ABo's Branding Blog

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(In)effective Leadership Brand

We all have our list of characteristics that makes an effective or ideal leader. We can also probably list the least desirable brand characteristics of a leader. 

Here is a list of my favorite traits of bad leaders.

Micro-managing

Talks the Talk, but doesn't Walk the Walk

Takes Credit for Everything

And now for some of my favorite examples:

Steve Ballmer, former CEO of Microsoft

Jeff Skilling, former CEO of Enron

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The Relationship Era

Looking at the Brand Sustainability Map, its interesting to see Amazon, USAA, and Apple in the top right quadrant (Sustainable Relationship), but American Airlines in the absolute bottom left quadrant (Limited Relationship). For me, American Airlines was always the best US airline and one of the strongest brands I could think of. Its the airline I grew up flying the most. Its the airline I favored even when I started buying my own flights. I always thought they provided a great customer experience. The truth is, I had a strong emotional attachment and relationship with American Airlines. As a kid, I got signed up for their Advantage Program and I thought it was pretty special. They used to give me those gold wings pins when I would board the plane. Things like that really stick with you. They are collectors items now on ebay apparently:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/251369432069?lpid=82

Even though American has gone through tough times as of late (they were the last US airline to have to go through bankruptcy), I have continued to hold them in high regard and use them preferably. I think part of that is my strong attachment to the Advantage program and its benefits. I think they need to do a much better job of fostering that emotional bond at an early age. 

JetBlue is taking a page right out of American Airline's script and offering 'Junior Crew' wings for kids:

Airlines were always providing a service and with many airlines competing on the same routes, what devolved was nasty price wars. No one wins with price wars, especially not your brand. If airlines like American want to win back customers by having "transparent and honest practices", they have a long way to go, especially when it comes to their dynamic pricing strategies. I don't think they are ready to give those up. However, you look at airlines that have maintained great brands like Southwest, and they have operational excellence, friendly and helpful staff, and a great customer experience.

Southwest flight attendants have youtube videos with almost 500,000 views for their safety announcements! Now that creates a memorable customer experience.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9lZV_828OA

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Have to start off with the original Intel Bunny People ad. Hilarious and unforgettable. 

Intel realized they could not create a new brand for each updated version of their processors. That is why they created an umbrella brand - "Intel Inside". 

What was really innovative and different about their umbrella brand was that they worked with their original equipment manufacturer (OEM) partners via a co-op advertising program. This was crucial in having consumers recognize that Intel chips were inside and it became a stamp of reliability and performance. Now customers demanded having computers that had the "Intel Inside" sticker on the package. The "Bunny People" Super Bowl ads helped gain popularity with the general public and not just IT managers. A really crucial reason for the success of the campaign was that Intel continued to push the envelope, leading the way with their technological innovation.

The problem today is that PCs are not the fastest growing segment of the technology and media markets. PDAs and cell phones were becoming the new computers and Intel had not seen this shift coming. 

Intel is the market leader in chip technology. As cellphones and PDAs begin to perform the same functions that PCs did just a decade ago, why shouldn't Intel extend its "Intel Inside" brand to these devices? Maybe they need a new tagline or brand under the "Intel Inside" umbrella.

"Intel Mobile Inside" anyone?

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Accessible Luxury

When you think about luxury retail brands, there is a spectrum from Coach to Hermes. One way to calibrate that range is by how much it costs to own an item from that brand. Burberry realized that there were gaps on the efficient frontier of luxury brands and did an excellent job of establishing themselves as accessible luxury. This was a delicate operation, walking the fine line of making the brand more appealing to younger upper middle class consumers but not letting it get TOO accessible.

As a kid I thought Burberry only made umbrellas and trench coats. Still, I got it in my head that I wanted to have a Burberry trench coat. A blue one. With that famous plaid lining. After getting my first bonus in my first job after college, I walked into Saks Fifth Avenue and went straight to the hackers and coats on the 6th floor (I think) and bought myself my dream coat. It was full price and they said it never goes on sale because it’s always in demand and the style never changes. That is a pretty good hallmark of a luxury brand, but one you can afford sometimes.

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What is a brand manifold?

What's a brand manifold? I had never heard the term manifold used to refer to a brand before. A manifold is supposed to describe a topological space or surface, or can be used to designate the space-time continuum. Come to think of it, brands do have multiple dimensions. A brand changes over time as the population and culture changes over time. Some companies don’t want their brands to change and work on managing and highlighting their history and past. A clothing company like Turnbull & Asser has been making high-quality English tailored shirts for over a century. They don’t advertise on tv and don’t make flashy shirts that might appeal to a younger or more adventurous segment of the population. They are not looking for multiple constituencies. They make classic and conservative shirts of the highest quality. And that is what their customers expect. On the other hand, a brand like Porsche decided that it needed change with the times and modify it’s brand manifold to tap into new constituencies. Porsche was not known for lower-end sports car or SUVs. When they released the Cayenne and the Cayman, they had to be very careful not to alienate their long-time consumer base.

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Singapore Airlines: A Bastion of Service and Luxury

Most of us have never seen the inside of a Singapore Airlines A380 First Class Suite. Most of us probably never will. Here is a video tour of what it looks like.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3nlZmMAEHA

This may be an extreme example of the level of service that the airline has gone to in order to differentiate themselves. This level of customer care and attention has allowed Singapore Airlines to set the standard for luxury air travel. It has recognized that customers like new planes, so it committed to having a younger fleet than any other airline. They went out of their way to measure customer satisfaction.

In the face of a crisis, they were able to be more nimble and decisive than other airlines because of the way they were structured. 

They also leveraged their 'Singapore Girls' brand of attractive and friendly stewardesses. 

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The more expensive the wine, the better it tastes

Most people could not tell the difference between a $5 and $50 bottle of wine. However, as affluence increases around the world, people want to think they are more sophisticated and will pick the more expensive bottle - regardless of whether it tastes better or not (as if they could actually tell). 

Concha y Toro has developed a strong global brand while marketing a number of sub brands to different consumer segments. They even claim to have received "the largest number of nominations" for world's strongest brand. In revitalizing their brand, they had to choose between a "bottom-up" or "top-down" strategy. Given that people want to prestige, I think that leveraging their high-end wines and using them to expand into the lower-priced segments is the best way to do that. They can maintain their brand equity value by having sub-brands. However, in order to appeal to the larger population of middle-class wine drinkers, they need to give them something with a little more cache.

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Battle of the Terrible Product Launches

Slicing bread perfectly and putting it into a plastic bag was a brilliant idea. It solved the problem of uneven slices and risk of cutting yourself. Slicing cheese into individually wrapped slices also was a great idea, as it can be difficult to slice cheese perfectly. Also each slice stays fresher longer, as opposed to a block of cheese that gets dried out and crusty.

Individually wrapped peanut butter slices sounds like a brilliant idea... but how hard is it to spread peanut butter??

Why would someone pay a premium for sliced peanut butter? People might like different amounts of peanut butter on their bread. A significant segment of the peanut butter-eating population also likes chunky PB, which is not available in slices. So already they are not going to be able to target a significant portion of the market. 

I thought that this product would have the slowest diffusion of the four products in the case... that is until I read about DigiScents. What happens when you see something gross or terrible-smelling on the screen and it automatically releases that odor?? How do you get rid of it? What happens if odors get combined into something really nasty? iSmell smells like a terrible idea that will get almost no traction in the marketplace.

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King of the Imports: Corona vs Heineken

If you haven't seen some of the classic ads Corona launched in the 2000s, you are really missing out. The feature people relaxing on the beach, drinking Corona. In fact, Corona became synonymous with beaches. Brilliant marketing campaign. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFI5K0l8Nn4

Heineken is a globally-known brand as well and has a pretty established following in the US. However, it is more associated with holiday parties and not necessarily with bikini-clad women on perfect beaches. Heineken being a European brand also might be a weakness against a Mexican brand like Corona. 

Beaches and bikinis win over anything European. Europe is associated with sophistication. Light beer drinkers are not looking for sophistication. They are looking to chill out (on a beach, preferably). 

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Power Tools & Power Brands

Is this a power tool or a power weapon??

Black&Decker dominated the power tools business for so long that the brand became synonymous with quality and craftsmanship. Somehow along the way, though, the brand became more associated with consumers and at-home use. This caused electricians, carpenters, and other tradesmen to shun the brand to distance themselves from your weekend Home Depot aficionado. B&D managed to forget how to leverage their brand and Makita from Japan starting eating their lunch in the tradesmen sector.

It seems that B&D has to change the perception of their tools as something weekend warriors use to hang up a painting. A change of color to something aggressive like all red tools would be a good start. Have to get tradesmen to feel differentiated and exclusive to be using the professional line of B&D and not just what Joe Shmo can get at Home Depot.