20th Year Flashback No. 2: Street-Works

Feb. 16, 2012 Posted by admin in 20th Year Flashback, Branding

Welcome to our second Flashback video! We are reflecting on our experiences with the brilliant Ken Narva and Richard Heapes, co-founders of Street-Works in White Plains, NY. We had the pleasure of working with Ken and Richard on Blue Back Square – a mixed-use development in West Hartford, CT. Their vision and understanding of how thoughtfully designed places can impact a community and preserve its heritage are inspiring. Thank you, Ken and Richard, for teaching us about the importance of authenticity in design.

20th Year Flashback No. 1: Robin Mosle

Feb. 10, 2012 Posted by admin in 20th Year Flashback, Branding

Welcome to our first Flashback video. Over the next 52 weeks we’ll share stories about the people, places and experiences that have shaped us during the past 20 years.

For our first Flashback video, we’re honoring development and retail leasing expert Robin Mosle. We’re so fortunate to have been able to support and be inspired by Robin over the years on mixed-use development projects such as Blue Back Square, The Launch at Hingham Shipyard and Pentagon Row among others. One of the many things we learned from Robin is that ALL details matter when designing great customer experiences, even in seemingly utilitarian spaces. So, THANK YOU, Robin Mosle!

Today We’re 20!

Feb. 10, 2012 Posted by admin in 20th Year Flashback, Branding

We’ve been privileged to help shape some great brands. And, in the process, they have shaped us. So each week in the year ahead, we’ll be sharing stories in our 20th Year Flashback video series about the people, places and experiences that have touched us, taught us and challenged us. For each of you that have been part of this journey, we THANK YOU. And for those we have yet to meet, we invite you to come along.

The “Movement” Movement Is On

Oct. 06, 2011 Posted by admin in Branding, Education, Interaction, Product, Social

From non-profit causes like Susan G. Komen to eradicate breast cancer, to “The Potty Project” by Pull-Ups to eliminate pooh-filled diapers – the hot new bastion for marketing is clearly “movement” marketing. Every movement comes down to a group of people uniting around a single idea or cause with a passion for some sort of change.

With the Potty Project, parents help each other by sharing their experiences in teaching their tots to use the potty. The site is engaging, clearly creates community and positions Pull-Ups as a helpful brand. Movement marketing leverages this organic power of “idea-centered” individuals with today’s technology and social platforms to form a single collective identity and connects it to the brand. The brand further inspires the cause, creating a virtuous cycle – each gaining more momentum as the other grows. What feeds this cycle is authenticity – your brand must not only be relevant to the movement, but truthfully passionate about it. Then comes the big opportunity – becoming more relevant (and valuable) to your customers than just the product or service you produce and sell. Ultimately this collective identity, your customers, becomes a co-creator of your brand. And the real movement is on!

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If you are feeling a bit like the movement has left the station and you’re still on the platform, you might want to sit down and reconsider your brand’s purpose.

Think Outside the Bag

Sep. 28, 2011 Posted by admin in Branding, Food & Beverage, Identity, Positioning, Product

There are many opportunities to delight your customers and create a memorable connection. And because branding is all about what makes your product or service distinct, sometimes a memorable opportunity is right under your nose.

Take Lipton Clear Green Tea for example. As a promotion for this blend, a carry bag was designed in the form of an actual Lipton Clear Green tea bag, with a sample of the tea enclosed and handed to mall shoppers as a giveaway. By turning a tea bag into a shopping bag and turning mall walkers into walking ads – everybody wins. It’s a brilliant yet simple touch point that couldn’t be more on brand.

So what’s your obvious brand touch point that’s perhaps right under your nose. The opportunities outside the bag are limitless.

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Sometimes you can’t see the forest for the trees or the bag for the tea.

Save Money. Buy More Beer.

Sep. 21, 2011 Posted by admin in Branding, Food & Beverage, Identity, Positioning, Product, Social

A brand can portray its personality through creative execution. Or, it can accomplish the same feat by selecting an on-brand method of distributing the message. But, when a brand accomplishes both – that’s a double whammy.

James Ready Beer, positioned as a low cost adult beverage, did just that while connecting its cost-conscious customers with multiple deals around town. And, by turning their billboards into coupons it screamed low cost in a memorable way. Deals like, “Save $2.26 on stain removal from pants” or, “15% off couples hair removal” (see more at http://bit.ly/d6wbtb).

How does a billboard become a coupon? By leveraging today’s technology, you simply photograph the billboard with your smart phone and head to the store. In addition their website promotes deeply discounted event such as…Free Semi-Professional Portraits, Free Personalized Underwear and Free Stylish Haircuts. Between all the billboard coupons and free events there’s no reason not to buy more beer.

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If you’re looking for big ideas, remember it can be the message, the medium, or if you’re really good, both.

Good Customers Sell Better

Sep. 14, 2011 Posted by admin in Food & Beverage, Interaction, Positioning, Product, Social

What does it take for you to make your customers forget about the other guys? Not good ideas, but better ideas. Starbucks, who introduced us to the coffee house, when others far better positioned in the marketplace could have (but didn’t), continues to innovate.

But, it’s how they continue to innovate and increase brand value that you may find surprising. They do it by leveraging the insight of those who have the most to gain – their customers. By building an online community of brand advocates, whom they now refer to as the “MSI Community” (my Starbucks idea).

Once someone in the community shares their idea online, it’s thoroughly discussed, voted on and then you follow along to see if it gets implemented. Will it be a “current popular idea,” will it rise to the next level of “ideas under review” or will it ultimately reach the pinnacle of “newest ideas launched.” They even feature a leader board for those submitting, commenting and voting.

So far they’ve literally launched over 150 of these free ideas, with one giving customers the ability to buy a drink for a friend remotely. So, someone who drinks a lot of your product gives you an idea to get others to drink more – that’s not good, that’s better!

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When you’re working on ideas in the coming weeks to hit those 2011 revenue numbers, forget the caffeine jolt, and go straight to your customers.

There’s a Guerilla in the Room

Sep. 07, 2011 Posted by admin in Branding, Interaction, Positioning, Social, Technology

What serious marketer wants to hear about guerilla marketing? The one that realizes social media has put the “guerilla” in the middle of the strategy war room. You can’t miss it. You must recognize it, and well… embrace it.

There are great examples everywhere of innovative companies choosing non-traditional media, executing something dead-on brilliant and then leveraging social media to give it flight. Ikea is but one example – check it out at http://bit.ly/dm6Lwk. Hundreds of red picnic blankets cover a large park area with picnic baskets in the center of each one. It is virtually art. Yet, it brings attention to two of their products in the environment you’d enjoy them, promoting the benefit of the products and delighting you.

Now, here’s the twist. Several years ago it would have been for the benefit of the fortunate few who witnessed the promotion. But, you guessed it, with social media thousands will see it and wish they were there. So gather the team and start brainstorming. Surely you can conjure up at least one “guerilla.”

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Today, while it’s less and less about traditional media it is more and more about innovative, meaningful ideas that can be given incredible lift through social media channels.

Where’s the best place to go fishing?

Aug. 31, 2011 Posted by admin in Branding, Environmental Graphics, Food & Beverage, Interaction, Positioning, Product

Like the old adage says, the best place to fish is where the fish are. The same could be said of marketing. And hence all the work many marketers do in the arena of segmenting, geo-targeting and media analysis. But that is more akin to doing all the research on just the right lure and ending up at the wrong fishing-hole.

Today we are seeing more and more great brands going where the fish are – that is delivering a brand experience directly to their would-be-customers. They are doing it with “pop-up shops,” of all shapes, sizes and purposes. One that caught our attention was Heinz. Known as a purveyor of comfort food (not so much ketchup) in London, they discovered 20% of Britons when abroad missed their Baked Beans and Cream of Tomato Soup and make a point to eat them on their return.

So Heinz decided to go straight to where the fish were – customers returning home via the Gatwick Airport – precisely when emotional longings were peaking. There they created the “It Has To Be Heinz” arrival lounge, where brand advocates could relax for a moment in a homey environment designed around their favorite products. Linking home with Heinz at just that moment has all the brand value of well… landing the big one.

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Given traditional media alone often has the results of a tired, worn-out lure, catching the customers you need means thinking outside the tackle box.

Packaging for Apples Today Keeps the Competitor Away

Aug. 24, 2011 Posted by admin in Branding, Food & Beverage, Health and Fitness, Positioning, Product

We have come to expect great packaging from the “Think Different” people at Apple. But can you also “think different” when it comes to marketing your product or service even if it’s as commoditized as say apples – yes, the ones you eat.

Check out the Appletown School District example our team ran across at our local Target store. Let’s call it in-the-box thinking – that is if you were thinking the box was shaped like a school bus, colored that familiar shade of yellow and that you would place the apples inside.

It pulls a lot of emotional triggers from gifting your favorite teachers to reminding you that “good” parents should place an apple in their kids’ lunch box. And does it jump off the produce aisle? Absolutely, this is a case where, “the wheels on the bus go round and round” all the way to the check out counter.

So, get inspired and re-evaluate the “packaging” of your brand deliverables. Remember it takes fresh ideas to grow. And there’s no way your product is less innovative or more commoditized than a Gala apple.

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There is always a way to improve brand value or heighten the experience of your customer, whether improving the product or service, the experience of its delivery, creating a product extension or even repackaging the existing one. You may just need a crisp, juicy idea.