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Fresh Stories for Top Brands.

By wilson |

Wednesday Creative Shots, Episode 2

This week brought out some very different pieces, but likely something for everyone; designers, writers, project managers and developers.

 Coughing is a Drag

Smoke detectors save lives, now they might save even more. Sure, an annoying buzzer would alert the smoker that they’re being rude and disrespectful of people nearby, but this outdoor execution takes the alarm to a different level.

Via: Brandflakesforbreakfast.com

The History Lesson of a Renegade Font

Be different. Make an impact. Those are goals of every true creative person. Now you know the beginning. After this video, you’ll know the rest of the story about the font everyone apparently loves to hate.

From Jason

Super Fold from the Fold Factory

Talkin’ about a nerdin’ out on paper folding, weights, ink, … and player trading cards.

 

Have a Beer, It’s Been a Long Trip

Yep, Budweiser jumped right off the boat in St. Louis and into a national immigration brouhaha with this spot.

 

From Adweek: http://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/how-budweiser-created-an-epic-immigrant-story-to-reclaim-the-super-bowl-spotlight/

All trademarked and copyrighted names, marks and logos are the property of their respective companies.

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By wilson | Augmented Reality, VR

Wednesday Creative Shots, Episode 1

Do you need some inspiration or thought-provoking ideas to get you to the end of the week? We got you covered. Here are just a few things our team has found and shared this past week.

Follow Like Sheep

One instance where following like sheep could take you somewhere extraordinary. Maybe to mountain valleys. Maybe in Norway.
https://www.visitnorway.com/sheepwithaview/

https://www.instagram.com/p/BHPMKYogaf5/?tagged=sheepwithaview

Hate Your Office View? Throw It In Reverse.

Grab your laptop and you’re ready to go to work virtually anywhere. Nissan explored what a mobile workspace might look like and how it might function. Very forward thinking.

From Brandflakesforbreakfast.com

Dreams Make A Difference

VR gets lots of attention, but a lot of the executions so far lack substance or a real reason for being. Not this one.

Have a comment or something we need to look at? Tell us.

All trademarked and copyrighted names, marks and logos are the property of their respective companies.

Tags | Augmented Reality, VR

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By wilson | brand evolution, branding process, branding steps

The One Constant—Do We Really Have to Say It? Change.

The fact is that a brand audience can change. Like the people they are comprised of, they age, their tastes evolve, and their needs change with them. In short, they grow up, sometimes old. Does your brand move with them—or can it meet the next generation in a similar space as the previous audience? Can it keep both?

One thing for sure is that audiences have the ability to move and adapt much, much faster than ever before. However long your previous audience cycle was, you can almost assuredly expect the next one to last half as long.

It’s Not About the Years

“A brand can be very aged, but still be young and modern in its consumers’ mind.” Jean-Marc Lehu, Communication and Media PhD Management, Université de Paris

Time and age don’t define a legacy or mature brand. The brand audience does. Many of the world’s most beloved brands are seemingly ageless. Even if they are decades or sometimes centuries old, and by any measure mature, they are not in decline. When consumers begin to neglect a brand is when the drop begins. This is when the audience begins to shrink and the trouble to start.

Your audience still loves your brand. That’s the good news. The bad news? They don’t think about you anymore.

Research shows that most of these declining brands are still appreciated by their audience. The audience still likes them, but they don’t purchase or engage with them anymore. It is not necessarily a reflection of the brand’s quality. It could be because the brand seems too familiar to an audience looking for something new, or just appears dated compared to competitors. When that happens, market share drops, sales slip, and eventually those brands disappear from the audiences’ memory.

Switch ABC to ABL—Always Be Listening

When was the last time you really had a conversation with your audience and listened? Thanks to social media, it’s easier than ever to discover what is on your customers’ minds and what they are saying about your brand. But you have to participate in an authentic and respectful manner. Have the discipline to create the most meaningful types of engagement versus just adding to the chatter. Deep within every audience are influencers, opinion drivers and trusted authorities—dressed as everyday people living in a very social world.

 

Five Potential Indicators of a Declining Brand Audience

A vibrant and active brand audience is one sign of a healthy brand. But not every brand is fortunate enough have an extremely vocal audience. How else can you tell if your brand audience is healthy? Here are some key indicators of a declining brand audience. Any one of them could indicate trouble ahead.

1. Decreasing Consumer Population

Is the total number of people in your audience shrinking? If your brand operates through bricks and mortar locations in areas where the population is not growing, that’s one concern. If you manufactured typewriters towards the end of the last century, you would have experienced a shrinking audience for a completely different reason. But both face the challenge of smaller available audiences that must be addressed.

2. Non-renewals

If you offer a service or subscription, are your customers continuing to return or renew? It’s generally accepted that it’s much more expensive and difficult to acquire new customers than to retain existing ones. A drop here can be an indicator that your audience is drifting away. You could even lump in a reduction in customer complaints here. Unless you’ve made dramatic improvements, a lack of complaints might mean your customers are moving on. They’re disinvested and not telling you.

3. Increasing Consumer Average Age

When the average age of your consumer continuously increases each year, it doesn’t take a mathematical genius to plot the end date for your brand. It also likely means that you are not bringing in an adequate population of new customers. People don’t live forever and your pool of available customers will gradually evaporate every year.

4. Unsuccessful Product Launches and Updates

Fawning press attention is one thing. Lack of customer acceptance is another. If your product changes and advancement aren’t gaining acceptance in the marketplace, your brand won’t be able to move forward. Brands that don’t move forward are in trouble. A cautionary note here: brand evolutions that are too dramatic can risk alienating your audience as much as moves that aren’t seen as significant.

5. Absent Younger Consumer Segments

It’s true: children are our future, certainly our future customers in many cases. But even products designed for older adults need to ensure that they continue to reach out and connect with those in the age demographic younger than their core audience. If your audience is missing these segments, your growth potential, and long-term brand health are in jeopardy.

Next Steps

If you recognize any of these patterns, it’s time to take action. You have essentially two courses of action; modify your existing audiences, or enlarge them. That’s a subject that merits its own discussion.

Learn more about how mature brands can discover renewed growth in our ebook, Five Gates of Branding.

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You might also like, “WHY HERITAGE WORKS FOR MATURE BRANDS.”
 

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By wilson | branding process, branding steps

What Are You Giving?

“Factories rust away, packages become obsolete, products lose their relevance. But great brands live forever.” Edward Tufte, Backer Spielvogel Bates

Products lose their relevance. But great brands live forever. How can that be? That’s because your brand is not your product: your brand is what you promise and offer the customer.

Previously in this series we addressed Position. We asked and answered, “who are you?” Now the question is “what is your brand offer?”

It’s not as simple as it sounds. You need to get to a final and ultimate definition—and it’s not about your current product.

Look Beyond

Theodore Levitt, author of “Marketing Myopia” revealed decades ago why believing that your product is your brand is a risky line of thinking. “The railroads did not stop growing because the need for passenger and freight transportation declined” he stated. “That grew. The railroads are in trouble today not because that need was filled by others (cars, trucks, airplanes, and even telephones) but because it was not filled by the railroads themselves. They let others take customers away …”

What industry believes that it makes great products today, but could be the next to follow the railroad industry? The potential list is long. Could the same thing happen to auto manufacturers? What place does “the ultimate driving machine” have in a world with self-driving cars? Do people want and buy laundry detergent—or do they really just want clean clothes?

According to Levitt, “In every case, the reason growth is threatened, slowed, or stopped is not because the market is saturated. It is because there has been a failure of management.” Identifying where and why your offer is failing is the next step. Following are five reasons that the market might reject your current offer.

Five Offer Missteps of Mature Brands

1. Inadequate Promise of Satisfaction.

What satisfied customers in days past might not be adequate to satisfy them now. Different offers by competitors or even other industries can change the point where a customer deems themselves satisfied and what they are willing to pay for. The hotel industry is a great example. It used to be that clean sheets, a tidy room and maybe a pool would suffice. Now guests demand everything from free wifi, breakfast, and personal attention on a first-name basis to have what they’ll call “great stay.”

2. Innovation or R&D Falling Behind.

In many industries, if you’re not first, you’re last when it comes to technology and your offer. This applies to even the strongest brands. Mercedes, for example, must lead in both technology and quality to maintain their position. One or the other will not suffice.

3. Obsolete Production Methods

The length of time people are willing to wait for your promise and their quality expectations change over time. In manufacturing, the introduction of CNC manufacturing has dramatically changed both the time to delivery and quality expectations of customers—and they’re not going to rewind.

4. Tone-Deaf Customer Experience

Make no mistake: every interaction a customer has with your brand is part of your brand. Through technology, the possible touch points for customers to interact with your brand have increased dramatically and the experience is part of the offer, especially for online companies. Consider a company like Zappos. Their customers expect to be recognized personally at each interaction and would be disappointed if they are not. Why? Because that’s the expectation that Zappos has set and it puts the same pressure on all of their competitors.

5. Dated Designs and Imagery

Visual impressions can mean a lot. In some categories, they mean everything. Some customers that perceive themselves or have a desire to be on the forefront of trends need the brand to reassure and reinforce that they are on the edge. They won’t associate with brands that appear dated. Additionally, when seen next to other brands that appear more current, the perceived value of the dated brand can seem diminished.

 

Unlocking the Brand Offer Gate

We know that brands must move forward. That doesn’t always mean your offer has to change—but that might well be the case. The critical point is that you must know exactly what your offer is to unlock the remaining gates in the branding process: Audience, Message, and Delivery.

You should review the five common missteps listed above carefully with your brand offer in mind. Where does your offer fit? Is it consistent with the sweet spot of your position where you deliver better than your competitors with something meaningful to your customers? Most critically, remember this: look beyond your current products to your ultimate promise. That is your lasting offer to customers and what actually warrants longevity.

Five Gates of Branding

Learn how to avoid the mistakes of brands that were surprised by disruption. Download Five Gates of Branding.

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You might also like this post, Careless Brands Ripe for Disruption.

 

Tags | branding process, branding steps

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