Basics of branding: Arnell's Pepsi concepts

Too often, positioning strategy is seen as some lofty, abstract, and intangible activity. It's mistaken as a marketing black art because the process that goes into its execution is so subjective.

Frankly, some people are better at understanding consumer strategy than others. They have unique insights into how consumers think, are familiar with multiple points of appropriate cultural references, and can argue for a positioning stance based on a foresight to know that it will effectively ready a brand or product for future success.

They know what consumers engage with and why.

The Pepsi rebrand that launched in January 2009 - including the redesign of a 30 year old logo - is one of those projects that required the expertise of this kind of strategic creative person.

The Peter Arnell Group was the agency responsible for concept development of Pepsi's new logo. A document released (perhaps seeded into the social media community so bloggers like me will pick it up and buzz about it...) describes the rationale behind the new Pepsi logo:


Apparently, "emotive forces shape the gestalt of the brand identity" - a phrase I love! - which means that "things that stir emotions in people influence the whole personality of Pepsi".

Take a look at the document. It's full of bizarre diagrams that deconstruct and code the DNA of the Pepsi brand. It's like looking at the Human Genome Project for a soft-drink.




The value in doing this? The agency is showing it's skills for strategic creativity. It's demonstrating through applied concepts why the new design makes sense, rather than some arbitrary selection criteria that chooses one design over another based on what someone likes the best. It's an attempt to be really scientific - in a creative way.

This matters because the more strategically creative value an agency is able to deliver (in the form of design conceptualization or consumer insight), the greater differentiation they will have against competitors. The greater differentiation, the higher the premium they can charge for their services.

Read the report, see what you think.

How advertising agencies grew up

In another fantastic example of my two birds, one stone philosophy, I'm blog-posting and collecting supporting evidence for a presentation my group is making on Thursday about ad agencies.

I'm reading this interesting book, Adland, all about the growth of the advertising industry. It's a summary account of major global agencies and their influential founders. The book gives equal credit to the importance of consumer insight (research), outstanding creativity (artistry), and compelling messaging (copywriting) as elements of successful agencies. Often the most noteworthy agencies were started as a partnership between a planner, an art director, and a copywriter (or a combination of).

Here are a few examples of successful advertising agencies and how they grew up:

Lord & Thomas, an old print ad agency at the turn of the 20th century into the thirties, led by Albert Lasker, known as the true father or modern advertising. Lasker created the form of the modern agency with a department of copywriters and a focus on sales, planning, and business development. He recruited famous copywriter Claude Hopkins, known for a rational sales-focused style honed through research and empirical results. As simple an obvious as it now sounds, the 'Hopkins Approach' to good ad development implies finding the unique factor for any product that sets it apart from its rivals. Groundbreaking stuff in 1907. The importance here is that even as early as 1907, there was a strong scientific basis to advertising and agencies that could deliver a more effective advertisement were more successful. Lord & Thomas is now DraftFCB, part of Interpublic.

JWT, founded in 1878 by J. Walter Thompson (who actually bought out the agency owned by Willian Carlton), one of the largest and most successful advertising agencies ever (now part of the WPP holding company). Grew significantly from 1920s to 1950s under Stanley Resor and his wife Helen Landsdowne who emphasized the need for credible research to back up claims of product superiority (think doctors, psychologists). JWT is now the largest US agency, fourth largest in the world.

Young & Rubicam, founded in 1923 by John Young and Raymond Rubicam, is now one of the largest advertising agencies in the world. It grew like other modern agencies but had a strong focus on backing up ideas with solid research. It may therefore be considered among the less risk-taking agencies because of its more dogmatic approach to campaign development. Y&R was known for its creativity in the 1950s, but Rubicam also wanted to instill a practical, reason-based foundation in the work. In 1932, Rubicam hired George Gallup (yes, that Gallup), a sociologist and researcher to head a consumer research departmnt of 400 people within the agency. The primary research collected by field researchers working for Y&R would lead to the development of better, more relevant campaigns. In 2000 Young and Rubicam Brands (including Wunderman and Young & Rubicam) was acquired by WPP.


DDB, founded by Ned Doyle, Maxwell Dane, and Bill Bernbach in 1949 as the antithesis to what was seen at the time as stodgy and conservative creative work by the major agencies (Greay, Y&M, O&M, JWT). This was the creative shop in the 1950s, the team responsible for the famous VW Lemon ads. DDB established itself and grew based on creative risk-taking and simply great ideas rather than a focus on consumer research (the Levy's Rye Bread ad, shown above, is a classic example from DDB). A defining quality at DDB was the deliberate collaboration between art directors and copywriters to spark great ideas, known as the creative revolution in advertising. DDB merged with BBDO and Needham in 1986 to create Omnicom, then the largest advertising company in the world. DDB is seriously successful, with many creative awards (to this day) the highest revenue ($12.69B in 2007) of any agency.

Chiat/Day, creative hotspot founded in Los Angeles in 1962, best known for the '1984' Apple Superbowl ad (shown below). Although Stanley Pollitt at BMP developed the practice of 'account planning' - placing researcher and account managers directly together on client teams to better facilitate consumer insights, it was the application of account planning at Chiat/Day that catalyzed the agency's meteoric rise. From the introduction of account planning organization in 1982 to 1992, the agency's client billings grew from $50MM to $700MM. Chiat/Day merged with the European collective TBWA in 1993 and was acquired by Omnicom.



Wieden + Kennedy, founded in 1982 by Dan Wieden and David Kennedy out of Portland Oregon. W+K is a big favourite of mine for producing amazing creative work, notably Coke's 'Coke Side of Life' and the Nike 'Just Do It' campaign. The shop was the first to challenge the advertising hegemony of Madison Avenue. It's now one of the largest independently owned agencies and still producing great work, like this fantastic spot for Nike (shown below) which premiered during the 2008 Olympics. I still get chills and cry. Seems to have grown as a result of strong TV capabilities.



M&C Saatchi, founded in 1996 by the same Saatchi brothers who were forced out of their original agency, their namesake Saatchi & Saatchi. M&C Saatchi is relatively small but global, highly creative, and highly strategic in their thinking. It uses the concept of 'Brutal Simplicity' to deconstruct brands and consumer strategies to their simplest elemental forms. One word thinking. It's meant to get to the heart of insight. (Note, I really want to work here when they finally open a Toronto office!)

180, an innovative shop founded in 1998, spun off by account managers from Wieden + Kennedy's Amsterdam office who committed the most grievous of sins, pitching for Adidas, the hated rival of Nike, W+K's primary client. 180 is a multicultural agency, strongly reflecting the diversity of its Amsterdam HQ. In 2007 they opened an Los Angeles office and are now 50% owned by Omnicom. 180 describes that they first "think of the big idea and then apply it to media channels. If it doesn't work in all channels, then it's not a big idea." Interesting example of an agency that relies on incredible talent as a driver of creativity.

StrawberryFrog, started in 1999 (also in Amsterdam) as a digital media agency, now is a specialist in creating cultural movements. An example of a shop that really gets the optimism and creative risk-taking (remember DDB in the 1950s?) that makes advertising exciting. The agency specializes in popular movements using a wide array of contact points with consumers, from outdoor advertising to web-based initiatives. They design brand environments, says cheif CD, Mark Chalmers. Cool, cool stuff. Check out their story of advertising.

What I think is cool - and a key linchpin of my 601 group's strategic recommendation for our site - is that successful agencies have grown by a deliberate recognition of the importance of strategic planning and consumer research. In the case of BMP, this function is highly integrated into campaign development in the form of the 'account planning' model. In the case of Young & Rubicam, it's the purposeful distancing of a research department to develop pure, unadulterated and meaningful consumer truths.

Agencies need strategy. It's a higher value adding service and something that can improve the quality and relevance of campaigns for consumers.

But in other examples, agencies became successful simply because of the way they did work. They were more cultural. Riskier and with fresher ideas. M&C Saatchi, DDB, StrawberryFrog, and 180 are examples.

So we're now left with an interesting industry - it's highly divided, with six massive players and their collection of agencies at one end (WPP, Omnicom, Havas, Publicis, Interpublic, and Dentsu) and small boutique standalone agencies at the other. In the middle are micro-networks of agencies with networks of regional offices or partnerships.

It's these mid-tier agencies which are the most interesting to look at because they defy convention. Sure, they're creative, but they're also executional experts at new media channels which they grew up using. StrawberryFrog is an example. Same for Razorfish/Avenue A. They're strategic creatives, talking big ideas as much as consumer marketing strategies. And they're winning business. Adidas is handled by Sid Lee out of Montreal and 180 from Amsterdam. Nike is handled by Wieden + Kennedy. Burger King is handled by Crispin Porter & Bogusky from Miami. The German boutique Heyer & Partners developed the McDonald's 'I'm Lovin' It' campaign.

So what happens when strategy is increasingly being determined by nimble shops that can produce a global impact but don't need global operations?

All accounts are up for grabs.

Starbucks is ill

In looking for images, I searched "sad Starbucks" - this woman's picture came up, and she does look pretty sad.

Starbucks is posting a 69% loss in their last quarter, closing 300 stores, and cutting 6,700 jobs. Pretty bad times. I've even started drinking McDonald's coffee (which is pretty good) because as much as I love Starbucks, I can't justify the $2.50ish for a venti coffee.

Starbucks is reacting by swinging again toward value. Value based breakfasts and discount snacks (coffee and muffins), and a greater focus on drip coffee as opposed to espresso coffee beverages.

Wise choice, considering that consumers associate Starbucks with cappuccinnos, lattes, and other premium beverages, not with plain coffee. The decision to buy from Starbucks is based on the consumer weighing a decadent, premium latte drink to basic drip coffee. When wallets are fat, consumers treat themselves.

So when times are rough, it's no surprise that the appeal of a $4.50 latte begins to wane.

I think maybe it's time to leverage some the data from those Starbucks Cards now and begin to incentivize repeat visits and customer loyalty. With thin margins and a business based on premium quality products sold quickly with friendly service in a nice ambiance, Starbucks cannot risk not capitalizing valuable consumer insights. Growth into the CPG business and franchising the Seattle's Best brand to more locations are steps in the right direction to diversify the business and sustain Starbucks through economic ups and downs.

Important marketing memes of 2009

And we're back!

Memes are important thought trends in contemporary culture. They are widely distributed, fresh, and organically generated concepts and ideas that emanate and circulate rapidly in a network of plugged-in people. At their worst, memes can propagate racism. At their best, memes can propagate lolcatz like Ceiling Cat!


So I should probably cover up.

Anyway, to start off the new year, it's relevant to think about memes that might matter in marketing in 2009. Let's talk about the concepts, trends, and practices of marketers that will become more commonplace and popular. Let's talk about the ideas that will quickly disseminate through agencies and client teams, mastered by the savvy group of consumers, and eventually expectorated back to the teeming masses of mainstream culture.

In other words, let's talk about what are relevant marketing trends for 2009:

THE 'EXPERIENCE IT' MEME


In the context of the rising tide of greater relevance in advertising, some lucky consumers will find themselves the subject of rare interactions with marketers that go deeper than the banal and shallow ad pitch. Without buying, a privileged few prospects will be invited to try a product, brand, or service. But what they're really trying is an experience.

Remember when you were invited to try Gmail when it was still in beta mode? (Remember how awesome that felt!?)

Testing experience with consumers firsthand is like playing in a sandbox. It's safe, controlled, and a great petri dish to catalyze learnings for experiential improvements. Furthermore, you want to actively segment an select prospects to participate in the experience who you know will then actively go out and spread word of mouth among their networks.

Seeding networks is nothing new, but in 2009 expect to see more seeding based on complete brand experiences rather than simple trial testing or free offers. It's the culmination of consumers' undeniable influence on social diffusion of brands and the demand by consumers for things which they can live, rather than things which they can simply wear, listen to, or eat.

THE COLLABORATION MEME


You know how individual consumers are encouraged to put their stamp of approval on something? They're able to personalize their brands either through participating in the product development and customization process, influence brand direction by vocalizing their needs in web forums and social media, and make the brand their own through non-traditional uses.

Now take the personalization to a broader scale. You and your network personalize your product. You and your friends personalize your brand experience.

Gen Ys are social creatures. We thrive on instant communications within our highly networked worlds (that's why we go mental when the DSL isn't working...). Digitally socializing is an intensive part of our lives and the impact of one's network on the things we associate with is immense.

So why would a marketer allow your network to collaborate with you when developing your personal brand relationship with them? Because it's a direct acknowledgment by the marketer of the things that matter to the consumer: their friends. It's an invitation by the marketer for you to show your network that they are influencers.

Look for this style of meme to pop up with everything from iPod playlists to fashion to media content.

THE INTEGRATED MARKETING MIX MEME



This one is big. Integrated marketing communications refers to the choreography among different ad channels, all targeting the prospects with related messages, calls-to-action, and incentives. It's not merely enough anymore to pair a TV spot with a website. It's insufficient to have a radio play in the same market as targeted magazine drops.

Integrated marketing is a mix of advertising channels that are optimal to distribute the message YET still convey relevance to the end consumer. This is critical. Furthermore, this does not underscore an increase in the overall number of message impressions received by the prospect consumer. Instead, it speaks to two things: 1) a curriculum style that gradually educated prospect consumers about a product/service/brand that they would respond to; 2) a coordinated effort by a marketer to demonstrate relevance to consumers across multiple platforms.

What is still unexplained is whether marketers will contract out their entire marcom budget to a single agency that is capable of doing all things (integrated), or whether marketers will act as directors and fragment their marcom budget out to a variety of specialized agencies.

It's hard for me to call this one a meme because I believe this is a sea change in marketing towards relevance-based integrated campaign development. Perhaps it's meme-like insofar that there will be rapid awareness in 2009 and some traditional marketers will make nascet inroads to developing a more balanced communications strategy.

BTW, when I was thinking about an element to include for the word 'choreography', the Indian version of 'Thriller immediately came to mind...!

Marketing best practices

Killing two birds with one stone is great isn't it?

I'm writing an appendix about advertising channel marketing strategy right now for a report as part of my 601 project and I thought about posting the analysis up to the blog!

I love original content!!!

It's really abbreviated, but it's a quick comparison of old and new best practices of various online and offline advertising channels. I've tried to be comprehensive and unbiased here (although I personally think that untargeted advertising can go to Hell....) but it's a good synopsis of the different benefits and recommendations for effectiveness for each channel.

You'll see that throughout this chart I'm really in support of integrated campaigns. That means marketing communications that simultaneously leverage the other active channels. It's the newspaper ad that tells you to go online and try virtually test drive the new model car, it's the radio spot that tells you to look for Count Chocula sampling this Saturday at Metro stores in the GTA.

God, how I wish there was a product sampling of Count Chocula....but I digress.

Oh, and BBAs, plagiarize away! Just don't expect to develop unoriginal, uncited analysis and hand it to me to give to one of our clients.

Advertising channel	Channel description	Old best practices	New best practices
Website development	Includes website design, management, analysis, promotional microsite development. Important channel for speaking directly to tech-savvy, younger consumers.	Clear site navigation and shallow site structure with few deep levels. Integrate web metrics tracking for site optimization and online marketing. Promotion in offline marketing communications as a source of extra information about a brand.	Site users have the opportunity to create content and interact bilaterally with the site. Important to integrate websites with offline communications including print and television (often these drive consumers to the website). Provide relevant brand and product information in multiple formats, allowing consumers an opportunity to take content with them or send to their friends off the site. Promoted in offline communications as a destination in itself and a place to go as part of Web 2.0 consumer interactivity.
Email	Includes email design, deployment, analysis, and potential integration with database segmentation. Important channel for direct marketing and establishing brand relevance.	Use an attention grabbing subject line. Display the best content “above the fold” of the screen. Do not be too copy-heavy, leverage text and pictures. Communicate exclusive offers, promotions, and deals to “our best customers”.	Perform active segmentation and response analysis on house list to determine most optimal messages/content to be included in targeted email to consumers. Must be easy for consumers to unsubscribe or change their email settings. Position as nonintrusive consumer touchpoint that is relevant to you. Email is highly useful to create a curriculum or education campaign for new consumers or a multi-wave campaign.
Social media	Includes brand promotion through social media public relations, viral content development and distribution, network ‘seeding’, and identity development on social network profile sites. Important channel for brand identity building through online affiliations and new project promotion.	Note, because this is such a new channel, best practices are being developed as part of an ongoing mutation of the medium. Social media is too young to have any “old” best practices, because marketers are still trying to understand how to use it effectively.	Pay attention to emerging consumer memes and viral trends online. Ride these. Create a clear identity that allows users to comment, rate, or interact with the brand’s social media presence. Use social media PR sparingly and only to announce exciting brand developments or significant launches. “Feedback 3.0” is the act of brands actively responding to and commenting back to their commentators in online forums. (TrendWatching.com)
In-store retail promotion	Includes design of product packaging and printed promotional materials, development of coupons and offers. Also includes total management of promotional projects and events, including multiple-party promotions.	Eye-popping visuals and unique creative execution. Display in preferred locations in retail environments (end of aisle, eye level, front of store and produce area). Promotions are used to highlight exciting new product launches or as a boost to seasonally low sales.	Retail promotions are immediately relevant to the consumer (because they are physically interacting with the product and have opted-in). Therefore how are promotions used by brands to develop long-term positive relationships with their consumers? Promotions must be thought of like big impressions for brand building and used for activating new brand strategy. Strong integration of promotions with other non-tangible brand communications.
Experiential	Includes the planning, execution, and management of in-person demonstrations, sampling, physical product interactions, sensory advertising, and other impression-based advertising experiences.	Create innovative and original experiences – make the consumer say “wow, I’ve never seen this before”. High traffic locations are effective to reach as many people as possible. Eye-catching or permits prolonged or repeat impressions.	Demonstrate measurability and big impact on sales by using experiential techniques. Cannot simply generate a ‘big splash’. Use experiential advertising projects as opportunities to also establish customer listening posts and gain valuable primary research about brand perceptions and usage.
Direct mail	Includes the design, writing, segmentation, deployment, analysis, and management of print advertising, flyers, brochures, offers, product samples, and house-list magazines that are targeted to specific consumers (not mass mail).	‘Test and learn’ – perform frequent empirically controlled tests to different consumer segments to understand what is the optimal form of creative and offer to generate higher response. Personalize direct mail and provide a compelling reason to open it (similar to an email subject line)	Integrated use of direct mail with CRM database for clients. Understand customer behavior across response channels (direct mail, web, email, SMS). Like in-store retail promotion, direct mail establishes an intimate connection between the brand and consumer because it is highly interactive and tangible. Clear announcement of purpose and call to action so that customer understands role of direct mail in context of all other interactions they have with the brand.
Out-of-home	Includes the design, deployment, and management of all messaging that appears on outdoor ‘surfaces’ in high-traffic or visible areas. Note, limited effectiveness of this channel at driving response and engagement from consumers. Highly passive engagement by prospects in this channel.	Like experiential and in-store retail promotion, out-of-home should be immediately understandable and capture interest. Copy must be concise and non-informational. Strictly call-to-action.	A classic medium, the best practices have no changed significantly because of limited innovation potential of the platform. Obvious integration of out-of-home advertising with existing in-market campaigns in other channels.
Mobile	Includes copywriting, segmentation, deployment, management, and analysis of text or multimedia messages distributes to mobile phone subscribers over a network. Important channel for brand building and relationship development.	Note, because this is such a new channel, best practices are being developed as part of an ongoing mutation of the medium. Mobile technology is also rapidly evolving and permits unique applications like proximity sensitive out-of-home marketing (billboards that activate when a consumer walks by) and geo-targeted messages direct to the consumer.	Must be an opt-in house list and must permit easy unsubscribe for recipients. SMS marketing is highly invasive (it’s marketing that vibrates in your pocket). Therefore the message should be targeted, relevant, and actionable by the consumer. Therefore, SMS is not optimal for informational campaigns. Instead, use for direct response or experiential purposes (e.g. respond now).
Television	Includes the design, production, media buying, and management of television commercials or infomercials. Important channel for broad awareness of brand strategy to consumers. This sets the tone of an integrated campaign with multiple channel strategies.	A great ‘hook’ to immediately capture attention. Clear link between story and brand, story and message, and brand and message. Clear call to action for viewers, or an understanding of what they are being made to believe.	Best practices somewhat unchanged for mass media. Perhaps greater concern for how television commercials are able to change behavior among consumers. Is this really an advanced form of marketing that succeeds at building a relationship with consumers? Call-to-action that is integrated with other marketing communications in market. Useful capstone to large campaigns which rely on a broad mix of mediums (out-of-home, online, promotional, print, and radio).
Radio	Includes the design, production, media buying, and management of radio commercials.	Memorable messages that listeners can associate to a brand with unaided prompting. Local message optimization because of the ability to purchase large blocks of commercial time from radio station conglomerates that own stations in different markets.	Same as above. Positive associate to highlight existing in-market or upcoming promotional campaigns for integrated marketing campaigns.
Mass print media	Includes the design, production, media buying, and management of printed advertisements in newspapers, magazines, flyers, and other non-targeted print media.	Classic principles apply here for copywriting and call-to-action development.	Same as above. Considering existing volume of print media advertising that continues to be done, important to integrate this activity with marketing mix of online and offline channels. Can be used as a traffic-driving source of consumers to online channel where more information can be found about brand.

Keanu Reeves gives great client presentations

The world is abuzz with excitement over Keanu Reeves’ upcoming performance as Klaatu in “The Day the Earth Stood Still”. Although he’s busy on the movie’s media circuit, Keanu agreed to sit down with me and talk about his reflections on how to do a good client presentation.

MAX: So Keanu, this Friday B!G will be going to our client for a final presentation of the results from our marketing analysis. It’s mostly industry stuff and some technical details, but the gist of the presentations insights are focused on how the recommending short, medium, and long term opportunities for a sustainable marketing solution. How do you think we should present this?

KEANU: Well, what’s the client like? I mean, Max, you invite me to sit down with you and then you ask a really vague question that’s full of a lot of bullshit marketing terminology.


MAX: Ok, Ok…no need to be defensive. Our client is friendly and we have a good rapport with them. This is our second engagement with them and they have been receptive to our objective analysis in the past. A positive relationship overall.

KEANU: So they’re not defensive themselves?

MAX: No way.

KEANU: So then ask yourselves what information they’d like to see and make sure that its communicated through words, pictures, graphs, and graphics that they’ll understand. You said they’re friendly, right?

MAX: Yep.

KEANU: Ok, so make it a conversation. This way everyone is comfortable and B!G won’t be stressing out about the need to convince the client of the insights validity. Like, lay your cards on the table to start, and enjoy the time together. It should be natural.

MAX: Natural? How so?

KEANU: Well, I always found doing screen tests and auditions that if you’re going into it assuming that your audience will not be receptive to what you have to say then you inevitably screw up. But instead if you go into the performance believing in the truth and integrity of your message, you deliver it honestly and compellingly, and you make sure to connect with your audience as real people, not an immovable object, then you’ll generally succeed and get the part.


MAX: That’s great advice! So then we’ve got our message, we know our audience, but how are we going to deliver it in a compelling way?

KEANU: Tell a story. What’s the project about?

MAX: Wind energy in Canada.

KEANU: Gnarly. Ok, so explain the market, the key insights, the potential business plays, and the potential business strategy. But remember to link it together with some unifying theme….something like ‘growth’, or ‘innovation’, or ‘threats’. A common thread is a good thing to have in a presentation so the audience can link things together in their minds.

MAX: Cue cards?

KEANU: No way. It shows that you’re unprepared. How many months have you been doing this project?

MAX: Three months.

KEANU: Yeah, so there’s no reason why you and your groups’ members can’t just walk up and speak to the points on the slides. Remember, it’s not an announcement of information, it’s a conversation of information. Oh, and you should bring any supporting evidence or analysis along with you, but try to only cover the major points in the presentation. People get bored pretty quickly in these things so keep it simple.


MAX: What presentation style is best?

KEANU: Well everyone differs, right? I’m a method actor and I take my craft very seriously. Have you seen my oeuvre of work?

MAX: Your oeuvre?

KEANU: Yeah, my films. The Lake House, Sweet November, Dracula, and Johnny Mnemonic.

MAX: I think I’ve seen Dracula or Johnny Mnemonic, but The Matrix or Speed were my favourite films of yours.

KEANU: I hated those films. There was no room for my character to blossom and self-actualize.

MAX: I see….so then what type of presentation style is best?

KEANU: Again, everyone is different, but the big qualities are honest, comfort, and knowledgeability. If you can also be animated that’s good too. When you’re enthusiastic about the material, sometimes it helps to engage your audience so they are more receptive to the messages you’re speaking. The one piece of advice I really have for your group on Friday is to never appear like you yourself are not in support of what you’re saying. Always remember that you’re the expert on the presentation – you developed it, you did the research. If you can’t convince yourself of what you’re saying, then you’ll never convince the client.

MAX: Tubular advice Keanu, thanks for shooting the breeze and giving such awesome tips. The Day the Earth Stood Still opens December 12 and looks pretty cool. Check out the trailer.

Evolution commercials tell a great story

Commercials must have a natural storyline that's understandable and can be followed easily by the audience. There are a lot of really artistic spots that do this and although I question how effective these commercials were at actually contributing to an increase in sales, they're gorgeous to watch and really inventive.

JOHNNY WALKER



SATURN



GUINNESS



The Guinness clip is fantastic - I like how the product is clearly presented from the beginning and as the commercial progresses the audience is left guessing about not what the product is, but where the guys are going to.

The Saturn clip is eyecatching, but I really don't see the link to the brand. It's also probably too sexual for the blobby functionality of most Saturn cars.

The Johnny Walker clip confuses me. The commercial has nothing to do with the product or the lifestyle. It has to do with a tagline. How can you tell? Well, let's say we kept the tagline 'Keep walking' but that the brand wasn't Johnny Walker, but rather Nike. Or maybe some life insurance company. There's nothing unique about the premise but still it won a bunch of awards for the direction, CGI, and music. Bizarre.

Brand identity analysis with Wal-Mart

I love Wal-Mart, I think it’s a great retailer and a terrific example of good, old fashioned marketing. Great brand too and I love the direction it’s now being taken into sustainability and environmental stewardship. Seriously, stop laughing!

It’s also a good case study to analyze brand values (core values, extended values, and the brand essence). It also helps to have written about Wal-Mart for an assignment in my brand management class and getting the class’s top grade on the assignment! So let’s dissect their identity:

CORE BRAND VALUES

Now their core values are easy to pin down, Start thinking about what they stand for, their lasting, permanent qualities of the brand that it stands for and cannot live without.

What are Wal-Mart’s core values?

1. Customer empowerment. Wal-Mart helps their customers lead better lives. The always low price guarantee is a statement of the brand’s ‘you first’ belief.
2. Customer satisfaction. Superior value for customers with satisfaction guaranteed. Wal-Mart stands behind their products to a degree that I’m not sure many other retailers their size can approach. As clichéd as it may seem, when you buy an item at Wal-Mart, you’re really buying a guarantee of satisfaction.
3. Price leadership. Strong differentiation from competitor brands based on low prices. Wal-Mart’s brand is truly inseparable from its price.

Core values are things that every company employee would be able to tell you about the brand without missing a beat. You ask them, ‘what does your brand stand for?’, ‘what kind of person is your brand?’ Another useful question is the Mars Approach, which posits ‘if you were to take employees from the company and have them open a store on Mars, what are the qualities you want them to take there?’

EXTENDED BRAND VALUES

The extended identity is not quite core, not quite ephemeral. The identity is broader, still relevant, but flexible. Here is where new values come into the brand sphere and are adopted through legitimate and sincere actions taken by the company.

What are Wal-Mart’s extended values?

1. Community responsibility. Wal-Mart acts responsibly in its customers’ communities. Forget about claims that Wal-Mart shuts our local merchants and kills Main St. (however true this may be!). Stores are active focal points in the community and the company takes a responsible approach to integrating themselves into the community-lives of their customers.
2. Personality. Employees personify Wal-Mart’s friendly, helpful, and approachable brand. As often as we’ve all had confused and distant responses from Wal-Mart employees to ordinary questions such as ‘where are the lightbulbs?’, brand personality is a quality Wal-Mart strives to emphasize
3. Environmental sustainability. Wal-Mart utilizes green and energy-efficient practices. This is an important new concept for them, especially with the opening of new greenfield Supercenters and renovations to existing stores.

BRAND ESSENCE

So, Ok. There’s the values. But what gives these values gravity and context? Is there anything arming Wal-Mart holistically to create a strong and supportable unique value proposition? That is to say, what does Wal-Mart really mean?

This rhetorical question is key to understanding the brand essence.

Wal-Mart’s brand essence is ‘value for life’, a phrase that captures the soul of the brand: value in the price and quality of goods sold and the comprehensive selection offered at Wal-Mart stores.

Ultimately, the brand bullseye supports a relationship a brand develops with its customers founded on a unique value proposition. Wal-Mart’s relationship with customers is that they are family and the company strives to treat them with respect and give them an honest shopping experience with satisfaction guaranteed. Wal-Mart succeeds because through these key brand values and the brand essence, Wal-Mart customers understand the price, convenience, and empowerment benefits that the brand gives them. Shopping smart gives customers personal satisfaction knowing that they are getting good value for themselves and their family.

This post has likely caused a lot of eye-rolling and skepticism from readers but doing a brand value analysis is not about ripping into a company’s operations, their corporate strategy, or performance. I’m a marketer and I’m good at understanding consumer behavior, not supply-chain logistics. Brand value analysis is about image and trying to pin down what exactly makes them successful with customers. I’m not even a Wal-Mart customer but for this company, its brand values are crystal clear.

Periodic table of branding

Things are getting a little wacky this week. B!G presentations, projects, and many separate deliverables have all come together and are due this week - Hell Week. I'll write a longer post tomorrow - a day when I'm not in school for 15 hours - but I thought that this was a good quick link to share!



Pretty cool eh?

I like the categorization, it's got a greater strategic focus than a lot of the other marketing glossary of terms out there in the interweb.

Value chain analysis stumps all

I’m addicted to this song right now since hearing the techno remix of it on the indie radio station in my car. Enjoy while reading about how to strategically evaluate a business value chain, I don’t know, perhaps it’s fitting!



I was caught in a funk today in one of my meetings. I was doing some primary research and asked the question ‘how does your company add value in the services it performs’ to two middle managers and the conversation kinda stalled. It wasn’t a particularly difficult question (and perhaps I should have phrased it as above in far fewer words than I did!), but still we stumbled through the conversation. Is business strategy really that difficult to conceptualize? Best practice would suggest that business strategy is well-understood by all employees in the organization but in reality it seems that only executives understand how the business functions and what processes contribute the most value. Even then it might be an idealized view of how the business should operate and can lack real cohesion and rigor about how business strategy gets implemented.

But today’s snafu made me reflect on business strategy. Understanding holistic value in business is a really tricky task. It requires enough perspective to see the end to end process yet still parse operations into discrete components and see the individual operational workings. And furthermore, how do we identify which process is critical to the business before we even undertake reverse engineering to see where the most value is added? Significant value will inevitably derive from the synergy of all processes at once or in sequence. Cost efficiencies, knowledge spinoffs, internal organizational development result from the greater operational process which can, in its own, be considered as a piece of the value chain.

Let’s take B!G’s projects:

Dollar for dollar, we derive the greatest return from our in-house advertising and design competencies. These are our highest margin services. If we break these down it’s difficult to determine where we are strongest at adding value to the client. It could originate from customized brand design services or it could arise from on-campus advertising campaign execution. Looking at the more consulting-oriented aspects of our business, these are our lowest margin services and in some instances loss-leaders to establish credentials and recognition for the business (to say nothing of the tremendous personal soft skills development we get from the consulting work). If we break down our marketing consulting services into its constituent parts, value chain analysis is even more challenging. How can you accurately measure whether the greatest shot of analytical nitrous comes from the primary client research we can perform or the composition of all learnings into a single deliverable.

If I can’t really answer these questions, then no wonder I stumped the middle managers I spoke with today with what I perceived to be a simple question about the most valuable part of their process. They’re a massive agency with a global client roster.

It’s difficult to manufacture the necessary competing perspectives – top-down and bottom-up – necessary for an effective analysis of a firm’s operational value chain. As marketing consultants we strive to approach each project with fresh eyes and objectively determine weak links from crucial points. However, this is a valuable, if headache-inducing, exercise to perform. Value chain analysis gets everyone thinking about what the organization does well and where its core strengths lie.

But a question unanswered is a problem unsolved. An evaluation of business strategy must carefully determine the point of greatest operational impact. You find this process by asking ‘if the business can only perform one action before it dies, what is it?

So what’s the heart?

Meme is the word: social marketing for Gen Y trends

Inspired by Sunday night’s Family Guy episode – after which everyone started proclaiming that ‘bird is the word’ on their Facebook status updates – this post is about modern marketing memes.



Memes are “ideas or behaviors that can pass from one person to another by learning or imitation. Examples include thoughts, ideas, theories, gestures, practices, fashions, habits, songs, and dances. Memes propagate themselves and can move through the cultural sociosphere in a manner similar to the contagious behavior of a virus.” (Wikipedia)

Right now I’m sitting in class and thinking about all the behaviors that we’ve individually learned from each other. It’s a weird dynamic here at Schulich because with so many diverse backgrounds and experiences, it’s hard to not take best practices, ideas, or perspectives from others and co-opt them as your own.

We’ve all seen examples of a meme in our classes. Look at the one student in the class who seems to know what they’re doing when it comes to writing a case or an assignment. Doesn’t everyone go to that person and ask them questions about how they completed it so that you can mirror their work? In this vein it’s social Darwinism at work: rapid social adoption of the ‘best herd practice’, or at least the practice seen to be most popular by the other members of the herd.

So memes are odd – it’s not always the best practice, not always the most popular idea. Instead, it’s an idea that has catalytic value and is able to be communicated and adopted easily by others. Consider these modern marketing memes:

• "Oh my god, my business needs a website because everyone else has one!"
• "It’s about relevance, not volume"
• "Brands are dying, consumers are only loyal to themselves now"

As a card-carrying Gen Y, I love memes. Why? Cause like most Gen Ys, I’m social but independent, extroverted and networked yet individualistic, and brought up by parents who encouraged free and creative thinking. Sharing and contributing to social discourse is therefore only part of the game. Consider these Gen Y memes:

• Talking politics when you enter college– especially if you go to an arts school, not a business school!
• Wholesome pop (the packaged reaction to the late 90s trollop pop), including the Jonas Brothers, High School Musical, Tokio Hotel, Hannah Montana
• No-barriers sharing. One’s whole life, friends, pictures, secrets, ideas, and interests are on your Facebook page
• Lolcatz, pwns, fails, YTMND

I don’t pretend to be a social anthropologist or expert semioticist, but I can analyze content and culture. It pays to keep your ear to the ground and understand memes for their power to influence people and, in turn, be shaped by people. Memes are particularly germane to contemporary marketing because of their importance in the lives of Gen Y consumers. Creating value with young consumers is a two-way street and necessitates an honest and fun approach to relationship building.

In theory, memes could act as jetpacks for brands or people to attach themselves to to quickly reach key influencers and adopters. Ok good, but how about being a meme yourself? Why mimic when you can lead?

Understanding project strategy

I’m not quite sure what we’ve gotten ourselves into. B!G has seven projects this semester for six different clients. It’s rather daunting and the scope of organization needed to complete these projects is larger than we’ve ever had in the past.

I met with a B!G project team today working on one of our more technical research projects and I was thrilled by their enthusiasm and professionalism given how ambiguous and open-ended the client objectives are.

After listening in to their status meeting and giving a few words on the client, I asked, "is anyone confused?”


“No no, everything’s fine”, they replied.


“Really? Cause I’m absolutely baffled by this project!”


I can only begin to understand our role in it by stepping back and understanding the project as a single objective – not an amalgam of separate, interrelated objectives. In fact, this is how I approach most of what we’re working on, including our own organizational strategies. It’s easy to parse things and chunk out work into chewable deliverables, but it’s infinitely more clarifying to take the harder route and elevate the scope to see how each project, each person, each client fits into overall business strategy.

I find that forming mental maps before really digging into the work and involving yourself in the hard facts of the project acts as a north star. It allows you to see how your work, no matter how trivial or irrelevant it may seem, fits into the larger picture. Knowing this positively affects personal motivation and keeps the research insights aligned to a single tone.