Brands on The Findings Report

When Brands Betray Us

Sun, 15 Oct 2017 11:11:00 -0700

Harvey Weinstein dominated the news this week. The revelations of his abusive, predatory behavior set off a firestorm that drove a who’s who list of celebrities and politicians to speak out against him and create distance. Meanwhile, women all over the country shared harrowing stories of their own experiences with men who assume that their advances are always welcome, and that the quid pro quo of access for sex is equitable and part of doing business.

Is ESPN Destined to Become the Next Ticketmaster?

Sun, 02 Jul 2017 00:00:00 -0700

I travel a lot. It has always been part of my work life. Like many seasoned travelers, I rely on a bevy of ritual behavior, from packing my bags at home to organizing my hotel drawers at my destination. But I recently realized that one of my important travel rituals has all but disappeared. For years, my first action upon arrival was to turn on the television and find ESPN. I haven’t done that in a long time. According to recent data, I’m not alone.

Rebooting the American Brand

Sun, 15 Jan 2017 13:57:00 -0800

I am reading The Great Gatsby to my daughter Jordan. A few nights ago, after we finished the chapter in which a drunken party-goer crashes his car in a ditch outside Gatsby’s mansion, Jordan said, “he should have taken an Uber.”

In explaining why he couldn’t, it hit me that the fictional tale of Gatsby occurred nearly 100 years ago. There’s a mental block in my head that refuses to imagine events of the 20th century being so far back in time. When I was Jordan’s age, it felt like the ghosts of the Roaring Twenties were still fresh and lively in American life, though of course they were always at least two generations behind my own.

Go Analog

Sun, 08 Jan 2017 11:35:00 -0800

One of the most talked about brands of this year’s International CES might surprise you. American Greetings launched a viral stunt campaign for a “device like no other”; a powerful “sentiment-delivery system” known as the greeting card. The brand enlisted Nick Offerman to be its ambassador, extolling the virtues of analog communications and hand-written expression.

It was a wise move by the brand, asserting relevance at a very unexpected venue with a clever and humorous message. But the idea behind it is much bigger than a one-time stunt. Human touch is disappearing from most of our communications and interactions. This is not only true for brands, where more and more purchase activity is occurring digitally, but also for humans, in general. Time and again I find myself counseling junior colleagues (and my own children) to skip the email and pick up the phone when they want to resolve a problem or connect with someone else. This direct and synchronous communication with others is increasingly rare.

Beyond Challengers. A cycle of brand types

Sun, 18 Dec 2016 08:40:00 -0800

America loves a challenger. Indeed, some are explaining the election of Donald Trump as a result of our abiding admiration for those that thumb their nose at the establishment. As a nation, we have been glorifying challengers since the day those daring patriots dumped the King’s tea into Boston harbor. Today, entrepreneurs point to Steve Jobs, who told us it was “more fun to be a pirate than join the Navy,” and who advertised his signature product by celebrating “the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes, the ones who see things differently.”

And that's the way it is

Tue, 29 Nov 2016 08:25:00 -0800

In 2009 America bid a final farewell to its “most trusted man,” Walter Cronkite. Though not always liked, Cronkite was nearly always respected. He embodied a bygone era in journalism when the national news media gained consumer loyalty and credibility because of its dedicated pursuit of facts, objectivity and perspective. It was a time when the tech darling of the day (television) provided a massive platform for audiences to connect with a single, authoritative voice that helped them curate the events of the day. This loyal following crossed all generations and cast a halo on its network. If the news was on CBS and Cronkite reported it, it had a preferential seat at the table of our judgment.

When Your TV Binge Doesn't Flow

Tue, 15 Nov 2016 05:12:00 -0800

Here’s a multimillion dollar question: how do you predict a binge-worthy show?

The question is not as trivial as you might think. Binge viewers are a growing audience, and some research suggests that the behavior might be addictive—meaning there will be even more of them in the future because addictions spread.

For creators, a binge-worthy program presents two sizable challenges. Some binge-worthy content is released in a traditional, episodic format on traditional networks like CBS and HBO, while others are delivered in lump sum through streaming providers like Netflix and Amazon. The challenge revolves around the growing audience of consumers who prefer to watch the content in one big binge, with some going so far as to delay their viewing of the content until it has been released in its entirety. That’s right. They record every episode or download it from Hulu or Netflix once the season is over in order to step through it in a big binge batch. Granted, this audience is not anywhere near a majority, but it is growing. For a content-creator, this can create a big disadvantage. Namely, if you’re trying to convince your network to renew your show for another season, you’re losing viewers in the traditional Nielsen cycle of ratings and feeling less power than you might if the bingers tuned in in real-time.

Stake Promises, Not Positions

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 18:32:00 +0000

A brand promise is not the same as a brand position. It is a common nugget of brandlore that the two phrases mean the same thing. They do not, though they are related to each other. A position asserts a line of argument (as in “what position shall we take in this message?”) or it pinpoints a location in perceptual space (as in “which position do we or shall we occupy in the mind of the consumer?”) Positioning thrives on “open space”—perceptual territory that your brand can claim because it is unclaimed by competitors. Imagine you operate a brand in an environment where every competitor uses a red logo. To effectively position your brand, you might choose to make your logo blue because that color is “ownable.” This example is a gross oversimplification of positioning, but it illustrates one reason a position is different from a promise. You position to be different and to stand out. It’s an essential activity, indeed, but it is possible to reposition a brand by focusing on purely cosmetic changes and not deliver any real, incremental value. In contrast, when you make a brand promise, you still stake a position, but you also create a covenant with consumers. You commit to deliver value.

5 Great Branding Books

Mon, 28 Nov 2011 02:18:00 +0000

If I wanted to learn more about branding, what book should I read? That’s a question I get asked a lot. I try as hard as I can to bite my tongue and not say, “well, mine, of course!” Instead, there are 5 books I almost always recommend. I’ll share them with you, too.

1/ Truth, Lies and Advertising by Jon Steel. Though it is known primarily as the bible for advertising account planners, I think Steel’s book offers a lot for brand strategists, too. He focuses your attention on how to find the big idea and translate that idea into something that can be expressed creatively.

Why is Black Friday Black?

Fri, 25 Nov 2011 16:21:29 +0000

You can’t surf the web, listen to the radio or watch TV today without hearing some reference to Black Friday—the day after Thanksgiving here in the States and one of the busiest shopping days in the holiday season. Shoppers love Black Friday because there is an opportunity to find massive discounts. That’s why people are willing to line up in front of stores the night before.

But how is it that Black was chosen as the name for this annual discount ritual? Conventional wisdom says its because the one-day sales hit from this day can put a retailer “into the black.” But that seems an odd reason to attract shoppers. You’d half expect them to react to Red Friday, a day when you’d expect prices to be slashed. Then again, red has perhaps some negative connotations of its own. Perhaps Red Friday is better suited to a massive discount on Stephen King novels. But the color Black doesn’t always conjure a positive association . For example, Black Flag is a line of insecticides. It’s a brand name that earns your purchase because it is guaranteed to kill.

Extensions and Deep Cues

Sat, 11 Apr 2009 16:03:55 +0000

When times are tough, many brands decide it is time to refine their brand architecture. Brand architecture describes the system companies use to relate a portfolio of brands to one another and to the master brand. A lot of attention is paid to brand architecture in lean economic climates because it is expensive to support multiple brands and when budgets are tight a refined brand architecture can lead to greater economies of scale.

Brand Preference, Experience and Memory

Sun, 22 Feb 2009 02:58:59 +0000

Brand marketers often fall prey to a massively faulty assumption. They assume that consumers are rational. I’ve sat through many detailed client presentations, replete with volumes of data, wherein a brand platform is justified on the basis of a logical argument that will convince consumers the client’s brand is better than a competitor’s. They believe that touting the virtues of their brand attributes will persuade a consumer to try, switch or buy more. It makes logical sense, they say. When the consumer weighs the choice, we’ll come out ahead.

Storytelling Architecture

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 23:37:13 +0000

At their best, brands tell stories. Sometimes it is overt, such as when they advertise, and sometimes it is subtle, such as when they cue a story already in your head with a brand interaction. Because stories are fundamental to the richness of our experiences, it’s no wonder that brand managers talk a lot about brand stories, brand storytelling, brand narrative, and the like. Storytelling has been en vogue with brands for years now, even before I tackled the subject in my 2002 book, Legendary Brands. The trouble is, while brand managers want their brands to tell stories, they don’t know how to systematize an approach.