Off! brand: Innovation by Nailing Nuisances

Off! brand solved one of consumers’ biggest problems with their category… and their new product is flying off the shelf. Here’s a great example of a company that sufficiently understands its category and consumers and use that knowledge to drive breakthrough innovation. They solved one of consumers’ biggest concerns about insect repellents – the inconvenience and fear of applying it to your skin – with the Off! Clip-On and initial sales results are exceptional. According to Ad Age, the Off fan has exceeded S.C. Johnson’s initial sales expectations by 400%, sold $4.2 million in its first month, and retailers’ sole problem with the item is keeping it in stock. And at a premium price of over $10!

Here’s a great example of how leading companies develop successful and profitable new products: solve consumers’ problems. Such a simple idea… but all too rarely applied. Here are some easy ways to do it:
1) Conduct need-gap research – a simple market research study that determines what are the priority benefits consumers seek in your category (i.e. in the insect repellent category, #1 is likely repels insects, #2 might be keeps working (with one application), and how well your brand, and major competitors, perform on these priority benefits. Identify important attributes that no one is serving well: that’s where lucrative innovation opportunities abound.
2) Maximize and leverage consumer feedback loops – find out what issues consumers have with your category or your brand that you can capitalize on. Customer service, salesforce, and website are all rich potential feedback loops that can be used to identify consumers’ unmet needs.
3) Capitalize on all innovation opportunities, not just new products – there are many important things that annoy consumers or prevent them from buying more of you that you can fix – that are not necessarily new products. Common opportunities include: being clear about how you help them on your packaging; better information on how to properly use your product on/in the product; being more convenient; being more available; appropriately priced; being more responsive…. Again, find an important consumer nuisance and fix it.

Off’s new Clip-On product is destined for continued success… same great functioning product, but creatively overcoming consumers’ convenience and safety concerns.

Lessons Learned:
1. Consumer complaints are one of the greatest sources of innovation opportunities. Make sure you use your contacts with consumers as a good feedback loop. Collect consumer complaints and issues and use them as inputs for your innovation activity.
2. Make sure you know what are the important benefits and attributes that consumers want and how well you and your primary competitors solve those problems. Let ‘what they want’ lead innovation, not ‘what we can make.’
3. Lucrative innovation isn’t just new products. Innovation is defining ways to enhance any aspect of your brand’s appeal to the consumer.

Swine Flu: CDC’s Brand Coup?!

As we all wash our hands for the 89th time today, you have to admire the Center for Disease Control’s effective branding and positioning of the Swine Flu. Really, would the threat of an obscure H1N1 virus sufficiently capture our attention or become a media darling? ‘Swine flu brand’ has gained exceptionally high consumer awareness in a short time, reinforced awareness with frequent and relevant messages, generated buzz and driven preventive activity. Amazing, given that medical professionals are still sorting through the validity of this flu’s unique severity.

Bizarre as it may be, Swine Flu is a great example of effective brand naming, communication, awareness and relevance. First, it has a unique and memorable ‘brand name.’ The name ties to an early, erroneously perceived similarity to influenza viruses that circulate in North American pigs.  The name successfully grabs your attention and is convincingly menacing. Second, the communication plan has been exceptionally effective. Early reports of this imminent, frightening potential epidemic were widespread, clear, and emotionally-charged. The media’s tracking and local-angle reporting have been ongoing, since the first report. The high frequency of messages at the national and local levels has created a very high level of brand awareness… would it be possible not to have heard about it? Similarly, the messages are highly relevant, implying that you and your loved ones are under constant life-threatening conditions in daily situations. The messaging adeptly harnesses one of the most motivating behaviors: fear.

Virtually everyone is aware of the ‘Swine Flu brand,’ has a clear image of what it is, and has adapted their behaviors in some way based on this new knowledge. That’s great branding. Now off to wash my hands again….

Lessons Learned:
1. Select a memorable, unique brand name that reinforces your product or service’s most important attributes.
2. Plan and execute a clear, consistent external communication plan to quickly build awareness with your target audience.
3. Try to make your brand newsworthy with sufficient issue value to gain additional mentions through public relations and buzz.
4. Make your message as relevant and urgent as possible. Explain how your brand lets consumers avoid pain or improve the quality of their life.
5. Ensure key messages have a call to action – what it is you want consumers to do.

Target Triumphs with Consistent Communication

A staggering 96% of Americans recognize Target Corporation’s bullseye, putting the brand in the brand awareness stratosphere with the likes of Nike and Coca-Cola.

This exceptional brand awareness is a direct result of their consistent communication. While most chief marketers continue to cite Integrated Marketing Communication as their biggest challenge, according to the the Association of National Advertisers, Target masters it.

Their effective communication begins with a clear brand strategy. Per their annual report, “Our mission is to make Target the preferred shopping destination for our guests by delivering outstanding value, continuous innovation and an exceptional guest experience by consistently fulfilling our Expect More. Pay Less.^® brand promise.” Exemplary brands always begin with strategy. Brand communication is merely a way to articulate and reinforce the strategy.

Target’s marketing communications are exceptionally cohesive and consistent. Here’s how they get cohesion: The brand’s ‘get more for less’ promise and unmistakable red and white brand imagery is seen in all aspects of their advertising, product mix, and in-store communication. Rarely, if ever, do they fall prey to the common mistake of doing a marketing campaign that does not have a strong relationship to all of their other marketing activities. Target is armed with a clear understanding of exactly what the brand is and they ensure that every element of their marketing communication reinforces that brand image. Most companies lack that clear vision, making consistency difficult, if not impossible. Target also has a very senior brand owner (a centralized brand management organization, led by a senior executive) that ensures all aspects of brand communication is on strategy and consistent. This is in stark contrast to struggling companies that treat branding as a tactical, ‘window-dressing’ function.

To achieve consistency, they have had the same basic strategy and communication since they began in 1962. There have been many upgrades and refinements of the strategy and communication, but basically the same message. The beauty of this disciplined persistence, is that they can reap the benefits of these investments in brand equity. Contrast this with too many companies’ knee-jerk reaction to do 180 degree changes virtually yearly, with disappointing results.

Most importantly, they are always tracking and refining their marketing programs to drive results. Their marketing effectiveness is engineered, not done through trial and error. They do extensive research to test and refine all aspects of their brand experience in a simulated shopping experience, they ‘micromanage, think and sweat about every little aspect of the guest experience’ and ‘take the time to communicate to our broad organization what they do, why they’re doing it, how it fits the whole,’ according to CEO Gregg Steinhafel in a recent Forbes interview. And their attention to key return-on-investment metrics are legendary.

Despite their overwhelming size, Target has useful lessons for every brand.

1. Determine your brand strategy first. Don’t bother to spend a $ or hour in marketing until that’s clear.
2. Make all aspects of your marketing communications cohesive and consistent. Leverage what you have already spent, and stretch what you plan to invest.
3. Track and refine all your programs. If you are not prepared to measure programs’ return-on-investment, you are not ready to do it.

Swanson’s Inclusive Advertising: Stirring Sales Growth

Kudos to Swanson brand and parent company, Campbell Soup Company for its outstanding, inclusive print advertising campaign. The campaign features great chefs using, and providing recipes for, their delicious broths… and a delicious, authentic respect for diversity. While many companies are wisely striving for, but often struggling with, diversity, Swanson’s work is exemplary. They are elegantly appealing to caucasion ‘traditional families’ – AND the roughly 50% of the U.S. population that isn’t – appealing to millions of consumers that others overlook.

One of the executions features a two Mom household, and the media plan includes placement in the Advocate, a leading gay and lesbian magazine. So of course, one group (who I won’t name, lest I give them more visibility) protested and attempted to incite negative action against the company. Campbell’s remained steadfast in their support of the campaign and respect for diversity. Result: dramatic sales growth and unscathed by a tiny bit of flak.

This is an exemplary inclusive marketing campaign; it strategically appeals to more consumers. Swanson’s brilliantly chose not to exclude huge groups of consumers by projecting the all-too-common ‘probably just for white people’ imagery. Inclusive marketing = more potential consumers. Mmm good indeed.

Lessons learned:
1. Treat inclusive advertising as an incremental sales opportunity.
2. Understand who your target consumers are. Take great care not to inadvertently exclude huge business-generating consumer segments.
3. Effective inclusive advertising is not simply inserting token minority images. Inclusive advertising talks to people respectfully, just more of them.
4. The best inclusive advertising is grounded in early strategic planning with your creative partners, not as an executional afterthought.
5. Expect to get some disapproving communication if you include some consumer segments, such as GLBT. It is usually minor and brief; no cause for overreaction.

Gee Gatorade, what are you selling?

Good marketing fundamental: be clear. If consumers understand what you are selling and what it can do for them, they can buy some from you. Common sense, right? The problem with common sense is, sometimes it’s not that common. The new, incomprehendible “What’s G?” campaign for Gatorade violates this basic rule.

Gatorade broke the multi-million dollar campaign this month to “create consumer intrigue and ensure everyone stays tuned for more in our quest for G,” according to a Gatorade spokeswoman and Ad Age. The spot features 60-seconds of stunning images of interesting people with no sales message at all. What’s intriguing or riveting about that?

Contrast that with VitaminWater’s clear and effective print ad. This ad shows the consumer what they can buy, prominently shows the product, and cleverly tells you that it will hydrate them.

Lessons Learned:
1. Don’t throw money away like Gatorade. Obtuse and vague messages do not drive demand.
2. Be clear. Always feature your product prominently and convince consumers to buy some.
3. Speak in consumer language. You need to convince them, not yourself.

Levi’s’ Lame Advertising Campaign: Provocative and Pathetic

Levi’s current brand advertising and communication are fabulous examples of ‘what not to do.’ Here’s a classic case of an advertiser and their agency who are so desperately trying to “break through the clutter,” that they forgot that good advertising is supposed to sell more stuff and enhance the brand’s appeal. But wait, the concurrent viral ‘Unbutton Your Beast’ campaign is even worse. Both communication efforts give the consumer absolutely no performance or emotional reason to go buy a pair of Levi’s. And they do nothing to enhance the brand’s image, and quite a lot to tarnish it instead. What’s the message? Levi’s is for amorous pathological liars? Millions of dollars gone badly astray. Meanwhile, Levi’s reports disappointing sales and profit performance globally, and in particular, North America. Cause and effect? You bet.

Here’s the avoidable trap that Levi’s has succumbed to: financial pressures put the company in a panicky quandry about ‘what should we do?!’ which makes decisionmakers forget to be strategic. Levi’s should be continuing to reinforce its fabulous brand with advertising that reminds target consumers to buy their better jeans. The advertising objective has to be to drive sales growth and enhance the brand image. Clearly that’s lost here. Rather, it looks like they succumbed to underestimating the sensibilities of their targeted teen and young adult consumers and tried to be ‘provocative’ or ‘break through the clutter.’ Tragically, at the expense of the important jobs of selling more jeans or enhancing the brand.

It’s an unnecessary lapse of judgement that can easily be fixed. First, Levi’s needs to better understand its brand equities, target consumers’ needs, and what they desire in their next jeans purchase. Then they need to better determine and articulate their advertising objective (e.g. market share growth), which always trumps being provocative. This is the critical foundation to working more effectively with their advertising agency to request, evaluate, and ultimately get effective advertising.

May our beloved brand, Levi’s, quickly replace these horrific ads with marketing communication that respects the brands’ rich heritage, quality, and loyal consumers.

Lessons learned:
1. Always have a clear understanding of your brand’s distinct equities, benefits, and marketing communication objectives, so you can adequately evaluate and coach potential marketing campaigns. This clarity of purpose becomes especially critical when the brand is in transition or decline.
2. Relentlessly seek marketing communication that drives sales and improves the brand image. Don’t get seduced or distracted with ‘how’ descriptors like humor, coolness, and breakthrough the clutter. Sell more stuff; enhance brand image.
3. Objectively track the effectiveness of your campaign on critical measures like % sales growth and market share growth. Don’t get snowed by improvement in tertiary measurements like ‘advertising likability among X segment,’ or even ‘website visits.’ Keep your eye on the sales performance and marketing return-on-investment results.

Exceptional Brands: Wii Nails Consumer Needs

In a pretty sober selling season,  Nintendo Wii sales are still on fire – up 100% versus last year in November.   December should be even better, as Wii is on Santa’s short list in so many homes.    Here’s a truly exceptional brand on so many levels.   First, by adding a mobile dimension to gaming, it truly is different, superior, and preferred.   Second, the product concept is clear – even the youngest of children can grasp the simple idea in a moment.   Third, the product truly delights the consumer – not only does the user get the fun and enjoyment they expect, but a higher level of fun and enjoyment well beyond those expectations.  Fourth, the new product innovations – Wii Music, Super Mario, and Wii Fit are all brilliant, appealing ways to extend the brand franchise.

But the beauty of the Wii concept is that it solved the #1 problem and parent concern for video games: sedentary kids.   Clearly, Nintendo had rich knowledge and understanding of their gaming purchaser (parents) and users (kids) to identify and capitalize on this widespread consumer frustration.     Great marketing innovation happens when you understand your consumer well enough to identify and solve an unmet need.   In this case, they understood that the gaming purchaser/gatekeeper is Mom, who was very concerned and irritated about her kids’ appealing, but static, gaming systems.

Capitalizing on unmet needs is a rich opportunity for every brand, but often overlooked.     For example, in most companies, customer complaints are ‘handled,’ maybe even tallied or analyzed, and – tragically – stop there.    The best innovators mine that information constantly, as it presents rich consumer feedback about ‘what point of pain’ you could solve for your consumers.   Similarly, even the most basic consumer research about what irritates people and what they wish for in your category gives you incredible knowledge about what unmet needs you can solve in your category.

Rethink negative consumer feedback.    If properly interpreted, consumer complaints are consumers’ wish list for your future innovation and brand growth.

Lessons Learned:
1.    Identify, collect, and interpret major consumer complaints.    In particular, make sure Marketing and Product Development see and interpret this information regularly.
2.    Do sufficient consumer research so that you know what they love, and don’t love, about your brand’s performance and your top competitors’.     Leverage your strengths in future new products, and evaluate if you need to fix areas in which you are lagging.
3.     Become experts in category irritants and unmet needs that you can capitalize on.    When you fix consumers’ points of pain, you gain brand loyalty and market share.

Wendy’s Is Waaaay Better: Truly Effective Advertising

Wendy’s advertising has improved dramatically – and their same-store sales trends prove it. They’ve done a great job getting back to basics by touting their brand’s superior quality. Kudos to the Wendy’s brand marketing team and their advertising agency, kirshenbaum bond + partners, for bringing superior quality to life with the ‘Waaaay Better’ campaign. It’s no secret that Wendy’s has struggled since 2002 to replace their legendary Dave Thomas campaigns, including the tragic guys-in-wigs misfire last year. Wendy’s advertising is waaay better indeed. Same-store sales, the most important business indicator for restaurants, have steadily improved for the last few months.

Getting truly effective advertising – that measurably improves sales and profit performance – is rare, but essential. Here’s why the Wendy’s campaign – and other successful advertising campaigns – works. The campaign:

- reinforces the brand’s positioning (the brand’s unique, superior promise). Wendy’s quality and taste are superior to other fast food options and the advertising communicates it.
- has a clear main message - The clear message is that Wendy’s has better quality; that message isn’t buried in a myriad of other information.
- includes compelling benefits – better taste is extremely important to consumers who are deciding where to eat.
- is campaignable – there is a strong, modular expandable idea that can be used consistently across all the marketing, and for many years. It’s not just one ad that works.
- has powerful visuals – even without audio, the ads are compelling. We ‘eat with our eyes,’ and receive roughly 60% of our communication through what we see.
- has a call to action –the critical ‘come buy this’ message is featured.
- drives real results – same-store sales, the key performance measure, are up. There’s no ‘spin’ of citing obscure measurements, common for campaigns that are not performing.

Lessons Learned:
1. The important first step to developing great advertising is to understand and articulate your brand positioning. Your Agency can only do its best work for you with this information.
2. Even spectacular brands have advertising missteps. When your campaign doesn’t work, go back to the basics of understanding and leveraging your brand’s equities (what consumers like about you).
3. Make sure the main message is clear. Advertising is a tool to sell more stuff. Period. Don’t let communication methods like humor, spokespeople or visual techniques cloud the issue.
4. Evaluate campaign effectiveness by 1-3 financial performance metrics. Again, advertising is a tool to sell more stuff. Like any investment, it must provide an ample return on investment.

General Motors’ Demise: Losing Brand Relevance

Could General Motors have managed once-great brands much worse?  With or without a bailout, nearly all of GM’s brands are classic examples of brands that lost their relevance with consumers.   How did the market share leader, with a portfolio of brands that delivered exceptional performance (Pontiac) and aspirational image (Cadillac) fall so far?    As always, consumers’ lifestyles and preferences changed over time; General Motors did very little to respond. 

Among the major marketing mistakes that ‘led to this fine mess’:
- They lost touch with the consumer.   Since their peak market share days, when the brands’ product lines and marketing messages captured consumer desires, GM listened less and less.    Their focus, tragically, was on ‘what they could make,’ rather than what the consumer wanted to buy.     For example, Toyota, Honda and others did a far better job anticipating and responding to consumers’ interests in smaller cars, better fuel-efficiency, and SUVs.
- Their innovation lagged competition.   Once leaders in innovative product design, they became followers, at best.   And when they actually could innovate, they were late.    Their manufacturing process became so complex and unyielding that it took them at least 2 years longer to introduce a new model, than competion.   That dooms any innovation program.
- The brands’ positionings became unclear.   Just a few decades ago, Pontiac was the ultimate sports car and Cadillac was the American dream for luxury.    And now?   A virtually indistinguishable array of ill-defined, overlapping brands.   And GM vascillated on managing the portfolio – sometimes focusing on nameplate brands (e.g. Buick or GMC), sometimes on the model brands (e.g. Sunfire or Escalade).   Meanwhile competitors did an infinitely better job at building compelling nameplate brands (e.g. Lexus, Toyota)
- Underestimating competition.  Despite years of declining market share and getting pummelled by global competitors, GM management remained steadfast in their insular assumption that the GM way was the best way.    Wake up.    The moment you lose market share your consumer is telling you;  “I don’t prefer you any more.”   That’s the warning sign to adapt and respond.

Brand Lessons:

1.  Stay relevant or say goodbye – Anticipate, intently listen to, and study consumers’ changing needs.  Brands, like people, maintain their vitality by evolving positively over time.
2.  Innovate more frequently and faster than competition – Market leaders are consistently the best, and most prolific innovators.    Constantly refine your internal innovation practices so you can innovate faster than competition.
3.   Learn and respond to competitive inroads – Don’t let internal corporate pride and ego blind you.   If your consumers are starting to buy ‘your category’ from others, figure out why and develop an action plan.

Brand Obama: Spectacular Brand Positioning

You have to applaud to the spectacular marketing of Brand Obama. Recently, Advertising Age named him Marketer of the Year for 2008, edging out Apple and Zappos.com at the Association of National Advertisers‘ annual conference. Sure, Brand Obama rose from nearly an unknown to a preferred brand in very short time and harnessed social networking, but the real greatness was in the positioning. Obama provided a very clear benefit (change) to his target audience (disgruntled Americans); the messaging was clear and consistent. The brand connected grabbed #1 market share with its functional benefits (tangible, performance benefits – the promises of financial benefits to the middle class). But the real coup was Obama brand’s emotional benefits: hope and optimism, which resonated deeply with the consumer.

Obama brand brilliance continues: look how he depositioned his competitor! Depositioning is neutralizing or diminishing your competition through effectively positioning your brand. The Obama brand’s positioning of the candidate for “Change,” thus redefined both Clinton and McCain as ’status quo.’ Worked masterfully, as it does in marketing brands (e.g. Pepsi is for a vibrant, New Generation, redefining Coke as old, and staid, by comparison).

Brand Lessons:

1. Make sure you have a compelling brand positioning for your brand.
2. Consistently reinforce your brand’s position.
3. Deposition your competitor by leveraging your brand’s strength and attacking their weakness.