Is K-Mart’s “Ship My Pants” a good Ad?

16 May 2013

I have to confess, it’s a very cute ad. It makes me giggle every time. I’ve shown it to my teenage kids, I’ve posted it on Facebook and Twitter. And I’ve watched it again and giggled more. But is it a good ad? And I guess the bigger question might be is it the right ad for K-Mart?

Here’s the ad:

Is it a Good Ad?

The test of a good ad that I use is the ABC’S of Advertising which is Attention, Branding Communication and Stickiness.

Attention: A+ This ad definitely captures attention with a high degree of humor. It’s as funny as a Seinfeld episode. And for those of us, like me, it has that sharing power set up perfectly for social media.
Branding: C+ The ad doesn’t do that great of a job with the brand. And right now, K-Mart is definitely at the Indifferent stage of the Brand Love Curve, so what it really needs is to help separate the brand from the pack. Other than scoring for “this brand is funny”, this doesn’t really separate K-Mart out from the pack? I’d likely give this a higher score if the brand was targeted to a younger audience or if it was in an edgier category, the joke would have been a perfect fit for (e.g. EB Games or West 49)
Communication: B+ If K-Mart’s only objective is to establish that it does shipping, then it would be A+, but because of the vast needs for the brand, I’m a bit surprised they can turn K-Mart around by offering free shipping. This does nothing to separate the brand: LL Bean can ship pants, but LL Bean has pants I want shipped. The other weird part of the communication is that 90% of the visuals are IN the store yet the real big win is there’s an on-line play. If it’s IN the store, most items in a mass merchandiser store are so small that you don’t need them shipped. So I’m saying mixed.
Stickiness: A It certainly sticks and the amount of sharing and talk value it has generate helps. It may be polarizing to certain segments of the mass audience–some may be offended–so it may stick for the wrong reason with the wrong circumstances.

So overall, I’d rate the ad a solid B+ to A=. Very funny Ad.

But, is it the right Ad for K-Mart?

Let’s look at the K-Mart strategy through the lens of the 5 sources of connectivity that help connect the brand with consumers including the brand promise, the strategic choices you make, the brand’s ability to tell their story, the freshness of the product or service and the overall experience and impressions it leaves with you.

Brand Promise: The promise as stated is you can now get all the great stuff at K-Mart shipped right to your house. Who is the target? Based on the tone of the ad, you would think it’s such a younger audience, but does a younger audience shop at K-Mart. I know there will be people say “well with this funny ad, maybe now kids will shop there?” Really? Is that how you think advertising works?

Strategy: I’m not quite getting the strategy here. K-Mart is nearly bankrupt and has not had a true reason for being for the last 40 years. Brands are either different, better or cheaper. Wal-Mart beats it on price, Target beats it on style.

Story: The is trying to deliver the brand promise, but the tone feels wrong. As Ted Mathews, author of Brand: It Ain’t the Logo* (*It’s what people think of you.) said “The K-Mart ad is completely off-brand character. It will alienate the last remaining 50+ customers they have. This is what happens without a Brand Foundation.

Innovation: This is 2013. E-Commerce isn’t really innovative is it? The idea that I can order pants on-line and have them shipped to my house might have been innovative around 1997. But nowadays, buying pants on-line doesn’t exactly say “Hey Everyone K-Mart is really innovative”.

Experience: If there was a brand death pool, K-Mart would be near the top of the list. Every time I drive by one, only then am I reminded that they still exist. And then I say “why?”. As I watched this ad, my first reaction was “yeah, but they are still crappy pants that no one wants”. It reminds me of the Woody Allen joke: ”this steak is awful and the portions are so small”. Yes I can ship the pants, but quite frankly, I don’t want the pants.

Using these 5 Connections, I would say that, other than a funny gag, the ad does nothing to connect consumers with the K-Mart Brand.

Ship My Pants: Good Ad, Wrong Brand

Follow me on Twitter @GrayRobertson1

Follow Ted Mathews on Twitter @WeWantTed

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What will Happen when Teenagers Leave Facebook?

5 May 2013

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I have two teenagers at home, so I can safely call myself the world’s foremost EXPERT ON TEENAGERS!!! Actually, as a parent of teenagers, I have absolutely no clue what’s going on. But that’s a whole different blog. What I have noticed in 2013 is that my two teenagers aren’t using Facebook at all. A sample of two: my 16-year-old has only 5 posts this year and my 15-year-old has 7 posts. I know 40 year-olds that have that many posts in a day, posting anything from photos of cute cats rolling on the grass to a hilarious video of an old lady dancing to 28 photos of their 3-year-old at the zoo pointing to a Lion or commenting on “what’s a color without the letter E in it”.

And we can’t figure out for the life of me why teenagers would want to leave this cool and fun party? Actually, the answer is pretty easy: “YOU GUYS ARE SUCH LOSERS”. I hear that one every day. Keep in mind, we drop them off where we can’t be seen. This is the same thing that goes for social media. Don’t embarrass me!

Facebook was originally developed by College Students for College students and then quickly followed by High School students. It became the place to be around 2007. Then 20 somethings got on, then Moms then snuck on in 2010 and now….Grandmas are on there. The biggest growing demographic is 55+. And they are commenting on photos. OMG!!! WTF!!! IKR!!! GTFO!!! We had to tell my mom not to comment on my daughter’s Facebook page anymore for fear she would be unfriended and blocked. We are already blocked so we know what that feels like. It stings.

This is pure comedy, an example of the horror teens are facing. It’s a mother trying to defend her son, on his girlfriend’s Facebook page. My guess is they are no longer dating.

Are we starting to get a picture of why the teens are leaving Facebook? Just keep repeating this and it will help you understand teens: “YOU GUYS ARE SUCH LOSERS”. And then maybe go slam your door.

Let’s Look at the Facts

The active number of Facebook users in the US is down 7.4% in 2013. The average age continues to climb every year, with 65% of Facebook users are now over 35 years old. The biggest complaint people have is that it’s boring. As my friend says “how come people will watch videos of cats falling off a sidewalk on-line, but if we said that’s a TV show, no one would watch it”. The answer is likely novelty.
Moms have gone on Facebook in droves: 72% of Moms are now on Facebook. Half of them said they are really just going on to keep tabs on their kids. And 74% of Moms say they check their kids Facebook several times a week.
On the flip side, one in three teens are embarrassed by their parents’ Facebook comments. The problem is that your teenagers know you’re spying. And they don’t appreciate it. Over 30% of teens say they have unfriended their parents. Teens complain they don’t get enough privacy on Facebook.
Teens continue to turn to smartphones as their primary source and as a result prefer App based programs such as SnapChat, Twitter, KIK Messenger, Ask FM and Instagram. Adults can’t even find these and when they do, they can’t even work them. And when you figure it out, teens will just move on to something else.
Recent study found 33% of teens called Facebook the most important social network, closely followed by Twitter with 30%. Twitter is significantly gaining. Just 6 months ago, the scores were 42% to 27%.

So now what happens?

A few things come to mind.

Kids want something that is uniquely their own. It reminds me of what happened to the Gap Clothing store. Back in the 1990s, it was the cool brand for teenagers. Then Baby Gap and Maternity Gap meant teens would now be wearing the same clothes as their cute little nephew or their hugely pregnant Aunt. Total Horror. So the teens stopped going and then the pregnant aunt didn’t want to dress like someone uncool. So sales tumbled. This could be a metaphor for Facebook. Once you are everything to everyone, you end up nothing and to no one.
One less chance for Control Freak Moms: If a lot of moms are on Facebook only to spy on their kids, maybe they’ll now move on and stop using Facebook so much. How many pictures of Cats can we really “Like” while waiting for your little precious to post something you can tell her is totally inappropriate? And other moms are likely only on Facebook because it’s the cool thing that teens do. Once they find out it’s no longer cool, we could have our new version of the tipping point that Gap went through.
Advertisers are confused by Social Media yet again. Just as they were finally able to start putting numbers to social media, the whole world has changed yet again. Advertisers want to know reliable sources for where to invest their advertising dollars. They need payback and if the audience keeps moving, then it’s hard for them to have a steady reliable place to invest in.

The same problem continues: How do we Monetize Social Media Platforms?

Most social media platforms follow the same pattern. They launch with a unique way of communicating that is a dramatic improvement over prior methods. There is minimal advertising because they are focused more on gaining a large following that might take a year or two. Plus, they are so unproven, making it very hard to get advertisers to buy into it. They end up with a large audience but no proven method of making money from that large audience. And then they take it public with a promise that “we’ll now use advertising to our huge audience to drive future revenues”. The claim is that the value of Social Media platforms should not be based on current revenue streams but on future revenue sources. They say “trust us, this will be huge”. Right? You’ve heard this story before. But as they said in Jerry McGuire: ”Show me the money!!!”

We have to be able to see how a social media platform can make money. With some of these sites, I’m not seeing it yet. But now, as Facebook is still trying to figure out how to monetize their huge user base, that user base is starting to leave. Down 7.4% is pretty significant for something that is free. The new mediums they are leaving for look like a total fad. How do these new vehicles make money? There are no ads on Instagram or Snap Chat. Yes, Facebook now owns Instagram for a tidy $1 Billion. But how do you now make money on it? By the time they figure out how to monetize, the teenagers are likely already moving on to what’s next. And the cycle continues.

Facebook had quickly become the wonder-drug of Social Media, the one powerhouse that everyone was engaged in and Advertisers were starting to understand. Will there be a new version of the mega social media platform or will the future just be fragmented into unique platforms for unique groups? Does that make it harder or easier on Advertisers? Yes, there will be better segmentation but confusion over how to go about reaching. Too many executional options for too many media choices.

Is Facebook at a Tipping Point? Will they just become the social media site for the over 30?

What’s Your Next Move Facebook?

Follow me on Twitter at @grayrobertson1

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Can McDonald’s win the Coffee War? Not a chance.

30 April 2013

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Without a doubt, if there was a Marketing Hall of Fame, McDonald’s would be a first ballot inductee along with Disney, Apple, Nike and Coke. But, can they win on Coffee. Whenever I’m in front of an audience, I name a brand and say give me the first word that pops in your mind. When I say McDonald’s, I get about 30 different answers–kids, Ronald, Fries, Big Mac, family, etc. I end up facilitating at the front of the room like it’s a brainstorming session. When I say the word Volvo, about 90% of the audience smiles and says “Safety” like they’ve passed their Calculus final.

But here I sit, undercover at your local McDonald’s. This Mcdee’s has been remodelled as many have to be more of a “cafe”. There’s a little bit of wood, a fake fireplace, two giant screen TV’s, acoustic music playing and some funkier chairs. But it’s just after noon here, and there’s about 40 people in the “cafe”. Here’s my current estimate: 14 high school students, 8 college students, a construction crew of 4 guys in bright vests, 6 toddlers, 6 moms, 2 women “having coffee” and me.

One other odd observation. I have a great view of the entire restaurant right now. AND I CAN’T SEE THE GOLDEN ARCHES ANYWHERE. Isn’t that one of the most recognizable logos ever? This feels odd, so let me get a closer look and go over to the counter. It must be somewhere. Here’s a photo of the front counter: can you see it? Ok, no arches.

Can McDonald’s Beat Starbucks?

Let’s use the model below that looks at the five connections a brand has to make and compare McDonald’s to Starbucks.

Brand Promise: McDonald’s offers a really good tasting cup of coffee. In blind taste tastes, McDonald’s wins. Starbucks offers an escape from your busy hectic life. You can order in Italian (Grande), the cool 23-year-old college kid knows your name and what you drink, you can sit in luxurious leather chairs, along with other people also trying to escape their busy lives, you can have an amazing Scone or cookie and you can have a cup of coffee. OK, you can tell I’m being sarcastic. But are you starting to get that people aren’t going to Starbucks just for the coffee? It’s an experience, not a product. Let’s go 1-0 for Starbucks.

Strategy: McDonald’s caters to every demographic from 2 years old having their kids meal and playing in the play land for hours to college students wanting a Big Mac on the way to the bar at 11pm and grandmothers having a coffee and a muffin at 10:15am. They have something for everyone. And now coffee. Starbucks specializes in coffee, with a trained barista that can customize your favorite latte. Barista’s are usually so proud of their experience at Starbucks, they proudly display it on their resumes. To show their commitment to the Barista experience, Starbucks systematically closed down every Starbucks for a day to ensure everyone was making it right. I’m going 2-0 for Starbucks.

Story: I have to give it to McDonald’s. They launched a great outdoor campaign absolutely slamming Starbucks with the Fourbucks is Dumb. I loved it. But here I sit in a McDonald’s and the price of a latte is $3.29. You’re right McDonald’s. It’s not four bucks. It’s 3.29. I get to save 71 cents to sit with screaming toddlers and depressed teenagers that look at you funny. And Starbucks has a few ads here and there, but advertising isn’t really their thing. Every time that your friend says “let’s meet at Starbucks” it’s an ad controlled by word of mouth. Most recently, Starbucks has started to slowly and quietly dominate the social media space. Tough call, but word of mouth endorsements from friends always beats a billboard, even if it’s a great billboard. I’m going 3-0 Starbucks.

Freshness and Innovation: McDonald’s has done something very smart with free coffee for a week or even up to 15 days a few years ago. They are leading with their strength. However, the menu is small. It’s still early for them, but they need to show a bit of experience. But Starbucks has created some amazing deserts over the last few years and has had a lot of success behind their most recent blonde launch. Let’s give this one to Starbucks and it’s now 4-0.

Experience: Sorry, let me just take a break here. My butt is really killing me from sitting on these plastic chairs. The teenagers are complaining about the Math exam they just wrote and one of the toddlers just threw her fries at her mom and is now rolling around on the floor screaming. And Starbucks is an escape from all this. Thank god. I have teens at home. I went through the toddler stage. And my limbs could use a nice comfortable chair right about now. I’m going 5-0 Starbucks.

Here’s the thing. I’ve never had a cup of coffee in my life. And yet, I go to Starbucks about 40 times a year, mainly to meet up with friends. And I love it. Out of these 5 connections, the most important to me seems to be the experience. The coffee has to be good. But the experience has to be exceptional. And the McDonald’s experience which I’m living right now is certainly lacking. I can’t even hear the acoustic music. God I need some peace and quiet.

The original question I asked was “Can McDonald’s Win the Coffee War?”. They’ll steal share, just by sheer traffic already going through their stores. But, I’m changing the question to “Does McDonald’s know what’s important to Coffee Drinkers?”

And please put back the arches. Never be embarrassed of who you really are.

Follow me on twitter @GrayRobertson1

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A Brand Leader’s view of what makes a Good Advertising Agency

28 April 2013

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It seems that clients are firing ad agencies very quickly these days.

I’m half way old enough that I’m straddling the fence on whether agencies are as good as the old days. But it seems that there are pitches going on constantly, and yet no one is really wanting to look themselves the mirror and say “Am I part of the problem?”

I’ve been brought in a few times to look at the situation. The first thing I normally tell the Brand Leader is “you have to fire yourself first” and then see if the agency is still bad. The best clients respect the process, the agency and their own judgment. And yet, most Brand Leaders under-estimate the role the client plays in getting to great creative. As a Brand Leader, if you knew that showing up better would get you better advertising, do you think you could? If there are 100 steps in every advertising development stage and you show up OK at each step, how are you possibly thinking you’ll end up with a GREAT ad at the end?

How do you fire Yourself?

When a relationship gets off the rails, what I do is an Advertising “Audit” where we look at the behaviors and processes in getting to the advertising.

What’s your brief look like? Is it fundamentally sound? I’ve seen 8 page briefs that don’t even have a benefit or any consumer insights. And I’ve seen other clients that say “we didn’t write a brief for that one, we just phoned it in”. Even though the media has changed in this modern world, the fundamentals around writing briefs should not. You need to distill your strategy, either from your brand plan or what’s in your head down to 1 page. Here’s a story on how to write a better creative brief. How to Write an Effective Creative Brief
What is your behavior like at advertising meetings? My belief is that advertising is a balance of freedom and control and many clients I see give too much freedom in areas they should control and too much control in areas they should give more freedom. You should control the strategy and decision-making, but you should give freedom to the creative expression and execution of the work. I’ll observe tone to see how motivating you are, how you communicate and how you make decisions in the meeting that lead to the direction you give. My view is that one person should do all the feedback and that the feedback should be motivating yet it really should be directive as to how to improve the work. Too many clients try to be motivating but fear giving direction so they opt for vague. The agency walks away not even knowing what’s next. Here’s an article on how to Judge Advertising: How to Judge Advertising
How do you make decisions? As long as it’s consistent and transparent, there is room for latitude, but the agency just has to know so they can adjust. Too many times, clients don’t want the agency to see how decisions get made. If you have a consensus culture, what I recommend is that during the creative meeting, you take a 30 minute break where your team gathers its feedback and then assigns one person to take the agency through. If your culture is top down, and potentially the real decision maker isn’t even in the room, I recommend that one senior agency person accompany you through the internal approval process. They can listen and respond to the comments directly. And usually, they are better at selling creative work than you are. As long as they are aligned with what you want, the tag-team approach should be even better.

The reason you want to “fire yourself first” is it allows you to now see clearly if it really is the agency or if it was just you. The added benefit is that if you still see that the agency is not where you need them to be and you still want to fire them, then at least you will be showing up better to your new agency, rather than that dysfunctional client before the audit.

What Makes for a Good Advertising Agency?

I come at this from the vantage of a client, having spent 20 years working as a Brand Leader. I’m not an Ad Agency guy, never having worked a day at an agency in my life. But I’ve seen some great agencies and some not so good. Here’s my list of what makes a Great Agency:

They work for you, not your boss. While your boss pays them and has the final say, they still know you are the client. Nothing worse than a client services person constantly trying to go above your head. The best way for an agency to earn your trust is to consistently demonstrate that they work for you. That trust will earn them a seat, along side you, at the table of your boss. You will know they have your back and will support your recommendation, not cave at the whim of your boss.
They understand your goals, your issues and your strategies. They write briefs that are on your brand strategy and deliver work that expresses your brand strategy. Yes, The modern agency struggles to write advertising strategies that align to the Brand’s strategy. Just as though clients are not trained enough in the areas of strategy and planning, I see the same thing on the Agency side. As margins are squeezed, the first casualty is strategic planning. Yet, that might be one of the most important. I’d prefer to have a great strategic planner on the brand than have 5 client services people each show up taking notes at meetings.
They make work that drives demand and sells more widgets, not work that just wins awards. Awards are part of the agency world–helping to motivate creative people and establishing the agency reputation in the market. I once had an agency person say: ”we can’t write that strategy because it will make for boring work”. The balance of winning awards and selling more widgets always has to side with selling more widgets. I’m really tired of agencies starting off creative meetings with the “we are so excited” line. You want an agency that comes into a room and says “we have an ad for you that will sell more of your product”.
They give options. And they don’t always 100% agree. Come on agencies. We are in year 100 of making ads and you haven’t figured out yet that the clients like options. Each option has to deliver the strategy. Nothing worse than agencies who tear apart the brief and deliver options for each part of the brief. (e.g. here’s one for the younger audience, here’s one that does fast really well and here’s one that does long-lasting) That’s not creative options, that’s now strategic options. We collectively decide on the strategy before the creative process begins, not meander the strategy during the creative process. As clients, options give us comfort. But even more importantly, options treat us with respect that we can still make the right decision.
Agencies are not territorial. They are transparent allowing you open and free access to their planners and creative people. It’s really the account people here. Good account people allow you to communicate directly with the creative team. Most great creative teams that I have worked with want direct access to the client, rather than have it be filtered through a series of contact reports.
They adjust and easily take feedback. Agencies serve at the pleasure of the client. Every client is unique and the best agencies adjust to that style. Not only the company but even the individual. I used to sit with my Account leader every quarter and go through how we can each get better. Some clients aren’t even doing annual agency performance reviews.
They are positive and already motivated to work on your brand. While I do encourage clients to motivate their agencies, it’s much easier to motivate someone who is already motivated. When I see a 25-year old account person openly complaining, I see that as a problem with the culture of the agency, not a problem for the client to have to figure out. I’m now on the service side as a consultant, and we can never openly complain.
They teach. When I was a new Brand Manager, my client services person (Leslie Boscheratto) taught me more about advertising than any client should have to learn. In fact, I’m still embarrassed at how little I knew, yet thrilled at how much I learned from that team at Bates back in the mid 90s.
They act like you are their only client. And you feel important to them, no matter what share your budget is of the overall agency. Why sign you up as a client and then keep reminding you that they have Coke, Budweiser or Dove. When you are with me, treat me as though I’m the most important client in the world.
Trusted Advisor: They are a trusted advisor who will give you real advice, not just on advertising but on your performance and on the overall brand. Most senior agency folks have seen plenty of clients come and go. Never be afraid to find a quiet moment with your agency person and ask two simple questions: ”what can I do better” and “what do your best clients do that I could learn from”.

Here’s the flip side to the story with an article I wrote a few months ago on “The worst type of Clients”. To read that click on: Ten Worst Types of Advertising Clients

You’ll notice the one thing missing from my list is “They Make Great Work”. That’s a given because that’s the only reason you hire an agency. Yes, some agencies make better work than others. But even those agencies that make great work, also make bad work. And if we were to look at why, it would likely start with the relationship, processes or interactions. So if the client can fix what they are doing wrong and the agency can show up right, then you should be able to make good work together.

Making great advertising is simple, but very hard to do.

Here’s a presentation on How to Be a Better Client

How will Brand Leaders Win with Media in the Future?

26 April 2013

2 Comments

I’m not a media expert at all. So there will be no answers here, just questions about where I might be confused about the future or where I might see an impact to my media thinking. I come at everything through the lens of the Brand Leader. My questions are more about the impact on consumer behaviour and how the brand can win through media in the future. If you’re a media expert, feel free to add solutions. At this point, like most Brand Leaders, I’m a bit confused and I just have questions, not really solutions!

1. Will people watch even more TV in the future?

I love asking this question because it usually confuses people, because of the expected downward trend of TV viewership over the last 10 years. At first, this question might sound crazy, but with more tablets and instant internet access everywhere, we should expect a shift to watching more TV, not less. This year, books are up 13% due to increased readership via tablets. Will we see that impact to TV? More access means more use. If you’re on the subway, an airplane, waiting to pick up your kids or on your lunch hour, wouldn’t it be great just to catch an episode of Modern Family? Now you can. And while this is at the early stages with early adopters, we’ll quickly see it going mass over the next few years. But the TV model will have to change. Consumers won’t want to be watching 8 minutes of TV ads. It seems people see their computer as their personal space and they find intrusive advertising even more annoying on their computer than they do their TV. We need a new model for TV advertising–I haven’t seen it yet.

As a Brand Leader, I recommend that you don’t give up on TV just yet. Maybe it will be on a tablet or a phone. Just be a bit more creative. Maybe you need to make your spots more interesting to take advantage of viral shares. Make sure your spots are more engaging so people want to watch rather than just tolerate. Be open to integrating your brand right into the shows, or maybe go back to the past when brand sponsorship kicked off every 1950s TV show.

2. How can Advertisers Capture the Internet Babies (12-22 years old) as they move into adulthood?

As someone said, this segment never “goes on-line” because they are “always on-line”. They are never “off-line”. Last year, my 14-year-old daughter had 3 friends over and when teens visit, you have to expect a bit of excess noise. All of a sudden, there was silence for 20 minutes. I thought they must have left but then I see four teenagers all sitting at the kitchen table texting away, not a word being said. Complete silence. This generation lives on-line and put their lives on-line. It remains confusing as to their true view of privacy–do they want more or do they just figure their lives are an open book.

This group has their priorities shaped by the age of instant access. They want everything now–sports scores, rumours, or videos of what they just saw on TV. They are multi-tasking so much it’s arguable they never give anything complete focus. When they watch TV, they have the laptop up, their cell phone in hand–navigating Facebook, twitter, texting, instagram and Skype all at once. No wonder ADD is growing. They choose Apps over software, expecting an App solution for any problem they have. They see advertising as completely ubiquitous and are more open to brands than other generations. But how they consume media is completely different. E-Commerce is an expectation, as they buy songs, games and movies or a new phone case at a whim.

As a Brand Leader, we need help to figure out how to win with this group when they turn 25? I know as a parent of this age group, I have no wisdom I can pass on. Maybe someone in this age group can help us out, because I’m utterly confused.

3. Can Newspapers even Survive?

So far, newspapers haven’t figured out the profit model between the traditional broadsheet and the on-line versions. Making it free was likely a mistake, and makes it hard to turn back. If your newspaper has been free on-line since 1997, I’ll be pissed off if you now expect me to pay for it. If I’m interested in the topic, I’ll just Google the same headline and find a free version. As long as newspaper publishers see a direct link between the actual broadsheet and the newspaper they run the risk of extinction. If you think a newspaper is a collection of amazing journalists, you’re off to a good start. But if you think it has to be a broadsheet, then you’re completely lost.

News now is instant, ubiquitous and more casual/social. The tweeting that went on during the US presidential debate (e.g. Big Bird) is evidence of how social media drives the story. I don’t need to read a journalists take on it. I already know. By the time the broadsheet version of the newspaper is ready, this story is now old news and even has had 12-18 more hours to evolve into a completely new story line. The broadsheet can’t keep up. I love the business model for the Huffington Post. What started as on-line political opinion is becoming a source for broader news–entertainment, sports and lifestyle stories. With more publishers going without a printed version (e.g. Newsweek just announced they’re cancelling their printed version), this has to be the future.

As a Brand Leader, I’d recommend moving your Newspaper spend on-line or even choose other mainstream media options. You’ve put up with the bad production quality for 100 years–is there really anyone under 50 still reading.

4. Can Advertisers Figure Out how to Win in the New World?

The Commodity Brands that have funded mainstream media remain completely confused.

Traditional media has always been funded by advertisers whether that means TV ads for 8-12 minutes per hour, newspapers and magazines with 25-40% of the space for ads and radio with ads every second song. Traditional Media has been free as long as you were willing to put up with advertising interrupting your usage of the media. That ability to interrupt consumers allowed the Commodity Brands (dish soap, diapers, toothpaste, razor blades and batteries) to break through to consumers, as they sat captive and watching their favourite TV show.

But New Media is free, unbridled and fairly commercial free. In general, a lot of the advertising still just sits there along the sidelines where we don’t click. While the high interest and high involvement brands have started to figure out how to use the New Media, the Commodities remain in a state of confusion. If you want to see what confusion looks like, go see Head and Shoulder’s twitter page with 320 followers or Bounce’s Facebook page “where they talk about fresh laundry” (their words, not mine)

These Commodity brands need to either get people more involved, which Dove is the best in class brand, or they need dial-up the potential importance for a core target which Tide has done a good job. As we see many of the new media companies (Facebook) struggling to figure out how to make more money from Advertisers, there needs to be a step up in creativity to find new solutions. Banner ads that just sit along the side aren’t going to do much for the advertiser or the media owner. If social media sites want to win over these commodity brands, they need find that right balance of interrupting consumers without annoying their membership.

5. Are there too many Social Media Options?

I know there are still new social media options every month, but most of these feel fairly niche. In the mainstream social media sites, we are seeing that winners have emerged and they are turning into leaders as Google, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linked In and Wikipedia all now dominant in their given area. It looks impossible for a new entrant to really challenge them. If a new entrant were to try for leap-frog strategy, these leaders would just duplicate the innovation and kill the challenger. Every industry has gone through a similar pattern: early innovation, divergence of brand options, then a few power brands emerge, and then a power play where the strong squeeze out the weak through mergers and acquisitions until there are a handful of brand owners remaining.

As these Social Media sites look to turn their power into wealth, we will see a shift from fighting for members to fighting for advertiser dollars. This will likely force a convergence of social media options where the strongest brands try to squeeze out the smaller sites. There are already small signs in Google’s strategy they are thinking this way–trying to be the one stop shop. Mergers are always tend to surprise us, almost the unimaginable. Can you imagine Facebook buying LinkedIn? Who knows, maybe we’ll even see a merger between social media brands and mainstream networks. AOL already tried it with Time-Warner. But can you imagine Google buying CNN, Facebook buying MTV or NBC buying the Huffington Post? If you’re an Advertiser, expect some uncertainty in the next few years and expect a few mergers.

6. Will New Media people ever be able to Convince Brand Leaders of what they Should do?

Marketers love what they know. It feels safe. The people who spend 100% of their lives living and breathing new media know what Brand Leaders don’t know. The problem is there is no bridge between the Brand Leader and New Media. New Media don’t really get the marketers, don’t understand their motivations and how they think. So they just keep barking and no one is listening. Here are some tips: Start with the consumer and map out how they interact. Don’t start with the media. Demonstrate to me that you understand my brand: who is my target, how do they shop, what is my main benefit, the key issues I face, strategic options available and how my brand makes money. Show me things other brands in my predicament have done and the results. Be fundamental in the way you talk with me. Look at how I was trained, strategy first, tactics second, execution third. Go in that order so I can follow along. Don’t show me what Bud did on the Super Bowl. Teach me as much as you can, because if I have more knowledge I’ll be more comfortable. And help me to sell it in, because everyone above me is even more confused than I am. Right now, we are a little scared and we’re doing this because we know we should, not because we know what we’re doing. Help us.

When It Comes to New Media, Brand Leaders still need to be Fundamentally Sound

For a Media Overview that can help Brand Leaders get better media plans by learning more about both traditional and digital options, read the following presentation:

The new Burger War: 5 Guys vs In-N-Out

25 April 2013

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When I was a kid, after my hockey practices, my mom and I used to go to Burger King. It became a tradition. What did i like the best? It was nice and quiet, compared to the crowded noisy McDonald’s right across the street. No lines, no one taking up great seat locations and almost zen. Today, there’s a new Burger War brewing: 5 Guys versus In-N-Out Burger. Who will win?

Who has the Better Burger?

I know there’s lots of debate out there. Let’s dispel the myth here: they are almost the same burger. They take a high quality ground chuck, and squish it firmly onto the grill which locks in the flavor and creates a juicy burger. It’s a much higher quality meat than McDonald’s and much juicier in the end due to the cooking technique. The only difference is 5 Guys burger feels like the burger actually breaks apart more which could make it feel less fast-food and In-N-Out feels very neatly stacked. VERDICT: Tie

Fries versus Shakes

If the burger is a relative tie, then what else you got. 5 Guys wins on fries and In-N-Out wins on Shakes. I’m a big fries fan, and 5 Guys does have pretty darn good addicting fries. They give you enough that you likely won’t finish them. The In-N-Out fries (except for Animal Fries) are a little bit nondescript and boring. In terms of shakes, the In-N-Out shakes are legendary, whereas 5 Guys is completely missing out by not even having a shake. Verdict: Tie, pick your poison and likely only have it once in a while.

Who has better Atmosphere?

I have to say, neither is very cool at all. In-N-Out had the plastic feel of a McDonald’s, with booths that are too small to fit those that can eat a double-double. The hats on the employees are cute, giving it a 50′s diner feel. And 5 Guys atmosphere feels like a Costco. Dusty floors, crappy little tables and chairs. Plus, do we really need 50 signs per restaurant telling us how great you are. What you’re doing is opening up the door to local establishments finding a niche against both of these with a cooler pub-like atmosphere. Verdict: one bad tie.

So the overall product is a tie.

Where does In-N-Out Burger win?

Clearly as I’ve heard from the fans, In-N-Out does a great job engaging with their consumers. The secret menu and the secret sauce, the traditions of the double-double and the “animal fries” all help create a “club” filled with brand fans who will take on anyone that knocks their brand. There’s a slight difference in who each attracts. In-N-Out’s menu items are generally less expensive — the chain is most popular with young men ages 18 to 24 with an income of less than $70,000 a year, according to NPD. By contrast, Five Guys patrons are generally 25 to 50 years old, with an income of more than $100,000. In-N-Out seems to have a more engaged consumer base that it can leverage as 5 Guys is now into the Southern California market ready to do battle right in the backyard of In-N-Out.

Where does 5 Guys win?

5 Guys has been much more aggressive. They have pursued winning on reviews and lists that can help drive awareness for the brand. In 2010, they won the Zagat best burger. They’ve aggressively gone after celebrities such as Shaq and Obama. And most of all, they are winning on location, location and even more location. At this point, In-N-Out is stuck as a West Coast brand, in California, Arizona and Nevada with only 280 locations. And 5 Guys is everywhere, with 1000+ locations, fairly national and even in Canada. They are clearly following the McDonald’s real estate strategy by trying to be everywhere. The other area where 5 Guys wins is pricing. I’m a marketer, so the more price you can command the better. For relatively the same burger, 5 Guys charges twice what In-N-Out charges. In this current stagnant economy, people are proving they’d rather pay for an amazing quality burger than a cheap steak. It feels like In-N-Out is leaving money on the table with the prices that are just slightly above the McDonald’s price points.

So who will win?

At this point the clear winner will be 5 Guys. Just like McDonald’s versus Burger King in the original burger war, it’s not as much about the burger itself but about the aggressive pursuit of real estate. Unless In-N-Out wakes up, takes all that brand love they’ve generated among their fans and they go on an 5-year big expansion, they’ll be relegated to a regional brand we only visit on our road trips to California.

5 Guys Is Quickly Becoming the Upscale Answer to McDonald’s

A vote and a shout out for Local still. At this premium burger price range, and with boring atmospheres in both Five Guys and In-N-Out restaurants, they are keeping the door open for local burger places to stay alive. If you’re ever in my home town of Toronto, Craft Burger (now Big Smoke) on King Street offers a very unique burger and feel. Hand made, aged cheddar giving it a slightly different feel and the fries are great. Allen’s on the Danforth has an amazing quality beef and the best outdoor patio around. Burger’s Priest in Toronto has almost completely copied In-N-Out with lots of mysterious schtick, including the Secret Menu. It’s fun. I’m sure you’ve got your own local place. Here’s to local.

To read more about how the love for a brand creates more power and profits:

How to go Deeper on the Analysis of your Brand

21 April 2013

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Too many times, marketers come to conclusions based on pure instincts and put them forward to their management team and the set of peers who might agree or disagree. The problem with instincts is that because it’s really just an opinion, with nothing to substantiate it. And even if you are right, you’ll have a hard time convincing others, so anyone with a counter view, retains their own opinion and the team remains divided. Even if they go along with it, they remain a quiet dissenter just waiting for it to fail and waiting to say “I told you so”.

When you don’t go deep on your thinking, I call it surface thinking. I equate “surface thinking” to “surface cleaning”. When your mother is coming over to visit in half an hour, you “surface clean” by quickly take everything and jam into the drawers or closets where she won’t be able to see. You never really clean up. The same thing holds with “surface thinking”. Yes, you think, but it stays at the opinion level. You don’t dig in to the data, you don’t listen to others or go do the necessary research to back up your opinion. You never really go deep enough to uncover the deep rich insightful conclusions. And everyone knows it.

Opinions are great. Every leader should have one and be able to articulate their views. But it’s best when you can layer it in fact. One good rule for communicating your opinion is something I learned in my first year Logic class: Premise, Premise, Conclusion. Try it out, next time you’re engaged in debate. Just make sure the premise is backed by fact.

So what happens when you just do “surface thinking”:

The programs bomb, and because you don’t know what elements of the program really failed, you throw out the entire program—the strategy was wrong, the tactics didn’t do what you hoped, the goals weren’t set up right and even the agency did a bad job. You throw it all out, and might even fire the agency.
There’s management doubt from your boss and your peers. They can clearly see you don’t go deep, so they remain unconvinced or even confused. They might confront you with their own opinion, but then we just end up with two talking heads that refuse to go deep. But, to protect themselves against a strategy they aren’t quite sure of, they subconsciously short-change you on investment or even on support from their team.
When you just operate at the surface level, when you’re debating a topic, instead of the team going deep and seeking out real and rich facts to support one side or the other, the conversation moves sideways instead of deep. What you’ll notice is you’ll be talking about distribution at the surface level, and because no one in the room wants to go deep, they say “well what about the new cheery flavor, I took it home and my wife didn’t like it, are we sure it’s going to work” or “this new golf shirt for the sales meeting is very cool, I want one of these puppies”. The leadership team spins, round and round, never diving deep enough to solve the issues, just casually moves on to new issues. This is how bad decisions or no decisions get made.

How to go Deeper

The best way go deep on your analysis, ask “so what does that mean” at least five times and watch the information gets richer and deeper.

Looking at the Gray’s Cookie example above, intuitively, it makes sense that going after Health Food Stores could be one option put on the table. But to say you need to be better, without digging in remains an unsubstantiated opinion. As you dig deeper, you see that going after Health Food stores, who are highly independent is labor intensive and the payback is just not there. Yes, you’re way under-developed. But it’s more expensive than other options. When you bring the option of going after mass into the mix, which is head office driven, you start to see a higher return on the investment. This is just a fictional example, but look how the thinking gets richer at each stage. Force yourself to keep asking “so what does this mean” or “why” pushing the analysis harder and harder.

Thinking Time Questions that will Help you Go Deeper

The first analysis is “What do we know?” with 5 key questions to help you sort through your analysis:

What do we know? This should be fact based and you know it for sure.
What do we assume? Your educated/knowledge based conclusion that helps us bridge between fact, and speculation.
What we think? Based on facts, and assumptions, you should be able to say what we think will happen.
What do we need to find out? There may be unknowns still.
What are we going to do? It’s the action that comes out of this thinking.

It forces you to start grouping your learning, forces you to start drawing conclusions and it enables your reader to separate fact (the back ground information) from opinion (where you are trying to take them)

The second type of analysis is “Where are we?” with 5 key questions to help you sort through your analysis:

Where are we?
Why are we here?
Where could we be?
How can we get there?
What do we need to do to get there?

These questions help frame your thinking as you go into a Brand Plan. The first question helps the analysis, the second with the key issues, the third frames the vision and objectives, the fourth gets into strategy and tactics and the fifth gets into the execution. My challenge to you: update it every 3-6 months, or every time you do something major. You’ll be surprised that doing something can actually impact ”where are we?” on the analysis.

The Deeper the Thinking, the Smarter the Leader

To read more on How to Analyze Your Brand, read the presentation below:

How to create a Brand Strategy Road Map

14 April 2013

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Master Brand Strategy Road Map

Having the brand road map on one page can help align everyone that works on a brand. This is especially useful when managing a Branded House or Master Brand where there are various people in your organization that each run a small part of the brand. The road map helps guide everyone and keep them aligned.

Here’s the one I use that has all the key elements that help define the brand:

Key Elements

Brand Vision: It’s the End in Mind Achievement. What do you want the brand to become? Think 10 years out: if you became this one thing, you would know that you are successful. Ideally it is Qualitative (yet grounded in something) and quantitative (measurable) It should be motivating and enticing to get people focused.
Purpose: Start with what’s in you: Why do you exist? Why do you wake up in the morning? What’s your purpose or cause behind your brand? Very personal and connects to your own story. In the spirit of Simon Sinek: “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it”.
Brand Idea: A Beloved Brand is an idea that’s worth Loving. As Brands become more loved, they go beyond being just a product and they become an idea that fulfills consumers’ emotional needs in the consumers life.
Five Connectors With the Consumer: Under the Brand Idea are 5 Sources of Connectivity that help connect the brand with consumers and drive Brand Love, including 1) the brand promise 2) the strategic choices you make 3) the brand’s ability to tell their story 4) the freshness of the product or service and 5) the overall experience and impressions it leaves with you. Here’s an example of how these 5 connections would look for the Special K brand.

Brand Values should come from the DNA, and act as guideposts to ensure that the behavior of everyone in the organization is set to deliver upon the Brand’s promise. How do you want your people to show up? What type of service do you want? How much emphasis on innovation? What type of people do you want to hire? What behavior should be rewarded and what behavior is off-side. Having the right Brand Values will help you answer these questions. The Brand Values become an extension of what the Brand Leader wants the brand to stand for. To read more this subject read the following: Brand = Culture
Goals: While the vision serves as a 10 year big goal, it’s also important to have annual goals to push and challenge everyone in the organization. It’s a great way to ensure milestones on the pathway to the vision are being hit. Goals should be S.M.A.R.T. which means they should be specific, measurable, attainable,relevant and time-sensitive.
Strategies: These are potential choices you must make in HOW to get to the vision. Good strategy has focus, early win, leverage and a gateway to something even bigger. Strategic Thinkers see “what if” questions before they see solutions. They map out a range of decision trees that intersect and connect by imagining how events will play out. They reflect and plan before they act. They are thinkers and planners who can see connections. There are four main types of strategy: 1) consumer oriented 2) competitive oriented 3) operational and 4) financial. My recommendation is that Master Brands have 3-5 key strategies, but never more. This forces you to focus.
Tactics: Activities and executions that fit under the strategies. This could be advertising, media, sales, events, social media and professional influence. I recommend focusing on 3 key tactical areas per strategy, continuing to ensure focus.

With this format, having it all on one page forces focus and allows you to keep a tight control over those that will be working under the Master Brand.

House of Brands

When working with a house of brands, where you have multiple brand names under one corporate name (P&G, Kraft, General Mills and Johnson and Johnson) the brand plan would look different. The big differences are the teams are smaller and the culture of each team usually follows that of the corporate name.

Here’s a good example of a Brand Plan that would fit within the House of Brands and here is the related story on How to Write a Brand Plan

To read more on How to Think Strategically, read the presentation below:

10 Annoying Things that give Marketers a Bad Reputation. STOP IT!

12 April 2013

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I’m a marketer at heart. In terms of career, it’s all I know and all I am. I claim to love everything about marketing. Well, nearly everything. Here are 10 things i despise and even more importantly I believe give us marketers a bad reputation. As Mike Ditka would say “STOP IT”.

The price of popcorn at the Movie Theatre. At the grocery store, a single bag of Orville’s popcorn goes for 29 cents a bag. Yet at the movie theatre, it costs $5.99. I get that the movie is using popcorn to cover the overhead. But it really is blatantly treating your consumer like a hostage. ”Combos” (popcorn plus pop or candy) are even worse. At my theatre, one night while I was 9th in line, I added them up and there is zero savings. So I asked the kid at the front. And the answer the poor kid had to give was “the combos are more convenience than savings”. Wow.
Freight and PDI on a New Car. If you’ve ever bought a car, you have to pay something called freight and PDI. It’s really an admin fee for shipping and preparing the car. What’s frustrating is the negotiation process in buying a car. This is just one more tool at the disposal of the sales people. I know Saturn tried the “no price negotiation” strategy and it backfired. Negotiations with so many moving parts can be a brutal experience. And many times, you start off day 1 with such a negative experience that you’re mad at the brand. Why would you want that?
“That’s not all, if you call now…’ Yes, telemarketing is a necessary evil of the marketing game. I’m not a fan. The worst line ever invented is “that’s not all”. That just means we’ve taken this low-cost item we’re trying to sell you and give you a second one for free. But the rip-off is the “you just pay the shipping and handling” line. You’re likely paying an extra $8=10 in shipping and handling, where the company makes a huge profit on that amount. It’s never double the price to ship two items in the same parcel. And the handling? I wish these guys would stop preying on the defense-less consumer. These techniques make us look bad.
100% Money Back Warranty…’except for’: Last year, I decided to buy a Toshiba Ultrabook, as it was slightly cheaper than the Mac version. While the Toshiba was a bit flimsy, I decided to buy the 3 year extra service plan from Best Buy. I was told “don’t worry, this warranty covers everything, and while it’s being repaired, we’ll even give you a loaner version”. I figured OK, I”m covered. Six months in, the flimsy screen caught up to me and all of a sudden I couldn’t see anything. Confidently, I took it back to Best Buy. They gave me a loaner and a week later said “we can fix it, but the cost to you will be $400″ I said “but I have the full warranty”. And they said “yes, but the warranty does not cover software, hardware or battery”. HUH? What else is there? There is nothing else but software, hardware or battery to a computer. Anyway, I bought the Mac. No wonder Apple does so well in an industry like this.
Paying $3 for headphones on the Airplane. I know pretty much every airline is nearly bankrupt. And I’d never invest a penny into an airline. But the shift to charging the consumer for everything seems like the wrong way to go. There have to be more creative ways than charging $3 for headphones. I was recently on a flight that cost me $1700, which makes that headphone fee about 0.18% of the overall price. Is it really making a dent in the balance sheet of your airline? Or is giving the consumer a small token a bad thing?
Email Lists you didn’t know you signed up for. I manage my email as best I can. For about 2 months now, I’m getting weekly Hilton Honors email blasts. I finally un-subscribed. Some of the un-subscribes are easy. But others are painful with 3 or 4 steps to confirm I really want to un-subscribe and I’m not “mistaken”. Email marketing is just the new form of junk mail. I guess it works for 3% of customers so to get the money from those guys, let’s bug the 97% of customers who don’t want emails cluttering up their inbox. Let’s make it so hard to tick off that “no email thank you” box that we can annoy our most loyal consumers.
Paying more for a large hot tea versus a Small: There are 3 component costs in hot tea. The cup, the bag and the water. The only thing that changes with a larger size is more water. Any chance to rip-off the consumer.
3-year Cell Phone Contracts: When the technology changes every six months and you’re teenager drops (or throws) their phone at least once a week, having that long contract feels like a prison sentence. I get the whole it’s the only way we can cover the cost. But it puts all these phone companies into a position where they get the sale but lose the customer’s loyalty. it’s not a way to build a long-term love affair but rather a growing hatred for one another.
Gas Price Games. I want one simple rule for gas prices. You have to set them on the first day of the month and leave that price the entire month. Have you ever noticed that the price of gas goes up immediately at the start of a crisis–in anticipation of prices going up. So a hurricane hits, prices jump up that day just in case the oil industry is affected. Not because it’s been affected. Just in case. Yet the prices don’t come down in anticipation of the world crisis ending,
Call Center Cold Calls at home. Even worse than junk email cluttering up my inbox are the phone calls coming from overseas. I’ve signed up for the “Do Not Call”, but I guess the loophole is to now call from overseas. You’re in the middle of cooking dinner and the phone rings. And there is some 7 second delay before someone says “Hi Mr Robertson”.

These 10 things are very common to most consumers causing great frustration but also lack of respect for the marketing profession. And yes, it is a profession. What are the things about marketing that annoy you and damage our reputation?

How do we Get these guys to “Stop It”?

To read more about how the love for a brand creates more power and profits:

What to do when your Brand is Stuck at “Like It”?

7 April 2013

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Don’t feel bad. Most brands are at the Like It stage

You have been able to carve out a niche and be a chosen brand against a proliferation of brands in the category. And you have good shares, moderate profits and most brand indicators are reasonably healthy. It’s just that no one loves you. There’s nothing wrong with being a Liked brand. All the power to you. But just know that you might be leaving good money on the table.

Beloved = Power = Growth = Profit

The Brand Love Curve

In the consumer’s mind, brands sit on a Brand Love Curve, with brands going from Indifferent to Like It to Love It and finally becoming a Beloved Brand for Life. At the Beloved stage, demand becomes desire, needs become cravings, thinking is replaced with feelings. Consumers become outspoken fans. It’s this connection that helps drive power for your brand: power versus competitors, versus customers, versus suppliers and even versus the same consumers you’re connected with. The farther along the curve, the more power for the brand. It’s important that you understand where your brand sits on the Love Curve and begin figuring out how to move it along towards becoming a Beloved Brand.

With each stage of the Brand Love Curve, the consumer will see your brand differently. The worst case is when consumers have “no opinion” of your brand. They just don’t care. It’s like those restaurants you stop at in the middle of no-where that are called “restaurant”. In those cases, there is no other choice so you may as well just name it restaurant. But in highly competitive markets, you survive by being liked, but you thrive by being loved. Be honest with yourself as to what stage you are at, and try to figure out how to be more loved, with a vision of getting to the Beloved Brand stage.

The Like It Stage

At the Like It stage, the funnel is fairly strong at the top but quickly narrows at purchase and has a very weak bottom part of the brand funnel. As people see your brand as a good rational choice, they might consider it and use it, but it lacks separation from the other brands and it’s missing that emotional connection. Brands stuck here usually focus on what they do (features) and not what the consumer wants (benefits) In the funnel, you’ll see pretty strong awareness and consideration but you’ll lose out at the purchase stage and have no real repeat or loyalty at all. You’ll notice fairly high trade spend just so you can keep your share going–and you use price as a weapon to close the deal. The best strategy here is to begin to Separate Your Brand from the clutter of the market, by establishing a brand promise based on benefits–rational and emotional. A brand like Dove was at the Like It stage back in the 1990s. Only when they could shift from talking about themselves to talking about the consumers would they be able to establish more love for their brand.

Consumers see your brand as a functional and rational choice they make. They tried it and it makes sense so they buy it, use it and they do enjoy it. It meets a basic need they have. They likely prefer it versus another brand, but they think it is better, cheaper or easier to use. Or your mom told you to use it. But, consumers don’t have much of an emotional connection or feeling about the brand. Where Indifferent is really bad, you’re ordinary, which is just a little bit better. Overall, consumers see you brand in the “it will do” space.

The Five Sources of Brand Love

Under the Brand Idea are 5 sources of connectivity that help connect the brand with consumers and drive Brand Love, including the brand promise, the strategic choices you make, the brand’s ability to tell their story, the freshness of the product or service and the overall experience and impressions it leaves with you. Everyone wants to debate what makes a great brand–whether it’s the product, the advertising, the experience or through consumers. It is not just one or the other–it’s the collective connection of all these things that make a brand beloved.

Why is your Brand stuck at the Like It Stage:

If your brand is stuck at Like It, look to the five sources of love to see if you have a weakness.

Protective Brand Leaders means Caution: While many of these brands at the Like It are very successful brands, they get stuck because of overly conservative and fearful Brand Managers, who pick middle of the road strategies and execute “ok” ideas. They do a bad job at either telling the story or launching new products. On top of this, Brand Managers who convince themselves that “we stay conservative because it’s a low-interest category” should be removed. Low interest category means you need even more to captivate the consumer.
We are rational thinking Marketers: Those marketers that believe they are strictly rational are inhibiting their brands. The brand managers get all jazzed on claims, comparatives, product demonstration and doctor recommended that they forget about the emotional side of the purchase decision. Claims need to be twisted into benefits—both rational and emotional benefits. Consumers don’t care about what you do until you care about what they need. Great marketers find that balance of the science and art of the brand. Ordinary marketers get stuck with the rational only. The promise stays very rational, and the execution of the brand story becomes rather bland.
New Brand with Momentum: As a new brand, you might not have found a way to use a unique brand promise to separate yourself from other competitors. Stage 2 of a new brand innovation is ready to expand from the early adopters to the masses. The new brand begins to differentiate itself in a logical way to separate themselves from the proliferation of copycat competitors. Consumers start to go separate ways as well. Retailers might even back one brand over another. Throughout the battle, the brand carves out a base of consumers.
There’s a Major Leak: If you look at the brand buying system, you’ll start to see a major leak at some point where you keep losing customers. Most brands have some natural flaw—whether it’s the concept, the product, taste profile ease of use or customer service. Without analyzing and addressing the leak, the brand gets stuck. People like it, but refuse to love it. That leak could be in the freshness or experience stage.
Brand changes their Mind every year: Brands really exist because of the consistency of the promise. When the promise and the delivery of the promise changes every year it’s hard to really connect with what the brand is all about. A brand like Wendy’s has changed their advertising message every year over the past 10 years. The only consumers remaining are those who like their burgers, not the brand. The story never gets told in a consistent manner that delivers the brand promise. It fails to catch on, so instead of just fixing the communication the brand also changes the brand promise.
Positional Power–who needs Love: there are brands that have captured a strong positional power, whether it`s a unique technology or distribution channel or even value pricing advantage. Brands like Microsoft or Wal-Mart or even many of the pharmaceuticals products don`t see value in the idea of being loved. The problem is when you lose the positional power, you lose your customer base completely. The brand with just positional power becomes complacent and lazy–with a culture that does not create a brand experience that surpasses the promise.
Brands who capture Love, but no Life Ritual: There are brands that quickly capture the imagination but somehow fail to capture a routine embedded in the consumers’ life, usually due to some flaw. Whether it’s Krispy Kreme, Pringles or even Cold Stone, there’s something inherent in the brand’s format or weakness that holds it back and it stays stuck at Loved but just not often enough. So, you forget you love them. The strategy of linking the brand’s promise to the other connection points of the brand.

Indicators that you’re at the Like It Stage

Low Conversion to Sales. While the brand looks healthy in terms of awareness and equity scores, the brand is successful in becoming part of the consumer’s consideration set, but it keeps losing out to the competition as the consumer goes to the purchase stage. It usually requires a higher trade spend to close that sale which cuts price and margins.
Brand Doesn’t Feel Different: A great advertising tracking score to watch is “made the brand seem different” which helps to separate itself from the pack, many times speaking to the emotional part of the messaging.
Stagnant Shares: Your brand team is happy when they hold onto their share, content to grow with the category.
High Private Label Sales: If you only focus on the ingredients and the rational features of the product, the consumer will start to figure out they get the same thing with the private label and the share starts to creep up to 20% and higher.

Why Would you want to get to the Love It Stage

As you become more loved, you can use that love consumers have for your brand to drive more power for your brand. That power may be against retailers, other competitors, suppliers, media and key influencers. As well as a power over the very consumers that love your brand. With more power, a more loved Brand has 8 ways it can add profit.

In terms of pricing, you can charge premiums and any change in pricing is relatively more Inelastic. Loyal consumers, weakened channels pay premiums, and trading up where offered. More engaged employees deliver better experience—even more premiums. This gives your brand an opportunity to drive higher margins.

With costs, a more loved brand becomes more Efficient and Powerful. You’ll be able to achieve Economies of scale. Suppliers cut costs due to volume & wanting brand in portfolio. Efficient media spend, free media through search, earned and social. Gov’t willingly subsidize. Partners give favorable terms. This gives your brand lower costs–both in terms of product costs and marketing costs.

A more loved brand can drive market share by pushing the Momentum and finding that Tipping Point. Crowds draw crowds. Power of media (search + social + earned) keeps brand in the conversation with heavy influence. Competitors can’t respond to the momentum. You can steal share from weakened competitors who have no love, or get current users to use even more.

A more loved brand can enter new markets. Loyalists Will Follow Wherever: Loyal users will follow where brand goes, and doors will open to new ventures. The idea of brand no longer tied to product, but to how brand makes you feel.

As the brand is more loved, the P&L statement looks a lot stronger–higher markets, lower costs, higher share and new market entries all add up to much higher profitability. It’s worth finding that love.

How to get to past the Like It stage

Focus on action and drive Consideration and Purchase: stake out certain spaces in the market creating a brand story that separates your brand from the clutter. Begin to sell the solution, not just the product. Build a Bigger Following: Invest in building a brand story that helps to drive for increased popularity and get new consumers to use the brand.
Begin to Leverage those that already Love: Focus on the most loyal consumers and drive a deeper connection by driving the routine which should increase usage frequency. On top of that, begin cross selling to capture a broader type of usage.
Love the Work: It is time to dial-up the passion that goes into the marketing execution. Beloved Brands have a certain magic to them. But “Like It’ brands tend to settle for ok, rather than push for great. With better work, you’ll be able to better captivate and delight the consumers. If you don’t love the work, how do you expect the consumer to love your brand.
Fix the Leak: Brands that are stuck have something embedded in the brand or the experience that is holding back the brand. It frustrates consumers and restricts them from fully committing to making the brand a favourite. Be proactive and get the company focused on fixing this leak.
Build a Big Idea: Consumers want consistency from the brand—constant changes to the advertising, packaging or delivery can be frustrating. Leverage a Brand Story and a Big Idea that balances rational and emotional benefits helps to establish a consistency for the brand and help build a much tighter relationship.

So be content with being Liked. But just realize that you’re leaving profits behind for someone else to capture.

If you are stuck at Like It, then you are leaving money on the table

To read more about how the love for a brand creates more power and profits:

12 Thought Starter Quotes to challenge and inspire Brand Leaders

5 April 2013

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Here are some thought starters that I hope one of them gets you to think about your role as a Brand Leader just a little bit differently.

“Consumer Insight comes to life when it’s told in such a captivating way that makes people stop and say “hmm, I thought I was the only one who felt like that”

“When picking a target market, focus all of your limited resources against trying to matter the most, to those who really care”

“Half way between the exactness of Science and the unknown of Art lies the power of an IDEA that can bring them together”

“Everyone wants to be an out-of-the-box thinker. How about being an in-the-box thinker, where the box is your strategy”

“The most Beloved Brands are either different, better or cheaper. Or else, not around for very long”

“Consumers don’t care what you do until you care what they want. Instead of just yelling what you do, put yourself in the consumers shoes and ask yourself 5 times “so what do i get?” and then ask another 5 times “so how does that make me feel?”

“If your brand only has 3 strategies and each strategy only has 3 tactics, then you should be able to do an amazing job on all 9. Much better than the current list of 123 things you’re trying to do”

“The better the people, the better the work, the better the business results. So then, are you doing enough to make your people better?”

“Ask “Do you love it?” and watch their eyes to see if they tell the truth. Because, if you don’t love the work, how do you expect your consumer to love your brand?”

“A Beloved Brand uses the love consumers have for the brand to replicate the positional power of a Monopoly. And from that power, the Beloved Brand drives stronger growth and higher profits.”

“Smart Media Plans start with understanding where the customer is, not where the media is”

“Most marketers will tell you that branding is about positioning and communication. But positioning is actually just a means to driving growth and making money”

Challenge yourself to get better every day.

To read more about Beloved Brands and how to turn love into more power and profits:

Why does “My” University Keeps Changing Their Name?

2 April 2013

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Almost 20 years ago, I graduated from the Western Business School, at the time is was clearly ranked in the Top 20 in the world for Business Schools. At one point, I remember reading we were the top ranked non-US school. At the time, Western positioned itself as the “Harvard of Canada” and it was clearly the best business school in Canada. Harvard was HBS, Western was WBS. Harvard was the #1 publisher of cases, Western was the #2 publisher. It was the hardest to get into and the easiest to get out of, with a high paying, upwardly mobile job. The alumni were the who’s who of Canadian business and was infiltrating the US business landscape as well. The most miraculous thing is the tuition was only $2,300 per year, with over 90% of the tuition funded by the government. But students now pay $70,000 for an MBA, and some the most recent rankings have Western #78 in the world.

What Went Wrong?

There were two major trends in business schools that happened in the 1980s and 1990s.

The first was the trend of putting a cute little name on the school. Dartmouth became Tuck, Duke became Fuqua, Virginia became Darden and so on. Yet, Harvard remained the Harvard Business School. Coincidently, sports arenas followed a similar annoying trend.
Business Schools started to become obsessed with Magazine rankings. The rankings forced business schools to move from “Sweat Shop B-School” to “Adventure Camp B-School”. Instead of the dreaded 48 finance assignment, schools were sending students on white water rafting trips.

Western looked at these two trends and said “we’ll do just one of these” but they picked the wrong one. They re-named the school, yet remained a sweat shop for a few years past the trend.

Western took a $16 Million cheque from a wealthy family and changed the name from the Western Business School (WBS) to The Richard Ivey School of Business. (TRISOB–actually no one every used the acronym) When you are the clear #1 brand in your market, does i it make sense to change your name? I’d bet my beloved Marketing Professor Roger Moore would have convinced our class that it was a crazy thing to do. I’m not sure if they were happy with the last name of “Ivey” finally getting them in to the “Ivy” league, but the spelling difference does make it just plain weird.

At the same time, Western decided to ignore the whole rankings trend. Who needs rankings when you’re the clear #1 in your market? For a few years, Western decided not to even submit data to the magazines, figuring they didn’t need them. I remember reading the top 10 Canadian Business Schools and didn’t even see Western. There was a little asterisk at the bottom that said “Western did not participate in this survey”. Western also ignored the “adventure camp” style MBA, opting for the hard edge case study method. Even up to the early 1990′s, Western used to give students up to twelve 48-hour assignments in first year, only reducing it when they saw how many nervous break-downs they were causing. I was lucky in 1994, that we only had 4 of these 48-hour assignments and my wife even pitched in on one of them.

Strategy is all about choices, and Western made the wrong choices.

The naming of Western University

Like most business schools, Western Business School was just a part of the University of Western Ontario. The University has been around since 1878, educating many of the great Canadians of business, politics and sports as well as both Nobel Prize and Pulitzer Prize Winners. With that richness in history, changing the name should not be taken lightly.

How did they decide on the new name? They started with the wrong question. They did a survey where they asked the students “what do you call the school” and overwhelmingly the students answered “Western”. With that little information, they said “that’s it, we’re changing the name to Western University”. Well, not quite, but sort of. The legal name and the diplomas still say University of Western Ontario. And if you go to uwo.com you can read about Western University.

The real question they should have asked was: “do you want to change the name of your school?” Just because we like to call it Western, doesn’t mean we want to change the name. I grew up with a friend who we called “Bubba” who is now a lawyer and goes by the name James. He doesn’t have “Bubba” on his business card. The point being: just because people called it “Western” doesn’t mean you have to change the name of a 125 year old institution. Yes, you can put “Western” on the sweatshirts you sell or the Football Jersey’s. Yes, people will still answer “Western” when you ask them “where do you go to school?”

Richard Ivey Becomes Ivey

I just received an email saying that The Richard Ivey School of Business has become the Ivey Business School. While Western has been purple for 125 years, everything is purple, somehow Ivey decided to go with green. Now the University has convinced (or forced) Ivey to add in the new purple shield, now giving the logo a combination of green and purple. Hey Ivey, why not just put Ivey in purple?

I guess it’s too late, but I might still beg the Ivey family to say:

“You know what, it’s been a bumpy 13 year ride, keep the cheque, but let’s just go back to the Western Business School”

And maybe to University of Western Ontario while you’re at it.

Here’s a presentation on what makes a Beloved Brand:

How to Determine your Brand’s Health using Brand Funnels

31 March 2013

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Brand Funnels

Every brand should understand the details of their Brand Funnel–what’s causing any strength, weakness, changes versus last year or gaps versus competitors. A classic funnel would measure awareness, familiar, consider, purchase, repeat and loyal. But in the change of consumer behavior over the last 10 years, I would now add SEARCH between consider and purchase.

At the very least, you should be measuring Awareness, Purchase and Loyalty rates. While sales, share and profits are the obvious measurements of a brand, they are easy to see but are the end result.

Brand Health vs Brand Wealth

When we first analyze a brand’s performance, we start by looking at the wealth of the brand and look at things like sales, share, margins. That’s a great starting point, but anyone can see those numbers. But that’s like judging someone’s health just by looking at them. You’d miss out on the cholesterol, blood pressure and the internal health an xray or MRI might show. Looking at Brand Health would include looking at how well the brand funnel performs, voice of customer, satisfaction scores and any major changes in market trends. Think of Brand Wealth as the measures you can easily see, and the Brand Health as those measures you can’t easily see.

The brand funnel provides a rich diagnosis of the true health of the brand before they even show up in share reports and provides possible indicators of future performance. Almost like a finger print, every brand has a unique brand funnel. Your brand will have certain strength as well as leaks in the funnel.

Analyzing Brand Funnels

Here are the five steps to analyzing the brand funnels.

First take a look at the absolute Brand Funnel scores, compare them to last year, compare to competitors and versus the category norms. An Indifferent brand will have a skinny funnel, a Like It brand will have a funnel that quickly narrows near purchase. Loved Brands will have a more robust funnel, maybe with one easily identified gap. And Beloved Brands have no gaps on the funnel.
Then you want to look the Brand Funnel Ratios, finding the percent conversion from one stage to the next. To create the ratios, divide the absolute number by the number above it on the funnel. For instance in the example above, take the Familiar score of 87% and divide it by the Awareness score of 93% and the ratio conversion is 91%. That means that 91% of those who become Aware will move to Familiar.
What’s most useful is to compare the Ratios of your Brand to the Ratios of your nearest competitor. In this second part of the analysis, the ratio becomes the focus.
You then want to compare the ratios, finding the gap at each of the stages. You will start to see where your ratio will either be stronger or weaker than the comparison brand.
Analyzing the difference between the two brands finds the biggest gaps and begins telling a strategic story for the gap.

Matching the Funnel up The Brand Love Curve

Indifferent: When you are indifferent, you’ll have a very skinny funnel, starting with very little awareness and consideration. The issue is no one really knows about your brand. What could be holding your brand back is a) concept that’s not breaking through into the marketplace b) poor execution behind the awareness driving programs or c) lack of investment behind the right strategy. The strategic focus should be on driving Awareness and Consideration to establish your brand into the minds of consumers and in the marketplace. Align the brand promise and the communication of that brand promise to begin gaining customers.
Like It: At the Like It stage, the funnel is fairly strong at the top but quickly narrows at purchase and has a very weak bottom part of the brand funnel. As people see your brand as a good rational choice, they might consider it and use it, but it lacks separation from the other brands and it’s missing that emotional connection. Brands stuck here usually focus on what they do (features) and not what the consumer wants (benefits) In the funnel, you’ll see pretty strong awareness and consideration but you’ll lose out at the purchase stage and have no real repeat or loyalty at all. You’ll notice fairly high trade spend just so you can keep your share going–and you use price as a weapon to close the deal. The best strategy here is to begin to Separate Your Brand from the clutter of the market, by establishing a brand promise based on benefits–rational and emotional. A brand like Dove was at the Like It stage back in the 1990s. Only when they could shift from talking about themselves to talking about the consumers would they be able to establish more love for their brand.
Love It: At the Love It stage, the funnel starts to fill out, but might still have some gaps. Your focus should be on taking the connection consumers have with your brand and drive repeat and loyalty. Strategically, focus on ways to Tug at the Heart of your consumers so you can strengthen that connection you have. This is where you take a little bit of love and try to become a Beloved brand. And you should aggressively analyze any gaps on the funnel and attack them. Also, once you start to see strength versus one of your competitors, you can start to leverage that power to squeeze them out and attack their weaknesses on the brand funnel. When Samsung started to become a Loved Brand in the TV market, they took all that power to own the in-store environment shutting out brands like LG, Sharp and Panasonic. They shifted some spend from Awareness down to Purchase. Samsung now is using the cell phone and very emotional programs to try to shift from a little bit of love into a Beloved Brand.
Beloved Brand: At the Beloved stage, the brand funnel should be very robust, better than any competitors. With such strong funnel, the strategy shifts towards Continuing the Magic with creativity in marketing programs or Innovation in the product. The analysis here is to keep analyzing the funnel over time and versus competitors on a regular basis and any weakness is attacked immediately before a competitor can discover and utilize. A Beloved Brand like Special K with all their success, has decided to attack their original cereal formula to improve the taste.

Attack Your Gaps

I encourage brands to analyse the Leaks by looking at how the consumer might move along the brand going from Indifferent (unaware, not noticed) to Like It (interested, bought) to Love It (satisfied, repeater) and Beloved Brand for Life (Fan, outspoken). At each stage, match up what the consumer feels about the brand as well as what the possible reasoning for why they might reject the brand.

Brand Leaders like Sony, started to see cracks at the purchase stage as consumers started seeing just how much better Samsung when they were able to compare brands at the store level. In fact, people hung onto the Sony brand much longer than they should have. That’s actually a sign of the power that Beloved Brand status gives you.

Use Brand Funnels to Track and Manage the Health of Your Brand

To read more about how the love for a brand creates more power and profits:

How to Conduct a Key Issues Review

28 March 2013

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From my consumer-packaged-goods marketing days, I learned the discipline of asking the right questions, before moving to figure out the solution. Strategic Thinkers see “what if” questions before they see solutions. They first dive deep to make sure they understand what is truly happening. Then they map out a range of decision trees that intersect and connect by imagining how events will play out. They reflect and plan before they act. They are thinkers and planners who can see connections. So it fits that you should do the work to figure out the right questions on the business before figuring out the right answers.

The right questions are the Key Issues.

The 5 Steps to Doing a Key issues deck:

Start with ‘Straw Dog’ Vision Statement to help frame where you want to go.
Analysis: Top 3 Drivers, Inhibitors, Risk & Opportunities.
Summarize the Brand Health vs. Wealth, cutting it at both Internal and External.
Then using the ‘straw dog’ vision as a beacon and the analysis to explain what’s happening; Brainstorm all the things getting in the way of you achieving your vision. You might come up with a list of 10=20 issues. Group them, narrow them, sort them.
Vote to Narrow to the top 3-5 Key Issues.

Straw Dog Vision Statement

A straw dog vision is really a big huge goal. Put yourself in your shoes 5-10 years out, and ask yourself what would the 3 things you want to have achieved on that date? What would give you a sense of accomplishment? I use the ‘straw dog’ version more as a place holder at this point, and would keep re-fining the vision through the long-range strategic planning process. The role of the vision within the Key Issues process is to open yourself up beyond the current day-to-day muck and get you to think bigger. This allows the issues to become bigger and more strategic.

Force Field Analysis

There are a few possible options you can use, but for real live businesses, I prefer the Force FIeld analysis: What are the factors currently driving your business? What are the factors inhibiting your business? The drivers are about momentum that you are seeing on your business and you want to keep going. The inhibitors are the things holding you back and need to be reversed or knocked down. Always keep in mind, these two factors are happening now.

When you then layer in the Opportunities and Threats, these are not happening, but could happen. The opportunities could be things such as new markets you want to enter, new technologies or an untapped area you’re seeing. You want to raise these ideas and opportunities to management in an assertive selling way. Threats have to be real, not pie in the sky maybe’s. These could be competitors coming into the market, changes in regulations and changing customer behavior.

Actions coming out of the Force Field

For drivers, you want to Continue/Enhance: Stay focused on things going right, keep accelerating and driving them. Continuous improvement.
For inhibitors, you want to Minimize/Reverse. Close the leaks, develop turnaround plans or re-focus the team against the trend.
You want to Take Advantage of the Opportunities. Build plans to mobilize the brand to see if the opportunity is a winning space for the brand.
For the Threats, you want to Avoid or build Contingency plans. Identify and measure the risk, explore plans to avoid. Fill the gap before a competitor.

For new businesses that are yet in the market, I might switch it up so that Drivers become Strengths that speaks to the assets we’re bringing to the market and Inhibitors become Weaknesses that showcase potential gaps in the business. Another good analysis for a brand that is impacted severely by the environment is a PEST analysis where you look at the Political, Economic, Social and Technological.

Deep dive on each Driver and each Inhibitor

Narrow down your list of inhibitors and then a best-in-class deck would blow out the details around each driver and inhibitor with a page or two for each. Looking at the example below, of a one-page explanation behind an Inhibitor, you want 4 key attributes on the one pager:

List out the Driver/inhibitor
Use a key visual or chart that showcases the data and facts behind the driver/inhibitor.
Tell the fact-based story with 2-3 argument points.
In the box at the bottom, you should call out a potential action to address this driver and inhibitor.

Brand Health and Wealth

A great analysis I recommend is to do a Brand Health vs Brand Wealth. Think of the wealth as things you can see connected to things like sales, shares, margins or profits. For Health, it’s the things you can’t see, like trial, repeat, processes etc. just like a human, you can’t judge the health just by looking at someone. You need to dig deep and understand below the surface. Breaking it this way gives us four key boxes

External Health: Connecting with consumers is a source of power for brands. Understand the brand funnel and It’s impact on the results. How your consumer sees your brand, starting at awareness, trial, repeat all the way down the brand funnel to brand loyalty. Build on your strengths and attack your weaknesses
External Wealth: Healthy win in the marketplace. Beloved Brands can leverage success into power and drive wealth. Beloved Brands are more efficient, higher sales, lower costs, better margins, higher over all profits.
Internal Health: What is the internal beacon that helps all employees get it and live it. The idea of the brand has to be embedded right into the culture in a consistent manner. They have to realize their impact on the end customer.
Internal Wealth: Everyone focused on Profit and Value. Assets, IP, culture, contracts, ownership. Lining up and delivering the brand promise to a clear set of objectives, helps employees see that they are contributing to and sharing in the brand wealth. Everyone should understand where and how they impact profitability.

A great example of why breaking it out this way is crucial is Apple in Q4 of 2012. if we look at traditional measures, Apple had their highest sales ever, share increased across all products, margins reached an all-time high, and yet we have to look at the Brand Health to see the stock price came crumbling down. Apple’s innovation has slowed down, the intensity of feelings among the most loyal consumers has slipped due to challenges from Samsung and they seem to lack an internal alignment going forward. Clearly the wealth of Apple exceeds the health, so the stock price began to reflect.

Key Issues

Start by looking at the Vision and Analysis and ask: what are the things getting in our way of achieving that Vision? You might hold a brainstorm with your team and start with 20 things getting in the way. Narrow it down, by starting to group things, elevate up to the next level or two and challenge to find the over-arching issue that might be made up of a few visible issues. As a guideline, there should be 3-5 key issues per brand. The crucial part of key issues is getting to the right level. If you have less, you are likely not detailed or specific enough, and if you have more…you should try to elevate some up to see if you can capture the bigger picture. Play around with it, until it feels at the right level.

Since business has a history of using warfare examples, here are three ranges of key issues for what the U.S. government might have been looking at for the Iraq war:

Too Low: How do we get more helicopters into Iraq? This is too specific or too small. Think about it, if there are other ways to get to the same goal (e.g. you could get more tanks) then the issue is too small.
Too High: How do we drive Peace in the Middle East? This is aspiration, but unrealistic. If it feels too much to chew off, then it’s too big of an issue.
Just Right: What’s the most effective way to change Regimes in Iraq? This talks closer to the overall objective…but with enough room to give strategic alternatives

Following the Gray’s Cookie Case Study example, here are the three Key Issues.

The Power of Three’s:

When I do these workshops, I force my teams tio use three’s whether it’s the driver and inhibitors or more importantly the Key Issues. I like to see the teams focus more. Forcing it down to 3 only might push them to look at the over-arching issues by looking bigger causes and issues than they first look at.

But most importantly, we ask the Key Issues in question format because the answer to that question is the strategy. So, if you narrow it down to the biggest 3 issues that lines you up to having 3 big strategies. I also recommend 3 tactics per strategy. That means, the Brand will have 9 major projects to spread the financial and people resources. Even if you had 5 strategies and 5 tactics under each, you’d exponentially be up to 25 key projects. I would bet that the quality on the execution of the 9 would exceed the execution of the 25 on the other brand.

Asking the Big Questions Leads to Big Strategies and Big Results

Here’s a learning session on Key Issues with a full case study using Gray’s cookies.

Special K Case Study: Moving From Indifferent to Beloved

23 March 2013

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Cereal is one of those categories filled with a touch of magic, many of the beloved brands coming out of the “Mad Men” days of TV advertising. Brands like Corn Flakes, Cheerios, Rick Krispies and Froot Loops all have a certain wholesome charm. But while those brands have ‘historical equity’ it’s not really an equity that can drive sales. I’d say these brands are in a bit of a time warp, a throwback to simpler times when Cartoons were only on Saturday mornings.

Special K was an Indifferent Brand

One lonesome Original Flavor of Cereal

I worked in the cereal business back in the 1990′s and we never thought anything about Special K. It just sat there with a very small and dying share. Basically, it was just the one flavor of cereal. Zero innovation. just Rice Krispies crushed differently. Trust me, I was on the General Mills side and no competitors were worried about Special K.

The brand idea for Special K has been connected with weight loss since the mid 80s. The ads were focused on 110 calories–which is just a feature, not a benefit for the consumer. And honestly, if you look at most cereals, they’ll say 120-140 calories on the box. Here’s what the Special K ads looked like in 1996 and you’ll see why the brand was fairly flat.

This is a classic example that no one cares what you do until you care what they want. No one at Special K was putting themselves in the shoes of the consumer and asking “so what do I get?” or “how does this make me feel?” It was implied, but it was buried in the woman looking at herself in the mirror.

The Brand Love Curve

Special K was clearly an Indifferent Brand. There was very little consumer opinion, and for those who did buy Special K, they weren’t exactly the most ardent fans of the brand. Not only was the original flavor fairly bland, but everything about the brand was bland. Special K needed to stand for something. It needed an idea. They were dancing around the idea of weight loss but not really bringing the benefit to life.

Beloved Brands Start with an Idea

The most beloved brands are based on an idea that is worth loving. It is the idea that connects the Brand with consumers. And under the Brand Idea are 5 Sources of Connectivity that help connect the brand with consumers and drive Brand Love, including 1) the brand promise 2) the strategic choices you make 3) the brand’s ability to tell their story 4) the freshness of the product or service and 5) the overall experience and impressions it leaves with you. Everyone wants to debate what makes a great brand–whether it’s the product, the advertising, the experience or through consumers. It is not just one or the other–it’s the collective connection of all these things that make a brand beloved.

The Re-Birth of Special K

Around 2000, Special K made a dramatic turn in the market. With all the diet-crazed consumers looking for new solutions, Special K had a stroke of brilliance when someone figured out that if you ate Special K twice a day for just two weeks, you could lose up to 6 pounds in 2 weeks. While all the other diet options felt daunting, this felt pretty easy to do.

While Special K had spent decades dancing around the weight loss idea, now they had a Brand Promise that was benefit focused and empowering: With Special K, just twice a day for 2 weeks, you can lose 6 pounds or better yet, drop a jean size. They stopped talking about the product and starting talking in the voice of the consumer.

The brilliant strategy is around the usage occasion of the second meal each day. Cereal had been a category that grew +3% for years, steady only with population growth and some demographics around boomers and echo generations. But now, there was finally a reason to eat cereal twice in one day.

The communication of the Brand Story become about empowering women to take control using the Two Week Challenge. Here’s a very empowering ad around the “Drop a Jean Size” idea.

With a Brand Idea bigger than just a cereal, Special K’s innovation rivalled that of Apple. It started with the launch of Berry Special K that thrust the brand into a good tasting cereal, and has since added bars, shakes and water. Most recently, they’ve now launched potato chips (only 80 calories for 20 chips) and a Breakfast Sandwich option. it just goes to show you that it’s not about ‘out of the box’ ideas, but rather how you define the box. All these product launches are aligned to the idea of empowering women to maintain their weight. The diversified line up beyond cereal helps off-set any sales softness on cereal. This year, they’ve just announced they are re-looking Special K’s original recipe to keep the cereal share strong.

And rounding out the Brand Experience is to take the challenge on-line, gives women a community of encouragement to help achieve their personal weight loss goals. Special K has also launched App for smart phones to help monitor weight goals.

MY SPECIAL K^™

IS YOUR PLACE FOR POSITIVE CHANGE

Sign up and start your free, personalized plan today. We’ll keep track of your goals, offer helpful tools and tips and keep you motivated as you work towards your best you.

http://www.specialk.com/mealplan/notstarted

Special K has also tapped into time of year occasions around New Years and spring to re-enforce the brand messages.

Some great lessons for other brands.

Speaking to a specific target (women 25-45) and in their voice makes you a more powerfully connected brand.
Everything starts and ends with the consumer in mind: Consumers don’t care what you do until you care what they want. Be benefit focused.
Build around a brand idea: It’s not out of the box thinking, it’s just re-defining the box to be a bigger idea.

Take Your Own Brand Challenge and Add Some Love to Your Brand

To read more about how the love for a brand creates more power and profits:

A Beloved Brand commands the Power of a Monopoly

20 March 2013

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The Brand Love Curve

In the consumer’s mind, brands sit on a Brand Love Curve, with brands going from Indifferent to Like It to Love It and finally becoming a Beloved Brand for Life. At the Beloved stage, demand becomes desire, needs become cravings, thinking is replaced with feelings. Consumers become outspoken fans. It’s this LOVE that helps drive POWER for your brand: power versus competitors, versus customers, versus suppliers and even versus the same consumers you’re connected with. With added power, you will be able to drive stronger PROFITS. For a Beloved Brand, prices are inelastic and you can trade consumers up to new premium options. You can drive share and move to new markets with your loyal consumers following. And you can put pressure on costs. All these drive added profitability for the Beloved Brand. LOVE = POWER = PROFITS

Using the Love to Generate Power

The 12 forces of a Beloved Brand map out how a beloved brand can leverage the power generated from being loved.

Power over consumers: A Beloved Brand with a loyal group of followers has so much more power–starting with a power over the very consumers that love them. These consumers feel more than they think–they are e-rational responding to emotional cues in the brand. They’ll pay a premium, line up in the rain for new products and follow the brand to new categories. Look at the power Starbucks has with their base of consumers, making their Starbucks moment one of their favorite rituals of the day and how consumers have now added sandwiches and wraps to those rituals. All day long, Starbucks has a line up of people ready for one of their favorite moments of their day.

Power over Porter’s 5 Forces: We can see that the love also gives Beloved Brands power over channels, substitutes, new entrants, or suppliers. With a beloved brand, there is power over channels because consumers would rather switch stores than switch brands. Apple has even created their own stores, which generate the highest sales per square foot of any retailer. And even with their own stores, Best Buy still gives Apple preferential treatment with a ‘store-in-store’ concept. With outspoken fans, they’ll even fight on behalf of the brand against competitors. Competitors can duplicate the product, but they can’t get close to duplicating the emotional connection. Beloved Brands even have power vs Suppliers, who want the beloved brand on their roster. Many suppliers will cut their prices, offer extras and first right of refusal on new technologies. In Apple’s case, Intel has given them the lead on new chip technology two years before they gave them to PC ultrabooks, giving them a huge competitive advantage. With these powers, it makes it hard for new entrants to break through.

Power over Employees: Beloved Brands have a power over employees that want to be part of the brand and the culture of the organization that all these brand fans are proud to project. People at Starbucks love working there and wear that green apron with a sense of pride. Brand fans that get hired into the system, know the culture on day 1 and will do what it takes to preserve it. Starbucks employees ooze the brand and honestly from a cultural view, their interactions make the difference in the experience of the brand. Employees have their regulars, know their name and their drink. It’s no longer just the coffee. It’s your escape and your comfort zone.

Power over the Media: Beloved Brands have a power over the Four types of Media: 1) Paid 2) Earned 3) Social and 4) Search. Beloved Brands have a much more efficient media buy–lower GRPs needed to break through and a lower Ad Spend/Sales is needed to keep share strong. Even for paid media, beloved brands get better placement, cheaper rates and they’ll be the first call for an Integration or big event such as the Super Bowl or the Olympics. Beloved Brands have figured out the earned media, with launch events, press releases and executive story lines that seep into the mainstream press. Competitors complain about Apple getting a positive media bias–they are right, they do. As brands are still figuring out social media, it’s the most loved brands that are doing it right, whether it’s Coke, Nike or Apple. Are they smarter? Maybe. But the beloved Brands have such a huge advantage because people want to connect socially, want to share and want to influence. Nike did such a great job with social media during the London Olympics that people thought they were the main shoe sponsor–when it was Adidas. Lumping earned, social and search together as ‘free’ media, Apple generates over a billion dollars of free media via the mainstream media and social media.

Power over Influencers: Beloved Brands have a power over key influencers whether it’s doctors recommending a certain drug, restaurant critics giving a positive review for the most beloved restaurant in town or electronics sales people selling a beloved TV. Each of the influencers become fans of the brand and build emotion into their recommendation. They become more outspoken in their views of the brand. And finally beloved the Beloved Brand makes its way into conversation at the lunch table or on someone’s Facebook page. The brand fans are everywhere, ready to pounce, ready to defend and ready to say “hey, you should buy the iPhone”. The conversation comes with influence as crowds follow crowds. This conversation has a second power, which creates a badge value. People know it will generate a conversation and are so proud to show it off. After all, they are in the club.

All 12 forces combine to generate Power for the Brand, that matches that of a Monopoly.

To read more about how the love for a brand creates more power and profits:

Be a Better Brand Leader by saying “Let’s cut to the Chase” more often

17 March 2013

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Cut to the Chase and Avoid the Brand Spin

Stop being that brand that keeps spinning and gets nothing done. Within most brand portfolios, there are those problem brands that just seem to spiral downward out of control. They spin, and spin and spin. Nothing gets done. Decisions don’t get made. They try something. It doesn’t work immediately. So they change course. And spin some more. Everyone thinks they have the answer, but no-one shares the same answer. And more spin.

What’s missing is a leader who will stand up to everyone on the team say “LET’S CUT TO THE CHASE”

Cut to the Chase with the The 40/70 Rule

I love the Colin Powell rule that when you are facing a tough decision, you need at least 40% of the information, but oddly enough, you should make the decision with no more than 70%. Once you’re in that 40-70% zone, go with your gut and make the decision.

If you make a decision with less than 40% of the information, you are shooting from the hip and you will make too many mistakes. The 70% part of the decision-making rule is what surprises many Brand Leaders. They often think that they need more than seventy percent of the information before they can make a decision. A lot of Brand Leaders want as much data as they can. Many times they hope the data will make the decision for them. But if you want the data to make the decision, then why do we need you in the Brand Leader role? Why don’t we just put the Market Research person in your job? We could pay them less and just go with the data output from the research 100% of the time.

But, in a highly competitive market, if you wait to get more than seventy percent, then the opportunity has usually passed and someone else has beaten you to the punch. A key element that supports Powell’s rule is the notion that intuition is what separates the great leaders from the average ones. Intuition is what allows us to make tough decisions, but many of us ignore our gut. Relying on too much information can stiffen a leader, paralyzing the team to seek out more data. They become afraid to make decisions. Always keep in mind that marketing is half science and half art. Don’t forget about the art. People who want certainty in their decisions end up working for other people, not leading.

So, next time you feel your team has 40-70% of the information say “LET’S CUT TO THE CHASE” and see if you can push them to making the best decision they can make.

Cut to the Chase with Tough Questions

One of the big spin factors is lack of alignment. Everyone at the table has their own view of what needs to be done. The team ends up paralyzed with indecision. A team moving together towards a common strategy, even if it is only a pretty good strategy, is much smarter than a team moving in three directions, with each thinking they have an amazing strategy.

Align first on the Key Issues of the Brand. In terms of analysis, there are so many ways to do it but my preference is to use a force-field analysis of Drivers and Inhibitors. Basically, drivers are what is pushing the brand and inhibitors is what’s holding it back. These are happening NOW. Then add in the a future looking analysis of Risks and Opportunities. These could happen in the future. The simplicity of this analysis helps the next stage of your brand plan, and set up the Key Issues which are focused on finding ways to continue/enhance the growth drivers, minimize or reverse the inhibitors, avoid the risks and take advantage of the opportunities.

Here’s an example of How to do a Key Issues Deck. This is something I do with clients all the time and after a 1 or 2 day session, they can feel they are aligned.

Ask the Tough Questions of the team. Tough questions make a team pause and start thinking instead of just doing. I always frame the Key Issues in question form, believing the answers to those questions become the strategy. But I believe that 90% of your effort should go into asking the big challenging questions that startle and yet motivate the team. The better the question you ask, the better the strategy. For instance, if I wanted to lose a few pounds, I could ask the question: “how can I lose weight?” which is not really a good enough question to generate rich insightful strategies. But if I were to ask a better question: “what exercise program would help me successfully lose 10 pounds and work with my busy life?” all of a sudden better strategies start coming to the surface.

Use these tough questions that force tough solutions by saying to your team: “LET’S CUT TO THE CHASE”

Cut to the Chase and Find Your Difference

Part of the spin zone brands go through is they never find their own point of difference. They over-react to what competitors are doing, copying them hoping to neutralize what advantage they have. But by trying to be everything that the competitor is doing, they end being nothing really.

The most Beloved Brands are either better, different or cheaper. Or else not around for very long. in a crowded market, it’s really hard to be genuinely be significantly better. And unless your entire company is set up to be more efficient than everyone else, it really leaves different. But as you push for being different, you want to be smart and different. Use this venn diagram to brainstorm points of difference.

Then challenge the team to find their Good and Different. Use the very simple map below to see where your ideas fall.

Good But Not Different: These do very well in tests mainly because consumers have seen it before and check the right boxes in research. In market, it gets off to a pretty good start—since it still seems so familiar. However, once challenged in the market by a competitor, it falters because people start to realize it is no different at all. So they go back to their usual brand and your launch starts to go flat. This option offers limited potential.
Good But Different: These don’t always test well: consumers don’t really know what to make of it. Even after launched, it takes time to gain momentum, having to explain the story with potential investment and effort to really make the difference come to life. But once consumers start to see the differences and how it meets their needs, they equate different with “good”. It begins to gain share and generates profits for the brand. This option offers long-term sustainability.
Not Good and Not Different: These are the safest of safe. Go back into the R&D lab and pick the best one you have–even if it’s not very good. The tallest of midgets. They do pretty well in test because of the familiarity. In market, it gets off to a pretty good start, because it looks the same as what’s already in the market. But pretty soon, consumers realize that it’s the same but even worse, so it fails dramatically. What appears safe is actually highly risky. You should have followed your instincts and not launched. This option is a boring failure.
Different but Not that Good: Sometimes we get focused on the product first: it offers superior technology, but not really meeting an unmet need. So we launch what is different for the sake of being different. It does poorly in testing. Everyone along the way wonders why we are launching. But in the end, consumers don’t really care about your point of difference. And it fails. The better mousetrap that no one cares about.

Look to the grid above and say “LET’S CUT TO THE CHASE” and push your team to find something that is Good and Different.

What is Your “Let’s Cut to the Chase” Moment?

To read more about how to create a Beloved Brand:

Skills to Challenge Your Brand Leaders:

How to Write a Brand Plan: The positioning statement helps frame what the brand is all about. However, the brand plan starts to make choices on how you’re going to make the most of that promise. Follow this hyperlink to read more on writing a Brand Plan: How to Write a Brand Plan
How to Write a Creative Brief. The creative brief really comes out of two sources, the brand positioning statement and the advertising strategy that should come from the brand plan. To read how to write a Creative Brief, click on this hyperlink: How to Write a Creative Brief
How to Write a Brand Positioning Statement. Before you even get into the creative brief, you should be looking at target, benefits and reason to believe. To read how to write a Brand Positioning Statement, click on this hyperlink: How to Write an Effective Brand Positioning Statement
Turning Brand Love into Power and Profits: The positioning statement sets up the promise that kick starts the connection between the brand and consumer. There are four other factors that connect: brand strategy, communication, innovation and experience. The connectivity is a source of power that can be leveraged into deeper profitability. To read more click on the hyper link: Love = Power = Profits

Pick your Social Media vehicle and follow us by clicking on the icon below:

To reach out directly, email me at graham.robertson@beloved-brands.com

Top 5 Things Brand Leaders Should be Worried About

12 March 2013

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Are You Worried Enough?

Everywhere you look, people are telling you not to worry so much. There has become such a “Don’t worry, be happy” mentality. You can buy books on it, go on-line for tips, take a yoga class or attend seminars that are all designed to help you worry less. These might be band-aid solutions. Because if you are no longer worried and you never took any action against those worries, you might sleep better in the short run, but your brand might fall completely apart while you’re sleeping. So oddly enough, I’m here to ask you: Are you actually worried enough? And with that worry, are you taking the right action against the things that matter???

5 things you should be worried about:

The underlying brand health numbers? Most leaders track sales and share, pushing hard on a quarterly basis. But, just like a slim person that works out and runs who can have high blood pressure and cholesterol, a brand can have the same internal health issues. Brand Funnels can help you analyze where your brand really stands, against awareness, consideration, purchase and loyalty, whether looking at absolute scores, ratios, comparisons with competitors or tracking over time. The Funnel also helps identify where you are on the Brand Love Curve and can help choose your brand strategy: Indifferent brands have skinny funnels throughout. You should fuel the awareness to kick-start the funnel and drive some sales. At the Like It stage, the Funnel tends to narrows at purchase. Creating a more emotional connection will keep the consumer engaged right through the funnel to the purchase and make you a little more loved than just liked. At the Love It stage, you should have robust funnels, but may still see a leak at the loyalty stage. Closing the leak and building a stronger loyal following will turn your brand into a Beloved Brand. Beloved Brands have the most ideal funnels, but you should still track and attack any weaknesses you discover before competitors can attack them. If you know the health of your brand, you’ll sleep better at night.
How aligned is everyone on your team? I’m a strategy guy, but even I can tell you that a team moving in one direction against a good strategy is better than a stagnant team still in search of the amazing strategy or moving in two or three distinct directions. Part of the problem I see with executive teams is the Leader of each functional area comes with their own bias: The finance leader thinks the brand should maintain margins and go for a lower share. The operations leader wants less skus and a more efficient plant. The sales leader wants more volume, even if it means cutting the price. And the marketing leader wants more advertising to drive share. Each answer has merit, but they are never brought together behind one plan. Strategy is about making choices. But even with a choice, unless the teams are aligned, key members will just be anticipating the failure of the choice. If you have an aligned team, you’ll rest a lot easier on the drive home each night.
What your competitors are doing? it’s important that you’re constantly tracking where your competitors are–not under-estimating them or over-reacting to their tactics. You should understand the competitors actions deeply. A great practice in a real competitive battle is to do up a full brand plan of how you anticipate they will act. That would include budgets, goals, market research, strategies and tactics. Once you find your unique selling proposition, you must work hard to maintain ownership over it. Brands have to be either unique, better or cheaper. Or else, not around for very long. In a highly competitive and combative category, use the strategies of Marketing Warfare: 1) Defensive: Leader of category or sub-category defending their territory by attacking itself or even attacking back at an aggressive competitor. 2) Offensive: Challenger’s attack on the leader to exploit a weakness or build on your own strength. 3) Flanking: An attack in an open area where the Leader is not that well established. 4) Guerrilla: Going into an area where it’s too small for the Leaders to take notice or are unable to attack back. Constantly analyzing and attacking the competition will keep you one step ahead.
What your brand will look like 5 years from now? While you are feeling pressure to make the current quarter, if you keep going quarter-by-quarter, you’ll start to feel like a mouse who is constantly running just to make that next quarter. But every 90 days, you’re missing that long-term vision, purpose and brand values that can help guide your organization in driving the brand’s growth. Does everyone in your organization know the brand vision? Does everyone know and live the Brand’s DNA, weaving it into everything that you do. Once you establish your Brand’s DNA, it should drive every part of your brand organization–brand plan, communications, people, R&D, profitability and sales organization. Everything should drive the relationship between your brand and consumer. If you know where your brand’s direction and get everyone moving towards that common direction, trust me, you’ll feel a hell of a lot better as the leader.
How good are your people? A good leader recognizes that they are only as good as their people. The better your people, the better the work, and that means the better results. You should evaluate your team against skills, behaviors and experiences. To drive effective Brand Leaders, a good rule would be 10% of the time should be on training–not just at junior levels but right up to the Brand Leaders. Many companies are cutting back on training, and you’ll start to see the gaps in your people. Using the 10% rule would mean up to 20 training days–that would be used against strategic thinking, analytics, planning, leading and managing. But if you’re only doing 2-3 days of off-site training or the training you’re doing is to meet corporate compliance, then you’ll notice that the performance of your people just won’t be there. Who will replace the best people on your team? Who will replace you? That should concern you. What’s happening in marketing these days is we hire a bright person and just throw them into the job. While “learning on the job” is a reality in marketing, there needs to be a balance with coaching and training. If you’re relying on bosses to do the training, you have to realize that manager never received any training either so how competent are they to teach? And if you’re worried about investing in training and then the person quits, you might actually realize that maybe if you invested in training you might drive up the retention. A recent study shows that 52% of employees say they would leave a role because of their direct manager, and two-thirds are convinced their managers don’t know what motivates them to be more productive. A constant revolving door will not create great work or the results you’re looking for. To read more on what makes great Brand Leaders, follow the link to the Brand Leadership Learning Center If you have great people on your team, you’ll get much better results on the business, and you can find that work-life balance you’ve always wanted.

So the question I have for is “Are You Worried Enough?” And what are you doing about it?

To read more about how to create a Beloved Brand:

Skills to Challenge Your Brand Leaders:

How to Write a Brand Plan: The positioning statement helps frame what the brand is all about. However, the brand plan starts to make choices on how you’re going to make the most of that promise. Follow this hyperlink to read more on writing a Brand Plan: How to Write a Brand Plan
How to Write a Creative Brief. The creative brief really comes out of two sources, the brand positioning statement and the advertising strategy that should come from the brand plan. To read how to write a Creative Brief, click on this hyperlink: How to Write a Creative Brief
How to Write a Brand Positioning Statement. Before you even get into the creative brief, you should be looking at target, benefits and reason to believe. To read how to write a Brand Positioning Statement, click on this hyperlink: How to Write an Effective Brand Positioning Statement
Turning Brand Love into Power and Profits: The positioning statement sets up the promise that kick starts the connection between the brand and consumer. There are four other factors that connect: brand strategy, communication, innovation and experience. The connectivity is a source of power that can be leveraged into deeper profitability. To read more click on the hyper link: Love = Power = Profits

Pick your Social Media vehicle and follow us by clicking on the icon below:

To reach out directly, email me at graham.robertson@beloved-brands.com

The $1Billion Brand that Defies Logic: The Toronto Maple Leafs

10 March 2013

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When we look at the Most Valuable sports franchises around the world, whether it’s Ferrari, Manchester United, Real Madrid, New York Yankees, Los Angeles Lakers or New England Patriots, they usually have one thing in common: THEY WIN. And in most cases, they win a lot. We’ve never really found out what happens to those brands when they lose.

And then there’s the Toronto Maple Leafs who recently joined the ranks of the most valued brands, now worth an estimated $1 Billion. The last time the Leafs won a hockey championship was 1967, when Lyndon Johnson was President, The Beatles were releasing the Sgt Pepper’s album and Wal-Mart only had 24 stores (all still in Arkansas). It was even 8 years before Justin Bieber’s mom would be born. The Leafs have not even made the playoffs since 2004. None of their current players were even in the league in 2004. And they are the only NHL team not to make the playoffs during those years. There were two major work stoppages in the NHL in 2005 and 2012–one wiped out an entire season, the other a half season. In both of those years, the value of the Leafs jumped up.

And yet, since 2004, the value of the Toronto Maple Leafs has gone up from $280 Million to $1 Billion. Only Apple’s market value has gone up at a faster pace, but they’ve launched the iPhone, iPad and the Macbook during that time.

So clearly for the Leafs, actually playing and winning the games doesn’t really matter to value of the brand.

What’s the Leafs Brand Vision?

Up on the Leafs wall and every communication coming from the PR staff says they want to win a Championship. But they were owned by a pension fund for the past 15 years, whose only desire has been profit. And now they are owned by a Media Conglomerate who sees the Leafs as content with millions of insane Leafs fans watching in person, on TV and on-line. Winning? Does that matter? I believe a more appropriate Brand Vision for the Leafs is to be the Most Valued Sports Franchise in the World. Everything they do seems more aligned to the “most valued” than winning a championship.

Holding the Leafs up to the Principles of a Beloved Brand

My Business School Professor once said “economics proves what happens in real life can actually happen in theory”. In the theory of Beloved Brands, you need 5 sources of connection to build a tight bond with your consumers. You need a Brand Promise, a smart Strategy, a Brand Story, a freshness of Innovation and a Culture that helps deliver the promise.

Arguably, the Leafs might be defying all 5 of these sources of connectivity.

What is the Leafs Brand Promise? Most Beloved Sports Teams can say “we promise to deliver an on-field team that will always be competitive enough to win a championship”. The Yankees, Man U, Ferrari, the Lakers and Real Madrid can easily say that. Even when these other teams have a good and not great season, there is a price to be paid. The Leafs say “we want to build a team to win a championship” but is that a reality? If that was their promise, the brand would be a complete failure. Fans would walk away and the value of the team would fall. Well, at least for a normal team.

The only real promise the Leafs offer is hope for the hopeless. The Leafs are the eternal underdog, where the pursuit of victory is greater than the victory itself. Maybe if you have that underdog spirit in your own life, you see hope in the Leafs where no one else sees hope. There’s no real rational benefit you get from being a Leafs fan. You’re never rewarded for your energy. So it must be irrational. Purely emotional. Then what emotional benefit do you get from loving the loser team? A friend of mine who is a Leafs fan had a baby a few weeks ago, and I said “when do you break it to the kid that the Leafs won’t win a Championship in his life time?” I know that kid will be a Leaf fan. He now bleeds blue. And will pay thousands of dollars towards the leafs coffers over his life time.

So what’s the benefit? You don’t get to ever yell “we win”. It comes back to “Hope”. Or maybe you figure the celebration party will be so big when they finally do win, that you want to make sure you’re on that bandwagon. That’s still hope for the hopeless–it just has alcohol involved.

The strategy is to appear to be doing things to win a championship. The story is more about history than it is about the present. I don’t see any innovation in player selection or coaching. I do see innovations in merchandising, advertising, sponsorship and fan experience. And the culture of the Maple Leafs is clearly aligned more to making money than it is to winning.

The Leafs Business Model

Let’s look at how the Leafs business model works.

Getting tickets to a game is nearly impossible for the average fan. Every game is a sell out. It’s a 40 year wait for Leaf seasons tickets. These end up in people’s wills. They have strong luxury box sales and a strong base of seasons tickets. If you do have tickets, you can easily scalp them for twice the value on game night.
Every game is on TV, with exceptionally strong ratings. While the ratings totally in Canada, they are such a dominant ‘country brand’ that it makes the local market all of Canada, which means it has access to 30 Million people. The Leafs receive added earned media with 2 sports TV stations, 3 radio stations and 3 major Newspapers constantly covering every move the team makes.
The team’s sponsorship drive is incredible–carrying an astounding 50+ sponsors on its roster–including separating out the banking category into Core Banking, Wealth Banking, Credit Card banking, which allows them to get money from three separate banks.
Merchandise sales are very strong. The Leafs have just announced it was changing its third jersey to be a replica of the 1967 jersey. Which means all those fans have to go out and drop another $129 on a new jersey. This past year, the Leafs have added a sports bar to the ACC, just outside the arena that has hundreds of TVs and seating for two thousand people.
Control of Costs works for the Leafs. The NHL has a salary cap that holds teams to $60 Million per year, which is 6% of the team’s brand value. For the other hockey teams worth $200 Million, that’s 30% of their brand value. That’s a huge competitive advantage for the Leafs–still defies why they can’t win.

The P&L

In 2011 with the world facing a global recession, following up on a 29th place finish in the standings, the Leafs revenue went up ELEVEN PERCENT!!! And because of the player strike a few years ago, player costs have gone down from $69 million to $57 million. Revenue up, costs down. That’s a P&L the people of Price Waterhouse dream about. A lot of the value is now connected to how much money will be made in the future. The NHL just signed a 10 year contract giving the Leafs cost certainty. While I still don’t think the Leafs will win a championship in the next 10 years, I would bet they will hit $2 Billion.

It’s not easy being a Leaf Fan. Yet like a drug, it’s not easy to stop being a Leaf fan.

To read more about how the love for a brand creates more power and profits:

Forget the 4 P’s. Build Your Brand through the 5 sources of Connectivity

5 March 2013

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The Evolution of Brands Beyond the Product

Most of us started learning about marketing by looking at the 4 P’s: Product, Price, Promotion and Place. While I’ve seen people adding P’s, a fifth one and even have seen up to eight P’s. I guess it’s a fairly easy way to teach marketing. It’s an OK way to learn, but it seems to treat marketing like an activity and not really a strategy. You get a product and then figure out where to sell it, what to charge and how to promote it and voila, now you are a marketing guru.

It’s true that most brands do start off as a product or service that helps to address some type of problem the consumer has in their lives. Early on it’s about a selling activity where you push your brand onto the target market and hope they buy. As the brand evolves, you start to establish an identity for the brand that gets well-known, you start narrowing what you’re naturally best at down to a promise and begin executing and building your experience around the promise. As you keep evolving, the Brand starts to shift towards becoming an Idea that helps solve the consumer’s emotional problems.

Apple is not just a computer or cell phone. It’s based on an idea of “simplicity that deals with the frustration over technology”.
Dove is not just a soap or hand cream, but all about the idea of “real beauty that allows women to feel comfortable with who they are”.
Starbucks is not just a coffee and pastries, but an “escape from a hectic day”

While a lot of the Beloved Brands have taken 20 years or even 90 years to earn their status, you can advance your brand faster by starting off as an idea. It becomes less about product and more about the big idea from day 1. It becomes less about hopeful tactics and more about insightful strategy. You’ll be able to build around the idea rather than getting stuck in the constraints of what your product does. An idea helps you connect with consumers and that connection gives your brand added power, and the power can be used to drive higher growth and profits.

A Beloved Brand is based on an idea that’s worth loving.

The Brand Love Curve

In the consumer’s mind, brands sit on a hypothetical Brand Love Curve, where brands go from Indifferent to Like It to Love It and finally becoming a Beloved Brand for Life.

At the Beloved Brand stage, demand becomes desire, needs become cravings, thinking is replaced with feelings. Consumers become outspoken fans. It’s this connection that helps drive power for your brand: power versus competitors, versus customers, versus suppliers and even versus the same consumers you’re connected with. The farther along the curve, the more power for the brand. It’s important that you understand where your brand sits on the Love Curve and begin figuring out how to move it along towards becoming a Beloved Brand.

A Beloved Brand uses the love consumers have for the brand to replicate the power of a Monopoly. And from that power, it drives stronger growth and higher profits.

The Five Sources of Connectivity: Promise, Strategy, Story, Freshness, Culture

The brand’s promise sets up the positioning and comes directly out of the idea you have for your brand. You have to focus on a key target with one main benefit you offer. Brands need to be either better, different or cheaper. Or else not around for very long. ”Me-too” brands have a short window before being squeezed out. How relevant, simple and compelling the brand positioning is impacts the potential love for the brand. Force yourself to find that point of difference, and balance the rational and emotional benefits in your promise. Even if you feel the desire to start with a rational promise, wrap it in an emotional package. And as your brand strengthens, layer in more and more emotion. But even at the most emotional stage of a brand, back it up with rational thoughts. It’s about balance. People will stay loyal, pay higher prices and follow a brand they are connected with. More and more, brands are leveraging purpose (the why) into their brand promise, because people buy why you do it, more than just want you do. Push yourself to make your promise the same as why you get up in the morning and you’ll make a fortune.
The strategic choices that brands make can make a world of difference. Most brands get stuck in thinking 3 months ahead. They miss out on the bigger picture of where you want to be in 5-10 years. To figure out where you want to go starts with where you are today. Map out what’s getting in your way and let those define your strategies. Identifying where the brand is on the Brand Love Curve (see above) helps focus your choice in strategies as you want to look for ways that tighten the connection with consumers. Bring an ROI mindset, with a pathway that has a focus, early win and a leverage to a gateway to something bigger.
Beloved brands can tell the brand story through five types of media: Paid (traditional and digital advertising) earned (PR, news, events, influencers) search (Search Engine Optimization), social media (facebook, twitter, linked in) and home (website, blog, e-commerce). Beloved Brands find creative ways use each of these media choices to enable your brand to connect emotionally with consumers and they have a bit of magic to the communication. Great advertising helps to separate the brand from the pack, telling the brand promise in a compelling and relevant way.
The most beloved brands have a freshness of innovation, staying one-step ahead of the consumers–giving them something they’d never have imagined. Having a steady stream of new products helps keep the consumer excited about the brand. The idea of the brand helps acting as an internal beacon to help frame the R&D. Every new product has to back that idea. At Apple, every new product must deliver simplicity and at Volvo, it must focus on safety.
The most beloved brands create an experience that over-delivers the promise. How your culture and organization are set up can make or break that experience. Hiring the best people, creating service values that employees can deliver against and having processes that eliminate service leakage. The culture attacks the brand’s weaknesses and fixes them before the competition can attack. With a Beloved Brand, the culture and brand become one.

The Most Beloved Brands Are Strong on All 5 Sources of Connectivity

To read more about how the love for a brand creates more power and profits:

Here’s the ad:

Is it a Good Ad?

But, is it the right Ad for K-Mart?

Ship My Pants: Good Ad, Wrong Brand

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What’s Your Next Move Facebook?

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Can McDonald’s Beat Starbucks?

And please put back the arches. Never be embarrassed of who you really are.

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How do you fire Yourself?

What Makes for a Good Advertising Agency?

Making great advertising is simple, but very hard to do.

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1. Will people watch even more TV in the future?

2. How can Advertisers Capture the Internet Babies (12-22 years old) as they move into adulthood?

3. Can Newspapers even Survive?

4. Can Advertisers Figure Out how to Win in the New World?

5. Are there too many Social Media Options?

6. Will New Media people ever be able to Convince Brand Leaders of what they Should do?

When It Comes to New Media, Brand Leaders still need to be Fundamentally Sound

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Who has the Better Burger?

Fries versus Shakes

Who has better Atmosphere?

Where does In-N-Out Burger win?

Where does 5 Guys win?

So who will win?

5 Guys Is Quickly Becoming the Upscale Answer to McDonald’s

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So what happens when you just do “surface thinking”:

How to go Deeper

Thinking Time Questions that will Help you Go Deeper

The Deeper the Thinking, the Smarter the Leader

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Master Brand Strategy Road Map

Key Elements

House of Brands

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How do we Get these guys to “Stop It”?

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Don’t feel bad. Most brands are at the Like It stage

The Brand Love Curve

The Like It Stage

The Five Sources of Brand Love

Why is your Brand stuck at the Like It Stage:

Indicators that you’re at the Like It Stage

Why Would you want to get to the Love It Stage

How to get to past the Like It stage

If you are stuck at Like It, then you are leaving money on the table

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Challenge yourself to get better every day.

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What Went Wrong?

The naming of Western University

MY SPECIAL K^™