Abhishek Gupta

[abhishek4077]

Burberry and BMW

While reading about Burberry, a brand which I kept drawing parallels to was BMW. BMW is aspirational yet functional, and also has created a niche for itself (along with its German rivals) as an automobile brand that signifies luxury, utility and performance at the same time. BMW = luxury and prestige, which pitches it against the uber-luxury brands; BMW = performance pits it against the sports car manufacturers; while BMW = utility sees it up against the practical brands like Honda and Toyota. This is somewhat akin to the position Burberry finds itself in, wedged between the luxury fashion brands like Gucci and the lifestyle brands like Ralph Lauren. BMW has actually done a great job in walking this tightrope, with its brand architecture (7-series, the M Sport brand + the roadsters, entry level cars like the 1 series and the mass market 3, 5 and X series) and acquisitions (Mini Cooper). A great example of how they conveyed this “mixed bag” of their portfolio to the public is through a series of short films they produced called The Hire. It starred Clive Owen, and each film was directed by a top Hollywood director and starred top actors/celebrities. Each had a different situational setting and had Owen driving a BMW (different model in each film) as the protagonist. There was no direct reference to the BMW, but the films highlighted the key attributes of the car through the storyline and screenplay - performance, luxury, safety etc. Each viewer was free to take away the aspect that mattered most to him/her. It was a major success in marketing and branding, and had a direct positive bearing on BMW’s business across their product lines in the years ahead.

[abhishek4077]

Google Glass - The modern day Edsel?

The Edsel has gone down in history as one of the biggest flops in marketing, business planning and execution. Ford built up immense hype over a year, teasing the public about the Edsel; but when the launch did happen, the product itself was underwhelming, badly executed and downright ugly. It tanked.

Google is not a name one would normally associate with failures of the Edsel sorts. But Google Glass, a game-changing technology that the tech giant felt was the next frontier in personal wearable electronics, was one colossal failure. The product lacked a clearly defined customer and business case. The technology itself (primarily AR) was still in a nascent stage and the product itself was buggy and had poor UX. There were also privacy concerns that slowed its adoption. It was clear that the mass market wasn’t ready for such a product and Google didn’t help its own cause by not clearly researching the customer needs and identifying a strong target segment. As a counter example, Microsoft’s Hololens did pretty well in the B2B segment; marketed to select industries for specific use cases (for example - elevator maintenance at ThyssenKrupp). Google Glass was shelved in 2015.

Google Glass (above)

Microsoft Hololens being used for elevator maintenance (below)

[abhishek4077]

“Reverse” Nudge Theory and Organ Donation

Utilizing nudging to get more people to sign up as organ donors has proved to be an effective mechanism here in the US. Asking people whether they consent to be an organ donor while applying for a driving license or state ID has significantly increased sign-up rates. This is an “explicit consent” or “opt-in” model.

Taking to this to another level is the “implied consent” or “opt-out” model. Here, a person is assumed to be an organ donor unless they specifically choose not to. This is an interesting variation of nudging, with some reverse psychology in play - where the nudge is actually pushing someone to do the “wrong” thing. It’s like a parent telling his/her child to “go ahead - do that”, knowing full well that there is a very slim chance of the child actually following through because of some form of repercussion (societal, getting hurt etc.).  The statistics suggest that this is pretty effective in the area of organ donation. In opt-out countries like Spain and Austria, more than 90% of people register to donate their organs, while in “opt-in” countries such as US and Germany, fewer than 15% of people register. [source: https://sparq.stanford.edu/solutions/opt-out-policies-increase-organ-donation]

The organ donor sign-up numbers from Austria and Germany, two neighboring countries, illustrate this nicely - Austria: ~99%, Germany: ~12%

[abhishek4077]

The strength of Corona & Lime

Modelo were very clear in creating a fun-loving, “Fun, Sun and Beach” branding around Corona from the get-go. Even though their prices were comparable to Heineken’s, Corona never marketed itself as a premium imported brand or something to aspire to (which Heineken did). Importantly, Corona’s brand had a strong story - it immediately invoked an image of parties, fun, beaches and vacations, whereas Heineken invoked.... nothing much except $$ ! This was a challenge for Heineken, since there was a potential disconnect with the main target demographic for imported beer - the young and hip. 

On the matter of branding, it is worth noting that Corona’s extremely strong brand has stood the test of time, and is currently weathering the Coronavirus storm well. It is not illogical to expect most brands to take a severe beating when their name is associated with the worst pandemic in recent history, but contrary to this, Corona is actually doing well - “Corona Extra sales grew 5% in the U.S. in the latest four-week period, which ended Feb. 16 — nearly doubling the 52-week trend for the brand.” [source: https://www.factcheck.org/2020/03/coronavirus-fears-havent-sunk-sales-of-corona-beer-in-u-s/]

Corona themselves have stayed quiet in the light of the rumors and unkind memes and refrained from any knee-jerk reactions whether it be Tweets or discounts. Fast Company says their ““silence is the best possible response to coronavirus memes and discussion”. [source: https://www.fastcompany.com/90471294/why-corona-beers-silence-is-the-best-possible-response-to-coronavirus-memes-and-discussion]

[abhishek4077]

Black & Decker's Branding Conundrum

Black & Decker's struggle to establish themselves as a market-leader or even challenger in the Tradesmen customer category appears to be a result of brand perception.

Eliminating the other probable causes:
Quality - B&D's studies around quality and reliability of their tools, including blind tests with the tradesmen clearly showed that their products were not lacking in quality and usability.
Service - Perceptions around B&D's service were also not a major concern, as their market studies showed.
Price - Prices were in fact lower than Makita and Milwaukee, so this again, was not the cause for their low sales and market penetration.

Brand perception, specifically amongst the tradesmen, thus seems to the be the culprit in this case.

- B&D appears to be a victim of their own success in the consumer category, as the tradesmen have seen B&D tools and appliances being used extensively at homes by non-professionals. This is a case of "guilty by association" - B&D's ubiquity in the consumer space signals that they don't build for professional usage.


- Industrial users have limited influence on tradesmen/contractors, as they do not often cross paths professionally or personally. This is unfortunate for B&D, because they are very strong in the industrial segment, and endorsement from these users would definitely help their brand image amongst the tradesmen.

Among the three options being considered, the option to "Drop the Black & Decker Name from the Professional-Tradesmen Segment" seems to be the most logical.

- Using a brand name like DeWalt, which has a positive recall in the tradesmen's circles, would seem to be a good move


- B&D can stake its claim to the brand through the "Serviced and Distributed by Black & Decker" tag, which was the most appealing as per market research


- Using the color lever to differentiate the brand even further is a good idea, as a yellow (or some other) color with a "DeWalt" logo would definitely move the product line further away from the existing B&D brand - which would be a positive development in this case


- Not having a "B&D" line of tools in the Tradesmen category should have limited or no impact on B&D's sales and brand image in the Industrial or Consumer segments, where the decision making units and processes are very different and insulated from the tradesmen category.