What's your signature brand?

I was thinking about this topic the other day while at Target, as I signed my name on the credit card machine at checkout. You can kind of tell what the "J" and the "F" are, and the rest of my scrawled name is anyone's guess. Someone once told me that it's tougher to forge a neat signature, as there are far more nuances to re-create. But beyond out own signatures, what else distinguishes us from others?


I have a friend (you know who you are!) who wears his own custom Nikes four days out of five, and I bet he doesn't repeat his selection during a given month. Yet another has multiple pairs of custom Chuck Taylor Converse high tops, and he's a CEO! With this motivation, I actually found myself checking out the Mi Adidas site this morning. 


There are tons of examples of personal style, some of which are branded and some are not. From Bono's red shades to Roy Orbison's blackout shades, from the fictional Miranda Priestley's white Hermès scarf to Queen Elizabeth's Launer handbag (I'm still dying to know what she keeps in there--take a look here and let me know what you think!), each of us has brands that we are perhaps known for wearing/using or at the very least would never, ever substitute with another. Please note that I'm not simply talking about brands with badge value here--that is a subject for another day.


This, I think, is the core of what makes a brand a brand. A brand has a certain quality, or set of qualities, that we can depend on, time after time, with very little chance of failing us. In the early days of branded products, it was their physical attributes or functional performance that not only distinguished them from their competitors, but also often become their advertising slogan or tagline. "So pure, it floats" (Ivory soap), "Good to the last drop" (Maxwell House coffee), "You can trust your car to the man who wears the star" (Texaco gasoline/auto service).


My own signature brands? Kinda dull: Bass Weejuns tassle loafers (in black and cordovan), Boston Red Sox gear (that's a brand, isn't it?), Levenger rollerball pen and Rudy Project sunglasses.


What about you?

I miss jingles

The old advertising jingle. I do miss it--really. Think about some of those great old jingles of your youth, and how they still stick in your mind: "Hold the pickles, hold the lettuce, special orders don't upset us. All we ask is that you let us serve it your way." (Burger King) "Oh, I wish I was an Oscar Meyer wiener." Even short one-liners set to music have an impact: if I were to say "Wouldn't you like to be a Pepper too?" I'm certain many folks could sing it back to me with the right melody.


What is the power of the jingle? It started in the pre-television days of radio advertising. Without a visual medium to demonstrate the attributes of a brand that you just had to have in your home, jingles played on another key sense - sound - and the lasting impression that sound can make.


One of my favorite-ever episodes of "Cheers" was the one where Rebecca decides to start up an advertising program because their cross-town competitors, Gary's Olde Towne Tavern, has been advertising heavily. She goes to an advertising agency and tells them of her need, and they bring in a heavy-hitting music composer. She advises that she only has $200 to spend, so they roll in Sy Flembeck, a past-his-prime bar-room piano player who composes every ad jingle to the tune of "Old MacDonald (E-I-E-I-O)".


When you think of the other ways in which music impacts our mood and our memory, it makes a great case for re-incorporating this into advertising. The music each of us tends to gravitate to  is whatever we listened to in late high school and college. A given song can evoke a certain feeling and perhaps even a specific time, place and person. Think also about movie and television show soundtracks:  the producers of "Forrest Gump" chose some songs that were spot on with the time and situations of the movie's scenes.


The television show "ER" was known for its music selection: one of the songs that has always struck a deep emotional chord with me is Santana's "Samba Pa Ti". In the first episode in which the character Lucy Knight appears, she has to inform a wife of her husband's terminal condition, and as she walks away, that song comes on in the background. On the episode in which Lucy is stabbed to death by a schizophrenic patient, Chuny goes across to the diner to inform her colleagues that Lucy has died, and that song is playing once again. I think it is a brilliant piece of music mastery, even if not original composition, and is one thing that made "ER" stand out for me and for many.


What advertising jingles are etched on your memory? Do you still play them back in your mind when you think of a certain brand?

Innovation without execution is just another cool idea

Innovation. A new method, product or idea. "Nova" is the Latin root word of "new".


Most studies seem to show that 85-90% of new consumer products fail. Why? No doubt it's a combination of things: overestimated demand, lack of differentiation from current products or services, an egotistical marketer who won't stop pushing (!!). We as marketers too often lose sight of the core driver of a successful new product introduction: it has to fulfill some un-met consumer need.


Let's look at some the most successful innovations of the past several years, and why:


- The iPod brought us compact, portable, customizable music, improving upon portable CD or casette players that were somewhat customizable (remember mix tapes?), but not so easily. Note that the iPod wasn't the first MP3 player on the market, so Apple clearly benefited from being a follower rather than a first mover.
- The Keurig coffee brewer enabled us to brew just what we want, when we want, cup by cup. You want french roast, your wife wants decaf green tea? Done. Again, there were other capsule- or pod-based brewers on the market already, but Keurig enhanced the consistency and expanded the offering with several known, branded options to choose from.
- The Swiffer made it easy to dust, sweep and mop. No dustpan, no bucket, no feather-duster to make you sneeze.


What do each of these successful new products have in common? They improved what was currently available in their respective categories by bringing items that had a very short learning curve for most everyone, and were almost infinitely customizable. What else? Their manufacturers executed on the concepts and made them happen.


The examples above are all items that did come to market and were successful, and each of them has continued to innovate and extend their product lines. But what about some great ideas that never (or barely) made it to market?


- Rumor has it, a St. Paul, Minnesota-based manufacturer of adhesives, filters and other items (any guesses?!) developed a floor cleaning system based on interchangeable, disposable components. They apparently (or allegedly) couldn't figure out how to bring it to market, and were beat to the punch by not just one competitor product but TWO of them: P&G's Swiffer and Clorox's ReadyMop.
- DeLorean Motor Corporation designed a sleek, brushed stainless steel performance automobile with gull wing doors. Despite the high-profile buzz created when the vehicle starred in the "Back to the Future" movie franchise, the car never took off. Why? There were many issues, but one of the original premises of John DeLorean's design was a unibody plastic-fiberglass frame that would need no metal and thus ease manufacturing and save weight. DMC was under such pressure to get cars to market, that they began production without having finalized the unibody frame, and in fact never utilized that component. Poor execution.


What will make the difference in your innovation? Are you certain that it will fulfill and un-met need? Have you checked with any consumers beyond those at your kitchen table? Are you certain you have the team and resources to make it happen, and a place to sell it? Or, will it end up just another entry on your list of cool ideas?

What is loyalty?

For many marketers, Loyalty is the holy grail. We've all heard it for a long time--at work, in business school, in publications about marketing. Yet, somewhere along the way we as marketers seem to have lost sight of just what loyalty is and what it should mean to a brand.


What does 'loyal' mean? Most sources I found defined it as something along the lines of "giving or showing firm and constant support or allegiance to a person or institution." That's pretty clear; so far, so good.


Most marketing academics define 'loyalty' by a customer or consumer's share of requirements (SOR). That is, if I buy 10 bottles of soda a week, then that is 100% of my requirements. Each category and brand has its own idea of what share of requirements defines a loyal user. If I buy Coca-Cola 5 out of those 10 bottles, then Coke provides an 50% SOR. That's pretty darned loyal, if you include all possible carbonated soft drinks in the consideration set. However, if you look at only full-calorie colas as the consideration set, then it's about what you might expect given that there's really just Coke and Pepsi. RC Cola has, sadly, all but disappeared.


I've always looked at the consumer buying process as having four phases:
Awareness - where the consumer takes notice of your brand in the grocery aisle, or via advertising or word-of-mouth.
Trial - where the consumer finds your product or brand's benefits compelling enough to spend some of their money and try it. Coupons or similar incentives work well here, especially if their already buying a competitor brand.
Repeat - where their first trial experience was a good one, and they will try you again now that they have some expectation of what your product will deliver.
Loyalty - where the consumer has replaced their previous preferred brand(s) in the category with yours, and you provide the largest SOR.


So, am I loyal because I fly Delta nearly every flight I can? Or is it simply that they have >80% share of the Minneapolis-St. Paul market with non-stop flights to most major cities?


Am I loyal because I go to Caribou more than Starbucks, or is it that there's a Caribou location on the right-hand side of my morning commute and it has a drive-through?


Am I loyal because I always buy adidas Response training shoes, or do I have tough-to-fit feet and I find it best to go with what I know?


None of these is easy to answer. In each case, the share of requirements test would say that yes, I'm loyal to Delta, Caribou and adidas. However, it doesn't measure any kind of emotional attachment I might have to any of them. Some brands carry that extreme emotional connection for some consumers--think about Harley-Davidson, Mountain Dew, even Slim Jim, where people have had the brand's logo tatooed on their bodies. That's loyalty. That's commitment.


It's easy to sign up for the frequency program of every airline, hotel and car company you travel with, or every retailer you shop. They all seem to be very willing to give up some pretty hefty points for sign-up and for credit cards. But will that grab you, pull you in and lead you to buy more from them, more often? Or will they just be more cards in your wallet, or bar-code fobs on your key chain?

Marketing is not a corporate rotation

The thing about experience is that it is far from linear--in fact, the only thing linear about it is time, and then only if you're graphing it. There's broad experience and there's deep experience, and the more you get of each, the stronger your overall capability becomes--as long as you learn from both your successes and your failures.


I've spent my entire career in marketing and sales, and I love it. The thing about marketing is that every life experience you've ever had provides you with something you can bring to your work, because it's really just about what makes people tick: what turns them on, what turns them off. Think about the last time you shopped at the grocery store. Retailers have been doing endcap promotions since before I was born. Why? Because they've figured out that by featuring a product in such a spotlight location, more shoppers will buy more units of whatever it is--whether or not it's at a discounted price, and there's plenty of data that backs it up!


Anyone who's ever bought anything or seen an advertisement has some marketing opinion. However, there is both an art and a science to marketing that you simply can't gain by being a consumer, or studying it, or reading about it. So why, then, do many major corporations continue to regard marketing as a shared service, an operational enhancement, or a corporate rotation for developing executives? I think that mutual understanding is a great thing, and cross-functional exposure benefits the whole organization.


I have the capacity to do reasonably complex arithmetic in my head, and the aptitude to envision most food manufacturing and packaging processes. However, that plus an MBA don't qualify me to be a controller or an operations director, and few companies would even dream of hiring me for such a role. I've seen too many times where the organization rotates someone into marketing leadership who is less experienced and skilled than even the junior marketing staff, and it inevitably leads to less than best-in-class marketing as well as drained team morale.


Marketing involves knowing your consumer and your distribution channel, and thus is closely tied to corporate strategy. It must be core to a corporation's culture, and the key driver of planning and business models. As we emerge from this global recession, I believe we will find that the companies that recover quickest and strongest, are those that invested in marketing even during these tough times--in consumer insights, product development, integrated communications and the People that know how do guide them and leverage the results.

I want cereal, not a relationship

I love my mom. Understand that I am not a mama's boy, but I love that she still has things to teach me, whether she knows it or not. A little while back, I helped her solve a technical challenge on her new pc, which resulted in my somehow being designated as her personal help desk. I certainly didn't mind, but there are many people far more able to help her than I could. It feels great to give back though, so I was glad to help as I was able.


As she continued to get more accustomed to both the functionality of the pc, she began venturing out to explore the information and resources that were available on the web. One day after one of our "help desk" discussions (yes, the quotes are a necessity here!), she changed topics to talk about cereal. She had just discovered a national brand of natural cereal and granola (name withheld!) at the grocery store, liked it and was interested in what else they had to offer.


I too had just become familiar with this brand and enjoyed it myself. As it happened, I had recently googled it and found what was a pretty informative and engaging website. It included product info, nutrition info and other helpful stuff, including newsletters you could subscribe to. Pleased with my own new discovery, I shared the info with Mom. While she appreciated all of it, she had this to say to me: "I want cereal, not a relationship."


Isn't it just like a mom to make things so clear? Now, good-for-you cereal would seem to score rather high on the consumer involvement scale, so if there's any product category that should be ripe for engaging the consumer, this should be toward the top. There are certainly other product categories that are far lower-involvement, and where you would expect no more than simple commodity or transactional relationships. I'm thinking duct tape, wood chips, toothpicks, those kinds of household items.


In our effort as marketers to engage consumers and create relationships, we have to keep perspective and not take it personally that not everyone wants to be our friend, our +1 or our Tweeps. Some consumers just want the cereal. Let's just get it to them.

Guitar music is on the way out

Talk about making the wrong call! The complete quote is, "We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out." Sound familiar? It was stated by Decca Records' Dick Rowe, in rejecting The Beatles in 1962.

TRENDS are easier to spot in the rear-view than when they are an acorn on the ground in front of you. Fortunately, there are a lot of tools that can help us read the signs and tell a fad from a real-live trend. What's the difference? I don't care just how the dictionary defines them, but I would say that a fad is a temporary or fleeting behavior change, while a trend is a long-term or permanent change.

Not that fads are bad - people have made a lot of money on fads. However, trends have a more substantial commercial opportunity for a number of players, not just (for example) the inventor of the Pet Rock or the slap bracelet. Most of business strategy has developed around spotting and exploiting trends to differentiate one from one's competitors and create a distinctive competitive advantage.

So, how do we spot ideas, determine whether they're fads or if they could become trends, and determine how best to jump on them? In my experience, there's no better starting point than consumer data and insights. What are consumers doing, buying, saying? Just as importantly, what is not working for consumers, and why?

Next, what else is going on in the consumer's world? If you're in portable consumer electronics, for example, don't just look at activity in that space; you might also look at also at purses & backpacks (where would your item fit?), color palettes (what's hot), what people are buying in to-go snacks and beverages. You have to find a proxy, or something similar that you can model and evaluate your concept on.

Most importantly, at the end of the day there's no replacement for intuition. Going with your gut. There's a lot to be said for testing and forecasting, but my sense is that Steve Jobs didn't test things to death by tweaking this and that, and re-checking with consumer panels to make sure something was gonna fly. If your first instinct is that an idea or concept isn't gonna work, you're likely best off letting it go and moving on. If something you see really lights you up, however, it may be worth spending some more time on. There are no guarantees, but your internal compass is better than a crystal ball.

By the way, Dick Rowe may have missed out on signing The Fab Four, but he did sign the Rolling Stones a short time later. Seems he changed his take on guitar music, and it wasn't too late.