We were totally blown away by the great brand insights from the speakers at last night’s AIGA in the House 2! Stay tuned to the AIGANY site for the full video of this panel discussion and upcoming events that will inspire you too — we’ll see you there!
Check out Sterling’s facebook for more photos and photos from AIGANY!
As we all settle back into our work routine at the start of yet another New Year, it seemed like a really appropriate time to reflect back on the dominant themes we heard from the marketplace throughout 2011.
This is not intended to be a list of every brand question out there – more a selection of the most interesting, relevant and even provocative questions that every brand should be thinking about right now.
So in no particular order of importance, here goes:
1.) What is your point of view about the consumer’s appetite for spending in your category in 2012? Are you still in recession mode? Are you taking note of all the latest indicators? Without a point of view, there is no point.
2.) What lessons can the rest of us learn from the surging success of the leading technology brands? And can some of their success factors be applied to your brand?
3.) Given the generally stagnant overall marketplace, growth in 2012 will likely be achieved by winning share. So, if you are to win share, then who is going to lose?
4.) How much should you commit your brand to Facebook, not just in dollar terms but in overall exposure? Is Google + a better bet? Remember what happened to Myspace and they were also seen as indomitable at one time!!
5.) The innovators in the marketplace are talking about new concepts such as “brands of meaning” and “brand generosity”. Where do you stand on these and other emerging ideas? Are they a part of your brand chatter?
6.) Should your brand be doing more to help the national unemployment phenomenon (see Starbucks for inspiration)? With an election year government, shouldn’t this be a time for brands to stand up and be counted?
7.) With data equity becoming as important as brand equity, how good is the data used to make decisions on your brand? Do you really have the best data? And more importantly, do you have the best data decoders? If not, you’re missing out.
8.) What would you do with your brand if you weren’t afraid? Or put another way, If it was your company, what would you be recommending for the way forward? And what would you retain, gain and lose from your current strategy?
9.) Really, how different is your brand vs the competition, and more importantly, how relevant and meaningful is that difference to consumers? Is this the time to be finding the new white space?
10.) For the past 5 years, Steve Jobs and Apple have been the primary point of inspiration for all of us - will that change now? And if so, which brand takes on that role for you for that daily dose of inspiration?
11.) How unadulterated is the feedback you get from your team? Is it cleansed and filtered? Do you see the whole research report or just the executive summary? And if so, is there a risk that many of your brand decisions could be sub-optimal?
12.) Are you really partnering with consumers to build your brand or is co-creation still a question mark in your mind? Are you the barrier to progress in this area? And what will it take to get you to put your toe in the water?
In summary, I suspect that these questions will resonate with some of you and for others they’ll read like gobbledygook. And that’s fine as well. But please remember that we’re out in the marketplace almost every day of the year working with clients and these twelve topics are just some of the consistent themes and discussions that we’ve heard and if nothing else, aren’t we nice people to just want to share them!
Happy new year to you all.
Simon Williams
Ever wonder about the Morton Umbrella Girl? Who is this mysterious young lady? Debbie and her students dive into one of the oldest brand characters in this bonus material from the upcoming book- Brand Bible…
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Communication Arts magazine queried Debbie inside the back cover of their latest issue (the advertising annual):
“What new challenges will brands face in the future?” (more…)
For those of us close to the food and grocery business, there was little evidence in 2006 in the yogurt category of the massive disruption that was about to take place:
-the sector was growing consistently in line with other mature food categories
-the big players such as General Mills and Dannon were busy innovating at the edges, especially around healthier options and products targeted to kids
-store brands were still a distant threat in the category
Meanwhile, in New York and a few other urban areas, the Greek yogurt phenomenon was being trail-blazed by Fage (pronounced “fah-yeh”) but apart from a small fanatical fanbase, very few people took any notice. It just didn’t seem that important.
Fast forward to 2011 where the greek yogurt sector now represents about 25%…yes 25% of total yogurt sales in a category valued at $6.8 billion annually.
So what happened?
Well the Fage brand continues to be a major player in the category and sales continue to expand rapidly. And while all the big players were definitely caught off guard, they are now all busy launching and enjoying the rewards of new Greek-style products. But the real news surrounds the game-changing brand called Chobani which has built a $250 million business annually in less than four years and which now dominates the Greek yogurt sector.
So how did a brand that didn’t even exist 5 years ago leave both the authentic Greek innovator (Fage) and the mainstream American brands (Yoplait and Dannon) in the dust? The answer makes for interesting reading and is a wonderful example of brand-building at its best.
Like many innovations, Chobani’s success stems from a confluence of events:
-it took an entrepreneur (Hamdi Ulukaya, a descendant of a long line of dairy farmers in Turkey,), with no knowledge of the yogurt business to see the marketplace opportunity
-this coincided with a noticeable change in consumer behavior at breakfast with more and more yogurt being eaten at the expense of cereal
-in turn, this was further fueled by the need for a healthier breakfast option– And Greek yogurt with its winning combination of simple, pure flavors with high protein together with low fat easily won this battle against the incumbent brands with their sweetener, coloring and preservative-filled traditional yogurts
-Chobani’s product is high quality and provides real evidence that good-for-you products do not need to taste disgusting- in fact it tastes superb
-add to the brand a wide range of flavors, simple and optimistic packaging and some new kids products and you begin to understand why the brand has such extraordinary momentum
-from a communications point of view, word of mouth- not just digital but also family-to-family helped spread the word as the Chobani distribution in turn moved from regional to national.
A few further thoughts about this remarkable brand story. From my perspective, what Chobani managed to achieve was to simultaneously “American-ize” and “mainstream” the Greek yogurt category – in the process it left behind both the major established yogurt brands as well as the original authentic Greek brand. In itself, this is an unbelievable feat. Furthermore, it achieved this with consumer prices significantly higher than historical norms and all this was done in less than four years while we were all struggling with the toughest recession in living memory.
To me, Chobani is a wonderful example of where the combination of catalytic product and clear positioning in the marketplace is the killer app for brand success. Congratulations to all those Chobani-ans who have made this possible and for giving millions of us a daily yogurt moment to savor.
Simon Williams
In the age where the word ‘green’ has become less of an adjective for a sustainable movement, and more of a corporate marketing attempt – it seems far too apparent that the cover has been blown as consumers wise up to the realities of green marketing and green branding initiatives.
With the present day economic realities partially to blame, we cannot ignore the fact that we are still faced with a recession. Unfortunately this leaves green branded products taking a heavy hit – as environmentally friendly products are viewed as an unnecessary luxury.
Sales down across the board and it’s hard to believe that it was only a mere 3 years ago, in 2008, when ‘green’ cleaning products like Green Works grossed $100 million in sales for Clorox. Fast forward three years later, sales are topping in at $60 million for Green Works today.
It would be easy to blame this digression solely on the economic downturn, however, most of the negative perceptions of green marketing and branding today are related to greenwashing.
Greenwashing, coined in 1986 by environmentalist Jay Westerveld, is used to describe the act of misleading consumers regarding environmental benefits of a product or service. With claims like ‘all natural’ branded on virtually anything today from cookies to cotton and diapers to detergent – consumers are now asking questions.
And rightfully so. Past offenders, including one of the nation’s largest and most recognizable cereal companies, were communicating that their cereal’s had ‘natural ingredients’ — when in reality, the corn used had been genetically modified and engineered.
A recent study, done by TerraChoice Environmental – claims that 99% of all products labeled as “green” do not live up to their claims. With green branded products sitting at a higher price point than most consumer products today – consumer’s simply refuse to spend extra money on products that fail to deliver on a viable point of difference.
For CPG companies, consumers (and the planet) to see any future benefit from the sustainable branded business – products claiming to be better for the environment need to do more than sit on the laurels of the branded ‘green’ name.
Putting the resources, energy and focus into changing the process rather than the perception of ‘green’ will be the only way to effectively change consumers spending habits.
Take Tyson Chicken for example. When they were caught labeling their chicken “all natural” (when in fact their chicken were being held in factory farms and being fed genetically modified corn) they responded by changing the way they raise their chickens. Today, all fresh branded Tyson Chicken is raised without any antibiotics.
At the end of the day, if you are going to attempt to brand a product as better for the environment, you better make sure the benefits outweigh more than just your company’s bottom line. Green branded products as a marketing ploy are no longer profitable (nor consumer appreciated) options.
Samantha Schroeder, Design Management
Last Friday, as I was desperately trying to escape another brutal NYC heat wave (and trying to avoid my 5th floor walk-up at any cost) I found myself outside The Museum of Modern Art mostly for solace in their perfectly-tempered-central-air-conditioned galleries.
Imagine my surprise when completely by chance, I stumbled upon Fluxus artist, George Maciunas’, One Year installation.
As a person who has a love (err obsession) of all brands – I was moved by Maciunas’ humble and simplistic approach in capturing a year in the life of these brands in such a beautifully creative way. As branders, we often find ourselves entrenched in a daily battle of defending our beloved brands, so for Maciunas to perfectly bring these brands their deserved honor, was beyond glorifying.
The installation itself was Maciunas’ One Year endeavor from 1973 – 1974 that displays the empty containers and packaging of various food and household products that Maciunas consumed over the course of a year.
Not only does the exhibit provide an intense look into the monotonous daily life of Maciunas, but it also takes the visitor back in time, to the consumer landscape in America of the 1970s.
My immediate reaction to One Year, (besides wondering ‘what Maciunas was doing with all that McCormick’s vanilla’, and ‘boy did he go through a ton of Tungsram light bulbs’) was this snapshot of time where not only does life seem simpler, but brands were gloriously simple, to the point they literally shelf-pop you in the face. From the bright, burst of primary colors to the bold, graphic typestyles – I was immediately transported to a time I had not had the pleasure of experiencing until now.
Now I know the bulging aisle at my corner bodega is a far cry from the pristine Instruction Lab at MoMA – but to me, these empty containers were full of confidence and bravado. Fast-forward some 35 years later, and our jobs as branders are tested more than ever to create something unique in a sea of more times than not, over-stocked shelves for an over-stimulated consumer.
If an average shopper really only takes 5 seconds or less to make a decision at shelf, it brings me to wonder, how as brand designers, can we effectively get our consumer to slow down, and give our brands the attention they deserve?
One Year is on exhibit for the first time at MoMA as part of “Contemporary Art from the Collection”
Samantha Schroeder, Design Management
If you haven’t already, check out the brand new blog Rock Paper Ink, put out by Rockport Publishers, and Debbie’s debut article on the site.
In this article, Debbie talks about a beer brand discovery made by two of her Masters in Branding students at the School of Visual Arts. Read about the resurgence of Krueger beer, why it’s such a special brand, and stay tuned for more insider info on Debbie’s upcoming book, co-authored with her SVA students: The Brand Bible.
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It’s 2011 and the Great Recession has been declared: over. After poking out their heads, sniffing the air, and taking stock of their equity, a few Retail brands are equipped with a new strategic plan and poised to re-jigger the marketplace. From CPGs to the way we buy, read about a few brands that are fighting to win consumers hearts and changing the way we will look at Retail going forward– at Popsop.com
