April 30, 2007

Be The Brand

We were walking along a square in Florence and noticed a sign that said The Mercedes Store. There was a handsome Mercedes Benz in the window, and I figured this was a local car dealership.

Not at all. It was a store featuring all kinds of stuff with Mercedes Benz logos. It was all about extending the Mercedes brand beyond the cars. Stores like this featuring Ferrari merchandise are commonplace in Italy...but, Mercedes?

Fact is, everyone is stretching their brand across a larger landscape. Caroline Nuttall passed along an article today from the LA Times about companies creating activities linked to their products or services. For example, the Nike store in Portland has a running club that meets - you guessed it - in the store. And Whole Foods there hold a monthly "singles night" with wine tastings and snacks.

It's all about "experiential" branding...people meeting people with similar lifestyles.

We recently profiled customers of one of our clients by lifestyle, and now we're marketing to them in ways that connect with each respective lifestyle. It beats traditional demographic and psychographic profiling, because it relates more powerfully to how customers interact with your product or service.

How Fresh is Your Logo?

If you're so used to seeing it that you hardly notice it (yes, that can make sense!), maybe it's time to freshen it up. It's a painstaking and inevitably expensive process, but logos are so revealing.

Saks Fifth Avenue recently refreshed its logo, reaching back to the 1973 version and then slicing and dicing it (quite literally) many different ways, so that it can appear in numerous formats but still be recognizable. It's very clever and contemporizes the store that - like any department store - could easily have drifted into stodgy obscurity.

Moving Billboards

The presidential political season is heating up, and we're starting to see a bunch of bumper stickers around town. We used to call them "moving billboards." Consumers choose to display them (which is an interactive experience that strengthens the consumer's bond to their candidate), and they are seen around town (like billboards).

Since consumers select what they display, the presence of bumper stickers can tell you a lot about the mood of the electorate.

With that in mind, it's not surprising that in 2004 there were 4 million magnetic "Support Our Troops" ribbons sold by the leading manufacturer...while last year, only 48,000 were sold.

April 7, 2007

Opening Day

The baseball season has begun. I heard the fireworks from the ballfield last night, as Mike Veeck's Charleston Riverdogs opened their season. Veeck's fun-based business philosophy makes that team one of the most successful in its league. And, as he points out in his book - Fun is Good - the 'fun' philosophy is equally applicable in business. I heard a good line the other night at the revival of Inherit the Wind, starring Christopher Plummer and Brian Dennehy: "When you lose your power to laugh, you lose your power to think straight."

Designers are Today's Rock Stars

It's true. Design is so vital to the success of virtually any product or service, so the importance of good design has never been more highly valued. To prevent disease, New York City began giving away condoms in 1971. In recent years, the city has expanded its distribution. But it was only when the condoms were recently packaged with clever subway-themed logos that the numbers went way up. Within one month, more than five million condoms were distributed...vs. a total of 18 million for all of 2006. All that changed was the design, complemented by a poster campaign with lines like "New York's hottest new wrapper" and "We've got you covered."

Yay for the Team!

I'm so proud of our public relations team. They keep knockin' them out of the park, and - most recently - two Rawle Murdy case studies were picked to be published in PR News' Guidebook of the Top 100 Case Studies for 2006. That's quite an honor. The cases describe the situation, the action taken, and the results.

Heading for the Hills

I'm going on vacation for a couple of weeks. Back when the pollen washes away...hopefully.