Branding Blog

The Cutting Edge of Care

I had the privilege of attending a fund-raising breakfast for the Salvation Army’s Red Shield Appeal this week. Guest speaker was New Zealander, Chris Liddell, Chief Financial Officer for Microsoft.

Chris spoke of the importance of philanthropy and of course, the effects of the world recession. But that’s not what got my attention. Our table was hosted by Paul, a Salvation Army officer and he talked about how he headed their drugs and alcohol abuse efforts. The issue here is the devastating trail an abuser leaves with family and friends. However, strictly from a marketing view-point I was compelled by Paul’s explanation how the Sallies are constantly looking for the next big thing! You see, drug and alcohol abuse is unfortunately a large business - there are now many organisations assisting with the issue - when that becomes the case it often becomes time for the Sallies to move some/all of their resources to that “next big thing” that perhaps isn’t getting the attention and the care required from other agencies.

I liken that brand positioning approach to Daniel Lamarre’s quote, President of Cirque du Soleil when he said, “Every time we come to a comfort zone, we will find a way out!”

Paul’s comments certainly made me reposition one of the world’s most recognised brands; the Salvation Army’s brand - an organisation at the cutting edge of care.     

Profiting from Cardmember permission

When tasked with initiating new business opportunities for Diners Club our objectives were threefold:

1. Encourage Diners Club Card activation – that is, give Cardmembers extra reasons to pull out their Diners Club card versus other cards in their wallet.
2. Provide a tool that enhances Diners Club image, in keeping with their core T&E activities (travel and entertainment).
3. Work with and support Diners Club merchants - promoting existing merchant's businesses and encouraging new signups.

The solution was the creation of an initial online shopping portal that utilises the permission we have from a large loyal pool of Cardmembers. Diners Club Prime Wine at www.primewine.co.nz offers promotions and specials from Wine Merchants and NZ vineyards exclusively for Diners Club Cardmembers – it's a great way for Cardmembers to get exclusive merchant offers and perks delivered to their email inbox.

The online wine club portal includes PRIME Wine Discovery Club and PRIME Wine Select Cellar:

• Discovery Club offers a wine plan where Cardmembers can receive carefully selected mixed cases of wine on a regular basis. Cardmembers can choice from our Premier or Value selections with white wine, red wine or mixed options in each.
• Select Cellar is our own wine shop where Cardmembers are treated to a selection of exclusive offers on 6-bottle and 12-bottle buys, direct from our New Zealand vineyards and our wine wholesalers.

Prime Wine is managed on Diners Club behalf by Wasabi's Koda Shop – our next generation permission marketing business. For your own tailored permission marketing solution email me at phil.dossett@kodashop.com or call 0800 543 200.

*Win a Case of Wine entrants must be Diners Club Cardmembers, NZ resident and over 18 years of age. Competition closes 31st March 2009.

Can creativity make a difference?

As a business or a brand, if you are bound by the current rules and policies then expect to have your fair share of hurt during the coming year. If however you can change the rules somehow then expect to go against economic trends, attract more customers and sell more.

Creativity can help you do that.

Creativity can improve your product, get it noticed, make it different from the rest, give your team inspiration and create new markets. It's the way to break the mould and bust away from the current paradigms.

Creativity isn't just about the ads – it's about everything in your business. Here's a few examples of how to change your game:

• Hire crazies – employ someone who thinks a little differently from the people you normally hire. You'll get fresh ideas and a new perspective on business.
• Use a metaphor to get the ideas flowing. You might ask how is selling more of my product or service like driving a race car or going on a date.
• Brainstorm – get the team together, ask a question like "How to improve sales in the company?" And get someone to record the ideas on a flipchart. Simple.
• Ask your peers – call a supplier or a client or two. Meet with them and compare strategies. Cross pollinate their creative approaches to your business.
• The Virgin Test – pretend you are Richard Branson, Steve Jobs or Sam Morgan. What would you do to revitalise your business or industry. What completely new direction would you take it in?
• Run a brandmap workshop – OK, well I had to drop this in. A Wasabi Brandmap goes way beyond a brainstorm and a its great way for to rethink your business or brand from the ground up.

The real issue with applying creativity is not to wait for the 'creatives' to tell you what to do. We all have the ideas in us. But we need to start using them, today.

Tough times don't last but tough brands do

We're getting great results from an adaptation of our highly successful Brandmap workshops… our new half day workshops focus on how to take advantage of these financially tough times.

The first thing I would do in a crisis period is to appoint a cost reduction task force, to develop a recession business plan. Please don't let it be only in the hands of the finance department. They will cut everything that counts - and tell you to stop marketing, when marketing is the only prop that you can turn to, to sustain demand.
   - Philip Kotler, Kotler Marketing Group

While everyone else stops spending, stops employing and stops brand building, how does your company leap ahead and grab market share that was previously too hard to get?

In a client's own 4-6 hour workshop, we use our Degrees of Focus© model to work out the position of your brand and where it can get to during the next year of turmoil. We discuss how your brands or overall business can move to a higher degree of positioning that will improve your emotional connection to your consumers. The workshops also spend time testing industry norms and they look to new ways of doing things – nothing is taken for granted – "if it ain't broke, we'll break it." We spend time brainstorming closer customer relationships and New Media phenomenon's that could revolutionise the way you do business.

Clients walk away from this tailored workshop with techniques to assert a stronger connection with their consumer and an action plan for tough times from analysing revenue and developing new streams of income. Call me for more information.

Experiential Shave Squad Reunited

King of Shaves called on Wasabi Advertising recently to reunite the Shave Squad. Launching a new razor blade brand is tough work when you have dominant competitors with large budgets but Dave is determined to replicate the success the new Azor System Razor has had recently in the brand homeland of the UK. Our plans focus on experiential tactics where the Shave Squad, a team of girls and guys, cruise the summer hotspots in a Hummer H3 offering the best shave in the world. Yes, they actually setup mobile shave stations and shave eager fans. The black branded H3 comes complete with Wii game console in the back to keep the often queues of whisked guys entertained.

Dave McLeod, King of Shaves NZ Director, explains that "the focus is to initiate product trial amongst a youthful male target and that's complimented by the instant prize scratch card promotion and website designed by Wasabi."The Scratch Card promotion also includes a innovative permission marketing element where we collect entrant details online and our system randomly allocates our large pool of prize items. We'll then market back to all entrants over the Azor launch phase with more brand information and offers.

And for a limited time here's a treat for NZ based Wasabi blog subscribers… Use this Instant Prize Code 405888 at www.azor.co.nz and see how lucky you are today! Limited to first 50 entries.

The Importance of Positioning Pillars

Having just completed a Brandmap for a large shoe retailer and a Communications Proposal for an up and coming car manufacturer, it was interesting to see the similarities in their situations! The shoe retailer placed a lot of emphasis on price and range and the car manufacturer focuses on features like value for money, fuel economy and safety. Both businesses could see that a higher, more emotive level of positioning was advantageous but both were also concerned about giving up their current attributes. The truth is that most of those lower level positioning elements are mandatory – most consumers seek value, quality and safety etc. We can't neglect attention to those core elements or take them for granted but because many of the competition in the retail market or car industry or FMCG markets or banking realise that to, they are not often fruitful grounds for sustainable distinctive positioning.

So, in order to have a unique position we'd prefer to position a brand, not on mere features and benefits, but on consumer experience and company attitude facets. Regardless of the degrees of focus© we strive for in a brand, we must not forget, what I call, our Positioning Pillars – the foundations for the brand. And of course without a strong foundation we can't hope to support a higher, more emotional, more connected position for our brand. The point of this blog is to remind marketers that YES OF COURSE we should retain references to price, value, range and safety because they are Positioning Pillars but if we can deliver the message in a more emotive manner we'll get a stronger emotional connection to our consumer.

Branding and advertising doesn't have to be clever or esoteric to be successful but one of its fundamental jobs is to make the brand's Positioning Pillars relevant and distinctive from the competitors.

Degrees of Focus in Sport

A few months before the Olympics I saw a TV news report that intrigued me. It was about New Zealand professional racing cyclist, Hayden Roulston. I knew that Hayden had battled with health and social issues but was now on a strong rebuilding path. In the brief interview he was quick to point out that while his PHYSICAL and MENTAL preparation had to be at their peak he was now working on higher levels of engagement. He was experimenting with alternative remedies and working on his EMOTIONAL and SPIRITUAL states.

I was quick to write down his comments, for his preparation structure parallels Wasabi's Degrees of Focus© model which we use to define a brand's mana and develop a highly level of positioning. The further around the Degrees of Focus' dial that we can position a brand, the greater the emotional connection we have with that brand's consumer.

We all know the lengths successful teams like the All Blacks or Team New Zealand go to find the edge over the competition. It's not just about physical fitness and technique – to be at the top of your game you have to deal to your emotional and spiritual states, just like a brand needs to develop its experiential and attitudinal degrees. Read more on Degrees of Focus here.

Hayden went on to win the silver medal in the men's 4000m individual pursuit and a bronze medal in the men's 4000m team pursuit at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

Defining a Brand’s Soul

I was fortunate enough to spend a weekend with Christian Pol Roger and his family many years ago in Epernay, France. Back then I was the brand manager for Pol Roger Champagne in New Zealand. It was quintessential rural France – among the rolling hillsides and rivers nestle vineyards planted with Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier, the grape varieties from which the most famous of celebratory wines is derived: Champagne.

Before settling in to a magnificent Sunday Roast at the family mansion, Christian took me for a morning drive through the countryside in his vintage Citroen. He planned the educational excursion well – we passed the elaborate large complexes of Moët et Chandon and Veuve Clicquot and other Champagne houses in Reims before returning to the more romantic village of Pol Roger's home and as we drove back to the estate's courtyard, Christian says, "You know Phil, if Reims is the Heart of Champagne then Epernay is the Soul."

That one sentence left a lasting impression on me early on in my marketing career. Christian had driven home that the product is important but the consumer experience and brand perception is far more potent. Christian Pol Roger's presumably well practiced line squarely positioned his brand apart from the larger marquees and looked to put the brand in a unique personalised space in mine and other consumers minds. That's why defining and developing a brand's mana or essence is vital to a greater emotional connection to consumers which can only lead to a more successful brand.

Our retail advertising methodology

Action: Actions speak louder than words – a moving object, an object in action, draws more attention than a stationary one.

Benefits: State the benefits as clearly as possible.

Campaigns: not single ads. Every advertisement, no matter how small, must form part of a campaign, showing a link and continuity.

Consistency and continuity of image: Having carefully researched and established an image stay with it. Nothing does more damage to an image than constant change.

Editorial Value: Support copy should not be overlooked. Editorial adds credibility to a campaign and should be related in every way.

Essence: Establish the brand mana (essence) of the client's business and underline every activity with it. Refer to Wasabi's Degrees of Focus modelling to explore brand mana.

Individual Identity: In order to stand out, every client must have an individual identity, one that is not confused with that of the competition.

POS and Ticketing: The most important element in all retail campaigns. The advertising theme must continue consistently throughout the store. The store must reflect the ad and the ad must reflect the store.

Price Perception: Make prices and captions relating to price bold!

Product Selection: Do not feature items simply because the supplier is paying. All chosen products have to be relevant to the theme & sales.

Product Understanding and Involvement: Get involved at store level. Understand the business, spend time in the company – get your hands dirty.

Promotions: Promotions are the lifeblood of any retailer. Promotions should be regular and co-ordinated with POS and in-store activity to achieve maximum impact.

Simplicity: Keep the ads and the message simple, bold and easy to understand. The promise of the ad must be fulfilled. A customer's perception of the ad relates directly to their perception of the store. The ad must not over-promise – this leads to disappointment. The store experience must always live up to the promise.

Topicality: Take advantage of whatever news is making the headlines and use it to attract attention.

Urgency: Retail advertisements must be urgent; people are more likely to react to a shout than to a normal voice. If you have something to say – make it bold.

The Creative Pitch

Looking for inspiration for a forthcoming pitch I found this. Surely the art of a succesful pitch is to tell a great story well... this from Mad Men: