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[aagarwal-blog]

What type of pitcher are you?

Heuristics are used in all sorts of decisions, but I never really thought about how heuristics shape first impressions, particularly in the context of pitching a new idea. As the article described the 3 positive pitcher stereotypes: the Showrunner, the Artist and the Neophyte, I was thinking to myself about which category I might fall into. It was a bit concerning that I don’t think I fall into any of the 3 categories quite neatly, and I feel like this is probably an area I need to work on in my personal leadership branding. I’m probably closest to the Neophyte and when rehearsed to pitch an idea try to be the Showrunner. 

I also think as a future leader, and being in the position of judging the ideas of others, its equally important that I develop certain tactics to mentally break away from using these heuristics to make decisions. I think the article provided some strategies of asking objective questions, but I am curious to learn more about how to preserve that self-awareness to consciously break away from stereotyping, which I’d argue is probably the hardest part.

[aagarwal-blog]

Twitter fails by big brands

McDonalds is not the only company to have an innocent and positive marketing campaign completely backfire. I’d expand on some of the lessons learned by #McDStories campaign and include being aware of both internally what is happening at the company and also sensitive to the timing of external current events. Here are 3 examples from Business Insider:

1) Bing uses #SupportJapan campaign to raise money for earthquake victims, but consumers perceived this as a cheap and exploitative marketing tactic:

2) Kenneth Cole used the #Cairo hashtag to describe the “uproar” its customers were having about its new spring collection. People on twitter were not amused and believed the tweet was insensitive to the political movement in Egypt and instead spent the rest of the day bashing on the brand:

3) Qantas launched a campaign to highlight his luxury amenities with #QantasLuxury. Unfortunately, at the time the entire fleet had been grounded due to a labor dispute, and as a result produced tweets like this:

[aagarwal-blog]

Burberry stretching too far

It’s ironic how the very steps Bravo took to reposition the brand, which included consolidating its license agreements and exerting more control to ensure its brand was perceived more consistently, are the very same issues that Burberry is facing today after re-stretching and re-extending the brand over the last few years. I believe the Burberry’s brand identity of being classic but modern, and appealing to the banker, fashionista and urban youth to be very inconsistent and concerning. Burberry’s strategy to extend the brand with Burberry Brit and Burberry London have only exacerbated this problem. By positioning in the “middle”, I think its even more important to be tightly defined otherwise the brand loses to competition from both sides. After some quick digging, it looks like Burberry is getting rid of some of its lower-end brand names for this very reason. However, I believe this will only solve a part of the problem because Burberry plans to continue to offer their products at a variety of low and high price points under one main collection.

[aagarwal-blog]

SIA’s 4 brands too much?

SIA has long been a successful example of building a premium brand within the airline industry. Just recently, a brand study within Singapore scored SIA’s brand image the highest, which is impressive considering it was compared to the likes of Apple, WhatsApp and many other strong international brands. 

However, I’m concerned that SIA’s multi-brand strategy with 4 different airlines: Singapore Airlines, SilkAir, Tigerair and Scoot each representing very contrasting brands (e.g., Singapore Airlines - premium, Tigerair and Scoot - both low cost carriers) and also operating on many of the same routes will be challenging to manage successfully.

[aagarwal-blog]

Brands associated with country of origin

I found how the country of origin for wine producers influenced the brand image for many consumers to be fascinating and quite honestly very accurate when I think about how I determine wine quality. As I was reading the case, I began thinking about what other product categories are significantly influenced by the product’s country of origin. Beer is an obvious one, but another one that immediately came to mind is car manufacturers. For example, German for performance, Japanese for efficiency, American for cost. It’s an interesting strategy and I can see how it can help prop up a small or emerging brand within in a country, but definitely also a double-edged sword as its hard to break out of pre-conceived categorization by consumers.

-Ankit

[aagarwal-blog]

Diffusion of Products

Peanut Butter Slices - I think that compatibility will be a huge issue for this as majority of consumers may associate slices with lower quality peanut butter and as a result the company will need to spend a lot on consumer education to overcome compatibility issues.

Silver Bandages - I think this has some of the greatest potential, especially as other “differentiated” bandages have proven the ability to raise willingness to pay for buyers, especially parents. Consumer education will be a requirement, but I think this is solvable.

Satellite Radio - While I am guessing satellite radio has been modestly successful particularly for commuter and trucker segments, I believe online radio services like Spotify will ultimately win this market. This is one idea that wasn’t discussed in the readings and really understanding competitive underlying technologies and how they may disrupt a disruptive technology only a few years later.

iSmell -  Very interesting idea and I think it works well for certain specific use-cases such as watching the cooking channel and simultaneously experiencing associated smells or online shopping for groceries. However, I think that because this is such a significant behavior change for the average consumer, and that it may evoke negative emotions for certain use-cases (e.g, I personally wouldn’t want to be smelling anything I’m watching on TV except for the cooking channel) that compatibility will also be an issue here

[aagarwal-blog]

Corona vs Heineken

When I started to think about what the brands mean to me, I immediately first thought about where and when do I drink each brand of beer. For me, Corona is a summer and vacation beer and I pretty rarely drink it on a regular night out. On the other hand, while I don’t drink HeIneken that often, the only times that I can remember drinking it were during an evening happy hour or casual drink with friends. And then when I thought about the last TV ads I saw for each beer, Corona obviously has done a great job of communicating that fun / beach brand identity because it’s the way that I and probably many others drink it. I couldn’t remember the Heineken commercials off the top of my head but once I googled I was pleasantly surprised that the last commercial I remember watching was the Daniel CrIag/James Bond spot. This commercial I think aligns well with the somewhat premium casual beer identity that they are going for, and I guess it must be working. - Ankit

[aagarwal-blog]

B&D Thoughts

I found it pretty surprising that B&D had such different brand perceptions between their Professional-Industrial and Professional-Tradesmen product lines. While the type of professional buyer is different, both segments share a number of common characteristics including desire for a professional-grade product both in terms of brand perception and actual performance. It’s not surprising that their consumer brand is likely the major driver behind why brand perception is so negative for Professional-Tradesmen buyers. One question I would want to try and answer before making a final recommendation would be why Professional-Industrial buyers do not feel the same way.

I would hypothesize that part of the reason has to do with the commercial contractor channel that B&D uses to sell to Professional-Industrial, and that these contractors may offer better product education, servicing or pricing relative to competitors as compared to the residential contractor channel used to sell to Professional-Tradesmen. But even if this is the case, I believe there must be other reasons why the Industrial brand has been shielded from the consumer brand. I would want to better understand these reasons and possibly incorporate into a final recommendation.

In terms of a recommendation, I think some sort of re-branding strategy using the DeWalt name would be the best course of action given that performance of the actual product isn’t the main issue, but rather negative brand perception from the consumer product line. I believe any sort of sub-branding strategy would not accomplish the goal of separating the product line’s brand identity from the consumer segment.

-Ankit

[aagarwal-blog]

Corona vs Heineken

When I started to think about what the brands mean to me, I immediately first thought about where and when do I drink each brand of beer. For me, Corona is a summer and vacation beer and I pretty rarely drink it on a regular night out. On the other hand, while I don’t drink HeIneken that often, the only times that I can remember drinking it were during an evening happy hour or casual drink with friends. And then when I thought about the last TV ads I saw for each beer, Corona obviously has done a great job of communicating that fun / beach brand identity because it’s the way that I and probably many others drink it. I couldn’t remember the Heineken commercials off the top of my head but once I googled I was pleasantly surprised that the last commercial I remember watching was the Daniel CrIag/James Bond spot. This commercial I think aligns well with the somewhat premium casual beer identity that they are going for, and I guess it must be working. - Ankit

[aagarwal-blog]

B&D Thoughts

I found it pretty surprising that B&D had such different brand perceptions between their Professional-Industrial and Professional-Tradesmen product lines. While the type of professional buyer is different, both segments share a number of common characteristics including desire for a professional-grade product both in terms of brand perception and actual performance. It’s not surprising that their consumer brand is likely the major driver behind why brand perception is so negative for Professional-Tradesmen buyers. One question I would want to try and answer before making a final recommendation would be why Professional-Industrial buyers do not feel the same way.

I would hypothesize that part of the reason has to do with the commercial contractor channel that B&D uses to sell to Professional-Industrial, and that these contractors may offer better product education, servicing or pricing relative to competitors as compared to the residential contractor channel used to sell to Professional-Tradesmen. But even if this is the case, I believe there must be other reasons why the Industrial brand has been shielded from the consumer brand. I would want to better understand these reasons and possibly incorporate into a final recommendation.

In terms of a recommendation, I think some sort of re-branding strategy using the DeWalt name would be the best course of action given that performance of the actual product isn’t the main issue, but rather negative brand perception from the consumer product line. I believe any sort of sub-branding strategy would not accomplish the goal of separating the product line’s brand identity from the consumer segment.

-Ankit