Branding is a strategy for differentiation and growth. So too, is changing a brand name. Elon Musk’s Twitter has plenty of problems that require new strategies. It finally has a powerful competitor of size in Meta’s Threads. It lost nearly 60% of its ad revenue last year. The platform has regular bugs that hurt users’ experiences. And Musk reduced oversight of hateful and pornographic posts, leading brands to fear reputational damage and reduce ad spending on the platform. Musk’s goal for Twitter is ambitious. He wants it to be a single platform for all things online. For example, as one of the founders of PayPal’s predecessors, it’s not surprising he wants to add a payments business on Twitter to reduce reliance on ad dollars. He wants open and unconstrained communication among users, with users calling out and limiting the behavior of bad actors….
From “Mass” to “Craft”: The new differentiator
“Mass” was the economic drive of the last few decades. Mass markets replaced national markets, which had replaced local markets. Walk into any city’s retail centers and malls a decade ago, and they looked identical. Manufacturing automation and global supply chains made goods cheaper. Clothing, curtains, bedding, hairdryers, blenders … much of what we buy has become so cheap that we throw items away rather than repairing them. My seamstress, who has been in business some 40 years, cannot believe how poorly made clothes are today. And her comments refer to the pieces she is seeing, the ones worth repairing. True, cars are more expensive. But based on their quality, longevity, and performance, they are a hell of a lot cheaper than their predecessors considering lifetime costs. And have you noticed that they increasingly look alike? IKEA brought us furniture so cheap that…
What if you made market and customer understanding as important as your organization’s financial information?
Financial information infuses company activities. From budgeting to closing the monthly books, from measuring progress to managing cash flows, numbers are to business what the ABC’s are to our reading. It’s no wonder then that companies large and small have invested heavily in their financial system, teams, and processes to generate financial information. Let’s call this entirety the Financial Information System. Numerical data is collected, processed, and stored in data warehouses, where it is then used to develop insight and inform decisions. While the Chief Financial Officer is in charge of this system, all employees play a role, whether they fill out expense forms, develop budgets, or make investment decisions. And all decision-makers are encouraged to use the processes’ information (e.g., making a presentation as a product manager about your category). A stellar CFO is like a great coach in winning the game…
What to do when a better competitor shows up
A high-end sports club called Lifetime Fitness recently opened in La Jolla (CA) where I live. Think high-end resort amenities located on Main Street. With an abundance of classes, machines, healthy and tasty restaurant offerings, experienced trainers, and to-die-for steam bath and sauna, this “top brand” is stealing members from other clubs and from specialty niches gyms, like the Barre, Yoga, and Pilates studios. At $200/month, Lifetime membership is expensive. But if you work out a lot and enjoy a range of activities and an occasional steam bath, it’s a deal. The low-end clubs in La Jolla, like 24-hour Fitness, will do just fine. It’s the former high-end clubs that will find themselves challenged. Not surprisingly, some here in town are now offering membership deals, hoping to beat Lifetime’s price point. The niche spin-cycle clubs and yoga studios will also have a less-safe…
5 ways to keep your brand relevant
Your business can do many vital things well. High customer satisfaction ratings. High quality at a competitive price point. Great customer experience. But if you become irrelevant to the tastes, interests, and requirements of customers, all that “right stuff” won’t matter. Therefore you must understand where markets are headed, not just what’s relevant today. Let’s think about some current trends and imagine their impact by flashing forward 30 years when the last year of the baby boomer cohort (those born in 1964) turns 96. Will gas-powered cars be relevant? Family farms (sadly)? Long-haul truck drivers? Landline phones? Printed newspapers? Going to a doctor’s office for a simple exam? Single-use plastics outside medical markets? Leaders managing brands do the work of future forecasting because they want to evolve their offering to remain relevant. When leaders fail to do so, their brand (and often company)…
Trust makes the world go round
“Love makes the world go ’round,” according to the famous saying. But, in reality, it’s trust that makes the world go round, trust that is at the center of so many points of human interaction. Currency. We use the dollar because we trust the US government stands behind it. Without that trust, we’d be stuck in a barter system with a much lower standard of living. Our currency used to be backed by gold. We trusted our government enough that it removed the gold standard, opening opportunities for even more commerce. The dollar is the world’s trade currency because there is more trust in the US central banks than others. Business partnerships. Sure, contracts, long and short, codify the agreement. But ultimately, contracts are built on trust. Each party trusts that the other will try to fulfill its commitments or, there would be…
Getting the right thing right
My check—in at the Marriott (now Marriott Bonvoy) went quickly. The women at the desk were friendly and the lobby, as for all Marriott hotels, attractive. I had ten minutes to find the elevator, locate my room, change quickly, and meet my board colleague to discuss the management team’s proposed 2020 plan. Simple. Nevertheless, I was ten minutes late. Opening the door to my assigned room, I was surprised to see breath mints on the first cabinet top I encountered, my go—to place to keep my keys in any hotel. “Nice add, Marriott,” I thought at first. Then I saw a coat draped over a chair, an open suitcase on the floor, and a bathroom that looked, shall we say, used? The room’s guest (the appropriate one, not me with an identical key) was gone. Lucky for her, I am not a thief. Lucky…
Facing brand reputation damage, what’s next?
A journalist recently smeared an organization I admire. Give a reporter a storyline, unearth some anecdotes, then generate supportive charts, and you have a front-page story. The article’s implied conclusions fit the liberal thirst for examples of regulatory capture, which are situations in which self-regulation by an industry creates supposedly lax regulation. Yes, the selected stories were true, as was a damaging chart. But the graphic required selecting definitions that favored the storyline. And the mistakes in the story would not necessarily be apparent to lay readers. Experts advise you be prepared for reputational damage before it occurs. Best practice is to understand where damage might come from and take steps to improve your brand to minimize risks and strengthen relationships to reduce damage. There is a reason why smart leaders hold proactive, off-record informational sessions with major influencers and invest in corporate…
Black Friday Retail Blues
The big day – post Thanksgiving Black Friday shopping – starts a holiday shopping season that makes or breaks many retailers’ year. Black is likely a better description of most retail leaders’ moods, as their market environment has only gotten harder year after year. From the days of Sears being the only store or catalog in town, we have moved to a world where the consumer is king. Expectations are merciless, prices are transparent, and consumers benefit from intense competition on-line and in-stores. Success will only come to brick-and-mortar retailers who have a clear view of their target customer, offer a brand promise that is relevant, high value and hard for others to copy, and create in-store experiences that make it worthwhile to go to the store. JC Penney (JCP) is a best-case example of what not to do. It added appliances—and subsequently…
Dear brand, “How many ways can I measure thee?”
A great brand delivers a lot, not just to lovers of the brand but also to its owner. Consider Apple’s price premiums and multiple brand extensions beyond its initial MAC computers. GE Health, through its R&D and savvy acquisitions, built a compelling brand with huge scale versus niche competitors. Service, sales and pricing advantages result. Its scale buys market protection as well, as many start-ups exit with a GE acquisition. And who, as a TOM’s Shoes employee, wouldn’t feel proud, loyal and excited to go to work? But how do we measure a great brand and compare brands’ relative strengths? What levers must those who manage brands move through their actions and investments? Deborah Macinnis of USC described three factors creating brand admiration in her webinar for Marketing Science Institute. The talk introduced Macinnis’ new book Brand Admiration: Building a Business People Love….