Making the Case for New Brand Meaning

By Robert Wheatley

As marketers we believe consumers are listening and paying attention to product messages in ads, brochures, packaging, displays, promotions, billboards, blimps, ATM screens and other confrontations with a marketing sales pitch. Much time is spent creating feature/benefit messages and moving them out through various paid channels to scale the twin peaks of awareness and preference.

What if consumers are NOT listening? And increasingly we are confronted with evidence of just that. We do know that consumers are in fact engaged at the Point of Behavior (POB) – when they are about to buy and about to use. For the most part our time-strapped culture has worked supremely well to force many consumers to separate what is meaningful and engaging from what is more-or-less annoying. So outside of the moments of POB, consumers are simply not paying attention and prefer instead to get on with their lives.

Commercial recall scores continue to decline. Annoyance with TV commercials continues to increase. On the other side of the engagement coin, multi-tasking with different forms of content media is on the upswing. By content we mean the non-interruptive side of the media that contains information, ideas, suggestions, help, thoughts, news, entertainment, fun, advice about the things we’re interested in.

According to author Adam Morgan in his updated second edition of “Eating the Big Fish,” part of the explanation for the decline in listening is the floor falling out of trust between seller and buyer. There have been too many breakdowns in the gulf between what is promised vs. actually delivered. Additionally, there have been too many publicized instances of outright lying (and less than admirable behavior) that jade the paradigm of brand and consumer conversation.

Whatever the reason for tuning out, brands must find a new way to get tuned in. We believe the path to mattering, to being meaningful, is an outcome of brands working to create a higher purpose. In essence this means brands must become “an enabler of lifestyle interests and passions” among their best users – and in doing so to open the door to a relationship – not unlike a human friendship.

This requires a high degree of unselfishness and devotion to relationship building rather than treating consumers primarily as objects to sell to. Despite the mounting evidenced that a new approach is needed, many marketers continue to employ strategies and operate in a manner that presumes the consumer is in fact listening.

Are they?

It may sound counterintuitive because we believe that selling is the pathway to sales. If you accept the idea that brands are preferred at an emotional level, then does it stand to reason if you actively do something to encourage, support, enable, facilitate activities your best consumers enjoy, this will lead to the opportunity for an emotional bond to take hold?

What do you think?

Frito-Lay Blazes Authentic Story in Sustainability

By Robert Wheatley

Note: periodically we recognize great ideas and campaigns that transcend category conventions and challenge notions about successful ways to go to market. Our next candidate for Trailblazing strategy: Frito Lay SunChips brand.

Here’s a brand story that just keeps getting better the more carefully you look at it. A story that helps an existing business disrupt the go-to-market paradigm in its own category and in the process, we believe, create a unique point of advantage.

Frito-Lay learns that their best SunChip customers prefer the brand because it presents a healthier option. So far so good. They also learn their core consumers have an interest in what’s healthier for the planet, too. You can feel the green coming, but hold on, there’s some rich thinking alongside that helps elevate this to Trailblazer status.

Sustainability

Frito-lay pioneers a new packaging material that is 100% biodegradable. In 14 weeks the bag can go from snack carrier to compost. This new innovation is launched on Earth Day, taking advantage of the prevailing media attention on efforts to protect the planet.

The first thing we like about this is disruption. The SunChip brand has been around for a while. Besides flavor line extensions, it is what it is and has a following. So here comes fresh thinking and news for the brand that offers an array of extension possibilities. The compostable bag is precedent setting, right in tune with consumer sentiment and delivers a newfound emotional payoff when making a purchase.

Second the program builds what we call a ‘higher purpose’ or strategic mission underneath that adds a relate-able lifestyle connection to the brand relationship. Finally there’s also synergy with a new parallel messaging strategy Frito has launched in its product portfolio to convey the naturalness and simplicity of what’s in the bag from an ingredient standpoint.

This is summed up in a relevant tag line: Little Things Can Change The World. Healthier Planet. Healthier You.

Demonstration

But wait there’s more… Frito understands that street cred is important and actions speak so much louder than words. So to enhance credibility for the entire proposition and heap on top an on-going litany of leverage-able events to repeat the story, a partnership is created with National Geographic . The brand is co-sponsoring a “Green Effect” contest that will award $20,000 to each of five best ideas for creating green changes at the community level. This is visible demonstration or “walk the walk and talk the talk” kind of behavior. The program will undoubtedly create publicity extensions both online and off that drive awareness and interest for SunChips.

Oh, by the way, the plant in Arizona where SunChips are made – it operates on solar-generated, renewable fuels and recycled water. Brilliant.

As we continue to say, brands that matter do so because they offer greater meaning and value to their users. Bravo Frito-Lay.

Restaurant brands on hunt for fresh territory…

By Robert Wheatley

If ever there was a subject relevant to brands today, elasticity has to be in the top 10 as businesses work overtime to uncover new markets, segments and business opportunities while consumers remain choosy and conservative in their spending habits.

The question marketers must ask themselves – how far can you go from the center of what your brand stands for? Is there a place along the path of stretching where a brand’s core equity is diluted? How do you decide where fresh business opportunities can be cultivated without risking your franchise in the process?

USA Today has an interesting story by Bruce Horovitz that chronicles the wide array of menu moves by top restaurant chain brands to attract new customers. You start to see a sort of food form encroachment begin to develop as brands add new products, adjust mainstays and expand menus to lure in more diners.

KFC goes grilling
Pizza Hut rolls pasta
McDonald’s pours espresso drinks
Boston Market tries crispy chicken
Arby’s re-casts beef sandwiches as burgers
Dominos hits subs and pasta-filled bread bowls

Horovitz wonders aloud, “could sushi at Taco Bell be next?

Marketers may agree what distinguishes brands from one another is their category leadership and distinctiveness in the restaurant trade with a particular menu item as Starbucks is to gourmet coffee. McDonald’s believes they can be effective in this space because the brand pioneer Starbucks has sufficiently elevated the espresso experience. The democratization of gourmet coffee arrives at a moment where broad market tastes have expanded far enough to embrace the richer espresso brew.

This is tricky territory. The annals of marketing are filled with attempts by brands to expand their markets that have eventually led to various forms of implosion. Once thought to be the grand experiment in the automobile industry, Saturn – a new kind of car company – makes the error of trying to trade up from its core competency as an inexpensive entry level auto brand and thus dilutes what made it famous in the first place.

Owning the reference standard for your category…

Al and Laura Ries excellent book, “War in the Boardroom” reminds us of the fundamentals of successful positioning and the goal to own key words or a concept in the consumers mind.

Energy drink = Red Bull
Driving machine = BMW
Heavy motorcycle = Harley
Search = Google
Books = Amazon
Never loses suction = Dyson
Athletic shoe = Nike

When brands in the name of innovation move too far afield of what thy stand for, the consumer gets confused, the core equity is diluted, the brand becomes less meaningful to its devoted fans.

Navigating the call for stretch…

The starting point in this conversation begins with asking this question: what do you stand for? And within that conversation remaining clear that all things to all people is a proven recipe for trouble. The consumer world today appreciates expertise, craftsmanship and uniqueness more than they desire predictability and uniformity.

Short-term gains should never be bought by mortgaging the legacy of a strong brand. So in this conversation less will always be more. Stretches must be handled with care and once on that path great discipline will be required to steer around further moves that go beyond the arena you own in the consumer’s mind. If your path remains emotionally relevant to your core competency then consumers are more likely to accept your ability to deliver well in the new business you’re entering.

The second level of assessment has to do with credibility and believability in terms of what you do best. Will the consumer accept your playing in a new segment naturally? If it feels forced or you’re treading into waters owned by another that gives question to your adjacent category competence, it may be best to forgo the potential balance sheet pluses in favor of longer term franchise building.

The preeminent goal for all successful brands – being highly differentiated. Will your plans support that objective or detract from it over time?

What’s your view on stretching?

Eight simple steps to bringing agencies and clients closer to striking gold

By Robert Wheatley

After all what’s the outcome of the annual planning process between client and agency? A path to improved business results in the year ahead. This can often be a glass half empty or half full proposition. Meaning plans can be good or great and thus outcomes can go from good to great — if the process is designed to combine the best elements of the right and left brained worlds.

For that purpose of discussion, we’ll assume that clients play the more analytical role while agencies fit the intuitive mold. Give and take is required by both participants to get to victory. And success in this case will be the best and most effective plan possible the available resources can fund.

The process goal – avoid tactics that lack sufficient strategic foundation and therefore relevance to the intended audience. In the end, this is about various forms of communication and in the absence of real, authentic relevance none of this will work very well in recruiting new customers and retaining existing ones. Instead our process objective is to inspire all participants to work towards injecting brands with greater meaning and therefore, value.

Of note, our firm’s Trailblazer Planning Model (you can learn about it here watching this presentation) is designed to secure the right information, process and outcomes. Without making this column simply a plug for our method, we’ll devote the remaining space to some key elements that get us all to the same place.

Absence of real value can impede outcomes…

By Robert Wheatley

Web platforms of various kinds are popping up right and left as a path to engagement for consumer brands, especially those launching new products. Some immediately fulfill the definition of clever and creative, but are they bringing sufficient value to the table to gain sustainable traction with the intended audience?

Fundamentally, we believe the path to substantive consumer interaction is related to a value exchange: the consumer’s time and attention in return for something of intrinsic meaning and usefulness beyond a quick laugh or novel design and programming execution.

The first question any brand communications planner should address in developing on-line strategies — “what problems or needs are we about to solve?”

This is not a case for boring, content heavy, knee-deep narrative written in engineer-ese. Rather a careful examination of how a site can be constructed first to bring added value to a consumer’s lifestyle. From that foundation you can layer in innovative design tools and video to add interest and entertainment value.

Example: Kimberly-Clark knows that children don’t enter the world with a training manual. And new parents are sponge-like in their desire for helpful information on dealing with their child’s early development. To support their Pull-Ups product line, the brand has created a web platform to deliver reality TV-like documentary videos about a group of six families going through the potty training experience, plus blog, social media interaction, resource center for articles, etc.

The product sell message is not heavy handed. The goal is to engage parents with information they want and need about an inevitable rite of passage for their toddlers. The six families provide context and perspective about different ages and situations parents may feel are more relevant to them. The reality style production without script helps the communication feel honest and authentic.

By being helpful and useful to parents, Kimberly Clark is on the path to earning a legitimate voice in the lives of their customers. The key here is to start with value strategy first and not creative technique. The priority given to this emphasis on problem solving and resource should permeate the creative process. In doing so the site’s value proposition is not diluted by well-intentioned cleverness that can compete with the primary message delivery.

What do you think?

W&T comes up big in awards season

By Robert Wheatley

There’s winning and then there’s winning. Our firm struck gold twice for Nature’s Variety pet foods. And silver once for Thermos brand. It’s award season, the time when industry peers assess and evaluate the finest work out there to determine the campaigns worthy of a best-in-class trophy.

For W&T the win isn’t in the trophy. It is in the validation of our strategies, insights and work by those who arguably can tell the difference between medium and outstanding. Interestingly the Gold level recognition is for the same program on behalf of Nature’s Variety pet foods.

Bravo to all of our brilliant team members who made this happen and at the source of all the effort and great ideas that led to this outcome…

Publicity Club of Chicago has awarded a Gold Trumpet in the Marketing category to W&T for Nature’s Variety, and a Silver Trumpet in the same category for Thermos brand’s Hydration For All campaign. At the hotly contested national Sabre Award competition, Nature’s Variety is one of five finalists for the top prize in marketing, the Gold Sabre. Getting to this level is no easy task as the largest global brands on the planet participate. Our work bested a broad field of iconic household names with very deep pockets.

The Rotation Diet campaign for Nature’s Variety was an outcome of a close collaboration between agency and client. Our goal was to identify the right path to building distinction and differentiation into an emerging pet food brand that is fighting for growth and share. In the end the victory is found in the client’s business results. So here’s to 20 percent year on year growth at the bottom line! This outcome is really our finest hour. And importantly an hour now acknowledged by our peers and colleagues.

Likewise the strategic campaign for Thermos similarly helped fuel sales and distribution growth in a difficult economy. The core idea: leverage Thermos as part of the rising tide of consumer interest in moving off of drinking water in plastic bottles and on to more environmentally appropriate solutions. The project put Thermos in the center of public and media discourse on the evolution of hydration and water consumption.

As a former national award judge, I understand the criteria separating winners from the rest. It is not just a judgment on the freshness of an idea or its superlative execution. Rather, it is the result that weighs heaviest. The goal of marketing communication investments for any brand is acquiring and keeping more customers. The extent to which W&T’s work contributes to client business growth is the real measure of excellence. That our peers agree is just icing on the cake.

Social media marketing evolves to social business strategy

By Robert Wheatley

We’re standing at the edge of an entirely new business model born of the Internet age. For generations brands have made plans to target their consumers and move messages at them through various paid and non-paid media vehicles. A sort of “push button” model that would appropriate spending down different pipes of communication aimed at informing and persuading.

The Internet and social media have helped activate consumer control over brand relationships and interactions. This requires a seismic shift in thinking from command and control to mining paths of relevance and value to the consumer’s lifestyle.

Underneath the theories behind word-of-mouth marketing and social media platforms and communities is a simple but profound truth: we trust people more than we trust organizations and institutions. And trust is critical to building any kind of lasting bond between a brand and its user.

The next great leap will be the humanization of brands…

In the days of mass marketing, brands were more about their predictability and reliability. Now what matters more is uniqueness and craft. These two points alone favor giving brands a face. Literally.

Our challenge now is to humanize the interactions, communications and experiences people have with brands. This kind of intimacy breeds rapport and leads to trust. So the question we should be asking ourselves is this: how can we put a human face on the brands we guide?

First and foremost, by focusing on the people behind the brand and business. Employees, customer service reps, brand stewards, product development experts, senior management and others behind the great corporate wall should come out to participate openly in the communications process.

Why bother? A humanized brand can more meaningfully and effectively connect with consumers. What better example of this idea than agencies themselves. Sure agencies may attempt to position themselves along the lines of proprietary planning models and other methods that portend a form of “secret sauce” in the creation of effective communication. But in the end, agencies are defined by their people and the qualities, expertise and know-how these individuals bring to the table.

So too, its time for organizations to think about putting real faces in front of consumers to engage with. New media such as blogs and Twitter enable this kind of interaction. So its time now for brands to go LIVE. This approach recommends the development of social business strategy as a method of formalizing the concept and adapting the organization to this kind of change.

What do you think?

Talking to consumers like a friend opens the dialogue

By Robert Wheatley

Seth Godin had a terrific post today. It begins with the premise that most marketing is aimed at recruiting new customers — thus the object of a brand’s obsession is very often going to be a stranger. He compares this to the paradigm of friendship where openness to an exchange of ideas is organic. Strangers are harder to talk to and convince of anything than a friend – whom you have motivation to listen to.

Let’s expand on this idea to describe a basis for effective brand communication strategy…

What are the characteristics of a good friendship? Perhaps mutual respect and affection are evident. When you interact with a friend you listen. Intently. You are patient. You care about their aspirations and concerns. You look for ways to be helpful. You give before you get. There’s a bond there that operates in parallel with some measure of compatibility – like-mindedness that serves to energize and put forward momentum into the relationship. Compatibility by the way usually arises from shared interests.

More often than not, business and marketing plans treat consumers as objects to sell to. The communication is built on a presumed clinical exchange – I make a great product and use my marketing plan to inoculate you with reasons why it is better than the other options, then you believe me and buy my stuff – and so the great cycle of consuming life continues. But now for the most part consumers have learned the tricks of the trade and remain systemically skeptical of push-style messages of self-proclaimed benefits, preferring mostly to ignore them.

So what are the fundamental underpinnings of effective communication in today’s wired and transparent world? How do you create the kind of communication that results in brand preference leading to a sale?

Talk and walk like a friend…

Sounds simple enough but to actually do this has tremendous implications for how you go to market, how you view the customer relationship in your operations and certainly in your communication – both content and channel.

Here’s the short form recipe for brand/consumer friendship:

To create and foment compatibility you must understand the personal interests and passions of your target consumer.

You need to identify ways your brand can help enable and facilitate those passions that can breed connective tissue between the consumer’s lifestyle and your brand – we call this finding your brand’s Higher Purpose.

Start a conversation. This has implications for use of social media platforms. It impacts the manner and tone of your messaging. It invites openness, feedback and discourse.

What about the experience the consumer has with your business and brand, is it friendly, is it fair and based on acknowledging the shared goals of a friendship?

There has to be genuine care for your consumer’s welfare – you can’t fake it. You give to get. Reciprocity is at the core of how a brand earns a place in the consumer’s life.

Natural communication is more appealing

By Robert Wheatley

Do you want consumers who engage on-line to visit your Web site, consume information on your brand and follow-through to buy your product? According to a recent article at eMarketer, the best route to victory may not be through the advertising path.

A recent poll by Opinion Research Corporation finds that brand mentions in on-line articles are more likely to engage their intended audience and cause them to act, versus banner and pop-up ads, email offers and sponsored links. Once again there is mounting evidence this PR-driven form of communication holds court over push messaging in ads and offers.

The advice to marketers: don’t undercut your investments in PR communication in the on-line world, in favor of paid ad outreach.

What is it about articles?

Articles at once carry the demeanor of authorship and therefore the investment and credibility of its writer. People intrinsically respect articles as a reliable source of education and knowledge. Information and ideas are presented in a conversational fashion that allows the reader to consume, judge and form their own conclusions. They feel in control of the process. And conversely they don’t feel like they’re being overtly sold and thus manipulated by a third party.

We seek out and collect information because it makes us feel good to be knowledgeable. We have an innate thirst for understanding and so articles quench the desire to be aware and in touch.

Study sponsor ARAnet President, Scott Stevenson reports, “More than two-thirds of the respondents between 18 and 34 said they conduct Internet searches for products or services they read about in on-line articles either frequently or somewhat frequently.”

The channels of effective communication are changing. The arena for engagement is fast becoming digital to be sure. But the basic drivers behind the human desire for information and ideas remains a constant. Content is king. Challenge your PR team to devote more of their energy and attention to securing coverage in on-line venues. Optimize your spending to make sure you’re not leaving on-line coverage opportunities on the table. And remember, brands are now content creators so you don’t need to rely solely on other voices to tell your story.

The form, style and context of the message will matter as much as the message itself. What do you think?

General Mills Mines Relevance

By Robert Wheatley

When marketers work to identify a higher purpose and thereby imbue their brand with greater meaning, a whole new world of opportunity unfolds to develop that ever-elusive relationship with consumers. The challenge: finding the sweet spot of relevance to the lifestyle concerns and passions of your best customers. Here’s an example of great thinking at work from our friends at General Mills.

My three and six-year old daughters like books. Every night the ritual at bedside involves two or three titles told with great flourish by my wife, Kristen or me. We routinely replenish the bookrack with new titles, given their daily appetite for stories. Equally we feel this is a good thing as parents to do and remain hopeful the devotion to reading will create a life-long interest in books.

Please note the importance of the children’s welfare to parents and doing things actively to support their development!!

Cheerios. Yes its cereal, and also finger food for the very young. Both daughters eat it dry as a snack. So Cheerios is in the consideration set for our kids. The goal of General Mills is to sell me more Cheerios, more often and over a longer period of time. Sure Cheerios can re-fresh their proposition with flavor and form line extensions. But this happens quite a lot in food land so while we take note of it, this is not working to dial up our general attitude towards the brand.

But wait!!!

Cheerios launches a contest to search out and identify new potential authors for children’s titles via a literacy program called “Spoonfuls of Stories.” Further the brand distributes 35 million paperback editions of selected books inside cereal boxes. Enter the parallel cause related layer – Cheerios to date has also donated $3 million to a nonprofit called First Book that provides books to low-income families.

Cheerios now intersects with my behavior as a parent to read to my kids on a daily basis. This act is important to me. The brand’s behavior aligns with mine in an area quite separate from diet but resting squarely in the zone of relevance. Now we have something powerful that ties the brand relationship together.

This is precisely what we mean by “higher purpose.” Engagement and the opportunity for a relationship must begin with the consumer granting permission. And this access is an outcome of brands that enable and support the keen aspirations of their users. This takes the brand relationship past commerce and into dialogue. Telling me about the natural ingredients in a cereal is one thing, but helping me with a key-parenting goal is entirely another. This is the intent of our own proprietary Trailblazer planning model – to uncover insights that help brands rise above “selling” and into mattering.

Bravo Cheerios….