Six of the Best: Another end of the decade edition

Photo: The Easiest Way by Martin Bishop

Last week's edition wasn't enough. We need more, more, more on the year and decade that's about to end and more on the year and decade ahead as well:

1) 2009 Year-End Brands Survey and 2010 trends forecast: Landor
We are running a survey right now looking at brands that got us through the year and decade. The polls are open! Also, we've published our 2010 trends forecast. Will we consumers keep our recession-enforced, back-to-basics values or will it be a year where we learn to spend again? Also features predictions on financial services, social media, the airlines and design.

2) Brands of the Decade: 2000-2009: Fritinancy
Meanwhile, Nancy Friedman's has already published her brands of the decade list. Her list includes the technology brands you might expect: Facebook, Skype, YouTube and Google (some of which started in the 90s but came to prominence in the last decade) but also: Zappos, JetBlue and "Cruggs" (Nancy's shorthand for the Crocs/UGG hideous shoe combo). Isn't it amazing that these now familiar brands have only been around such a short time?

3) Noughtyisms: the best words of the decade: The Guardian (via Fritinancy)
Last week I pointed to Nancy's list of words of the decade. Now, The UK's Guardian has published its list. Cougar is on both. Also on the Guardian list: meh (2003 (from The Simpsons)), open the kimono for revealing secrets (2005) and its 2009 "winners:" generica meaning: "features of the American landscape (strip malls, motel chains, prefab housing) that are exactly the same no matter where one is" and catch a falling knife meaning: "to buy a stock as its price is going down, in hopes that it will go back up, only to have it continue to fall."

4) The 15 Biggest PR Disasters Of The Decade: Business Insider (via Ruth Mortimer)
Few could argue with the #1 on the list--the great Bridgestone tire debacle. Bridgestone ignored complaints about the tendency for the tread of its Firestone tires to separate and cause horrific accidents for years. Eventually, with an NHTSA investigation underway, it accepted blame and recalled 6.5 million tires. According to CBS News, the NHTSA eventually announced that nearly 200 deaths and more than 700 injuries had been caused by the faulty tires. Other disasters include: Merck's Vioxx recall and Janet Jackson's famous wardrobe malfunction.

5) 10 Celebrity Endorsement Deals that went wrong: Business Insider
For good measure, Business Insider also has a list of celebrity endorsements that went wrong (not just this decade). The list was published on December 9th, nine days after Tiger Woods crashed into his hydrant but he's not on the list. Instead we have: OJ Simpson, Kobe Bryant, The Olsen Twins and Michael Phelps among others. Nice companion list to my Six of the Best: Celebrity endorsement edition from a couple of weeks ago.

And what of the decade ahead? What's that got in store for us?

6) I, Robot: Buy your own android double for Christmas: Daily Mail

Feel the need to clone yourself? You can't do that yet but, for £139,000, you can now get your very own creepy-looking android. This version can't walk but he/she can easily sit behind your desk all day. Where will this lead us by 2020?

That's it! I'll be back with more stories from the world of brand strategy (and vaguely related areas) in the New Year. After I get back from skiing.

Six of the Best: The naughties edition

Decade from hell? A great decade? Somewhere in between. I link. You decide

1) The '00s: Goodbye (at Last) to the Decade from Hell: Time
Time got in early with its pitch that it was the noughties from hell, going as far to describe it as the worst decade ever in this photo-essay. The decade actually got off to a good start by not having the Y2K meltdown that everyone expected. But then there was: 9/11, Iraq, tsunamis, Katrina, foreclosures and a market meltdown. Time thinks we only have ourselves to blame. A fatal mix of: greed, neglect, self-interest and deferral of responsibility drove these disasters.

2) Are the naughties the best decade ever? Marginal Revolution
Not so fast says Tyler Cowen. While bad things were happening in the U.S., he points out that good things were happening elsewhere. China, Brazil and India, even Africa enjoyed a decade of economic growth. Not surprisingly, this post generated a lot of comments with people suggesting other decades that were clearly worse than the naughties. I'm glad I missed the 1910s and the 1940s and, apparently the 1860s were really awful too.

3) Who's been the naughtiest in the noughties? Not yet published as far as I know
Someone's going to publish this soon but, before they do, here's my version. Naughtiest of the noughties in various categories:

Financial (individual): Bernie Madoff
Financial (corporate): Enron
Sports (infidelity): Tiger Woods
Sports (animals): Michael Vick
Sports (individual performance): Barry Bonds
Sports (team performance): Detroit Lions
Sports (hands): Thierry Henry
Politics (infidelity): Tie: Mark Sanford, John Edwards and Eliot Spitzer
Politics (travel): Senator "I did nothing 'inappropriate' in airport bathroom" Larry Craig
Politics (influence): Jack Abramoff
Politics (Chicago): Rod Blagojevich
Entertainment (intolerance): Mel Gibson
Entertainment (animals): Paris Hilton
Entertainment (wardrobe): Janet Jackson
Entertainment (reality): Jon and Kate Gosselin
Entertainment (crafts): Martha Stewart
Entertainment (substances): Amy Winehouse
Fashion (hair): Britney Spears

These are just my first slate of categories and candidates. Let me know if you wish to nominate anyone else or add some categories.

4) Prince Charles Scandal: The Daily Show
It's the 50th anniversary of Second City and alums are returning home to Chicago to celebrate. Second City alumni include Bill Murray, John and Jim Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Steve Carell, Tina Fey and Stephen Colbert. Here's a video of Colbert when he was still on The Daily Show trying to report on a royal (naughty) scandal:



5) Words of the decade: Fritinancy
There will be a chosen Word of the Decade from the American Dialect Society soon enough but, for now, Nancy Friedman has made her own selections. Her list includes: ADD, awesome, blog, diva green and ground zero. Each word chosen for its prominence in the decade and how indicative it is of trends or sea changes that affected us.

6) We got that B-Roll: Dexfango
Nothing to do with the topic but just too good not to include. Don't judge the B-Roll!



That's it! Back soon with more stories from the world of brand strategy (and vaguely related areas). More thoughts and comments also available on Twitter (@martinjbishop).

Jarden Corporation: ready for some boo-yah!?

Would a new approach to branding double Jarden's share price?

I'm not a big fan of Mad Money. The whole Jim Cramer thing--the shouting, the close-ups, the boosterism, the hysteria--it just doesn't work for me. But this segment was interesting. Cramer had invited Martin Franklin, CEO of Jarden Corporation, to talk about why home goods, specifically appliances, are doing so well this holiday season. Also, to harangue him about the fact that Jarden may be one of the biggest companies that no one's ever heard of.

Jarden is a $5 billion plus company or as Cramer put it: "a pastiche of a company, a mosaic of different brands." The brands include (among many others): Mr. Coffee, Crock Pot, Sunbeam, Oster, Coleman Outdoor and, for you skiing fans, K2, Marker and Volkl. It's #1 in 20 different categories and particular strong in home appliances sold through Target and other mass merchants.

Cramer thinks highly of the company and wishes it was better known. Standing in front of a large collection of Jarden products, he told Franklin: "What I'm amazed about, at this moment in time, is that all these brands are yours but no-one knows it. When is this going to be the Jarden Crock Pot? You'd double your stock if you'd let us know. What's the matter? You don't want to double your stock?"

Franklin responded that the Jarden brand is known to retailers and that it was never the goal to make it a consumer-facing brand. But does Cramer have a point when he says that Jarden is undervalued because it's not well known? And would slapping a Jarden logo on all of its products help?

Better known = Better valuation? As Franklin pointed out, retailers all know Jarden and presumably key analysts and investment managers also know the company. So, who cares if anyone else knows who they are? But, in fact, it does make a difference both for individual and professional investors.

Individual investors prefer to invest in stocks they know well and strong brands do better in the market than weak ones. From 2000 to 2008 the top 100 brands generated a 31% return vs. a 28% loss for the S&P 500 according to this article in TradingMarkets.com. For these investors, the challenge is to establish the link between the brands they know (like Mr. Coffee) and Jarden, the company whose shares they buy.

For professional investors it's more about how they classify a stock. In the case of Jarden, its chosen path of public anonymity positions it as a holding company or conglomerate. For a variety of reasons, these companies typically trade at a discount to the market (as much as 10%, according to CFO Magazine). If Jarden raised its profile it could potentially escape this label.

Logo-slapping? If Jarden wanted to raise its profile, would Cramer's logo-slapping idea work? It's worked for some companies--Nestlé and Mattel for example and it would establish the connection between Jarden and its well-known brands. But would it work? Probably not. The problem is that there isn't a common thread linking all of Jarden's product portfolio. K2 sales would not be helped by association (via Jarden) with Crock Pot. At best, the Jarden brand could be used to endorse a subset of its portfolio (like its home appliances) in the same way that Nestlé is used to endorse its human food brands but not its dog food brands.

The alternative to logo-slapping is to develop awareness and reputation for the company by investing in the corporate brand in the mode of, say, P&G. Could this work for Jarden? Possibly but it would require time, commitment and investment before it paid dividends. To be effective, Jarden would need to find and express a purpose for its brand (something to stand for).

So, could a new approach to branding double Jarden's share price? I'm going to say "yes" but with a high level of difficulty. Agree?

As Copenhagen starts, Brazil flies the green flag

Photo: Brasil, meu Brasil brasileiro... by Andrea Fregnani (Flickr)

Maybe it's because their economy is doing better than almost everyone else's this year. Maybe it's because they are worried about the destruction of their Amazon forest. Whatever the reason, Brazilians stand out for their concern about the environment and their commitment to buying green products.

The 2009 ImagePower Green Brands Global Survey shows Brazilians: Most concerned that the environment is "on the wrong track," most concerned about the environment vs. the economy and most intending to spend more on green products next year. The next two countries on the list? In terms of commitment to purchase green products it's China and India. Lagging behind: The UK, Germany and the U.S.

Is this a hopeful sign? We citizens of the developed have such ingrained bad green habits and it's taking us a long time to break them. The survey suggests that perhaps citizens of developing nations will not follow our poor example but will, instead, choose a greener path.

For more information about the study, there's a podcast and pdf available on Landor.com (here).

Source: The ImagePower Green Brands Global Survey is put together by Cohn & Wolfe, Landor Associates, and Penn, Schoen & Berland to survey consumers on their perceptions of the rapidly evolving "green" space. This year's Green Brands Survey is the largest yet: Over 5,000 people in seven countries participated. This year Esty Environmental Partners, a corporate environmental strategy consulting firm, helped develop the survey.

Six of the Best: Celebrity endorsement edition

Et tu, Tiger? For a while it looked like stonewalling might work and that the huge amount of goodwill in the Tiger bank might be enough. But, by the end of the week, as voice mails and text messages exposed more and more of the gory details, the great sports icon of our time was under siege. The lesson: If you use celebrity endorsers, you better have a crisis management plan in place as well:

1) Problems: Mike Arauz
If you'd like to get a peek inside Team Tiger's crisis room, read it here.

2) Hand of Frog: Egg Strategy

Gillette must be feeling particularly aggrieved right now. Even before Tiger drove into a fire hydrant, it already had a problem with this Champions ad. The original version showed Thierry Henry holding the ball and, therefore, had to be changed. (Anyone not following World Cup soccer qualifiers may be thinking "why?"--Here's the answer.) C'mon Roger. Your turn!

3) Subway's Brand Has A Large Jared Problem: brandchannel
And Tigers's and Henry's sponsors are not the only ones with problems. It appears that Jared, the guy who lost 245 lbs eating Subway sandwiches, has been putting back on the weight. Perez Hilton posted a picture of Jared not looking as svelte as he does in the Subway ads. As Abe Sauer points out in his post: "The problem with hitching your brand-wagon to a single star is that sometimes that star falls off his or her own wagon."

And now switching gears from fallen celebrities to celebration:

4) What are the best TV ads of the noughties? Guardian.co.uk
Get ready for tons of "best of" lists this year. Not just best of the year. Best of the decade too. The Guardian gets off to an early start with a list of best (UK) ads. Included on the list is a series of spots for John Smith beer featuring Peter Kay, a "no-nonsense" celebrity endorser.



5) OK Go - WTF? OK Go (via brandflakesforbreakfast)


The latest from OK Go. Another great idea as follow up to Here It Goes Again. Celebrities of their own video.

6) Characters for an epic tale: love all this

Companies sign up celebrities hoping that they will be heroes of their epic tale. Unfortunately, they sometimes fail to live up to this hope, playing instead one of the other characters from this great poster.

That's it! Back soon with more stories from the world of brand strategy (and vaguely related areas). More thoughts and comments also available on Twitter (@martinjbishop).

Taster's Choice samplers trying to stick it to Starbucks

Screenshot: www.tasterschoice.com

Who would have thought a year ago that Nestlé would launch a national "taste for yourself" sampling campaign comparing Taster's Choice to Starbucks? The idea would have seemed absurd. Incredible. Ridiculous. But when Starbucks launched VIA, its own instant coffee brand, the doors of opportunity flew open and Nestlé sampling teams are indeed on the march.

From my biased perspective, as a former Taster's Choice brand manager, here are a few observations about this peculiar turn of events:

1) What an opportunity: Typically, a new competitor coming into your market with a bigger brand and a superior product would lead to lots of weeping and gnashing of teeth. But this is a case where such weeping would be misplaced. The VIA launch creates news in a category that never makes the news. It gives the category credibility it sorely lacks. It establishes a price point that makes Taster's Choice seem cheap by comparison (68 cents for VIA vs 17 cents a cup for TC). And it may bring new, younger consumers into the category who would never otherwise have been interested. If VIA is successful, the entire instant coffee category will be revitalized. It's not just an opportunity, it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

2) The response: To their credit, the Nestlé team has been quick to respond to the opportunity with its sampling campaign. But the approach is defensive, intended to protect and repel rather than leverage. The fact is that Taster's Choice will be better off if VIA succeeds than if it fails. So instead of comparing prices, talking about how the VIA launch is a "lot of hype" and otherwise trying to stick it to VIA, the better approach would be to work out how to live and thrive in a VIA-successful world.

That said, I know that creating/selling a crisis is one of the best ways to get a bigger marketing budget. If more money was obtained by using a sky-is-falling argument (such as: "OMG, Starbucks is launching an instant coffee. We need more money or we'll be ruined") then it's not surprising that the campaign funded by those dollars has gone negative.

3) The problem of taste: The current campaign focuses on the one clear cut advantage that Taster's Choice has over VIA. That it's cheaper. Which is undeniably true. What the campaign doesn't talk about is the fact that VIA tastes a lot better. As I posted earlier, the VIA claim that it tastes as good as a Roast & Ground coffee actually stands up. I have no doubt that the Nestlé product developers could come up with something of similar quality if they were allowed to increase the cost of goods somewhere in the VIA ballpark. Hopefully they are working on that.

4) The media: A while back I criticized Nescafé's Twitter presence (@nescafeusa) as a "rather bland, occasionally ill-fitting, half effort where the toe has barely touched the water." While the new sampling campaign hasn't exactly exploded the number of followers (762 as of Nov. 3oth vs. 558,217 for Starbucks(!)), it has provided some relevant material. The tweets now feature up-to-the-minute reports of where the Taster's Choice samplers are handing out samples. Same for the Nescafé Facebook page. It's a small example of the evolution of marketing and media. Sampling programs help create the content for social media which, in turn, makes the sampling programs a more valuable part of the marketing mix.

By the way, if you want to taste Taster's Choice for yourself and haven't come across a sampling team, you can order from here.