I tell wonder-filled stories about hope and healing
As I was walking through the city with my sister, Weez, and niece, Lorelei, yesterday, we noticed something interesting about a few brands widely advertised in New York. While many have recently experienced a fall from grace, some staged their brand image’s turnaround just-in-time. Three examples floated to the top that are interesting case studies.
To read the full article, visit: http://www.examiner.com/x-2901-NY-Business-Strategies-Examiner~y2009m3d8-What-brand-turnarounds-can-teach-us
This week I interviewed Steve Baer, Co-founder of The Game Agency. The Game Agency (TGA) creates games to integrate into corporate marketing programs to enhance brand value, increase customer loyalty, and drive innovation.
In college, I had a boyfriend who loved Herbal Essence Shampoo. He wasn’t part of the target demographic, but he loved one of the scents so much that he just couldn’t imagine his morning shower without it. Despite this kind of following, every brand eventually grows old and stale if left untended. A.G. Lafley, CEO of P&G, says there are three routes for a dying brand: Abandon, Divest, or Re-invent. In the case of Herbal Essence, he chose the third option. I’m sure my former boyfriend is thrilled!
The P&G team didn’t perform any miraculous feats – they tightened up the demographic, modernized the packaging to stand out on the shelf and encourage the dual-purchase of shampoo and conditioner, and re-vamped the language with more current vocabulary and inuendos. This easy-to-understand process is allowing the fledgling brand to gain sales growth in the high single digits. Not bad, and certainly something not common in the current economy.
Process aside, I think A.G. Lafley is saying something much richer about product re-invention. It’s easy for product developers to fall in love with their product as is, for marketers to admire their own catchy phrasing and campaign themes so much that they can’t imagine anything more brilliant coming down the pike. For example, let’s consider the highly creative and relevant campaign by the Dove Brand – Campaign for Real Beauty. The simplicity and power of that statement resonated with a wide audience. That campaign has been around for a while, so much so that it’s beginning to become old news, especially in the wake of the touch-up work done on some of the campaign photographs. Those marketers need to be thinking about a re-invention now!
This is the trouble with brilliance that explains why we have so many one-hit wonders in this world. You have to let go of past successes as much as you have to let go of past failures in order to move forward. Product re-invention requires a constant, fervent belief that our best work is yet to be created. It requires that we push the envelope and challenge ourselves continuously. To take away that challenge and rest on our past success is to go the way of Sharper Image, Brim, and Tab.
For a look at the interactive case study on Herbal Essence’s re-invention, visit http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/jun2008/ca20080617_465490.htm
Tim Lebrecht at frogDesign wrote a post earlier this week about the earliest stage of ideation. In this age of user-generated design, he questions whether designers are really going about their work in the correct way. He challenges designers of all levels to consider that whatever the end product of their design, they should seek to create conversation.
I was a bit confused by this for a time until I considered an art exhibit I saw a few years ago at the Phillips Collection in DC. The exhibit featured works by Joan Miro and Alexander Calder. The created their art as a conversation; this is largely because they did not have a common fluent language. Miro would create a piece; Calder would answer it, and then add another idea for Miro to comment on. And so it went, for many, many years. Across decades, across oceans. They transcended language with design.
So what if companies like Coca Cola or Target took the design POV that they were creating conversations with their customers, rather than creating products? How much richer and more relevant could their designs be? How much loyalty to their brands could they generate?
Pictured above is Joan Miro’s “Garden”
Christa Avampato 