2. Make sure it’s profitable early
DO screen ideas for profit potential at the idea stage
DO rework ideas early to address any profitability issues
DON’T pursue a flawed business model

√ Does my item yield a lucrative P&L on a total and per unit basis?

√ Do I have a viable business in Year 1 and “Year 3”?

3. Select and perfect ideas
DO choose the best among several ideas
DO challenge and refine good ideas to make great ideas
DO seek feedback from your target consumer and development resources
DO strive to exceed expectations, be different, be better
DON’T jump to one answer
√ 
Is this among our best 1 in 3 or 1 in 5 ideas?

√  “What could make this even better?”

4. Position and clarify the product idea
DO ensure you clearly articulate what it is, what it does and how it benefits your consumer
DO take full responsibility that your customers (trade and consumer) understand its benefits
DO be different and superior
DON’T overlook any opportunity to precisely tell your story (e.g. every touch point)

√ Can you explain your concept in 5 words or less? Do customers (trade and consumer) understand and respond to your
idea?

√ Are you different and/or superior?

√ Do you have a compelling profit story for the trade?

5. Keep your marketing frugal, focused and factual
DO identify your business goals before you spend anything
DO compare and choose among alternatives (suppliers, programs, methods)
DO quantify the productivity and efficiency of your programs
DON’T “just do it”
DON’T overlook low-cost and no-cost public relations opportunities

√ Does this plan/program meet my business objective?

√ What is the return-on-investment? Is there a more efficient option?

√ Is this program fully leveraged and consistent?

6. Perfect your business model
DO maintain, measure and continuously improve a test market
DO test and refine product mix, pricing, and sales and marketing tactics
DO track and improve profit performance
DON’T measure progress only by total sales growth
√ 
Have you identified a small market in which you can monitor your business model?

√ What is your P&L performance in this small market?

√ Are you continuously testing and improving performance?
√ Can you expand your best business model?

7. Outmaneuver the big guys
DO monitor and react to consumer feedback
DO identify and own your niche
DO develop new products faster
DON’T compete directly with them where they are strongest
√
Do/can you own your niche?
√
Can you serve market needs and gaps that big guys consider ‘too small’?
√ 
Can you incorporate feedback for more, superior new products?

The innovation concept itself is so promising. Leveraging their flavored beverage brilliance (Kool-Aid and Crystal Light), Kraft positioned MiO as a revolutionary, more contemporary portable water additive. The name is great – connoting personalization and a clever play on H2O. The launch plan was spectacular, heavy traditional and social media support creating cult awareness before the product even reached stores. Teenagers were begging their parents to get some; it doesn’t get much better than that in marketing.   MiO had stellar packaging and product displays – unique, eye-catching, and shaped like a water drop.

The television advertising campaign is exceptional too – clearly positioned the product as revolutionary, consumer-customizable, and thirst quenching.   Brilliant use of music (“That’s the way I like it”) reinforcing the customization benefit, and solid media plan to ensure the target market was aware of this
new product.

A nearly flawless product launch…. uh…. except…..

1) Distribution was spotty.     In many major metro markets, where the traditional and social media campaigns had successfully built demand, the consumer couldn’t find it in their stores.    It wasn’t there yet.   Millions of dollars wasted…
2) Consumers can’t find it when it IS in the store.     Consumers don’t know where ‘liquid water enhancers’ are located within stores, nor do they want to invest time hunting for it.
3) It tastes bad.    Game over.    Particularly disappointing taste experience compared to the compelling promises in the advertising.
4) Niche flavors.    Berry Pomegranate, Mango Peach, Peach Tea, Fruit Punch, Strawberry Watermelon, and Sweet Tea.  While an interesting line-up, which of these are drink daily/high volume flavors?

Oh MiO, we’re disappointed… and know you will be too.

Lessons Learned:
1)   A great idea is only as good as it is executed.    Make sure you have a great concept and great delivery of that concept to consumers, to succeed at innovation.
2)  Every product category has one or two major expectations that are deal-breakers.    In food and beverage… duh… it better taste good.
3)  Make sure your product is available before you waste a dime building demand.    Why would you pay to disappoint a new customer?
4)  Make sure your consumers can, and will, easily locate your product.   Tell them where to find it, if necessary.
5)  Cover the predictably high volume sku’s in your product assortment.    Small twists and variations on staples are often big winners.  Don’t just offer several ‘unique’ but low-volume items.

1.   Ted Williams, the man -  Clearly he has great talent and appears to know how to use it.    On his  handwritten sign at the side of the freeway, he positioned himself as “ex-radio announcer.”  Hopefully he will continue to prosper, long after his 15 seconds incredible fame, with food, clothing, shelter, and personal fulfillment…. and avoid his prior missteps.

2.  The Ted Williams brand -  Given the media craze, this brand has achieved double-digit brand awareness worldwide.     Like it or not, his exposure this week is similar to that of the world’s largest advertising supported brands.      Ted Williams brand has incredible momentum, awareness, relevance and image .    Time will tell how the momentum and image evolve.

3.   Kraft Macaroni & Cheese -   Kraft,  and their agency, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, were absolutely brilliant to hire as the spokesperson for the Kraft Macaroni & Cheese brand – quickly.     They got tens of millions of dollars worth of advertising and public relations for this sound decision.    Further, they were incredibly nimble to seize the opportunity so quickly – no small feat for a huge corporation.    Williams is the voice-over talent you’ll hear as Kraft debut’s a new television spot on Sunday’s Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl.  

Again, Kraft recognized and seized the opportunity to bring more relevance and visibility to their sports sponsorship and  Huddle to Fight Hunger campaign – in which they’ve donated over 20 million meals to Feeding America, the nation’s leading hunger relief organization.     This is marketing at its best.

4.    Cleveland Cavaliers  – Similarly, the Cavaliers were swift to offer him an attractive job and give him a home.      It will beat a great coup if the Cav’s get a famous ‘voice of the Cavaliers’ announcer.      A great boost for the Cav’s spirits and image after the LeBron James fallout.

5.  Adidas -  Williams was prominently sporting Adidas clothing from head to toe on Thursday night’s Jimmy Fallon show, just hours after wearing regular duds in the morning on the Today show.      Whether Ted just selected the clothes himself, Adidas donated some apparel, or there is a potential deal in the works,  that’s a three-minute national product placement.

6.     WNCI‘s Dave & Jimmy Show -  These Columbus, Ohio radio hosts first heard about Ted Williams via a video story in the Columbus Dispatch.    They gave the guy a chance and invited him in.     This created tremendous unexpected visibility for their show, including an interview with the BBC.    When asked if they considered themselves “a kingmaker.”  they modestly answered that all they did was given him a forum and a chance.    Very classy.

Lessons Learned:

1.  Seize the moment: PR opportunities come when you least expect it.    Keep your head above water (scan your larger universe)  to look for opportunities (as Kraft and the Cleveland Cavaliers did), recognize or develop the mutually beneficial tie to your brand, and act quicker than competition.     Be, or get, capable of mobilizing on your opportunities.

2.  Position Yourself: Be clear on who your brand is and what benefit it provides to your target customer.

3.  Talent is Everywhere: I’m as, if not more, guilty as the next person of underestimating or labeling a homeless person.    It’s a vivid reminder that every person in your company, and life, is rich with unique talent that can, and should be, unleashed.

1.     Focus -  If you haven’t already, figure out what business you really are in (it’s not what you make, it’s whose problems you solve), what drives your business model, and what you need to attack first.    Less is always more, and more profitable.
2.     Develop your Business Strategy – This needn’t be the all-consuming five-year plan that is both painful and rarely used.    Just figure out what direction you want to head, make sure you know why you want to head that way (versus other alternatives), and make sure that direction is financially sound.      This is CEO and Board stuff, and it’s critical.    But it’s all too frequently not done.
3.     Select your Growth Priorities – For most companies, if you can select 3 reasonable ways to grow, and dedicate most of your resources to doing that, you’ll decimate your competition.
4.      Focus Marketing on these Growth Priorities – The marketing plan, budget, and major programs should all support accomplishing the growth priorities in #3.     When you develop and review the marketing plan, that’s the easy way to make sure you direct precious dollars and time resources on the right things.     You’d be amazed at how frequently there is a bunch of activity, pet programs, ‘things we’ve always done,’ or other ill-conceived ideas that have nothing to do with company priorities.
5.      Challenge the Tactics – When you evaluate a major program, make sure it is designed to achieve a specific business objective, and isn’t just cool or enticing (like rudderless social media campaigns).    Make sure it’s the best way to accomplish that objective versus other alternatives.  (If it’s great, compared to what?)
6.      Quantify What Good Looks Like first – Figure out what you’d like the marketing program to produce and how you’ll measure it before you start.    If  it isn’t going to be productive in some measurable way, why do it?
7.      Communicate, communicate, communicate – Simplify your strategy, business objectives, and big marketing pushes and over-communicate them to everyone who needs to know as often as you can.    It’s staggering what you can accomplish when you help bright, well-intended people walk in the same direction.
8.       Expect more from Marketing - Ask and expect them to be the experts on your customer, competitive position, marketing strategy, and marketing spending effectiveness.      Ask and expect them to help everyone else in the company be more aware of and responsive to your customer and consumer.
9.       Make Marketing a Priority -  Chief Executive Officers, and other senior leaders, can do this quite easily.       Think about and communicate to your company in terms of how what you do will earn and deserve more customer appeal and loyalty.       Challenge every major initiative (even if it seems highly internal and operational) to see how it will affect your customer and consumer.     Structure your company so Marketing has the authority, staffing, and skill set comparable to your other senior functions.     (i.e. get strategic or get pens with your logo on them – your choice).
10.     Expect Measurable Results – Like every other major function, you should expect, track and report performance on key measures like sales, sales growth rate, market share,  and return-on-investment.      Don’t accept double-speak or things that are unclear – and ask questions until it’s clear.      Expect major programs to be tracked and analyzed for future learning.

Almost any company can make great headway on any of these improvements in a very, very short time.

1. Set priorities and expectations: Innovation is more successful when it is established as a corporate priority. Senior management must set and broadly communicate clear and consistent innovation goals within the corporate strategy. Goals must be measurable and have clear accountability: Sales, profit and payback goals for the entire innovation effort (all products and services), typically for a one-year or five-year timeframe. Both marketing and research and development have interdependent accountability to deliver these goals. This step alone can address the paralyzing chasm between most marketing and R&D teams.

2. Capitalize on true core competencies: Innovation winners exploit what they do best. Assess and leverage core competencies and avoid areas where you cannot or should not compete. When winners choose the path of diversification, they wisely develop or acquire the capabilities needed to succeed in a new area, rather than suffer from optimism or arrogance.

3. Build a rich pipeline: Leaders generate, evaluate and filter through far more potential new ideas than their “just do it” counterparts. Determine whether projects can demonstrate financial and consumer viability before committing resources. At the idea stage, ask: Is the product financially viable? Review year-one and ongoing (typically year-three) profit and loss statements on each proposed project. Crude estimates can suffice. Is there a true unmet market need for the product? Who is the target? What’s the relevant consumer benefit? (One that motivates consumption, not just “nice to have”) How is the product superior to the competition? Flawed ideas don’t get any better in development and launch, just more costly.

4. Properly plan and position the product: Successful innovators develop a realistic financial plan and compelling positioning for the product up front. Plan sufficient sales and marketing support in the early project financials, rather than treat it as a downstream task. Set project performance hurdles up front (e.g., monthly retail sales or reorder rates). This helps you be objective when evaluating whether in-market performance has earned additional resources or requires adjustment. Top performers develop and refine a distinct and consumer-based positioning for the product early — at concept, not launch. Product performance hinges on whether the consumer knows exactly what the product is, what benefit it provides and why it’s superior to current options.

5. Engineer excellent execution: World-class innovators have a well-organized, structured innovation process that drives collaboration and continuous improvement. Use cross-functional teams religiously. Appoint empowered project leaders to lead these teams and support them with a management sponsor, who will help them — when needed — address common “project killers,” like conflicting priorities and bottlenecks. Hold these teams accountable for shepherding projects from concept through execution. Innovation leaders have more new product success rates, fewer product quality issues, and launch blunders because they use effective cross-functional teams.

Use these five Best Practices to improve new product results and increase the speed and productivity of efforts. New product success not only drives business results, it elevates creativity, teamwork and a thirst for continued improvement.

Overall, an uninspiring collection of Super Bowl commercials last night.    Few disasters, few fabulous, a lot of just okay.    In most cases, each :30 ad was a $3 million investment ($2.5 million for air time, $500,000 ish for production) – so mediocre won’t exactly drive a return-on-investment.     Today’s Super Bowl ad chatter is mostly about entertainment, humor, and likability – and lots of fun.   Entertainment is swell, but advertising effectiveness – persuasion (making consumers feel differently about your brand) and incremental sales –  is what really matters.

Here are the winners from four marketing mavens – USAToday‘s AdMeter (popularity), Ad Age’s Bob Garfield (ad quality), Squawq (brands’ Twitter buzz), and me (effectiveness).

USA Today                               
Best:
1.   Snickers
2.   Doritos (dog collar)
3.   Bud Light (beer can house)
4.   Anheuser-Busch (Clydesdale friend)
5.   Coca-Cola (sleepwalker)

Worst:  Skechers

Ad Age
1-3.  3 1/2 stars: Audi,  Chrysler, and Qualcomm
4- 18.  3 stars:  Budweiser Select, Denny’s,  E-Trade (milkoholic), Careerbuilder,  Electronic Arts, HomeAway, Honda, Hyundai,  Monster, Motorola, NFL, Teleflora, Vizio, VW

Worst:    Go Daddy

Squawq
Best:
1.      Doritos
2.      Anheuser-Busch
3.      Coca-Cola
4.     Dove (Unilever)
5.     Audi

Worst:   KGB

Katz Marketing Solutions
Best:
1.      Doritos (House Rules)
2.      Bud Light
3.      E*Trade
4.      Google
5.      Hyundai (Favre/warranty)

Worst:  U.S. Census

Doritos (“House Rules”) earns my #1 – strategic (crave Doritos) and engaging, relevant to its audience, and seamlessly inclusive (diversity appeal – race and gender).    Similarly, Bud Light is strategic (covet the beer), has aspirational imagery (cool guy attracting friends), and memorable.     E-Trade, while highly entertaining, cleverly tells you about their superiority vs. higher priced brokerages, and also has diverse appeal.    Google was highly engaging and reinforced its brand’s leadership and scale (thwarting encroaching competition).   And Hyundai continues to increase its brand awareness and improve its product quality perception.

Lesson Learned:   Don’t judge your advertising by how entertaining or likable it is.    Judge it by its ability to persuade (convince your target audience to be aware of/purchase your brand) and drive a strong return-on-investment (incremental sales/costs).

Lack of authenticity is what’s driving the unprecedented demise of the Tiger Woods brand.   His ‘brand truth’ is dramatically different from the carefully honed aspirational brand image.    And it was that faux brand image and esteem that made brand Tiger so ideal for corporate sponsorships.     Incessant media coverage and its exponential visibility in the blogosphere unearthed the size of brand Tiger’s lack of authenticity.     Post-media frenzy, his champion credentials will remain, but the ‘wonderful man’ imagery has been unveiled as a sham.      Brand Tiger’s demise is an extreme, but illustrative example, of the danger of lack of brand authenticity.     Last week, AT&T joined the growing list of multi-million dollar sponsors who really had no choice but to stop aligning their brand with Tiger Woods.    The financial value of the Tiger Woods brand is a fraction of what it was just a month ago.    

Sure, the Tiger Woods brand fiasco is an extreme – but it’s a great reminder of a brand imperative.   Brands only thrive when they are consistently truthful.    You have to be exactly what you say you are – or you’ll be exposed to embarrassment, market share erosion, or general underperformance.    First, your brand needs to meet or exceed the primary benefit you claim.     A simple example:  Coca-Cola is refreshing and tastes the same all the time.    And you have to successfully deliver on your claimed benefit in consumers’ minds, not by biased internal assessments only.   Second, you need to fulfill your brand promise at every customer touch point, not just some.    If you claim great service, it’s well beyond simply the time you are delivering the service.   Gaffes in customer experience, such as customer service, before or after the service delivery can quickly erode your brand.     Think of your most irritating recent customer service experience here, as an example.  Third, be consistent.   Every aspect of your product, pricing, distribution and promotion strategies should reinforce your brand’s unique promise, or you will confuse or lose customers.     For example, everything Whole Foods does reinforces its brand promise of providing superior quality natural and organic foods.    Fourth, correct mistakes immediately.   If your brand has a misstep, don’t hide and deny.   Take it as an opportunity to change and reinforce your brand’s truth.

Great brands thrive and endure because they are authentic.   So should yours.

Lessons Learned:
1.  Make sure your brand’s promise is clear and truthful.    Always deliver on that promise.
2.  Don’t try to communicate or ‘spin’ that your brand is something that it is not.   Consumers are too savvy and connected.
3.  Continuously improve and track the consumers’ experience and perception of your brand.    Brands need to evolve to continue to meet and exceed customer expectations.

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.

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.

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 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.