When it comes to creating an emotional brand experience, forget copy, taglines, imagery and brand iconography.
There’s nothing like touching and feeling a product first-hand. Tasting the product is even better. Especially when that taste is vaporized rubber and burning brake pads.
Of course you have to be a gearhead, enjoy automobiles and love driving. That’s why Audi’s Driving Experience is perfect in terms of targeting and likely a big success in generating sales.
Are the Beijing Olympics headed for an opening ceremony marketing problem? Today’s Wall Street Journal raises the specter of athletes wearing masks to the opening ceremony and causing China to lose face. Other blogs and sources are starting to pick up on this.
What if 10 or 20% of the athletes in the opening ceremony parade walked in wearing face masks to protect themselves from the pollution and, ultimately, their chance at an Olympic medal? What does that say about the Chinese government? Do you want that imagery tied to your brand, after paying tens or hundreds of millions to be the official X of the Games?
Do you have a contingency plan in place? What will you say when images of mask-clad athletes in the murky Beijing air, in front of your expensive banner, are transmitted to the world?
Just a thought and one I haven’t fully wrapped my head around yet. I’d love to hear your thoughts.
photo credit: upton
Ever get email that just makes you wonder who’s minding the shop? I was looking to redeem some My Coke Rewards points for a free T-shirt and couldn’t find anything in my size. I filled out an on-site question and got a response back in 3 minutes.
This was good! Unfortunately it was a response that only told me they were going to respond and triggered some laughter on my part.
The email took me right back to the early days of the first CRM systems and looked like a programmer’s “default” response that nobody at Coke‘s vendor could be bothered to adjust. Well, it’s only been two years since the program launched, so perhaps I need to give them some time.
In all honesty, I truly believe that Coke will put the right sizes back in stock and I’ll be happy. I’ve never had anything other than a good experience with their products and practically marinade in Coke Zero. I just wish they’d read their emails before they sent them out.
Summary and key takeaways
Read my email chain with KO after the jump.
photo credit: myuibe
Good marketing isn’t about chasing after the corner case–that last possible customer who might be buying from you, but who isn’t.
Overruling the veto vote to extend the reach of your brand often backfires.
Think of Starbucks and how they added breakfast sandwiches to the menu. It gave the customer who was considering a breakfast sandwich a reason to go to the local store instead of McDonalds.
The problem was that it made the stores smell lousy and more like McDonalds, which is a problem when you’re trying to sell $4 cups of coffee, a decidedly un-Golden Arches price point.
Thank goodness wisdom prevailed and Starbucks has gone back to their roots (coffee) and nixed the breakfast sandwiches.
Now Baskin-Robbins is making the same mistake and trying to solve for the Least Common Denominator by adding soft-serve to their menu. Now B-R is going to move away from what they’re known for (an interesting array of quality, scooped ice cream flavors) and start to compete with everybody in soft serve. So is Baskin-Robbins quality scooped ice cream or cheap soft-serve? My guess is the answer in the minds of consumers will be “neither.”
It’s always tempting to solve for the “veto vote” LCD or corner case to increase sales. Unless that’s done very carefully, it results in a widening of the target audience beyond what is reasonable, addition of vaguely related products and an “everything to all people” branding effort. Not a great place to be and, like Starbucks, you tend to find yourself focusing back on your core business after you’ve confused the customers.
Always focus on your core audience and core business and expand away from them only after very careful consideration.
One way to think about your core business and core audience is to ask the typical targeting questions in reverse. Ask “who isn’t in your target audience?” and “what don’t you do?” I find those questions are often answered more easily than the same question asked in the affirmative and with more clarity.
Summary and takeaways
What do you think? Will Baskin-Robbins succeed with soft serve ice cream? Are there other solutions to their growth problems?