Marketing Decoded

Why Fads Fade – The Invetable Death of Flappy Bird

As many of you know, Flappy Bird has held the #1 spot on Apple’s iTunes apps  store and was downloaded over 50 million times  The game’s young creator earn’s a pile of cash everyday by reaching this milestone and then mysteriously took it down.  Whaaatt??  Too habit forming?  Have you never succumbed to the mindless entertainment of Candy Crush saga, Farmville or P vs Z’s with zealot like intensity for several weeks and then realize, with surprise, that you haven’t even looked at the game in days.  What turns us into crazed digital maniacs and as quickly makes us lose interest?

Why Fads Fade: The Inevitable Death Of Flappy Bird

Since the game has been removed from iTunes, enterprising eBayers have been selling preloaded smartphones for up to $90,000.

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/feb/11/nintendo-denies-flappy-bird-legal-challenge

The Molson Beer Fridge campaign that launched in the summer was the most viral campaign of 2013 until the Westjet Christmas campaign.
The recent follow on campaign of the Molson Beer Fridge shows the fridge travelling to a remote island in the Phillipines along with a flat screen tv so friends can watch the Olympics:

Both of these are great examples of  the NARRATIVE technique in marketing communications that we’ve been talking about in class, hooking viewers in with a story.

Both campaigns also have gone viral.  These ads follow on our discussion also of the importance of ads being shared online after they play on tv.  The Travelling Fridge is 3 minutes (!!) an exceptionally long and $$ tv ad.

For a more detailed conversation about the campaigns, here’s a good review:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/marketing/molson-takes-online-beer-fridge-ads-to-hockey-airwaves-and-points-beyond/article16039363/

As an institution of higher learning, we’re all about learning, except when we’re constantly interrupted by our cell phones.  Distracted in class, distracted during homework time, during group meetings (whether its our own phone or someone else’s), interrupted when we’re studying at Starbucks…is it really making us smarter or sicker 🙁

Turns out that disconnecting from our phones improves our learning and our hearts.  According to a new research study conducted by The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, learning skills cultivate warmer interpersonal relationships and make you feel more socially connected,  upbeat AND have a healthy body.  The study found that lack of social contact diminishes people.  Okay, so we kind of know this already.  But why don’t we put down our phones and just do it?  Friendship is like exercise.  Once you put down your phone and ‘do it or lose it’, things will pick up.

So if you’ve been texting too much, just stop.  Put down the phone and talk to the people in your team.  Meet your friends instead of texting your friends.  Smile at people and say hello instead of reaching for the phone. You’ll build everyone’s capacity for social encounters, including your own health.

While not exactly marketing, these photos are completely inspiring. I love how artists have creatively recycled abandoned and unused spaces to encourage communities to reuse the space or look at the space differently. While there may not be active purchase consumption happening here, we can consider this effective sustainable marketing in terms of the reuse of existing products.

Here’s the link to take a look at all of the images:

Abandoned Spaces Given Graffiti Facelift

No surprise here.  Canadian employers like a post-secondary education on the resume. From 1990 to 2010, the number of jobs filled by candidates with post-secondary education more than doubled from 1.9 million to 4.1 million.  BMO Bank of Montreal (consistent with Stats Can) released a report today confirming what those of us toiling away on papers, blogs assignment and case briefs know:  70% of Canadian businesses look for post-secondary education when hiring and 40% prefer specialized training within that context.  Somewhat unsurprisingly, the survey concluded that new hires required quite a bit of on-the-job training – only 25% came with basic foundational skills.  What can we conclude from this?  University training helps you get in the door with an employer and trains you how to approach problems, how to think, how to work but you’re still going to need significant training and experience when you start work.  Also, stay in school!  Switching majors to become a professional gambler probably isn’t a good long term strategy.

That ubiquitous snack food on the shelves of every Seven-Eleven and Mini-Mart, begging you to buy it, just occasionally, when you know you really shouldn’t has gone bankrupt.  Yes, Twinkies (or the company that makes them and wonderful, squishy white Wonderbread) has filed for bankruptcy in the U.S. this week.  Citing excessive debt and union troubles, the company can no longer survive.  Twinkies are relatively high priced, so as the company’s cost structure has increased, they haven’t had much wiggle room to increase their sugar coated prices snack food prices either.

A more interesting question is: are Twinkies gone forever.  Assuming that Hostess can’t restructure its way out of this, what happens to the Hostess brands.  Will we never be able to enjoy that sickly sweet, teeth jarring filling that tastes oh-so-good every so often?   The answer is likely YES!  Brands, as we know, are worth a lot.  And when a brand goes bankrupt, there are often lots of buyers at the auction to pick it up.  Consider brands like Polariod, The Sharper Image and Borders (the US bookstore).  Buyers paid $88 million for the Polaroid name in 2009 – good news for the bankrupt company as they have some cash to pay off their debts and usually get some equity in the new venture.  Buyers of the Polaroid name have done well by extending the name into a line of electronics vs. just a camera, similarly with The Sharper Image.

It’s likely that the Twinkies, Wonderbread and Ding Dongs’ (another venerable Hostess brand) names are worth something to a buyer.  Also worth considering, for that buyer, is whether those brands can be extended into other products within the category.  Or is a Twinkie always a Twinkie?

McDonald’s recently released it’s progress on its 13 sustainability goals.  Unfortunately, the company only met one of its goals to make sustainability part of its everyday business operations.  The company did manage to increase energy awareness and education across all of its stores.  The company was also successful in its fish sourcing practices in 2011, sourcing 99% of its fish from  Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certified fisheries.   McDonalds  has many goals to make sustainability more mainstream in its everyday business operations and, despite not accomplishing all thirteen this year, has done not badly in terms of advancing their menu, something that we could consider from both a social and environmental sustainability perspective: Happy Meals now have fruit iincluded Happy Meals and French Fries are smaller.

Is it enough?  McDonald’s claims that these actions are aligned with the company’s focus on leveraging its brand recognition  as a food company to influence sustainable change.  Hmmm.  Altering the makeup of a Happy Meal will likely force the competition to follow suit, maybe in the fruit department.  And using responsibly sourced fish may drive change in the  industry…but this is a market where consumers are not willing to pay very much for their burger and margins are thin.  The competition will be pushed to respond from a combination of consumer pressure and corporate social responsiblity.  Is McDonald’s really doing enough here though as a market leader to drive sustainable change in the fast food industry?

After hiking, rafting or cruising up in gas guzzling RV’s, visitors to the Grand Canyon National Park will be out of luck next year when they want to purchase bottled water.  Inhabit.com reports that the park’s management has been looking to solve the problem of discarded water bottles for a while.  The sale of bottled water will be banned in 2012.  The Park Service is currently working on offering an alternative   water sources  for users, likely from water fountains, which must be consistently reliable for thirsty tourists.

An interesting and obvious question is ‘why hasn’t this happened sooner?’.  With cities across the US and Canada attempting water bottle bans and surcharges on plastic bags, why hasn’t one of the most of iconic of natural landmarks taken the lead?  Answer:  Coca Cola.  Coca Cola??  Yep, the same company that is currently cuddling up to polar bears on t.v. and selling us Coke in white cans, also makes Dasani water (sold conveniently in vending machines just outside the park).  Last year, when plans for the ban were in the works, Coca Cola swooped in with a call to the National Parks director to remind him of the  huge  financial contributions that Coca Cola made to the park.

Canadian Tire, that venerable Canadian institution that sells a little bit of everything but has tires in its name, is going back to its core business and offering more tires. Online. Online tire sales? Yup. The idea is that once customers come to the store to have their cheap tires installed (cheap because they got a better price by buying the tires online), they’ll stay and buy other stuff. And Canadian Tire has A LOT of stuff.

Is this a good strategy for Canadian Tire? In lots of way, yes. The tire industry is huge – $2.5 – $3.5B, so it’s worthwhile for this retailing giant to return to its roots and try to nab some of the business as competitors like Costco rush in, online. It’s also a way to get customers who may not normally shop at Canadian Tire, those who are web savvy but not Canadian Tire savvy, into the stores.

Europeans buy tires online at a greater rate than Canadians, 10-15%. Its something that Canadians may well embrace as we see the efficiency in only having to go to the store once – for pickup/installation, not several times for purchase and then to return for installation.

How many Star Wars classic lines can you recite?  Can you do the actions too?  To celebrate the release of Star Wars:  The Complete Saga on Blu-Ray, Lucasfilms has joined with Stand up to Cancer, the non-profit group that uses an innovative model that it calls ‘dream teams’ comprised of scientists,and other specialists  to tackle a  cancer problem. The campaign is aptly called “Use the Force for Good“.

Celebrities like Emma Stone, Seth Rogen, Andy Samberg, Jaime King and even Star Wars alum Samuel L Jackson are part of the campaign.  This ‘dream team’ acts out their favourite Star Wars lines and scenes, showing us that their goofiness is indeed our goofiness too.  And it’s okay to be in love with this iconic a brand.  They then leverage the Star Wars brand message to raise awareness (and donations) for cancer research.

Enjoy the video.  Which scene do you play the most often 🙂

At it’s core, marketing is about listening.  Listening to your customer, of course, but also listening to your competitors, your critics and yourself. Sales, on the other hand, is about talking.

Let’s think about the marketing part first:

What messages are you putting out there?  Are they consistent with what you’re trying to say about your brand?

Have you inserted the code from Google Analytics into your blog yet?  Do you have any idea of how to interpret the data you see when you look at the results?  I’m no expert at web analytics, however, I’m a marketer and I ask a lot of questions.  Questions about what customers want, where they come from, what they’re looking at and what they’re interested in.  Some of this is exactly what web analytics can tell you.

One of the best places to start learning about web analytics is Avinash Kaushik’s blog.  Kaushik makes a great point, first off, that you really need to have a clear goal as to why you even have a website in the first place.  Are you wasting money by just having something ‘up there’?  What  are your business goals and are they being complimented by what you’re doing with the webiste?  Let’s assume so.

1.  Look at the website itself, silly! I love his first point.  Before you dive into actually anlyzing the numbers, click around on the website.  Get a feel for the company, the flow, the brand, any comments, the shopping cart.  Bonus if you go visit the competition.

2. Traffic Sources Report :  look here first.  40 – 50% search engine traffic  is what you should be getting.  20 – 30% referring sites.  Dig in and see where your customers are coming from.

3. Visitor loyalty:   look now at how often and how recent your customers have come to your website.

4. Which pages are lousy? Look at your report to determine where people arent’ spending any time compared to your site average.  Now look at that page.  Why?

5. Which pages are making you money? Or getting lots of visits.  Can you replicate this strategy on your low traffic pages.

Lots to think about when you start reading those Google Analytics reports.  Go to the link above and get the details from Kaushik.

www.fastcompany.com

FastCompany just published its list of the 50 most innovative companies, 2011. Guess who’s 1st?  Yep, Apple.  2nd?  Bit of a suprise.  Twitter.  3rd?  Facebook.  Interesting, super interesting, that two of the top three are social media companies and the top one is driving a lot of today’s technology.  Groupon, Google, Netflix and Zynga (Farmville anyone?) also make it into the top ten.  (This list almost reads as social commentary.)

FastCompany evaluates thousands of companies around the world, across different industries, to come up with this prestigious list. This years list is an interesting reflection of how different business models will dominate in the following decades. Historically strong innovators businesses, like GE, Pepsico and IBM, are still on the list; however, absent are the North American auto manufactures who are fighting hard to innovate.

Check out the list. Dig into the links on some of the companies, especially those that aren’t familiar, like Canadian biofuels producer Enerkem. Creativity and innovation are critical to successful marketing.

In the name of full disclosure, M&Ms are my favourite candy. It’s lousy chocolate. The French laugh at how awful it is. When Mars introduced M&Ms the chocolate taste was something that consumers had to get used to. M&Ms are designed to be ‘more-ish’. You can’t stop at just one.

M&M’s has fought hard to keep this brand relevant for the last 20 years. It’s an old brand that has worked to keep consumers interested in various unique ways but the key to this brand is that it’s remained simple. The brand is iconic so Mars doesn’t fool around with it too much. New colours, yes. New flavours? Okay, some minor variations in the last few years but quickly pulled off the market when they don’t work. Brand personality: pretty much the same. Those two guys with the gloves and big feet.

M&M’s does have a fun new cross website campaign going though, to engage the Facebook, online generation (pretty much all of us.  Is it kitschy?  Yes.  Do you get kind of caught up in shooting M&Ms at the ads?  Yes?  Are you engaging with the brand?  Yes.  Hmmm….good hit (haha) with this one, Mars. 

Haul videos.  Have you heard of this trend?  Young adults, mostly girls, come home from the mall, lay their loot out and film it for upload to Youtube.  Haul videos.  Ever driven by a pickup in the Prairies and seen the deer horns hanging out the back?  Anthropological, kind of, isn’t it?  Don’t gasp.  We  do it in the car on the way home.  Look in the bag at our new runners or new hoodie and admire our purchase.  Run up to our room and put it on, admiring our new, cooler, redefined self in the mirror.  Filming and posting is an extension of our online existence.  This is a great mix of Gen Y’s faves: shopping and tech.

Is there any value here for consumers or is this just voyeuristic or narcissism run rampant?  Turns out that there is value.  The vloggers (read video bloggers) don’t just film high end loot hauls but talk about bargain basement shopping and deals, pointing consumers to sources and offering tips.  Some of the best haulers have inked sponsorships and advertising deals.  With millions of views, and perceived authenticity from the vlogger by  consumers,  manufacturers want in on this game.  (Endorsements and free merchandise must be disclosed.) Some girls are making big bucks. Is this the next big thing?  Really, whether it is or isn’t, it’s a trend that companies are putting some bucks behind as more consumers tune into this alternative channel of product information.

LinkedIn, the professional connections tool that many of us use to stay in touch with current and former colleagues has added a cool new add on:  InMap.  Showing a cloud of all of your professional contacts, LinkedIn brings itself from a somewhat linear online networking tool up closer to the ranks of Facebook.  And the map is way cool.

InMap shows a colour coded map of your contacts (colours based on how you know them) and also maps your  relationships to them… and to each other.  I think that’s the interesting part.  You know who you know but it’s interesting to who knows each other and how.  Yeah, I know this was there before but it was a little hard to follow. Now, visual and virtual.  Cool.

So, what does this offer consumers of LinkedIn.  More value?  Yes.  Certainly fodder for cocktail party conversations “Hey, I saw on LinkedIn that you know Brad Pitt.  He’s my sister-in-law’s dog walker’s cousin.” Beyond that, however, having a visual perspective on how big and broad and varied your network is, courtesy of LinkedIn, takes the site more into the realm of social networking.  Kind of more Facebook for professionals.  Sounds useful.

Hurray, Target is coming to Canada. Target recently bought 220 Zellers stores and will open in Canada in 2013.

Does Canada need another discount retailer? How well will Tar-jay do when they get here? Is there so much pent up demand for this American retailer, especially from those of us who live close enough to make frequent cross border trips, that Target will annihilate existing Canadian low priced retailers like the Real Canadian Superstore and fellow American Walmart? Unlikely, but there will be a big spike in sales and the competition better be ready as Target is slick and smart. And we are keen to have them here.

But why does Target think they can make a go of it in Canada? Interesting question because American retail has been hit hard, although is starting to bounce back. Canadian retail has been hit less hard and there is less competition in Canadian retail than U.S., making the market opportunity better for entry by Target. Good news for Target.

Comm 296 started off with 200 students signing up for Twitter accounts.  We’re using Twitter in the classroom so I thought it’d be useful to go over some Twitter basics.

Twitter has two main components:  a social networking aspect, like Facebook, where people follow you and your follow them AND a messaging capability where you send out 140 character Tweets.

The social networking part of Twitter lets you send out updates to your followers and you can receive their updates.  This works well whether you’re using Twitter for personal stuff, like telling people your opinions or what’s going on in your life, or for marketing purposes like driving traffic to your blog or website.  Twitter has been called a microblogging platform because of its message limitation of 140 characters.  This forces you to keep your messages brief.  The fun of Twitter lies here, in that you have to think creatively in terms of engaging your audience but still getting your point across.

Twitter and Marketing

Twitter posts can be used to support a firm’s social media marketing activities in several ways:

1. by driving traffic to the firm’s (or your personal) website or blog.  You can remind your followers about your product or website and encourage them to revisit your website.

2. to connect with your readership & customers.  Twitter is a more conversational online medium than blogs or websites.  You can have more dialogue with your followers and hopefully engage them more with your brand.

3. to build your brand.  You can your online persona using Twitter more fully by sending out tweets that are unique and reflect what you want your brand personality to be.  Your intention should be to get people to connect with your brand and to make yourself unique in your niche.  By being interesting and engaging, you’ll drive traffic to your website or blog.

4. to research your customers.  Twitter offers you an opportunity to spy on your target market’s interests and to ask them questions about their needs.

How frustrating is it to have to scroll through pages on your Smartphone to get to the content you want when a retailer is advertising something to you? Irritating and stupid. The marketer in me gets annoyed when retailers I like just send me emails with product offers and I have to fight my way through a bunch of screens to figure out what it’s for. Sure, I hear you. I know I can click on the website button or sometimes (like in J Crew’s case) there’s a supposed ‘mobile phone friendly version of this email’.

Better now: there’s .mobi. The mobi standard is the first attempt to set a standard for what a mobile site should look like. The standards are designed for easier viewing on the smaller screens of Blackberrys and iPhones. Screens are designed to be viewed as wider rather than narrower so you don’t have to scroll down. Options to purchase stuff are fewer, using drop down lists. Users will NOT be overwhelmed with data: something that costs users money on cell phones.

But is .mobi even necessary? Maybe not. Businesses can use the .mobi standards and create better consumer-friendly smartphone sites. Many companies are just adding an ‘m’ to their site and creating a smartphone friendly version e.g., m.google.com. In the long run, however, apps are the way that most businesses will go. The .mobi standard is just a stepping stone to help businesses build their way to a more smartphone-friendly way to access their website…and ultimately, sell their stuff.  It’s just another channel for accessing product.

My family likes a good Charlie Brown tree.  The wimpier, the better.  Every year we approach the lot looking for the tree that leans over the most, with the fewest branches to hold our cache of macaroni ornaments.  We don’t like it, however, when it drops it needles before the guy in the suit shows up.

The Christmas tree business is huge, especially in Atlantic Canada.  To the tune of $70M/year, Christmas tree growers are anxious to have their product last as long as possible.  Unfortunately, too many trees drop their needles before they’re sold, often en route to the big markets in the U.S.  This is bad news for the small tree lot owners.   Scientists at the (wait for it…) the Christmas Tree Research Centre recently developed a smart tree that will hold its needles for twice as long.  This is great news for consumers and producers alike.  Consumers get a tree that lasts longer and producers have their problem of perishability  reduced.  New product development is an important aspect of marketing:  recognizing a problem, either consumer or producer, in this case both, and solving it in an innovative way.

How’d the Christmas Tree Research Centre solve it?  By  feeding the trees hormones!  The same hormones that cause bananas to ripen and go bad apparently keep the needles on the branches, allowing your pipe cleaner decorations to swing merrily for a few more days…and your Charlie Brown tree to continue on being Charlie Brown for a little longer.

There will be lots of decade-best lists coming out now (depending on when you think the decade ended!)  There has been a lot written about where advertising is, and isn’t, going in the future.  These campaigns will give you something to think about.  I remember when I started using the Subservient Chicken (Burger King’s out there digital ad) to explain how social marketing campaigns could work, to the tune of 380 million people!  Interestingly, the Subservient Chicken, even though is 6 years old, took top spot.

Here are some of the top campaigns.  We’ve talked about many of these:

1. ‘The Hire’ – BMW’s 2001 series of short films directed & starring well known actors and directors.  This was an internet-only campaign designed to increase brand awareness amongst a younger target market

2. Dove Evolution – of course

3. Uniqlo’s Uniglock – Uniqlo, the cool Japanese apparel company that is taking over N. America, created the Uniqlock using pix of young, Japanese women show the time.  Time to call it a success:  Uniqlock.jp, received 68 million views.

4. IKEA’s Dream Kitchens – this gave users the ability to avoid the crazy lineups and explore 3D kitchens.  Missed the $1.99 breakfast though.

5. Livestrong’s Chalkbot – this robot wrote chalk messages, as directed by users, along the 2010 Tour de France route

For your entertainment, I’ve put The Chicken back up.  Click on the picture to get the link.  Just remember, there’s a limit to what he’ll do.

It was an exciting term in Bus 101 with 600 Sauder 1st year students in 4 sections having an opportunity to see all aspects of Commerce integrated.  Paul Cubbon, Jeff Kroeker, Rob Jackes and I taught this highly engaging, active course together.  Paul designed the course and he and Jeff ran it as a pilot last spring.  The students had no texts or exams.  Every class’ preparation was delivered via the website, with students prepping Harvard Business School or newspaper articles.  In each 125 student class, we clicked and tweeted.  The intention  was to give the new Commerce entrants a ‘once over lightly’ of all the different aspects of Commerce, showing them the tension and integration between topics.  How do marketing decisions affect human resources management?  Does sustainability have a role in finance?

The Bus 101 students learned  a lot about Commerce in their first term at b-school and got comfortable with a host of real world business tools like Twitter, clickers, blogs and business plans. Take a look at what UBC Public Affairs has to say.

Had a great discussion yesterday about the launch of product (RED), forcing us to think back to 4 years ago when this brand and business/charitable model were a whole new concept for raising money for a cause.  Look what showed up today: 

In this campaign, to support World AIDS Day on Dec. 1, digitally savvy celebs have stopped posting on Facebook and Tweeting until $1,000,000 is raised.  The campaign, called Digital Death, encourages consumers to buy back these celebs digital lives by texting to Buylife.org.  There was so much traffic that the website went down.

There were many other prongs to the campaign too:  (RED) products are available year round from Nike, GAP, Starbucks and Armani.

Starbucks has an exceptionally cool advent calendar (okay, who doesn’t love those), with a World AIDS Day contribution of $.05 for every view of a new Killers video.  Great.  Innovative.

Frequent use.  Small, regular payments.  All of the things that we talked about that (RED) was trying to do following the initial launch of the campaign:  keep you coming back.  Keep up that Customer Lifetime Value.

Today’s the day:  World AIDS Day.  Get yourself to a Starbucks today.  5 cents from every drink goes to fight AIDS in Africa.

We’ve talked quite a bit this term about giving up control of your brand.  Brandchannel has an interesting article about Jay-Z, Cristal and brand control.  You may know about the famous feud between the CEO of Cristal and Jay Z.  The CEO of Cristal was asked about his thoughts on how Cristal had been lifted from a luxury brand known to connoisseurs to a bling brand via rap mentions.  His response:  we can’t stop people buying it.  Yikes!  Enter Jay-Z.  By including the brand name, along with Dom, in his song, Jay-Z introduced Cristal to a whole new segment and gave the brand a new meaning:  audacious, kind of subversive, associated with the good life in an cheeky, intrepid way.

Is this a problem for the brands:  what if they don’t want the association with hip hop’s values?  Can they do anything about it or should they just drive on and wait until the next thing takes over?   Is there any real risk to the core segment that buys the brand being alienated by the infusion of new buyers or will the groups even notice each other?  Should the CEO have said anything or just kept his mouth shut and been thankful that his brand’s sales had dramatically increased?  Interesting decisions around brand control and when to let it go…or if you can even control it the way you’d like to.

Elf Yourself http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/ by Officemax is into its 6th year.  378 million people in 50 countries, still get a kick (groan), like me, of seeing themsELVES and their kids dance around in an elf suit.  My girls and I have been spinning and poppin’ and lockin’ for a couple of hours now and I still think it’s funny.  I think it’s awesome marketing on Officemax’s part too.  It’s not a store I frequent but they’ve managed to get some bucks from me because of this.  What started out as a viral marketing campaign has been turned into something that generates direct revenue for Officemax.  You can buy yoursELF a mousepad, video, coffee mug…everything that your Mum would want.  As seems to be de rigeur now, they’ve also added a Facebook game: Elfmas Town. What’s cool about the way Officemax does this is that they keep it fresh every year by adding on a few new extras and then they take it away until next year, kind of like Cadbury Easter Creme Eggs. We’re sick of it by the middle of December but delighted again when we see oursELVES the following year. They’ve also figured out how to generate direct revenue from what started out as a neat branding idea.

Hey, I’m bustin’ a move.  Bet you’re thinking about it now too.

We’ve been doing some fun stuff in my classes this term around creativity, trying to open up the mind channel for innovative inspiration before we dive into the hard work of case discussions.  I think it’s been a fun way to start class and it’s reconnected many of the students in a small way each day to why they came to marketing in the first place:  because they like to create, because they were inspired to be inventive, original and leading edge in their thinking.

Sir Ken Robinson has some interesting thoughts on how schools are killing creativity and why creativity is critical to our society.  This jibes nicely with one of my favourite books:  A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink.  Pink puts forward the idea that we will rely less on left brain jobs in the 21st century as these jobs increasingly become outsourced and automated (yes, even lawyering and accounting work) and consider the importance of being in touch with our right brains, teaching right brain skills like creativity and empathy.

Pop up retailers are here for a good time, not a long time.  You’ve probably seen them:  stores that you notice just over the holiday period, for example, that weren’t there in the fall and, when you walk by the same spot in February, that store will be gone.  This is the idea of hot trend called pop up retail:  retailers set up shop for short period and then disband when they’ve sold out.  Big brands like Nike, Gap, even Gucci have tried it.

Pop up retail gives retailers a chance to test products in new markets and to build their brand recognition amongst consumers.  It lets small, local retailers take advantage of lower, short term lease opportunities on retail space without committing to large inventories.

An interesting local example is The Latest Scoop often showing up on S. Granville and in Kitsilano.

The GAP recently created a furor when they announced a change in their logo from the old familiar navy blue (red at Christmas) to something newer, and what they felt was, more friendly to our digital app-driven world.  The market did not agree and there was a huge public outcry.  So much so that GAP scrapped the new logo.

GAP Inc. ran several social media campaigns to come up with the new logo.  While GAP may not be your thing these days, it certainly is many people’s thing as  GAP pulled in revenues of $14.2B last year and increased sales growth.  The brand just doesn’t feel as relevant anymore, unfortunately.  But consider what’s good about the brand?  While you may not love it, the logo is widely recognized…and given the outcry, clearly loved by many people.

The new logo is pretty bland and looks like it was created by a committee trying to pull elements of the old logo together with what they think might look good on an iPhone app.  Is this the right way to build a brand’s equity, especially for one of the strongest brands in the world.  Also, consider the choice of font:  Helvetica.  Used to be an interesting font.  Kind of cool.  Now, it has become ubiquitous and representative of nothing.  Is that what The GAP wants us for a brand association?  Good move in pulling the new logo and putting the old one back on the box.  Wonder what the next chapter will be…this one isn’t over…

Macdonald’s, one of the most valuable brands in the world, recently joined with Farmville (owned by Zynga) on Facebook for a round of in-game advertising. Mickey D’s now has his own farm, the MacFarm, and visitors who helped grow tomatoes or mustard seeds were rewarded with a Consumable.

The exposure on Farmville for Macdonald’s is huge. While Macdonald’s serves 26 million customers in the US per day, Farmville has 215 million users per month. This is a good example of an in-game branding partnership. Macdonald’s (and Zynga) correctly recognize the target audience for Farmville and saw that the possible branding and sales benefits brought about by the exposure to Macdonald’s during gameplay could be huge.

Click on the image to download your own copy of the Brand Language Period Table.

Roll over the boxes on the Periodic Table to see definitions of Brand Evolution terms.

The world’s most lovable athlete, who knocked us all out with his sprinting ability and personality in Beijing, has finally signed an athletic wear endorsement deal with his longtime supporter, Puma. What’s notable about this deal is that it’s the biggest deal in athletics history. Say again! The biggest deal ever! Details haven’t been released but this one echoes another fave’s, Ronaldo’s $32.5 million 4 year deal with Nike.
Bolt has been compared to David Beckham as one of the most marketable athletic stars. Many athletes can connect on the performance side of their sport. Bolt connects with fans in a unique way. Marketing and endorsement gold.The world’s most lovable athlete, who knocked us all out with his sprinting ability and personality in Beijing, has finally signed an athletic wear endorsement deal with his longtime supporter, Puma. What’s notable about this deal is that it’s the biggest deal in athletics history. Say again! The biggest deal ever! Details haven’t been released but this one echoes another fave’s, Ronaldo’s $32.5 million 4 year deal with Nike.
Bolt has been compared to David Beckham as one of the most marketable athletic stars. Many athletes can connect on the performance side of their sport. Bolt connects with fans in a unique way. Marketing and endorsement gold.
An interesting marketing question to consider is why do celebrity athletes command higher endorsement fees than actors, singers or musicians? Sports is the only arena in which the performance is unscripted and the day’s play spontaneous. Athletes gives us an opportunity to cheer and live our own best sports day vicariously through their performances. This is a quality that ad writers can’t create. Sports offers us the chance of failure, elation and memories. Remember Crosby’s Olympics goal. Where were you? What were you doing? Because of this, we’re willing to buy the golf clubs, sports drinks, even pain relievers, these demigods shill more than those endorsed by the latest movie star.

An interesting marketing question to consider is why do celebrity athletes command higher endorsement fees than actors, singers or musicians? Sports is the only arena in which the performance is unscripted and the day’s play spontaneous. Athletes gives us an opportunity to cheer and live our own best sports day vicariously through their performances. This is a quality that ad writers can’t create. Sports offers us the chance of failure, elation and memories. Remember Crosby’s Olympics goal. Where were you? What were you doing? Because of this, we’re willing to buy the golf clubs, sports drinks, even pain relievers, these demigods shill more than those endorsed by the latest movie star.

Just finished a fascinating book written entirely on the subject of differentiation and how most products with which we are familiar and regular consumers have become vastly undifferentiated.  What, undifferentiated?!  Think about it.  Next time you stand in front of a row of power bars or running shoes or even your next laptop purchase:  are one brand, one product really that different from the next?  Or have you become an expert in the powerbar-running shoe-laptop category by now and THAT is why you can perceive differentiation?

It’s a powerful point that Youngme Moon puts forward in her new book, Different:  Escaping the Competitive Herd. Moon shows us that product proliferation in a category does not beget product diversification but in fact, just the opposite.  Consumers, we greedy monsters, want our favourite products do deliver more of what our competitors’ products offer too.  We want it all in our favourite product.  And so manufacturers oblige.  Instead of playing to their strengths and giving us more of what they’re good at, manufacturers give us more of what everybody else is offering.

Moon’s antidote for reversal is for companies to become stripped down, simple, naked.  Do just one thing and do it well.  Don’t offer oceans.  Be Google (when it started) not Yahoo.  Ninteno Wii.  JetBlue.  By offering customers less, companies can become more successful by standing out, if it’s done strategically.

We all love the commercial that re-invigorated the tired Old Spice brand and has generated 180 million Youtube hits.  Isaiah Mustafa, a former NFLer turned model and Old Spice pitchman, has broken all viral video records and become a pop icon.  But has all of this record breaking, water cooler talk turned into sales for Old Spice?  Turns out, Old Spice doesn’t really know.

The men’s body wash category has grown 8.6% this year and prior to Mustafa’s ad, Old Spice’s share was flat.  Old Spice has had gains in the category since the ads started but aren’t sure whether it is due to the ads or the extensive use of coupons.  The ad, which has won major international prizes, has had a positive impact and has helped Old Spice gain back market share losses.  Add to the ads Mustafa’s highly publicized, personal response videos which generated 29 million views in a week and Old Spice had a new hit on its hands.

Industry watchers are questioning whether it is the coupons that are responsible for the increase in the Old Spice’s sales, not the TV ads or the social media campaign.  In this era of Social Marketing, aren’t they missing the boat?  Aren’t we trying to integrate all aspects of marketing:  coupons, tv ads, personal responses from Mustafa himself to create deeper levels of engagement with the brand to move it from an old man’s brand to a brand that young men think of when they choose body wash. The social media campaign just started in July.  The TV ads in Feb.  The social media campaign can’t be judged yet on ROI.  The timeframe to measure ROI for the social media campaign is too short.  The other issue to consider is has there been a change in the market buying Old Spice?  This campaign will be viral for a long time and Old Spice can ride it for a while, refreshing as it needs to, if they continue to connect with a younger audience.



Interesting article this week in Businessweek about how Nestle SA has developed an innovative distribution strategy to reach remote villages on the Amazon river banks by using a supermarket barge.  Nestle SA, in a move to head off competition with rival Unilever, and respond to emerging market consumers, will sail the barge down two Amazon river tributaries distributing to 18 small cities.  800,000 potential consumers are Nestle’s new market.  These consumers lives revolve around fishing and they don’t have time to go to the capital to buy goods.  Supermarket purchases in these areas outpaced growth in richer areas as disposable incomes increased.

The barge will carry 300 different products, including chocolate, yogurt, ice cream and juices.  This is an example of Nestle using direct distribution, bypassing any middleman e.g., wholesalers or distributors and selling its own branded product directly from its factory through its own ‘store’.  Direct distribution gives Nestle a competitive advantage over regional competitors who don’t have similar resources e.g., transportation, inventory, refrigeration, financial to do the same thing.

Nestle has adapted its product mix to respond to the income level of people in this area, offering smaller cheaper versions of its ice cream and milk powder.  As many as 1 billion people in emerging markets are expected to exit poverty in the coming decade and Nestle, and competitor Unilever, want to be prepared with offerings, distribution and partnerships with local suppliers.

It’s an interesting and innovative idea – bringing the product to the consumer when the consumer can’t easily get to you and one that we see every day in our high tech world of the Internet.  It’s interesting to consider a more low tech version:  using a boat and river to get chocolate and ice cream to consumers.