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Differentiating brands Posts
Be wary of creating a caring face
December 14th, 2009
Next month, Bulgari’s 11-city touring jewellery exhibition, Between Eternity and History, will end with a start-studded auction at Christie’s in New York with the aim of raising $10m for Save the Children’s Rewrite the Future campaign. So writes the Financial Times in their Asian international edition (http://www.ft.com/home/asia).
The great and the good will be there – Ben Stiller, Sting, Willem Defoe and Julianne Moore, with the New York event culminating in an event that has taken in cities such as Rome, London and Beijing.
Charity has become a tried and tested way to ease consumer malaise at spending on conspicuous luxury, whilst reinforcing brand credentials as being caring and responsible.
But is the consumer becoming more cynical?
Look at Montblanc. Last month the company caused international controversy with the launch of a $23,000 18-carat pen to celebrate the 140th anniversary of the of birth of Mahatma Ghandi. Montblanc was (rightly in my opinion) accused of exploiting Ghandi – liberator, champion of egalitarianism and simple living – in order to enter the Indian luxury market. Despite Ghandi’s grandson endorsing the promotion and Montblanc donating $148,000 too build a shelter for rescued children, the anger was widespread.
And did nothing to enhance the brand worldwide.
Is this the new ‘caring face’ of luxury?
This is sector I know well but frankly I am a cynic on this line of marketing. Last month Gucci paired with Mary J Blige to launch a Center for Women, Jimmy Choo created Project PEP, selling a range of handbags to support Elton John’s Aids Foundation, and Naomi Campbell paired with Louis Vuitton to launch a handbag in support of the White Ribbon Alliance.
Mmmmm. I remain a cynic.
Imaginative marketing from the 1890’s
June 17th, 2009
I just found the following story and wanted to share it with you. It is quite funny in a macabre way and very poignant.
It shows just how innovative the Victorians and their contemporaries were in tackling marketing challenges.
Back in the early days of electricity, electrical companies were very imaginative marketers.
In the 1890’s Edison was marketing ‘direct current’ (DC) and Westinghouse was marketing ‘alternate current’ (AC).
Their battle was the first format war – the precursor of VHS vs Betamax or HDDVD vs BlueRay.
Edison know that consumers were frightened of electricity and played on this insight to differentiate his brand.
To prove that the competitive AC was dangerous, Edison gave a series of demonstrations of its lethal power.
He publicly electrocuted dogs and cats.
And then he filmed the AC electrocution of Topsy, a Coney Island elephant (which is apparently available for us all to see on YouTube).
Meanwhile, his employee Harold Brown invented an even more compelling demonstration of the lethal power of AC for the State of New York. He invented the electric chair.
The utility companies of today are far less imaginative marketers.
Dual fuel packages and discounts for automated payments don’t exactly capture the public imagination.
How to differentiate your brand
June 12th, 2009
In a previous Blog I covered all aspects of Brand Cloning and how easy it is to become a copy of all the other brands out there. Here I will look at those brands that have successfully differentiated themselves and what can be learned from them.
With diffentiation you can be THE brand or THE OTHER brand. Think of Coke and Pepsi. Or Nike and Adidas.
Here are some snaphot ideas and thoughts on brands that have successfully differentiated;
- TALKING TO NON USERS: When Nintendo invented the Wii they did so by talking to people who didn’t normally use video game consoles, and asked them why they didn’t. Girls told them that unlike their brothers, they didn’t get off on killing things. So Nintendo gave them Wii Fit, Cooking Mama and Nintendogs.
- HAVING A VISION: Body Shop moved itself away from other ‘natural’ toiletry retailers when it announced it was against animal testing.
- CONSTANTLY DEVELOPING YOUR OFFER: A brand that continually reinvents itself keeps its differentiation up. The iPod developed the capability to carry more songs. Then Photos. Then Podcasts. then Videos. Then it introduced a touch interface, wifi, and then music and applications. So many digitally based brands miss this completely – most banks haven’t added any more facilities to their ATM’s since the 1980’s.
- GIVE YOUR BRAND A SENSE OF DYNAMISM; Coffee shop chain Tchibo keeps differentiation up by offering a rapidly changing set of offers for household appliances, foods and garden equipment. The rapidly changing offer keeps the brand fresh.
- USING THE POWER OF SCARCITY; If you find something you like at Zara, make sure you but it now. Because once an item sells out at Zara, they don’t re-stock it. Limited Editions work great too.
- RETHINK YOUR BUSINESS MODEL; In 2008 Prince realised that with CD sales in freefall, he was not going to make a lot from a new album release. So in the UK he gave away the album on the front of the Daily Mail newspaper. His subsequent concert tour was a sell out. Coldplay did a similar thing by making an album free for all via the internet.
- GO FOR THE JUGULAR; Dr Kawashinma’s Brain Training for the Nintendo DS has been a huge hit amongst fifty-something adults because it’s upfront as to how weak the mental faculties of this age group are. ‘You have the brain of an 80 year old’ screams Dr Kawashinma at his terrified users.
- DON’T WORRY ABOUT VALUE ALL THE TIME; A Red Bull can is much smaller than a standard drink can. That’s what makes people think it’s special. And it costs a lot more – smart marketing.
- Repeat – STOP WORRYING ABOUT VALUE; Balieys was only just the market leader in the cream liqueur market until Diageo started pushing the price up way above the competition. Girls then realised that if they ordered a Baileys they’d look expensive and if they asked for anything else they’d look like a cheap date. Today Baileys is in a class of its own.
AND FINALLY, don’t dismiss what may initially seem like an absurd idea;
- ‘How about putting little bits of metal in our Cinnamon Schnapps’? was a winning idea for Goldschlaeger.
- And could a pen with a squashy grip be positioned as having a stress relieving health benefit? The idea build Dr Grip into a pwerful brand in Japan in the past few years.