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Threadless: Fostering the people

Threadless is an online community of artists and an e-commerce website based in Chicago, Illinois. People are Threadless. People make the ideas, people pick what they sell, and people are why they exist. Typing “I love threadless” on Google search bar results in 3.4 million hits.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqEeYqg2kSg

Everything they do gives all the creative minds in the world, more opportunities to make great art. Threadless started printing on t-shirts and then they realized tons of products make great canvases. They seek out these canvases, so people can continue to make and pick the best art. The weird art. The geeky art. The beautiful art. Threadless loves helping art unknowns become art totally-knowns, which is why every single one of their products carries an artist's name. They support their artist community in every way possible, whether it be through their annual creative awards, their commission-based award system, or simply by tweeting their name to the world. Lots of their artists have even gone on to start their own companies, and they believe that's a success. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzJv9YQvUag My friend Gunjan is a home-maker in India. She has had her designs printed on Threadless nine times.

And this is one of her designs:

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Ingredient Branding: Making Teflon visible

An ingredient brand, as the name implies is an element of a product with an identifiable brand identity. The host product includes the ingredient product.

The element or the ingredient brand enhances the value of the product and mostly used as a label or icon on the main product. The idea is to convey to the customers that they are getting a quality, trustworthy product. Ingredient branding helps increase awareness and easily connects with wide-ranging consumers.

There are three ways that an ingredient brand creates value for a host product:

Improves the quality of the host product

Creates a point of differentiation

Provides an alternative marketing strategy

Teflon is one of the pioneers in ingredient branding. Teflon is DuPont's brand of a chemical compound known as Polytetrafluroethylene and has a global brand recall of over 98 %. The brand has become generic name for properties like non-stickiness, anti-corrosive applications. The growth of Teflon from a chemical compound to a powerful ingredient brand was because of a very well executed branding strategy.

One of the factors behind the huge success of Teflon was the product itself. Teflon is patented by DuPont. Hence the brand is protected against any competitive threat. 

The branding strategy adopted by Teflon was at three different levels. At the consumer level, the ingredient brand had to convince the customer about the brand's promise and utility and promoted itself to the consumers through various brand campaigns. At the manufacturer level, the ingredient brand had to convince the other manufacturers to co-brand with itself in the promotions. Additionally, it had to reinforce the ingredient brand's image as an expert in its field. At this level, the brand acted as endorser to the host brand where the consumer is assured that the host brand will perform better because of the presence of the ingredient brand.

Teflon became a huge brand because it was successful in establishing itself at these three levels. At the consumer level, the brand was able to create awareness and also establish confidence. At the manufacturer level, the brand was able to associate itself with a large number of established brands. At the endorser level, the brand became so strong that consumers began to prefer Teflon endorsed products over other products.

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Burberry “Check”: Luxury brand ruined by counterfeit

“The only practicable means of impressing one's pecuniary ability on these unsympathetic observers of one's everyday life is an unremitting demonstration of ability to pay.”, Thorstein Veblen,  The Theory of the Leisure Class.

Public consumption of luxury products signals social status or wealth. Conspicuous consumption helps to decipher what social class a person belongs to without interacting with them. The motivation for the purchase and display of status products is not just to enjoy them but rather to let others know that they can be afforded. Reference groups, both aspirational and dissociative, have a strong influence on brand selection for luxury products. Sale of counterfeit goods affects the luxury market. 

One’s perceived status impacts the choice of “loud” versus “quiet” product designs. People with no money aspire to be like people with money and mimic their purchases through imitation goods with conspicuous logos. By doing so they want to dissociate themselves from their current reference group. (Professor Rishtee K. Batra, Indian School of Business, Hyderabad)

As counterfeit Burberry “Check” products flooded the market, the target consumers did not want to be seen in those. They wanted to dissociate themselves from urban youth. Burberry had to make the pattern less conspicuous, so that only the members who belong to the associative group would recognize the products.

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Brand Architecture

Brand Portfolio Strategy is the result of specifying the roles and relationships of a company's brands to one another to ensure they are clearly positioned and clearly marketed to the company's target audiences. Managing brands in a coordinated way helps a company to avoid confusing its consumers, investing in overlapping product-development and marketing efforts, and multiplying its brands at its own rather than its competitors' expense. Moreover, killing off weaker or ill-fitting parts of the product range—an important tenet of brand-portfolio management, though not one that should be applied at all times—frees marketers to focus resources on the stronger remaining brands and to position them distinctively. It thus reduces the complexity of the marketing effort and counteracts the decreasing efficiency and effectiveness of traditional media and distribution channels.

A mother brand can be referred to as a brand when a group of products possess the same brand name which is known as a family brand or an umbrella brand. It is easy to identify the new brand in the company under umbrella branding by the customers which gives uniformity to all the brands falling under it may be through one designated approach of advertising, promotion, packaging etc. It is economical and is probably the best way to enter into new segments or introduce a new product to market. Maintaining a brand portfolio can be profitable for firms which have different quality of brands and different images of brands.On the other hand, if any one product under umbrella branding does not do well in the market then it can affect the overall brand. Different brands in umbrella branding will have different qualities which will vary and can be an obstacle.

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Singapore Airlines’ customer-centric and innovative culture has created a strong brand identity not only in the minds of customers but also in minds of applicants who look forward to work as cabin crew. I recall the stories my younger sister told me about the stringent selection processes in place. She worked as a stewardess with a five star airline (rated by Skytrax) for over five years, but SIA held an aspirational appeal all those years. 

Singapore Airlines’ interview process has five stages which tests the candidates’ interpersonal skills, appearance, grooming skills, and communication skills. Unlike most of the airlines, weight is a very sensitive issue and the skin is very carefully examined for any acne or scars. The highlight of their interview process is the “Kebaya round”, where candidates are asked to wear a small and super-tight (standard sized as per SIA) kebaya and girls who can’t fit into it are rejected. Only girls with petite frames can dream of fitting in and typical average slim girls don’t stand a chance. Also, the girls can never change their uniforms, once they fit in one of the sizes. They have to maintain the same size for their whole career with SIA.

How can a girl not feel proud after clearing such a rigorous test? It is like winning a crown! It is this pride and prestige that is seen in all the SIA stewardesses and that is reflected in their customer service and hospitality. I personally feel that while the kebaya uniform is unique and attractive, it might not be practical with safety responsibilities that cabin crew has like jumping out of a plane in case of an emergency landing.

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Concha Y Toro: World's most admired wine brand!

Wine consumption is all about perception especially for an untrained palate of a typical American. Taste expectations which are set by origin, name or label of wine lead to confirmatory sensory experiences of wine and one’s enjoyment of the experience.

I would argue that customers have shown no brand loyalty to wineries till now because wineries have spent very little on media advertising as compared to beer or distilled spirits. There is a huge scope of building brand loyalty among customers by doing more advertising as wine drinking is a social statement and US has more wine drinkers than liquor drinkers.

“Bottom--‐up” strategy makes more sense for Concha Y Toro and it should not associate itself with “cheap wines” or “value for money wines”. Concha Y Toro should invest more in marketing its premium, super premium and ultra-premium brands and leave its entry-level brands which face tougher competition. 

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Apart from Rogers' Five Factors of diffusion, there are many others that play a significant role in ensuring that an innovation is accepted. We need to look at the market size, the uniqueness of innovation/product, potential customers, estimated demand, willingness to pay, sales channel, communication message, and competition.

 As per my gut reactions and impressions, sliced peanut butter is not something I would purchase as it goes against my habit of spreading it with knife. Silver-coated adhesive bandage is a good innovation, but I am afraid that customers would not like to buy such a high-tech product over-the-counter for their day-to-day bruises. Satellite radio is a drastically new business model where we need to pay in order to avoid hearing advertisements. I would be skeptical of customer response and adoption rate for this innovation. Smell machine makes the least sense of all as customers need to buy an extra plug-in device and its functionality is similar to a room-freshener.

If we only apply Rogers’ five factors to the four products, it seems that Silver-coated adhesive bandage will reach its market potential rapidly as there is a clear observable relative advantage with no complexity. Satellite radio and Smell machine will reach their market potential slowly due to low compatibility and high complexity.

Overall, I would say that Satellite radio has highest market potential. I would do a small test market launch before a full scale launch though.

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Corona. Miles Away From Ordinary.

Corona is one of the top-selling beers worldwide, available in over 170 countries. Corona beer is commonly served with a wedge of citrus fruit, usually lime, inserted into the neck of the bottle, adding flavor. Its target segment is young urban upper middle class individuals who associate the brand with tranquil sandy beaches where all the stress washes away.

Advertising campaigns contribute to what Heineken and Corona               brands mean in the minds of consumers:

vs.

And

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WV7ZXpkeJMs

vs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZtDqpdvy7s

This is Corona’s advertisement at London’s Kings Cross Station. And YES, that’s me:

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Power of a brand: Black & Decker Corp. - Power Tools Division

Branding has the power to turn an ordinary consumer product into a beloved, can’t-live-without-it emotional experience. Branding goes beyond product performance or rational benefits and uses logo, packaging, color, and slogan to create a favorable brand association. Power of a brand resides in the minds of customers and companies need to ensure that customers have brand awareness and a positive brand image.

As a customer with no exposure to industrial tools, an image of toaster and a food processor pops into my head when I hear the name Black & Decker. I associate the brand with reliable household products with which many of the readers would agree. Black & Decker has clearly done a fabulous job of creating brand recognition and image in the Consumer segment. But, Black & Decker’s strength in Consumer segment did not transfer to the Professional-Tradesmen segment, consisting of professional users who bought tools for their own use at a job site, where Makita Electric of Japan had taken over the market.

Makita was outselling B&D 8 to 1 in an account that gave them equal shelf space because buyers in the Professional-Tradesmen segment tended to patronize emerging retail distribution channels including home centers which were dominated by Makita. Membership clubs which represented about 10% of segment sales for the industry were also off-limits. Brand perception of B&D among Professional-Tradesmen segment buyers was very low and they did not believe that brand B&D is one of the best. There was not much color differentiation between consumer grade products and power tools designed for professional end users. Tradesmen such as electricians, plumbers, carpenters, framers, roofers, and general remodelers working in residential construction were not proud to own Black & Decker gray tools.

Black and Decker’s shares of the two professional segments – Industrial and Tradesmen are expected to be different because the influencer, decision maker, channel, and intended use are different for both the segments. Tradesmen buyers buy tools for their own use at a job site whereas Industrial buyers are generally corporations purchasing tools for use by employees. Brand perception of B&D among Professional-Tradesmen segment buyers was very low while Industrial segment considered B&D’s professional tools to be the highest quality in the industry. Industrial segment was made up primarily of commercial contractors where distributors (like W.W. Grainger) played an important role in providing tool requirements and recommending specific brands. Tradesmen segment was made up primarily of residential contractors who bought their tools from retail channels like Home Depot and Ace Hardware.

Given the results of B&D Product Research, product quality was very strongly competitive in large majority of professional power tool product categories. The case analysis so far and results of research on brand awareness and perception (Table B, C & D) clearly indicate a problem of branding in professional tradesmen segment. B&D should pursue “Option 3. Drop the B&D name from the professional-tradesmen segment” to please all three audiences as brand is not perceived favorably by the segment. I would use DeWalt brand name identified as serviced and distributed by B&D and change the color to “Industrial Yellow”. DeWalt name had higher rating for “Is One of the Best” and “purchase interest” then B&D. According to Table D, segment thought favorably about service and distribution of B&D than that of competition. The color change will also help in differentiation among professional grade and consumer grade tools.