Brand Autopsy

Off-the-Cuff AudioBlog

The following AudioBlog is my take (in one take) on GM Planworks winning an award from MEDIAWEEK Magazine. (GM Planworks, part of the Starcom MediaVest Group, was responsible for making the Oprah/Pontiac G6 stunt happen.)

Hear me riff here: Brand Autopsy AudioBlog.mp3 [6:17 min | 4.4 MB]

Kotler’s Top Five Marketing Tips

From the marketing culture purveyors at Agenda by way of CNN.com, we present Professor Kotler’s Top Five Marketing Tips. (Nothing revolutionary here ... just simple, sound, and super-smart marketing thinking.)

1. Come in under the radar
"Building a brand is a roll-out process, not a drop everywhere in the world at one time. The key to brand-building is to have something good that you roll-out in a very intelligent way. Maybe even invisibly for a while because you want to be under the radar screen of competitors."

2. Know Your customer
"… marketing has evolved to be not only product centered but customer centered. We are saying you've got to understand and choose the customers you want to serve. Don't just go after everyone. Define the target market carefully through segmentation and then really position yourself as different and as superior to that target market. Don't go into that target market if you're not superior.”

3. Own your branding
"We are not in a state of competition anymore; we're in a state of hyper-competition. So people are desperately looking for handles -- functional features, emotional appeals -- that will draw people to their product. We should think of owning a word or a phrase that helps to build customer retention and loyalty.”

4. Stay ahead of the competition
"The worst thing is that if something works, your competitors are going to clone it and before you know it anything that you had as a differentiator is imitated by the others. So you're in the business of constant innovation. Constantly asking yourself, 'Three years from now, what will our differentiator be?'"

5. Make it an experience
"There's a big movement to say, 'we're not just adding services to our business and our product, we're actually trying to design an experience.' You'll see that language being used. We're in the experience design business. Starbucks is a very good example where coffee is coffee but they decided to sell it differently, put a higher price, make it good-tasting and make it an experience rather than just some coffee."

[CLICK HERE for the full article]

Remarkable & Disposable Shoes

Made from recycled newsprint, these remarkable and disposable slippers are eco-friendly and cost less than 50 cents each. Since winning a bronze prize from the Industrial Design Excellence Awards (IDEA), Satish Gokahle, the designer of the Solemates, has received interest from manufactures wanting to bring these shoes to market. I so want a pair … or two … or ten of these slippers.

... more on Solemates from BusinessWeek:
In India, it is a tradition to remove the footwear when you enter a house or building. As a host it is a good gesture to offer visitors footwear that is worn only indoors. Solemates is disposable footwear made from recycled newsprint and any other non-laminated paper pulp. It is completely biodegradable. The color is natural and no bleaching agents/chemicals have been used; even the cord and the support tube are made from twisted unbleached paper. Soulmates are an inexpensive and environmentally-friendly alternative for use in hospitals, hotels, software industries, religious places, meditation centers, massage parlors, or on aircraft with long flying routes.

more on Solemates from the Times of India:
Asked about the concept, Gokhale said he saw the need for clean, disposable footwear in hospitals, hotels, software industry, in long-distance flights and other such closed environments, where people have to spend long hours indoors. “Every time you walk into a manufacturing set-up, a software development lab or hospital unit, we are required to remove our footwear. We then wear common, smelly slippers that are unhygienic as they are never cleaned and used by many visitors. The disposable footwear developed by us can be used in these environments. It can also be provided by airlines in long-distance flights and by hotels in their rooms.”

Howard Schultz in Spin Control

BusinessWeek’s strong take on Starbucks ‘disappointing’ results with their Hear Music Media Bar drew the ire of Howard Schultz, Starbucks chairman. In a letter to the editor, Howard, with corporate spin cycle verve on high, defended how the Hear Music Media Bars “… are just one element of a much broader strategy that has already made some very real and radical changes in the way music is marketed and delivered to consumers.”

I decided to run Howard’s business speak-laden letter through the BULLFIGHTER INDEX to determine how much bull he was spewing. Turns out Howard was spewing a whole lotta bull. The instant diagnosis from my Bullfighter Index software add-on was:

You like to hear yourself write. Despairing of the thought of bringing a sentence to a close with something as demeaningly ordinary as a simple period, you shower readers with gratuitous, interminable and often weighty if not impossibly labyrinthine prose. Meaning lingers, albeit awash in a thick tide of metaphor and exposition that threatens to drown the writer's message. Seek help. [source: Bullfighter Diagnosis]

You can read Brand Autopsy’s take on the BW article here as well as my prior takes on the Starbucks music download strategy here and here.

Howard's complete letter to the editor can found on BusinessWeek.com or by clicking below.

BRAND CAMP Cartoons

Tom Fishburne is a moonlight marketer. He spends his days as a consumer products marketer and his nights drawing whiz-bang cartoons on the hilarity of life in the trenches of brand management. If you enjoy the following cartoons then be sure to pick up a copy of the BRAND CAMP cartoon book. Enjoy.

Good stuff, eh?
Show some love and buy the book like Brand Examiner Paul and I have done.

Imaginary Board of Directors

A best practice for creative problem solving is to form an Imaginary Board Of Directors.

The Imaginary Board of Directors is a "...fantasy board of powerhouse business leaders and innovators who will assist you in overcoming your business challenges." (from the book Thinkertoys)

This board may consist of any person you admire most, living or dead. The instructions Michael Michalko offers in Thinkertoys to form and use this board are as follows:*

1. Select three to five business movers and shakers, living or dead, whom you admire most.
2. Get photographs of your Board and pin them up to constantly remind you of the talent at your disposal.
3. Research your heroes. Read everything about your heroes that you can get your hands on.
4. Take notes on your favorite passages. Pay particular attention to the creative techniques they employed to solve problems.
5. When you have a challenge, consult the members of your board and imagine how they would solve it.

One of the fellas on my Imaginary Board of Directors is Walt Disney. I have admired him all my life.

Others on my list include: Henry Ford, Tom Edison, Al Einstein, Ben Franklin, Mark Twain, Steve Martin and the McVicker brothers.

When trying to solve a business or marketing problem... I'll ask myself... what would Twain say? What would Edison do? How would Martin handle this situation?

Who would be on your list?

*Paraphrased from the great book:Thinkertoys by Michael Michalko. Berkeley, CA: Ten Speed Press, 1991. pg. 178

The Evolution of the Starbucks Logo

Originally posted: June 22, 2005

UPDATED: January 5, 2011

To coincide with its 40th anniversary, Starbucks Coffee is evolving its iconic logo. Since Starbucks is evolving its logo, it's time to update the most searched and visited page on the Brand Autopsy Blog ... THE EVOLUTION OF THE STARBUCKS LOGO.

---

The Deadprogrammer's Cafe Blog did some expert sleuthing to show the evolution of the Starbucks logo from the old school brown Nordic-inspired woodcut to the slicker, more contemporary logo we know today.

However, this logo evolution story failed to highlight the significant role the Il Giornale logo played in the evolution of the Starbucks logo. If it wasn't for the green circle-shaped Il Giornale logo, the Starbucks logo may never have become what it is today.

(Il Giornarle was the espresso café Howard Schultz opened up in 1986 after failing to convince the original owners of Starbucks to focus on serving espresso beverages. By 1987, the two remaining original owners of Starbucks decided to sell the business and Howard jumped at the chance to buy Starbucks and remake it into the espresso bar concept he had just begun at Il Giornale.)

Lifting words directly from Howard Schultz’s POUR YOUR HEART INTO IT, here’s a more complete evolution of the Starbucks logo.

1971 - 1987

"Terry [Heckler] also poured over old marine books until he came up with a logo based on an old sixteenth-century Norse woodcut: a two-tailed mermaid, or siren, encircled by the store’s original name, Starbucks Coffee, Tea, and Spice. That early siren, bare-breasted and Rubenesque, was supposed to be as seductive as coffee itself." [pg. 33]

1986 - 1987

"Our logo reflected the emphasis on speed. The Il Giornale name was inscribed in a green circle that surrounded a head of Mercury, the swift messenger god." [pg. 88] (Note: Please excuse the poor condition of the Il Giornale logo. I scanned the image from a many times photocopied memo from Il Giornarle letterhead.)

1987 - 1992

"To symbolize the melding of the two companies [Il Giornarle and Starbucks] and two cultures, Terry [Heckler] came up with a design that merged the two logos. We kept the Starbucks siren with her starred crown, but made her more contemporary. We dropped the tradition-bound brown, and changed the logo’s color to Il Giornarle’s more affirming green." [pg. 108]

1992 - 2011

"In 1992 we also asked Terry Heckler to revise our logo: She stayed mostly the same but lost her navel." [pg. 309]

2011 - and beyond

"This new evolution of the logo ... embraces and respects our heritage and at the same time, evolves us to a point where we will feel it's more suitable for the future. The new interpretation of the logo ... gives us the freedom and flexibility to think beyond coffee but make no mistake ... we will continue to be the world's leading purveyor of the highest-quality coffee." [source]

FYI on Word of Mouth ROI

Last March, the Word Of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) put on the first-ever summit on the art and science of word of mouth marketing. As a follow-up to that summit, WOMMA is putting on a one-day conference on July 13 in Chicago to help marketers better measure and track their word of mouth marketing efforts.

Here’s what you can expect to learn from attending the MEASURING WORD OF MOUTH CONFERENCE:

According to an email I just received, there are only 60 seats left so you better act quick if you want to attend. Sign up here and if you use the password SPELUNKER, you’ll get $50 off the registration fee. Yep … the password is … SPELUNKER.

Blog = Call-In Radio Show

A couple of Brand Autopsy readers have e-mailed John and I with the clever subject line:

"Long Time Listener, First Time Caller"

That's the stereotypical line listeners use when they call into a radio show...

Thinking about this line for a few minutes made me realize, that's basically what a blog is... a special-topic radio program.

A program that anyone with an internet tuner can adjust their web dial to...

There are so many people who have heard the word BLOG, but don't know exactly what it means.

The call-in radio program is an easy to get metaphor that bridges the understanding-of-technology gap.

Folks understand that certain radio programs appeal to certain audiences and that you have the option to tune in or tune it out.

They get the concept of calling into a radio show.

They get that the opinions of the radio personality and the opinions of the callers are just that... their opinions.

From a business perspective, perhaps this is a good filter for determining whether your company should engage in blogging.

• How would your customers value from a call-in radio show?
• What would you say if you were the radio host? What would be your topics?
• What are the limitations of your own radio program?
• What would be the purpose and value of your company going on the air?

"Go ahead caller, the lines are open."

Keeping up with Fast Company

Looks like John Byrne’s knight in shining armor riding in to save Fast Company magazine is Joe Mansueto, Morningstar’s founder and chairman. BusinessWeek is reporting the following …

“Joe Mansueto … has emerged as the front-runner for Gruner + Jahr USA Publishing's business magazines, Inc. and Fast Company, and is in late-stage negotiations to purchase the titles, executives close to the deal said this weekend.

No agreement has been struck yet, although one could made by the middle of this week. Mansueto's bid is described as narrowly nosing out a runner-up offer from The Economist Group, which besides the venerated newsweekly also publishes CFO magazine. It's unclear what the precise valuations of the bids are, although one executive familiar with the deal says previous press accounts placing the offers from five finalists above $40 million are roughly accurate. Bids from Mansueto and The Economist apparently beat out those of the other finalists, Advance Publications' American City Business Journals unit and venture-capital firms Abry Partners and Alta Communications."

Howard Schultz on Emotional Connections

The Spring/Summer issue from KNOW Magazine has an interview with Howard Schultz, Starbucks grand poo bah. It’s a way worthy read as Howard shares his insights on the importance of businesses connecting emotionally with consumers. Enjoy this snippet:

KNOW asks: How do you explain this need by consumers for emotional connection?

HOWARD says: The fracturing of our humanity, fracturing of trust in public institutions and corporations has created significant cynicism. However, people want to be a part of something that they can believe in. They want to be associated with a product or service that they can rely on. Companies that are serving these emotional and human needs of the customers will really stand out amidst this cynical backdrop.

KNOW asks: You built Starbucks without traditional advertising and marketing spending; we are particularly interested in your views regarding the loud industry voice that the marketing mix needs to shift…and that many nontraditional vehicles are the wave of the future, like product placement or orchestrated word of mouth.

HOWARD says: Let me answer it with a story from a recent speech. I asked the audience how many were wearing a Live Strong bracelet from Lance Armstrong's charity or how many non-Bostonians in the room were rooting for the Red Sox to win the World Series. The theme is that people want to be part of something bigger than themselves. They want to be part of something that touches their hearts. T

The art of marketing today is the ability to build this emotional connection. I am not going to tell people where they should be spending their money, but I would advise that all marketing be authentic, and relate to reaching into people's hearts to let them know that you want to be part of their life.

At Starbucks, we have integrated ourselves in a way that is very different than selling a cup of coffee. We have an emotional relationship with our customers. It's not one thing, but a lot of things. It's not good enough to have a good ad, but everything you do helps complete the circle…the packaging, the community involvement, the service all help build that emotional connection.

[READ MORE: html | pdf]

Worthy Customer Service Reads

This evening (Thursday) I'm speaking about marketing and customer experience to an MBA class, at Pacific Lutheran University located south of Seattle.

I plan to share my experiences at Starbucks, ARAMARK and Disney... with particular emphasis on - customer focus, customer expectations, service strategy and closing service gaps. I'll let you know how it goes.

The professor, Merl Simpson, uses the textbook - "Services Marketing: Integrating Customer Focus Across the Firm" by Valarie Ziethaml & Mary Jo Bitner.

Most of the books I read are traditional bookstore business books... not college text. This book was a great read...

For the MBAs, I've put together a list of the service related books on my shelves that they may want to check out...

Here it is:

• All Marketers Are Liars: The Power of Telling Authentic Stories in a Low-Trust World - Seth Godin
  
  
• BE OUR GUEST: Perfecting the Art of Customer Service - The Disney Institute
  
  
• Creating and Delivering Totally Awesome Customer Experiences - Gary W. Millet | Blaine W. Millet
  
  
• Creating Customer Evangelists: How Loyal Customers Become a Volunteer Sales Force - Jackie Huba | Ben McConnell
  
  
• Customer Experience Management: A Revolutionary Approach to Connecting with Your Customers - Bernd H. Schmitt | Bernd Schmitt
  
  
• Free Prize Inside!: The Next Big Marketing Idea - Seth Godin
  
  
• Improvise This! How to Think on Your Feet So You Don't Fall on Your Face - Mark Bergren | Molly Cox
  
  
• Managing the Customer Experience: Turning Customers into Advocates - Shaun Smith | Joe Wheeler
  
  
• Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers Into Friends And Friends Into Customers - Seth Godin
  
  
• Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable - Seth Godin
  
  
• The Customer Revolution: How To Thrive When Customers Are In Control - Patricia Seybold | Ronni T. Marshak
  
  
• The Disney Way - Bill Capodaglia | Lynn Jackson
  
  
• Uncommon Practice: People Who Deliver A Great Brand Experience - Shaun Smith | Andy Milligan
  

I second David Newman

David Newman has a great take on John A. Byrne’s FC NOW blog post update regarding the Fast Company magazine sell-off. I agree wholeheartedly with David. Read below and see if you do too ...

DAVID NEWMAN writes:

John: Dude, FC totally rocks, but I sense a tone of learned helplessness about the "big, bad acquirer" or the "white knight who believes in FC."

Don't you realize that your fate is in NO ONE's hands but your own? Imagine if Alan Webber and crew were sitting there wringing their hands at the Harvard Business Review hoping that their magazine would become cooler, hipper, and faster, and waiting for someone ELSE to make that happen.

Look to the roots of the pub, my man... Started by wild-eyed entrepreneurs, with a bet-the-farm attitude and a vision of "HBR meets Rolling Stone." I doubt Webber paid much mind to 'the man.'

Yes, yes, the economic times and financial environment ARE fundamentally different today. And I also understand that your skills and strengths are your own and possibly different from those of the founders.

And all of that is OK.

Point is, you're wearing the captain's hat, John. You've got the map, you've got the crew, you've got the North Star in your pocket.

What's stopping you from kicking ass and taking names? I'll back you up. Hundreds, no thousands, of us would gladly help out any way we can. Raise money. Donate in-kind expertise and services and contacts. We're here for you...

... but it's YOUR move.

-- David Newman
UNCONSULTING | http://www.unconsulting.com
Bryn Mawr PA
Philadelphia Company of Friends

Making Unknown Blogs Known

Don’t sleep on Dave Pollard’s chewy ideas for getting blogs in the Long Tail discovered. Smart thinking went into his Blog Jacket and Amazon Blog Catalogue ideas …

Blog Jackets: Something analogous to book-jackets, that would contain the kind of information readers want to know when they first stumble upon a new blog -- author bio, overview of blog content, what makes your blog unique, intended audience, reader endorsements, and blog traffic data.

Amazon Blog Catalogue: No slight intended to existing blog directories, but I think we need to get Amazon, the cataloguers of all things written, to add blogs to their listings. Why should they do so? Because blogs have become a major source of book reviews and book referrals, publicists for what Amazon sells. Because it would complement what they already do, bring them more traffic and provide another valuable service to their customers. Because they could add a level of professionalism and standardization to the cataloguing of blogs that is currently missing (International Standard Blog Numbers?) [READ MORE]

[via Emergence Marketing]

UPDATE | Starbucks Hear Music Media Bars

Starbucks Coffee introduced its Hear Music Media Bar concept in 45 Seattle and Austin pilot locations with much ballyhoo and media attention last year. I questioned the move with some HMOs (hot marketing opinions) here and here on Brand Autopsy.

Well … nearly 8 months have passed since Starbucks launched the Hear Music Media Bars and according to a BusinessWeek article [sorry, sub. req'd], the venture has been disappointing.

Hear Music insiders say the response at the stores in Austin -- a college and live-music town -- has been disappointing. Even in Starbucks' home city of Seattle, few customers were listening to the music during recent visits to four stores with media bars. During several hours at each of the four spots, only one CD was burned.

The Austin experiment could be a sign that Starbucks is misreading its customers. The city is full of tech-savvy music downloaders who carry iPods, not portable CD players. Digital music these days means MP3 file mixing and sharing, and that's not in the business model yet, says digital music analyst Josh Bernoff of Forrester Research Inc. "Starbucks is not going to be a significant contributor to the music economy."

Living in Austin, I’ve yet to see someone actually buy a customized CD. However, I have seen lots of students using the Media Bar as a personal jukebox instead by listening to tunes over headphones while studying/reading in one of them comfy chairs Starbucks has.

Plans were to have up to 1,000 Hear Music Media Bars in Starbucks locations by the close of 2005 ... I reckon those plans have been scaled back and are being retooled.

While the Hear Music Media Bars are struggling, the Hear Music record label is succeeding. Starbucks sold oodles and oodles of Ray Charles’ GENIUS LOVES COMPANY album and now they have caused Antigone Rising’s debut album, FROM THE GROUND UP, to climb the charts.

Guaranteed Satisfaction (Old School)

Starbucks Coffee Company headquarters is located in a building in Seattle that, in 1912, was where Sears, Roebuck and Co. opened its first catalog distribution center outside Chicago.

There is a mural in the lobby illustrating - in Starbucks style - maps, images and icons celebrating the history of the building and the area. One of these illustrated elements is the "Sears Guarantee" circa 1914. It reads...

"We Guarantee.

That each and every article in this catalog is exactly as described and illustrated.

We guarantee that any article purchased from us will satisfy you perfectly - that it will give the service you have a right to expect - that it represents full value for the price you pay.

If for any reason whatever you are dissatisfied with any article purchased from us, we expect you to return it to us at our expense. We will then exchange it for exactly what you want, or will return your money, including any transportation charges you have paid.

Sears, Roebuck and Co. Chicago and Seattle, Wash"

Imagine the impact if some company... any company... had the fortitude to offer this level of customer service and satisfaction today?

Ford Mustang’s Emotional Design

NPR’s All Things Considered aired an interesting story about the emotional design aesthetic behind the redesigned 2005 Ford Mustang.

Ford's Special Vehicle Team Director, Hau Thai-Tang, went to great lengths to remain true to the iconic muscle car all the while tweaking elements to further seduce car buyers.

One such emotional design tweak involved tuning the exhaust system to match the growling and groaning of Steve McQueen’s ’68 Mustang in a famous car chase scene from the movie Bullitt. Hau Thai-Tang’s team accomplished this design asthetic by digitizing the soundtrack to Bullitt and essentially tuning the '05 Mustang’s exhaust system (much like one would tune an organ) to match McQueen's menacing-sounding '68 Mustang.

Click to listen to the 8 minute-long story. (Good stuff.)

How Is Blogging Helping?

No, really... What is blogging doing to help marketing? Customer communications? Innovative ideas? How is it helping tell the story?

What types of marketing advances are being accomplished? How are we helping ourselves?

THE POSITIVES

INFORMATION SHARING
Blogs have offer marketers a way to exchange thoughts to a broader group of folks than normally could be reached. We've formed little town centers... gathering spots... each with their own set of topics.

ONLINE NEWSLETTERS
We've created online newsletters where editors can share their perspective on a topic, link to those who are like-minded, and challenge those who disagree.

BROADER PEER BASE
We're able to meet and discuss topics with folks from around the globe. Normally you would only be able to reach folks at your own company... or professionals you'd meet at a conference... or at professional organization meetings. Blogging is a nice way to network.

These ways of connecting are great. They allowed us to broaden our peripheral vision...

But...

THE QUESTIONS

TALKING TO OURSELVES
We've formed small communities, but we're still talking to ourselves... I feel like we've formed on-line clicks... A new version of chat rooms. Other than sharing stories in our own group... What are we doing to share our perspective outside of our group? (If you're not in the chat room, you'll miss the conversation).

ARE WE MAKING A DIFFERENCE?
But HOW is blogging helping us? Our profession? Most effective groups have found ways to organize themselves... form some rules... create process... ensure different folks have different roles... drive a common vision among the group. Should we be better organized either as individuals or as a whole?

I'm not suggesting that we have to unite and lose our individuality... But what are we currently accomplishing? We seem like armchair quarterbacks... back-seat drivers... We view the world from behind out keyboards and make observations and ponder to one another...

What can we do to make ourselves more productive? How can we best use this new tool?