Demanding High Levels of Relevant Creativity to Break Through

Over the last 15 years – and that includes a previous incarnation of this agency — we have worked deeply, extensively in the adult beverage world. First for Labatt USA’s portfolio of import and specialty beers – which included Dos Equis and Rolling Rock brands. Then on to a wonderful engagement with Barton Beers (now Crown Imports LLC) and the Corona franchise, primarily focused on distributor communications. From there we were invited into an incredibly
invigorating challenge as agency for Molson USA, working to reverse
(successfully I should add) a seven year slide of their share and sales
as a one-time top shelf Canadian import brand in the U.S. We were sorry
to say goodbye to this great client following their merger with Coors
to form Molson Coors Brewing Company . Today we’re delighted again to be with the Barton family — this time in the liquor business as agency for Barton Brands the spirits division of US beverage alcohol leader, Constellation Brands .

Insight Experts

Through the years we’ve devoted ourselves, assets, resources along with many evenings/weekends burning the midnight oil to lift business results, grow share, drive distribution and develop relationships with drinkers. The journey has confronted us with some of the most dynamic creative challenges we’ve faced as an agency. And we’ve learned a great deal about how to carefully peel the onion of consumer insight and then leverage that understanding to dial-in brand relevance, hone image and create compelling experiences that excite and engage consumers – the central path to success in this social beverage category.

Competitive With a Big “C”

Imagine a business where hundreds of somewhat similar brands, foreign and domestic, compete for share of the consumer’s mind and wallet. Granted there are segments and niches that allow for some separation and targeting. But for the most part it’s a constant fight for attention in a very crowded field of products that bear similarity in packaging and ingredients. With entry level drinkers trading up to higher quality brands and drinking experiences, virtually all categories are in the consideration set at the same time and clamoring for a piece of the action. Very noisy marketing environment and brand distinctions are often marginalized. It’s an intense battle everyday in the store aisle, cooler as well as in bars and restaurants.

Relevance Paramount

This business simply can’t turn solely on analytical points of difference. My hops are the best. Barley, too. And I use the purest water. Ok. So does the other guy. Yes, respect for the liquid should be a consideration in how brands are presented. But in the end the decision to “wear” a beverage brand is an emotional one and related to a form of magnetism between user and brand image. Then again all brands are really a reflection of how the consumer “FEELS” about them.

Corona, one of the best-positioned brands in the business, is fundamentally about a $3.00 vacation in a bottle. An amalgamation of imagery cues around the consumer’s intense emotional affection for relaxation, the sandy beach, palm trees, good times and kicking back. It is relevant and aspiration-al for most young adults in their hectic lifestyles. Corona is now the sixth largest brand by volume (foreign AND domestic) in the U.S. Just amazing.

Application to Effective Brand Communications

There are important guidelines here for consumer brands generally because consumers now hold the power to opt in or out of engagement. Virtually all markets are facing intense pressures of commoditization as retailers push price, categories mature and points of difference between brands collapse. Engagement today is more of a one-to-one proposition – how brands can become an enabler of lifestyle interests and passions.

Mining the core thread of brand DNA and lifestyle relevance –

At no other time in modern marketing has consumer insight been more important. Brands must identify a “higher purpose” that transcends the transactional nature of the seller/buyer paradigm. Brand relationships are created and maintained on a different level. The pathway to relevance can only be built on understanding of the consumer’s own interests and creating linkage between those interests and the brand. The tricky part is to do this in a manner that relates to the specific DNA ingredients of the brand itself.

Narrowcasting not broadcasting –

The era of mass marketing is essentially dead. There’s more to be gained investing in core users and working to build brand evangelists from those heavy users in the fan base than shotgun blasts of broad based communication in an attempt to lure in everyone on the planet. This issue is especially nettlesome for marketers of larger consumable product categories who feel locked-in to a tractor beam of wanting to be all things to all people all the time. Can the few be as important as the many? The answer is yes. And it should be mentioned that heavy user groups are not necessarily small in numbers either. In the end more is to be gained by focusing on invested fans than trying to tackle those who don’t care and aren’t listening.

Touching the brand –

A related subject to narrowcasting is the deployment of brand experiences and events that allow consumers to make contact with a brand personally. The proximity is important and the ability of a brand to be a partner with its users by intersecting with and enabling their interests and passions is the key to cultivating relationships. Calphalon cookware’s cooking school in Chicago, a foodie paradise, is a wonderful example of marrying the brand with consumer passions for creativity and self-expression in the kitchen.

Everything Matters –

Brand behaviors should be driven from immersion in a complete view of a brand’s radically unique proposition. Consistency in how this view is communicated is then essential and that requires synergy across all touch points from package to Internet to communications to customer service. Even employees count in this scenario. This issue is the great truth serum because so often brand communications is more focused on the current campaign and less on creating a 360-degree point of view – the acid test of how powerful an idea really is. If the concept can drive brand behavior at all levels then you’re on to something big.

If adult beverage businesses are good breeding grounds for this kind of thinking, what other categories also require focus on brand behavior platforms and mining emotional touch points?

Mexican Beer? What brand is first in your head?

For many it would be Corona, the leading Mexican import and share leader of the entire import beer category. People buy categories first and the top of mind brands within those mental brackets. Energy drink: it’s Red Bull. Heavy motorcycles: it’s Harley. European style coffee drinks: it’s Starbucks. And so on. In the February 19th edition of AdAge, marketing guru, Al Ries, has a wonderful column on category creation and its central role in successful brand and business strategy. His example is Nintendo’s runaway success with Wii - not a better or more powerful video-game console, a different one that represents development of a new category in the digital gaming battle.

“There is no best auto company, there is no best car. You’re really competing now to be unique. One can still be a large company by meeting a very well chosen set of needs. Whole Foods is not trying to be a great food retailer. It is trying to meet the needs of a certain set of customers. Those customers view the 183-store chain’s eco-friendly ethos as representative of a healthy, socially responsible lifestyle they want to identify with.” Michael Porter, Harvard Business School.

The driving force behind uniqueness can be best expressed as the search for different. The outcome of that search most certainly can be the launch of a new category where a brand rightfully claims its innovation and leadership mantle. As Ries said in his column: “Marketing is a battle of categories…Creating a category and then branding that category in such a way that your brand is perceived as the innovator and leader is the essence of marketing today…The brand is only a marker for the category itself.”

So often the conversation in branding circles is about being better. Who is going to argue with continuous improvement, right? But the battleground has changed with product proliferation (too many products chasing too few consumers) and commoditization forces working to turn brands into blands. The first order of business these days is no longer just differentiation — it’s radical differentiation. And the end game is the development of new categories that a brand can be number one in.

This is the ultimate re-definition of thinking outside the box — by creating new boxes that in turn become the mental shorthand for consumer brand selection and preference.