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A cartoon by Paul Noth. For more cartoons from this week’s issue: http://nyr.kr/15YoucX

Coco Chanel and the Tanning Industry

How do you combat an endemic part of an entire culture that is inherently flawed or wrong?

Do brand leaders, business professionals, and entrepreneurs have a responsibility to stay away from revenue generating opportunities in one country if they may be seen as unethical or immoral in another country?

The Fair & Lovely vs. Dark is Beautiful case is an interesting study into some of these questions.

While its easy to judge the Indian Market as something so out of the ordinary, I think their brands, companies, and industries that capitalize on people’s insecurities.

Tanning Beds

Whereas the Indian skin whiteners and lighteners market size is roughly $450 Million USD, there is an industry in the US that is even bigger and arguably even more dangerous: tanning salons. At $2.6 Billion USD per year, the tanning salon industry in the US is almost six times the size of the skin-lightening industry in India. The potential danger lies in the short and long term effects that customers are leaving themselves susceptible to. If you don’t know what I am talking about here is a small excerpt from the Center for Disease Control on tanning beds:

Using a tanning bed, booth, or sunlamp to get tan is called indoor tanning. Exposure to ultraviolet (UV) rayswhile indoor tanning can cause skin cancers including melanoma (the deadliest type of skin cancer), basal cell carcinoma, and squamous cell carcinoma. UV exposure also can cause cataracts and cancers of the eye (ocular melanoma). UV exposure from the sun and from indoor tanning is classified as a human carcinogen (causes cancer in humans) by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (part of the World Health Organization) and by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Scary stuff. According to a published Harvard paper I recently came across, back in the 90′s, both the American Academy of Dermatologists and the The House of Delegates of the American Medical Association recommended banning tanning beds altogether. And yet, they are still around with little to no regulation.

While companies and NGOs have launched campaigns trying to get people to embrace their natural beauty, the reality is that these problems still exist. Is there any thing we can do to change this unfortunate reality?

Not so fun fact: According to the internet, the person who is responsible for creating the tanning obsession is non other than Coco Chanel.

#2018mitsloanbrandinga

Burberry

As a CEO, Rosie Bravo gets it. As a brand you cant be everything to everyone, and the fact that Bravo was willing to make choices around consolidation and reeling in certain licensed stores was a clear sign that she would be the hero that the brand needed. At the same time, she was wise enough to identify gaps that existed within the category (between RL and Gucci), and what needed to be done to capture that unattended to market segment.

If you want to go far go together...

Rosie was also smart enough to cultivate an all-star team and empower them to leverage their unique skill breathe life back into the brand was pretty impressive. People like Christopher Bailey, Stan Tucker, and legendary photgrapher Mario Testino were able to have a meaningful impact on Burberry under Rosie’s leadership

Dont forget your core...

Most importantly Rosie never forgot about what the brand was at its core. An English brand with one of the most recognizable symbols, the Burberry Check. Finding strategic ways to emphasize both the check and the ‘Englishness of the brand’ (by incorporating models like Kate Moss) helped bring Burberry back to the forefront.

Personally, I don’t own any Burberry products, but after b-school, I am definitely making a few purchases.

#2018mitsloanbrandinga

Singapore Airlines: Maintaining Brand Perception and Consumer Expectations

Perception is everything, especially in the Airline industry. As a brand, when the consumer’s perception of your product is actually matched by a quality product, you’re really winning. The issue however, is once you’ve established a perception of quality, you have to work hard to stay up on innovation, trends, and changing consumer preferences in order to maintain that reputation in the marketplace.

As it pertains to Singapore Airlines case, even though incorporating innovative beds will require a significant investment, Singapore Airlines should still move forward with the implementation. The primary reason for moving forward with the investment is because when business and first class consumers purchase a Singapore Airlines flight, they have the expectation that they will receive an incredible experience. This experience includes seating, entertainment, and engagement with Singapore Airlines employees (this is reason why their recruitment process is so serious, as well as the reason why they invest so much in their employees). The second that the quality of the Singapore Airlines experience does not match or exceed that of their main competitors is the second that they really start to lose customers. Additionally, not only is this investment decision aligned with their reputation for high quality experiences, their current net margins compared to most of their competitors, as well as the company’s overall outlook implies that Singapore Airlines has enough room to take on the financial stress associated with the new beds implementation.

Sure, post 9/11, the industry was in a tough position, which makes the decision to invest complicated; however as the case points out, Singapore Airlines has built its brand around creating a quality experiences for their customers. They should stay true to that and invest in pleasing their most lucrative consumer segment.

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What do Chilean Wines, North Dakota Wines...and Being a Colombian-American have in Common?

I find it both remarkable and terrifying at just how much the environment a brand is associated with, can impact the perception of that product as well as the perception of the products that are associated with that product. If that’s confusing for you, let me break it down.

For branding, we were asked to read a case on the Wine Industry as well as an accompanying article on an interesting wine experiment that was conducted back in 2006. We were also asked to read a case on Chilean Wine conglomerate, Concha and Toro.

As a proud first generation Afro Colombian American, I have experienced the impact that brand perception on multiple levels. When I tell people I am Colombian, there are automatic assumptions and things that are also associated with me. Some are positive (he must be a great dancer, he must be great at soccer, he must be SO romantic), and some not so much (I wonder if his family is involved in the drug business, he can’t be trusted, etc). To go a step further, when I tell Colombians that my family is from Buenaventura, many Colombians have strong opinions about the area as well (that place is dangerous, he can’t be too smart...I wonder if his family is involved in the drug business). Like the strategy suggested to CyT by Futurebrand, I approached interactions with people in a similar manner. I created my own personal ‘sub-brands’, emphasizing certain elements of my background for different audiences.

Today, Colombia has done a complete 180 on the world stage, and now the world can’t get enough of the brand. But when I read about the North Dakota Wine experiment, or the struggles that Concha y Toro (CyT) faced in trying to define their brand, I can’t help but recall the impact that brand perception and my association with certain environments has had on me.

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Corona: A Lesson in Understanding Your Audience

I recently read an interesting case study on Modelo and Corona for my branding class at MIT. The case discussed the history of Corona, and how the leaders of Modelo were able the dominate the Mexican beer market, while also gaining a sizeable market share in the Imported Beers market space stateside.

My biggest takeaway was the Importance of Understanding Your Audience and having a relationship with your customers and end consumers.

Understanding Your Audience

In the case, there was a section dedicated to discussing the changing demographic landscape of the United States and how the Hispanic community were becoming a bigger part of the American economy. Given that Corona is a Latin American brand, it a had a unique opportunity to leverage their understandings to speak to this growing consumer segment. But in order to ensure they were speaking to the right consumers, they made sure to have people on the ground in the United States

In terms of consumer segments that they were not well versed in, the brand ended ended up partnering with domestic distributors that had a better understanding of the American consumer and could deliver the Corona brand messaging in a way that made sense.

The partnerships also allowed Corona to establish a deeper relationship with their end customers and consumers in the Imported Beer segment. Through the partnerships they were able to develop a successful Point of Sale program targeting wholesalers and retailers.

#2018MITSloanBrandingA

Wedding Season. via Instagram http://ift.tt/1LAVTmR

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Shout out to the little kids and the parent who decided to throw my dad a surprise birthday party at his elementary school yesterday...this pic made my day! via Instagram http://ift.tt/1M51iOZ

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Reminiscing about the good ol' days! #eclipse #classics #houstonians #XU via Instagram http://ift.tt/1gXxr2y

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Thinking of you today and always Kenneth. It's still crazy to me how sometimes the people we spend the least amount of time with here on earth can still have the biggest impression on us. via Instagram http://ift.tt/1Ym8vDO

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