on Twitter (@martinjbishop).

Remorseful Starbucks tries to revive the category it strangled half to death

2009-09-30T07:33:00.000-07:00

The new ~~Starbucks~~ ad (wait, it's a 1985 Folgers ad, apparently). The real ad (aired on SNL) is here

Once, in America, there was a thriving instant coffee market. There were brands like Brim, Maxim and Sanka and manufacturers came up with fun, technical ways to differentiate themselves: Folgers had its crystals, Taster's Choice had its freeze-dried process. There was even Postum, a roasted grain coffee substitute. The coffee, to be honest, didn't taste that great but you could get used to it. It wasn't like unlimited refill, diner-style coffee or even coffee from the famous "Anthony's in Atlanta" was all that fantastic either.

Then, blowing in from Seattle, came the winds of change. Not only did Starbucks coffee taste better, but you got a whole third-place-experience thrown in too.

Those were cruel times for those (like me) working in the instant coffee business. We watched, aghast, helpless, as people changed their drinking habits and abandoned us. The average age of the dwindling instant coffee population kept going up and up and the shelf space allotted to us by supermarkets kept going down and down.

Now, after all hope should logically have been abandoned, it's Starbucks itself riding to the rescue. After a seven-month test, Starbucks is going national with VIA, its own instant coffee product. And it's giving the launch the full treatment. There's a TV campaign and taste challenges and it all adds up to what CEO Howard Schultz calls "the biggest investment that we've made in a national launch."

Who knows whether the launch will work? It seems unlikely but what's to say that there can't be an instant revival? It could be like the Mustang, leggings or Space Invaders.

For long-suffering instant coffee manufacturers, one thing's for sure. It's a chance and a lifeline. Time to get moving. It looks like at least one of the players is alive to the opportunity. Nestlé has already launched some (for them) aggressive comparison marketing. That's a start but, hopefully, they've got some new products in the works as well. Now that VIA is out there with a previously unimaginable price point (almost $1 per cup, 5x as expensive as a cup of Taster's Choice), there's all sorts of ways that they can come up with to deliver a better tasting product.

Good times for instant coffee may yet be rolling again.

Earlier Brand Mix posts about VIA:
1) Starbucks VIA instant coffee taste test. Is it as good as they say?: Where I confirm that VIA does live up to its claims that it tastes as good as Starbucks brewed product and ask the question: So what?
2) Taster's Choice welcomes Starbucks to the Hood: Where I report on Taster's Choice initial marketing response

Who can we trust? Not the usual suspects

2009-09-28T07:40:00.000-07:00

Photo: a L p Flickr CC

After years of moving from place to place and country to country, I finally stayed somewhere long enough to get called for jury duty. After signing in, sitting around and watching a motivational video that tried to sell the benefits of jury service to a skeptical audience, I was one of 45 people called down to the courtroom. The rest of the day was spent by the judge and attorneys whittling down 45 people to find the 12 people + 1 alternate who they believed could render a true, just and fair verdict. After all was said and done, I was selected as the alternate or, as described by the judge, the "spare tire."

But before that, somewhere in the middle of this tortuous process, there was an interesting moment around the topic of witness credibility. Whose testimony, the attorney asked, would be more credible: The police who had arrested the defendant or the defendant himself? One potential juror was excused when she said that she would believe the police because they always tell the truth. Another was excused because he had had a bad experience with the police and was not inclined to believe them anymore. Too much trust on the one hand, too little on the other.

Another potential juror asked the same question said that he would tend to believe the police more than the defendant because the defendant would have more reason to shade the truth than the police officers since he had more to lose. An acceptable answer. Not excused.

With that moment fresh in my mind, I read David Kiley and Burt Helm's article in BusinessWeek: "The Great Trust Offensive" which describes how companies like American Express and Ford are revamping their marketing to try and win back trust lost in the recession. The loss of trust has been quite dramatic. According to the 2009 Edelman Trust Barometer, only 44% of Americans said they trusted business, down from 58% in 2007.

What's interesting is that, as companies try and rebuild trust, they are finding that traditional methods don't work as well as they used to. As Kiley/Helm say: "The days of consumers passively absorbing a TV commercial--or for that matter a banner ad--are over." Only 13% of those surveyed by the Edelman report thought that ads were credible.

And, looping back to my jury moment, "who" can speak credibly for businesses is an issue as well. CEO credibility also hit a new low in the Edelman report. Only 29% of those surveyed believe them (and only 17% in the U.S.). Like the defendants in a trial, CEOs are perceived by many to have too much at stake to be entirely trustworthy. Employees, on the other hand, are easier to trust and, in fact, Edelman found that conversations with employees are the most trusted corporate source (40%). Perhaps this is not such a new development. As Ron Nessen (Gerald Ford's Press Secretary) said many years ago: "Nobody believes the official spokesman . . . but everybody trusts an unidentified source."

Of course, the current erosion in business trust has been driven primarily by the recession and the financial crisis. But the lack of trust in company leaders and traditional media is also being fueled by (and fueling) the rise of social media. As companies try and rebuild trust, they'll need to be even more creative and determined to engage in this medium.

Bonus Book Review!

The likely reason that the Q&A between the attorneys and potential jurors stuck in my mind was because the book that I was reading to while away the court waiting time was The Truth About Trust in Business by Vanessa Hall. It's a perfectly timed book given the recent erosion in trust in business and marketers attempts to win some of it back. It presents a simple model for building trust based on: managing expectations, meeting people's needs and keeping promises. Not much new thinking but, since many businesses fail on one or more of these pillars, something worth revisiting. The book has some interesting case studies covering various areas including "trust in marketing and branding" with a scorecard to assess your products trustworthiness.

There's one area where I disagree with the author. She subscribes to the "Humpty Dumpty" school of trust--that, once trust is broken, nothing can put it back together again. I personally subscribe to the less extreme "Broken Leg" school which holds that trust can be snapped in an instant and it takes quite some time and effort to repair.

SOTB: No excuses edition

2009-09-26T08:00:00.000-07:00

Photo: "Skyline towards Sydney tower from Castlereagh Street" Cowboy Dave Flickr CC
For other Sydney dust storm pix see: Red Dust

Here's my roundup of recent noteworthy articles and posts. Interested in why I've not been blogging much recently? I didn't think so. This is the no excuses edition:

1) The Follies of Marketing Measurement: Steve Yastrow
"'If you can’t measure it, you shouldn’t do it,' is one of the stupidest concepts in business," says Steve Yastrow, guest-posting on tompeters! For example, he says: "Should you ask your receptionist to smile when guests enter your office foyer? Of course you should! There is no way to measure the impact of a smile, but you are 100% certain that it is a good idea." Steve is not suggesting that we don't measure anything, just that we use a little imagination in what we measure. (My own series on Death by Tools and Metrics here)

2) The Anti-laws of Luxury Marketing #9: Branding Strategy Insider
Derrick Daye has a continuing series on how the normal rules of marketing are turned upside down when dealing with luxury products. This post explores the idea that the role of advertising (for luxury goods) is not to sell, using a recent Tag Heuer print campaign as the example. I loved this part: "The dream must always be recreated and sustained, for reality kills the dream. Every time a flesh-and-blood human being buys a luxury product they destroy a little bit of the equity, they increase the product’s visibility – and contribute to its vulgarization by putting it in the public eye. The opposite applies when marketing everyday goods: there is an advantage for the market leader, for the dominant market share, and therefore for maximum visibility – it becomes a reassuring purchase."

3) Culturematic: a device for making culture in two easy steps: Grant McCracken
What if I ate all my meals at McDonald's for a month? What if I swam across Connecticut using local swimming pools? What if I made recipes from Julia Child's cookbook for a year? They're all example of "culturematics:" Small, manageable, fun, diverting culture chunks for easy digestion.

4) Corporations in swimsuits: Are you faking social media? Thought Gadgets
Digital strategist Jordan Julien has introduced the idea of "synthetic authenticity," the risk large corporations face as they try to engage customers in social media. The problem is that social media tools were built for individual people to interact with each other and not for "faceless entities." As relayed by Ben Kunz, this creates cognitive dissonance. For example, if you ask a question at Nike Plus on Twitter, you don't know who writes the answer. Do you trust their opinion? Is it a real person's thought, or a brand spinning its own future sales? One solution: Put real people in charge, like Adam Denison, PR guy for Chevy

5) Scientists find area responsible for emotion in dead fish: Mind Hacks
A new study scanned the brains of dead salmon to find evidence of activation as it 'looked' at photos of human faces. The research, led by neuroscientist Craig Bennett, is fantastically called: "Neural correlates of interspecies perspective taking in the post-mortem Atlantic Salmon: An argument for multiple comparisons correction." If you're thinking: How can a dead fish show emotion?, that's the point. The research turns out to be a warning against statistical misuse.

6) Are Your Friends Making You Fat? The New York Times
As I said, this is the "no excuses" edition but, if you actually need an excuse, it turns out you can blame whatever you've done or not done on your friends. Social scientists Nicholas Christakis and James Fowlergood have found that good or bad behaviors — like quitting or starting smoking or staying slender or getting fat: "Pass from friend to friend almost as if they were contagious viruses." Although this may come as no surprise, Christakis and Fowlergood's study is one of the first that's been able to scientifically validate the effect.

That's it! Back soon with more stories from the world of brand strategy. More thoughts and comments also available on Twitter (@martinjbishop).

SOTB: Brand definitions edition

2009-09-14T07:10:00.000-07:00

Photo: m.gifford (Flickr CC)

Instead of my usual roundup of recent noteworthy articles and posts, this edition of Six of the Best is inspired by brand expression consultancy BLACKCOFFEE and its great idea to invite readers to complete the sentence: "A brand is...

1) A brand is..... BLACKCOFFEE
Here's the link to that page where you can see the many varied definitions. A couple of the more interesting/unexpected responses: "A brand is like a person at a cocktail party. You want to talk to them or sleep with them or wish you never met." (Amy) and: "A brand is what my teenage son is always talking about when he wants my money." (Eric)

2) an analysis of “a brand is” brand as business bites
Denise Lee Yohn decided to try and categorize all the responses from the BLACKCOFFEE poll. Quite the challenge. Still, she gave it the old college try and put (what was then) the 170 responses into categories such as: Historical definition (e.g. "A brand is an iron tool heated in the fire and used to indicate ownership of cattle.") and Negative (e.g. "A brand is a set of lies we convince ourselves to believe in and hope the public will to.") Her conclusion: "There are a lot of definitions and interpretations of what a brand is. This makes brand-building ripe for confusion – which is a barrier when we talk about it with business leaders and try to make the case for investing in it." Yes.

Different Schools of Thought on "a brand is..."

So, I thought that I might also try and help tidy up this mess of definitions by describing four different brand schools of thought and link to some posts that represent them:

The focused promise brand school

3) The Demise of Dell: Ries' Pieces
Laura Ries represents the brand school that wants focus, hates line extensions and the one most likely to use the "Volvo = Safety" gambit. In this post, Laura argues that Dell's demise came once it tried to expand from its original low cost, direct sales business model: "In the business world today there are dozens of Dells, all trying to expand their way to success when the only thing that really works is exactly the opposite. Narrow your focus. Build your brand. Rake in the dough."

The customer rules brand school

4) You Don't Own Your Brand -- Your Customer Does: The Social Customer Manifesto
This school is the home of social media/word of mouth pioneers and those who extol the virtues of Zappos.com. What can be better than a company that's taken customer service to a whole new level and that has a CEO who tweets? School purists contend that social media has so completely changed the rules of the game that, as Christopher F. Carfi says in this post: "The old, top-down hierarchy of searing brands into the consumer psyche is done. Over. Finished." In this new world, he says, our role as marketers is to engage in transparent, authentic conversation and accept that we no longer have any control or influence.

The we hate branding brand school

5) Transformation Interrupted: Jonathan Salem Baskin
Jonathan's book: "Branding only Works on Cattle" makes the case that branding is a waste of money. The kinds of things he really doesn't like are: goofy mascots, logo redesigns, cute tag lines, anything that marketers do that does not directly create value or a fresh experience for the consumer. Only tangible, concrete actions count. In this post, Jonathan talks about research results from the Hartman Group which show that consumer loyalty is shifting -- from products and brands, to the experiences offered by retailers. His conclusion: "People aren't willing to buy based on the intangibles on which brands have relied for almost a Century. Reality is the new imagination, providing the context in which actions can assert truth (if not simply immediacy, and thus clarity) to consumers."

The brand as feelings school

6) What is a feeling? a clear eye
Tom Asaker's answer to the "a brand is" poll was: “A brand is an expectation of receiving a feeling by way of an experience.” In this post, he explains his definition considering: 1) Control: whether we marketers like it or not, we can't control what people think about our brands. But we can influence people by the experiences we deliver and 2) Feelings: People make brand choices based on a variety of feelings from indifference and inertia to desire. Tom believes that changing feelings is what brand-building in the 21st century is all about.

Building on Tom's thoughts, as I compare these four schools of thought it looks to me like their assumptions in a couple of key areas help explain their different perspectives:

- Marketers control over their brands (strong = focused promise, weak = customer rules)
- The rationality of consumer decision making (high = we hate branding, low = brand as feelings).

Meanwhile, for those who like visual schematics, I've always liked this brand model from Dubberly Design Office which maps out the connections between a brand promise, product development, experience and perception. If the brand world is as complex as this chart implies, perhaps it's not no wonder that the range of one-sentence definitions is so wide and there are still so many different schools of thought.

That's it! Back soon with more stories from the world of brand strategy. More thoughts and comments also available on Twitter (@martinjbishop).

The Five Elements of Coconut Water's Success

2009-09-09T06:58:00.000-07:00

Photo: Rin-Tin-Tin (Flickr CC)

As Al Ries pointed out recently, pioneering a new product or service category can cost a fortune. Think Webvan. Or, if you don't have a fortune to spend, and you have to build a category from scratch, it can take forever. So, when a category as distinctive as coconut water emerges from the primordial new product soup, quickly and without a huge investment spend, it's worth taking a look at the elements of its success.

Coconut water certainly seems to be headed in the right direction. In just five years, it's become a $35 million category (according to Merrill Lynch) attracting both consumer and manufacturer attention. And it's succeeding even though it has had to fight consumer perceptions that coconut products are unhealthy (specifically that coconut milk is very high in saturated fat) and that the product is apparently an acquired taste So, how?

NPR interviewed two of the entrepreneurs who have been building this new category and here are five of the elements that they talk about:

1) Existing market: Coconut water may be a new product to the States but it has been around for a long time in other countries, specifically those in the tropics. When Mike Kirban, co-founder of Vita Coco, was considering market entry, one of the reasons he settled on New York was because of its high concentration of immigrants from countries where coconut water is already popular. These consumers represented an opportunity to get some early sales while figuring out how to get those unfamiliar with the product on board.

2) Distribution: Another advantage of NYC is that the retail market still has a large number of independent food markets/delis that provide the opportunity for a store by store sales approach. Slow developing and potentially frustrating as this approach might be, it gives new products the time to gather some momentum. Gerry Khermouch of Beverage Business Insights describes the relationships between entrepreneurs, distributors and store owners in this kind of market as: "the yeast that allows new drinks to develop before they hit hard to crack chains like 7-Eleven."

3) Competition: Perhaps the most unexpected element of success is the fact that several companies entered the market more or less at the same time. As Mark Rampolla, founder of Zico points out, this helped them all gain credibility with retailers, distributors, investors and sales people as they figured: "Hey, if there are multiple brands that are being successful in a category, it must be legitimate."

4) Focus/positioning: The main competitors in the marker, Vita Coco, Zico and O.N.E. beverages, all incorporate expected tropical elements (There's a lot of sky blue, and palm green.) And each, to some extent, talk about the relevant functional benefit of the product (tons of electrolytes) but each has picked its own target and refined the positioning to tell a more specific story. As a Forbes article notes: Zico has focused on sports enthusiasts (and yoga lovers in particular), Vita Coco on young, urban hipsters as likely to use coconut water in a cocktail as drink it straight and O.N.E. is targeting moms and babies.

5) Category protection: Al Ries, posting on Brand Strategy Insider, talks about category killers, category leaders who launch line extensions to absorb or kill potentially new categories rather than let them thrive independently. (An example he uses is Diet Pepsi and Diet Coke absorbing the diet cola category established by Diet Rite.) But coconut water is too distinct and far enough away from the reach of big players to be killed off like that. Its challenge was proving relevance not differentiation.

I'm sure that these are not the only important elements. Entrepreneurial zeal, luck and hitting the right consumer trend at the right time are important too. What else?