I was surprised to find a recent article today regarding Metro Vancouver’s very own Men in Kilts’ ambition of expanding their service to 50 new cities, mainly south of the border. Prior to reading this article, I had only heard of the company locally but had an unclear perception as to what they did and was totally clueless on their national expansion and success. As services like window cleaning tend to be predominantly local, it is very impressive that Men in Kilts has not only expanded eastward in Canada, but even to cities on America’s eastern seaboard in just over a decade and turned their annual revenue from $20,000 to $6 million this year.  I believe a major factor in why this company has been so successful is because it has positioned itself effectively in the market. As Al Ries and Jack Trout explained the power of a name. The memorable name of this company differentiates it from the competition as only it conjures images of “tough Scottish men labouring on your house” while having the friendliness and charm to wear kilts. Such a different customer relationship probably helps it in securing loyalty as well. Expanding on the power of their name, it is not limited by anything but their workforce and uniform. Since the name has no specific service attached to it, such as “Window Cleaning” or “Gutter Cleaning”, Men in Kilts has the ability to expand into countless more services as they enter those 50 new markets.

(Image from <http://www.vancouversun.com/business/smallbusiness/cms/binary/8994917.jpg?size=620x400s>)

I recently found an article on The Globe and Mail that reported on Absolut Vodka unveiling its revamped marketing campaign featuring new, talented artists creating works for the brand that will be advertised digitally and conventionally.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93uIGknDJIc

This classic distributor holds a point of difference in branding as it has always leaned toward a bold, striking, youth oriented image as opposed to a more conservative brand such as Russian Standard. After looking at several other Vodka brands’ websites to see their image, and thinking about a perceptual map with a bold-image to conservative-image axis, Absolut would fittingly be placed far towards the bold image end, a brand like Russian Standard Vodka would be more oriented toward the conservative, and furthermore, Smirnoff would range somewhere in the middle of the axis. I found it interesting how Absolut wants to reconnect itself with its target market (people about 20-35 years old) because the original consumer base they developed as loyal customers in the late 80’s has grown too old. I believe that selecting these multinational, talented, young artists to lead their campaign suits their brand image soundly and I wish them success with this campaign.

(Absolut’s vibrant image illustrated by its bottles <http://www.absolut.com/content/posters/Global/absolut-unique-promo.jpg>)

As stated by Friedman, the business’s actions do not have to be founded upon the basis for societal well-being. Instead, the sole purpose of a business is to maximize the desires of its stakeholders, in most cases the desire being profit. I found an article from 1999 which discussed the “social responsibility” aspects of two of the world’s most well-known multinationals: Disney and Mattel. Having outsourced its production to firms in China, both corporations had come under scrutiny regarding sweatshop-like conditions in its factories. In response to this social outcry, Disney carried out thousands of inspections and even cancelled its partnership with one of its largest factories that failed to meet the criteria. Mattel implemented a similar stance. This is where Friedman’s mentioned “cloak” of social responsibility comes into play. Honestly, how many people would be convinced that the corporate executives at Disney or Mattel suddenly awoke with the decision that, under their corporations’ name, they simply wanted to improve the lives of their offshore employees? Because to me, there is no evidence to support than a corporation actually seeks to assist anything else but itself and its interests. Using the toy sweatshops as an example, Mattel only sought to better improve the conditions within its subcontracted factories because the brand and image of Mattel itself was under the threat of a public-relations disaster and a potential boycott of its products which, obviously, would in turn correlate to lost profit. The very essence of profit itself is far beyond monetary value. Profit could simply mean what benefits a business receives out of an investment – in this case the profit is an improved public opinion. A corporation seeks to improve itself under the “cloak” of social responsibility because it sees a potential benefit in the long run. Put simply, the corporation really does adhere to its fundamental purpose of maximizing the profits for its stakeholders. Businesses are really very much like humans because, when you help someone, aren’t you really just helping yourself?