Category — Brand Identity

Authenticity in brand identity is hard to fake. A discussion featuring Tony Pace of Subway, Jeff Murray of the University of Arkansas, Jim Geikie of Burt’s Bees and Dave Fiore of Catapult.

What makes a brand authentic? Jeff Murray: I see three or four strategies at work. One is what I call a "staged" authenticity, where a larger company tries to connect locally in some way. Walmart is doing this with its smaller format stores, for example. A second strategy is to mark your competitors as inauthentic, which Dove does with its "Real Women" campaign. It’s their way of saying that they are honest and transparent, while implying that their competitors are inauthentic … read >>

Gap and Starbucks offer a tale of two brand-identity rollouts. By Hayes Roth. When, exactly, did branding become a spectator blood sport? Whether product, service, or corporation, a new brand launch today not only endures dissection by the legitimate business, design, and even consumer press — it must also run the gauntlet of virtually every marketing and branding expert-wannabe on the planet — and the welcome is rarely cordial!

A brand launch, after all, is one of the few opportunities a company or product has to talk about itself in a wholly positive light, under largely controlled circumstances and in a forum tailor-made for articulating vision and relevance to a carefully targeted audience. It is a public-relations gift on a silver platter, yet so often it is thoughtlessly squandered. … read >>

Connect with consumers by understanding their brand rituals. By Don Growhoski. We’ve all been there. Whether we’ve been tasked with introducing or repositioning a brand, fighting off private label, finding new reasons-to-believe or reinvigorating a mature brand, we’ve all faced the challenge of finding new nuggets of information, developing new marketing strategies, and producing new creative executions that will transform our brands and allow us to build stronger and more meaningful relationships with consumers.

As human beings, we almost always fall into a predictable behavioral path. We may conduct a few focus groups, hoping consumers will tell us something we don’t already know, or maybe we’ll spend a few hours with our intended consumers in their homes, or at the store, and hope some hidden behavior that we can leverage will appear. … read >>

Brands that create cravings are the shopper’s best reward. By Liz Crawford. For routine shopping trips, shoppers have an internal mental calculator that they use to regulate their purchases. Given this — especially in the face of a recession — why do shoppers buy on impulse? The answer is that about 25 percent of the shopper’s total budget is subconsciously set aside for opportunistic buys.

According to a 2010 study by Dr. Kirk Wakefield at Baylor University, shoppers don’t deviate much from their budgets, but they still make plenty of impulse buys. Dr. Wakefield says "in-store slack" is part of a mental budget that shoppers know they’ll spend, but aren’t necessarily sure on which specific items. He states that "for the majority of consumers, having in-store slack appears to be a rational way to use the store to cue needs and preserve self-control." … read >>

Break through the rational barriers with value beyond price. By John Meyer. Can you believe that the day has finally come when Walmart actually wants its shoppers to use coupons and match prices? Strategically, this is probably the right thing for them to do, but if you are a brand trying to break the hi/lo price game, it’s like the dealer feeding the addict.

Challenger brands go for the unexpected and change the game. By Beth Ann Kaminkow. Superbowl XLIV. The Indianapolis Colts are favored to beat the long-suffering New Orleans Saints, who had never been to the championship game. Trailing 10-6, the Saints kicked off to start the second half. But rather than the expected deep kick, the Saints went for the risky and unexpected onside kick. And recovered it. They drove down the field, took the lead 13-10, and changed the complexion of the game, which they went on to win.

The challenger: willing to make a bold move and surprise the competition. Americans love the underdog story, perhaps because it’s our story as a nation — a ragtag group of colonists up against the world’s greatest power. And so it is with brands. There are the dominant players, and then there are the upstarts who challenge the supremacy of the market leaders. They have fewer resources, smaller marketing budgets, and a tinier footprint at retail. Yet, somehow they overcome these obstacles and manage to do more with less. … read >>

Data analysis closes the chasm between brand messages and shopper behavior. By Linda Lewi. Brand marketers are generally accustomed to letting data-driven consumer insight inform decision-making. They’re used to creating brand affinity with consumers. And, in the past, a sales-driven initiative was often executed through trade and discount promotion tactics. That was enough.