Jul 4, 2010 | Branding, Marketing
Those who say one thing and do another have always been at risk of being found out. Now, the capabilities of the net make it virtually inevitable, with the downside risk to your brand being multiplied by the probability of being found out.
BP has spent millions on PR, advertising, logo changes, and acquisitions aimed at positioning themselves as clean and green nurturers of the environment, all of which is now just fuel for the fire of hypocrisy flaming alongside their spill in the Gulf.
The question is not of survival, as BP has assets the world needs, at least for the easily foreseeable future, but their cost of doing business will increase, as no-one will ever trust them again, no matter how much they spend.
BP is now an “ex-brand” as dead as the ubiquitous parrot due to BP being unable to walk and talk to the same tune, how is yours going?
Jun 27, 2010 | Branding, Customers, Marketing, Small business
“Cheap” implies less of everything that is important, not built to last, minimal attention to the detail, and certainly little customer service. However, “Frugal” implies a discipline that ensures that waste is eliminated, unnecessary features eliminated, but the basic performance is not compromised.
Cheap is never the outcome of good marketing, but Frugal is a very potent positioning in most markets, and is often ignored in the search for wider customer appeal.
Next time, ask yourself, if it is cheap, in which case, don’t buy or produce it, or frugal, in which case it may be a good deal.
Jun 22, 2010 | Branding, Communication, Customers, Marketing
How often we confuse the reasons our customers buy products, how easy it is to get carried away with the technology, the newness, the features of the product, and never consider the real, usually unstated drivers of consumption.
Great marketing is always about the benefits a product brings to the consumer, and whilst the features play a role in delivering the benefits, consumers do not really care about features, they want what the product delivers for them.
Defining the benefits is marketing, translating them into images and words consumers can relate to is advertising, and is only a tiny slice of marketing, at the end of the process.
Poor products, no matter how well advertised, do not succeed, great products with poor marketing that fails to identify the benefits of consumption, usually fail, but even poorly advertised products with clear and distinctive benefits usually find their way, because consumers are generally smart enough to make the connection. It is this last distinction that may appear at first glance to be semantic, that is often the biggest hurdle. This great clip from Mad Men says it all.
Apr 9, 2010 | Branding, Category, Marketing
Value is an outcome of the price and the benefits delivered.
Value = price + benefits
As marketers, we are normally consumed by price, it drives our priorities, measures our success, and dictates channel and NPD priorities.
Consumers by contrast, are generally driven by value. Yes, they will take the cheapest price in a category, all other things being even, and given marketers pre-occupation, it often is, but our task is to create value, not just deliver a price.
Apr 8, 2010 | Branding, Communication, Marketing
Band building is hard, it is about creating and nurturing the stories about the products that have a resonance with a section of the market to whom the story has particular relevance, that sustain the difference between yours and the others.
I like a beer, and find myself drinking Coopers a bit more, it is different, it says something about me, and what I like.
To the point.
This blog was written whilst having a coffee and a think. The building opposite has an ad on it for Coopers beer, all it said was “brewed by beer nuts” with a photo of some beer nuts, a small Coopers logo, and a few words telling the reader that Coopers’ is a family company, that has been brewing beer for 120 years.
Lovely pun, and it left the impression of a small company battling the giants, just so you can have a beer with a bit of style, character, brewed with skill, integrity, and personal history. The advertisement adds to the story of the brand, it doesn’t just try to whack us over the head with a message that pushes us to have a beer now!. While it builds awareness, the story gains a spot in our crowded lives, to be recalled when next a beer is about to be ordered. Advertising that adds to the story of the brand, lovely.
Apr 7, 2010 | Branding, Marketing, Operations
Toyota has been lined up for a maximum fine of $16.4 million by US regulators for failing to report a fault within the statutory time. In the scheme of things the fine is a flea bite for Toyota, but the impact on the hard earned brand reputation of the current quality issues will be substantial.
It is paradoxical that Toyota is being fined for a quality failure, as the impact of Toyota in the quality of the auto industry over the last 30 years has been immense, Toyota has led the “Lean” revolution in manufacturing, and has been remarkably open and prepared to assist all comers, especially competitors.
Years ago, the US quality guru, W. Edwards Deming who was the primary architect of the quality revolution in Japan after the war, noted that as companies focus on increasing market share and profitability in the short term, customer service and quality will suffer in the long term. It would appear that this is what has happened to Toyota. As they consolidated as the largest auto manufacturer in the world, demand for their cars and light commercials outstripped supply, simply because of their superior quality and the way they met customer expectations in a range of areas. Under commercial pressure to meet demand, Toyotas increase in production capacity outran their increase in management capacity. I’m pretty sure that the fine will be an internal wake-up call, and the quality culture of Toyota will re-assert itself.
