Helping good people build great brands.
Be selective.
This is not a suggestion or an empty mantra. It’s one of the very few brand-building imperatives I’ll propose to you.
As a leader of a challenger brand, you’re starting from behind, and with fewer resources than your competitors. And limited resources must be focused if they are to have maximum impact.
Here are five important ways you can be selective: Continue reading “Be Selective (To Do More With Less)”
Your brand is not your logo.
Your brand is not your website.
Your brand is not your color scheme.
These are elements of your brand. But they’re not your brand.
Continue reading “Stop worrying about your branding.”
(Reading Time: 2 minutes)In this case, advertising imitates art.
AdWeek reports that Heinz has approved ads that were originally presented on the TV series Mad Men.
In season 6 of that show, set in 1968, Don Draper pitches a series of print ads to Heinz execs. The ads are novel in that they don’t show ketchup at all – only foods that are wanting it. As Don tells the Heinz execs, “The greatest thing you have working for you… is the imagination of the consumer.” Continue reading “Heinz Just Approved Ads From “Mad Men,” and That’s a Good Thing”
(Reading Time: 7 minutes)Who won Super Bowl LI? Besides the Patriots, that is.
For starters, Fox did pretty well. Days before the game, a Fox exec crowed, “We are going to finish with the highest revenue day in Fox history.”
When you sell dozens of Super Bowl ads for $10 million per minute, there’s probably a pretty good pizza party in the break room.
So advertisers must have done well too, right? Not so fast.
Communicus, a research firm, has conducted several studies of the effectiveness of Super Bowl ads. Their findings? Only about one advertiser in five actually builds its brand.
There’s a danger: Those of us without super-sized marketing budgets might be blinded by the hype. We might be inclined to believe that things like “likeability scores” matter. They don’t. Continue reading “The Super Bowl Ads: 9 Inexpensive Lessons for the Rest of Us”
In my professional career, I have seen, with my own eyes:
That last one was my own creation, by the way. Very early in my career, I mistakenly equated volume with quality. Fortunately, I had a boss who set me straight. After patiently allowing me to walk through all 80 pages, he asked a series of smart, pointed questions. Among them:
Continue reading “If You Want Action, Start by Simplifying”
(Reading Time: 5 minutes)About five million dollars. That’s the cost for one of this year’s 30-second Super Bowl ads.
For most of us who lead challenger brands, that kind of outlay simply isn’t in the realm of possibility. As underdogs, we’re used to doing more with less.
The Super Bowl – and, in particular, the hype surrounding its ads – is perhaps the greatest example in business of flawed thinking on a grand scale. Though attention is heightened during the big game, viewers are primarily looking to be entertained. (This is how we get a Bud Light ad with “caucus” jokes. Oof, you are so ribald!)
Of course, ads that entertain don’t necessarily sell. And challenger brands know that it’s all about selling.
So let’s talk about what the rest of us can learn from this year’s Super Bowl ads. Continue reading “Super Bowl 50: 7 Lessons for Challenger Brands”
(Reading Time: 2 minutes)Back in 1997, I accepted a position as a Group Brand Manager for a Fortune 200 company that shall remain nameless.
My start date coincided with the annual marketing planning process. Here’s the arc of a conversation I had with a well-meaning co-worker (WMCW) during my third week: Continue reading “What You Encourage”
(Reading Time: 3 minutes)We’ve all seen them: The pipe dreams that are presented as “strategic plans.” Plans that seem to have no tether to reality. Plans that nobody believes in (but that somehow get approved).
There are many reasons such unrealistic plans survive. The organization may encourage activity, not results. Leadership may not be grounded in the planning process, and are thus unable to guide it. Politics may replace objectivity. And so on.
No matter the roots of the issue, I’ve found that one question is particularly useful in making a huge leap toward strategy that truly works.
That question is four short words: Continue reading “The Most Important Strategic Question You Can Ask”
(Reading Time: 3 minutes)It was the greatest upset in Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) history.
Rousey entered Saturday night’s fight as the bantamweight champion. She was undefeated – 12-0 with 9 arm-bar submissions. Her prior three fights had lasted 34, 14 and 16 seconds. (Those aren’t typos.)
By the end of the night, the belt belonged to Holm, about a 10-to-1 underdog before the fight began. Holm knocked out Rousey less than a minute into the second round with a vicious kick to the head. But Rousey was losing the fight badly before that.
What can challenger brands learn from this shocking upset? Continue reading “What Challenger Brands Can Learn From Ronda Rousey’s Stunning Loss”
(Reading Time: 4 minutes)Earlier this week, WPP and Millward Brown released the annual “BrandZTM Top 100 Most Valuable Brands Ranking.” The news this year is that Apple jumped Google for the #1 spot; the top ten is rounded out by Microsoft, IBM, Visa, AT&T, Verizon, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s and Marlboro. (The press release, with links to more information, can be found here.)
Such lists can serve merely as conversation-starters, like discussing with your friends the top five live albums of all time.*** But for those of us who didn’t make this ranking, there’s much to be learned. Below, I offer eight lessons, inspired by this list, that challenger brands can apply. Continue reading “8 Lessons for Challenger Brands From the Top 100 Global Brands”