A Glimpse Into The 2013 Emerging Trends

Its not easy writing a business blog right now.

I’ve actually sat down to write an update several times over the past couple of weeks… but it’s really not that easy to do.

Here is the U.S., many of us trendcasters and blogging soothsayers are awaiting the results of the upcoming November election.  There is no question that the outcome of this election will be a market game-changer one way or the other.

However, no matter the outcome, there are some trends emerging that will be market changers over the course of the next several years.

Not to give away the full EXPERIENCE 2013 TRENDCAST, the following are a few of the trends that are hitting us right now.

The Emergence of The Working Class

Forget all the political hoopla and the politicians’ fixation on the middle class.  The real group of identification emerging is what is being termed the “Working Class.” 

Having a real job today is not only an asset, but it is quickly becoming a distinguishable point of difference.  Thanks, in part to neutralizing brands like Target, Taco Bell, Kia and Verizon, socio-economic class cultures are fading in many ways. 

What’s emerging is the unification of a group of folks that get up every morning, take a shower and go off to earn a living.  They work hard and pay taxes.  Their lives evolve around ensuring that the work gets done to secure that paycheck. 

They are retailers, plumbers and managers.  They work in fast food restaurants, office towers and delivery trucks.

They exist in contrast to a set of other groups who do not work to survive.  Some are retired, some are in search of work and some have elected to live off of monies granted to them by Uncle Sam… directly in a Federal job or off of the monthly checks and EBT cards. 

If you doubt that The Working Class is emerging, check out the latest new fall programming on the broadcast nets. 

The Blinding Glimpse of the Obvious (BGO) is that financial institutions are looking at one heck of an opportunity.

But if brands think that the way to grab onto this trend is simply to resurrect the beer, cigarette and CPG ads of the ‘70s, they will quickly see that what’s taking place today is something different.

Hand Made Values

The writing has been on the wall for a while that this trend would soon be hitting the streets.

With technology and automation, the marketplace quickly emerged with what many brands thought was going to save their shrinking shares… customer service. 

With everything from the cars we drive to the smartphones we use to the credit cards we slide to the insurance we click to online…  large brands believed that real people versus automated voice recognition would be true counter culture of our high tech society.

Not so.

What’s emerging is a return to actual real people, hands-on product engineering, manufacturing and retailing.

What we see hitting the air-waves of HGTV, History Channel, Food Network and TLC are hits like Holmes on Homes, Counting Cars, Restaurant Impossible and Cake Boss that brings true hands-on assembly center-stage.

Wendy’s and Burger Kings are re-introducing the hand-shaped burgers and Taco Bell is showcasing its newest fresh prepared salads.

“Hand-Built,” “Hand-picked,” “Hand-Assembled” and “Hand-Crafted” are emerging as brand differentiation descriptors.

Watch for the 2013 emergence of Hand Made Value-adds in everything from automotive to clothing to home décor.

Kitchen Central

The return of home-cooking might have been triggered in part by the Great Recession and the emergence of “close-to-completed” pre-prepared food offerings, but everything from tearing down the dividing walls to the emergence of the kitchen dining table will explode in 2013.

The showcase of the kitchen in home floor plans certainly is a post-2005 design feature.

And if true Mid-Century architecture wasn’t real-time-adapted, the kitchen would be relegated to the back of the home next to the garage.

But what’s emerging in 2013 is much more than just where kitchens are located on the floor plans.

Home-cooking is back in style… and with the convenience of the Saturday morning in-town farmer’s market, a lot of what’s happening is literally happening from scratch.

From Whole-foods to WalMart, expansion of fresh vegetables, fresh fruits and home baking products is requiring shifting display plans.

Dining room tables, seasonal place settings, silverware sets, name cards, cloth napkins and tablecloths are hot.

While Starbucks is now part of many commute-routes, home coffee makers are carving out a place on the counter top for that home gathering time with friends and family.  Even the old perks are appearing as hot grabs on E-Bay among the new Millennial homeowners.

With the inventory of bank-owned homes quickly diminishing and home construction rebounding, watch as kitchens emerge as home-central as Millennials begin their homesteading.

More Trend To Come!

This week I am heading down to South Georgia to meet up with a new client.  They run a blueberry juice farm that sits on the edge of the Okefenokee Swamp.

We are teamed up to tap into the changing face of the American marketplace.

If you are in the midst of planning for 2013 right now, you might want to wait until after Mrs. Smith and Mr. Jones hit the polling booths on November 6^th. 

As we say every year… what is, is changing and what was, is history… for now!

The EXPERIENCE 2012 TRENDCAST will be posted on 12/1/2012.  These three market changers will be in that release with more to come!

The Evolution Of The Middle Class

It seems to have become the mantra of the press. 

“The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer” and “The middle-class is shrinking.”

And let there be no question about it, if you tune into MSNBC, the finger pointing is all at the filthy rich and the Bush years. 

I don’t know about you, but the broadcast news media is more motivated by the ratings than the truth. 

And the politicians use the new media to “engineer the facts.”

I am fortunate.  The last couple of years, my clients have been good to EXPERIENCE and me.

Fact… my income has grown. 

Fact… I shop more today at Walmart, Target, and Old Navy and dine more at QSRs and mom & pops. I shop less at Bloomingdale, Macy’s, and Banana Republic and dine at less at four course restaurants.

Though, I must admit that I do grocery shop more at Whole Foods.

This weekend, the Wall Street Journal ran an editorial titled, “Negative $4,019.”

As it kicks off… “The presidential race is boiling down to one dominant issue: which political party will do more to help the financially stressed American Middle Class.”

Well… what are the stats of the U.S. middle class?

The article notes that “in June 2009, the median income was $53,508 and by June 2012, it stumbled to $50,964.“

If that’s the mean (note not the “average”), then let’s say for blog-sake, that the middle class then runs the spectrum from Household incomes of $35K up to $74.9K. 

In 2009, the percentage of households in the U.S. making an income in that range was 35.4% according to the U.S. Census. 

This year, the percentage of households making an income in that same range is 34.8% according to the U.S. Census.

The WSJ article notes…

“Real median household income is down about 8% from $55,470 in 2000 before the dot-com bubble burst.”

Is that the result of just economic down-turn?

No.

Some of this decline is due to the continuation of a trend of smaller size families, lower fertility rates, postponed baby-making, increasing empty nesters and more singles… not households making less income-wise.

Remember that many Baby Boomers are now empty nesters and their Millennial kids are more single than hitched… the two biggest generational groups in the U.S.

More individual households have disposable income today than they did 10 years ago because the individual households in America are shrinking.

I often will say that business leadership today makes more crazy decisions that I remember back when I started in the biz. 

And then I remind myself that the parameters of the marketplace are in constant flux and what might have been the market of the past is no longer the market of today.

The U.S. is indeed in constant flux and change. 

The middle class of America today has changed.

·      It is more diverse

·      It is less middle-aged

·      It is more educated

·      It is comprised of more childless households

·      It is continues to be fueled by households emerging from lower income levels

There is no question that the U.S. has experienced the worst of economic times since the Great Depression. 

But before I would jump on the political bandwagon and declare that the middle class is shrinking because the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer, I would ask that simple mathematical question… 

“How is that possible?”

Maybe the banning of sugared colas by the NYC mayor will help New York kids grow taller without the bellies to match… but you cannot statistically grow on the ends without also growing proportionately in the middle.

Is the American middle class changing? YES.

Do the changes suggest adjustments in marketing strategy?  YES.

Are the changes necessarily ones around economic constraint?  NO.

Perhaps my best advice to marketers out there is starting at the end of next week when the politicians are out in their campaign bandwagons… get out from behind your iPod, television set and texting screen…

And go travel over to the nearest Walmart, Target and Old Navy and take a stroll through the retail racks and watch the shoppers do their shopping.

You just might be surprised by their brand choices and how full those shopping carts get!

Remember that politicians are out to win…not necessarily to win based on proven facts!

Helping The Helicopter Moms & Dads Let Go!

Here it is late-July… hotter than Hell.  Literally.

More than 35 years ago, I remember my marching band re-grouping and beginning another season. 

We would gather together early in the morning and practice no later than 9am to avoid the summer Georgia heat.

Back then the school year would begin around the third week of August. 

The newspapers right now are full of the Back-to-School ads.  The commercial breaks on cable nets from Cartoon Network to TLC to Nick at Night are filled with Back-to-School spots.

When I went over to Target to pick up some items the other day, the seasonal section of the shop had transformed from outdoor furniture and gardening supplies to notebooks, backpacks and iPad computer cases.

Soon school will be back in session and the morning rush hour traffic congestion will be back in full force… but at least the kids will be gone from the Starbucks I venture to for my morning coffee.

Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal had a great article about how colleges are putting in programs to manage the “let go” point between new students and their helicopter parents.

The title of the article read: “Helping Mom and Dad Let Go”

It was fun reading it.

The article very directly quotes college leadership that the issue of the helicopter parents is rooted more deeply with the parent’s inability to let go than the student’s dependency on the parent.

The article features a picture of a young son smiling and a parent sobbing at an orientation gathering where the new students are being dismissed to go be students.

I would not be surprised if that son is not whistling, “free at last, free at last.” 

And if not that tune… then “100 bottles of beer on the walk, 100 bottles of beer…”

Rodney Johnson, executive director of parent services at George Washington University is quoted in the article about the challenge at-hand…

“Our job is to take the gas out of the helicopter, so that by the time their children become seniors, that helicopter is grounded, and the students can take care of themselves.”

Fascinating.

I will never forget how several students in the classes I have taught have shown up regularly with their moms tagging along. 

I also will never forget answering my cell phone one evening and having a parent demanding that I share their child’s test score before the child received the grades the next morning.

On more than a dozen occasions, I have had to explain to a parent that they have no right to know their child’s grades…their child is an adult and they have a right to privacy.

More than 90% of colleges and universities have specific staff teams designed around helping the helicopter parents cut those cords.

Twenty years ago, parent-specific programs were rare and hard-to-find.

I know for academic institutions there are little positive outcomes from this Boomer-Millennial co-dependency phenomenon.

BUT… marketers… there are opportunities for you!

(1)  Concierge service is an opportunity point of entry with Millennials groomed by their helicopter parents.  Without a question, W Hotels might have been the first ones to see the future unfold as their brand foundation support beam.

(2)  Personal, real, human assistance is driving Millennials to use travel agents.  Millennials post the highest use of travel agents of any generational group… even more than their grandparents.

(3)   Retailers should chuck the term “salesperson” and put on the hat of “personal assistant” to help the Millennials pick out everything from their wardrobe to new home décor… and just FYI… we are talking about the retail salesperson working at the Target-like retailers…not the custom tailor shops!

(4)  Healthcare players… everything from docs to doc-in-the-boxes to dieticians should be jumping at the chance to transform from care-givers to fitness coaches.  Obama-care pays for “proactive wellness” and healthcare players need to take hold of the Millennials whose helicopter moms are still making the lunches to take to work.

There are even more great opportunities and I would list them out… but then again, those ideas can be a great revenue source for EXPERIENCE over the course of the next several years!

Its hard to believe that it has now been close to 10 years ago, but my comrade Hope Schultz and I took on a project back then of a new bedding product that primarily was targeted to college students.

We went out and spoke with students at Northwestern, Vanderbilt and the University of Georgia.

While the key insight uncovered in the chat groups with the kids signaled great opportunity for our client… now that I think back about it, maybe that key insight could be used today in those university parent services program.

Those helicopter moms and dads just cannot let go. 

BUT alas, the bedding those kids sleep on each and every day and night on campus just might be a parental calling.

The key insight we uncovered?

The average male student changes the sheets on their bed… once a year.

The average female student changes the sheets on their bed… once a semester.

I am not making up what we heard.

If I were a helicopter mom right now… I would be dashing over to Target and buying up several sets of sheets, a 5 gallon jug of detergent, overnight shipping boxes and pre-paid return envelops…

Sounds like a great “back-to-school” promotional opportunity to me.

The Rise Of A New Change Wave

I post new blogs about once every 3-4 weeks now…

…But, I saw an editorial earlier this week in the Wall Street Journal and just had to carve out time this weekend and post what is the real story of what’s going on.

Just over two years ago as we were technically coming out of the Great Recession according to the Washington politicos, I cited five broad trends that I call “Change Waves” – very significant macro-trends that will challenge businesses and their brand dynamics over the course of the next 5-10 years.

One of the Change Waves is titled “High Tech And High Touch.” 

I cannot take full credit for the name.  John Naisbitt coined that phrase in his book Megatrends back in 1982. 

However with mobile media today, that change wave has taken on new meaning as technology truly goes mobile and the Cloud unites all of us together. 

I facilitated part of an off-site strategy planning session for a financial service client this past week and I highlighted the fact that technology advancement for the sake of technology advancement in and of itself, will not work.

Some of that group smiled… especially the VP of HR. 

BUT… back to why I am posting this in less than two weeks of the last posting…

There is a new “Change Wave” in the making that is surfacing quickly. 

It is something that is impacting the marketplace on a Global front… and certainly something that is influencing the Washington politicos in this election year.

The “Change Wave” is what I will title, “The Rise of the Working Class.”

Quickly, I have to qualify that this has NOTHING to do with UNIONS and ORGANIZED LABOR. 

In many ways, it also has NOTHING to do with SOCIO-ECONOMICS.

But it has A LOT to do with INDIVIDUALISM and SELF INITIATIVE.

In basic terms, the “Change Wave” is the rise of identity, mission, lifestyles and values of individuals who get up every day and go to work to earn a living… individuals taking charge and finding work… individuals placing values on earning versus taking… being active and not passive.

Yes… it shares some aspects of one of the “Change Waves” titled “Acquisition of Self”… but it moves the focus beyond “me” to “us” vs. “them”… note, not “we.”

Now to the editorial in the Wall Street Journal.

On Friday, July 13^th, an editorial ran titled, “The Middle Class Needs A Lifeline.”

The co-authors go by the names of Mr. Carville and Mr. Greenberg. 

Most of you reading this that are not part of the Millennial Generation, should know who these guys are… both were advisors to Clinton and they now have a “non-profit” group called, “Democracy Corps.”

At this point in time, I really could care less if you vote Blue or if you vote Red.

These two members of the Washington Politico simply don’t get what is rising up right in their midst.

As believers sitting high from their educational platforms, they look down upon the world beyond Manhattan and the world beyond DC and quickly conclude that those who have… not just wealth, but “educational perspective” and power… need to throw “a lifeline” of aid to keep the middle-class from drowning.

As “The Rise of the Working Class” takes shape, expertise and valued perspective will rapidly move from the halls of Harvard, Manhattan and Washington to “Joe the Plumber” and “Jean the Nurse.”

Trade organizations will evolve into a new format and what some might not even think is the same genre, but those organizations will command more power than the Senate Ways & Means Committee, the EPA and MBAs.

The Working Class will re-define “success,” “intellect” and “knowledge” with values centered around “initiative,” “dedication,” “just reward” and the simple phrase “I earned it.”

Icons of “success” are quickly moving away from import cars, private jets and hired help. 

And brands like Target, Starbucks, WalMart, KIA, Apple, Expedia and Facebook are unifying those that work to spend money wisely.

What I post in this blog is not just what I wake up in the morning expressing as opinion. 

What I post in this blog is what I observe when I get onto the elevator of my 9^th floor office in the chic shopping district of Buckhead-Atlanta and put away the keys to my Infiniti and pile in my Jeep Patriot to go out into Main Street USA and talk with people.

The “Aha” moment for me that indicated that what I describe is moving forward fast took place in a coffee house chat group I facilitated in Florence, South Carolina.

Florence, South Carolina is not only entrenched by what Carville and Greenberg term as the Middle Class, it is also populated by a true group of folks who have been tightly tied to the textile, distribution and manufacturing labor base.

In the coffee house chat group, we had a set of folks attend who currently use a credit union. 

Most of the participants were African-American and a share of the participants was not only made up of older Baby Boomers, but some were close to 70 years old.

Many of the individuals spoke about how they and their families were hit hard by the Great Recession.

But they quickly spoke about how much they valued the people working at the credit union because they took the time to sit down and put together plans with them so that they “could pull themselves out of the downturn and get back to saving money for better times.”

I was so intrigued; I probed their responses even more asking them to share more about what the credit union did for them.

One of the participants was just over 70 years old.  He was a veteran of the armed services and proudly wore a U.S. Veteran’s baseball cap. 

He shared with the group that he did not graduate from high school. 

Instead he enlisted into the army and served more than 20 years.

When he got out, he went to work in a manufacturing plant and he saved a significant share of his pay.

He literally said that he “pulled himself up by the boot straps” and worked to earn where he was today.

The rising Working Class is not comprised of just those working the 9-to-5 jobs.

It includes fast food workers, entrepreneurs, police and ER teams… it includes bank branch managers, quality control managers, accountants, attorneys, physicians and preachers.

It includes people that are standing up and saying “enough is enough” and if the government and corporate offices cannot do it, we will do it ourselves.

They not only run from any lifeline offered… and God forbid if it comes from the academic and political “elite”… they resent it.  

Brands that embrace them, recognize them, admire them, respect them, thank them and reward them will see their brand sales rise.

Here it is on a late Saturday afternoon and after saying I would NOT work this weekend, I did.

So once this posts, I will pour my Jack and Coke Zero and make a toast to my brothers, sisters and peers who strive hard, sweat a lot and stand proud… here is a toast to the Working Class…

Something tells me that Washington and academic elite are in for a wide awakening experience.

Cheers!

The Media World Is Changing Faster Than We Think!

One of my first strategy projects back in my days at Time-Warner involved projecting out just how much satellite television would gain over cable television.

Time-Warner knew at that point that the smaller-sized satellite dish was going to provide a more price-affordable option for DirecTV and Dish to market to consumers.

The big seller at that time, was that satellite was providing access to a vast array of networks that cable simply could not provide. 

The prediction was that the satellite providers were likely to take over about a third of the market… and in some cases, could take over up to 50% share.  Those higher markets being less populated more dispersed population groups. 

I presented the study at an executive meeting at the old Time-Warner building in NYC. 

Since then, a couple of interesting events took place…

(1)  Expanded broadcast access with a set of new players entering into the competitive mix… the most pronounced being AT&T with U-verse

(2)  The roll out of broadband cable

(3)  The melding of conventional television with Internet programming

As a result, many of the unique selling claims that the satellite providers touted quickly became of little differential value. 

Not only did cable expand its channel offerings, but a greater variety of high-definition channels and DirecTV’s football package were no longer unique to just satellite access.

Satellite providers also lost out big time on the marketability of their user base to local and regional advertisers.  They provided limited local access and never netted enough penetration on a local level to break out their served geography in satellite zones aka cable zones. 

There is a story about the satellite and cable providers that ran over the weekend in the Wall Street Journal. 

The article notes that the satellite provider stock is trading at 10 times forward earnings estimates versus Comcast trading at 15 times and Time-Warner at 13 times.

The article also goes on to say that the satellite business in the U.S. has reach market majority and what is keeping DirecTV and Dish afloat is expansion in less penetrated, more rural markets like Latin America and the developing nations in Asia. 

They often say that when times get tough, enemies become friends. 

A little over a year ago, I had lunch with two Comcast sales reps. Now I must qualify quickly that I paid for my lunch and they paid for their lunch. 

Listening to these two reps tell me about the new alignment of Comcast with DirecTV and Dish reminded me of listening to high school buddies the Monday after their high school football team beat out the cross-county rival.

These boys at lunch were very excited to tell me that now advertisers buying Comcast would also have coverage on DirecTV and Dish.

The media world in 2012 still lives in the mass marketing days of the past. 

These folks continue to get pumped that bigger is always better.  I sometimes wonder if they mix Viagra with their martinis they sip while lunching together.

A year ago, when I responded to the Comcast reps and said that was good that they were merging audience delivery, I also highlighted how much more effective they could make the zoned buys. 

Quickly the smiles faded from their faces. 

Zoned buys?  Why would you want to make a zoned buy?  Buying Comcast market-wide provides “better delivery” than the network affiliates.

When I asked them if they found value in targeting their media buys against niche market segments, they quickly replied “yes,” but they could much more effectively deliver “Adults 25-54” through a full market buy than by cable zone.

Okay.  Whatever.

I presented that research study to the Time-Warner executive team back in 1998. That was 14 years ago.  What was seen as a threat back then, never really materialized.

I might be going out on the ledge with this prediction, but 14 years from today… July 8^th 2026, I will put $100 on betting table that “mass marketing” cable television will be in a similar position as DirecTV and Dish today. 

It is true that when times get tough, enemies become friends. 

Problem is, new “enemies” rise up from out-of-no-where and soon the old enemies fade away.

Maybe when what we term as “Generation ZOOM”… the next generation following the Millennials who were birthed from 2000 forward… hit the business world starting about 10 years from now, they will finally revolutionize the media world in getting the sales team operating from a new marketing audience paradigm. 

I will also bet that 14 years from today, those satellite dishes will be stocked up in the back storage room of the Smithsonian along with the 8-track and cassette tapes, non-flat screen television sets, desk-top computers and CD players. 

By the way, I also read an article that it looks like Apple will be re-tooling the docking ports on the next wave of iPhones hitting the market this fall. 

Add to that Smithsonian storage room the iPhones produced since intro as well!

Pssst… the media world is changing faster than we think … literally!

Marketing Alone A Brand It Cannot Change

This blog entry is really written only for CEOs. 

If you fill a marketing slot on the client side or you work on the agency side of the business, you are welcome to read this blog entry… but it’s not been written for you.

Most of the EXPERIENCE client relationships are built with CEOs. 

Marketing people think that they are brand engineers, but in reality they are not. 

If you are moved to get out a poster board and magic marker and jot this down… do it.

Marketing alone a brand it cannot change. 

Two nights ago I saw a new Burger King television commercial.  It was for a new BBQ sandwich. 

It was airing on TruTV. 

I doubt seriously that the new investment group that now owns Burger King often gets out in the field and tours Burger King restaurants. 

Oh I am sure that they have been to a couple of their prototypes, but likely not the ones out there serving the masses.

The media person who placed the spot probably was hired away from Crispin’s media team when the account left the agency. 

Placing the Burger King spot on TruTV was right smack on target with the limited television viewership of the bulk of the Burger King customer base.

The spot however, was a trip through the world of fantasyland… and that was not the intended genre of the film crew.

Crispin and the Burger King CEO at the time got it right.

Burger King restaurants are dated.  The food is glutton tummy fillers.  Single, working class, 24/7 guys are the mainstay of their customer base. 

The new investment group owning Burger King believe that new commercials combined with some new food offerings can replace “Joe the paid-by-the-hour convenience store worker” with the “charming, white freckled-face family from the green-space, suburban home.”

I don’t think so.

My bet is that soon…

(a)  The current agency gets fired and blamed for the falling sales

(b)  Burger King goes back up on the selling block

(c)  The freckled-faced kids aren’t back on the film set doing any follow-up spots

A few Sundays ago, I purchased the Atlanta Journal-Constitution to read while sipping a Starbucks light roast. 

I had a “Tall” Starbucks light roast (that’s a small size) and I knew that the AJC would be quick read since there is truly limited text worth reading.

After 10 minutes, the coffee was gone and I had gotten through the news, but then tripped across an ad insert that caught my attention.

It was the Father’s Day ad insert for JCP… or as we have known it over the years, JC Penney. 

I knew that JC Penney had hired Michael Francis as their brand-change agent.  Michael Francis is the brand changer that propelled the Target brand to become a retail icon. 

Michael had given JC Penney a fresh new brand look including a much cleaner, more 2012 brand name and logo.  He also moved JCP from an endless stream of discounts to an everyday low price model. 

Michael Francis had served as President of JCP for six months.

In this morning’s Wall Street Journal, there is an article titled, “Penney President Out in Shake-Up.”

JCP… that is probably returning soon back to being JC Penney… fired Michael Francis over sputtering sales. 

I think that Michael should pick up the phone and call Alex Bogusky and go have a drink. 

The WSJ goes on to report about how customers were just too much wedded to streams of discounts and could not handle marketing efforts that didn’t showcase price, price, price.

I would suggest that JC Penney step back and go tour its stores, review its product mix, look at its staff and the customer exchange. 

Take along with them that newspaper insert that ran a few weeks ago and hold it up in the middle of the store.

My bet is that there is a large discrepancy between what brand experience is currently being delivered in-store and what that insert conveys.

The power leadership at both JC Penney and Burger King are accountants. 

On the last page of the EXPERIENCE website, I post a simple set of key principles that we ask our partners to embrace.

I encourage CEOs to further ensure that their board, corporate leadership, operational, human resources and financial team members also embrace those core principles. 

The last principle reads, “Make a financial commitment to embark on the journey.”

Financial commitments are important. 

A commitment to embark on the journey and realize just who your brand is and what it can and cannot be is perhaps even more important.

My message to CEOs in this blog is very simple…

Marketing alone a brand it cannot change. 

(oh and p.s. accountants are not brand change agents!)

Moving A Brand Across Genre

I’ve written about it before.

Early that one morning when I received a phone call from a co-worker that said, “go turn on the TV and get a look at the new format the AOL folks created for Headline News.”

I ended up as shocked as my co-worker when we saw what the AOL folks had done to Headline News.  Clearly, they decided Headline News would be the Guinea Pig of their vision to merge the web with the broadcast nets.

I am sorry. 

It is a simple fact. 

It is really, really difficult for left-brain techies to understand the genre dynamics authored by right-brain set designers. 

The reason I bring that morning back to life is that I just received the actual rollout issue of HGTV Magazine.  The issue I received back in March was their “beta test” edition. 

In my work with home décor and design clients, I am fueling their marketing precision right now with some very cool target groups that go by nicknames like “High Society Designers,” “Blue Sky Homesteaders,” “Traditional Classics” and “Design Mavens.”

HGTV posts the highest readership with the “Design Mavens.”  This is that mix of DINKS, high-income families and trendy empty-nesters. 

When it comes to magazine readership, “Design Mavens” love to kick back with pubs like Food & Wine, Traditional Home, InStyle, Bon Appétit and Architectural Digest. 

Those pubs have their editorial text, but when you turn to the showcase section of each pub, there are lots of pictures spanning from side-to-side of the pub with some spanning across two full pages.

If you cannot picture this yet, all you need to do is hit the web and go over to Pinterest and take a look at the postings of “Design Mavens.”  Its like walking into the museum of interior design.

HGTV does a very good job with its programming… perhaps, in large part, because of the Canadian ties where it is way too cold most of the year to really care about much outside the front door of the home.

HGTV shows score well with their before-and-afters coupled with great hosts who add personality to the real estate.

 And while set-designers are right-brain driven, most marketing leadership is left-brain driven thanks to the MBA academics who craft the headsets to understand bottomline economics.

So here is where we come to the crux of the issue – literally!

Repeat after me what the consumers voice to marketers 24/7… “Don’t tell me about you… Tell me about me.”

Give me great stories in the magazine about wonderful homes, rooms and spaces that I can fantasize about and transport myself into to share the experience.

While there are some good ideas in the magazine, they are lost in what appears like the television network with uncontrollable ADHD. 

From cover-to-cover it features the personality stars, quips from the shows, featured products and ads promoting the shows. 

Literally the first story is titled “Who will be the next design star” and it features quips and quotes of each of the contestants. 

More than 75% of the articles feature a picture of one of the HGTV hosts and the stories are extensions of the television shows.

What I remember most about the Headline News fiasco is that it just might have been the springboard that got the AOL Team off the Time-Warner production sets.

In many ways, I really hope that I am wrong on this one. 

HGTV, the cable network and HGTV branded retail products are not only clients of mine, but I personally love watching HGTV.  I am addicted to watching many of the shows and craft my evenings around the schedule.

I subscribed to HGTV to add more to my times with Elle Decor, House & Home and Architectural Digest.

My subscription to this magazine is good for eleven more issues. 

To those who read this blog, I promise to provide an update of just what HGTV Magazine evolves into this fall. 

Just remember… for all the mistakes that AOL made with Headline News, that network is still airing!