Online Advertising on Par with TV

Interesting results from comScore & dunnhumbyUSA. Particularly given the cost of Interactive marketing as compared to traditional Media and the over abundance of supply.

Offline Sales Lift from CPG Brand Advertising Comparison Between TV and Internet Total U.S. Source: Information Resources, Inc. and comScore, Inc.
	TV (IRI)	Internet (comScore)
Sales Lift	+8% over 12 months	+9% over 3 months
Percent of Campaigns Showing Statistically Significant Lift	36%	80%

(Table from comScore Press release of Aug, 17th)

Google had performed a similar study in '08 in partnership with Harris Interactive with similar results.

The balancing act

When does inspiration change to temptation? Brand and marketing organization I work with are often sitting on the this edge making a choice between being inspired by a successful brand or even brands that have pulled a one off punch. This year has seen a disproportionate number of brands barking up the "Compare & Save", "Taste & Performance test", "Blind test", etc. trees.

The tough part is this transformation from inspiration to temptation is very subtle one that is driven by inertia from a critical threshold of marketers and executives simultaneously impressed by the competitors tactic creating a geometric escalation from inspiration to temptation.

When inspiration transforms into temptation brands run the risk of being "me too"! There is nothing worse than a "Monkey see-Monkey do" brand especially since the tactic progressively gets less effective but more importantly erodes defining identity and equity of the brand!

It is interesting brands don't have to do a whole lot different to combat this affliction... objectivity in evaluating competitors is a priority, a portfolio approach to tactics and finally consolidation of the basics - positioning, segmentation and targeting.

I agree responding to competitors is important but at times taking the high ground and not responding to such tactics can be the difference between a brand leader and followers.

Two interesting articles in one day....

Bringing the CMO and CTO together is an excellent opportunity! The only this morning's article "The Great Divide", lacked was the fact that it completely excludes the Marketing point of view? Here are some interesting thoughts I discovered...

While both the CMO & CTO share high-level goals, their priorities differ. Marketers find flexibility and agility most important, while IT execs value stability and continuity.

1. Allow IT to experiment.
2. Give IT a stake in marketing.
3. Let marketers tinker with technology.
4. Mix things up. Systems work better when IT and Marketing work in the same room and share responsibility for uptime.

The CMO's Role in a Customer-Centric Organization - I have been interested in Jay Galbraith's work on organization design for a while (I own and have read all the books he has written), his article in AdAge this morning is very exciting. Here are some nuggets:

"How customer-centric do we need to be?"; At the center of these challenges is the role of the chief marketing officer -- the person who needs to deliver thought leadership, lead the strategy debate and reorganization, and then integrate the various marketing types into a company-wide, customer-centric orientation.

The need for strong thought leadership begins by defining customer centricity. This task is more difficult than simply establishing a company lexicon.

many product-centric companies think that they are customer-centric; They drive their product-development process with customer insights. They use ergonomic and anthropological studies to guide product design. They test the design on focus groups and user groups. They measure customer satisfaction and so on. But at the end of the day, they are still product-centric. Why? Because they are trying to reach as many customers as possible for their product. Their metric is market share and customer retention.

A customer-centric business tries to find as many products and services as possible for the customer. They create solutions and experiences for their customers.

Solutions require customer insight and knowledge in order to create value for the customer segment. In general, the larger the solution -- the more products and services that are combined -- the greater the amount of customer insights and knowledge needed to create that solution.

The CMO's role? To be the thought leader who defines customer centricity and determines if the company is product-centric or customer-centric; The role of the CMO is one of generating and implementing cross-category solutions. The CMO needs to build and establish a robust insight-development process throughout the company to drive the development of solutions. Finally, the CMO will need to bring the brand architecture framework to bear. The CMO needs to have the leadership skills to manage this company-wide community. The CMO typically runs the marketing councils for the company.

all ROUND Engagement with Pampers...

I was hoping to go for a double entendre, but I am not a copy writer... Thank God!

"A Parent Is Born" is a docu-drama series following a real couple, Suzie and Steve, along their path to parenthood. The series captures the range of challenges, fears, excitement and joys that come with having your first child. The episodes are 4-5 minutes in length and will live on the recently redeveloped Pampers Village Web site, which continues to offer new content and features to delight current parents and parents-to-be where they live, work and play. "A Parent is Born" is an honest, entertaining, portrayal of a couple's amazing journey from the 15th week of pregnancy through the first month post birth.

"Pampers understands there are experiences to be faced long before the baby even comes," said Jodi Allen North American vice president and general manager for Pampers. "The 'A Parent is Born' series is an authentic look at the joy and excitement, as well as the challenges and fears that go along with becoming a parent. We are excited to enhance the Pampers Village Web site and provide consumers with compelling video content that not only informs new parents-to-be, but also provides some nostalgic moments for parents looking back at their own journeys."

"A Parent is Born" 12-part docu-drama video series debuts on www.pampers.com on Aug. 24. Not a new strategy for either Pampers, P&G or most brands but the concept is great in targeting the prospect when she is anxious and prime.

What Does Engagement Really Mean?

I am currently involved with a project in better understanding the concept of "ENGAGEMENT". This MediaPost Blog: Engage:Hispanics, is a summarization of current work publicly being discussed.

Forrester Research's definition of ENGAGEMENT:

Engagement is measured as the level of involvement, interaction, intimacy and influence a customer has for or with a brand over time.

Metrics:

• Involvement tracks site visitors, time spent, page views, reach, frequency, media impressions, etc.

• Interaction measures the contributions to blogs, content creation and uploads, and purchases.

• Intimacy monitors consumer attitudes, perceptions and feelings about a brand through surveys, service calls and brand studies.

• Influence measures the likelihood that consumers will recommend or advocate products or brands. Summarized well with gauges such as Net Promoter Indexes (NPi), brand affinities, etc.

Google Wonder Wheel

Creativity has been big business! Back when I was with a large global CPG company I even remember one exec asking me to organize for a consistent creative breakthrough... I cant say we were super successful but we certainly we delivered, using something similar to the Google Wonderwheel. Our tools were a lot simpler - The Visual Thesaurus.

A recent video posted on Stanford University's eCorner has additional insights for Creativity and Incremental innovation - What is Creativity?

Google Wonderwheel - Consumer Insights

Breaking retail's addiction to discounting

It is easier said than done - "Breaking retail's addiction to discounting"! Its not just lack of leadership it is often lack of common sense. Retail has dug its own grave training shoppers and consumers to shop on deals and leadership in retail is often short-sighted without deep understanding of brands and engagement with shoppers inside the store.

Kate Newlin puts forth some interesting points (her example is not new and neither are her points, they are from her 2006 book - Shopportunity):

1. If we're a clothing retailer, we have to hire fashionista/passionistas.
A genuine passionista (of whatever retail genre) is excited about the merchandise not because they're told to be, but because they are excited by it. How can you tell? One of the aspects of finding passionistas is that their avocation is also their vocation.

2. We have to brand the experience, differentiating on elements of style and design.
The most salient emotional benefit of shopping is to feel "lucky," as women describe it over and over. Knowing that feeling lucky is the emotion women desire from a great shopping experience, we can empathize with retailers who try resort to the short cut of price promotion, which surely can elicit the "lucky" response. However, it's those folks who work harder and more creatively to prompt the "I'm lucky I found it" reaction through enhanced shopping experiences who win social as well as financial capital.

3. We have to change the tone, acknowledging that the customer knows the economy is in free-fall.
What customers want is to have a unique proposition. When we bother to do that through service and support or any of a hundred valid means, we automatically de-average price.

"Packaging the sixth sense"

The Times article refers to an article published in the Journal of Marketing that studied consumers and interaction with product packages.

"When buying products whose selling point is richness or weight, consumers like to see the product image at the bottom or the right of the packaging"

"products that are supposed to be healthy or light — like low-calorie cookies or hand-held video cameras — do better with images at the top of the packaging, or on the left"

Credits to Ernst Dichter for the title of this article. Ernst published a book by the same name in 1975.

Strengthen a Brand Community

Awesome article from Bandchannel.com - Four Opportunities to Strengthen a Brand Community. The best part of the article is the fact that the four opportunities are not limited to "Online" since most engagement models are technology centric. Here are the top lines:

Needs in Tension Reveal Hidden Opportunities
Keep it..
- practical (get help to get things done)
- emotional (express devotion to my group)
- individual (explore different parts of my identity)
- social (raise the quality of my interactions)

Sustain Passions while Managing Responsibilities
Joining a community is often a means to pursue a hobby or interest
- Paradoxically, the more a community succeeds at providing members multiple ways to engage, the more it increases the potential conflict between spending time with the community and the need to manage responsibilities such as family and career.
- Strong communities head off these issues by providing opportunities to include the family and by making it easy for members to manage their involvement without feeling guilty.

Deepen Experience and Explore New Challenges
Some of the most tangible benefits communities offer are opportunities to deepen knowledge and gain expertise.
- The more the brand enables members to explore their shared passion, the stronger the ties to the community become.

Be an Individual and Part of Something Bigger
Individuals often join communities to test out or develop different aspects of their identities.
- Affiliating with a like-minded group is a good way to explore ideals and decide if they’re really for you.
- Marketing experts have taught us that the best way to do this is by developing a strong brand identity: define a relevant set of values and express them clearly and consistently to attract a loyal following. While this formula works well for attraction, it can be limiting in terms of retention. The very clarity and consistency that build a strong brand can feel confining to those already involved and lead to a desire for escape.

Enjoy Today while Preparing for the Future
The tension between immediate gratification and future rewards has plagued humans for thousands of years. It shows up in every aspect of our lives, and the community sphere is no different.
- Involvement in the community can feel like a distraction or like an impediment to getting on with the serious business of real life.

Discovering these opportunities requires listening to constituents, asking questions and, often, digging beneath the surface to unearth hidden conflicts. Passionate community members are eager to co-create, and engaging people in strengthening their own community is always a winning strategy.

Change Is Hardest in the Middle

Interesting post on the Harvard Publishing Blog - from the Change Master Rosabeth Kanter. I had an opportunity to present on the topic of Organizational Change to a client and when I read this post, I could not resist by post a slide from my presentation.
Kanter's stages and suggestions align with mine:

• Tune into the environment. What has changed since you began the initiative? Do the original assumptions hold? Is the need still there?
• Check the vision. Does the idea still feel inspiring? Is it big enough to make extra efforts worthwhile?
• Test support. Are supporters still enthusiastic about the mission? Will new partners join the initiative?
• Examine progress. Have promises been kept and milestones passed? Are there early indicators, tangible demonstrations, that this could succeed? Can the next wave of results sustain supporters and silence critics?
• Search for synergies. Can the project work well with other activities? Can it be enhanced by alliances?

I agree with Kanter on the fact that:

Those who master change persist and persevere. They have stamina. They are flexible. They expect obstacles on the road to success and celebrate each milestone. They keep arguing for what matters. And who knows what might happen? Persistence could keep innovations alive, convince companies to avoid draconian cuts, influence hiring managers to take a second look, or even persuade local politicians to save the city zoo.

Online engagement...

I am an avid GOOGLER, I know what you are thinking? Yes, I searched for the word and found a colloquial English instance of the word. One that means a "regular habitual user of the Google Search Engine", the second one does not apply to me.

Google fascinates me in how it not just organizes data and translates it into knowledge for users like myself but adds to the overall process of creating awareness through fun and exciting tid-bits of visuals. Take for instance the Google logos -

The birth date of Hans Christen Orsted would have been the last thing on my mind this morning but the fun fact gave me a reason to spend additional time on the site, add to the search traffic on Google and visit Wikipedia (not associated with Google) to read up on Orsted's contributions to electro-magnetism, etc. Yesterday it was the Meteor shower and so on.

I know of a very short list of ubiquitous and structured organizers of data and knowledge, starting with Dmitri Mendeleev the developer of the periodic table, Melvil Dewey the developer of the Dewey Decimal library classification system and now Google. Obviously the value addition from Google far exceeds those of Mendeleev and Dewey given the reach and penetration of the internet across the globe and generations today.

Whats most interesting is the subtle yet fun ways the Google engages with the user community giving them reason to spend ever more time on their site as Brand Google aspires to organize knowledge and create wisdom!

Creative logos and subliminal messages

Ernst Dichter was the first recorded psychoanalyst proposing metaphors to communicate brand and marketing messages. Since logos are the visual side of the brand they offer the opportunity for various hidden messages about the brand, I just came across an old post on the Graphic Design Blog:

Body Wisdom It is a logo design for a high end day spa… the hands effectively convey relaxing massage integrated with the proximity of the “owl eyes” to clearly say “wisdom”.	Forkwire Logo Designer - Bojan Stefanovic Being an Online Food Delivery service, its logo shows a fork formed into an @ symbol! Such a easy logo to remember.

...

Communicating a story to drive towards a meaning

Cheers to Clive Wilkinson Architects, for a beautiful video on the new JWT office in New York.

Specific meaning needs a specific story, without context stories run the risk of selective perception!

This video on YouTube does a fabulous job of connecting the dots. Unfortunately not everyone who visits the JWT offices will have watched this video to understand the metaphor of the tree constructed into the design of the building.

The question is does an artist art that communicates the meaning by the time it translates into a design or in this chase an architecture?

Why are the supers always fighting for something?

We have all read stories of all the supers - Superman, Supergirl, Spiderman, Robin, Phantom, etc. They are always fighting for something? What is with all the fighting? Why can't they just negotiate through dialog? Isn't there an easy way to communicate and present their proposition? And what about the brands they endorse? Do the brands needs to fight those battles too?

I know the brands are always trying to get across to the consumer and in the process "fight" with the competitors for market share. The anecdotal fight is about gaining the consumers purchase, consumption and possible loyalty all for pricing, the value addition, the difference they deliver. There cant be a negotiation not because the other guy is bad or wont "fight" a fair fight of sorts but any dialog would be considered and treated as market collusion.

I recently came across a retailers add with a 'super' fighting for savings for the shoppers and I wondered who is this super fighting against the manufacturers of brands, other retailers or the merchandisers and management that needs to deliver the profit targets. The primal issue to me is who (which consumer) is this super talking to? I have never been asked by any super what I would like? May be I don't want savings but improved quality of service even if that means a higher price.

Neuromarketing gaining interest

With growing regulatory restrictions in multiple categories, fragmentation of media, insights into the working of the brain and consumer behavior in-store, Neuromarketing is gain greater favor every day.

Martin Lindstrom added an element of flair to the subject with his book Buyology.

Since upward of 70% of purchase decisions happen at shelf, packaging design and messages inside the trade channels are the perfect candidate to leverage subtle Orwellian, neuromarketing stimulus. Here is another interesting article with valuable insights into neuromarketing as an influencer in package design.

The implicit power of packaging

Is value the quality equivalent of a product?

Lately I have had several conversations on the topic of VALUE. What is the value from a brand to a consumer? Can the value vary by the brands prospect? Can the value be changed for the consumer by time of day, location, messaging, packaging, pricing?

The answers are all a resounding YES! A brands value to a consumer is what the consumer assigns it. It can vary dramatically by the prospect, the mindset, the perspective, the need state, the purpose and much more.

I have personally experienced that in business and careers. Where one individual investing their heart, sweat and blood gets little back while another one who does little gets significantly more from their career. It is the evaluators perception of the value addition. I hear this from manufacturers all the time, "we have a better quality product, but our competitor gets much more out of the product". The perception of quality like value is not assessed by the delivering organization or individual but the receiver of the product or service.

Recently one of the businesses I am consulting has successfully generated several leads and some closure in selling some of their product but the repeat purchase has not yet happened on that same product. What is fascinating though is the repeat purchase by the same customers has occured for other services from the organization not the one that was initially sold. It is clear that value exists and is obviously perceived by the consumer during the sale but has not realized it in the actual product but instead in the consultative element of the sales itself. Clearly not a scalable solution for the organization and not one that the firm intends to sell.

The challenge is to captivate value and have the consumer realize it into the brand the product or the service!

The power of New Age Media

Johnny Lee is amazing with his innovations and ideas but the most powerful part of the presentation is his acknowledgment of the proliferation of his idea and diffusion into the masses using new age media and technology.

How do you communicate value to consumers & shoppers?

This is a age old question for any and everyone who is in sales & marketing!

There is a perpetual quest on part of marketers, salesmen, retailers in communicating and getting acknowledgment of value on part of the consumers and shoppers. Over the years I have come to believe "value" is an experience not a tangible take away not even real bills of money the consumer or shopper may put in their wallets or pocketbooks.

So what is "value"?

The classical marketing concept of value is the difference between benefits and price. Benefits are the intangibles that can be morphed to the solution, the venue, the product, the establishment, the people and so on. There are a number of different schools of philosophy on "value" and "value proposition", the one that I subscribe to believes "value proposition" is the same as "brand positioning" targeted towards businesses versus consumers.

The question still remains; Is the communication of value enough to generate a sale or does the consumer and shopper need to realize the value? What happens when the consumer converts and closes the sale but delays the actual consumption? Is purchase of a branded product or service the proof of value or does it take consumption to realize value?

Pricing... ooh la la

Dynamic pricing is the holy grail in consumer world, this morning during my drive I heard about Digonex on NPR. I checked out the site and realized there isn't a better time than now for any such solution...

"a proprietary algorithm system, Digital Online Exchange™ continuously identifies the 'sweet spot' where prices follow perceived market value and generate the maximum economic return"

not sure how to respond.... quirky I guess?

Gillette - Art of shaving

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A “scarcity” mind-set to an “abundance” mind-set

The concept of "free" is explored with some fine social journalism in an article by Malcom Gladwell in the New Yorker.

Priced to Sell - Is free the future?

An interesting role play exercise

A recent consulting engagement exposed me to an interesting exercise. One where the team members each write an article about the organization's state a few years down the road. It is a sort of role play where the team members play the role of a journalist writing about the organization. Here was my demo contribution for the team.

XX,000 CEOs at
BY NEIL BHANDAR FOR

Tough economic times can be like a smelting furnace, the intense heat melts away everything, slag and impurities skim to the top, added fillers segregate into their own layers based on their individual specific gravity and the base metal stands by itself. The global Retail sector has experienced a similar smelting from the economic turbulence in 2009.

The smelting caused the slag to rise to the top which is in the process of being washed away; those brands that have a defined unique identity have coagulated into their appropriate layers/positions. The big and the small have each formed their own isotropic layers. market is one such grocery retailer in the greater Philadelphia area that has survived this storm and emerged with its unique and defendable position in the market it serves. Not only was able to plug their leaking customer count but delivered strong growth and continues to give the communities a reason to visit the stores and shop more than they ever did in the past and more than their competitors.

The emergence and survival of is not a happenstance but the result of visionary leadership, strategic planning and a meticulously implemented process over the past year. It is no surprise that organizations as old as (100+ years of existence) have a defined culture one that lives and breaths in every individual employee at . The success of this transformation at has its roots in this culture, the principles and values indoctrinated in every organizational endeavor.

We took time to understand the drivers of this transformation and the investment it took to make this transition happen at . The genesis of ’s success is the feedback loops the organizations established, one that is visible in the figure below.

Every change driver has a feedback loop that enables the organization to experiment, get feedback and fix the gaps quickly. This closed loop system combined with a trusting culture, honest, open communication creates the framework for constant improvement at every level within the organization.

Change Drivers	Benefits
Organizational Capacity	Work life balance
Organizational Capability	Knowledge Continuity & Institutional learning
Measured Deliverables	Intrinsic Motivation
Strategic Plans	Direction & Vision

Change Drivers	Feedback Loop
Organizational Capacity	Succession Planning
Organizational Capability	Individual Development & Lateral growth
Measured Deliverables	Timely, Direct & Actionable Feedback
Strategic Plans	Organizational Transparency

The feedback loop fosters learning, the systems thinking and the closed loop helps break functional silos.

In a conversation with NSB the Director of the Marketing department, NSB shared some of the tactical action plans that the Marketing department has instituted. These tactics though Marketing centric are an evidence of the holistic nature of drivers that have helped .

NSB says “We are a retailer but we behave like a business services company” at every level and every function including Marketing. The Marketing department sets aside time every other week to think of next generation ideas; These ideas include debates over what is the SCA for (Sustainable Competitive Advantage). The discussion includes and is not limited to conversations about how to bring the differentiating attributes to life in the store, success metrics, Operations and Merchandising engagement and buy-in.” NSB went on to share how the strategies developed during 2009 helped plan every week in 20XX far ahead of the start of the year. The store activities, the weekly circular, the promotions, events and sponsorship were all planed in advance. ’s strategies are so clear that make it easy to layout plans ahead of time, changes to the plan are driven purely by competitive activity.

NSB also said “Our strategies are so focused and targeted that changes to our plans from week to week take less than 5% of our time, most times we choose to ignore other grocery competitor’s tactics because we are so unique our guests visit our stores for more than just what is one our shelves and the weeks promotion item”. We spend a disproportionate amount of time out thinking ourselves not our competition.

In talking to members of the marketing department their knowledge of the state of business was quite obvious. Every one knew the P&L numbers, their market share, the competitor’s market share, the revenues and profit targets for the year and everyone literally recited the top 5 strategies for 20XX.

NSB also added “ is a very flat organization and so the staff has a lot of responsibility and ownership, we are all CEOs without the title and pay but the same sense of know how about the market place, the company, the competitors and authority to make quick decisions in the best interest of the shopper and our business”. NSB went on to add “Everyone on the team from communication, insights to brand presents their material like as if it is their own business, they lay out options and refer to actions in terms of their cost, the implications, the cross functional alignment required to make it successful, risks and mitigating strategies in place, you could never tell if this is an analyst or a department head”.

NSB also told us about how the changes has positively affected in the overall approach to pursuing and delivering projects. Marketing no longer thinks of its own deliverables but meticulously lays out the string of tasks and functional owners, then works across functions to get their engagement and alignment. The organizational transparency and deep knowledge of the financials (P&L) creates an interesting dynamics of interactions. The team is eager to take calculated risks and understand the implications to the business from every action before it is initiated. The culture rewards risks taking and honest open communication helps everyone express a point of view as long as it is constructive, actionable and supported by metrics.

Conversations with the Marketing folks revealed no one takes no for an answer and everyone get a voice and everyone is heard, with the type of culture and the processes in place there are always many heads working on a every opportunity and always many solution options to choose from, each solution as great as the next. The toughest part is to decide which option to pursue and who is really running the ship at ?

does have one President but with the energy, ownership and knowledge it appears like every single employee is the CEO!

K@W - Getting to "WOW" in retail

Published in this week's Knowledge@Wharton is a very insightful study conducted by The Verde Group, Wharton & The retail council of Canada on the - "Discovering 'WOW' -- A Study of Great Retail Shopping Experiences in North America".

The article points to five major areas that contribute to a great shopping experience:

• Engagement: being polite, genuinely caring and interested in helping, acknowledging and listening.

• Executional excellence: patiently explaining and advising, checking stock, helping to find products, having product knowledge and providing unexpected product quality.

• Brand Experience: exciting store design and atmosphere, consistently great product quality, making customers feel they're special and that they always get a deal.

• Expediting: being sensitive to customers' time on long check-out lines, being proactive in helping speed the shopping process.

• Problem Recovery: helping resolve and compensate for problems, upgrading quality and ensuring complete satisfaction.

Boehm

Recently I finish a book by Gary Hamel, The Future of Management. I found the book to be interesting, and appreciated the point of view on how modern management is still stuck in the mold developed in the past century and longer by Frederick Winslow Taylor, Adam Smith, etc. That includes functional philosophies of brand management from Procter & Gamble, financial analysis by DuPont, etc. Dr. Hamel convinced me that we continue to perpetuate the old in more ways than we think and yet within the community we operate many of those are appreciated as unique and different.

What is a true innovation? What is true discontinuous breakthrough? Architects with pony tail, Executives in suit, Software programmers with their disheveled appearance, Geeks wearing glasses, Golfers with caps, Truckers with big bellies, Trekies with their funny lingo, Soccer moms driving SUV/minivans, Environmentalists adorning a beard and I can go on and on. All of these individuals appear to be rebels to the normal citizen but within their communities they are conformists to the core, perpetuating the old. How does one define a breakthrough/breakway? This is often the question brands struggle with day in and day out.

Is the answer to ‘differentiation’ a function of the domain, geography or time? Said differently distinguish from the past or distinguish from my peers? Is innovation the philosophy of being something/someone or not being?

"Consume less by consuming better" - Patagonia

Very interesting conversation with Yvon Chouinard, the enterprising founder of Patagonia. Sustainable, "NO PACKAGING" on Patagonia underwear and how it helped sell more. Posted on Fastcompany.

the EMOTION & SCIENCE of a brand name

What is a brand after all?

I was with some friends chatting over a couple drinks when one of them mentioned his daughter was ready for her first car. The conversation steered towards the lowest common denominator - "Price" and why cars are as expensive as they are?

The cost of all the steel and plastic and the labor in forming the parts of the cars body could not add up to the price of any new car on the market these days. That combined with the after sale service could still not do justice to the overall cost. If the sum of all the parts don't add up to the cost what is the consumer paying for? It MUST be the brand! If the brand is about trust, is that the price tag of trust?

Its funny TRUST is one of those things that if sold has no value but if preserved appreciates without a ceiling. Trust is like an honor badge one that can be associated and put on display and the influence clearly brushes off. I have had this so called "TRUST" experience we my cars, clothes, watches, my masseuse, my butchter, my mechanic, etc. I will pay extra to get their products or services and I have paid more!

How does one know when they are a brand or at least a prime candidate to be one? I believe when the total is greater than sum of parts you are a brand!

Food Inc.

The much talked about Food Inc. very interesting....

Wisdom from quotations

A couple days ago I came across two quotes in one day and they seemed to summarize the challenges I was dealing with a client...

Every man is wise when attacked by a mad dog; fewer when pursued by a mad woman; only the wisest survive when attacked by a mad notion.
- Robertson Davies

This may seem simple, but you need to give customers what they want, not what you think they want. And, if you do this, people will keep coming back.
-Stuart Wilde

Brand Retirement

I know the first thought that may run through the readers mind is about the slew of products out there for retirement and financial planning? The answer is NO.

I am trying to figure if brands have a life cycle? If they do when is it a time to retire them and along the way extract they equity or even pass it on to the next one in line?

The only real analytical retirement I have noticed is for equipment like cars and buildings. The math measures the return on investment versus the cost of upkeep to justify their existence? Humans retire because of nature induced frailty and their desire to enjoy the investment in life. Brands are obviously not that smart so the idea of enjoyment does not exist! Can brands be compared to non living things like equipment and buildings?

Much like equipment and buildings brands need investments. An investment in the visual element of the brand to connect with the consumer an investment in the emotion and the message that is culturally and time appropriate an investment in the association the brand makes through celebrities, ingredients and other brands. Obviously there is an opportunity to measure the relevant analytics to decide on the right time to retire the brand?

The time it takes to build the trust into a brand rarely ever lends itself to retiring a brand no matter how much it costs to revive the brand or even just steer it in a new younger life stage? As for me, frailty apart I think when I can afford to buy a car cash down at the price of my first house without feeling the pinch I will be ready to retire and enjoy!

Happy “Not being stupid” month!

It is amazing how we celebrate everything from “Bosses Day”, “Administrative Assistants Day”, “Mothers Day”, “Fathers Day”, “Black history month”, “Asian history month”, “Breast Cancer month” and on and on…

I remember years ago at one of my previous employers we celebrated “Consumer is Boss Day!” this was the day when the consumer rejected NEW Coke for the taste of classic coke. A very interesting concept for a company in the consumer products business but strangely we never celebrate our intelligence?

How about “Not being stupid” Month?

This is not a joke, people just fail to see obvious things! People are averse to learning new concepts, processes, tools. Wouldn’t it be great if for a month we gave up our apprehensions, our prejudices and recognized “NOT stupid” behavior for once?

Years ago I remember going through training on diversity and if memory serves me right it was called “Micro-inequities” the most powerful concept was the feedback component the training introduced. Every time anyone spotted an inequity, the individual was expected to highlight it “that’s a micro-inequity…”. It was immediate, it was behavior changing, it was direct. I don’t know if we really experienced any real change in diversity but the concept was very powerful, one that appealed to my senses.

How about we do the same with stupidity or inequity for an entire month? Imagine how much change we could enable!

Bruises are NO ALWAYS Chevrons

We talks about our progress, we talk about our achievements, and rarely do we mention our failures? Success can be happenstance and often results in arrogance but failure creates humility and the need to learn what went wrong, where it went wrong, how to avoid the mistakes in the future and lastly what to monitor and what else to closely control.

I don’t want to confuse failures as the motive to grow but the experience and the learning from the experiences as the driver! Obviously those bruises that did not result in any learning are just as good as those arrogant successes.

Failure projects another interesting facet the measure of resilience. A brittle leader is not a leader at all! The quintessential ability of a leader is his or her actions to resurrect from the ashes like a phoenix; nothing tests that better than failure. Leaders are dealers in hope so not just do they have to inspire their team but gather support for their ideas and intentions.

Who am I?

There are six fundamental question – Who? What? When? Where? How? Why? Some of these are obviously primary, meaning they don’t need a basis for a response like the Who? What? When? Where? How? But Why? is secondary, dependent on response to the first five to provide “meaning”.

Brands need to constantly ask these six fundamental questions to clarify their purpose for existence, the target market, and their consumption. The stronger the foundation and deeper the relevance the brand communicates the greater the success and resonance with the consumer and the market place.

With the amount of literature out there on the topic of self branding. I started to think of these questions with reference to myself.

In a real time world the GPS systems is able to answer “Where am I?” to a prospective employer the relevant question is “Where have I been?”, “When have I been there?” and “What sort of results did I deliver?” in ones resume. My style, my personality and my image is the “How do I perform?”.

Years ago when I was a student working on the UNIX servers I was spooked to ask “who am i” and response would be my login id and any additional information store in my “.whois” file (I hope this is not getting too technical). To a prospective employer it has more to do with “Who knows me?”, “Who do I know?”.

As for the secondary question, Why? The difference across all the elements of – Who? What? When? Where? How? Drives the basis for the final decision. We don’t just buy brands for the function but feeling it brings to us – Joy, Excitement, Comfort and Confidence!

Brand "Me"

I have no idea how I came upon this but I have been receiving a lot of invites and forward on LinkedIn, so this afternoon Ii was surfing around and there it was. The 44th President of the United States on LinkedIn!

I loved the gesture, I don't think he really needs the visibility nor do I think anyone will request a referral from him on LinkedIn, but I do like the approachability of the worlds most powerful leader on a site like LinkedIn! That says a lot about his marketing team, not wonder they were recognized for their excellence in pulling off a successful campaign.

Microwave inspired leadership.

I have a toast or a bagel each morning and like always I placed my bagel in the small convective oven and two minutes later the bagel was toasted, like always I took it out of the oven and placed it on my plate, spread some cream cheese. As I bit into it I felt the cold insides of the bagel. Strange as I am I was inspired by the bagel to think of leadership in modern organizations and opportunities.

Most organizations have leadership like the oven. Stuff happens with the heat being turned up which obviously means people do things without an internal commitment. Sometimes what appears like a completed task is just the superficial burn from the convective heat of the oven.

The microwave on the other hand is a very unique device. There is no visible heat but yet the item being microwaved is hot/warm from the inside-out. That’s leadership in principle! Dwight David Eisenhower our 34^th president said it best.

“Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it. “

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Now the Microwave is not perfect either… over heat the food in the microwave and it looses moisture and hardens up but rarely ever visibly burning off like in the oven where as when you over heat the same item in the over and it chars.

Oh boy... & "There is only so much a Marketer can do"

The not so funny video from Domino's, is evidence when peoples values and ethics or lack of them at work can destroy the core of the brand - Domino's Reacts Cautiously, Quietly to YouTube Gross-Out Video

04/16 - Response from Mr. Doyle, should have been immediate! None the less, here it is.

SUSTAINABILITY? Brain Sensory Food & Calories in the Belly

I read about the Kroger Marketing Alliance with Feeding America - in MediaPost. Kudos to the brand stewards for strategizing and launching the initiative.

As great as the art work on the website - The Bread Art Project, I have a hard time trying to fathom the fact that there are thousands of people that starve every single day when some of us in the western world can appreciate the finer art in food.

Second harvest was about feeding the hungry, are we now taking the same food to feed the brain through art?

And is the satisfaction from viewing the art the same to a hungry child and a hungry family the same as putting a slice of bread, a toast into their bellies?

I have to applaud the creative senses of the artist but cannot resist saying "The appreciation of this art is in the stomach of the hungry".

The power of simplicity

From The Washington Post - In the age of lack of trust, food recalls, disease, excesses in information that can be conflicting at most times, etc.... nothing is more powerful that SIMPLICITY. Here is the creative for Tostitos that exemplifies the concept in the ad and the product.

A culture of FEAR

Organizations are structured like a pyramid which creates the very impetus for someone towards the top to know more than someone else towards the bottom. No organization or institution is structures like a cube or a prism partly because we need some guiding star, a leader. Our psyche is wired to that end!

The unfortunate part of the evolution is the fact that sometimes we will place our self interest ahead of that of the organization/institution. Leadership leverages or abuses the power of information combined with their own wisdom to subjugate the underlings. A culture of fear is not just one where man kills man but really one where I know more than you and I will not tell you until you fall.

Some organizations thrive on this culture of fear. Knowledge and awareness is ones strength and more one protects it the stronger one get. The boss loves the one who knows more, peers are scared for what you know and individuals that report into you look-up to you since you can always tell them what they don’t know. Systems and tools that democratize knowledge are not supported and ideas to proliferate knowledge are discounted.

The most unfortunate outcome is when these individuals that thrive on a culture of fear become role models!

Good time leads to Good Money for brands & Vice Versa for prestige brands

Focus on Time Sells More Products : Research: Stanford GSB

"It’s Miller Time." "Live Richly." - What do these vastly different marketing campaigns—one selling beer, the other financial services—have in common? They both focus on experiencing, rather than possessing, products.

Here are some of the top lines from the article:

- Because a person’s experience with a product tends to foster feelings of personal connection with it, referring to time typically leads to more favorable attitudes—and to more purchases
- Research identified the different attitudes and behaviors triggered just by mentioning time rather than money
- One explanation is that our relationship with time is much more personal than our relationship with money
- Ultimately, time is a more scarce resource—once it's gone, it's gone—and therefore more meaningful to us
- How we spend our time says so much more about who we are than does how we spend our money.
- One theory is that references to money will always be negative because consumers are reminded of the cost of acquiring a product rather than the pleasure of consuming it.
- When marketing products that consumers buy for prestige value, stressing money spent seems to be more effective. Designer jeans, expensive jewelry, and high-status cars all fall into this category.
- With 'prestige' purchases, consumers feel that possessing the products reflect important aspects of themselves, and get more satisfaction from merely owning the product rather than spending time with it

The most interesting part of the article was an experiment on concert tickets with the comment - "who actually incurred a higher cost in terms of time spent—rated their satisfaction with the concert higher". Might explain the commitment of the Starbucks' consumer.

Rewards, Expectations and Deliverables

Strange things have happened and aligning rewards with expectations and deliverables is certainly not one of them. Consulting is a fun business, it gives me the ability to see a lot of new things and experience a lot of strange, funny and sometimes stupid concepts.

Recently during an engagement I had an opportunity to better understand some performance metrics for a large national retailer. The part that was most enlightening was the knowledge of the performance indicators and a mental contrast with a street hawker merchandising and selling their wares… the result was the inspiration for this essay.

	Street Hawker Retail (typical from a Developing Market)	Large Retailer (typical to a Developed Market)
Image
Not in the KPIs	· Customer satisfaction · Customer experience · Customer communication · Vendor satisfaction/partnership	· Customer satisfaction · Customer experience · Customer communication · Vendor partnership/partnership
KPIs	· Revenues · Profits · Units · Identical sales to previous day	· Revenues · Profits · Units · Identical sales to year ago · GMROI · Inventory turns

Challenging the frontiers of AGE

This morning I read another mention of how anti-aging is not just a beauticare phenomenon but a business strategy (my alma mater) MIT has a lab that is researching opportunities as the generation ages and nature starts to challenge the way consumers do day to day tasks.

The article from the Boston Globe - Growing old is the New frontier, sheds light from research and efforts at MIT.

As boomers around the world age, the richest consumer generation has new FUNCTIONAL needs and brands need to respond with solutions to capitalize on the opportunity. Here is a old post from my blog on how it is happening in the retail world in Germany.

War in the Boardroom

I scanned through the powerpoint slides on slide share about a week ago and this morning USA Today summarized some of the examples from the book. The synopsis of the book was great may be now I need to read it in entirety

War in the Boardroom

View more presentations from Laura Ries.

•Management deals in reality; marketing, in perception. Most managers believe that producing a better product is the key to success. Yet, time and again, new products with perfect benchmarks fail, such as Volkswagen's Phaeton (a luxury car with top ratings) and beverage Miller Clear. Miller Clear tasted like regular beer, if you closed your eyes. "(But) when you drank Miller Clear with your eyes wide open," the Rieses write, "it tasted like watery beer. Perception always trumps reality."

•Management focuses on the product; marketing, on the brand.

Pepsi-Cola and Coca-Cola are similar soft drinks. Although Pepsi consistently wins blind taste tests, Coke outsells Pepsi by more than 50% in the USA, and even more internationally.

•Management wants a diversified market strategy; marketers prefer to focus in one area. Motorola introduced the first commercially available mobile phone in 1983, while Nokia came later to the cellphone market. However, Nokia began selling off non-cellphone holdings, while Motorola added computers, radio, even satellite communications. By 1998, Nokia could boast cellphone supremacy.

•Management targets the center of the market, while marketing targets the ends. Management sees the market as a bell curve with a large middle; marketers see it as bifurcated between a low end and high end.

Southwest Airlines succeeded by ignoring the first-class market and sticking to discount fares. Kmart failed by attempting to target the middle ground between low prices (Wal-Mart's specialty) and designer goods (Target's specialty).

•Management wants better products, while marketing wants different products. Management's response to a rival is often to try to do the same thing better. The marketing response is to do something different and create a new mental category.

Rather than fight Ivory Soap's pureness campaign, Dove responded with "cleansing cream." Rather than fight the hardware of the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, Nintendo released the Wii. It's still a video game system, but it creates its own category — as well as more sales and profits than the other consoles.

•Management wants a single brand; marketing wants many brands. Management wants the big brand name on everything to justify the money spent on brand recognition. Marketing wants to launch new brands, because often the new product isn't a good match for the old brand name.

Xerox was well-known in copiers, but Xerox computers fell flat. Kodak was a leader in film photography, but Kodak digital cameras didn't move. On the other hand, Levi's launched a workplace casual line with Dockers, and Toyota managed a luxury brand called Lexus. No doubt a "Toyota Elite" would have gone the way of VW's Phaeton.

The Analytics Chasm

I often wonder what makes a strong candidate for an Analytics role? I know what has gotten me excited during presentations… it is the ability of an individual to narrate a story. One of my favorite presentations is the NPD eating trends by Harry Balzer. Harry does a fascinating job when it comes to narrating the story and connecting the data and insights.

The chasm between reality and analytic insights has often made me uncomfortable. How much of the insight are truly data and the social, anthropological elements contributing to “SPIN”?

Certainly a business driven by analytics is build on a sound base! The easiest way to cross the chasm is to try a little, test a little, try some more and test some more until you are ready to go all the way. A culture of analytics without the a culture of risk taking is like going to a fine dining restaurant with a severe hangover.

Consumer driven product lifecycle

This is a very interesting view of the product life cycle. In the past I have written about the brand manager as a driver in the rear seat, this is a classic example of what could be happening and the need to constantly steer the brand in the desired direction.

Not all is lost there is hope for the Brand Steward and it is called BRAND ARCHITECTURE.

Geo segmentation

The Organization Triad

Over the years I have run into three types of organizations and the other as I sat to think about them I visualized them in a triad.

1. Stable organization with controlled change
2. Evolving organization with experimental change
3. Metastasized organization with no change

1. Stable organization with controlled change: Are the ones that are extremely successful with a defined culture and strong foundation of institutionalized knowledge. They are able to attract top talent and sometimes competitive pressures inside the organizations can get caustic but always push individuals to perform better than expectations
2. Evolving organization with experimental change: These organizations are always trying to understand why things are not working at the highest levels of performance? A definitive culture is lacking, knowledge is not usually institutionalized, fear prevails across all the ranks creating the need to try new things without giving anything a fair chance of success and leadership gaps exist at many levels within the organization
3. Metastasized organization with no change: These organizations are in a very sick state. Talent has suffered, leadership is very often in denial on many issues, and most people like to play the blame game. Issues tackled are symptoms and the root cause continues to fester. Poor leadership is often the root cause – MOKITA is a fact here. Short term thinking leads to shortfalls and is perpetuated, no one wants to tie a bell around the cats neck.

Making a promise & keeping it!

For the old but still relevant and in fashion... from a German grocery store. Appealing to a segment and staying relevant in every way.