#2020mitsloanbrandinga

[the-irrationally-rational]

Imagined you are tasks with selecting good beers for a get together with your friends, but you don’t know anything about beer. In fact, you’re a wine drinker. To make matters worse, the only beer store in town is a strange one. No beers have labels or notes and the store has no one to help you, BUT you can go ahead and taste any beer in the store. How are you going to make your decision? 

The majority of people would turn to prices, the higher the price the better the beer. This actually isn’t the worse strategy and a common heuristic we use to shortcut a decision on quality. Now, what if all the beers are the same price? Now we have a dilemma because we lack knowledge to predict the quality of experience. 

This is the same problem Intel had in the 80s. The company was developing newer and faster chips one after the other, continually outpacing anyone who dared to challenge them. However, they couldn’t get their newest products to end users. The problem, end users had no idea how to know the 386 was better than the 286. What’s the difference? 100? 

At the time, the only people who could distinguish the difference were engineers and they aren’t the ones who drive demand, the end-users do. This is a problem anyone with a new technology. Consumers need common language, the ability to compare, and an ability to identify in order to make their choice. Think about your friends who are beer aficionados. When they talk about their favorite beer they may mention hops, bitterness, mouthfeel, drinkability, etc, all traits we can use in a store to discern the best choice. 

If there isn’t already a framework for discerning value in your product, how do you create one?

Let’s look at how Intel did it. 

Comparison

Intel needed to give consumers a salient way to understand which chip will give them the best experience. Looking into the “specs” wasn’t going to cut it because it was too technical and tough to comprehend. To make the comparison easy they first created the “Intel” brand umbrella for all of their chips. This creates the idea of a line of products with successors. If product 5 comes after product 4, it is easy for me to believe that 5 is an improvement on 4 (think iPhones). 

Additionally, they ran an ad campaign that directly connected the difference in the chips to the way consumers make choices. The message of the ad was the 386 is the same price as 286, but it also has a bunch of advantages. Same price for more? Count me in. Now that consumers could compare, they needed to identify. 

Identification 

Imagine you are a consumer who can easily determine which chip on the market is the best. How will you find it? Labels are critical for this problem. They help us shortcut our search. This might be most salient at a grocery store where labels such as Organic have instant value. To solve for this, Intel started a co-branding campaign, “Intel Inside,” to create their own label. Having all computers with Intel ships prominently display the Intel logo paired with memorable ads with direct messaging, “How to spot the very best computers,” the process of picking out the computer with the best technology became easy. All a user needs to do is identify computers with the logo and ask which one has the latest chip, which you already know from a commercial. 

Adding labels to products to convey something that is invisible to our eye is critical. We can’t distinguish the competitive advantage of your product without help. Additionally, the emotional experience of feeling competent in a purchase is incredibly valuable. Not only is your experience heightened by a sense of confidence, you walkaway ‘knowing’ you successfully made the best purchase. 

The other output of this campaign was getting consumers to pay attention to microprocessors. This was so successful that it has become a heuristic in the way we compare computers. Sure, we have preference for operating systems and aesthetics, but once that choice is made we want to know which one is the fastest. 

Additional Thoughts 

The campaigns of Intel were highly successful in create social knowledge and awareness for consumers to make choices, but it isn’t enough when other competitors enter the market. Intel continued to innovate and develop better chips at an accelerated rate in the mid to late 2000s, but they needed to reach a broader market. To do so, we saw a deeper connection in marketing between computer and experience than whether or not it is faster. We see people editing cool videos of vacations, creating music, designing works of art and more. These visuals create excitement in end-users, which is the ultimate goal. Tie your competitive advantage to the experience and values end-users care about.

[martinralfreindl]

Burberry: Brand Positioning and Vulnerabilities

Burberry’s turnaround at the turn of the millennium under the leadership of Marie Bravo is an impressive feat that turned a somewhat stale brand into a leading fashion powerhouse. 

Today, Burberry’s marketing positioning, which is a direct result of the decisions made two decades ago is highly interesting, as it marries classic / traditional design with aspirational fashion elements. This places Burberry in an interesting position compared to its direct competitors. Rather than going all-out on fashion (like Gucci or Armani) or all-out on classic looks (like Polo or Coach), Burberry currently inhabits a previous gap in the market that addresses customers that want classic looks with fashion elements. Burberry achieves this by championing traditions (like the Burberry check and the Burberry trench coat), while also including modern elements (like check bikini ads with Kate Moss or the  hand-tailored Prorsum collection.

The positioning Burberry has chosen can be maintained in the long run, but internally it requires a constant balancing to keep modern and classical elements in check.  Externally, Burberry might face pressure from competitors that enter the same gap between fashion and classics. Especially competitors on the more classic side of things might view this move as a good way to attract new, younger customer (basically these competitors could try to make the same transition as Burberry did at the turn of the millennium). Full fashion brands like Gucci or Armani might be less inclined to move it’s positioning down, as this might dilute their core values of creating cutting-edge fashion. 

While Burberry’s success is highly impressive, there is also a certain danger to some of its strategic decisions. In particular, the shift of its classic brand image to a more modern image has attracted widely varying customer groups (from hip hop singers to teens to 60-year-old bankers). While Burberry has a very clear psychographic (classic but fashionable) it has a broad demographic of customers. The company now needs to manage these broadly varying customers’s and their expectations, and could very well face backlash from any of its customer groups if it fails to strike the delicate balance that is at the core of its new identity

[emilyxu831]

The New Power of Burberry

Burberry’s reposition strategy is clearly successful by branding itself as accessible luxury with superior functionality. With that leaser focus, it enriched its portfolio and increased its product lines and SKUs. In addition, as the digital age came into play, Burberry was able to innovate by creating digital platforms and updating their strategy to focus on millenials, a growing market segment.

 I fundamentally believe that Burberry’s competitive position would be sustainable over time as  1) it offers a lot more options than its competitors – consumers could have that kind of one-stop shopping option to choose from, say  accessories to apparel (in contrast, Coach and Gucci are more about  accessories while Polo and Armani are more about apparel)

2) Burberry has a richer portfolio to choose from Burberry Prorsum to Thomas Burberry (Coach is more about super affordable and Gucci is more towards high-end consumers)

3) with the brand investment in digitalization created an opportunity to better understand their customers by capturing customer data on their transactions. The data allowed Burberry to improve customer experience and store productivity, and inform commercial decisions strengthening the brand’s presence.

 From my experience working at tech-retail, I believe that Burberry could leverage the power of big data to utilize its portfolio and eventually meet the needs and wants of consumers with different purchasing power. With that power, the unpredictable world of fashion would be less ambiguous.

[ashaydin]

This Market Potential Isn’t Puzzling

With an increasing number of people looking for new and interesting ways to spend their free time, I see vast market potential for Stave Puzzles versus the other three products detailed in Gourville’s memo. 

Considering Rogers’ Five Factors below, the puzzles will likely have a high and rapid rate of diffusion. 

Relative advantage: Stave Puzzles are better than traditional jigsaw puzzles with each designed to be more difficult (less visual cutes) and therefore more attention-grabbing. On top this, the puzzles are original in artwork, and there’s always a new design being worked on. The uniqueness of the product is brought to light with each puzzle initialed and dated by its cutter and arriving in a blue box. 

Compatibility: The product speaks to people who enjoy spending their leisurely time on mental marathons. As mentioned in the case, Stave knows how to capture its "sharpy" customers who find doing puzzles therapeutic. 

Complexity: The idea of a puzzle is not difficult to understand - an individual is putting together differently shaped interlocking and mosaiced pieces for a challenge. 

Trialability: The company could easily offer smaller, trial versions of its puzzles to capture the customer. Even in the Forbes article, author Antrim mentions that founder Richardson gave him Chicken Salad for free and he was hooked/ready to buy more. 

Observability: The puzzles are extremely one-of-a-kind in their designs as well as expensive (Chicken Salad costs $500) - so much so that the Forbes article opens with a scene at a bar where Antrim and a friend are doing a Stave puzzle and other guests are asking about and engaging with the game. Even the bartender says, “you guys must have big wallets.” 

Given its strength in each of the factors above, the company can easily move into limited edition and custom puzzles, growing its brand and the awareness around it. 

[remouraposts]

“HOW ELASTIC IS A BRAND?”

When companies want to expand their business, one good alternative is to use the same brand to play in other market segments. At first, it seems a great strategy as it requires lower marketing investments and instant positive brand associations, however exploring a new segment, sometimes also means talking to a different customer with different needs. So, how many customers can a brand talk in an effective way? How far can a portfolio extension go without hurting the brand? Where is the limit to a brand keeps its personality?

Unfortunately, the answer to these questions depends on different variables and is not unique. A good example to illustrate the implications and challenges of a brand extension is the Black & Decker power tools division and its Tradesmen segment at the beginning of the 90s.

Black & Decker was the world’s largest manufacturer of industrial and domestic tools with a brand recognized worldwide and a  presence in 5 different categories (Power tools, Household, Information Systems and Services, Outdoor Products and Security Hardware). The most relevant category was the Power Tools and Accessories, which B&D had 29% of market share and revenue of $395 MM at the beginning of the ’90s. The market divided the Power and Tool category into three segments: Professional Industrial, Professional Tradesmen, and Consumer. 

The tradesmen segment was the smallest but the most promising one, with an expectation of a 9% increase in the following years.  B&D had a great relevance in the Industrial and Consumer segment, but a poor performance and market share in the Tradesmen, with only 8% of participation, losing marketing to brands like Makita with 50% of share and Milwaukee with 10%. These brands didn’t have the same brand awareness nor quality in customer service as B&D but had a better perception of product quality to the consumer of the Tradesmen segment. The tricky part here is that after performing several quality tests, B&D executives discovered the quality of their products was similar or even better than its competitors. Why then, the consumer was thinking in a different way?

To answer this question, let’s take a step back here. B&D did a good job deciding to play in the three segments (Industrial, Tradesmen, and Consumer) using different sales channels and marketing strategies once the company had the capabilities to do so (tradition, know-how, awareness, and relationships). However, D&B failed to identify the behavior of the consumers for each segment and what made them unique and different, the company assumed the consumers valued the same characteristics and didn’t need a strong differentiation among them. To better understanding, let’s look at the figure below and see the differences between the segments:

The table highlights the different perceptions the customers of each segment had in relation to the Black & Decker brand. We could start to have an idea, why the B&D wasn’t popular with the tradesmen professionals and letting other brands take advantage of it. Makita, for example, was a brand focusing its efforts on this specific segment, with a premium price, high-quality perception and high product differentiation.

But you might think, B&D could easily invest in marketing and try trough different communications approaches to change the brand image. However, it wasn’t just the communication. Black & Decker was reinforcing the perception of a “home brand” to the tradesmen segment by not creating enough product differentiation between the consumer and tradesmen products, using the same brand name and applying a very similar color (while other brands where using red vs grey or green vs grey, B&D was only black and grey).

Black & Decker didn’t notice the Tradesmen segment had created negative associations with the famous brand. As raised at the beginning of the article, B&D had decided to expand its business but wasn’t talking in an effective way with all the customers, and had achieved a point that the success in one segment was negatively correlated to the performance in the other. This is one of the cases that the Black & Decker should have to use its brand in a second plan, just endorsing another one. In this scenario, B&D would benefit from its long term relationship and trust with the trade but would have the “freedom” to play with different colors and communications.

[ramosjl]

A Nudge a Day Can Keep Bad Behavior Away

I have to admit that I’ve been fascinated by the concept of nudging ever since I heard of the subliminal advertisements that Coke had in movie theaters. The whole idea was that they would flash a micro advertisement that would subliminally remind you to go out and buy popcorn and Coke before the movie started. All of this appears to have been started with the publication of Vance Packard’s book, The Hidden Persuaders. The key insight was that the brain could notice things that you may not be able to perceive in your active working consciousness but that could ultimately influence behavior. What’s interesting is that most of this subliminal messaging work was always considered more conspiracy speak than anything formal as companies rarely admitted to doing such work. Today, however, there has been a rebranding of the notion of subliminal messaging to that of nudging which is much more palatable. I think that this is in part due most to technology and the work of Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein. In the era of digital devices, it seems that most technology companies have invested in better understanding how nudging occurs to be able to better retain people on their own platform. For example, Netflix’s famous discovery that if they cut the end credits and started the next show automatically 5 seconds after the one you were watching ended, that you’d be more likely to stay complacent on your couch. (Check out this great Medium post on their other strategies: https://medium.com/the-data-nudge/how-netflix-uses-data-to-keep-you-binge-watching-personalize-your-viewing-experience-894c99a1e2b4) 

I’ve been both deeply disturbed and fascinated at how nudges work and their influence on our behavior. So I’ve tried to learn from the concept of nudging and have attempted to apply it to my own life for positive behaviors that I want to adapt and engage in. While I have not done any comprehensive studies on myself, I do believe adding nudges to my life have been helpful. I wanted to share four different examples of nudges that I’ve adapted.

1. TIME TO STAND!

The first is the Stand nudge from that my Apple watch provides. Many times I can go for hours without realizing that I have just been sitting in front of my screen and so the very simple hourly nudge (a vibration on my wrist) reminds me that I should get up. It is super simple but has worked very well for me. 

2. EAT MORE FRUITS

The second nudge that I adopted was because I wanted to eat more fruits and vegetables on a daily basis. One of the things that I noticed was that I tended to forget about apples and oranges that I purchased because I had them in a red bowl that made it hard to see what was inside. So, I now use a clear bowl to place my fruit in so that I can see how much I have available. It has been super helpful as I can now always see what is available.

3. BREATHE

A third nudge that I have adopted is to place three pink sticky notes around my apartment. These sticky notes are meant to remind me to take a breath. Now every time that I see them, I make sure to take one deep breath before moving on with whatever I am doing. I have one in front of each of my work environments and one at eye level when I exit my bedroom door. Below are two examples of where I have placed them.

4. PHONE TIME LIMIT

Finally, I am working to spend less time on my phone and have enabled the Time Limit reminder feature for certain applications on my phone. What has been interesting about this particular one is that while I do tend to check it a little bit less, it is still very easy to just hit “Ignore Limit” and add another 15 minutes. What would be super helpful is if somewhere below or next to “Ignore Limit” it counted how many times I had already done that in a day. 

I’m fascinated by everything that is relevant to nudging so if you have any recommended reads or recommended nudges please let me know!

[letsbeckyb]

If you know, you know #IYKYK

Burberry combats potential customer burnout by preemptively addressing logo fatigue. Many high-end designers have enhanced their higher-end offerings by making them unrecognizable to the random onlooker.  Now, if you own elite items, you don’t need to flaunt it with logos, nor do you need to see the logos to recognize them, this creates a sense of “in the know”. If you know, you know. 

This tactic not only addresses the ubiquity of the Burberry check, but it will help to protect the desirability of the brand in the future. The logos are less visible, and therefore seem less commonplace and the brand more exclusive.  

Many people think that current Burberry brand positioning (the crossover between functionality and luxury) is not going to be sustainable in the long term.  But it is because Burberry built itself on functionality and not only luxury, that it will thrive in this discrete logo era.  People will continue to buy Burberry regardless of discrete (or non-existent) logos because of the utility and legacy behind the apparel.

[j3sle0n]

The Power of Hispanic Americans

The US is the home of millions of immigrants from all over the world, however, the fastest growing minority group are Hispanics.

It is projected that by 2045, Hispanic people will comprise 24.6% of the total US population. - Census Bureau

Brands will need to learn and identify the most appropriate and compelling ways to target Hispanic customers. Corona has had success in advertising to this group because of their name and deep traditional Mexican roots, while other brands such as Heineken haven’t had luck in due to their foreign nature and some frankly racist ads - have you seen their “Lighter is better” ad 🤦🏽‍♀️, thanks Chance the Rapper. Heineken will need to better understand the changing demographics in order to target them appropriately. This really goes to say that the purchasing power of America is changing and companies who do not integrate to increase their marketing approach or provide growth opportunities within this demographic segments will be left behind.

[paysola]

And the winner goes to.....Mindy Kaling!

The Challenges in Shifting Cultural Perception

This case hit close to home. Growing up in an Indian household in North America involved so many cultural challenges that were shifting on a regular basis. Western culture and Indian culture as a teenager have surprisingly little overlap. There were many cultural tensions to balance - from going out with boys as a teenager (a hard no), to moving out for college (finally, a yes). In between, there was the constant battle of not going out in the sun too much. As a runner, I was constantly reminded not to run in the “middle of the day” and to this day, as a grown adult, I am still encouraged not to be outside on a sunny day. What the case touches on, is the difficulty of shifting cultural perception. I think India has come a long way in terms of reinforcing all kinds of skin colors. And while I think the progress is much needed, and way overdue, I also feel like there is an entire population that is overlooked - my parents. Indian immigrants in North America have been completely overlooked and under-targeted for these media pushes. And instead, my generation is forced to fend for ourselves. Forced to reconcile with the cultural tensions we face on a regular basis. 

However, I’d like to thank Mindy Kaling. For bringing these issues to the forefront in the US, and allowing a much needed generation (mine) the ability to discuss this outwardly. I think that more focus should be on using celebrities to expose the dark (no pun intended) underbelly of the issue of skin color in India, and should be implemented globally as part of a more widespread campaign.

[rodricktan]

Safeguarding luxury brands in the digital age

Burberry’s issue of protecting its exclusive brand in 2003 as it rose to popularity continues to be an issue today, but in a different form. The contribution of Burberry’s online business continues to grow, and online sales might even one day eclipse its brick-and-mortal sales. The question, then, is what can luxury brands like Burberry do to safeguard its luxury status in the digital age? I outline a few recommendations below that I believe are key for luxury brands to look out for:

1. Define or be defined: share your brand guidelines. A partner site might use an outdated logo or low quality images, which could hurt the brand. Oftentimes, this is unintentional -- perhaps the partner did not have access to the latest logo, the latest stylebook. An easy way to solve this is to provide brand guidelines, similar to how Audi provides a style guide for its partners.

2. Be selective of your advertising touchpoints. I know it’s tempting to advertise in social media sites that are the latest craze of the moment, but brands should be careful of brand equity damage. For example, Gucci actively manages an official TikTok page, which I would argue damages its reputation because it’s not the right platform for its target market and tone of messaging. Tiktok caters to an unintended target market for Gucci. Instagram, instead, is a better fit because it has evolved into a platform that portrays people and brands in an aspirational way. Luxury brands should be careful in choosing where it advertises and where it sells.

3. Clamp down on counterfeits. Just as luxury brands should be aggressive in shutting down physical retailers that sell counterfeits, they should be just as aggressive in the online space. Louis Vuitton does a good job of sharing its commitment in protecting the brand and threatening “contributory liability principle” for all parties that support counterfeit sales, even if indirectly.

[yesmatcha]

The power of a brand: Black & Decker

Makita's ability to outsell B&D stems from an unfavorable brand association that people in the professional tradesmen segment have for B&D. Unfortunately, professional tradesmen seem to associate B&D tools with the consumer B&D segment and thus perceive it to be of lower quality, even to the point of embarrassment - "If I came out here with one of those Black & Decker gray things, I'd be laughed at." 

Although I would expect the two professional segments to be more similarly associated, I think the difference stems from a couple reasons. One is that the colors are not all that different - even though the professional segment products are charcoal grey while the consumer segment products are black, the contrast is not stark enough to provide a clear distinction. In addition, when it comes to channels and distribution, there is more similarity between consumer tools and professional tradesmen, than the two professional segments. Walmart, Kmart, Home Depot, and Ace Hardware are all places that everyday consumers have access to and may visit on occasion, whereas W.W. Grainger is distinctly different. 

We see the importance of brand association in so many products nowadays. Color is a surprisingly strong differentiator for some brands, like the coveted Tiffany blue or Louboutin red bottoms. In fact, companies have even gone so far as to trademark their colors, to the point of lawsuits (e.g., T-Mobile suing a small insurance company over the use of magenta). 

https://www.npr.org/2019/11/22/782130847/t-mobile-lawsuit-argues-that-the-company-should-have-sole-use-of-magenta-color

https://www.businessinsider.com/can-you-identify-these-12-brands-by-their-trademarked-colors-alone-2012-2

Beyond color, we see that different brand names owned by the same parent company can be used to convey different connotations and associations. Not only can different names be used differentiate between a more basic vs. premium offering, but it can also apply to other distinctions like gender targeting as well. For example, Luna bars are marketed to women while Clif bars tend to target men - to the point where I've even had male friends refuse to try Luna bars because they "can't eat that, those are for women," even though the ingredients are really not all that different.

[the-irrationally-rational]

Expecting More from Companies in the Age of Social Responsibility

With the rise in the popularity of behavior science in the 2000s, marketing experts wisely pointed out that none of this was new. These were tricks that companies had been using for decades, but there was no formal language or area of research around it. Then books, such as Influence by Cialdini, hit the market. Despite the fact that this is a cult classic in the marketing industry, it was written to arm people against “compliance professionals,” to help people avoid being manipulated.

This book and the rising popularity of “nudges” is the precursor to the “woke” culture we see today. There was a shift in consumers becoming more critical of the brands they support. Consumers began to demand that companies take responsibility for their impact on society. Companies were expected to communicate their values and stick to them in all parts of business. This demand was justified.

A great example of the impact companies can have on society is whitening products. Emami, a subsidiary of Unilever, justifies their production and advertising of whitening products by simply claiming they are giving people what they want.

“There is a need in our society for fairness creams, so we are meeting that need…. There have been studies carried out across the world that . . . show all consumers, whether fair or less fair or dark, are dissatisfied with their skin color. Everyone wants their skin tone either two shades lighter or darker. In our part of the world, skin lightening is something that people look for.”

But where did that need come from?

This is the problem. The imagery, narrative, and use of celebrities in their advertising have artificially created the need for whitening products in society. It is a constant bombardment of messages that tell people they are undesirable, but there is a product that can fix that.

Obviously, this became a problem with the rising demands for companies to be responsible for their impacts. In contrast to Emami, Dove, another Unilever subsidiary, released an iconic advertising campaign celebrating diversity of skin-tone and body shaped. Dove was celebrated, despite being linked to Emami via Unilever. However, some consumers were still skeptical. Did they do it only knowing it boosts their sales?

So how do you create branding and marketing that conveys values in an altruistic way? Take a look at Patagonia. Patagonia is part of the textile industry which is one of the most taxiing industries on the environment, but they have created a strong brand around environmental protection.

Patagonia have a few of the most iconic campaigns of the last decade, the “Don’t buy this jacket” and their decision to close for Black Friday and donating 100% of online sales proceeds. On the surface, it’s really easy to say this wasn’t altruistic and still a ploy to increase sales. After all, these campaigns have greatly increased Patagonia’s market size and even the sales of that jacket. So how is this different?

Look to the behavioral concept of Cooperating Without Looking. The easiest analogy is to imagine a relationship you have in 2 alternate universes. In universe A, your partner wants to take a break to date around for a while before fully committing. In universe B, you partner tells you “I don’t need to look around, I know I want you.” In which universe do you feel more wanted? Sure, the approach of dating around is logical, but we aren’t logical. We are emotional being. We have the need to feel wanted and the person in universe B sounds like a romantic movie. Patagonia is your universe B.

Patagonia made these moves before everyone and had no idea if it would help them in the long-run. Sure, they believed a deep commitment to their values and customers would do that, but they had no way of knowing. This is what makes their actions much more powerful than the constant “we stand with…” statements or performative gestures to appear inclusive or green. It also has a lasting effect where future actions by Patagonia are more trusted.

In the age where consumers expect responsibility from companies, ambivalence and inaction is not acceptable. Emami can’t hide behind the illusion of customer needs because companies are expected to address the problems they are a part of in an authentic way. Motives matter and consumers seek them out regardless of whether or not they are aware of it.

[martinralfreindl]

Sun + Fun + Corona (= Miami?)

In the late ‘90s, Corona Beer was faced with a difficult decision on how to further expand its US operations. In recent years, the brand had increased sales in the US, and it was poised to become the number 1 imported beer brand in the United States, surpassing even Heineken, its main competitor of many years.

While Heineken and Corona competed in the same market as premium import brands (Heineken from Europe and Corona from Mexico), their brands differed significantly. Heineken’s branding focused on quality, but relayed little identity beyond this statement (“Just being the best is enough”). It is unclear to me how Heineken was able to properly back up this brand image in a highly commoditized market like beer (beer = beer = beer), presenting a clear vulnerability for the brand. At the same time, Corona’s brand had a clear identity around “Fun, Sun, Beach”, which was reinforced with catchy campaigns like “vacation in a bottle”. In this sense, Corona has already created a more unique identity than Heineken, giving it an edge in terms of its brand. 

Given my understanding of these two brands, it seems like Corona is in a strong position to expand its operations by continuing to expand its existing marketing campaign into new regions (it’s advertising budget of $5.1M is only a third of Heinekens $15.1M). At the same time, Heineken needs to quickly start creating a brand that has a more unique identity. One way to do this would be to lean into Heineken’s international origin with something like: “A beer that’s loved across the world for it’s great taste: from the Eiffel Tower, to the Pyramids of Gizeh, to the Statue of Liberty”. 

[jessiemou]

The game changer - customer centric value

Differentiated positioning - customer centric services

In the old days when airlines saw themselves as prestigious, high-cost government sponsored outfits, Singapore airline differentiated its positioning from its competitors as an airline providing superior customer service including pioneering free food and beverage services for Economy Class passengers, more cabin staff per seat than most other airlines, and adjustable headrest. The differentiated offering from its competitors attracted many repeat customers for the airline and supported its growth since the start.

To sustain its customer centric value, SIA thrived to innovate in my aspects.

Increased service offering to serve customer needs

While a lot of passengers travel on Singapore Airlines for business, SIA formed a subsidiary carrier, SilkAir to better service the  passengers who are traveling to and from SEA countries for leisure purposes with a lower price offering, smaller air craft but serviced as well as SIA.

Loyalty program open to only first and business class passengers

SIA were one of the last airlines to launch its mileage program and it was only open to business and first class passengers which is then changed to PPS program today. Being a SIA member myself, the privileges including discount at Changi airport, access to lounge and etc. incentivizes customers to take the airline more often.

Innovative branding approach

The traditional Malay Sarong Kebaya air stewardess outfit has served as one of Singapore Airline’s icons. From advertisement at the airport or magazine, to the air stewardess greeting you on the air craft, the Singapore air stewardess has become the best branding element for Singapore airline. Building on its brand identity, SIA made its safety video featuring its air stewardess going around different places in Singapore while sharing safety instructions. The company leveraged the “Singapore girl” identity to differentiate itself from its competitors and incorporated this brand identity in its every single innovation. 

[ashaydin]

Diversity & Inclusion: Brands In Action

After reading the case “Fair & Lovely vs. Dark Is Beautiful”, I was reminded of how much work brands still have to do to take action on diversity and inclusion. Brands should understand that representing one definition of what is beautiful and celebrated isn’t acceptable and scares away a larger, more diverse customer base with a variety of cultures, experiences, and preferences.

What brands, in my humble opinion, are getting diversity and inclusion right? 

ThirdLove and Microsoft are moving in the right direction. 

ThirdLove, a company founded to create lingerie for a more representative customer base, always celebrates the uniqueness of women in its ads. Unlike companies like Victoria’s Secret, ThirdLove - through it branding and media - is vocal about empowering women regardless of shape, size, age, ethnicity, gender identity, or sexual orientation - and creating a movement around the empowerment. The company puts its words into action by offering one of the widest selections of bra styles and sizes. 

Microsoft’s 2019 Super Bowl ad for its “We All Win” campaign is also a great example of promoting diversity and inclusion. The ad, focused on the Xbox Adaptive Controller, designed to minimize the difficulty of playing video games for those who struggle with a standard controller, features young gamers with disabilities enjoying their experience and socializing with friends. The ad was extremely moving with the subject Owen saying, “No matter how your body is or how fast you are, you can play.” Not only did the ad celebrate diversity and inclusion but it also showed that Microsoft, after all, isn’t JUST a corporate giant. 

Diversity and inclusion shouldn’t be a nice-to-have for brands, it’s a MUST. 

[remouraposts]

Successfully failed!

Why a product that seems to attend a consumer needs, presents good quality, great advertisement investment and adds value to the consumer, still fails?!

On  John T. Gourville's paper, we are presented with a framework that helps us evaluate and understand why failures happen, even when the idea and everything else looks fantastic! The idea is to look at the innovation and see how fast and broadly it can diffuse into the market (what are the impediments and facilitators?), identify what are the characteristics that can improve to accelerated the acceptance rate, and finally discover if it adds value to the chosen market segment.

A great example to use this framework and understand why a product fails is the 2001 “innovative” product named Segway.

When it was invented, it presented a compelling promise to help solve the problem of traffic in large cities where many people take the car out of the garage to walk short distances and alone. Imagine if these cars were replaced with something much smaller, it could be the end of long hours stuck inside your car! 

So, what went wrong? 

Diffuse into the market: Mistake #1. The product was so “innovative” that it didn’t’ fit any category of transportation. So it could not be used on the sidewalks, as it has a motor and could be dangerous to pedestrians, nor on the road as the speed was below a car or motorcycle. 

Characteristics: Mistake #2. Different than a bike, Segway was much heavier and definitely harder to move around from one floor to the other, entering places and parking.

Market segment: Mistake #3. Te market segment. The company was targeting people who use a car to ride short distances, but were those people willing to spend 5K on this? Do they really need it? Maybe if Segway decided to focus on corporate customers (security staff for instance) since the beginning the outcome for the story could have been different.