Branding Blog

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.

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.

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:

Leave it to the Japanese

A round watermelon can take up a lot of room in a refrigerator and the usually round fruit often sits awkwardly on refrigerator shelves. Smart Japanese Farmers have forced their watermelons to grow into a square shape by inserting the melons into square, tempered glass cases while the fruit is still growing on the vine.

Delivering Emotion in a Star Brand

OK, this blog is meant to be strictly about branding from a New Zealand viewpoint. BUT I can't help but post the following video… If a brand can deliver this sort of emotion then it is already a Star. Look to ways for your brand and its communication to connect to its audience with emotional marketing like Paul Potts does.

Britain's got Talent is a UK talent quest TV show featuring none other than Simon Cowell as a judge.

And to find out what happened next click here.
And then you'll just have to click here to see the final outcome. Priceless.

And while we are doing the emotional thing, take a look at Connie as well. Enough said.

Creating Great Names

Here are some interesting sites to help you name the website that you're working on. The tools can equally be used to help with brainstorming a new company or product name…

1. Dislexicon - Takes common words and adds suffixes and prefixes. It even gives you the meaning. This site is great for finding short domain names that look like they could be real words.

2. JustDropped - This site lets you search for domain names that have recently expired. You get a few searches for free with limited results. I've found that the free searches are usually adequate for my needs.

3. Word Mixer - This one lets you enter up to five words which are mixed up into new, semi-pronouncable words. The same website also has a couple other tools that are useful such as the random words tool which is hit or miss, and the mixer seeds page.

4. WordFinder - This is actually a tool for crossword puzzles, but it can also be very useful for finding a domain name.

5. DomainsBot - This search engine is geared specifically towards finding a domain name. It works best if you're looking for a compound-word domain rather than an invented word.

iPhone Hot or Not?

Launched on 30th June to an eager US market, Apple aims to sell 10 million iPhones in 2008, which would amount to a 1 percent share of the global market.

Not bad for a new entrant with a high priced phone aimed at affluent trend-setters. If you read all the negative reviews regarding phone quality, touch-pad screen, battery life, wireless speed etc then you'd soon consider that it may not be something you'll fork out US$500 (NZ$650) for the base model. But lets take a brief look at its pros and cons from a brand view point... 

A Spectacular Failure?

I particularly like Al Ries argument for failure. He points to an iPhone as a convergence device; compared to the iPod which is a divergence device. "In the high-tech world, divergence devices have been spectacular successes. But convergence devices, for the most part, have been spectacular failures." comments Ries.

How many of us watch TV or recorded movies on our mobile phone - very few; that's convergent product development. The real action in the TV market is the booming market for divergence products such as wide-screen LCD TVs.

A convergent James Bond do-it-all watch is reality now but we tend to choose specialist devices that do things well rather than one device doing many things poorly.

iPhone is not first in its category. Feature and benefit wise it offers nothing new over competitors. One of our core principals is 'narrow the focus to build the brand'; it certainly isn't doing that - it does everything (with critics saying that even its phone audibility is poor - you'd think that the quality of that component would be fundamental!).

Or a Runaway Success?

For all of these criticisms and despite the fact that some will prove valid, the iPhone will be a runaway success.

The Apple brand has developed from computers to music players and to mobile phones because it's known for "cool thinking".

Applying our 'Degrees of Focus' model, Apple is not confined to being a computer brand because its reputation is not based on 'what it does' (computing), but 'how it goes about it' (cool thinking). This powerful Apple attitude transcends 'features & benefits' and allows it to offer a broad range of products that deliver on its "cool thinking" reputation.

Apple are unleashing a mobile phone that will succeed because it looks great, it taps into an ever growing and improving mobile world, it's an original, it's a badge, because it creates passion-beyond-logic, because it's cool, because its Apple.

It may not be first in its category but before it was even launched it was first in mind. Apple aren't asking for global phone domination - they're targeting 1% within 18 months. Even if half the product shortcomings bear true, it will be a success - because this is not about a multi-featured phone, its about buying in to the culture and authenticity of an Apple.

Branding New Zealand

I'm always delighted to see little old New Zealand popping up in overseas articles particularly from the US - as a brand we're not so small and insignificant as we sometimes think. BrandFLASH is a weekly video report from Martin Lindstrom from the USA's leading industry mag, Advertising Age.

In this week's video he extols the virtues of moviemaking as a brand-enhancing marketing strategy. He reports, "One need look no further than Colombia or New Zealand to understand how motion pictures have become the most potent marketing force for a country brand. Global perceptions of both nations have been affected in opposite ways by recent Hollywood fare such as "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" and "Lord of the Rings."

Take a look at his video by clicking here. And you'll find many other interesting articles as well.

Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" continues to have a profound effect on the perception of the New Zealand brand as do other world-stage icons like the All Blacks (Rugby), Team New Zealand (Americas Cup yatch racing) and Tim and Neil Finn (Music - Crowded House)