November 9, 2011
Was it any surprise that Wendy’s brought back one the most successful brand statements in commercial history? Perhaps for some it’s a cheap ploy at resurrecting a once giant burger brand that’s been left on the grill for too long or for others a lip-smacking promise of a burger that has more between the bun than the competition. Another take, as Ad Week observed, is the appropriateness of the message at a time of rising obesity and a call for lower calorie food options. We can take from this example that as in any brand positioning strategy, there are any number of approaches with as many interpretations, after all we each hold our own unique set of values and cannot assume one brand image fits all. What we do know is that organizations who invest in understanding the customer through consumer or B2B research are far more likely to succeed than those that fly by on gut feel. Insights are the foundation of any objective business decision and the cornerstone of a sound brand strategy. Many brands fail because they neglect to plan both strategically and tactically. This was well expressed in FastCompany’s article on knowing the difference between strategy and tactics where they observed that strategic brand planning is about establishing a long-term plan with bigger and broader objectives and the brand tactics are the actions intended to forward the brand’s strategic objectives. I’ve told clients there’s no point in being the fastest draw in the west if you always forget to load your gun.
Here are the top 10 considerations an organization can use when launching a new brand or engaging in a rebranding initiative:
1. Put the right person in charge of the process
2. Do not be nostalgic, let go of the past
3. Avoid the Gut Feel – hire a professional brand firm
4. Be objective not subjective – measure against the Brand Strategy
5. Use research to guide strategy – listen to each audience group
6. Let committees have a say not a vote
7. You are never too small to rebrand, every category needs a brand leader
8. The logo is the Visual Identity, not the entire Brand Identity
9. Know the brand’s unique point of difference – avoid being all things to all people
10. Don’t mimic the competition – it’s easy to cheat, it’s more rewarding to win
September 29, 2011
In an effort to garner attention for the Matrix brand, Toyota and their ad agency Saatchi & Saatchi L.A. let loose a viral campaign that was intended to target an already ad adverse demographic. In March 2008, an unsuspecting L.A. resident, Amber Duick, received an email from a complete stranger named Sebastian Bowler who seemed to know her. The email read “Amber mate! Coming 2 Los Angeles Gonna lay low at your place for a bit. Till it all blows over. Bringing Trigger.” At first Amber might have assumed this was junk mail and ignored it, however as a single women living in L.A. she may have become increasingly concerned when she received a second email that included her home address with a photo of the alleged Sebastian.
What Amber didn’t know was that she was the target of a prank viral advertising campaign. Perhaps this is where marketing crosses that fine line between targeted and invasive. Traditional targeted campaigns could leverage consumer insights and psychographic data to speak one-to-one with a consumer. Today, agencies and large consumer brands are struggling to gain the attention of people who simply avoid advertisements. In fact Toyota’s own research proved that males under 35 do not respond to advertising and are contemptuous of brands that try to mask the ordinary with a youthful edge.
As the campaign went on, Amber was subjected to further emails from her virtual stalker with links to his MySpace page that described him as a 25-year-old soccer hooligan from England who enjoyed drinking to excess. After several weeks Amber received her final email that informed her it was all in jest and she was simply a target (victim) of a virtual punking campaign by Toyota.
If you thought Toyota had problems with their brakes a few years ago, they now have bigger issues as the campaign came crashing down when this week a California court approved her $10-million (U.S.) legal proceedings against Toyota and Saatchi & Saatchi L.A., for intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence, false advertising and other acts.
The internet is a great mass medium, but it shouldn’t be used to misrepresent brands or invade unsuspecting consumers with misleading messages. Let this be a lesson for clients and agencies looking to experiment with online marketing, think it through before starting the online engine.
May 18, 2011
‘We all march to the same beat’, define your brand promise and build an organizational culture that is meticulously measured against this promise. So why do so many companies get it wrong and very few get it right? As I observe this divide, I see a common misstep in the marching orders that come from leadership. The new brand becomes a façade. It is expected to magically create opportunity and do the heavy lifting needed to build a solid foundation for the brand.
However, those that get it right are, as Duane Knapp put it in his book “The Brand Mindset”, truly genuine brands. Here’s a perfect example we can all learn from. On a recent trip with my family I was to return the rental car with a full tank of gas. My mistake, I filled up too far from the National depot leaving the tank short. The attendant looked at my busy family, noticed the angst in my eyes and said “the tank isn’t quite full but we have you covered Mr. Brown”. Give that guy a gold star and a promotion to the brand desk! Did National just move me from ‘buy-on price’ to ‘buy National’, you bet they did.
Perhaps that’s the salient point in all of this; organizations that put self-interest and transactional mindsets ahead of their brand promise are willing to forgo long-term customer loyalty in exchange for short-term, short-sighted, customer abandonment. Clearly it’s not how well your brand looks, it’s how well they perform that matters – and that can only come with a commitment to practice and investment in your genuine brand promise.
February 15, 2011
Being our eBusiness Manager means that it’s my job to stay on top of technology trends and find ways to tackle our client’s marketing needs with unique solutions. When I was first introduced to QR (Quick Response) codes years ago, I felt a sense of déjà vu. It brought me back to the late 90s when I was developing eBanking solutions for cell phone users. I was an analyst then and thought “neat idea, but not the right time”. At that time of course, a BlackBerry was a text-based pager and Nokia users sported a 1-inch by 1-inch screen that made mobile eBanking painful at best.
Like eBanking, QR Codes when first introduced in the marketing world were ahead of their time. Although the QR code has been around since 1994, its use was primarily to scan large amounts of data for inventory management systems. QR codes, like their barcode predecessors, are images with encoded data but these little marvels of black and white squares have the ability to store 350-times the amount of data as UPCs. With this kind of capacity, marketers realized they could encode entire messages and URLs and then embed these in their marketing collateral. There were two problems with this approach: 1) the average person didn’t have a scanner to decode these images, and 2) when asked what these QR codes were, most people didn’t know what to do with them.
Today, smartphone sales outpace PCs and with these new smartphones come the required technology – a camera and scanning software – to turn any phone into a QR Code reader. Savvy marketers are leveraging these QR codes to drive their off-line marketing to the web to create an integrated marketing solution. Passersby are now invited to connect directly to product info, testimonials, and richer content – all via the click of their smartphone camera. People are starting to become more familiar with the QR Code
An additional benefit is that QR Codes are static and once they’re created, they can’t be altered. What can be altered however is their destination – which means that users who return to your site can be presented with different content (consider a restaurant QR code that links to the Lunch vs. Dinner menu depending on time of day) which helps cut down on printing or reprint costs. As marketers, we’re also interested in the tracking and measurement. These codes provide us with a better understanding of which campaigns are working and where best to invest future marketing resources.
And while the analyst in me still thinks we’re still a few years away from widespread mobile banking, the eBusiness guy thinks we’re about to see a surge of QR Codes in our day-to-day lives.
January 17, 2011
Many have commented on the Starbucks brand refresh, not to be mistaken for a new brand design, more a simplification of the iconic Siren logo that has become synonymous with gourmet coffee the world over. Having worked on hundreds of brand identity designs in my career I can say from experience, trying to rationalize the intrinsic ethos of a graphic mark that represents a multi-million dollar corporation would challenge even the most seasoned creative director. So at first, l was less than impressed with Starbucks’ in-house creative team and their understated rationale – bringing the Siren out of the ring and making her the star. However we don’t have to look far to see how de-cluttering a brand can simplify neuro responses, just look at the brand equity in such simple icons as Apple or Nike. In fact the more I consider the implied brand risk the more I can appreciate why CEO Howard Schultz has spoken out about being a coffee company that will have other products with the Starbucks name but may be void of coffee. Something is brewing over at Starbucks and it sniffs of brand extension beyond the white cup. I wouldn’t be surprised if we start to see clothing, sporting equipment or perhaps luxury resorts – don’t laugh, just look at the CuisinArt Resort. For now, free the Siren, let her swim in unchartered waters and we’ll see where she comes ashore, perhaps it will be utopia!
January 11, 2010
As social media grows not only in popularity but as a genuinely effective marketing method and arena, there are 3 distinct ways in which it has improved how brands are being marketed and communicated.
The Lost Art of Listening
Social Media’s lasting legacy on brands/companies/organizations might be that it finally forced them to listen instead of just selling. A lot of this might have to do with the fact that most social media forums are not their arena to preach about their brands. In actuality, conversations are taking place and they’ve realized that they have to monitor and participate before they try to market and sell.
A Voluntary Think Tank
If a brand approaches it right, throughout the online world, there exists an active think tank that is expressing their thoughts and desires, and whose opinions could provide dividends if properly harnessed. How much were companies paying for focus groups, where most people joined just to receive free giveaways or cash?
Real Time Research
Before we execute any tactic a solid foundation of research must be in place, and social media provides a constant stream of real time research. Of course, many argue that we can’t properly measure sentiment as it is subjective, but social media still provides a window for us to see how our brands and reputation are discussed in public forums.