brand as business bit:  A couple of sound bites connected for me recently.

In a recent Bloomberg BusinessWeek piece entitled, “Has CNN’s All-News Strategy Become Old News?,” Alex Sherman writes about the cable networks’ reliance on “the story” to drive its audiences, unlike other networks that balance breaking news with opinions and personalities.  Phil Grffin, president of MSNBC, observed:

“CNN is the place for breaking news.  Unfortunately you become totally dependent upon it.”

Then this week’s announcement about J.C. Penney’s disappointing first quarter results, CEO Ron Johnson, explained “Our No. 1 issue is traffic.” Acknowledging the transition to “Fair and Square” pricing was tougher and taking longer than they had estimated, WSJ/Market Watch’s Andria Cheng reported. Johnson said:

“Coupon is a drug…We got to learn to drive traffic in different ways.”

Both of these laments are commonplace among organizations that rely on a single lever to drive traffic – news in CNN’s case, deals in J.C. Penney’s.  For other companies it’s new products, advertising campaigns, sales incentives, or external factors like school schedules or holidays.

Such reliance is like an addiction, producing high highs (sharp sales spikes) and low lows (deep sales valleys.)  And like addictions, the consequences of such volatility are far reaching, wreaking havoc on supply chain and staffing, and trying shareholder patience.

A strong brand can offset dramatic swings by sustaining consistent purchase consideration levels.  Just look at Apple stores – consumers pack those houses day in and day out.  Certainly lines form and sales jump when a new product is released and stores are more crowded during holiday season, but the company isn’t dependent upon news or any other single lever to drive traffic.  Instead, the brand has formed such a rich bond with customers that they will make a visit just to soak in the brand experience. For companies like Apple, their brand is their drug – it’s one addiction that’s actually desirable (well, that and chocolate!)

brand as business bit:  “Do well by doing good” has become the ultimate rallying cry for corporate social responsibility (CSR) – and case studies from Walmart to Nike to Timberland prove it is possible to benefit society and the bottomline. What’s more, CSR programs can make companies more innovative:

According to research featured in April’s Harvard Business Review, “CSR engagement broadens a company’s access to outside knowledge, market preferences, and new technologies.”  And that in turn helps firms come up with dramatic innovations.  Out of 128 firms studied, companies in the top third in terms of CSR activities brought out, on average, 47 new products a year, while companies in the bottom third brought out only 12.

Glad to see further confirmation of the integral link between values and business growth.

What happens when a 125 year old $35BB company wants to get entrepreneurial?  When the company is Coca-Cola, it starts a new business unit, Venturing and Emerging Brands whose mission is to discover “the next big thing.”  It’s the force behind the company’s recent acquisitions of Honest Tea and a new product at Whole Foods, Cascal an all natural fermented soda.

Here to brief us on the group’s efforts is Mary-Ann Somers, VP, Strategic & Operational Marketing, who’s been a dear friend of mine for many years.  Prior to Coke, Mary-Ann held various leadership positions at Colgate-Palmolive, Unilever, Merck and General Mills, as well as being a founding member of an internet health and wellness start-up, so she contributes a unique perspective to her role as an intrapreneur.

In this behind-the-scenes interview, Mary-Ann tells us about:

• why Coke prefers to take positions with brands that are narrow and deep (vs. wide and broad)
• how her team works with user-entrepreneurs
• what “boom-splat” means (!!)

Learn more about Venturing and Emerging Brands at www.vebatcoke.com – and follow them on Twitter at @vebatcoke.

other interviews:

• Justin Mccarthy on Crossing the Chasm at Garmin
• Tiffany Vandemark on Chobani Fit
• John Costello on Behind the Scenes at Dunkin’ Donuts

brand as business bit:  While perusing the aisles at Target awhile back, I stumbled across these really great packages of healthcare products and fell in love:

I was so pleased to read the story behind such an ingenious brand in Businessweek.   (Be sure to check out the sidebar on the playbook of gimmicks used in most drug commercials – it’s pretty humorous.)

Help Remedies has turned drug marketing on its head:

• The brand voice is clear and friendly, selling “as though it was coming from a friend, not a doctor in a lab coat—or an actor playing one.”
• Their target is “people in their 20s and 30s who are largely ignored by the big brands. That’s why, in addition to pharmacies and grocery stores, Help can be found at high-profile conferences [like TED] and in the minibars of Morgans Hotels.
• They use humor:  “‘If you try to maintain a tone of science and seriousness, it’s really alienating,’ says [co-founder Nathan Frank.] On the back of Help’s nausea medicine, the package jokes about how the pills are flavorless.  There are dozens of mock problems on their website… each of which links to a tongue-in-cheek solution.”

But what most distinguishes Help is that they are in drug category in the first place:  “Everybody in branding starts snack food and beverage businesses,” says [co-founder Richard Fine.] “They chase after these categories where there’s already a lot of brands…there’s 8,000 small beauty brands out there. In pharmaceuticals, you have the big companies, and then you have us.”

Love the zag!

brand as business bit:  In Fast Company’s recent write-up on Red Bull, Red Bull Media House managing director Werner Brell is quoted as saying:

“[Red Bull founder Dietrich Mateschitz] knew that success would be in how you market the product as much as the product itself.”

It reminds me of a favorite quote of mine from Geoffrey Frost who held the CMO position at Motorola and Nike. His approach to marketing:

 “Your ads are the most pervasive products you make.”

The FC piece outlines how Red Bull has embraced this notion and transformed content from a marketing tactic into a business unit and from a loss leader into a profit-center.

brand as business bit:  Carol Roth wrote a ChangeThis manifesto that challenged some of the conventional myths about entrepreneurship. She took on the “follow your passion” movement, which suggests that you should earn a living from your greatest life passion. Roth points out:

“Zappos.com is a business where passion followed opportunity but wasn’t the starting point. I can’t imagine that Tony Hsieh is more passionate about shoes than most of the women I know. He is, however, completely passionate about customer service, which has taken the business to the top of its game…Successful businesses identify a customer need or want—an opportunity. When the entrepreneur is incredibly passionate about filling that customer need and is uniquely positioned to be the best person to do so in some way, shape or form, that’s where business success happens.”

Roth’s point makes me think that a company started with passion for filling a customer need might enjoy a more elastic brand. Zappos.com can stretch into selling categories other than shoes, whereas Payless Shoe Source, for example, is most likely limited to selling inexpensive shoes.

Justin McCarthy is the spokesperson for Garmin‘s fitness and outdoor segments throughout North America.  

In his role, he applies a wealth of technical knowledge as well as truly understanding the mindset of an athlete and what they want, in order to help the company market its fitness products.  Because of this unique perspective, I asked Justin to join me to talk about:

• what Garmin is doing in fitness and outdoor
• how the company is crossing the chasm into the mainstream market
• how sponsored athletes help the company appeal to more people

His insights are helpful to anyone who works on technology and has the daunting challenge of going from a user base of early adopters to the mainstream market.  Take a listen to the interview and check out the latest products from Garmin at http://www.garmin.com/us/ .

related content:

• digital device manifesto
• digital health and fitness at ces 2012
• tiffany vandemark on chobani fit

(Welcome to a “brand experience brief” — insights and analysis of new and interesting restaurant and retail concepts.)

REI’s first store in New York City is the quintessential flagship store – it’s big, it’s in a prominent location, and it showcases the brand like no other retail store. Check out my video recap on this extraordinary experience:

other brand experience briefs:

• Steak ‘n Shake Signature
• Patagonia’s Tin Shed
• 77Kids

brand as business bit:  SmartBlog on Restaurants just published a piece of mine, “So You Want to Try a New Concept?”  In it, I layout the considerations in designing a test that will ensure you get the most learning and value out of it – including:

• carefully evaluating your options before jumping to the most obvious
• selecting a brand name and logo that supports your strategic intent; and
• designing the test so you can fail cheaply and quickly.

Please take a gander at the article and let me know what you think.

(Here’s my latest “brand experience brief” — insights and analysis of new and interesting restaurant and retail concepts.)

Steak ‘n Shake Signature in New York City’s Times Square is not your father’s Steak ‘n Shake.  With a retro-contemporary feel and upgraded menu, the classic diner change is trying to win over burger aficionados.  Check out my take on whether or not they’ve succeeded.

related brand experience briefs:

• Patagonia’s Tin Shed
• ihop express
• Subway Cafe