Brand Autopsy

Earlier in the week I shared the problem of needing a new name for my “jumboSHRIMP Marketing” presentation. I offered up an assignment and was impressed with the answers submitted to me on the blog and through email. However, I decided not to use a reader-submitted title.

Instead, I’m using a title that’s been floating around my noggin for many months.

Sure ... "The Bigness of Smallness” lacks the catchiness of “jumboSHRIMP Marketing.” But, it still conveys how small businesses can look big and big businesses can get small in a somewhat compelling way.

Thanks again to everyone who offered up ideas and perspective.

The Problem
Google "jumboshrimp" and something funny happens. High up on the search results are links to a few posts I’ve written about how small businesses can look big and big businesses can get small. It’s something I refer to as “jumboSHRIMP Marketing.”

A San Francisco-based advertising agency isn’t happy about this because they go by the name of JUMBOshrimp Advertising.

According to this ad agency, several people have become increasingly confused due to my usage of the term “jumboshrimp” in my YouTube video ditty, on my BrandAutopsy.com website, in a MarketingProfs article, and occasional mentions on the Brand Autopsy blog.

JUMBOshrimp Advertising contends I am infringing upon their registered trademark of the term “JUMBOshrimp” as it relates to the sector of advertising and marketing services.

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The Assignment
I’m entertaining alternative names to convey “Big/Small” without saying “jumboshrimp.” This new name would potentially be used to replace how I use the term “jumboSHRIMP Marketing” in current presentations and in future articles/blog posts. If you have naming ideas, I’ll gladly listen and gladly reward you with a sizeable gift certificate to Amazon.com if your submitted name is chosen.

Read below for more guidance:

• The objective is to come up with a new name that conveys how small businesses can look big and big businesses can get small.
• Tonality-wise … this new name should be playful but professional.
• The audience is business professionals.
• Mandatories include not recycling existing established names like “Small is the New Big” ; “Small Giants” ; “Think Big. Act Small.”
• Bonus points for the person who can shape the name “Biggie Smalls” to fit a business context.

Comments are open so dive in with your ideas. A sizeable Amazon.com gift certificate is up for grabs. THANKS!

What started out as a whim ended up being ... what I think is ... a worthwhile endeavor. This weekend I decided to create a super-condensed version of my jumboSHRIMP Marketing presentation. Basically, I recorded my voice and synced it up to some of my jumboSHRIMP Marketing powerpoint slides and then converted it into a video. Since YouTube is all the rage, I uploaded the video to YouTube.

View for yourself—click below to watch the ten-minute jumboSHRIMP Marketing presentation.

RSS Readers click here to view the video

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Ya know … posting this marketing knowledge nugget on YouTube makes it so easy for others to share either through an email or through embedding the video in a blog posting. So please, if compelled, pass along this jumboSHRIMP Marketing video to others … especially to anyone looking for a speaker to present at an upcoming business event.

MORE INFORMATION:
>> about johnmoore
>> about BRAND AUTOPSY
>> about My Presentations

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FYI … I’ve setup a Marketing Bloggers group page on YouTube. Consider this a place for marketing bloggers and business clairvoyants to list thought-provoking YouTube videos centered around sharing ideas and ideals. I plan to create more of these video knowledge nuggets and list them on the YouTube Marketing Bloggers group page. You are invited to do the same.

I’m a big fan of and big believer in In-N-Out Burger. I cite them constantly when sharing my jumboSHRIMP Marketing beliefs on getting bigger by acting smaller. In-N-Out Burger is a quintessential jumboSHRIMP Marketing business because they steadfastly follow the jumboSHRIMP Marketing golden rule of being the best, not the biggest.

However, this week I learned from BusinessWeek (sub. req’d) of some intra-company shenanigans where, allegedly, In-N-Out Burger heiress, Lynsi Martinez, is maneuvering to take control of the business. Currently, In-N-Out Burger has around 200 locations in only California, Nevada, and Arizona. Rumor has it that if Lynsi gets control of In-N-Out Burger, she will seek to take advantage of accelerating the growing of the business. Let’s hope this hullaballo is more rumor than fact.

Scarcity and privacy have been two of In-N-Out Burger’s main business strategies. By choosing to be inconvenient with its judicious and methodical expansion and choosing to remain a privately-help company, In-N-Out Burger has so far not fallen victim to the Krispy Kreme trap.

The Krispy Kreme trap? That’s when you take a cult regional brand and decide to take it national by any means possible. (We all know where that strategy got Krispy Kreme.)

For more on the developing situation with In-N-Out Burger’s intra-company shenanigans, read this LA Times article and this Washington Post article.

Tom Peters is ranting again. (As if he ever stopped.) This time he has a list of 16 MUSTS in order for the little guy to eat the BIG GUYS’ lunch. Methinks Paul and I will adopt some of this to our jumboSHRIMP marketing concept of getting bigger by being smaller.

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1 | Niche-aimed.
(Never, ever "all things for all people," a "mini-Wal*Mart.”)

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2 | Never attack the monsters head on!
(Instead steal niche business and lukewarm customers.)

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3 | "Dramatically different."
(La Difference ... within our community, our industry regionally, etc ... is as obvious as the end of one's nose! THIS IS WHERE MOST MIDGETS COME UP SHORT.)

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4 | Compete on value/experience/intimacy, not price.
(You ain't gonna beat the behemoths on cost-price in 9.99 out of 10 cases.)

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5 | Emotional bond with Clients, Vendors.
(BEAT THE BIGGIES ON EMOTION/CONNECTION!!)

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6 | Hands-on, emotional leadership.
("We are a great & cool & intimate & joyful & dramatically different team working to transform our Clients lives via Consistently Incredible Experiences!")

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7 | A community star!
("Sell" local-ness per se. Sell the hell out of it!)

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8 | An incredible experience, from the first to last moment — and then in the follow-up!
("These guys are cool! They 'get' me! They love me!")

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9 | DESIGN!
("Design" is a premier weapon-in-pursuit-of-the sublime for small-ish enterprises, including the professional services.)

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10 | Employer of choice.
(A very cool, well-paid place to work/learning and growth experience in at least the short term ... marked by notably progressive policies.) (THIS IS EMINENTLY DO-ABLE!!)

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11 | Sophisticated use of information technology.
(Small-"ish" is no excuse for "small aims"/execution in IS/IT!)

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12 | Web-power!
(The Web can make very small very big ... if the product-service is super-cool and one purposefully masters buzz/viral marketing.)

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14 | Innovative!
(Must keep renewing and expanding and revising and re-imagining "the promise" to employees, the customer, the community.)

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14 | Brand-Lovemark* (*Kevin Roberts) Maniacs!
("Branding" is not just for big folks with big budgets. And modest size is actually a Big Advantage in becoming a local-regional-niche "lovemark.")

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15 | Focus on women-as-clients.
(Most don't. How stupid.)

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16 | Excellence!
(A small player ... per me ... has no right or reason to exist unless they are in Relentless Pursuit of Excellence. One earns the right— one damn day and client experience at a time!— to beat the Big Guys in your chosen niche!)

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SOURCE | Tom Peters weblog | July 20, 2005

While prepping for the recently held Business Blog Book Tour VI for Category Killers, I asked Robert Spector (the author) which ‘killer categories’ were ripe to become the next category killers. Besides mentioning Metal Supermarket and Lightbulbs Unlimited, Spector mentioned the Container Store, a Dallas-based privately held company specializing in boxes, bins, and everything in-between to help consumers organize all their stuff.

Recently, The Dallas Morning News ran a profile (reg. req’d) on The Container Store and how they are experiencing tremendous sales success with their 14-month old Manhattan location.

According to the article, this Container Store, located in the Chelsea neighborhood, is generating 2½ times the sales of its next highest grossing location. And if that doesn’t impress you, then maybe the fact the store is producing $1,100 in sales per square foot will. It’s no wonder the Container Store will be opening up a second Manhattan location in March 2006.

The Container Store is a prototypical JumboShrimp company because they have gotten bigger by being smaller. As with all JumboShrimp companies, The Container Store isn’t trying to become the biggest storage/organization retailer … they are trying to become the best.

In its quest to become the best, The Container Store relentlessly cultivates a company culture where employees are inspired to go above and beyond in delivering great customer service. Nearly every product sold at The Container Store can be found at other category killers like Bed, Bath & Beyond, Linen & Things, and Storables. These companies can replicate the products The Container Store sells, but they can’t replicate the people that sell the products to customers.

JumboShrimp companies, like the Container Store, recognize competitors can replicate products, but they can’t replicate people.

For the last six years, The Container Store has been named by FORTUNE magazine as being one of the “100 Best Companies to Work For” ranking in the top five in five of the last six years. That's remarkable. In a press release, The Container Store’s CEO/President, Kip Tindell, summed up their employee-first focus by saying,

"We know that our unbelievably great people are the reason behind The Container Store's success over the past 27 years and the FORTUNE honor is just one indicator that they feel trust and pride in the company – something that I'm very proud of. Each day, we're committed to making The Container Store an even better place to work – more training, benefits, communication, empowerment, FUN – it's a never-ending journey."

************************************************************************** To learn more about The Container Store, I recommend reading Discovering the Soul of Service by Leonard Berry. Throughout the book, Berry highlights the people practices that have made The Container Store a respected and admired business.

Last June we introduced Brand Autopsy readers to The Soup Peddler.

For the unaware … David Ansel, The Soup Peddler, quit his high-tech job in 2001 to start making homemade soups using seasonal, local, and organic ingredients. Better yet, he delivers his soups to customers in South Austin by bicycle. Yes, bicycle. Hence the name – The Soup Peddler.

The Soup Peddler is very much a case study in the art of being remarkable.

Much has evolved in the life of the Soup Peddler since June. These days David and his team of peddlers and soup makers deliver over 350 gallons of soup every week. He is quickly outgrowing his once seemingly gigantic soup kitchen. And, he is grappling with how to continue growing his company without losing touch with the original mission of the business.

I reckon the curse of being remarkable is dealing with the remarkable growth it brings and dealing with all the media attention it garners. Just in the last few weeks, David has been featured on The Food Network (.mov file), KXAN-TV (real player), News 8 Austin (windows media player), and The Soup Peddler documentary premiered on KLRU-TV.

If all that wasn’t enough, David is now blogging and he recently submitted the manuscript for his Slow and Difficult Recipes Cookbook to be published by Ten Speed Press this Fall. (Click here to read a sample chapter.)

Last month I sat down with David to talk soup, Fela Kuti, and ways he can apply basic JumboShrimp Marketing principles to his business.

JumboShrimp Marketing is all about getting bigger by being smaller and some of the principles we discussed were:

Being the Best, Not the Biggest

Going Beyond Stating a Mission to Living a Mission

Fostering Customer Devotion, Not Customer Loyalty

Appealing to Main Street More than Wall Street

Global Warming Bad, Local Warming Good

High-Touch Over High-Tech

David and I are scheduled to talk again ... so I'll keep y'all informed on how The Soup Peddler will continue getting bigger by being smaller.

CD Baby is a quintessential JumboShrimp company. Meaning, they are getting bigger by being smaller. Instead of selling CDs from mainstream artists from the rosters of major labels, CD Baby sells CDs only from independent artists (musicians not affiliated with a major label).

What began as a way for Derek Sivers to sell his band’s CDs, has turned into a way for 80,000 other independent artists to sell their CDs. And sales are exactly what’s happening with CD Baby having sold over 1.34 million CDs to online customers since 1998.

NPR’s Morning Edition profiled CD Baby this morning in an informative seven-minute story (click here to stream the audio).

In the story, CD Baby founder, Derek Sivers, recounted how/where/why he got the idea of starting CD Baby by approaching online retailers in 1996 …

I’ve sold 1,500 copies of this CD on my own and would you guys (online retailers) like to sell it? And they said, ‘Who is your distributor?’ I said, ‘Well … I don’t have a distributor and I don’t really want one. Can’t I just sell a box of CDs to you guys -- you sell it and when someone buys it, you ship it to them and pay me?’ And they went, ‘Ha-Ha … yeah, right … it doesn’t work like that kid.

So Derek setup a credit card merchant account and began selling his band’s CDs on the band’s website. Soon thereafter, friends began asking Derek to sell their CDs on the site as well. Once the band’s website became too commerce clunky, Derek began CD Baby.

Derek describes CD Baby as, “… a utopian experiment in how a distribution deal would work from a musician’s point-of-view.” The mechanics behind CD Baby do indeed favor the musician:

Musicians pay a one-time $35 setup fee and send CD Baby five CDs.

The artist sets the selling price and CD Baby keeps $4 from each sell with the musician keeping the rest.

Plus, CD Baby will never kick out any artist for not selling enough.

Sounds utopianistic to me.

But what really impresses me about CD Baby is how Derek measures success.

Instead of measuring success by how much revenue is generated for CD Baby, Derek measures success in how much revenue is generated for the independent musicians. And to date, CD Baby has paid out over $11.4 million dollars to musicians.

[Blogger’s note: I have had first hand experience with CD Baby having purchased a few Blaze CDs and Hot Buttered Rhythm CDs in the spring of 2003.]

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For more on the remarkable aspects of CD Baby, click below:

About CD Baby | CD Baby website

“CD Baby – An Outstanding Customer Experience”| Ripples blog | Dec. 1, 2004

“Be Yourself and Build the Buzz” | Church of the Customer blog | Nov. 7, 2003

Article/Interview | Future of Music Coalition | Oct. 8, 2003