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Companies mentioned:
Airlines: United Airlines
Alcohol: Absolut, Ketel One, Jack Daniels
Apparel: Nike, Wonderbra
Autos, Motorcycles: Hummer, Toyota, Harley-Davidson
Electronics: Apple, Microsoft, SONY
Food & Beverage: Ben & Jerry's, Campbell, Coke, Denny, McDonald's, Starbucks
Internet: Amazon, AOL, E-Trade
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Branding Notes from Smith & Jones
The following are selected from blogs written by Smith & Jones on branding and posted on their website. Smith & Jones specializes in assisting premium brands with their marketing. The blog titles have been modified in some cases and the summaries of each have been added. Send an email to john@csrnyc.com if you feel like rating the most and least useful of the ones you choose to read. They will be re-ordered based on your ratings. The results will be sent to Smith & Jones.
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1. Branding at United Airlines. Branding is not just about advertising and PR. It’s about how employees feel about their company. (Compare with Eileen Fisher case.)
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2. Truth Is the New Lie: Starbucks Branding. The print ad with two overlapping circles with “Hi” in the intersection – it is brilliant because it simply conveys that Starbucks is about getting together, not about coffee, just as Ben & Jerry’s is about cheerful rebellion, not about ice cream.
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3. The Brand Check-Up or Audit. Once a year, the brand should have a checkup to see if it is being perceived the way it thinks.
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4. Measuring Brand Strength. The best single measure of a consumer’s attraction and loyalty to a brand is the likelihood of the consumer to recommend the product or service.
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5. Making a Purchase an Experience. Why Starbucks can sell a cup of coffee for five times as much as Denny’s.
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6. Blog Is a Four-Letter Word – Blogs Have Influence. Consumers blogging about brands have a big impact on how these brands are perceived. Check out these blogs: Nike, Hummer, McDonald's, Starbucks.
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7. Baby Boomers Are Still a Big Deal for Brands. This large group is a pig in a python with continuing influence on markets.
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8. The Monkey in the Middle. Absolut got pushed down to the middle by sexier brands of vodka. But Campbell Soup has survived by segmenting its market and offering different options on the same supermarket shelf.
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9. The Amazing Story of Microsoft, Apple and SONY. Microsoft eats Apple’s lunch, driving its share of the market from a peak 29 percent in the late 1970s to 6 percent in 2004. Then Apple eats SONY’s lunch with iPod and captures 76 percent of this market. As a byproduct of its success with the SONY crowd, Apple grew its personal computer market by 34 percent in one year. It’s about deciding where the brand fits and who your competition is.
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10. Peace, Love and Toyota. Toyota appeals to the “Cultural Creatives” because it brought out the hybrid car.
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11. Brand Equity: Branding for Finance Majors. The values of the brand and the stock are codependent.
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12. Building a Brand Identity: Ben & Jerry’s. Ben & Jerry’s created a brand around their nonconformity with capitalist norms. Their culture is cheerful rebellion. Nike’s is physical excellence. Harley-Davidson is adventure and freedom. Consumers aspire to these cultures.
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13. Creating Brand Awareness: Media Strategies. Procter & Gamble used to be able to do its marketing with short spots on three television stations. Now it is much more complex. Ketel One Vodka uses buzz marketing, Wonderbra uses events, Amazon.com uses public relations, America Online uses direct mail, E-Trade uses internet marketing.
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14. Brand Loyalty - The Holy Grail. Apple, Jack Daniels and Coke have preserved brand loyalty. Ford and Firestone lost it.
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