The only path to growth in a commoditized world

Tuesday night Barack Obama demonstrated one of the most powerful principles of branding in the new age of saturation: be different. His campaign focus was appropriately simple, defining and memorable - Change We Need. The relevance of it was persuasive not because of its logic and argument but because of its superb reflection of a basic truth. The electorate already believed change is vital and necessary. Obama owns change as a position. Its relevance worked to help marginalize John McCain, who had trouble defining his candidacy beyond his obvious experience and track record.

The fundamental driver of business success today…

We live in an age where technical prowess is fleeting. Where specsmanship has limited currency due to technology’s ability to closely match the formulas and features of one product vs. the other. Excellence is table stakes. So is extraordinary service. Value is important now more than ever but alone it is also a commodity.

Physical distinctions between brands get thin. Therefore habit increasingly plays a role in year-on-year business performance because consumers show a remarkable resistance to apply any brain time to re-think purchase direction if a product fulfills its primary mission. From brand to brand, category-to-category we can dissect products and businesses to reveal a remarkable level of sameness. One airline to another. One pasta sauce to another. One detergent to another. And so on.
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Powerful tools to build brand value and relevance

Today the Wall Street Journal features a story about a new ad campaign from General Mills for their iconic Pillsbury brand. You can watch below.

What’s obvious to the viewer: this spot is less ad-like and more about story telling. The approach is appropriate in an environment where consumers remain skeptical and disinterested in overt pitches and interruptive selling. This spot is anything but.
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Fractured trust upends power of communications

Perhaps at no other time in the history of modern marketing have we been faced with such an incredible accumulation of contiguous scandals, recalls, startling revelations, bankruptcies, forced marriages, mistruths, half-truths, malfeasance, behavioral inconsistencies and general evidence of bad business behavior.

From miscreant members of the Clergy to chemical leaching plastic water bottles, lead-covered toys, and fallen sports legends, consumers have been bombarded with evidence that leaders, corporations, brands, institutions and communications cannot be trusted. People are learning rapidly that corporate messaging is suspect at best as buoyant reports of happy trails ahead may be masking an impending fall from grace. We discover even the most storied of conservative business icons in banking and insurance can fall under the spell of temptation to play fast and loose. Awesome out-sized basketfuls of assets are gambled away through investments in flimsy financial products constructed on a floor of actuarial quicksand.
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Used to be awareness and implied endorsement

By Robert Wheatley

In the good old days, PR was too-often viewed within the brand marketing mix as a below-the-line bit part player that delivered relatively inexpensive audience impressions with a lovely parting gift: implied endorsement of an outside and respected third party – the editorial media.

While “earned media placement” as its called continues to be a centerpiece of client expectations from their agencies and PR staffs, the substantive contribution of PR has transitioned. Today it is most certainly an above the line strategic leader and thus is integral to generating brand growth and new product trial.

Why? The consumer mindset has changed. Dramatically. How they make buying decisions has changed. Emotionally. How, when and where they consume media has shifted. Radically. It is no longer possible to force and dictate consumer behavior through sheer tonnage in conventional ad media spending.

The incredible volume of new products (over-choice) chasing consumers in ever more narrow and specialized categories, combined with the awesome number of media and mediums (inundation) clamoring for everyone’s attention, has precipitated a near total shut-down of what was once thought to be rational buying behavior. Consumers no longer simply absorb and act on the facts arrayed near them through marketing campaigns, packaging, retail displays and other touch points. Instead they go with their gut and perceptions.

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Brands must reassess the path to building belief…

By Robert Wheatley

United Airlines extols that It’s Time To Fly, while simultaneously revealing more fees to go alongside the other precipitous declines in service. Travel is already painful but never mind. Banks and financial service firms wax on about their forthright expertise and ask investors to place their faith in them. Right behind the message comes scandal, bankruptcy and accusations of malfeasance, which are flying in all directions.

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Can “Value Attribution” Confound Brand Communications?

Note: forgive the long post, but this stuff was too interesting not to pass along…

For the most part we operate as marketers and communicators day-in and day-out with a built in assumption that consumers listen to us, understand us and act accordingly. Of course, there’s ongoing debate about the real level of listening. Well, it also seems there’s the possibility that our messages are misconstrued or misunderstood or misinterpreted due to some funny ways humans operate to process information.

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New world order for brand building

By Robert Wheatley

We really appreciate and enjoy reading Patrick Scanlon’s think pieces and articles. His latest published in AdAge entitled ‘Winning in the Pick Economy’ charts the changes in dynamics between marketer and consumer in an age of the latter’s over-arching control.

Says Scanlon: “In today’s world, media are fragmented, markets are fragmented. Skews of race, sexual orientation, work life, digital experience, marriage and child status, plus other sociological forces crosscut markets even further. We have micro-trends, micro-markets and micro-meals. Only in rare cases can products, like oil and toilet paper, claim to be (both) ubiquitous and necessary. These days’ consumers choose from miles of aisles of cars, clothing, electronic equipment, food, beverages and other staples. To push is dangerous. To pull is difficult. We are engaged in a revolutionary new marketing model not driven by manufacturers or their marketing partners.”
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The many facets of what value can mean to different people…

By Robert Wheatley

In our last post we examined the various facets of value that drive brand purchase. Value has many dimensions, and as we indicated, one person’s sense of what is valuable may differ widely from another.

We now market products and services in an era dominated by customization, choice and individualization. Categories have, in amoeba-like fashion, sub-divided into smaller, narrower segments based on the unique needs and interests of distinct consumer groups we affectionately refer to as tribes. So value will have many faces and looks to different tribes. Read More»

Understanding the interplay of value components vital to sound strategy
By Robert Wheatley

In his excellent book entitled “The Momentum Effect,” author J.C. Larreche describes the unique characteristics of momentum driven businesses that seem to grow more rapidly at the top line because consumers flock to their value proposition. He says: “Momentum powered firms don’t just offer good customer value, they offer compelling value - a value so intense and personal that it resonates with their needs in a gripping and powerful way.”

But value isn’t just a quick summation of benefits, features, price and the rational evaluation of those pieces. Read More»

Marketing Truths Light the Pathway
By Robert Wheatley

We have a second home in a rural area of Southwest Michigan known as Harbor Country. Our place sits on a small lake in the middle of an apple orchard, surrounded by farms and vineyards. Not surprising… Read More»