Feb 21, 2012 | Branding, Communication, Marketing
Remember the Arnott’s case, in 1997 they recalled millions of packets, and showed them being crushed on TV, in the days before u-tube. Tylenol in the US went trough the same thing in 1882, 6 packets were laced with cyanide, leading to several deaths, and J&J without hesitation recalled the hundreds of millions of packets in the market, and talked about what had happened, what measures they and the police were taking, and assisted the families of those who had died.
In the new techie world, the same thing applies, 37 Signals has a suite of software products on the cloud, they appear to work well, but when they go down, (every senior managers major concern with the cloud) as it is out of immediate control, it really hurts. 37 signals lost Campfire, but they turned the disaster into gold by communicating.
In most cases where a recall is deemed necessary, it is just a cost, often a huge one, sometimes a terminal one. However, by taking the public into their confidence, a recall, or outage as in the case of Campfire, can be used as powerful evidence that the company puts the welfare of their customers above all else.
Pretty powerful stuff in an environment of bland, commodity brands that have little to differentiate themselves.
Feb 19, 2012 | Communication, Innovation, Marketing, Social Media
Just a few months ago, QR codes seemed to me to be the answer to a marketers prayer, a simple way for products and services to connect with anyone with a mobile device, and an interest.
However, Aussies, often quick adapters of technology seemed not to be interested. At a recent wine symposium of a major wine region to which I was lucky enough to score an invitation to, I saw only one brand using QR codes, and yesterday in a major retail outlet, I scoured to the place to find, none. (great excuse eh, just looking for a QR code darling!). This lack of take-up by Australian wineries was a surprise to me, then Joan Muschamp posted on the Social media examiner site, and all became clear.
I thought wineries would rush to QR codes, perhaps the explanation in this article talking about the next big thing, leading to the early death of QR codes, Mobile Visual Search, that we humans are visual animals, and a big bar code does not do it for us, has something in it.
Soon we will be able to point our phone at a building, label, poster, product, whatever, and get immediate feedback on the object. Currently the technology is pretty early stage, Google have started marketing it as “Google Goggles” and Apple has their version as well.
Point is, the pace of innovation is still accelerating, and the opportunities are for the early adopters, the marketers who get on top of a consumer friendly technology early, and leverage it for the brand, by connecting to their content, and telling their stories.
Feb 10, 2012 | Communication, Social Media
The risks, as well as the benefits of social media Social media are now slowly becoming recognised, particularly as the list of companies who “should know better” gets longer.
Given the potential for social media to trash a brand built over decades almost overnight, any responsible due diligence and risk assessment process now takes in social media as a key component of an enterprises value.
An often used first step is to encourage the evolution of a “code of conduct” to guide behavior. Many large companies are now doing this, including Coca Cola. Their code is on the net for all to see, and sensibly, they are allowing it to evolve as behavior in social media evolves. The Coke code is a great place for others to start thinking about how they want their employees and other stakeholders to interact in Social media. An alternative is to go back to first principals, and ask what you as a consumer of SM expect from a site, the list would be a bit different to the Coke one, more like this, on Social Media Examiner.
However you go about it, fact is that you need a robust policy to keep out the robots & trashers that is transparent, and rigorously executed, whilst enabling the evolution necessary in an ecology changing every day.
Feb 7, 2012 | Branding, Marketing
The net has changed everything.
In the “old days” consumers brand choices were made from a small pool of acceptable brands that was defined by experience, limited access to detailed information, and advertising.
Once a brand had been purchased, the well understood “cogitative dissonance” kicked in, a psychological process which justifies an action already taken, and served to make the walls of the brand pool tougher. It didn’t much matter if the purchase was a major one like a car, or a bar of soap, the processes were similar.
Now, these purchase drivers have been thrown out the window, as consumers have quick access to vast amounts of technical information, performance data, and user reviews to inform and shape the purchase decision. This has led to the pool of acceptable brands becoming much wider, and shallower, in many categories, it has almost ceased to exist beyond a measure of awareness.
Consumers now buy many brands. The old notion of brand loyalty has been seriously discounted by consumers who are brand promiscuous. Assessment of value that take in a whole range of factors not previously important in any but the first, and perhaps second purchase now shape behavior. Availability, word of mouse, the view of the crowd, supply chain transparency, perceived social responsability, and many more. Consumers are seeking more reassurance from the social media, and less from the mass marketing notions of brand positioning and loyalty.
The message is if you do not deliver value at every point in a consumers journey with a product, do not expect them to stick around, as there is a viable alternative within easy reach.
Feb 6, 2012 | Branding, Marketing
Brand-building is an infinitely more difficult exercise in the current environment. Gone are the days when you could throw a bunch of money at mass media, and use it to drive distribution and consumer trial, and if the thing was any good at all, gain some measure of “brand”.
The rules have evolved dramatically, they are both simpler to articulate, but as with many simple concepts, harder to execute, as in their simplicity lies great challenge.
- Never build expectations that may not be fulfilled.
- Communicate a very clear promise that differentiates the product in a way meaningful to the behavior of the user.
- Build trust by over delivering consistently
- Innovate beyond familiar boundaries whilst retaining relevance to consumers.
See, easy!
Feb 3, 2012 | Branding, Innovation, Marketing
So Kodak is broke, chapter 11 which protects a company from its creditors whilst it radically restructures in order to survive and pay back creditors.
It is only a few years ago Kodak was one of the most valuable brands in the world. In the mid 90’s it was in the top 5 of Interbrands list of the most valuable brands, in 2001, it was down to number 27, worth $11 Billion, 2007, number 82, worth $4 billion, the last time it troubled the scorers.
The common wisdom is that Kodak failed to keep up with digital photographic technology, but they invented the digital camera, they should have understood the implications, they just failed to make an impression on the market.
However, they did try, and try hard, so an alternative reason for failure should be considered. Maybe it is just that the Kodak brand was so strong, it said Film, it was film, that the leapto digital could not be made by the consumers.
Perhaps what they really needed was another brand?.
Would you buy a kitchen appliance if it was branded “Hoover” or an orange juice branded “Coca-Cola”? Probably not, simply because the brand is such a powerful expression of the one product. I think Kodak suffered from the same malady, and they failed to recognise it.
Some late news on Kodak post the Chapter11. I guess you could say they have gone back to their knitting.
P.S. march 2015, this post from those terrific storytellers at Digital Tonto bring us this analysis of Kodak’s burning platform of chemical photography.
PPSS. July 2016. This HBR post by Scott Anthony delivers another perspective on the ever interesting story of Kodak and Innovation.
