Brand and Business

What’s the difference between Petco and PetSmart? As far as I’m concerned, these two retailers are guilty of a little thing I like to call “brand blur.” If you stripped the name off of both retailers and walked both stores, I think you’d find little difference. The color schemes are the same. The stores feel the same. Unless I’m missing something, they carry essentially the same product mix. Maybe PetCo has saltwater fish and PetSmart doesn’t. So what?

Brand blur is the resulting effect when the developers of a brand go out to the market and ask “whatdya want?” When you do that, you’re getting the exact same information that the competitors get. So you and the competition both end up with the same approach. To add insult to injury, the research is typically flawed because all it gets at is surface logic. The good, deep, meaty emotional stuff is nowhere to be found in average research. Furthermore, this approach of only asking the prospects and customers what they think neglects to honor the vision and authentic essence of the company that can add a strong competitive advantage.

Another category where I see brand blur is office supply stores. Tell me, do you really see a difference between Office Depot, OfficeMax and Staples? If I separate any of them at any level, it might be Staples. Honestly, I think I’ve been sucked in by their advertising which I feel successfully uses humor to connect with me personally. Yet, inside the store, I feel the same old, same old. And again, these competitors are essentially the same right down to the color palette they use.

In both cases - the pet stores and the office supply stores - as the consumer, I’m reduced to deciding the difference based on location or worse yet, price. As a brand strategist, it makes me a little sad for the brands.

Where do you see brand blur?

The May 18 edition of Advertising Age dedicates considerable space to the topic of branding. Element Three’s definition of “branding” is tactics to communicate a brand’s unique positioning. And according to Advertising Age, a brand advertising revival is underway. Marketers from companies like FedEX, General Electric, and IBM have recently launched branding campaigns. Dial is also planning a record spend around five of its leading brand name products. Despite the temptation to slash budgets and hang on to dollars in the current climate, this activity signals a return to a strategic investment in marketing by some who recognize the value of brand communication in relation to market share.
 
Personally, I take this as a good sign that the wait and see position of the first and second quarters is starting to give way to positive activity. A brand’s equity is a valuable asset and needs to be managed even in the most challenging of times.

Guest posted by Judy Knafel

I'm relatively active in social media. It suits me as an introvert who likes learning, information and connecting with people. And in my opinion, social networks are excellent strategic brand development tools when used wisely. People often ask me about the difference between LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. Right or wrong, these are the distinctions I make:

LinkedIn is the business suit.
Facebook is old jeans and flip flops.
Twitter ranges widely from jammies to silk suits. But for me and many of my friends, it is mostly business casual (which for me is nicer jeans and better shoes.)
By the way, I also participate in a number of other social networks, including Smaller Indiana and I use the Ning platform for private social networks.

So, should these tools be part of your online brand strategy? Maybe. Don't just do because everyone else is. Include social media if it makes sense in your overall strategic marketing plan.

Recently I've been working on audience dossiers, part of our our brand development strategies. When developing brand strategy for our clients we create a character that represents a composite or an average of the target audience and bring him to life. Based on primary and secondary market research, we name the character, apply age and other basic demographics. We talk about his daily life or work (or both) and even attempt to describe what is going on inside of his mind. We’ll even find a picture to put on the profile.

Time for a little side story: One time we found what we thought was a great head and shoulders picture for a character, a woman in her late 50s with a bright smile and attention to her hair and makeup. I even remember her name. Linda. It wasn’t until we had her in the presentation that we realized Linda wasn’t wearing anything, at least not on her shoulders. Yikes! We all had a very nice laugh and editorialized what Linda’s closet behaviors might be. (Ah, working with a bunch of creative people and fun clients is good.)

Anyway, I’d say that writing audience dossiers is one of the most fun things I do in my own work. And, fortunately for our clients and me, it’s also a useful exercise. When marketers describe their audiences in dry bullet point demographics alone, they have a hard time imagining their relationships with them. Once you meet the ideal client and can bring him to life, you more clearly imagine your conversations and thus create better marketing, sales messages and brand communications.

In an article in today's issue of the Boston Globe, I read, "Unfortunately, [Boston's branding] problem is bigger than a simple rebranding strategy and it's not something a new logo or tagline is going to fix. Why? Because the personality of a brand can only represent the personalities of the people behind it."

Bingo! From the perspective of a certified brand strategist and general observer of life and business, I see too many organizations create a new logo and all the goodies that go with it under the name of "rebranding." Logos, taglines and nice brand communication are only truly useful if founded in reality (including recognition of the connection between a brand and its buyers) and strategic management of behaviors necessary to reinforce all the words and pictures.

Typically when people ask, "what do you do?" our answer will start with "I am" or "We are." That's okay as long as we follow up with an answer to the real question. In other words, don't just tell people your job title or type of business and then expect them to fill in the blank about what that means. Seize the opportunity to tell them what action you take to make a difference for your customers. Tell your story.

So, now you tell me: Which of the following is more dynamic? Which one would make you want to ask more?

"I'm a virtual assistant."

"I give business owners more time to grow their businesses and be more profitable."

What's your elevator speech?

I was just sitting here admiring my MacBook Pro after having passed by some other computer, the name of which I can't remember. That made me think about the brands that I'm attached to and what connections I've formed with them.

My Apple love affair started in about 1983 when I was among a handful of students herded into the high school's brand new computer lab (a converted shop class) filled with gleaming Apple ][e's. This new "thing" sitting in front of me seemed like a strange hybrid between the ancient typewriter I used at home and a fairly contemporary calculator that I had. Although we only spent 2 class periods learning basic programming, the Apple computer seemed like the start of something amazing. My gut feeling that this machine and my future were linked drove me into a typing class. Let's just say the initial imprint was strong.

In about 1987 when a Mac (still DOS based) showed up in the type lab at the Herron School of Art & Design, I was drawn to the familiar Apple logo like a September bee to a Coca-Cola spill. And when a Mac lab with about ten Mac OS based machines was opened, I took one of the first classes. Oh the things I could do! I could see what I was typing as I typed - and make corrections without a typewriter eraser or that white ink coated film. And the straight lines and circles. Oh my!

And so for nearly 20 years a parade of fun and useful Apple innovations has passed through my life. Like that MacBook Pro I'm using right now and was admiring at the beginning of this post. And my iPhone 3G sitting about 8 inches from my left hand. They make me oh so happy.

Thanks Apple, for being innovative, cool, useful, and beautiful in form and function. And different.

What brands are strong in your life? And what is your emotional connection to them?

I read today in the Wall Street Journal Business section that Circuit City may sell its brand name (and related trademarks, phone numbers, URLs, etc.) for $6.5 million. Systemax, the firm seeking to buy the brand name, has offered the big bag of money and another 1.75% of revenue tied to the Circuit City name that Systemax may collect in the next 30 months. Systemax sells electronics online and will likely use the name to set up shop on the web.

Related post: What's in a name? Apparently a lot of money.

Southwest named Brand of Excellence winner, American Brand Excellence Awards
"The personality and corporate culture behind Southwest Airlines Co. has buoyed the Dallas airline to the top of the annual American Brand Excellence Awards..."
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At A.I.G., the Brand Is Tarnished
time does not look like A.I.G.’s friend. The problem now is not a toxic spiral of derivatives like the one that crippled the company last fall, but the damage done to A.I.G.’s brand, first by the financial troubles and then by the recent wave of hearings, subpoenas, late-night television jokes and even a bus tour past executives’ homes...
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The Most Important Issue In Brand Marketing Today
According to Enfatico’s Stephen Sonnenfeld, it is that there is “no distinction between brand and selling today.”
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CoreBrand's 2008 Brand Power Rankings: Coca-Cola and Johnson & Johnson Maintain #1 and #2 Spots, Harley-Davidson Takes Third, Hershey Foods Into Fourth
Demonstrating the strength of their corporate brands, the top two spots on CoreBrand's 2008 Corporate Branding Index have remained unchanged since 2004, with The Coca-Cola Company, first, and Johnson & Johnson, second...
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A recent article in B-to-B Magazine lists five specific industries to be affected by the stimulus package (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009) and includes discussion and commentary by marketers in each industry.

The five industries included in What does the stimulus package mean for b-to-b?: Marketers weigh in on how they expect the new law to affect their business, BtoB Magazine, March 9, 2009 are:

• Commercial Construction
• Alternative Energy
• Telecommunications
• Computer Hardware and Software
• Financial Institutions

While the economic recovery might be a year or more off (and may take longer to be felt here in Indianapolis), now is the perfect time to take advantage of the stimulus package and to plan for how you'll dominate your competitive landscape as the economy continues to ebb and flow. If you are in one of these industries - or a supplier to them - do yourself a favor and make an appointment for a strategic session with your marketing partner. And if you don't have one, start shopping for a good marketing firm.

Note: The Indianapolis chapter of the Business Marketing Association is presenting a program on the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act this Thursday, March 19th, 2009.

On my drive to work this morning, I saw this truck with the words "drivers, make sure door is latched" near the place where a door handle used to be. I giggled at the humor of it and then made a connection.

Trying to latch a door without a handle is like trying to sell without an understanding of the brand essence.

Maybe now you're giggling. This is serious business though.

I talk with a lot of business leaders who hire salespeople and just throw them out in the marketplace without equipping them with a good understanding of not only the product or service, but the brand behind it. These sales people are being hamstrung without the concept and language of a clear differentiation.

In some cases, the business leaders themselves don't know that differentiation - the essence of their brand. They think it's something the marketing people own and use to make sales collateral and so they they don't need to know. No. No. And no.

Activation of a brand starts on the inside and at the top of any organization and spreads out through the ranks, through marketing, through sales and into the channel and into the hearts and minds of the consumers/users/buyers.

Do yourself a favor, if you ask your business drivers to latch the door, give them a handle to do the job.

All the big brand identity agencies must be shouting "hallelujah!" It seems like a parade of major consumer brands has been getting some kind of face lift. By now, surely everyone has noticed the new Pepsi "smile" that I've been none too kind toward. Now Kraft is getting in on the come-on-everyone-let's-get-happy act. In this case, they've unveiled an identity treatment that will be used at the corporate level only. This one won't make it to the packages on the shelf, so they say.

To me, the logo looks like a big red smile under the word "foods" in Kraft Foods and ends with a sort of flowery color burst. And it comes with the tagline "Make today delicious."

From the outside looking in, it seems Kraft set out to develop brand identity aimed at their own employees and channel partners. And, honestly, I like the direction. Those groups carry the enthusiasm to deliver on the overall brand promise to the consumers. I frequently advise that you can make things as pretty as you want and promise the moon and the stars, but if you can't deliver on it, the money won't follow.

I wonder what big brand will be the next to unveil some new brand element.

"He goes by the brand, yet imagines he goes by the flavor."

If you thought that brand is some concept invented in the last 15-20 years, think again. Mark Twain wrote this in 1893 in an essay titled Concerning Tobacco. He goes on to write, "One may palm off the worst counterfeit upon him; if it bears his brand he will smoke it contentedly and never suspect."

After a long discussion of how people give him a hard time for how awful his choice in cigars is, Twain writes, "Am I certain of my own standard? Perfectly; yes, absolutely—unless somebody fools me by putting my brand on some other kind of cigar; for no doubt I am like the rest, and know my cigar by the brand instead of by the flavor."

Things sure have been fun at Facebook this week. (I mean beyond my invitation for my friends to fill in the blank on my status.) Apparently the online social network company changed its Terms of Use a few weeks ago in an attempt to "clarify some parts for (their) users." What those users saw was a broadly-worded set of statements that looked for all intents and purposes like Facebook was saying "you put it on here, we own it. Your pictures, your writing, your blogs. Everything." Those same users threw a fit. Some deactivated their accounts. More complained to one another. Sometimes in ALL CAPS. A subset wrote passionately to Facebook leadership - sometimes without expletives. In effect, the users were saying, "hey Facebook! You don't own me. In fact, without me you're nothing. You created a platform. My friends and I provided the content that makes it possible for you to make a dime."

Though Facebook should have known better than to almost secretly change the Terms of Use without user input, they did get the message after the outpouring of complaints. They switched back to the old Terms and have promised to craft new, more thoughtful Terms based on feedback from users. I see an opportunity for Facebook to deepen their brand's relationship with its users. Stay tuned to see if they take advantage of that opportunity.

I was listening to American Public Media's Marketplace last week when a story about bankrupt stores caught my attention. The headline: "Bankrupt Stores Can Still Sell Their Name." Forget that to be grammatically correct (not that I don't like to break the grammar rules myself) there should be an s on the end of name. No, what really made me smile was the fact that someone paid $34 million for bankrupt Sharper Image simply for the equity in the brand name. While Sharper Image's business practices weren't good enough to keep it afloat, they'd done a decent job of imbuing the name with goodwill in the form of brand. The same is true for Linens N' Things, a retailer name that was purchased two weeks ago for $1 million. Just the name.

What's the moral of the story? I guess it's that these and other marketers worked – at least early on, before they panicked and did dumb things to their brands – to build strong brands and maintain their integrity. And in the end after the panic settled into acceptance of the inevitable there was still at least a little value to squeeze out of the businesses. Look for Sharper Image and Linens N' Things branded products on retailer shelves near you.

Let's hand it to the Cardinals. Not a soul would have picked them to even make it into the NFC championship, much less the Super Bowl. And, even though they lost to the Steelers last night, they put their hearts and souls into that game and emerged winners of a different kind. Enough about the game. What about the commercials?

I have to admit that I didn't see all the commercials. Of the few I caught, I really liked the Careerbuilder spot with the creepy coworker. Why? Because it was funny while still identifying with a number of reasons a person might want to be seeking a new job. They made a clever emotional connection. Even better, today I remember who that ad for for. And when I signed in to Facebook today, there was creepy coworker up in the corner just begging me to click on him. I like the integration going on here.

We had a gathering of Cardinals supporters in the living room. And while I stayed close to the kitchen to keep the thousands of calories freshened up for the fans, one conversation I overheard made me perk up my ears. My father-in-law, a retired mechanical engineer, talked about Coca-Cola in terms of its brand. He noted that it is probably the most well-known brand on the planet. There was talk about why in the world such a prominent brand would even spend money "in this economy" (this will be one of 2009's most popular phrases). My father-in-law astutely remarked that even strong brands need to keep brand-building.

Kristen (account lead here at Element Three) heard another brand conversation at the party she attended. The group discussed Gatorade going to "G" as their brand identity. People said things like, "Gatorade is such an established brand, they shouldn't depart from it." Kristen thinks that it is a positioning strategy. The name Gatorade still appears on the packaging. But the design has been freshened up to communicate "we're hip and cool, not old and outdated" as an answer to the flood of energy drinks and vitamin water in the market.

So, as I sit here looking at a magazine cover headline, "The Big Question for 2009: Is Branding Dead?" I'd have to say no. Consumers are talking about brand and using the term. And they don't just mean logo anymore. They - we - are getting smarter and smarter about brand and marketing. What are you doing to keep up?

Bravo to the Nashville Technology Council! (Nashville, Tennessee, that is.) In a press release dated January 22, 2009, the Council announced the unveiling of a new brand identity. Why does this make me happy? It isn't that they have a new logo. It's that they apparently understand what brand development really is and what it can do for them. They understand that their brand strategy is in fact a business strategy. How do I know? The answer is embedded in these quotes:

• "After careful assessment of the NTC’s current focus and strategy, we found several new and exciting ways to connect with our current membership and attract additional members through this branding process," said Beth Chase, President/CEO, C3 Consulting and Board Chair for the Nashville Technology Council.
• “The branding process was evolutionary from understanding who we are, to strategic insights, to a thoroughly imaginative creative phase,” said Chris Stovall, CEO of Digital Pigeon.  “I believe we are on the right path to position the NTC for success for many years to come.”

They didn't just do a brand identity development project, they created a brand positioning strategy to drive the business. These smart people see beyond a marketing campaign, understanding that brand it is at the heart of the very existence and success of the organization.

Recently, I was listening to yet another story about bailing out the auto-industry. I'm sure I don't know enough about situation to have an authoritative opinion. However, I get a little annoyed when I think about how The Big Three have murdered their own brands by not listening to the consumers in their market.

Curious about the reach of automaker brand awareness, I conducted a very quick, highly unscientific survey with my 10-year old son. He's a pretty perceptive little guy (don't all parents think that about their kids), watching t.v., using the Internet, observing his environment. So, I asked him to rate his overall impression of automaker brands on a 10-point scale, 1 being truly awful and 10 being amazing. I presented the names randomly and as blandly as I could as to not influence him.

My son's highest three automaker brands were Honda, Toyota and Volkswagen at 8 points. His bottom three were Chrysler at 2 and GM and Ford at 3. This from a 10-year old...one who might be buying a car (used perhaps) in a little over 5 years.

Based on this one tiny data point, I venture to say that even if the The Big Three survive, they have a very big marketing and PR job to do to repair the trust in their brands. Beyond that, they have a lot of work to do on their organizations and products to support any claim they may make in said marketing and PR.

What do you think?

In spite of economic news that would have you believe no one is hiring, I'm thrilled to be able to report that Element Three is. If you or someone you know wants to join a growing organization download this posting to see if our Business Development Lead position is a fit.