brand as business bit:  During the Big Game tomorrow, most eyes will be on Tom and Eli, but it’s David, Jerry, and Elton and the other celebs featured in more than a third of the ads who I’ll be most keen on watching.  That’s because Super Bowl ads make for great case studies on what works and what doesn’t in brand communications.

In preparation for tomorrow, it’s worth seeing what the ghosts of Super Bowl pasts teach us:

In 2010, I found most of the ads violated some of the fundamental rules of advertising:  know thy customer, know thyself, and avoid unsavory associations.  See my recap: “Manthems, Delusions, and Other Super Gaffes.”

A couple of years ago, the Super Bowl ads served to convey 5 advertising lessons including #1: creativity is a must, and #2: too much creativity can back fire.  Check out “My Super Bowl Was Filled with Guacamole.”

Check back next week for notes on what I learn this year.

brand as business bit:  My latest Brand New Perspectives column in QSR Magazine answers a QSR operator’s question about keeping customers coming back.

The piece outlines my thoughts on increasing purchase frequency — an objective of practically every marketer — I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the effectiveness of a heart-felt ‘thank you.’  Said with earnestness, those two words have so much power — they:

• convey emotion — humans are emotional beings
• make a personal connection — what marketer wouldn’t want to do this?
• stand out — because it’s becoming a rare occurrence
• increase profits — read the evidence in this great bit from last fall’s Fast Company
• give me a reason to buy again – nuff said

Here’s an example of a well-executed “thank you” I recently received in an order from the White House/Black Market:

Love it!

In the spirit of New York Times Magazine’s annual Year in Ideas, I’ve compiled an alphabetical digest of ideas, from A to Z, that I wrote, spoke, and passed along over the past 12 months.  The following are excerpts — the original pieces linked. 

By assembling this collection of preoccupations, provocations, and predilections, I realize how random my ramblings may seem at times – but I hope they’ve been helpful to you in some way.  So here we go:

All You Need Is Love – Love is a driver of business — when businesses are grounded in love and when leaders love the people around them, the result is growth and goodness and success and strength. (my op-ed published by the Greenville News)

Belief Repositories – “Belief repositories are fueled by hard evidence but can lead marketing teams to make investments where no experiment or marketing mix model has yet been run.” (Joel Rubinson in a guest post on my blog)

Culture Isn’t Enough — A vital, vibrant culture unifies, aligns, focuses, motivates, and propels.  But it is not enough to produce a profitable business.  Culture must be linked to, and pursued with the same rigor and vigor as, the customer experience. (blogpost)

Decrease Your Deal-Dependence with Differentiation — Differentiation is really the best way for all businesses to address consumers’ new value mindset. (my bylined article published by Franchise Update Media)

Embrace (and Enforce) an Inspiration Policy –  Clarify why inspiration is important to the company, and how people will be supported and encouraged to develop it.  (one of the top10 things i’m going to use from Andy Stefanovich’s book, “Look at More Stuff”)

Failure Is a Gift – “I think of my failures as a gift. Unless you view them that way, you won’t learn from failure, you won’t get better.” (from my three-part recap of Harvard Business Review’s Failure Issue which quoted former P&G CEO A.G. Lafley)

Grow As Slowly As You Can — Growing slowly allows you to make sure you have the right people and allows you to personally foster your culture. (learned from talk by Jason Fried, CEO of 37signals)

Health Is In the Eye of the Beholder –  Health means different things to different people — and that variation is actually good news for restaurateurs. (my bylined article published by SmartBrief for Restaurants)

Innovate Around the Person, Not the Technology — The temptation with any development in technology is to use the new capability as the starting point for innovation.  But this often leads to developments which fall short of or are off base from what end users want and need. (my guest post on CEA’s Digital Dialogue)

Just Because… “Food is served fast, doesn’t mean it has to be the typical fast food experience” – (from my recap of the reality TV show, America’s Next Great Restaurant, quoting Steve Ells, founder of Chipotle)

Kodak Tries to Bring Its Digital Revival into Focus — Kodak is not giving the consumer a reason to purchase. I don’t know that a good brand halo helps if you don’t have the ability to convert it into sales. (my POV quoted in Bloomberg Business Week)

Less Is More — “Trader Joe’s may offer customers less choice. However, in terms of ease of choosing and relevance of choice, it is definitely where less choice is more.” (C.B. Whittemore in guest post on my blog)

Modern Brand Names — Brand names reflect the business climates they’re developed in — modern brand names need to tap into the differentiating power of values and personality. (blogpost)

Not 360 Degree Marketing – “The goal shouldn’t be 360 degree marketing.  Find 10-20 degrees that give the most leverage.” (advice from Tim Maleeny, Ogilvy’s Director of Planning)

On-Stage Leadership – “Leaders are always on stage… it’s a metaphor [to explain] role modeling is the key element. They’re always in the spotlight.” (the philosophy behind Sharp Healthcare’s leadership training, as explained by Director Mark Tomaszewicz)

Progressive Brands Should Turn Their Backs on Sustainability – “Brands have a far more important – a far more exciting – role to play in helping us all move towards becoming more sustainable in our lifestyles.” (POV of Guy Champniss, Managing Director of Meltwater Consulting, as relayed in my blogpost)

Quality… of engagement is a better measure of brand strength than quantity of followers (from my piece “Leveraging ‘Like” Into Loyalty” published by Franchise Media Update)

Remarkable Retail — What makes a retail store an experience so compelling that customers will tell others about it?  Interactivity, a personal and local feel, and an editorial voice. (my e-newsletter recapping a series of Brand Experience Briefs)

Storytelling – “If you’re curating really excellent thought-provoking content, and then sparking conversations around that content, you can build that kind of equity…so that people naturally develop a relationship with you.”(recommendation from Sam Rosen, Creative Director and Co-founder of ThoughtLead)

Take a Crap – I told a CEO to “take a crap” – that is, go sit on the toilet in her restaurants — so she could see how much the details of the customer experience get overlooked.  (blogpost)

Use Your Fear – Survivors aren’t fearless.  They use fear:  they turn it into anger and focus. (one of many business leadership lessons from the book, “Deep Survival” as relayed in my presentation)

Visibility – A logo must achieve impact and contact. The former is about visibility, stating what the brand is and stands for; the latter connects the brand to the customer, making a personal, emotional connection. (my Brand New Perspectives column in QSR Magazine.)

Wallets…are becoming as unnecessary as watches.  Smart phones are easier to use, provide more functionality, and offer greater security.  (blogpost)

X…as in TEDx San Diego – spoken word artist Sekou Andrews opened this year’s event with an inspiring declaration:  ”When our ‘ready’ is ‘able,’ our will be done.” (from my slideshow recap)

You Need More Competition — More competition is a good thing because it generates increased demand, gives customers confidence, builds up infrastructure, and helps you get better. (my bylined article published by SmartBrief on Leadership)

Zappos — CEO Tony Hsieh says, “Every employee can affect your company’s brand.  Not just the front-line employees that are paid to talk to your customers.” (quoted in my speaker video)

Thank you for following, reading, re-tweeting, liking, commenting, and sharing me and my work this year!  See you in 2012 for another year of ideas!

• What are some of the different views of the value, role, and best approaches to paid, owned, and earned media?
• Why are conversation and storytelling so important in today’s media?
• How can companies use content to make people’s lives better?

These are the questions I cover in today’s inteview.  My guest is Sam Rosen, Creative Director and Co-founder of ThoughtLead, an organization whose mission is “to spread important ideas that positively impact our world through online marketing.” 

Sam began his career as an award-winning social entrepreneur, founding and leading local and national initiatives to increase funding and awareness for community service.  He then became enamored with the field, practice, and philosophy of marketing, and switched his focus to digital strategy for lifestyle, business, and personal development publishers and experts. To merge his passion for changing the world with his love of marketing, Sam founded ThoughtLead where he now he ideates and directs campaigns that help brands like Dow, IBM, and HubSpot.  You may recall I featured an analysis of one of his conferences, The Future of Marketing, earlier this year, so when I heard he was involved with a new event, The Future of Media:  Radical Integration, I asked him to join me for a conversation.

Give this interview a listen and check out Sam at www.thoughtlead.com.

other interviews:

• Marti Barletta on Marketing to PrimeTime Women
• John Gerzema on Connecting with Today’s Consumer
• Jonathan Salem Baskin on the History of Social Media

In a recent post, I described a meeting I led for one of my clients that needed to engage its senior leadership with its brand. And I mentioned that I had started the meeting with a cheeky “What Can Brands Learn from Lady Gaga?” video.

Although I can’t show the video here, I did want to share with you the points from it, since I really do believe the Lady has a lot to teach us about brand-building. And the success she’s achieved in such a short time is admirable for anybody – and any organization – that’s looking for tangible results:

• won five Grammy awards
• 1st album “Fame” hit #1 on record charts in 6 countries
• named Billboard Artist of the Year in 2010
• on Time Magazine’s list of the 100 Most Influential People
• is #7 on Forbes’ list of Most Powerful Women
• sold over 22 million albums and 69 million singles worldwide
• grossed $170 million on 137 songs in 22 countries in 1 year

Those are impressive numbers on the key metrics that matter for someone like Lady Gaga. How did she build such a powerful brand? Here are the top 5 lessons we can learn from the Queen of the Little Monsters:

#1. define a clear identity

“Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta” just wasn’t who Lady Gaga aspired to be, so she changed her name and assumed a new identity:
• a change agent
• a diva
• pop culture
• creative
• outré (definition: unusual and startling)

Companies need to clearly define their brand identity. While visual image is certainly an important piece of this (Lady Gaga wouldn’t be Lady Gaga without her unique looks), identity is much more than just a logo or look and feel. Brands must be clear about what they stand for – the values and attributes they want to be known for.

Companies need to ensure the brand identity is understood, embraced, and interpreted and reinforced properly by all internal stakeholders so that it is clear to the outside world. This is particularly important in today’s social media-dominant world where if you don’t define your identity, someone else will.

#2. be different

If there’s one thing Lady Gaga is, it’s different. She stands out from the sea of female pop artist sameness by looking, acting, performing, writing, and being different. “You have to be unique, and different, and shine in your own way,” she explains.

Differentiation is critical to brand-building as well. It’s important because our brains are hard-wired to notice differences. So differentiation enables you to stand out and get noticed – not a small feat in the today’s over-crowded marketplace.

More than that, though, differentiation also helps create brand preference by helping customers understand their options and giving them reasons to choose one over the other. And it helps companies charge higher prices. If people perceive an offering as special, they are willing to pay more to get it. Think of how at auctions it’s the one-of-a-kind items that people drive up the price for. Plus, if you offer something completely different from everyone else, customers can’t easily compare it to others and so you can set your own price expectations.

#3. tell your story by creating an experience

Lady Gaga is an entertainer, so she knows how to create a breakthrough experience that really brings to life who she is and what she wants to say.

Think about the 2011 Grammys. She was paraded through the streets and down the red carpet in an egg carried by staffers in revealing eggshell-like costumes. On stage, the egg hatched and Lady Gaga emerged, launching into a spectacular version of Born This Way. At one point, she played on a dramatic organ with disembodied heads balanced on top and, at the end her dancers stripped off their latex outfits. Talk about an experience!

Most companies, of course, wouldn’t want – or need – to create such a spectacle, but they do need to create customer experiences that stand out and send a message. Brand experiences should tell a story, appeal to the senses, and inspire — from start to finish. And, details matter (you can bet every moment of Lady Gaga’s time at the Grammy’s was choreographed.)

#4. stand for something bigger than yourself

The gospel according to Lady Gaga goes something like this, “I want women — and men — to feel empowered by a deeper and more psychotic part of themselves. The part they’re always trying desperately to hide. I want that to become something that they cherish.”

Or in other words, “To everyone who says this is wrong to feel like this say, ‘I was born this way baby.’”

To her fans, Lady Gaga is more than a singer or performer. She is hope, love, inspiration, and empowerment. That’s why she’s able to create such a powerful connection with them.

Companies can develop powerful connections with their customers as well. For some, this is done by connecting the core values of the brand with customers’ core values. For others, it’s about calling people to a higher purpose to which the company and its customers aspire. The point is to recognize that, as humans, we all seek meaning in our lives.

#5. foster a community

Community is what creates impact for brands and for Lady Gaga.

Lady Gaga calls her community her “Little Monsters.” They love it; they love her. She’s written a manifesto and created an app for them.

She also uses different tools to engage, listen to, share with, and relate to them: Twitter (12.2 million followers), Facebook (42 million likes), YouTube (150 million views), etc. Her website features a wiki-style blog, Gagapedia, which features nearly 2,000 pages of content she and her Little Monsters have created.

These tools and tactics are powerful brand-builders. They help develop relationships that seem exclusive and personal, while fueling buzz and broad awareness. What company wouldn’t want to have a passionate community of supporters and evangelizers?!

To riff on her song title, Lady Gaga teaches us about brand romance!

related post:

• kicking off a brand journey

The adage “god is in the details” is usually offered in reference to a small mistake with big consequences. And when it comes to brand touchpoints, it’s commonly known how a screw-up here or a snafu there can cause significant damage to a brand’s image and equity.

But often the most important details are ones that most companies overlook.

They’re not mistakes so much as they are simply missed opportunities.  It’s easy to miss or miscalculate the value of some brand touchpoints. They’re unused branding real estate that people wouldn’t give a second thought to, unless someone else did first.

Here are three details I noticed recently:

reloadable charge card from Caribou Coffee – The card conveys simple, uplifting messages like “Yes, It is possible” and “Hold hands, not grudges” in a well designed layout. How fun!

water decanter at Ciao Bella restaurant (in Richfield, MN) – A glass bottle is labeled, “Fresh water compliments of the house. This double filtered water is free of impurities, free of wasteful packaging, and free of charge.”  How refreshing!

stamp on letter from Plant with Purpose (a non-profit working against deforestation) – A Forever postage stamp features the exhortation “use efficient light bulbs” accompanied by a cute drawing of such a light bulb. How appropriate!

What’s significant about all three of these examples is that the companies didn’t just slap their logos in these spaces. They used the real-estate to convey messages – and meaningful messages at that. The messages reflect the core values of the brands and convey a sense of the brands’ personalities.

These details weren’t necessary – we’ve all used charge cards featuring logos or fanciful designs, been served water from unlabeled decanters, and received letters with regular stamps. I probably wouldn’t even have noticed their absence if they hadn’t been there. But I did notice them, and they did have an impact on me. Each was a positive brand impression. And that’s the point.

Conventional wisdom says that there are only a few ways that customers get exposed to your brand – advertising, packaging, websites, and social media. But the reality is, there are hundreds of touchpoints between your brand and the outside world.

Below is a template of a Brand Touchpoint Wheel which shows all the possible touchpoints through which people experience a brand.

When we created one of these at Sony, the brand wheel identified over 240 touchpoints — not including all of its products. Fewer than 40 of them were advertising or marketing touchpoints. A wheel like this shows that the big things you say are greatly outnumbered by the little things you do.

So if you’re looking to make a bigger impact with your brand, pay attention to the smaller opportunities. By conducting a simple customer experience audit, you’re likely to discover a whole host of brand touchpoints you never thought of before. And by thinking about the best ways bring your brand values and attributes to life, you might identify opportunities to create new brand touchpoints. (Also you can always contact me to learn more about how a Brand Touchpoint Wheel might be a helpful tool for your organization.)

When it comes to your brand, no touchpoint is too small to make a big impression.

related posts:

• america’s next great restaurant episode six recap
• corporate reports are brand touchpoints
• birthdays and brands

I may be dating myself with this headline, but I’m hoping at least a few of my readers remember those Silkience hair care commercials from the 70’s because it helps make an important point about targeting.

You see, back then Silkience was marketed as a “self-adjusting” hair care brand and its popular commercials featured three women with different hair care needs. (I haven’t been able to find the actual spot that includes the “Chisa” line, but this is a good representation the campaign.)

Silkience worked, one ad claimed, by scientifically pinpointing where each woman needed conditioner – the blond needed the product at her roots, the brunette needed it all over, and Chisa, the Asian woman, needed it only on the ends of her hair.

If the trio seems to typecast women and be as stereotypical as Charlies’ Angels, I’m sure the spot got its inspiration from the show – and that’s the point. The ad, which was perfectly acceptable back then, would be too politically incorrect by today’s standards.

In the current hyper-inclusive, don’t-want-to-offend-anyone culture, a spot that dares to point out people’s special needs based on their ethnicity seems insensitive at best, racist at worst. And it’s not just ethnically-targeted efforts that marketers shy away from. Many companies avoid explicitly targeting men out of fear of offending women, older consumers out of fear of turning off younger ones, low-income families out of fear of alienating the more well-to-do.

Marketers don’t want to seem exclusionary, so they dilute their messages and stay away from media, locations, sponsorships, and any other signals that seem overtly discriminating. The problem is, by not clearly appealing to a single target, a brand loses its distinctiveness and draw.

On the other hand, a clearly targeted message and offering resonates with the intended customers and attracts them like a lighthouse to the brand. Bloomberg BusinessWeek has reported in recent months on three companies that are effectively using an exclusive target to differentiate their brands:

1.  Destination XL, a higher-end apparel retailer for the big-and-tall male set. Owned by Casual Male Retail Group, the largest U.S. big-and-tall retailing chain, Destination XL is finding success where traditional stores have fallen short (pardon the pun.)

The stores have wider aisles and larger dressing rooms to meet the needs of a, er, growing customer segment. High ceilings, track lighting, and hardwood floors, combined with a broad selection and higher quality brands attract large men who’ve been turned off by the cheap products found in mass merchandisers and the stigma of shopping at the end of the rack at department stores.

A BusinessWeek article reported that the NPD Group says, “A generation ago few male shoppers defined themselves by body type; now more than half of U.S. men self-identify as big, tall, or short, and they’re more willing to be marketed to as such.”

In a full embrace of this shift, Destination XL plans to open 50 stores this year. And they leave no doubt about it – the chain’s tagline: “A World of XL has arrived.”

2.  The Tropicana hotel and casino in Las Vegas. The casino’s owners, Alex Yemenidijian and Gerald Schwartz, who rescued the failing property from bankruptcy and bedbugs, have re-designed it to be “the best damn pretty good hotel on the Strip,” according to BusinessWeek.

Instead of rebuilding the property with luxury boutiques, celebrity chefs, and headlining entertainers, they went “full middlebrow.” The casino features a Las Vegas Mob Experience interactive museum, $5 blackjack tables, and shows from performers like Gladys Knight. The Tropicana unapologetically targets the market that Yemenidijian says is “between the low end and the snob…the vast majority of the country.”

Occupancy rates and customer reviews are up, since this approach to attracting a distinct crowd stands out in the sea of Vegas sameness and fills a real market need.

3.  Megabus, a “Chinatown bus”-style provider of transportation for young travelers on a budget. With its street-side pickup, express travel between midsized cities, cut-rate fares, and on-board Wi-Fi, MegaBus has cracked the code in appealing to a particular segment of the traveling population.

The company’s operating model is ideal for the 18-34 set, many of whom rely on the service during breaks from college for transportation home or to explore the country. Three-quarters of MegaBus riders fit that demographic.

BusinessWeek reported that analysts concede MegaBus is too down-market to draw business travelers or to go fully mainstream, but with ridership expanding 48% in 2010, the company’s focus doesn’t seem to be limiting. And, if social media chatter is any indication, it’s become quite the popular choice among its target.

BusinessWeek claims Megabus and its parent company Coach USA “have fundamentally change the way Americans – especially the young – travel, so much that they may help kill plans for new railroads.”

Obese men, middle America, and college students on a budget may not seem like attractive target segments — but as these companies show, it not only makes sense to go after them, it pays to be absolutely clear about your intentions.

related posts:

• what the hottest brands have in common
• the business of managing tensions

I had the pleasure of attending two concerts in the last couple of weeks – and although they were entirely different experiences, I came away with the same impression: if brands were like rock stars, they would win over people’s hearts and minds for life.

Now, I don’t mean just any rock star – I mean stars like Bono and Jason Mraz. Two totally different musicians, but two very similar kinds of people – humble, passionate, fun.

The U2 concert at the Anaheim Angels’ Stadium was mind-blowing.

I was one of sixty thousand fans who were treated to a spectacle of immense proportions with a multi-million dollar set that featured a four-legged claw structure, an expandable digital screen, and rotating bridges. Bono and his band of brothers rocked the house for over 2 hours, with everyone dancing, singing, and partying.

The Jason Mraz performance was on the other end of the experience spectrum. Approximately 60 folks gathered at Seabreeze Organic Farm for a Farm to Table Brunch. The day, which included a scrumptious brunch prepared by Chef Gordon Smith, music by Ariah Firefly and Dawn Mitschele, and cocktails by Snake Oil Cocktail Co., culminated in Jason performing a few songs. The day was lovely, intimate, laid-back.

Despite the very different experiences, I walked away from both feeling as if I had gotten glimpses into the souls of these two men – and I was really touched by what I saw.

Both were extremely humble. Bono’s love and respect for The Edge was clear, as he spoke glowingly several times about him. Paul McGuinness, U2’s longtime manager, came on stage for the first time in the band’s history and Bono told the audience that without McGuinness, there would have been no U2. He also gave major props to Lenny Kravitz who opened the night and did a tribute to The E Street Band saxophonist Clarence Clemmons who had died earlier that day. He talked about Representative Gabrielle Giffords, dedicated “Pride” to Maria Shriver, and mentioned guests like Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church. These weren’t mere celebrity shout-outs; rather they came off as sincere words of care and respect for others.

Jason demonstrated his humility when he invited the other performers to join him. He gladly let them take the lead and he seemed to genuinely enjoy sharing the moments with them. He didn’t fuss when his mic kept on dropping out and he was extremely generous with the amount of time he spent meeting people after his performance. Most importantly, the event was promoted without mention of his participation – because it was about the farm, not about him.

Which brings me to my point about passion. Jason is deeply committed to whole living and natural foods (he even has his own avocado grove) and he actively shares his passion with others. His personal blog features links to, among others, superfoods Vitamineral Green and E3 Live Blue Green Algae and Cafe Gratitude ice cream. From his comments at the brunch, it was clear his participation in the event was a demonstration of his passion for the cause.

Bono’s passion for human rights played a major role in his event. In fact Amnesty International has been a part of U2’s 360 Tour from the very beginning, with thousands of volunteers attending the concerts to promote its campaigns and a huge truck-like structure as part of the stage set-up. Bono talked about Aung San Suu Kyi, the pro-democracy Burmese leader who was held under house arrest for 15 years, before he sang “One” while the AI volunteers came on stage carrying glowing lanterns to symbolize the lives still under oppression.

Both artists were clearly having a lot of fun and didn’t seem to take themselves too seriously. When Bono sang “Until the End of the World,” one of the guys brought out some flowers and Bono embraced him in a little dance. Later he cracked a few jokes about the criticisms his Spider-Man musical was getting and chuckled at himself when he messed up one of the lines of “Amazing Grace.”

Jason had his own opportunity to make fun of himself when screwed up a line while attempting to make his “You F***-in’ Did It” song lyrics appropriate for the family audience. He also cracked some very corny jokes and got the audience laughing with some wacky mid-song improvs.

All of these things combined made each man seem real. They were open, they showed they cared, they were themselves. By not trying to impress, they indeed were very impressive.

Which got me wondering why brands can’t be like that. It seems most brands are trying to impress, instead of trying to be real.

Instead of showing humility, they opt for chest-beating (think of all those “anthem” spots) and stage hogging (how many times have you heard “make the logo bigger”?!). Instead of cultivating a passion and sharing it with others, they do “corporate social responsibility” and then exploit the causes they support to get props from their customers. Instead of having fun even when it’s at their own expense, they talk in corporate speak and over-react to criticism.

Not all brands are like this, but too many are. It’s too bad “I’m Yours” and “In the Name of Love” are only song titles and not taglines.

related post:

• love is all you need

What do cameras and sandwiches have in common? A lot, Jonathan Kaplan hopes.

The creator of Flip Video, the super-simple camcorder device that provided a lot of the initial fuel behind YouTube’s early growth, has gotten a lot of press lately about his latest aspiration: The Melt, a nationwide chain of restaurants offering gourmet variations of grilled cheese sandwiches.

Kaplan has set his sights on opening five restaurants in the San Francisco area by Thanksgiving of this year and 25 nationally by the end of next. So he’s lined up an impressive set of partners including celebrity chef Michael Mina and advisors like Sequoia Capital’s Mike Moritz. Let’s hope he’s working with some smart marketers as well.  After all, when it comes to marketing, cameras and sandwiches don’t have a lot in common.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the differences between the two categories, since I’ve worked in both consumer electronics (CE) and quick-serve restaurants (QSR), on brands like Sony and LG for the former and Jack in the Box and Jamba Juice for the latter. There are definitely some substantial differences in the marketing challenges between them.

In CE, marketing must demystify the product, while in QSR marketing, it must mystify it.

Most people need to be convinced that a new technology product is not complicated – that it will do what you say it does and it will be easy to set up and use. As such straightforward marketing approaches are the most effective in CE – Apple’s success with its demo-like commercials exemplify this point.

But when it comes to QSRs, people need to perceive the offering as special and something they can’t make at home or get elsewhere. Marketers create an aura around the product through romance, theatre, and storytelling. A good example is Chipotle’s Food with Integrity platform – through it, the company has made a basic food item, the burrito, seem quite captivating.

Because of the nature of innovation within the CE category, companies are often introducing a new behavior when they launch a new product. Taking informal videos and then immediately sharing them online may seem so natural now, but only a few years ago when Flip was first introduced, it really hadn’t been possible. Many new CE devices often open up new ways of doing things that people never even dreamed of, so a large part of the marketing task in CE is to introduce and evangelize the new behavior.

In the QSR space, people are generally quite familiar with the category. People’s expectations are already set by existing players, so they’re either relatively satisfied with their options or disillusioned by them. Either way, the marketing task is to prompt a fresh look at a familiar offering. Instead of a promoting a new way, you’re promoting a new choice.

Also the differences in the “transactions” involved in the two categories make the marketing challenges different between them.

Electronics are usually one-time purchase transactions followed by multiple usage incidences. Their relatively higher price points and longer life cycles make the initial transaction seem more risky. Marketing must lower the perceived risk through promotion, information, or confirmation (e.g., customer reviews, guarantees, etc.)

On the other hand, the perceived risk of a $8 lunch is much lower for most people, so marketing a QSR is less about risk reduction on a single consumption. It’s more about prompting multiple purchase transactions. You need to provide reasons for frequent return visits.

So, the user experience must be part of the QSR marketing effort – in fact, it’s quite possibly the most important part. With CE products, the user experience is also important but there’s a longer, less direct connection between it and any subsequent purchase.

Which leads me to the final difference – how loyalty is judged between the two categories.

The difference is based on something CPGers commonly refer to as “share of requirements.” If you buy 10 tubes of toothpaste in a year and 7 of them are Colgate-branded, then Colgate is said to have a 70% share of your requirements. In consumable categories, gaining a higher share of requirements is the prevailing goal because most consumers are not 100% loyal to a brand. Even if you prefer Colgate, you probably end up buying Crest sometimes for a variety of reasons. Marketing is considered effective if the aforementioned 70% share of requirements can be raised to 80%, for example.

The same is true in QSRs. A frequent QSR user visits QSRs an average of 25 times a month. With rare exceptions, those 25 visits are distributed across several brands. So, the marketing task is to get more of the 25 — and customer loyalty is best measured by transactions and sales volume.

But in CE, people usually only own one brand of device at a time, maybe 2 or 3 if we’re talking TVs or cameras. Share of requirements becomes less meaningful in this context and loyalty is better measured by feelings of affinity or frequency of advocacy.

When considered together, the difference between CE and QSR marketing can be characterized in two words — relevance and differentiation. In consumer electronics, establishing relevance to the consumer is the overarching marketing aim. You want to get the consumer to see themselves in the story of your product. For quick serves, differentiation is the name of the game. You want to get consumers to see your brand as unique and special relative to other choices.

It will be interesting to see how Kaplan’s foray into the restaurant business goes. I for one am eager to sink my teeth into a goat cheese and mint sandwich, so I wish him well.

related content:

• how to differentiate
• seven things aspiring restaurateurs can learn from “america’s next great restaurant”
• on tech innovation

(Welcome to the second in a two-post series on how retailers manage the choice conundrum.  This is written by C. B. Whittemore, Chief Simplifier of Simple Marketing Now, a marketing communications consultancy focused on simplifying customer interactions with social media and content marketing.  The first post, REI Makes Choosing Easier, which I wrote, can be found on her blog, Flooring the Consumer — part of my regular reading repertoire along with C.B.’s Twitter gems. .)

Trader Joe’s considers itself an intensely committed product driven company. Unlike traditional grocery stores, Trader Joe’s takes product to a new level with a carefully managed product line of approximately 4,000 SKUs [vs. the more traditional and overwhelming 50,000 SKUs]. Products earn the right to be included; few items get added without a lesser performing product being eliminated. Talk about careful product curation! [see Trader Joe's - Where Values Drive The Brand]. You will find no redundant and confusing options to choose from!

What might be construed as limited product selection does not mean that Trader Joe’s is an unpleasant or boring store to shop in. Quite the contrary! The careful curation of products combined with a Zappos-like Wow!-customer-experience-commitment makes for a store that reinvents the notion of discovery, engages shoppers, instills in them confidence and enthusiasm and creates a comfortable environment for making sense of product choices and indulging in impromptu experimentation.

Humor doesn’t hurt either! Look in the Trader Joe’s Fearless Flyer – described below – for the statement “…For mental consumption only.”

Have you visited a Trader Joe’s? You won’t yet find them in every state in the US [see http://www.traderjoes.com/pdf/locations/all-llocations.pdf], but each new opening is a major event worth celebrating given how involved each store is in its community [see http://www.traderjoes.com/stores/neighborhood-involvement.asp] and how each reflects the neighborhood it lives in. Trader Joe’s takes seriously its tagline as “your neighborhood grocery store” [see Trader Joe's Neighborhood Grocery Retail Experience].

These images from the Trader Joe’s in Wayne, NJ, reflect the local William Patterson University Football Team.

Trader Joe’s relies on two primary means for communicating with customers about products:

• The monthly Trader Joe’s Fearless Flyer which you can sign up for online. It’s a 20+ page brochure filled with stories about products, about the product selection process, about the product discovery process, etc. You’ll find quotes, whimsical images, valuable information and even a ‘Handy Flyer Shopping List’ that you can cut out and take with you when you shop to remind you of what to buy… It’s also the kind of brochure that you hang onto rather than file away in the circular recycling bin.

• Radio ads where real Trader Joe’s crew members [including CEO Dan Bane!] tell real stories about Trader Joe’s products.

Once in-store, the story-telling takes place through signage

and tastings that bring featured products to life.

The crew member conducting tastings offered us generous portions [enough so you really know what it is you are trying], and didn’t begrudge a 9 year old coming back for seconds [and possibly even thirds!]. When asked, she explained that she loves her job and Trader Joe’s. For real. Wow!

There’s more product discovery to be had… If you’re willing to try something new, but want to learn more about the product, hand-written signage [a trick ‘borrowed’ from Disney] offers information relevant to a cheese-lover:

I look forward to visiting a Trader Joe’s store. The scale is human, even if I’m visiting Little Italy!

Grocery shopping is a basic need. As a child, I loved visiting the small Parisian specialty grocery stores on the street where my grandmother lived. None was huge; each was filled with surprises and delights – I can still remember smelling ripe peaches and being astonished at the many different kinds of pears. All seemed very real and human.

Trader Joe’s has that quality. Every product offered has meaning. The overall selection and presentation reflect intelligence and respect for me, the shopper. It’s a store where how a product tastes still matters, where what goes into a product has been considered, and where product information is readily available [see http://www.traderjoes.com/products.asp] as many friends with specific dietary needs frequently tell me. Unlike traditional grocery stores, it also exudes warmth.

Trader Joe’s may offer customers less choice. However, in terms of ease of choosing and relevance of choice, it is definitely where less choice is more. No wonder it’s one of the hottest retailers in the US, with sales of approximately $8 billion and on par with Whole Foods. Wouldn’t you want to go where choosing is easy?

related posts:

• the fundamentals of choice
• fan of joe’s
• six best practices in retail