I’m kind of bored this afternoon.
It’s a summer Sunday with the temperatures hitting nearly 100 degrees.
My house temperature is set at 78 degrees.
I am not in the mood to venture out of the house.
For entertainment, I watched Food Network. Got some great ideas and so shortly I will bake up some good walnut butter espresso cookies.
Cooking has long been a favorite hobby of mine. In some ways, it reminds of the laboratory, test tubes and chemical concoctions I mixed up as a kid!
Earlier this year Food Network posted the Top 10 Food Trends for 2010.
The first one on that list is titled, “Keeping It Real.”
I might be a living example of that trend.
“In a back-to-basics economy perhaps it is natural to return to basic ingredients. It is—dare we say—a shift from convenience foods to scratch cooking, now that we have more time than money and more food knowledge and concerns.”
Scratch cooking also provides us with a sense of ownership, perhaps long lacking in the kitchen arena thanks to all of the convenience, pre-prepared meals we just pop in the oven.
Another trend cites that the Food Snob is gone and replaced by the “foodie” that just loves food.
With Italian roots, I always told friends that I was not gourmet…but rather, gourmand.
Last week, I visited a Whole Foods to grab a lunch and just watch people.
My take?
Despite the economy, people will spend a few extra bucks when it comes to food.
But when I asked shoppers why they were picking out the items that they were purchasing, they responded passionately about how much they just loved the item…and the fact that the product did not have “all those chemicals” in it.
Some of my fellow trendcasters call this “small cost reward.”
I would add the word “sustainable” to it. Not eco-sustainable…but reinforcement for busting-butt-sustainable.
Food Network’s Trend #10 is titled “I, Me, Mine” and the lead in sentence is “It really is all about you.”
The trend notes that cooking today is all about expressing individuality and it’s about food that reflects our personality.
I will only buy into half of that trend!
No question that food reflects personality.
I hear many Coffee House Chat participants talk about recipes they love and how they adapt them to reflect their own personal signature.
Last night I watched a Food Network competitive cook-off where every contender brought their own recipes to make, but were then presented with a basket of odd ingredients that they had to include in their recipes.
As a result, they each added another layer of personal signatures to their dishes. And according to the judges...some better than others!
Grandma’s recipes were great, but if that grandson can add a dash of personal zest to it… all the merrier!
That aspect of individuality is certainly part of the cooking experience today.
But as much as individual authorship is being reflected around the kitchen dining table, the kitchen dining table is back in vogue again as our common gathering space.
High tech, high touch perhaps…
Facebook evolved from Starbucks’ “third place.”
And with the impact of the economy, dining out and the $5 Venti Latte…the dining table is where friends and family are carving out time...again.
And yes...that "kitchen dining table" can be our in the "outdoor living room," down in the "man cave" or out around the fireplace!
It is really about “me” hosting the “we” and “us” of 2010 and beyond.
There’s a lot that those “take-out, unwrap and serve” brands can capitalize on if they are willing to roll up those sleeves and get their hands dirty!
Okay… that butter should be room temperature to get blended with my “secret” enhancement of that Food Network recipe!
And if you really, really are good, I will give you some of that cookie dough to eat!
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Cockfighting...What NOT To Do!
My “weekend getaway” mountain cabin is finally under contract.
In the present day real estate market that’s like winning the lottery.
One of the aspects of the mountain community that I will not miss is the cock-fighting farm.
Although, cockfighting seems to be the new marketing forum for a number of firms.
Case in point…hospitals in the healthcare field.
I won’t name names, but I will simply say that the two players I am going to highlight are essentially the only two hospital options available to residents of the community where they are located.
One of these players paid BrandVenture a good amount of money to help them assess market perceptions, evaluate positioning options and develop a 5-year brand-building plan.
In taking on the assignment, we went out into the community and spoke with residents, business owners, physicians and community leadership.
It was refreshing to hear all of those audience groups talk about the emotional experiences that they found delivered by our client and how those experiences differentiated the hospital from what the competitor across town provided in their “system of healthcare.”
We completed our work and were actually moving ahead on some really great advertising creative that tapped right into the heart of the emotional chords of their experience offering…no pun intended!
BUT…
The hospital CEO retired and a new guy was hired.
The new CEO is barely 40 and came on board from a smaller hospital in Florida.
The CEO at the other hospital is a Baby Boomer that has been in the business about twice as long.
The new new CEO of the hospital never returned a single phone call we made and I will put some money on the table, never read any of the work we completed.
At first, we took it personally. But that did not last long.
Within a week after the new CEO came on board, the talk of the town was that he was making all the staff wear different uniforms color-coded by department.
Should we say, the new CEO was not well-liked by those working “the line.”
What then followed was a set of ads declaring “we are better than the other hospital in town” ads touting their new machines, their certifications and their awards.
Oh…and the new CEO used that four-letter C-word of healthcare marketing that the other hospital had in its newspaper ads and billboards.
The word that consumers say has been so overused and abused in healthcare that they don’t believe any claim of it.
And what did the other hospital CEO in town do?
Welcome to the cockfight!
The ads tout that they’re each #1.
Others declare new awards and certifications.
One of the ad series features a picture of a machine.
Other ads feature pictures of staff teams standing in front of machines.
Each new ad set declares “we are bigger and better”… and of course “we care”.
The other hospital’s ad running in today’s newspaper claims to be “a Primary Certified Stroke Care Center from The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations.”
Wow. That’s an emotional differentiator! And certainly one that Joe will remember when his wife Joanne is having a stroke!
At least “we care” is easier to say!
Not that I have direct observation of an actual cockfight, but It’s like watching those cocks strutting around crowing and ruffling their features in the fields where those mountain farmers have them housed!
Cockfighting is not limited to healthcare or to smaller size companies.
Think about the AT&T versus Verizon ads. Think about the GM versus MINI Cooper Ads. Think about the Coke versus Pepsi ads.
Why am I sharing this story in the blog-logue?
Because when brands do this, it spells opportunity for the brands that “get it” and raise the bar above the cockfighting.
Something tells me with this being an election year, there will be a lot of political ads to watch from which we can learn what not to do!
In the present day real estate market that’s like winning the lottery.
One of the aspects of the mountain community that I will not miss is the cock-fighting farm.
Although, cockfighting seems to be the new marketing forum for a number of firms.
Case in point…hospitals in the healthcare field.
I won’t name names, but I will simply say that the two players I am going to highlight are essentially the only two hospital options available to residents of the community where they are located.
One of these players paid BrandVenture a good amount of money to help them assess market perceptions, evaluate positioning options and develop a 5-year brand-building plan.
In taking on the assignment, we went out into the community and spoke with residents, business owners, physicians and community leadership.
It was refreshing to hear all of those audience groups talk about the emotional experiences that they found delivered by our client and how those experiences differentiated the hospital from what the competitor across town provided in their “system of healthcare.”
We completed our work and were actually moving ahead on some really great advertising creative that tapped right into the heart of the emotional chords of their experience offering…no pun intended!
BUT…
The hospital CEO retired and a new guy was hired.
The new CEO is barely 40 and came on board from a smaller hospital in Florida.
The CEO at the other hospital is a Baby Boomer that has been in the business about twice as long.
The new new CEO of the hospital never returned a single phone call we made and I will put some money on the table, never read any of the work we completed.
At first, we took it personally. But that did not last long.
Within a week after the new CEO came on board, the talk of the town was that he was making all the staff wear different uniforms color-coded by department.
Should we say, the new CEO was not well-liked by those working “the line.”
What then followed was a set of ads declaring “we are better than the other hospital in town” ads touting their new machines, their certifications and their awards.
Oh…and the new CEO used that four-letter C-word of healthcare marketing that the other hospital had in its newspaper ads and billboards.
The word that consumers say has been so overused and abused in healthcare that they don’t believe any claim of it.
And what did the other hospital CEO in town do?
Welcome to the cockfight!
The ads tout that they’re each #1.
Others declare new awards and certifications.
One of the ad series features a picture of a machine.
Other ads feature pictures of staff teams standing in front of machines.
Each new ad set declares “we are bigger and better”… and of course “we care”.
The other hospital’s ad running in today’s newspaper claims to be “a Primary Certified Stroke Care Center from The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations.”
Wow. That’s an emotional differentiator! And certainly one that Joe will remember when his wife Joanne is having a stroke!
At least “we care” is easier to say!
Not that I have direct observation of an actual cockfight, but It’s like watching those cocks strutting around crowing and ruffling their features in the fields where those mountain farmers have them housed!
Cockfighting is not limited to healthcare or to smaller size companies.
Think about the AT&T versus Verizon ads. Think about the GM versus MINI Cooper Ads. Think about the Coke versus Pepsi ads.
Why am I sharing this story in the blog-logue?
Because when brands do this, it spells opportunity for the brands that “get it” and raise the bar above the cockfighting.
Something tells me with this being an election year, there will be a lot of political ads to watch from which we can learn what not to do!
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Pass Me Another Glass Of That Two Bucks Chuck!
I have decided to either write a new cookbook for work-a-holics living in the budget age or launch a new cooking show on YouTube.
Either way, I am creating some great meal options that are easy to make...and dirt cheap.
Last week I ate out of my home only twice for dinner.
The first place I went was to Captain D’s. The second place was Outback.
It really wasn’t all that long ago when I ate out nearly every night complete with a nice glass of wine or two.
A good friend of mine in real estate set down a new law with her husband that any wine, beer or martini would be consumed at home before they headed out for dinner.
I told her about Two Bucks Chuck and she became an instant fan.
An online newsletter called “Nutrition Unplugged” recently posted the top trends emerging in the restaurant business.
One of those trends, titled “Upscaling The Downscale” hits right on an emerging market change.
The article specifically explains the trend as “consumers trading down in order to trade up” and cites gourmet burgers as an example of the trend in force.
I know this… the Captain D’s fried fish and shrimp meal complete with fried okra and fresh green beans was so good that I was describing the great taste for the $6.99 price to all of my Facebook friends as I ate it!
The reason I tell the story here and the emerging market change is bigger than just what we eat.
It’s hitting where we shop, what we drive, how we decorate, when we travel and why we work.
Most of time when I shop WalMart it’s packed. Most of the time when I shop any of the department stores its not.
Good friends are trading in their Bimmers for Jeeps and Hondas.
I see more store brands in grocery carts.
Sure…despite what the press says, we are in the heart of a recession.
But unlike the past where we will emerge with more secure jobs and return back to charging up the credit cards and aspiring to live the lavish lifestyle, current generations know that that paradigm is gone.
Case in point… if you have never seen ReadyMade Magazine, go down to your nearest grocery store or bookstore and buy it.
I have written about the magazine in this Blog-logue before.
It is emerging as the Millennial Generation's Better Homes & Gardens… although, Better Homes & Gardens is quickly embracing the Millennials as well with a new format and featured columns.
ReadyMade Magazine is all about how new singles, couples and family homesteaders (note I did not say home-owners!) are embracing life on a budget.
It showcases DIY alternatives, stretching the dollar and how to make more from less.
Where Boomers embraced peace and love, the Millennials are embracing each piece of whatever they can get and love finding ways to do so spending less.
Boomers climbed the corporate ladders. Millennials head over to Home Depot and build their own.
By the way, Home Depot is running full-page ads in the current issue of ReadyMade Magazine for their store brand paints.
To combat corporate accusations and downright hate, BP went out and spent a bunch of money on a fancy image television commercial.
It didn’t make it on air more than a week.
It wasn’t what they said, it’s how they said it and how much they spent in doing so.
The new commercials are more like YouTube videos and they've been running for the last two months or so.
Some BIG BUSINESS marketing management cocoons are finally getting it, but a vast majority still haven’t even captured a glimpse of it.
I may be taking a risk in saying that these changes are not temporary, but I will.
Baby Boomers who thought they would enjoy their retirement years will likely continue to work…even when the economy improves.
GenXers who refuse to cut the umbilical cords with their kids will soon be coughing up the cash to send their kids to college.
And the Millennials… well they are the ones fueling everything from ReadyMade Magazine, DIY TV, Property Virgins, Home Depot, McDonald’s Café Coffee, Old Navy and the revamping of Better Homes & Gardens Magazine.
And just as the Boomers clung to their 1960's Peace Movement and changed the marketplace...the Millennials, who are just shy of the same size, cling to their DIY-Budget Bound destiny.
While we are in the heat of the 2010 Hot Georgia Summer… I can already tell you that the observations made in this Blog-logue will be the foundation of the upcoming 2011 Trendcast.
Now pour me another glass of that Two Bucks Chuck.
Either way, I am creating some great meal options that are easy to make...and dirt cheap.
Last week I ate out of my home only twice for dinner.
The first place I went was to Captain D’s. The second place was Outback.
It really wasn’t all that long ago when I ate out nearly every night complete with a nice glass of wine or two.
A good friend of mine in real estate set down a new law with her husband that any wine, beer or martini would be consumed at home before they headed out for dinner.
I told her about Two Bucks Chuck and she became an instant fan.
An online newsletter called “Nutrition Unplugged” recently posted the top trends emerging in the restaurant business.
One of those trends, titled “Upscaling The Downscale” hits right on an emerging market change.
The article specifically explains the trend as “consumers trading down in order to trade up” and cites gourmet burgers as an example of the trend in force.
I know this… the Captain D’s fried fish and shrimp meal complete with fried okra and fresh green beans was so good that I was describing the great taste for the $6.99 price to all of my Facebook friends as I ate it!
The reason I tell the story here and the emerging market change is bigger than just what we eat.
It’s hitting where we shop, what we drive, how we decorate, when we travel and why we work.
Most of time when I shop WalMart it’s packed. Most of the time when I shop any of the department stores its not.
Good friends are trading in their Bimmers for Jeeps and Hondas.
I see more store brands in grocery carts.
Sure…despite what the press says, we are in the heart of a recession.
But unlike the past where we will emerge with more secure jobs and return back to charging up the credit cards and aspiring to live the lavish lifestyle, current generations know that that paradigm is gone.
Case in point… if you have never seen ReadyMade Magazine, go down to your nearest grocery store or bookstore and buy it.
I have written about the magazine in this Blog-logue before.
It is emerging as the Millennial Generation's Better Homes & Gardens… although, Better Homes & Gardens is quickly embracing the Millennials as well with a new format and featured columns.
ReadyMade Magazine is all about how new singles, couples and family homesteaders (note I did not say home-owners!) are embracing life on a budget.
It showcases DIY alternatives, stretching the dollar and how to make more from less.
Where Boomers embraced peace and love, the Millennials are embracing each piece of whatever they can get and love finding ways to do so spending less.
Boomers climbed the corporate ladders. Millennials head over to Home Depot and build their own.
By the way, Home Depot is running full-page ads in the current issue of ReadyMade Magazine for their store brand paints.
To combat corporate accusations and downright hate, BP went out and spent a bunch of money on a fancy image television commercial.
It didn’t make it on air more than a week.
It wasn’t what they said, it’s how they said it and how much they spent in doing so.
The new commercials are more like YouTube videos and they've been running for the last two months or so.
Some BIG BUSINESS marketing management cocoons are finally getting it, but a vast majority still haven’t even captured a glimpse of it.
I may be taking a risk in saying that these changes are not temporary, but I will.
Baby Boomers who thought they would enjoy their retirement years will likely continue to work…even when the economy improves.
GenXers who refuse to cut the umbilical cords with their kids will soon be coughing up the cash to send their kids to college.
And the Millennials… well they are the ones fueling everything from ReadyMade Magazine, DIY TV, Property Virgins, Home Depot, McDonald’s Café Coffee, Old Navy and the revamping of Better Homes & Gardens Magazine.
And just as the Boomers clung to their 1960's Peace Movement and changed the marketplace...the Millennials, who are just shy of the same size, cling to their DIY-Budget Bound destiny.
While we are in the heat of the 2010 Hot Georgia Summer… I can already tell you that the observations made in this Blog-logue will be the foundation of the upcoming 2011 Trendcast.
Now pour me another glass of that Two Bucks Chuck.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Now How Cool Is That!
I saw more of them yesterday.
Some preach…some give you an inside look at the inner circle…some exalt.
I am sure you have seen them.
Whether you watch CNN, FOX, CBS, MSNBC…they are out there.
They include the banks, the auto manufacturers, the telecoms, the insurance companies, the oil giants, the global traders…
It’s their corporate brand ads extolling the attributes of their products and their mission statements.
Okay.
It is because of this new rash of corporate ads that makes the current issue of Fast Company Magazine’s featured article stand out even more so.
The title of the article is “The Invincible Apple…10 Lessons From The Coolest Company Anywhere.”
With Steve Jobs at the helm, the black turtleneck and blue jeans sans the belts dominates the executive set.
A couple of the lesson subtitles captures what makes Apple “the coolest anywhere” company:
** Turn Feedback Into Inspiration
** Don’t Invent, Reinvent
** Serve Your Customer. No, Really.
** Transcend Orthodoxy
But the coolest of the 10 Lessons is titled “Everything Is Marketing.”
Get a load of this…
“When Martin Lindstrom, a brand consult and author of Buyology: The Truth and Lies About Why We Buy, examined those brains under a functional magnetic-resonance-imaging scanner, he discovered that Apple devotees are indistinguishable from those committed to Jesus.”
And as I preach…brand success is contingent upon every touch-point of the brand experience.
“Think of the iPod’s white earbuds, the Mac’s startup sound, or the unmistakable shape of of the MacBook’s back panel. None of these choices were accidental.”
The article goes on…
“The actual launch day (of the iPad) is choreographed like a dictator’s display of military splendor… This past January 27, when I walked into Apple’s iPad debut, the street ads depicted something old; when I left, there’s the iPad everywhere you look.”
“Study the iPad in the post its clock says 9:41 a.m. Why? Apple thought of that too. That’s the exact moment that Jobs revealed the iPad to the world.”
Let me say it again…brand success is contingent upon every touch-point of the brand experience.
And it's not complicated. The drive is simple…but a conviction.
Get a load of this process of product engineering for a DVD-burning program…
After three weeks of preparation time, the engineering team gathered in the board room with “page after page of prototype screen shots showing the new program’s various windows and menu options along with paragraphs of documentation describing how the app would work.”
“Then Steve (Steve Jobs) comes in. He doesn’t look at any of our work. He picks up a marker and goes over to the whiteboard and draws a rectangle and says…
“Here’s the new application. Its got one window. You drag your video into the window. They you click the button that say ‘BURN.’ That’s it. That’s what we’re going to make.”
I will repeat it again. The drive is simple…but a conviction.
Apple isn’t the only cool company out there.
There are others and they are not all BIG companies like Apple.
This past week in my Entrepreneurship class I reiterated, “build it and they will come is dead.”
Back to those corporate ads…
I get accused as seeing the glass half full more than I should.
Okay.
But as I blogged last week… I know the storms are coming.
And you know how I know?
Because I have an App on my iPhone that shows one is approaching.
Seriously.
Now is that cool or what!
Some preach…some give you an inside look at the inner circle…some exalt.
I am sure you have seen them.
Whether you watch CNN, FOX, CBS, MSNBC…they are out there.
They include the banks, the auto manufacturers, the telecoms, the insurance companies, the oil giants, the global traders…
It’s their corporate brand ads extolling the attributes of their products and their mission statements.
Okay.
It is because of this new rash of corporate ads that makes the current issue of Fast Company Magazine’s featured article stand out even more so.
The title of the article is “The Invincible Apple…10 Lessons From The Coolest Company Anywhere.”
With Steve Jobs at the helm, the black turtleneck and blue jeans sans the belts dominates the executive set.
A couple of the lesson subtitles captures what makes Apple “the coolest anywhere” company:
** Turn Feedback Into Inspiration
** Don’t Invent, Reinvent
** Serve Your Customer. No, Really.
** Transcend Orthodoxy
But the coolest of the 10 Lessons is titled “Everything Is Marketing.”
Get a load of this…
“When Martin Lindstrom, a brand consult and author of Buyology: The Truth and Lies About Why We Buy, examined those brains under a functional magnetic-resonance-imaging scanner, he discovered that Apple devotees are indistinguishable from those committed to Jesus.”
And as I preach…brand success is contingent upon every touch-point of the brand experience.
“Think of the iPod’s white earbuds, the Mac’s startup sound, or the unmistakable shape of of the MacBook’s back panel. None of these choices were accidental.”
The article goes on…
“The actual launch day (of the iPad) is choreographed like a dictator’s display of military splendor… This past January 27, when I walked into Apple’s iPad debut, the street ads depicted something old; when I left, there’s the iPad everywhere you look.”
“Study the iPad in the post its clock says 9:41 a.m. Why? Apple thought of that too. That’s the exact moment that Jobs revealed the iPad to the world.”
Let me say it again…brand success is contingent upon every touch-point of the brand experience.
And it's not complicated. The drive is simple…but a conviction.
Get a load of this process of product engineering for a DVD-burning program…
After three weeks of preparation time, the engineering team gathered in the board room with “page after page of prototype screen shots showing the new program’s various windows and menu options along with paragraphs of documentation describing how the app would work.”
“Then Steve (Steve Jobs) comes in. He doesn’t look at any of our work. He picks up a marker and goes over to the whiteboard and draws a rectangle and says…
“Here’s the new application. Its got one window. You drag your video into the window. They you click the button that say ‘BURN.’ That’s it. That’s what we’re going to make.”
I will repeat it again. The drive is simple…but a conviction.
Apple isn’t the only cool company out there.
There are others and they are not all BIG companies like Apple.
This past week in my Entrepreneurship class I reiterated, “build it and they will come is dead.”
Back to those corporate ads…
I get accused as seeing the glass half full more than I should.
Okay.
But as I blogged last week… I know the storms are coming.
And you know how I know?
Because I have an App on my iPhone that shows one is approaching.
Seriously.
Now is that cool or what!
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Storms Brewing In The Heat Of Summer!
It’s damn hot down here in the South.
So hot that nearly all the folks I know spend their days and evening under the fans and soothing air conditioning.
The baseball fields are still. The bandstands are empty. The ponds barely post a ripple.
The stage is set for the explosion of sound and light with the July 4th fireworks!
USA Today ran a story this past week about the cable nets.
Here is the lead-in of the article…
“Chefs on the sci-fi channel SyFy? Cars and comics on the History Channel? A show about people with obsessive-compulsive disorder on VH1? Boxer Mike Tyson on Animal Planet?”
The lead-in then follows with this statement…
“Your TV isn’t out of whack, but your cable channel might be.”
In many ways what is taking place doesn’t surprise me.
The article posts a sub-head that reads “Formats are blurring in push for viewers.”
No question that the economy is one of the factors driving the quest.
As ad dollars decline, the nets scrape for whatever remains at the bottom of the barrel like a pack of dogs fighting for the bone.
But the economy is not the only driver.
Bring to the table the impact of online and mobile options, cable network lifescycles, next generation management and the original innovators now replaced by the MBAs.
And its not just the cable nets that deserve the limelight.
I am writing this blob at a Starbucks. Remember when Starbucks declared the ownership of the “Third Place?”
Today that “kitchen table” has been replaced by breakfast sandwiches designed to sway me from McDonald’s and instant coffee packs sold in supermarkets to sway me from Folgers.
Back about eight years ago, I leased an Infiniti FX mini-SUV that sported a completely new auto style and design.
Today when I drive up next to what looks like my old Infiniti, I see brand names like Ford, GM, Mercedes, Toyota and Kia.
And then when I get home I see TV ads for those same brands all declaring their new, novel and break-through new look and design.
Then there’s the new 4G iPhone that really isn’t any more “Mac innovative” than the 3G, but shoot, they have to compete against the 4G Google Phone.
Its like the post-innovative technology CEOs are now overdosing on Viagra.
I can go on with stories about banks all clamoring around service and hospitals all claiming the position of “we care.”
But I won’t.
Maybe it’s the Maslow pyramid hierarchy at work.
Maybe it’s about brands that have not just hit market maturity, but are now on the decline fostered further by the economy.
Out with the brand vision.
In with shedding the brand clothes and scrapping up whatever crumbs fall in the mud below.
Whatever happened to taking the risk to be brand innovative? Whatever happened to the brand platforms? Whatever happened to the brand stewards?
This past week I was again labeled as the proverbial optimist.
As much as it’s damn hot outside, I know that it will not remain still for long.
When the thunder rumbles, my heart beats faster.
A couple of weeks ago, Fine Living became The Cooking Channel, a network crafted specifically around the passion of the kitchen…not restaurants, not how food brands are made, not eating weird foods and not about travel.
When I served as the brand steward of Cartoon Network, we took a firm stand that no live programming could air on the network. Space Ghost Coast-to-Coast pushed the bar, but Space Ghost and his “studio” remained in the cartoon setting.
While MTV is airing movies and Travel Channel is airing game shows, Cartoon Network remains all cartoons.
There is hope.
When brands reach market maturity they will either Innovate again with what some may label as hierarchy or they will go out of business.
Entrepreneurs are crafting new ways to do business without the overhead of the corporations.
YouTube is now posting 2 billion views per day. Gee, wonder if those cable nets want to be YouTube?
As the cable nets elect to blur their brand lines, they may be surprised when they find themselves in the very seats that CBS, NBS and ABC sat in not that long ago.
Trust me. Get ready for the storms.
So hot that nearly all the folks I know spend their days and evening under the fans and soothing air conditioning.
The baseball fields are still. The bandstands are empty. The ponds barely post a ripple.
The stage is set for the explosion of sound and light with the July 4th fireworks!
USA Today ran a story this past week about the cable nets.
Here is the lead-in of the article…
“Chefs on the sci-fi channel SyFy? Cars and comics on the History Channel? A show about people with obsessive-compulsive disorder on VH1? Boxer Mike Tyson on Animal Planet?”
The lead-in then follows with this statement…
“Your TV isn’t out of whack, but your cable channel might be.”
In many ways what is taking place doesn’t surprise me.
The article posts a sub-head that reads “Formats are blurring in push for viewers.”
No question that the economy is one of the factors driving the quest.
As ad dollars decline, the nets scrape for whatever remains at the bottom of the barrel like a pack of dogs fighting for the bone.
But the economy is not the only driver.
Bring to the table the impact of online and mobile options, cable network lifescycles, next generation management and the original innovators now replaced by the MBAs.
And its not just the cable nets that deserve the limelight.
I am writing this blob at a Starbucks. Remember when Starbucks declared the ownership of the “Third Place?”
Today that “kitchen table” has been replaced by breakfast sandwiches designed to sway me from McDonald’s and instant coffee packs sold in supermarkets to sway me from Folgers.
Back about eight years ago, I leased an Infiniti FX mini-SUV that sported a completely new auto style and design.
Today when I drive up next to what looks like my old Infiniti, I see brand names like Ford, GM, Mercedes, Toyota and Kia.
And then when I get home I see TV ads for those same brands all declaring their new, novel and break-through new look and design.
Then there’s the new 4G iPhone that really isn’t any more “Mac innovative” than the 3G, but shoot, they have to compete against the 4G Google Phone.
Its like the post-innovative technology CEOs are now overdosing on Viagra.
I can go on with stories about banks all clamoring around service and hospitals all claiming the position of “we care.”
But I won’t.
Maybe it’s the Maslow pyramid hierarchy at work.
Maybe it’s about brands that have not just hit market maturity, but are now on the decline fostered further by the economy.
Out with the brand vision.
In with shedding the brand clothes and scrapping up whatever crumbs fall in the mud below.
Whatever happened to taking the risk to be brand innovative? Whatever happened to the brand platforms? Whatever happened to the brand stewards?
This past week I was again labeled as the proverbial optimist.
As much as it’s damn hot outside, I know that it will not remain still for long.
When the thunder rumbles, my heart beats faster.
A couple of weeks ago, Fine Living became The Cooking Channel, a network crafted specifically around the passion of the kitchen…not restaurants, not how food brands are made, not eating weird foods and not about travel.
When I served as the brand steward of Cartoon Network, we took a firm stand that no live programming could air on the network. Space Ghost Coast-to-Coast pushed the bar, but Space Ghost and his “studio” remained in the cartoon setting.
While MTV is airing movies and Travel Channel is airing game shows, Cartoon Network remains all cartoons.
There is hope.
When brands reach market maturity they will either Innovate again with what some may label as hierarchy or they will go out of business.
Entrepreneurs are crafting new ways to do business without the overhead of the corporations.
YouTube is now posting 2 billion views per day. Gee, wonder if those cable nets want to be YouTube?
As the cable nets elect to blur their brand lines, they may be surprised when they find themselves in the very seats that CBS, NBS and ABC sat in not that long ago.
Trust me. Get ready for the storms.
Monday, May 31, 2010
Home Grown Commerce Is Fueling Growth!
Tomorrow night is class #2.
The class is Introduction to Entrepreneurship
We are going to be discussing how to assess the marketplace, consumers and competition.
In my presentation of the course curriculum, I told the students that information access today is virtual. There is no excuse for not knowing something. The answer is accessible as quickly as you can Google it.
There were seven students in class #1…received an Email telling me that four more students have since signed up.
I have taught other marketing classes, but this class is different.
It is not about my making a difference.
I am moved by their making a difference.
The youngest attending is age 16 and the oldest is a “frontline Baby Boomer.”
It is about half men and half women.
They are basically all from the same town.
A small town.
According to the just released 2010 US Census estimates, the town has a population of 6,298 people.
This is the largest town in its corresponding county.
The city’s Downtown Development Authority is sponsoring the class.
The reason they are sponsoring it?
To build business. To grow their economy. To build a sense of local pride.
Trust me.
I have sat on a number of state and large city economic development and chamber of commerce groups.
Did they ever do something like this?
No.
Now they had their business leadership and mentoring programs. A number had their links to Junior Achievement. And a few put together internship programs for the local university and business school.
But did they actually help to underwrite a class on Entrepreneurship, promote it and host it?
No.
In a time when Big Business and Big Government cozy up together, the idea of a small town taking time, energy and money and fueling local Entrepreneurs is not only innovative…its cool!
The name of the town doing this is Commerce, Georgia.
No joke.
Not New York, not Washington, not Chicago, LA or the ATL… but Commerce.
How much cooler can a name of a town get?
If you are reading this…be encouraged.
The economy will improve. Business will improve. Sales will start growing again.
Maybe I am too much of an optimist.
But when I see small towns and local businesses coming together to get local people to think way outside the box, innovate beyond conventional funding routes and take risks that are way beyond the safety zone…it motivates me.
The corporations cannot change and the universities cannot educate fast enough and affordable enough.
I worked today even though it is a Holiday.
Stop the fixation on Wall Street and Washington…
Instead focus on home-grown Commerce!
The class is Introduction to Entrepreneurship
We are going to be discussing how to assess the marketplace, consumers and competition.
In my presentation of the course curriculum, I told the students that information access today is virtual. There is no excuse for not knowing something. The answer is accessible as quickly as you can Google it.
There were seven students in class #1…received an Email telling me that four more students have since signed up.
I have taught other marketing classes, but this class is different.
It is not about my making a difference.
I am moved by their making a difference.
The youngest attending is age 16 and the oldest is a “frontline Baby Boomer.”
It is about half men and half women.
They are basically all from the same town.
A small town.
According to the just released 2010 US Census estimates, the town has a population of 6,298 people.
This is the largest town in its corresponding county.
The city’s Downtown Development Authority is sponsoring the class.
The reason they are sponsoring it?
To build business. To grow their economy. To build a sense of local pride.
Trust me.
I have sat on a number of state and large city economic development and chamber of commerce groups.
Did they ever do something like this?
No.
Now they had their business leadership and mentoring programs. A number had their links to Junior Achievement. And a few put together internship programs for the local university and business school.
But did they actually help to underwrite a class on Entrepreneurship, promote it and host it?
No.
In a time when Big Business and Big Government cozy up together, the idea of a small town taking time, energy and money and fueling local Entrepreneurs is not only innovative…its cool!
The name of the town doing this is Commerce, Georgia.
No joke.
Not New York, not Washington, not Chicago, LA or the ATL… but Commerce.
How much cooler can a name of a town get?
If you are reading this…be encouraged.
The economy will improve. Business will improve. Sales will start growing again.
Maybe I am too much of an optimist.
But when I see small towns and local businesses coming together to get local people to think way outside the box, innovate beyond conventional funding routes and take risks that are way beyond the safety zone…it motivates me.
The corporations cannot change and the universities cannot educate fast enough and affordable enough.
I worked today even though it is a Holiday.
Stop the fixation on Wall Street and Washington…
Instead focus on home-grown Commerce!
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Emotions Versus Attributes? I Think They Got It!
Okay.
I have blogged about this company in the past.
A lot.
Most about their service deliverable breakdowns. Some about the lack of a positive brand experience.
Maybe its because I am an ATT customer.
But... their new ATT Wireless commercials are at least a new piece of evidence that even the big corporations can experience brand redemption!
ATT Wireless, formerly Cingular Wireless, seemed to have overdosed on the attributes of their service offering.
If it wasn’t the price deals of their roll-over minutes (remember those chips?), it was the geography of their coverage or even worse yet, the strength of the signal reflected in the rising bars of the old Cingular wireless logo!
Tonight I saw one of their commercials for the third time.
It’s the one where it opens with an American president being sworn into office and back tracks all the way to a guy seeing a girl in a New York City subway station and knows he is destined to getting on the train to sit next to her.
Its not until near to the end of the spot that you see the guy take out his mobile phone and use an app to get his subway ticket.
And to be honest, you never see the phone again.
There is no mention of the ATT coverage zones. No mention of the brand of phone the guy uses. No mention of price. No mentions really of ATT until you see the logo at the end of the spot.
Instead the spot captures the emotions of connection! And how those connection points are part of the architecture of our life.
I cannot say any of my thoughts next are actually what took place, but I might put a fifty dollar bill on the betting table that I am not too far off.
When ATT took over Cingular and changed over the brand…those guys up in the corporate office probably got the same affect with those bars as they did with Viagra!
And if they could get the surge in the bars…well they had to take on Verizon (who did those guys just think they were!) and their coverage claims.
Then, similar to Dexter of Cartoon Network's first original program, Dexter’s Lab, the cool things those gadgets could do was a rage come true!
All the while, on the agency front, there must have been a fair share of smart account planners out there saying enough with the attributes, we need to tap into the emotional deliverables of the brand experience.
And it’s a risk…a BIG risk for those agency CEOs to sit down with the ATT CMO and say that those attributes are nice…but they are not cementing a loyalty to the AT&T brand that rises above rational thought.
I can hear the CMO now… “What?”
But after the whole fiasco with the Verizon challenge that ATT CEO probably put it simply when he called the CMO into his office… “Re-energize that brand or you will be working somewhere else!”
Isn’t it interesting how crisis can elevate change!
Whatever actually happened may remain behind closed doors, but for right now, those new ATT ads are great examples of marketing the experience and not the mechanics of the product.
I also saw a television commercial over the weekend for a past home décor client of mine.
When we first delivered their brand architecture, they actually fired us.
No joke.
They thought we were nuts.
Since then, they have internalized what we recommended and it has become the architecture of their entire brand and all of the components of its delivery.
If you watch HGTV or read Elle Decor, you have probably seen it.. "Shaw. Where Great Floors Begin!"
Over the next few weeks I have some great meetings with some top CEOs.
ATT is actually a brand I intend to talk about… positively!
I have blogged about this company in the past.
A lot.
Most about their service deliverable breakdowns. Some about the lack of a positive brand experience.
Maybe its because I am an ATT customer.
But... their new ATT Wireless commercials are at least a new piece of evidence that even the big corporations can experience brand redemption!
ATT Wireless, formerly Cingular Wireless, seemed to have overdosed on the attributes of their service offering.
If it wasn’t the price deals of their roll-over minutes (remember those chips?), it was the geography of their coverage or even worse yet, the strength of the signal reflected in the rising bars of the old Cingular wireless logo!
Tonight I saw one of their commercials for the third time.
It’s the one where it opens with an American president being sworn into office and back tracks all the way to a guy seeing a girl in a New York City subway station and knows he is destined to getting on the train to sit next to her.
Its not until near to the end of the spot that you see the guy take out his mobile phone and use an app to get his subway ticket.
And to be honest, you never see the phone again.
There is no mention of the ATT coverage zones. No mention of the brand of phone the guy uses. No mention of price. No mentions really of ATT until you see the logo at the end of the spot.
Instead the spot captures the emotions of connection! And how those connection points are part of the architecture of our life.
I cannot say any of my thoughts next are actually what took place, but I might put a fifty dollar bill on the betting table that I am not too far off.
When ATT took over Cingular and changed over the brand…those guys up in the corporate office probably got the same affect with those bars as they did with Viagra!
And if they could get the surge in the bars…well they had to take on Verizon (who did those guys just think they were!) and their coverage claims.
Then, similar to Dexter of Cartoon Network's first original program, Dexter’s Lab, the cool things those gadgets could do was a rage come true!
All the while, on the agency front, there must have been a fair share of smart account planners out there saying enough with the attributes, we need to tap into the emotional deliverables of the brand experience.
And it’s a risk…a BIG risk for those agency CEOs to sit down with the ATT CMO and say that those attributes are nice…but they are not cementing a loyalty to the AT&T brand that rises above rational thought.
I can hear the CMO now… “What?”
But after the whole fiasco with the Verizon challenge that ATT CEO probably put it simply when he called the CMO into his office… “Re-energize that brand or you will be working somewhere else!”
Isn’t it interesting how crisis can elevate change!
Whatever actually happened may remain behind closed doors, but for right now, those new ATT ads are great examples of marketing the experience and not the mechanics of the product.
I also saw a television commercial over the weekend for a past home décor client of mine.
When we first delivered their brand architecture, they actually fired us.
No joke.
They thought we were nuts.
Since then, they have internalized what we recommended and it has become the architecture of their entire brand and all of the components of its delivery.
If you watch HGTV or read Elle Decor, you have probably seen it.. "Shaw. Where Great Floors Begin!"
Over the next few weeks I have some great meetings with some top CEOs.
ATT is actually a brand I intend to talk about… positively!
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