Please note that KAB Marketing is no longer operating as a consulting and presentations company. The Blog "What's Branding Got to Do with it?" will continue to be published on a regular basis.
It’s good to be back blogging again this month. After a couple months of fighting the after
effects of 3 months of radiation therapy
for prostate cancer, I pleased to be feeling great and to report that the first
post-radiation PSA blood test showed the treatment is working!! Of course, now
we have to worry about coronavirus/Covid 19, but branding must go on more than
ever as our shopping patterns are drastically changed.
During my time away from the blog, another Super Bowl has
come and gone and this year’s game proved to be quite an exciting one. Of course, the game each year seems to become
more incidental as the media flocks to talk about the commercials (Are they
worth $5 Million for :30 seconds?), the halftime show (once again a waste of
time no matter how much you like J-Lo), the live radio coverage by every sports
talk station in the country from radio row), a
4-hour pre-game show on Fox that was about 3 ½ hours too long, too many
hamburger and hot dog bun specials in every food chain’s ads for a month before
the game. However, I have made a
tradition to review the best of the super spots in this blog for the past
several years, but this year I will only highlight a couple that I think helped
strengthen two already successful brands and, I believe, have been worth the gigantic investment in
media time this year.
I have always maintained that a successful brand strategy
takes time and consistency to develop, and that those hot shot products or
services that take all their media budget to make themselves feel good by
having a spot in the big game are wasting their money. A great brand is the result of building a
relationship with your target customer and that “wiz-bam, thank you, ma’am!”
spots on one expensive show are just that.
Like a personal relationship, branding requires time and consistent,
meaningful communication and interaction to be truly successful.
Here are a couple of brands that have taken the time and
strategic effort to build a brand that resonates with their customers. They also stood out with great creativity on
this year’s big game extravaganza.
GOOGLE. It’s not just a brand. It’s an action verb and now part of our everyday language. In the process, the company has produced revenues in 2019 of over $161 Billion and has become the go-go place for information on just about anything you want or need to know about. The company continues to grow with the addition of YouTube, now over $15 Billion in ad revenue and growing as its own online television network. It also is expanding Cloud which generates over $10 Billion in revenue. It just seems like yesterday, that I attended a conference in Phoenix where a futurist talked about this new company with a funny name, Google, as the first big name in search engines. Now it will generate over $100 Billion in search revenue. And there’s no stopping this growth as we depend on all of it’s units in our everyday work and personal lives. We’ve heard about how great it is to work at Google, with breakthrough policies and program that keeps its 10000+ employees loyal and motivated every day. With all that significant growth and the cutting-edge technology that keeps it moving forward, one would think that Google doesn’t need to do much branding. However, the company keeps its branding message on the personal reasons why Google plays an important part in the lives of people all over the world. The spot in the Super Bowl is a great example of how Google with all its services and technology helps keep the memories of a lifetime alive for just one person who cherishes his life with his wife, Harriet. This spot hits the sweet spot for those of us who are now threatened by the virus rampaging around the world, but it also says something about company that remembers that it helping customers make life a little easier to manage especially in tough times. Here’s the spot that ran on the big game which surely made a difference in all of us who cherish the past memories.
JEEP. The original SUV stays true to its roots as it fights to maintain its share of the hottest market category in the auto industry. In my recent, trip to Walt Disney World, I couldn’t help notice as I took a photo shot of our parking lot row ID (memory aid) that looking down an entire row of some 50-75 vehicles that there was not one conventional sedan in the endless row of SUV’s and pickups. Jeep has always stayed close to its military roots and love of the wild (and not so wild) outdoors by keeping its design and features consistent even as it has added more models, sizes and features. With Cherokees, Laredos, Wranglers and more, Fiat Chrysler maintained that consistency in the brand with its new Jeep Gladiator, a four-door pickup ATV-like model. The vehicle is pretty interesting and the company further solidified its place in our memories with a creative spot featuring Bill Murray as he reprises his role in Ground Hog Day to demonstrate all the fun one can have conquering the winter outdoors in this new type of Jeep.
These are terrific spots with break-through-the-clutter
creativity that isn’t limited to just being on the Super Bowl. The spots ring true all year and every time I
see them, I get the message and my relationship to these brands is
enhanced. There’s no promotion. No sale
event. No limited time only. Just a reach-out and grab-you-by- the heart
creative message. Branding like this is truly Super.
I’ll add another comment here to wish you and your families
good health and peace as we face the challenges of this virus that now threatens
our lives and society. I’m praying for a
quick resolution and for the expertise and leadership to help us find a
solution. I hope you will join me in
this as well.
It’s the most wonderful time of the year…..to look at
television advertising. Why? Well, first there’s more of it. Every year marketers, especially retailers,
pump more of their ad budgets into holiday campaigns in order to capitalize on
the largest selling season of the year. Second, most of these advertisers put
more emphasis on creativity that targets the Black Fridays”, Saturdays or Black
Weeks for that matter. Once upon a time, it was the time for slick, flashy,
thick catalogues filled with everything one might imagine to give a loved one
for Christmas. The mailboxes and Sunday newspapers
were bulging with more advertising than our growing population could comprehend
and in the process has become immune to, or at the very least bored with. With growth of online buying (they stopped
shopping long ago), consumers still want
to give gifts and yearn for the memories
of (as another line of the Christmas Carol titled in the first words of this
article) ”Christmas’s long, long ago.” I
have written here repeatedly that branding during the holidays should continue
the messages and rationale of the branding a company does all year long if it
wants their Christmas messaging to be more effective. And many continue to do that…and many have
stopped advertising at all.
However, there are still some advertisers who not only run
great spots that communicate their brand strategy, but they also capture the
spirit of Christmas. Here are a few that
I think you’ll enjoy and share. Merry
Christmas!
Hobby Lobby is a chain of over 850 arts and crafts stores that consistently markets itself as a store that supports important causes. The company has a philosophy that it states as a Christian ethics and it has a reputation of treating its customers and its employees as special. This Christmas it created a commercial that is consistent with its creative strategy and the importance of family relationship. Enjoy this spot about a mother and son discovering their love at the holidays. Click this link to view: https://youtu.be/AwYSfdvtMmo?t=11
Macy’s continues to fight the challenges of maintaining the specialness that department stores once owned at Christmas. By keeping its Thanksgiving Parade, its special holiday windows on Herald Square, it ongoing Believe holiday ad campaign (Yes, Virginia there is a Santa Clause), Macy’s created a special holiday message this year that captures the spirit of Christmas in the story of a girl who wants to be Santa and brings Christmas to life (Yes, you know her name!).
Aldi doesn’t run much TV in marketing its very successful grocery chain that I featured in an issue of this blog a couple months ago. When they do they make it as special as a singing carrot and his friends at Christmas: Click on this link to view: https://youtu.be/LW_SRd2hIFw
Argos in the UK is a successful part of Sainsbury which has always done great Christmas commercials. This year their catalogue is a Book of Dreams and a father brings his daughter’s dream to life in this swinging spot: Click on this link to view: https://youtu.be/7GjeHzrn8jg
Amazon has changed the retail world in a relatively short period. The Amazon packages that seem to arrive every day on our porches are testament to their success and how they have also changed Christmas shopping and gift giving. Behind it all is a real spirit of how everybody needs somebody especially with a smile like Amazon’s logo at the holidays. Click on this link to view: https://youtu.be/s2K0flh9uMc
Pedigreee recognizes that pets are an important part of the family, especially at Christmas time. I wish I had done this spot when I was heading the marketing department at PetSmart several years ago. The idea of an adopted pet fits perfectly into their good nutrition brand and makes an important holiday idea e alive through a dog’s eyes.
PRESS PLAY>>TO VIEW THIS MONTH’S WELCOME VIDEO(increase volume)
It’s that time of year
when there finally seems like there is a break in the weather with lower
temperatures and (thankfully) humidity.
I always enjoyed autumn when we lived in Michigan and Germany, but
there’s one thing that I’ve always been
turned off by during this season. And
that’s Halloween. Not that I didn’t
enjoy trick-or-treating when I was young (and the chocolate high afterward) nor
watching my kids and grandkids put on their costumes to prowl the
neighborhood. Now that the barrage of
Halloween Advertsing and events has started, once again I wish that we could
change the brand that Halloween has become.
HALLOWEEN BRAND TODAY
Sure it’s a $21 Billion sales bonanza for retailers and boom time for theme parks, movie theaters , and other venues—not to mention greeting cards and decoration companies. I simply think it’s time to go back to the roots of this holiday and rebrand it as a more positive celebration. After all it all started with a celebration back in the 7th century of All Saints Day on November 1st, followed by remembrance of the dead (All Souls Day) on the following day. Hallowed Evening was the night before as a pre-celebration of the next two days. Over the years, the celebration not only included our departed saints and loved ones but also angel, devils, and various other goblins. This has grown to a celebration of ghosts and goblins, zombies, various ominous creatures like spiders and bats, and acts of gore and cruelty meant only to scare the dickens out of everyone from kindergarteners to grown ups. I suggest we can still celebrate without “Hallow-screams” Haunted houses, and torture chambers to mention only a few deathly themes.
I say let’s rebrand the holiday into hallowed evening where we celebrate our ancestors who have helped make our lives better and the world a better place to live. Yes, we can still put on costumes to depict our past relationships (even if they were with clowns, princesses, and friendly dinosaurs) but let make it a positive event where we celebrate with those treats and parties and share the happiness of the event, instead of a frightening occasion.
RE-BRANDED HALLOWEEN
Companies are
rebranding their products all the time.
GM has successfully rebranding Cadillac and Buick. Kohl’s rebranded its
food stores into successful department stores with EDLP. McDonald’s rebranded
itself from a burger joint to an every meal restaurant.
Gallo rebranded it’s cheap wines to a selection of fine affordable brands. Southwest taught us that low price flights also could set the standard for service and promptness. Rebranding doesn’t have to be something that marketers do because their sales and market share are slumping. Successful Branding is aimed at building a positive relationship with your customers. While our movie theaters and video streams are filled with violence and horror, there’s no reason to promote that in retail and in community events. Let’s find a way to keep the fun (princess and fireman costumes are cuter than zombies, (any day!) and create a new brand that remembers the good times and the people who made it happen for us. So, let’s get rid of the aspects of Halloween that frighten, scare and depress and rebrand it as the positive holiday that it was meant to be.
Aug 21, 2019
BREAKING THE MOLD FOR FOOD STORE BRANDING
KEN BANKS’ BLOG AUGUST 2019
PRESS PLAY>>TO VIEW THIS MONTH’S WELCOME VIDEO
BREAKING THE MOLD FOR FOOD STORE BRANDING
Supermarket marketing is not usually a good topic in a discussion of retail branding.
Yes, there are some chains, like Publix, Wegman’s, H.E.B., HyVee, and Trader Joes, who have built loyalty though the years with providing an outstanding shopping experience with quality operations and marketing. WalMart has taken the top spot as a national chain by having the best price perception of any grocery stores built on their discount store success. Most of the rest of the chains continue to try to build sales with a low-price strategy supported by heavy promotion. Their formal is predictable and redundant with weekly print ads and price promotions. While price is always a factor in the grocery business, the failure of many discount food chains in the past few years verifies that it takes more than a good price on ground chuck to maintain a loyal customer who shops weekly and in many cases more often . Then, there is Aldi.
I first visited Aldi when they had just arrived in the US by breaking into the Chicago metro area several years ago. I was in my last few weeks at Eckerd when our President, Frank Newman, organized a trip for his key executives to the Windy City to do some store visits. We were surprised when we didn’t go to Osco or Walgreen’s, but rather went to this new chain of discount grocery stores from Germany. Some things stood out right away, low prices, neat but spartan stores, mostly private label brands, and crowds of customers.
Well, it not only caught on in Chicago, but Aldi has become quite a phenomenon throughout the U.S. today with more than 1800 stores in 35 states making it the fastest growing chain. The company has done this by creating a cult following that has learned that the lower prices on key items like milk and eggs, is not just pennies lower but as much as 30-40% versus traditional chain across the street. The brand is accentuated by operational differences like no free shopping bags, no baggers at the register, charging a quarter (refundable0 for using a shopping cart. Their dominance of private brands is made up of not just cheaper items but using their European heritage to bring baked goods, meats, cheeses from overseas that are reminiscent of Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s. Like our household, most shoppers don’t switch over exclusively. We love our local Publix and it’s selection and service more than ever. However, there are some trips for which Aldi just makes more sense. The profile of the Aldi customers and their local market areas show that their customer base are not just price shoppers either.
We can’t ignore the warehouse clubs in this discussion. Costco and Sam’s have created quite a niche in the food store business by making the experience exciting in a warehouse atmosphere and by providing quality foods that are exceptional. It’s the rest of the chains that seem to have trouble looking around at what happening and they continue to do more of the same. Repeating the same deals, the same messages, and offering the same experience. The result is that chains like Winn Dixie and BiLo have filed for bankruptcy. SavALot, which looks a lot like Aldi’s model, is deeply in debt and probably won’t survive. Walmart has taken notice and is focusing more of their competitive efforts in the grocery end of the business on an upstart like Aldi. They’ve proven that it’s low prices, but it’s not JUST low prices. You have to live up to the brand in everything you do, everyday.
Aldi is aggressive, but they also have a sense of humor. Take a look at their price comparison TV campaign here. https://youtu.be/tR9arN2J8lk
Our recent trip to Glacier National Park in Montana was one
of the most spectacular of our journey’s over the past several years to
national parks around the country and the world. Most significant memory, however, is the
comparative photos that have been taken of the glaciers over the past several
years and how fast and how significant these mammoth ice flows are
disappearing. Some say it’s simply a
matter of nature taking its course. However, the surge in ice melt is more
likely the cause of global warming and the use of fossil fuels that have
contaminated and increased the temperature of the atmosphere. I couldn’t help but think of this as an
analogy for the way many great brands are disappearing from the marketplace at
an ever-increasing rate and that this not simple an evolution of business
cycles. Rather, like our disregard for the air we breath has
had an adverse effect, the disregard for building brands that last and adjust
to the changes in customer preferences has had a significant effect on the
disappearances of some great names in marketing that (like the glaciers) we
thought would be on our shopping horizon for years to come.
Glaciers have retreat some 15 miles in past 30 years!
We’ve talked about great brands like Toys r Us, Sports
Authority, Payless Shoes, Abercrombie, Banana Republic, Gap recently in these
articles, and we’ve also seen the same retreat not in aerial photos but in
sales and market share reports for brands like Sears, Penney’s, numerous banking
organizations, insurance companies, Circuit City, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Mercury,
and the list goes on. All of those now
empty storefronts and brands, in my opinion, could have survived successfully
if the senior management, especially marketers, had developed an ongoing brand
strategy that evolved to meet the customer trends and attitudes. Great brands like Amazon, Costco, Walmart,
Geico, Lexus/Toyota have recognized that to succeed in today’s market, a
company has to adjust and consistently innovate with a premise that appeals not
only to the mind of the consumer but also the heart. That’s where the relationship begins and, I
believe, if many of our industrialists in the past had experienced the beauty
and specter of our national parks and, particularly, glaciers. They would have had a plan to protect the
brand that is our natural environment.
I was talking with our postman a few days ago, as he sat in
his over-heating mail truck. He was
complaining about how inefficient these trucks were and how Amazon was changing
the world of retail delivery. At the
same time, I viewed a feature on a news report about the growth of electric
vehicles in China and that inexpensive electric vehicles are here, now and
being mass produced as fast as the infrastructure could keep up with it. I thought about how efficient mail delivery
with electric vehicles that could be
charged every night. How the
streets of New York (and Chicago or Vegas) could be less polluted if all those
taxis and buses were electric instead of gas.
These are major improvements that can be made now that not only benefit
our environment, but also improve the brands of the postal and transportation services
to help build those businesses. Great branding can save a company with a reason
for being by adjusting its benefits and messages to more people and creating
demand. It takes a vision and a
conscious effort to create the value and a relationship that endures.
Nine years ago, I got together with another
consultant/speaker to co-author Brain Branding—Activate the Brain…Stimulate
Your Brand which is now available on Amazon and Kindle. I had been consulting and presenting on
developing an effective brand for several years, but when I heard Robyn’s
presentation on communication and whole brain thinking, I believe together we
had discovered an innovative way to make branding come alive for marketers in
almost every consumer industry. Robyn
had been enlightening her audiences on the fact that the brain is actually
divided in four quadrants—not just two halves.
As I listened to her, it became apparent that the differences in these
four quadrants mirrored four of the five steps that I had learned were
necessary in creating a successful brand strategy. So, we put our “brains” together and develop
BrainBranding. It was a new way to look
at how to understand customers better by studying the way these customers think
when they decide to shop a certain store, buy a specific brand, or use a special
service.
We have been promoting our book and presenting ever since by
helping marketers understand that there are four thinking styles:
The Investigator
(Quadrant A)- This customer
researches extensively before making
decision. And it’s not just price, the investigator wants to know
product features, reviews, warranties, service and history.
The Coordinator
(Quadrant B)- Reliability and dependability are important to this
customer. Requiring simplicity and
practicality, she wants a clear definition of the features and looks for
solutions to the need or problem that nurtured the interest. The coordinator wants
details and facts.
The Relater (Quadrant
C)- A relationship is important to this customer and they will seek out a
seller who is personable and genuinely interested in them and their needs.
An emotional connection is critical and once you have it the brand loyalty is
difficult to lose. Want benefits and will share them with others and is
motivated by a positive purchase experience.
The Trendsetter
((Quadrant D)- This customer wants the latest and the newest technology or
style. Anticipates “out of box” thinking and innovative features and
benefits. An early adapter who prefers
multiple options for brand usage.
The interesting fact is that research has shown that over
90% of the people in the market are motivated by all of these styles to some
degree. So, you can’t just brand to one
style, you have to have-e a brand message that hits all four to some extent and
to do that the marketer has to exercise these same styles in a four-step brand
development strategy and they aren’t in the same order as presented above.
CREATE
YOUR VISION—(Trendsetter)Look to the future.
Why does your brand exist? What does
your future vision look like and how will the market change. Look for state of the art options and unique
benefits. Be creative in your
message. Stand out. Have a strategy
based on the future as well as research of past competitors and brands.
CONDUCT
RESEARCH (Investigator)—Get the facts about your brand and what it’s all
about. Look at market history and
competitive brands. Look at brand
history and sustainability. Dive into
the statistics that support your brand’s position and analyze the competition
for strengths and weaknesses. Determine the brand’s position and its value
proposition. This is the TRUTH of the
brand.
COMMUNICATE AN EMOTIONAL VALUE (Relater)-
Unfortunately, many marketers jump into a new ad campaign or theme before doing
the necessary homework above. Once you’ve done the homework, you can start
communicating the feelings that you want the customer to have toward your brand
and how they feel toward you as seller.
Communicate the benefits of using your brand or service. Let them know
What’s In It For Them! Develop the HEART
of the brand—how it makes them feel inside and what personal service it
provides.
CONSTRUCT A PLAN (Coordinator)- Add some form to
your substance with a plan that is comprehensive and executable (and
understandable). Combine the 3 steps above into a marketing plan and develop a
reasonable timetable and measurement for success. Honestly determine the state of the brand
today and where you want it to be in the future (and how to get there.)
That leaves us at the Step Number 5, which we have added
because without it all of the others are just an exercise in futility or at
best mediocre results. That is to LIVE
UP TO THE BRAND EVERY DAY! In order to do
this, you must market your brand to your staff and those who represent you in
every aspect of the business. This is
just as detailed as the plan in Step 4 above.
It is not just a video or memo that briefly explains the new brand
position, it is a marketing strategy developed by and for everyone who has a
stake hold in the product or service. If
the server or salesperson doesn’t get it and demonstrate it with every
transaction, the customer won’t return.
If the service department or product development don’t create what is
promised in the marketing, they won’t buy it.
If the message isn’t consistent with your brand strategy and have appeal
to all of the thinking styles noted above, forget about success.
All of this is discussed in more detail and with specific
case studies and example in our book. We
also developed a manual that walks you through the process of developing a
successful brand. Good luck and
Stimulate Your Brand!
GOOGLE. It’s not just a brand. It’s an action verb and now part of our everyday language. In the process, the company has produced revenues in 2019 of over $161 Billion and has become the go-go place for information on just about anything you want or need to know about. The company continues to grow with the addition of YouTube, now over $15 Billion in ad revenue and growing as its own online television network. It also is expanding Cloud which generates over $10 Billion in revenue. It just seems like yesterday, that I attended a conference in Phoenix where a futurist talked about this new company with a funny name, Google, as the first big name in search engines. Now it will generate over $100 Billion in search revenue. And there’s no stopping this growth as we depend on all of it’s units in our everyday work and personal lives. We’ve heard about how great it is to work at Google, with breakthrough policies and program that keeps its 10000+ employees loyal and motivated every day. With all that significant growth and the cutting-edge technology that keeps it moving forward, one would think that Google doesn’t need to do much branding. However, the company keeps its branding message on the personal reasons why Google plays an important part in the lives of people all over the world. The spot in the Super Bowl is a great example of how Google with all its services and technology helps keep the memories of a lifetime alive for just one person who cherishes his life with his wife, Harriet. This spot hits the sweet spot for those of us who are now threatened by the virus rampaging around the world, but it also says something about company that remembers that it helping customers make life a little easier to manage especially in tough times. Here’s the spot that ran on the big game which surely made a difference in all of us who cherish the past memories.
JEEP. The original SUV stays true to its roots as it fights to maintain its share of the hottest market category in the auto industry. In my recent, trip to Walt Disney World, I couldn’t help notice as I took a photo shot of our parking lot row ID (memory aid) that looking down an entire row of some 50-75 vehicles that there was not one conventional sedan in the endless row of SUV’s and pickups. Jeep has always stayed close to its military roots and love of the wild (and not so wild) outdoors by keeping its design and features consistent even as it has added more models, sizes and features. With Cherokees, Laredos, Wranglers and more, Fiat Chrysler maintained that consistency in the brand with its new Jeep Gladiator, a four-door pickup ATV-like model. The vehicle is pretty interesting and the company further solidified its place in our memories with a creative spot featuring Bill Murray as he reprises his role in Ground Hog Day to demonstrate all the fun one can have conquering the winter outdoors in this new type of Jeep.
Hobby Lobby is a chain of over 850 arts and crafts stores that consistently markets itself as a store that supports important causes. The company has a philosophy that it states as a Christian ethics and it has a reputation of treating its customers and its employees as special. This Christmas it created a commercial that is consistent with its creative strategy and the importance of family relationship. Enjoy this spot about a mother and son discovering their love at the holidays. Click this link to view: 
Macy’s continues to fight the challenges of maintaining the specialness that department stores once owned at Christmas. By keeping its Thanksgiving Parade, its special holiday windows on Herald Square, it ongoing Believe holiday ad campaign (Yes, Virginia there is a Santa Clause), Macy’s created a special holiday message this year that captures the spirit of Christmas in the story of a girl who wants to be Santa and brings Christmas to life (Yes, you know her name!).
Aldi doesn’t run much TV in marketing its very successful grocery chain that I featured in an issue of this blog a couple months ago. When they do they make it as special as a singing carrot and his friends at Christmas: Click on this link to view: 
Argos in the UK is a successful part of Sainsbury which has always done great Christmas commercials. This year their catalogue is a Book of Dreams and a father brings his daughter’s dream to life in this swinging spot: Click on this link to view: 
Amazon has changed the retail world in a relatively short period. The Amazon packages that seem to arrive every day on our porches are testament to their success and how they have also changed Christmas shopping and gift giving. Behind it all is a real spirit of how everybody needs somebody especially with a smile like Amazon’s logo at the holidays. Click on this link to view: 
Pedigreee recognizes that pets are an important part of the family, especially at Christmas time. I wish I had done this spot when I was heading the marketing department at PetSmart several years ago. The idea of an adopted pet fits perfectly into their good nutrition brand and makes an important holiday idea e alive through a dog’s eyes. 
WestJet always does something special at Christmas that makes Canadiens realize that it’s not only a great airline, but also a great citizen:
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