Branding Strategy Insider

Rallying Employees Around A New Corporate Name

 

 
 

So you're changing your company name. The old Stafko Products Corporation is now Simplex Corporation. You've thought about Wall Street, your customers, your suppliers. 

What about the staff? Here are six steps to get employees on board: 

1. Get them in the tent early. Tell staff before customers and Wall Street get the word. Email them when the word is official and direct them to the new, improved corporate Website. Your employees are the keepers of the new flame, and their support will help you make the transition quickly. 

2. The faddish term is "buy-in." That implies holding briefings to announce the new name. Distributing advertising PDFs of the announcement for the new name and logo. Supplying coffee mugs and Lucite cubes and all that jazz so that they are actually looking at the new name all the time. (Don't underestimate the value of making the new name tangible.) 

3. Say it loud and say it proud. Herald the new name categorically and unequivocally. If you flinch in your pronouncements, you give the troops the same "out" to cling to the old name. The announcements should come from the top. The rationale should be crisp and clear and, above all, enthusiastic. 

 

Brain Scan Strategy vs. Tobacco Marketers

 

 

Ever wondered people still keep puffing away despite the fact that we’re better informed about the dangers of smoking than ever before? And despite the fact that there are no ads around? And despite the fact that you can’t consider smoking inside but instead have to relegate yourself to a corner with nothing but a seedy over-filled ashtray for company?

I wondered why smoking remained so prevalent, given all these discouraging factors. My intrigue helped inspire part of the world’s largest neuromarketing study ever undertaken. Project Buyology scanned the brains of smokers as they were exposed to all the stuff we thought should be encouraging them to quit smoking. Like dire health warnings on the cigarette packs and those nastily graphic anti-smoking commercials.

The shocking revelation from this part of the study was that, as you will have noticed yourself, the health warnings and anti-smoking messages have no effect at all in helping people give up the habit. Even more astounding is the finding that these health warnings and other ostensibly discouraging messages have the opposite effect entirely. Instead of helping people to quit smoking, they in fact encourage them to smoke even more. At least, this is what the most sophisticated brain scanning now tells us.

Brand Naming: Context Counts

“Naming a company Google or Squidoo or Blueturnip in the dot-com world isn’t weird. It’s the equivalent of naming your kid Michael.” 

That funny (and perceptive) quote comes from Small Is the New Big, a (2006) book from author and entrepreneur Seth Godin. 

The larger issue here is: Context counts. 

• For instance, in the “As Seen on TV” category of products, most of the names are descriptive and straightforward, and rightly so. Here is a neighborhood where the best names are quick into the mind, and easy to understand. Examples: Pasta Express, Swivel Sweeper, Stick-Up Bulb, Auto Cool, Just-a-Trim, LumaTweeze. In a twinkling, these names tell the consumer who you are, and what you do.

• Is Celsia the correct name for a high-tech company that does cooling solutions? Absolutely, since the technologists making the purchase decisions know the name honors a Swedish astronomer named Anders Celsius, whose adopted name identifies the metric system used by most countries.

• Is Zany Brainy the right name for an educational toy store in the mall? You betcha. Just ask the parents if they’d like their kids to have fun while they learn.

• Is Premio (the Italian word for “prize” or “reward”) a good name for the Italian sausage with real Italian taste? Just ask any supermarket shopper who’s looking for the “real thing” – the most authentic Italian brand. Premio stands out amid a cluster of general-purpose, heartland American brand names for sausage, like "Johnsonville" or "Jimmy Dean.".

When it comes to coining a new name, context matters.

Sponsored By: The Brand Positioning Workshop  

CMO Leadership And Corporate Growth

 
The CMO’s job is simple—to drive growth, right? As Lou Gerstner ex-IBM and American Express CEO once put it: the role of Marketing is to build the brand and deliver a great customer experience. But is it really that simple?

At the recent CMO Club Summit in San Francisco, I was part of a panel discussion with Joe Ennen, SVP Consumer Brands at Safeway and Scott Thurm, Management Bureau Chief of The Wall Street Journal, titled "CMO's as Leaders of the Corporate Growth Agenda.” Scott led off the discussion by reframing the topic, asking, “What are the barriers to CMO’s leading the corporate growth agenda?”

Barriers to CMO’s Leading the Corporate Growth Agenda

1. CEO/CMO Alignment - The best CMO is a CEO who believes in Marketing. The CMO's ability to lead the corporate growth agenda starts with alignment with and support from the CEO. Not all business models and CMO’s are created equal. The role of Marketing in an organization can vary widely. And the CMO role can range from a narrow Marcom role all the way to something like a Chief Growth Officer. The CEO and CMO must be aligned on the role of Marketing in the organization for the CMO to effectively lead the growth agenda.

2.     Growth Means More Than Marketing - The CMO has to think more broadly than Marketing. What are all of the potential growth drivers - Marketing or otherwise ? Companies such as Zappos.com have actually gone so far as to define a non-Marketing function like customer service as Marketing. A critical part of the CMO's job is to understand the business model and all potential drivers-whether inside Marketing or not. This is becoming even more important as digital and social media blur the lines between Marketing, Public Affairs and Customer Service.

Brand Focus Leads To Power And Profits

Building a brand and building a profitable brand are two different things. 

Take Sony, for example. If you did a survey, you would probably find that Sony is the world’s most admired electronics brand. Way ahead of whoever might be in second place.

Terrific for owners of Sony products. But how about the owners of Sony stock? Does the company make any money? The sad fact is no. Net profits after taxes of Sony Corporation are small. Very small. 

In the last ten years, Sony Corporation had revenues of $519.2 billion. But net profits after taxes were only $4.0 billion. That’s 8/10th of one percent of sales. It’s hard paying off your bank loans, not to mention paying dividends to investors, with that kind of return. 

Of course, this is Japan, so who pays off its bank loans anyway? In 1999, the Bank of Japan cut its benchmark short-term rate effectively to zero. 

Like most Japanese companies, Sony is heavily line extended. Sony puts its brand name on television sets, videocassette recorders, digital cameras, personal computers, cellphones, semiconductors, camcorders, DVD players, MP3 players, stereos, broadcast video equipment, batteries and a host of other products. 

Yet Sony’s most profitable product is the PlayStation video game, a brand which makes only marginal use of the Sony name. (As powerful as the Sony brand might be, PlayStation is even a better brand name because it stands for something in the prospect’s mind.) 

The Cadillac Of Brand Naming

 

It’s the Cadillac of crossovers,” said the ads from Cadillac as it introduced its SRX vehicle for 2010. 

No longer is Cadillac merely a century-old brand name. Over time, it’s also become a rhetorical device. Consider these other “Cadillacs”:

“The Cadillac of cologne” (“with aromas of ebony, cloves and incense, introducing a feeling of unlimited freedom,” produced under license from General Motors, by Beauty Contact, a company based in Dubai).

“The Cadillac of all trim saws” (Hillquist).

“The Cadillac of the sand-pile set” (Huffy children’s bicycle).

“The Cadillac of phonographs” (Rock-Ola).

“The Cadillac of dog foods” (Cadillac brand dog food).

“The Cadillac of minivans” (how a rental-car attendant described the Oldsmobile Silhouette to John Travolta’s character in the movie Get Shorty).

“Cadillac health care plans” (heard numerous times on Capitol Hill to describe high-end insurance policies).

Blame it all on the copywriter for a 1959 advertisement for the luxury auto brand. He described Cadillac as “the world’s best synonym for quality.” 

Neuro-Marketing's Limits And Advertising Creativity

 
As a cognitive anthropologist, who some 20 years ago traded backpack and quinine for Dramamine and a Hartmann three-suitor, I consult with marketers to assess the base beliefs and longings of various publics. 

My method is to talk to people as people, not consumers. In that way, I learn about how they transform the world into their world. The twists of paradox, compartmentalization and irony are always exquisitely on display. 

By-passing Langauage- Straight to the Brain  

Recently, a client asked me to work with a company that is using brain wave activity, or measures of blood flow in the brain, to assess central nervous system response to certain advertisements and products. The idea being to bypass consumers' language and rational thought in the name of metrics, and its lookalike, objectivity. 

What I discovered was that no matter how good the scientists were at designing stimuli and reading fMRI results, the very best they could do for our client was to warn them what to eliminate from their ads. The advice garnered from peering under the consumer's skull could only suggest what NOT to do. Unfortunately, the data from their procedure could not help us to determine what TO DO to enhance an advertisement's effectiveness. 

Fix The Product, Then The Perception

 

Business is off 40%. You lost $9 million last year, compared with a $7 million profit the year before. Average age of your customers is up to 73, from 68 a decade ago. 

It was definitely time for a makeover at Elderhostel Inc., the venerable travel and educational organization for older adults. Among its needs:

     - Greater recognition from active baby boomers who are financially secure, have time on their hands and are curious about places they’ve never seen.

     - No more minimum age restrictions.

     - New programs and tours with wider appeal.

     - And, oh yes, a new name.

Elderhostel got its start 30 years ago, offering adults 60 and older noncredit classes and inexpensive housing on college campuses. Its cofounder allegedly asked, “If there are youth hostels, then why aren’t there elder hostels?” 

But soon thereafter, people started asking for better accommodations. No more sharing a bathroom down the hall. No more backpacks. Admits one executive, “The name wasn’t even descriptive back then.” 

Forgiveness And The Tiger Woods Brand

Yesterday, Nike, Woods’ largest sponsor announced that its advertising plans involving him would not be altered by Mr. Woods’ “transgressions.” In a statement, Nike said, “ Tiger and his family have Nike’s full support. We respect Tiger’s request for privacy and our thoughts are with Tiger and his family at this time.” 

“Sponsor expedience,” you say? That’s as well may be. But had the company an iota of evidence that the “transgression” was appreciably affecting company image and sales, they’d dump him as fast as a golfer scraps a driver with a cracked shaft! 

Loyalty isn’t capricious. It’s palpable, especially as it regards sales and situations where the brand requires the benefit of the doubt. It’s far more emotional than rational, which is why virtually 100% of people asked if Tiger’s behavior was acceptable, would tell you “no,” and why that same 100% are willing to forgive his indiscretions. Which is why his biggest sponsors – along with his fans – have reaffirmed their support for him. 

Here’s a marketing truth: Loyalty is always accompanied by positive consumer behavior and sales, and consumers willing to buy more, recommend more, rebuff competitive offers, and even invest in publicly traded companies. And sometimes it comes with a metaphorical ‘Get Out of Jail Card.” 

But here’s another marketing truth: engendering that level of loyalty doesn’t happen by chance.

Courtesy: Robert Passikoff, Brand Keys 
 
Sponsored By: The Brand Positioning Workshop

Brand Naming: Get It Right Or Get Forgotten

 

 

On my first real job (at General Electric in Schenectady, N.Y.) I noticed a consistent advertiser in the electrical publications with an unusual name.

A company selling wire and cable was called "Crapo." Presumably pronounced Cray-po and not Crap-o.

That's terrible, I thought. Oh no, my more experienced colleagues said, one of the first things you need to learn in this business is that names don't matter. What matters is the quality of the product.

That's been a common refrain in my years of marketing work. Whenever I objected to a brand name, I would hear the same thing: Names don't matter.

For example, a recent column about DDB's new Budweiser campaign on AdAge.com drew 26 comments. Mostly negative. Commentators were critical of the music, the superficiality of the idea, the absence of storytelling and the lack of authenticity, among other things.

Nobody bothered to mention the one thing that seems to be driving Budweiser into the ground.

Bud Light.

How can anyone position a brand called "Budweiser" when the entire industry is moving to light beer? Especially when the brand itself has validated the concept by introducing a light version of its regular beer.

Then there's the fact that the Budweiser regular brand has lost volume every year in a row for the last 20 years.

If you're going to re-position the Budweiser brand, you're going to have to figure out how to get Joe Six-Pack to drink regular beer instead of light beer.

But then, names don't matter to most marketing people. What matters to most marketing people is the casting, the story line, the emotional involvement, the big idea.