August 28, 2006
I just got back from a trip to Vegas. A great place to go if you're a branding guy like me. My trip started with another flight on Jet Blue. The absolute best airline brand in the business. I love Jet Blue. It's so uplifting to know I'll get the same experience everytime I fly! So kudos to Jet Blue yet again. And, thanks for the wings Debbie and Mandy.
My second point of contact was picking up my rental car at Hertz, not such a good experience. The woman behind the counter "Maddona" was not pleasant from the start. And I just flew for 6 hours....sigh. She tried to upsell me a convertable in 110 degree weather. I declined. She tried to sell me the extra insurance of $15/day. I declined. Then she tried to scare me into the insurance I just declined by telling me that they would charge me a "loss of use" fee if the car was damaged.
Suddenly the rude Maddona now was upsetting me. I asked what she meant. She told me that if the car became un-driveable that I would be charged the daily rental no matter what while the car was repaired. Now, I think she's scamming me. I still declined.
We moved forward, the rental fee for 6 days was a short $125.00 but the tax came to $88.00. There must be a mistake I replyed? No, that's the tax. But how can that be? That's the tax.
Please cancel the order, and off I went to Thrifty (the closest rental agency to Hertz).
There I was greeted by a friendly man, Jesus. I asked how much a rental would be...$100 for 6 days. What about the tax? Oh sir let me explain the tax here (apparently I wasn't the only one shocked by this high tax). He tells me there are fees to the airport, Thrifty and two others but that they lower the rate of the car to compensate for that. Well, that makes sense then. What about this loss of use insurance? Yes sir, unfortunately we have that here in Las Vegas and California. It doesn't seem fair but it is true.
I'll take it and the car please.
Good job Thrifty! You see everyone represents the brand. All it takes is some basic explaining (customer service) and overall kindness (customer service). How hard is that? Hertz, you failed. And now 1000 blog readers a day will know that.
Branding is the most important thing a company can do. Train your employees to understand this.
My second point of contact was picking up my rental car at Hertz, not such a good experience. The woman behind the counter "Maddona" was not pleasant from the start. And I just flew for 6 hours....sigh. She tried to upsell me a convertable in 110 degree weather. I declined. She tried to sell me the extra insurance of $15/day. I declined. Then she tried to scare me into the insurance I just declined by telling me that they would charge me a "loss of use" fee if the car was damaged.
Suddenly the rude Maddona now was upsetting me. I asked what she meant. She told me that if the car became un-driveable that I would be charged the daily rental no matter what while the car was repaired. Now, I think she's scamming me. I still declined.
We moved forward, the rental fee for 6 days was a short $125.00 but the tax came to $88.00. There must be a mistake I replyed? No, that's the tax. But how can that be? That's the tax.
Please cancel the order, and off I went to Thrifty (the closest rental agency to Hertz).
There I was greeted by a friendly man, Jesus. I asked how much a rental would be...$100 for 6 days. What about the tax? Oh sir let me explain the tax here (apparently I wasn't the only one shocked by this high tax). He tells me there are fees to the airport, Thrifty and two others but that they lower the rate of the car to compensate for that. Well, that makes sense then. What about this loss of use insurance? Yes sir, unfortunately we have that here in Las Vegas and California. It doesn't seem fair but it is true.
I'll take it and the car please.
Good job Thrifty! You see everyone represents the brand. All it takes is some basic explaining (customer service) and overall kindness (customer service). How hard is that? Hertz, you failed. And now 1000 blog readers a day will know that.
Branding is the most important thing a company can do. Train your employees to understand this.
August 7, 2006
1. Do you know that our Search Engine Optimization(SEO) programs have increased ALL our clients clicks to their websites by an average of 1000%?
2. Do you know that our clients return on investment for our SEO program averages only 90 days?
3. Do you know that every client of ours has increased sales exponentially through SEO?
That's just the beginning...
4. Do you know that on average our clients increased brand awareness to their website by over 2000%?
5. Do you know that on average our clients page views increased by 133%?
6. Do you know that the average time a user spent on our clients websites increased by 175%?
Folks, why are you standing on the sidelines with SEO? Over 90% of all websites on the internet are not optimized. Beat your competitors to the punch and make the move today because in a year or so they will be optimized.
Oh, and if you think your customers don't go to Google, Yahoo and MSN to search for your products or services, think again. It doesn't matter if you sell baseball gloves, mortgages or electronic chips, over 90% of potential clients search the internet. They search to buy or to research and then buy, but they search!
If increasing sales and brand awareness sounds good to you call us today! The first three (3) companies to email/call us will receive a no obligation SEO analysis of your website. This is an in-depth report that will show where you are strong, weak and where your greatest opportunities are.
2. Do you know that our clients return on investment for our SEO program averages only 90 days?
3. Do you know that every client of ours has increased sales exponentially through SEO?
That's just the beginning...
4. Do you know that on average our clients increased brand awareness to their website by over 2000%?
5. Do you know that on average our clients page views increased by 133%?
6. Do you know that the average time a user spent on our clients websites increased by 175%?
Folks, why are you standing on the sidelines with SEO? Over 90% of all websites on the internet are not optimized. Beat your competitors to the punch and make the move today because in a year or so they will be optimized.
Oh, and if you think your customers don't go to Google, Yahoo and MSN to search for your products or services, think again. It doesn't matter if you sell baseball gloves, mortgages or electronic chips, over 90% of potential clients search the internet. They search to buy or to research and then buy, but they search!
If increasing sales and brand awareness sounds good to you call us today! The first three (3) companies to email/call us will receive a no obligation SEO analysis of your website. This is an in-depth report that will show where you are strong, weak and where your greatest opportunities are.
August 1, 2006
Branding is everywhere you look. Corporations, mom and pop's and personal. Personal Branding can make or break and individual. So why do the rich and famous screw it up so often?
They're human. And eventually the truth comes out.
Eventually one's true self comes out and their "Publicists" work often backfires. Look at Mel Gibson today. I really enjoyed Mel Gibson's movies. He was a star I would be willing to drop $10 on for a movie. I thought he was a stand up guy.
Then came the Passion Of The Christ. I rented that movie and thought, yes, it could create negative feelings towards the Jewish community but it seemed like a movie worth making, even if I didn't agree with it. So I gave him the benefit of the doubt.
Then his father made a statement that the Holocaust was fictional. So my view of Mel Gibson changed. I felt sorry for him because he was obviously raised that way from his parents.
Now we have his drunk driving arrest and this comment:
Actor Mel Gibson admitted making anti-Semitic remarks during his drunken driving arrest and asks members of the Jewish community to help him recover from his alcohol addiction, in a statement issued Tuesday through his publicist.
Mel Gibson has not only lost a fan, but he has lost any chance at my hard earned money. I will never see, buy or rent a Mel Gibson movie ever again. His personal branding has gone to the dump. He is a bigot, anti-Semitic, hate-wielding individual.
It's important for us as consumers to look beyond the fake facade that stars show us. But when the truth comes out we should make them pay. Boycott Mel Gibson because we don't need people like him in our society.
What do you think America?
They're human. And eventually the truth comes out.
Eventually one's true self comes out and their "Publicists" work often backfires. Look at Mel Gibson today. I really enjoyed Mel Gibson's movies. He was a star I would be willing to drop $10 on for a movie. I thought he was a stand up guy.
Then came the Passion Of The Christ. I rented that movie and thought, yes, it could create negative feelings towards the Jewish community but it seemed like a movie worth making, even if I didn't agree with it. So I gave him the benefit of the doubt.
Then his father made a statement that the Holocaust was fictional. So my view of Mel Gibson changed. I felt sorry for him because he was obviously raised that way from his parents.
Now we have his drunk driving arrest and this comment:
Actor Mel Gibson admitted making anti-Semitic remarks during his drunken driving arrest and asks members of the Jewish community to help him recover from his alcohol addiction, in a statement issued Tuesday through his publicist.
Mel Gibson has not only lost a fan, but he has lost any chance at my hard earned money. I will never see, buy or rent a Mel Gibson movie ever again. His personal branding has gone to the dump. He is a bigot, anti-Semitic, hate-wielding individual.
It's important for us as consumers to look beyond the fake facade that stars show us. But when the truth comes out we should make them pay. Boycott Mel Gibson because we don't need people like him in our society.
What do you think America?
July 31, 2006
1. It "sells itself." I don't need to market.
Okay, you might have a solid product or service. You might even routinely satisfy your customers. They might even send their friends and family to you. But wait. Is that your product or service selling itself? No (that is, unless your widgets have learned to speak). That's one of your customers playing out-of-the-goodness-of-my-heart salesperson for you. Yeah, word-of-mouth is nice, and if it's happening for you, congratulations! It's a sign of a great product or service. But relying on it exclusively can hurt you. Yes, six degrees of separation and all that, but counting on those connecting conversations to consistently mention you, especially down the line, is a bad gamble. Word of mouth needs help. A kick in the butt: a reminder to your customers of their good experience with you and an enticing offer to potential new customers to give you a try. Providing this kick is what a well-conceived branding and marketing strategy should do. At Brand Identity Guru, we've got some BIG boots.
2. "One of these things...looks just like the other"
You might sell red cars, and Johnny Big Wheel down the street might sell a similar blue car. But what's under the hood? Even better question: what's under the hood that makes yours better than the blue car? This is the essence of differentiation in the marketplace, and if you're not playing up the things about you that make you different-and better-than your competition, your marketing is driving nowhere. At Brand Identity Guru, we know how to steer a marketing campaign that leverages differentiation to build your brand and increase your bottom line.
3. Liar, liar, your business is on fire and up and smoke
If you think word-of-mouth is powerfully working for you, it's just a fraction of the punch a bad buzz can pack. The best way to a bad buzz? Over promising and under delivering. It will kill you. That's why it's important to be truthful in your marketing. Say what you can do. Not what you wish you could do, or might be able to do. If you must err, do so on the side of under promising and over delivering.
4. One-trick marketing is like a no-trick magician
It won't do anything, and people won't pay to see your show. To get your message to resonate in a 21st century market, you need to make your appeal in every corner the market looks. Print advertising, direct mail, online, telemarketing, public relations, and in person. In every place, a consistent brand image and message.
5. Microsoft Word clipart is for junior high book reports, not corporate identities
A logo is the face of your company, so it must be unique and memorable. Not available for millions to place into whatever bake sale flyer they're working on at the moment. But a corporate identity is more than a logo. It's your company's unique value proposition and its products and service...all instantly recognizable on sight of your logo, name and tagline.
6. Don't be visually absent
Talk can be cheap if it's not paired with a strong visual presence. Well-conceived visuals connected with your market makes your message stick, no matter the medium. Brand Identity Guru is an agency that can drench any marketing effort with huge vats of sticky visual honey, even if you're currently bone dry.
7. The typewriter and telegraph are cool machines, but not to use today
A business owner by nature has to have a little bit of Evil Knievel in him, but when it comes to technology, he or she is often more of a cowardly lion. That's understandable. You got into your business because you know it, like it and can put food on the table with it. Not because you like to tinker with every new business technological innovation that comes down the pike. However, cutting edge technology can be a powerful profit-generating tool for your business, especially when it comes to marketing, and Brand Identity Guru can help you find your technological sweet spot to get your message out.
8. If an employee's 14-year-old son designs your website, it will be painfully obvious
A website must have a nice look, but that's a small part of a good web presence. You have to give your prospect information they need and close the sale fast. Otherwise, they'll surf on by to a competitor's website. In today's digital marketplace, your website must be an integral part of your overall sales strategy. Not just a token presence. More than ever, prospective customers are researching their buying decisions on the web. If your site doesn't substantiate who you are and your offerings, educate, inspire and finally motivate your visitors to buy, your online presence isn't strong enough. Brand Identity Guru knows how to strengthen it.
9. You have a website, but don't tell anybody
Having a website is pointless if no one sees it. That's why it's just as important to drive traffic to your website as it is to have one. How do you do that? A great way is through traditional advertising like billboards, print ads, signage and printing the web address on all your marketing collateral. Online, there's search engine optimization, banner ads, online advertorials, keyword purchases, links and cross-promotion strategies. A good mix of online and offline traffic strategies along with solid branding will drive traffic to your website.
10. "I don't need to be in the paper"
On the contrary, editorial coverage carries more credibility than any kind of paid advertising you can do. Getting it, however, is difficult. Only a well-conceived public relations strategy that targets media outlets your prospective customers frequent will get the job done. But it's not just about writing press releases. It's about providing relevant information to the media outlets you're trying to get into and cultivating relationships with key editors and journalists. If you're successful, you'll see your name in print and a bigger number on the bottom line.
11. Branding done yourself is branding done badly
Given the choice of doing branding yourself and not doing it at all, you may be better off not doing it all. There are few things worse for a business than an "amateurish" image, and that's usually the result with DIY branding. Even if you know how to do some graphic design work or are a decent writer, good branding takes strategic know-how and the finesse and time to get it just right-things only a good branding agency like Brand Identity Guru can offer.
12. If you think your employees aren't part of your brand...
You're wrong. Your brand is the face of your company in every interaction with the outside world, and your employees interact with it quite a bit. On the phone, on sales calls, at schmoozing and networking events, or in informal settings, you must train your employees to represent your company in a way consistent with its brand image. Doing so can ensure you have an army well-groomed brand ambassadors out there.
13. Failing to track your branding campaign's success can lead to future failure
If you don't make your market's reaction to your branding effort your business, your business will suffer mainly because you won't know where to go next. Successful branding is a constantly evolving process, and if you don't learn from your mistakes, you'll continually repeat them-and make more! On the other hand, once you know what your most successful strategies are, you can build off of them. Any branding agency worth its salt will be able to effectively track the success of your campaign.
14. Don't forget the clients who got you here, keep good relations
As businesses grow, they sometimes forget the little people who contributed to their success. Don't. Those who got you here can be an invaluable resource to you even if their business isn't as important as it was. Since they've known you for a long time, they can offer valuable counsel as to the future direction your company, such as offering their opinion on new products or services. They can also continue singing your praises as another satisfied customer. Plus, you never know when a little fish might eat a big lunch and become a big fish to you again.
Okay, you might have a solid product or service. You might even routinely satisfy your customers. They might even send their friends and family to you. But wait. Is that your product or service selling itself? No (that is, unless your widgets have learned to speak). That's one of your customers playing out-of-the-goodness-of-my-heart salesperson for you. Yeah, word-of-mouth is nice, and if it's happening for you, congratulations! It's a sign of a great product or service. But relying on it exclusively can hurt you. Yes, six degrees of separation and all that, but counting on those connecting conversations to consistently mention you, especially down the line, is a bad gamble. Word of mouth needs help. A kick in the butt: a reminder to your customers of their good experience with you and an enticing offer to potential new customers to give you a try. Providing this kick is what a well-conceived branding and marketing strategy should do. At Brand Identity Guru, we've got some BIG boots.
2. "One of these things...looks just like the other"
You might sell red cars, and Johnny Big Wheel down the street might sell a similar blue car. But what's under the hood? Even better question: what's under the hood that makes yours better than the blue car? This is the essence of differentiation in the marketplace, and if you're not playing up the things about you that make you different-and better-than your competition, your marketing is driving nowhere. At Brand Identity Guru, we know how to steer a marketing campaign that leverages differentiation to build your brand and increase your bottom line.
3. Liar, liar, your business is on fire and up and smoke
If you think word-of-mouth is powerfully working for you, it's just a fraction of the punch a bad buzz can pack. The best way to a bad buzz? Over promising and under delivering. It will kill you. That's why it's important to be truthful in your marketing. Say what you can do. Not what you wish you could do, or might be able to do. If you must err, do so on the side of under promising and over delivering.
4. One-trick marketing is like a no-trick magician
It won't do anything, and people won't pay to see your show. To get your message to resonate in a 21st century market, you need to make your appeal in every corner the market looks. Print advertising, direct mail, online, telemarketing, public relations, and in person. In every place, a consistent brand image and message.
5. Microsoft Word clipart is for junior high book reports, not corporate identities
A logo is the face of your company, so it must be unique and memorable. Not available for millions to place into whatever bake sale flyer they're working on at the moment. But a corporate identity is more than a logo. It's your company's unique value proposition and its products and service...all instantly recognizable on sight of your logo, name and tagline.
6. Don't be visually absent
Talk can be cheap if it's not paired with a strong visual presence. Well-conceived visuals connected with your market makes your message stick, no matter the medium. Brand Identity Guru is an agency that can drench any marketing effort with huge vats of sticky visual honey, even if you're currently bone dry.
7. The typewriter and telegraph are cool machines, but not to use today
A business owner by nature has to have a little bit of Evil Knievel in him, but when it comes to technology, he or she is often more of a cowardly lion. That's understandable. You got into your business because you know it, like it and can put food on the table with it. Not because you like to tinker with every new business technological innovation that comes down the pike. However, cutting edge technology can be a powerful profit-generating tool for your business, especially when it comes to marketing, and Brand Identity Guru can help you find your technological sweet spot to get your message out.
8. If an employee's 14-year-old son designs your website, it will be painfully obvious
A website must have a nice look, but that's a small part of a good web presence. You have to give your prospect information they need and close the sale fast. Otherwise, they'll surf on by to a competitor's website. In today's digital marketplace, your website must be an integral part of your overall sales strategy. Not just a token presence. More than ever, prospective customers are researching their buying decisions on the web. If your site doesn't substantiate who you are and your offerings, educate, inspire and finally motivate your visitors to buy, your online presence isn't strong enough. Brand Identity Guru knows how to strengthen it.
9. You have a website, but don't tell anybody
Having a website is pointless if no one sees it. That's why it's just as important to drive traffic to your website as it is to have one. How do you do that? A great way is through traditional advertising like billboards, print ads, signage and printing the web address on all your marketing collateral. Online, there's search engine optimization, banner ads, online advertorials, keyword purchases, links and cross-promotion strategies. A good mix of online and offline traffic strategies along with solid branding will drive traffic to your website.
10. "I don't need to be in the paper"
On the contrary, editorial coverage carries more credibility than any kind of paid advertising you can do. Getting it, however, is difficult. Only a well-conceived public relations strategy that targets media outlets your prospective customers frequent will get the job done. But it's not just about writing press releases. It's about providing relevant information to the media outlets you're trying to get into and cultivating relationships with key editors and journalists. If you're successful, you'll see your name in print and a bigger number on the bottom line.
11. Branding done yourself is branding done badly
Given the choice of doing branding yourself and not doing it at all, you may be better off not doing it all. There are few things worse for a business than an "amateurish" image, and that's usually the result with DIY branding. Even if you know how to do some graphic design work or are a decent writer, good branding takes strategic know-how and the finesse and time to get it just right-things only a good branding agency like Brand Identity Guru can offer.
12. If you think your employees aren't part of your brand...
You're wrong. Your brand is the face of your company in every interaction with the outside world, and your employees interact with it quite a bit. On the phone, on sales calls, at schmoozing and networking events, or in informal settings, you must train your employees to represent your company in a way consistent with its brand image. Doing so can ensure you have an army well-groomed brand ambassadors out there.
13. Failing to track your branding campaign's success can lead to future failure
If you don't make your market's reaction to your branding effort your business, your business will suffer mainly because you won't know where to go next. Successful branding is a constantly evolving process, and if you don't learn from your mistakes, you'll continually repeat them-and make more! On the other hand, once you know what your most successful strategies are, you can build off of them. Any branding agency worth its salt will be able to effectively track the success of your campaign.
14. Don't forget the clients who got you here, keep good relations
As businesses grow, they sometimes forget the little people who contributed to their success. Don't. Those who got you here can be an invaluable resource to you even if their business isn't as important as it was. Since they've known you for a long time, they can offer valuable counsel as to the future direction your company, such as offering their opinion on new products or services. They can also continue singing your praises as another satisfied customer. Plus, you never know when a little fish might eat a big lunch and become a big fish to you again.
July 23, 2006
I found this article today (below) on Krispy Kreme and thought it appropriate. It really demonstrates how to completely ruin a strong branding effort. My thoughts about the corporate branding blunders as are follows:
1. Your brand identity is an over the top sugar doughnut that tastes better than all your competitors…embrace that, don’t change from it. Does Volvo build less safe cars? No! So don’t invent a low fat Krispy Kreme product. What are you thinking about? The last thing I want is a light Krispy Kreme.
2. We want those great Krispy Kreme’s hot out of the oven and we don’t mind waiting for them. It’s part of the culture and fun…so why sell them into every supermarket chain you can? Are they hot out of the box? No! And you wonder why they are closing down stores on a regular basis.
3. Stay true to your brand!
Here is the article below:
When it invaded Dunkin' Donuts' home turf of Massachusetts three years ago, there were sweet predictions for Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc.
TV news cameras recorded the frenzy as its first store in the state opened in Medford in 2003, drawing hordes of devotees who say the doughnuts melt in your mouth.
``People were waiting in line for three hours," Mayor Michael J. McGlynn recalled.
Today that store is closed, the hype and hoopla are history, and Krispy Kreme's bottom line is glazed with red ink.
In fiscal 2005 , the company lost $198 million . Last year, several executives left the company after an internal inquiry found they might have inflated previous earnings. And the company acknowledges an investigation is underway by the Securities and Exchange Commission .
Company shares that once sold in the $40s closed at $8.07 in Friday trading. By one estimate, 80 stores have closed in the last two years. In Massachusetts, only the Dedham store remains. Krispy Kreme operates about 400 stores, including 316 in the United States.
What went wrong?
``Maybe everyone started watching their weight at the same time," Mayor McGlynn joked.
Industry observers offered other theories. The North Carolina company lost its cachet by expanding too fast. It was too dependent on a single product. Its coffee left many locals unimpressed, a mortal sin in the joe-loving Hub. And, perhaps smitten by low-carb diets, New Englanders don't love doughnuts the way they used to.
While Krispy Kreme struggled in many parts of the country, it faced additional challenges in New England, where it once had stores in eight communities but now is in only four, observers said. Good retail locations are hard to find in the tight real estate market, and Krispy Kreme was playing in the backyard of Dunkin' Donuts of Canton .
Jan Cos. president Nicholas Janikies acquired franchising rights in southern New England when Krispy Kreme was still a media darling. Janikies has owned restaurants for many years -- his Rhode Island company operates more than 100, including 82 Burger Kings -- but he'd never seen anything like the Krispy Kreme phenomenon.
Yet even after opening the first New England Krispy Kreme in 2002 , Janikies had misgivings. He recalled thinking, ``I hope this isn't the next Hula-Hoop or mood ring."
To be sure, Krispy Kreme could rebound. Many of the executives who got the company into difficulty are gone. Krispy Kreme has just disclosed expansion plans for Japan, China, and the Philippines, and it recently hired a new chief executive, Daryl Brewster , who promises a turnaround. In a June statement, he indicated that he's seeing ``growth in our international markets" and ``signs of stability in the United States."
Krispy Kreme executives declined interview requests, issuing a statement saying, ``We believe the New England region has significant growth potential, and we will look for additional opportunities to serve this important market."
Krispy Kreme, which was founded in 1937, grew slowly for much of its history, said John S. Glass , an analyst for CIBC World Markets . Then, in the late 1990s, the company started expanding aggressively.
``Overbuilding," Glass wrote in a recent report, is one reason Krispy Kreme is ``digging out of a deep hole."
As with many fads, scarcity makes a product more desirable. Perhaps as a doughnut once largely confined to the South became more widely available, some of its novelty wore off.
Krispy Kreme's preference for big stores may have further diminished the doughnut's exotic cachet. Many stores are veritable doughnut factories that sell not just to store customers but also to other retail chains.
When Krispy Kreme doughnuts ``turn up in supermarkets and convenience stores, people say, `Why wait in line for this?' " said Ron Paul , president of Technomic Inc. , a restaurant consulting firm in Chicago. Krispy Kreme executives ``fell into the trap of making their product unspecial," he said.
Big doughnut stores are expensive.
Minus land costs, it's a $2 million investment to open a Krispy Kreme locally, compared with about $500,000 for a Dunkin' Donuts, noted Janikies, New England's first Krispy Kreme franchisee.
A Dunkin' Donuts can be ``very profitable" on $1 million in annual sales, Janikies said, but the Krispy Kreme in Medford needed $1.7 million to break even. In that store's first week, sales exceeded $500,000 , but just before closing last year, sales were projecting to about $1 million to $1.3 million a year. The business, he said, was ``bleeding money." In December, an agreement was disclosed under which a Jan Cos. subsidiary would cede development rights for its New England territory to Krispy Kreme.
In addition to the Medford site, stores have been closed in Saugus and Boston.
According to industry executives, it's hard for a restaurant to thrive on a single product, especially if that product is a doughnut, something most people treat themselves to only occasionally and many health-conscious consumers avoid entirely.
Consumers want variety, prompting some local chains to offer bagels and health-conscious options.
Customer tastes have changed, said Honey Dew Donuts founder Dick Bowen. When he opened the first Honey Dew 33 years ago, 70 percent of sales came from doughnuts. Today coffee accounts for more than 60 percent of sales for the 150-store chain and doughnuts for 12 percent.
Bowen can't see how Krispy Kreme, which is estimated to get at least 60 percent of sales from doughnuts, can thrive here in its present form. ``New Englanders want great coffee, along with delicious food products, not just doughnuts," he said.
With 63 percent of its sales coming from beverages, Dunkin' Donuts has repositioned itself as a coffee company. In contrast to doughnuts, coffee is something many people consume daily .
Dunkin' officials, who declined to be interviewed, said in a statement: ``Rather than commenting on the way another company does its business, especially companies that we don't regard as our direct competitors, we choose to focus on our core competencies, and that's providing an excellent cup of coffee and high-quality menu items."
Despite Krispy Kreme's ups and downs, many customers stand solidly behind the company's doughnuts. ``They blow everything else away," said Lowell Thomas of Bellingham during a recent visit to the Dedham store. ``Dunkin' should dump its doughnuts and just be bagels and coffee."
Janet Queen of Quincy hopes Krispy Kreme will bring more of its doughnuts here, not retreat.
``A lot of people say they're too sweet," said Queen, another customer at the store. ``I don't think so. I think they're just right. I wish they'd open more stores on the South Shore.
Chris Reidy
© Copyright 2006 Globe Newspaper Company.
1. Your brand identity is an over the top sugar doughnut that tastes better than all your competitors…embrace that, don’t change from it. Does Volvo build less safe cars? No! So don’t invent a low fat Krispy Kreme product. What are you thinking about? The last thing I want is a light Krispy Kreme.
2. We want those great Krispy Kreme’s hot out of the oven and we don’t mind waiting for them. It’s part of the culture and fun…so why sell them into every supermarket chain you can? Are they hot out of the box? No! And you wonder why they are closing down stores on a regular basis.
3. Stay true to your brand!
Here is the article below:
When it invaded Dunkin' Donuts' home turf of Massachusetts three years ago, there were sweet predictions for Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc.
TV news cameras recorded the frenzy as its first store in the state opened in Medford in 2003, drawing hordes of devotees who say the doughnuts melt in your mouth.
``People were waiting in line for three hours," Mayor Michael J. McGlynn recalled.
Today that store is closed, the hype and hoopla are history, and Krispy Kreme's bottom line is glazed with red ink.
In fiscal 2005 , the company lost $198 million . Last year, several executives left the company after an internal inquiry found they might have inflated previous earnings. And the company acknowledges an investigation is underway by the Securities and Exchange Commission .
Company shares that once sold in the $40s closed at $8.07 in Friday trading. By one estimate, 80 stores have closed in the last two years. In Massachusetts, only the Dedham store remains. Krispy Kreme operates about 400 stores, including 316 in the United States.
What went wrong?
``Maybe everyone started watching their weight at the same time," Mayor McGlynn joked.
Industry observers offered other theories. The North Carolina company lost its cachet by expanding too fast. It was too dependent on a single product. Its coffee left many locals unimpressed, a mortal sin in the joe-loving Hub. And, perhaps smitten by low-carb diets, New Englanders don't love doughnuts the way they used to.
While Krispy Kreme struggled in many parts of the country, it faced additional challenges in New England, where it once had stores in eight communities but now is in only four, observers said. Good retail locations are hard to find in the tight real estate market, and Krispy Kreme was playing in the backyard of Dunkin' Donuts of Canton .
Jan Cos. president Nicholas Janikies acquired franchising rights in southern New England when Krispy Kreme was still a media darling. Janikies has owned restaurants for many years -- his Rhode Island company operates more than 100, including 82 Burger Kings -- but he'd never seen anything like the Krispy Kreme phenomenon.
Yet even after opening the first New England Krispy Kreme in 2002 , Janikies had misgivings. He recalled thinking, ``I hope this isn't the next Hula-Hoop or mood ring."
To be sure, Krispy Kreme could rebound. Many of the executives who got the company into difficulty are gone. Krispy Kreme has just disclosed expansion plans for Japan, China, and the Philippines, and it recently hired a new chief executive, Daryl Brewster , who promises a turnaround. In a June statement, he indicated that he's seeing ``growth in our international markets" and ``signs of stability in the United States."
Krispy Kreme executives declined interview requests, issuing a statement saying, ``We believe the New England region has significant growth potential, and we will look for additional opportunities to serve this important market."
Krispy Kreme, which was founded in 1937, grew slowly for much of its history, said John S. Glass , an analyst for CIBC World Markets . Then, in the late 1990s, the company started expanding aggressively.
``Overbuilding," Glass wrote in a recent report, is one reason Krispy Kreme is ``digging out of a deep hole."
As with many fads, scarcity makes a product more desirable. Perhaps as a doughnut once largely confined to the South became more widely available, some of its novelty wore off.
Krispy Kreme's preference for big stores may have further diminished the doughnut's exotic cachet. Many stores are veritable doughnut factories that sell not just to store customers but also to other retail chains.
When Krispy Kreme doughnuts ``turn up in supermarkets and convenience stores, people say, `Why wait in line for this?' " said Ron Paul , president of Technomic Inc. , a restaurant consulting firm in Chicago. Krispy Kreme executives ``fell into the trap of making their product unspecial," he said.
Big doughnut stores are expensive.
Minus land costs, it's a $2 million investment to open a Krispy Kreme locally, compared with about $500,000 for a Dunkin' Donuts, noted Janikies, New England's first Krispy Kreme franchisee.
A Dunkin' Donuts can be ``very profitable" on $1 million in annual sales, Janikies said, but the Krispy Kreme in Medford needed $1.7 million to break even. In that store's first week, sales exceeded $500,000 , but just before closing last year, sales were projecting to about $1 million to $1.3 million a year. The business, he said, was ``bleeding money." In December, an agreement was disclosed under which a Jan Cos. subsidiary would cede development rights for its New England territory to Krispy Kreme.
In addition to the Medford site, stores have been closed in Saugus and Boston.
According to industry executives, it's hard for a restaurant to thrive on a single product, especially if that product is a doughnut, something most people treat themselves to only occasionally and many health-conscious consumers avoid entirely.
Consumers want variety, prompting some local chains to offer bagels and health-conscious options.
Customer tastes have changed, said Honey Dew Donuts founder Dick Bowen. When he opened the first Honey Dew 33 years ago, 70 percent of sales came from doughnuts. Today coffee accounts for more than 60 percent of sales for the 150-store chain and doughnuts for 12 percent.
Bowen can't see how Krispy Kreme, which is estimated to get at least 60 percent of sales from doughnuts, can thrive here in its present form. ``New Englanders want great coffee, along with delicious food products, not just doughnuts," he said.
With 63 percent of its sales coming from beverages, Dunkin' Donuts has repositioned itself as a coffee company. In contrast to doughnuts, coffee is something many people consume daily .
Dunkin' officials, who declined to be interviewed, said in a statement: ``Rather than commenting on the way another company does its business, especially companies that we don't regard as our direct competitors, we choose to focus on our core competencies, and that's providing an excellent cup of coffee and high-quality menu items."
Despite Krispy Kreme's ups and downs, many customers stand solidly behind the company's doughnuts. ``They blow everything else away," said Lowell Thomas of Bellingham during a recent visit to the Dedham store. ``Dunkin' should dump its doughnuts and just be bagels and coffee."
Janet Queen of Quincy hopes Krispy Kreme will bring more of its doughnuts here, not retreat.
``A lot of people say they're too sweet," said Queen, another customer at the store. ``I don't think so. I think they're just right. I wish they'd open more stores on the South Shore.
Chris Reidy
© Copyright 2006 Globe Newspaper Company.
July 7, 2006
The Internet is a ubiquitous Corporate communications and sales channel, however many companies are still not utilizing much of its power. That could be because of loyalties to comfortable old channels or that there aren’t enough Internet marketing experts to take their brands into the digital realm.
Regardless of the hold-ups in leveraging internal or external Internet communications options, consumer and B2B channels are growing their share of the market. Resistance is futile and with this change in how consumers and B2B buyers are reached, is a change in the symbolism, voice, and style of promoting brands. That doesn’t necessarily mean the Internet can’t play a supporting role for your offline or TV advertising. For many campaigns, the Internet is just another conduit for sales videos and corporate brochures. Some are satisfied with this, however the Internet’s own power to communicate and generate business shouldn’t be underestimated.
The Internet, whether through public Web sites, search engines, Internet radio broadcasts, and e-mail are very targeted. It is shown to reach the right target at the right time with the right message. It doesn’t matter whether you use a Web friendly, or search engine friendly approach to your online advertising and promotion. You need to be there anyway you can. It’s too important to let it slide.
Internet branding is a term in increasing usage because branding can be adapted to be effective on the Internet. That’s different from broadcasting your TV video ad or showing your marketing brochure on your Web site. With Internet branding, you’re taking into consideration that viewers have searched around and seen many other products similar to yours. They may have reviewed many more product or service features than they would think about while watching television or casually reading a magazine.
Your customer’s context then is different. The splashy video display generally isn’t there and surprisingly, few people are interested in seeing it. They’re pressured for time and want to find what they’re looking for. If you understand their quest for knowledge, you can better shape your value proposition and even your sales pitch.
Active Internet Positioning
The Internet appears to be a passive marketing environment, but it’s actually very active. To stay one step ahead of the elusive customer, you have to continually position your products and Web site to meet their needs ahead of time. An Internet marketing expert helps to tell you where people are going ahead of time. You may even position your brand better with this knowledge. You have returning customers whose loyalty you want to build and you have new prospects coming in searching and enquiring about different things. It’s not easy to position a brand to meet all those needs. There are experts in the field who can help you understand Web visitors and help you build powerful Corporate Internet Branding strategies.
It’s easy to say you’ll advertise to reach all the same prospects you did with your TV campaigns, but Internet audiences are different. And, advertising, such as search engine advertising can be expensive. You may not be able to afford to reach those same people. That means you may have to plan a way to reach particular segments of that audience with more specific features and benefits. Only after you bring them to your Web site and established credibility with respect to the product they’re inquiring about, will you be able to present your corporate brand. Corporate Branding is powerful today and Corporate Internet Branding even more so. You can introduce products more quickly and even reposition them more effectively. People see corporate brands all the time though and are not necessarily impressed that your corporate brand will make this particular product relevant to them. For instance, just because Nike makes golf equipment doesn’t mean their “big mammoth driver” is the right one. The corporate logo won’t be enough and forcing the brand on them isn’t going to make them buy it.
Search Marketing
Instead, Internet Branding strategies, particularly those that deliver targeted visitors to your Web site, ensure your establish credibility and relevance. Remember that Web visitors are in an intense state of consciousness. They’re very often looking for something specific. If you want to get anywhere on the Web as a user, you have to have an idea of what you want, or you’ll sit frustrated in front of your computer. Television and magazines are very different. The channels and pages in these mediums are limited and the prospect is captured. Not on the Internet. There are billions of web pages and hundreds of millions of Web sites.
With search engines, consumers can get help finding what they’re looking for. High ranking sites get first crack at these motivated/directed consumers. Your corporate Internet marketing strategy should be heavily involved in search engine visibility. It is an opportunity to present your site many different ways to many different types of consumers. The potential reach is further enhanced because you have International reach and the cost of entry is so minimal.
Searchers are looking for quick solutions too. They’re not looking for fancy graphics and complicated menus that fly out all over the place. They’re looking for specific things about your products and services. Here, you have a low cost of adapting your brand imagery and communications to suit each group of visitors. Generally, it just takes another Web page designed and written for that group of consumers. You can fashion your homepage to let current customers get to what they’re looking for as well.
After these searchers have found your products and services relevant to their search, your corporate brand will then have the power to make the sale and establish brand loyalty.
Intelligent Corporate Internet Branding adapts to the consumer. It de-massifies to serve each person as they arrive; yet it still delivers the corporate brand communication at the right time after the visitor is satisfied. Rather than a boastful in your face confrontation with the consumer, your corporate image becomes a helpful one and is relevant and timely. You get credit for being there when they needed you.
Regardless of the hold-ups in leveraging internal or external Internet communications options, consumer and B2B channels are growing their share of the market. Resistance is futile and with this change in how consumers and B2B buyers are reached, is a change in the symbolism, voice, and style of promoting brands. That doesn’t necessarily mean the Internet can’t play a supporting role for your offline or TV advertising. For many campaigns, the Internet is just another conduit for sales videos and corporate brochures. Some are satisfied with this, however the Internet’s own power to communicate and generate business shouldn’t be underestimated.
The Internet, whether through public Web sites, search engines, Internet radio broadcasts, and e-mail are very targeted. It is shown to reach the right target at the right time with the right message. It doesn’t matter whether you use a Web friendly, or search engine friendly approach to your online advertising and promotion. You need to be there anyway you can. It’s too important to let it slide.
Internet branding is a term in increasing usage because branding can be adapted to be effective on the Internet. That’s different from broadcasting your TV video ad or showing your marketing brochure on your Web site. With Internet branding, you’re taking into consideration that viewers have searched around and seen many other products similar to yours. They may have reviewed many more product or service features than they would think about while watching television or casually reading a magazine.
Your customer’s context then is different. The splashy video display generally isn’t there and surprisingly, few people are interested in seeing it. They’re pressured for time and want to find what they’re looking for. If you understand their quest for knowledge, you can better shape your value proposition and even your sales pitch.
Active Internet Positioning
The Internet appears to be a passive marketing environment, but it’s actually very active. To stay one step ahead of the elusive customer, you have to continually position your products and Web site to meet their needs ahead of time. An Internet marketing expert helps to tell you where people are going ahead of time. You may even position your brand better with this knowledge. You have returning customers whose loyalty you want to build and you have new prospects coming in searching and enquiring about different things. It’s not easy to position a brand to meet all those needs. There are experts in the field who can help you understand Web visitors and help you build powerful Corporate Internet Branding strategies.
It’s easy to say you’ll advertise to reach all the same prospects you did with your TV campaigns, but Internet audiences are different. And, advertising, such as search engine advertising can be expensive. You may not be able to afford to reach those same people. That means you may have to plan a way to reach particular segments of that audience with more specific features and benefits. Only after you bring them to your Web site and established credibility with respect to the product they’re inquiring about, will you be able to present your corporate brand. Corporate Branding is powerful today and Corporate Internet Branding even more so. You can introduce products more quickly and even reposition them more effectively. People see corporate brands all the time though and are not necessarily impressed that your corporate brand will make this particular product relevant to them. For instance, just because Nike makes golf equipment doesn’t mean their “big mammoth driver” is the right one. The corporate logo won’t be enough and forcing the brand on them isn’t going to make them buy it.
Search Marketing
Instead, Internet Branding strategies, particularly those that deliver targeted visitors to your Web site, ensure your establish credibility and relevance. Remember that Web visitors are in an intense state of consciousness. They’re very often looking for something specific. If you want to get anywhere on the Web as a user, you have to have an idea of what you want, or you’ll sit frustrated in front of your computer. Television and magazines are very different. The channels and pages in these mediums are limited and the prospect is captured. Not on the Internet. There are billions of web pages and hundreds of millions of Web sites.
With search engines, consumers can get help finding what they’re looking for. High ranking sites get first crack at these motivated/directed consumers. Your corporate Internet marketing strategy should be heavily involved in search engine visibility. It is an opportunity to present your site many different ways to many different types of consumers. The potential reach is further enhanced because you have International reach and the cost of entry is so minimal.
Searchers are looking for quick solutions too. They’re not looking for fancy graphics and complicated menus that fly out all over the place. They’re looking for specific things about your products and services. Here, you have a low cost of adapting your brand imagery and communications to suit each group of visitors. Generally, it just takes another Web page designed and written for that group of consumers. You can fashion your homepage to let current customers get to what they’re looking for as well.
After these searchers have found your products and services relevant to their search, your corporate brand will then have the power to make the sale and establish brand loyalty.
Intelligent Corporate Internet Branding adapts to the consumer. It de-massifies to serve each person as they arrive; yet it still delivers the corporate brand communication at the right time after the visitor is satisfied. Rather than a boastful in your face confrontation with the consumer, your corporate image becomes a helpful one and is relevant and timely. You get credit for being there when they needed you.
June 26, 2006
Google the term "magic advertising words" and you'll instantly get over 8 million results. But caveat emptor -- don't buy into everything you read, because your prospective buyer certainly won't.
From the time corporate branding began, there has never been a shortage of self-appointed experts who claim to have identified the words that will unlock your customers' wallets. In the Internet age their advice is even easier to come by. They promise that words such as "you," "guarantee," "easy," "limited-time," and the old standby, "free," will generate surefire results. If only it were that simple.
As a smart businessperson, you probably know that there are no such things as magic words, particularly in a culture that has been saturated with advertising. But there's something else you should know: Not only do magic advertising words not exist, several of them actually work against you. And chances are, you're using at least one of them in your corporate branding now.
Brace yourself. Here are five of the advertising words you should never use:
Quality
This may be the most overused word in advertising, which is the primary reason why you should stay away from it. What exactly does "quality" mean? In a Lexus, it may mean handcrafted finishes, supple seats, or a smooth ride. In a Hyundai, it's more about the extended warranty than anything.
The point is this: every product worth buying is a quality product. It may be high-priced quality or it may be low-priced quality, but it's quality either way. That means every company believes it can use the word "quality" in its advertising. Too many have, and as a result, now it has become just seven empty letters.
Value
Like quality, value has been ruined by overuse. Go back to the Lexus and the Hyundai examples -- which car is the better value? It depends -- on the buyer, on the purchase occasion, and on what features and benefits value is being judged. Both vehicles are good values depending on the purchase context.
Or take another industry, retail: Wal-Mart provides good value, but so does Tiffany. Value, like quality, is in the eye of the beholder, and every product or service has its own value equation. Saying "we provide the best value" is, therefore, virtually meaningless.
Service
Have you ever heard an ad promising lousy service? Of course not, which is the reason why claiming good service just falls on deaf ears. It's funny, but the companies that make the claim of good service the most tend to be those that deliver it the least.
Of course, most organizations do have sincere intentions to provide outstanding service and commonly cite Nordstrom as the example to which they aspire. But Nordstrom is Nordstrom for a reason -- the company's entire culture and identity is built around the service concept. Nordstrom is the exception, most companies can't get there from here, and simply promising great service won't make it happen.
Caring
Do you really believe your company cares more about your customers than your competition does? It may feel good to say so, but the claim flies in the face of common sense. If your competitors didn't care about their customers, they couldn't stay in business.
It's particularly easy for service companies to get caught up in the "caring" self-deceit because they don't sell a tangible product. But to say, "we care more" in an ad presumes that your competitors care less, which is ascribing motivations to them that can't be proven. Consumers know this and are not only hesitant to believe your claim; they are likely to consider it bad form.
The above four words all fail for essentially the same reasons. Not only are they overused; they're based on variables that will be different for everyone. There's a quality/value/service/caring continuum in each person's mind for every purchase occasion, and it is a continually moving target.
But the fifth word is different. The fifth word doesn't work precisely because it's not variable. The fifth word is binary.
Integrity
A company either has integrity or it doesn't. It's either honest or it isn't. And most people give companies the benefit of the doubt in believing that they operate with integrity. When a company talks about integrity in its advertising it's for one of two reasons, neither one of them good: They're either trying to cover up some lack of integrity [which never works] or they're implying they live by a higher standard than their competition. That's impolite, to say the least. Every company needs to have integrity. No company needs to advertise it.
Do you want your customers and prospects to view your products and services as being high quality and of good value? Of course. Do you want them to appreciate your caring service and strong integrity? Absolutely. But every company wants those things. Those that win the hearts and minds of consumers don't talk the talk, they walk the walk.
What you think about your corporate branding doesn't matter. All that matters is what your customers and prospects think. The next time you're tempted to use one of these five words in an ad, stop and ask if there's a better way to get the message across. Using common words that have become empty clichés is a shortcut to nowhere. Just because you sell it doesn't mean people will buy it.
Copyright 2006 BusinessWeek
From the time corporate branding began, there has never been a shortage of self-appointed experts who claim to have identified the words that will unlock your customers' wallets. In the Internet age their advice is even easier to come by. They promise that words such as "you," "guarantee," "easy," "limited-time," and the old standby, "free," will generate surefire results. If only it were that simple.
As a smart businessperson, you probably know that there are no such things as magic words, particularly in a culture that has been saturated with advertising. But there's something else you should know: Not only do magic advertising words not exist, several of them actually work against you. And chances are, you're using at least one of them in your corporate branding now.
Brace yourself. Here are five of the advertising words you should never use:
Quality
This may be the most overused word in advertising, which is the primary reason why you should stay away from it. What exactly does "quality" mean? In a Lexus, it may mean handcrafted finishes, supple seats, or a smooth ride. In a Hyundai, it's more about the extended warranty than anything.
The point is this: every product worth buying is a quality product. It may be high-priced quality or it may be low-priced quality, but it's quality either way. That means every company believes it can use the word "quality" in its advertising. Too many have, and as a result, now it has become just seven empty letters.
Value
Like quality, value has been ruined by overuse. Go back to the Lexus and the Hyundai examples -- which car is the better value? It depends -- on the buyer, on the purchase occasion, and on what features and benefits value is being judged. Both vehicles are good values depending on the purchase context.
Or take another industry, retail: Wal-Mart provides good value, but so does Tiffany. Value, like quality, is in the eye of the beholder, and every product or service has its own value equation. Saying "we provide the best value" is, therefore, virtually meaningless.
Service
Have you ever heard an ad promising lousy service? Of course not, which is the reason why claiming good service just falls on deaf ears. It's funny, but the companies that make the claim of good service the most tend to be those that deliver it the least.
Of course, most organizations do have sincere intentions to provide outstanding service and commonly cite Nordstrom as the example to which they aspire. But Nordstrom is Nordstrom for a reason -- the company's entire culture and identity is built around the service concept. Nordstrom is the exception, most companies can't get there from here, and simply promising great service won't make it happen.
Caring
Do you really believe your company cares more about your customers than your competition does? It may feel good to say so, but the claim flies in the face of common sense. If your competitors didn't care about their customers, they couldn't stay in business.
It's particularly easy for service companies to get caught up in the "caring" self-deceit because they don't sell a tangible product. But to say, "we care more" in an ad presumes that your competitors care less, which is ascribing motivations to them that can't be proven. Consumers know this and are not only hesitant to believe your claim; they are likely to consider it bad form.
The above four words all fail for essentially the same reasons. Not only are they overused; they're based on variables that will be different for everyone. There's a quality/value/service/caring continuum in each person's mind for every purchase occasion, and it is a continually moving target.
But the fifth word is different. The fifth word doesn't work precisely because it's not variable. The fifth word is binary.
Integrity
A company either has integrity or it doesn't. It's either honest or it isn't. And most people give companies the benefit of the doubt in believing that they operate with integrity. When a company talks about integrity in its advertising it's for one of two reasons, neither one of them good: They're either trying to cover up some lack of integrity [which never works] or they're implying they live by a higher standard than their competition. That's impolite, to say the least. Every company needs to have integrity. No company needs to advertise it.
Do you want your customers and prospects to view your products and services as being high quality and of good value? Of course. Do you want them to appreciate your caring service and strong integrity? Absolutely. But every company wants those things. Those that win the hearts and minds of consumers don't talk the talk, they walk the walk.
What you think about your corporate branding doesn't matter. All that matters is what your customers and prospects think. The next time you're tempted to use one of these five words in an ad, stop and ask if there's a better way to get the message across. Using common words that have become empty clichés is a shortcut to nowhere. Just because you sell it doesn't mean people will buy it.
Copyright 2006 BusinessWeek
June 24, 2006
June 19, 2006
By Jenny Holland
NEW YORK – In what Nestlé is billing as a foray into the business end of public health, the European food giant has entered into a deal to buy diet company Jenny Craig from a private equity group for $600 million, it was announced Monday.
“The rise of obesity and the resulting metabolic disorders, such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease, is a major public health concern, not only in the USA but also the world over,” Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, CEO of Nestlé, said in a statement.
“The Jenny Craig acquisition puts us in a privileged position to help many of our customers.”
The diet company’s management team will continue to run Jenny Craig as an autonomous division in Nestlé’s nutrition unit. A rep said no marketing changes were anticipated, adding that actress Kirstie Alley had signed on for another year as Jenny Craig’s spokeswoman.
Patti Larchet, CEO for the diet company, said their appeal was partly rooted in the success of the Alley campaign, by J. Walter Thompson, New York, coupled with management improvements to the food and pricing, company infrastructure and training.
“The Kirstie campaign has reinvigorated the company. She helped drive trial into the centers,” Larchet said Monday.
Jenny Craig, based in Carlsbad, Calif., hired Alley as its spokeswoman in early 2005 amid concerns that traditional brick-and-mortar diet companies were losing ground to the Internet.
The subsequent branding campaigns featuring the star of ‘80’s hit series Cheers, and more recently of Showtime’s Fat Actress, were widely seen as a marketing success.
Jenny Craig has more than 600 locations across the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Puerto Rico.
Larchet said that the deal would ultimately benefit the Jenny Craig customer.
“The depth of experience [Nestlé] bring[s] to this company, technically, scientifically, nutritionally,” she said. “All of those resources will help improve our program and our service to our clients.”
What do you think of the food branding giant and maker of unhealthy foods buying a diet company? Do you think it's a good branding fit?
By Jenny Holland
NEW YORK – In what Nestlé is billing as a foray into the business end of public health, the European food giant has entered into a deal to buy diet company Jenny Craig from a private equity group for $600 million, it was announced Monday.
“The rise of obesity and the resulting metabolic disorders, such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease, is a major public health concern, not only in the USA but also the world over,” Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, CEO of Nestlé, said in a statement.
“The Jenny Craig acquisition puts us in a privileged position to help many of our customers.”
The diet company’s management team will continue to run Jenny Craig as an autonomous division in Nestlé’s nutrition unit. A rep said no marketing changes were anticipated, adding that actress Kirstie Alley had signed on for another year as Jenny Craig’s spokeswoman.
Patti Larchet, CEO for the diet company, said their appeal was partly rooted in the success of the Alley campaign, by J. Walter Thompson, New York, coupled with management improvements to the food and pricing, company infrastructure and training.
“The Kirstie campaign has reinvigorated the company. She helped drive trial into the centers,” Larchet said Monday.
Jenny Craig, based in Carlsbad, Calif., hired Alley as its spokeswoman in early 2005 amid concerns that traditional brick-and-mortar diet companies were losing ground to the Internet.
The subsequent branding campaigns featuring the star of ‘80’s hit series Cheers, and more recently of Showtime’s Fat Actress, were widely seen as a marketing success.
Jenny Craig has more than 600 locations across the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Puerto Rico.
Larchet said that the deal would ultimately benefit the Jenny Craig customer.
“The depth of experience [Nestlé] bring[s] to this company, technically, scientifically, nutritionally,” she said. “All of those resources will help improve our program and our service to our clients.”
What do you think of the food branding giant and maker of unhealthy foods buying a diet company? Do you think it's a good branding fit?
May 30, 2006
It might be almost blasphemous to talk about letting go of old brand equity and laying an old brand to rest, but there are times when change is needed. Reformulating and re-designing, or even overhauling an old brand can be a wise decision. If sales are flat and show no sign of growth, you’d better stop kidding yourself and hire a branding consultant.
Brands are an extremely vital element in your product and corporate value proposition. With communications so pervasive today, corporate branding and product branding are becoming fused as one. Corporate brands are increasingly powering product brands and product sales and that poses some substantial risk as those sub brands can’t be as easily re-positioned when they falter.
Brand Culture
As time passes, culture changes, new technologies and new competing brands appear and they change the perception of value that is available in a marketplace. Old sales propositions won’t fly in the face of 20 or more other competitors offering the same benefits and features. With cultural, economic, technology changes, and corporate changes, your aging brand image and brand equity may end up doing more harm than good. Your former branding successes could leave your brand and company stuck in the past.
A good example of age related branding problem is in the realm of computer products. I recently bought a new laptop computer because my old one just couldn’t keep up with my multitasking and other work needs. At the retail store, there were computers with Intel or AMD microprocessors to choose from. The key matter wasn’t really microprocessor speed or capability. In the past, the Intel logo would have compelled me to buy only computers with their processors regardless of what other features were available in the computer. The Intel brand was clearly in a class by itself. Not this time. This AMD powered computer was low priced and had the memory I required along with other features such as a 100 Gb hard drive, high resolution screen, numerous ports and adapters and a long lasting battery. It only weighs a couple of pounds and the AMD logo seemed to look better too. It says: AMD Turion 64 Mobile Technology. 64 bits and mobile compatibility. Why doesn’t Intel mention that on the computer they have their products in?
Laptops are hot and prices are falling. My 15 year old nephew just bought his first laptop on eBay, since they are cheaper and more accessible. So the whole “culture” of shopping and purchasing computers has changed.
Everyone is buying high resolution screens and I was eager to ease my eye strain from long hours of viewing everyday. The huge hard drive was great and the laptop looks good too. The old Intel brand just didn’t have the effect it once did, and their competitor, AMD, just sold one of their processors. The laptop is working great and now Intel processors don’t dictate which computer I’ll buy.
To me, the Intel logo and brand brings back memories of old Pentium computers. This is worsened by the fact that today’s processors have changed and they are running at lower speeds. This confuses the speed benefit that Intel had its brand positioned around. The technology change in viewing screens, memory, and processor use in the computer has moved the market away from where Intel was positioned. The Intel corporate brand powers sales of their new processors, but they can call those new products anything they want and it won’t effective my decision.
What Intel needs to do now, is to associate its processors with the features and benefits that consumers and B2B buyers make decisions upon. Computer branding is not all about the processors anymore and the old Intel brand image is deeply tied to old technology. Even the brand name Pentium is associated with the computer culture of the 90’s.
Here’s the issue: the old Intel brand was so successful in 90’s that it’s trapped Intel in a time warp. Intel needs new branding that ties it to the future, not the past. To get there, they are probably going to have to jettison the past.
Google is a good example of modern branding and a brand that is not tied solely to web search engines. The brand is now diversified strategically to associate it with everything people are doing on the web. Google is omnipresent, and its brand image is solely in its relevance to the current Internet culture. Google won’t let its common search engine role diminish its branding power.
Hanging onto to Old Branding Concepts
There’s a lot of reason why brand managers, CEOs, and marketing managers resist rethinking their branding and redeveloping their brands. Most often, they don’t want to leave their comfort zone and risk a short term blip in profit. Some don’t want to make an investment in hiring a branding consultant to look at the options. Branding experts examine a brand to discover its current problems, the culture of the marketplace, and to determine if a new brand identity or brand positioning would be fruitful. Some old brands are doomed, but most are just stale and not in tune with the target market. A branding consultant can provide crucial insight into market perception, brand value building, brand loyalty development, and to discover the brand value proposition that could breathe new life into your brands.
From product branding, to corporate branding all the way to extending brand reach on the Internet, Brand Identity Guru provides corporate clients with brand audits, new brand designs, corporate communications strategies, brand boosting web design, and even powerful search engine marketing services. BIG has the complete branding solution for modern e-enterprises. Reach plus relevance. That’s a hard combination to beat.
From product branding, to corporate branding to extending brands on the Internet, BIG provides corporate clients with brand audits, brand design, brand web design, and search engine marketing services.
Brands are an extremely vital element in your product and corporate value proposition. With communications so pervasive today, corporate branding and product branding are becoming fused as one. Corporate brands are increasingly powering product brands and product sales and that poses some substantial risk as those sub brands can’t be as easily re-positioned when they falter.
Brand Culture
As time passes, culture changes, new technologies and new competing brands appear and they change the perception of value that is available in a marketplace. Old sales propositions won’t fly in the face of 20 or more other competitors offering the same benefits and features. With cultural, economic, technology changes, and corporate changes, your aging brand image and brand equity may end up doing more harm than good. Your former branding successes could leave your brand and company stuck in the past.
A good example of age related branding problem is in the realm of computer products. I recently bought a new laptop computer because my old one just couldn’t keep up with my multitasking and other work needs. At the retail store, there were computers with Intel or AMD microprocessors to choose from. The key matter wasn’t really microprocessor speed or capability. In the past, the Intel logo would have compelled me to buy only computers with their processors regardless of what other features were available in the computer. The Intel brand was clearly in a class by itself. Not this time. This AMD powered computer was low priced and had the memory I required along with other features such as a 100 Gb hard drive, high resolution screen, numerous ports and adapters and a long lasting battery. It only weighs a couple of pounds and the AMD logo seemed to look better too. It says: AMD Turion 64 Mobile Technology. 64 bits and mobile compatibility. Why doesn’t Intel mention that on the computer they have their products in?
Laptops are hot and prices are falling. My 15 year old nephew just bought his first laptop on eBay, since they are cheaper and more accessible. So the whole “culture” of shopping and purchasing computers has changed.
Everyone is buying high resolution screens and I was eager to ease my eye strain from long hours of viewing everyday. The huge hard drive was great and the laptop looks good too. The old Intel brand just didn’t have the effect it once did, and their competitor, AMD, just sold one of their processors. The laptop is working great and now Intel processors don’t dictate which computer I’ll buy.
To me, the Intel logo and brand brings back memories of old Pentium computers. This is worsened by the fact that today’s processors have changed and they are running at lower speeds. This confuses the speed benefit that Intel had its brand positioned around. The technology change in viewing screens, memory, and processor use in the computer has moved the market away from where Intel was positioned. The Intel corporate brand powers sales of their new processors, but they can call those new products anything they want and it won’t effective my decision.
What Intel needs to do now, is to associate its processors with the features and benefits that consumers and B2B buyers make decisions upon. Computer branding is not all about the processors anymore and the old Intel brand image is deeply tied to old technology. Even the brand name Pentium is associated with the computer culture of the 90’s.
Here’s the issue: the old Intel brand was so successful in 90’s that it’s trapped Intel in a time warp. Intel needs new branding that ties it to the future, not the past. To get there, they are probably going to have to jettison the past.
Google is a good example of modern branding and a brand that is not tied solely to web search engines. The brand is now diversified strategically to associate it with everything people are doing on the web. Google is omnipresent, and its brand image is solely in its relevance to the current Internet culture. Google won’t let its common search engine role diminish its branding power.
Hanging onto to Old Branding Concepts
There’s a lot of reason why brand managers, CEOs, and marketing managers resist rethinking their branding and redeveloping their brands. Most often, they don’t want to leave their comfort zone and risk a short term blip in profit. Some don’t want to make an investment in hiring a branding consultant to look at the options. Branding experts examine a brand to discover its current problems, the culture of the marketplace, and to determine if a new brand identity or brand positioning would be fruitful. Some old brands are doomed, but most are just stale and not in tune with the target market. A branding consultant can provide crucial insight into market perception, brand value building, brand loyalty development, and to discover the brand value proposition that could breathe new life into your brands.
From product branding, to corporate branding all the way to extending brand reach on the Internet, Brand Identity Guru provides corporate clients with brand audits, new brand designs, corporate communications strategies, brand boosting web design, and even powerful search engine marketing services. BIG has the complete branding solution for modern e-enterprises. Reach plus relevance. That’s a hard combination to beat.
From product branding, to corporate branding to extending brands on the Internet, BIG provides corporate clients with brand audits, brand design, brand web design, and search engine marketing services.
May 15, 2006
Are your marketing efforts disjointed?
Does your marketing collateral look like it comes from different companies?
Is your brand image different than you want it to be?
Do your employee's know your corporate positioning?
Do you have a brand promise?
Do you have a value proposition?
If you answered no to any of these then please read on....
Introducing the Brand-Aid Research
The Brand-Aid Research is a proprietary process created by brand identity Guru that, when professionally executed, delivers a clear and measurable competitive advantage to your firm. It does so by helping you establish a positive connection and value-relationship with your customer/prospect, which over time, will build brand equity and increase brand value.
Strategic Customer/Prospect Research Designed To:
Determine client/prospect hot buttons and pain-points in the market for a company/product like yours
Uncover marketing/advertising mediums primarily used by clients/prospects when searching for a company/product like yours (trade ads, direct mail, internet search etc.)
Compare your company/product against 2-3 competitors
Uncover current brand image perceptions of your company/product
Develop value proposition
Develop positioning
Develop brand promise
Brand-Aid Survey
Customers factor brands into every purchase. The stronger the brand, meaning the clearer the position it occupies in their minds, the more value it has and the more likely they are to choose it - again and again. The goal is to get them to choose your brand over your competition's. And that's where the Brand-Aid Survey from Brand Identity Guru can help.
The Brand-Aid Survey is an in-depth assessment, a strategic survey we use to determine the state of your specific industry/product. It helps you discover key elements important to satisfying your customer base utilizing brand research findings. The Brand-Aid Survey provides us a foundation upon which to develop the best model for customizing your brand positioning and brand promise.
The Brand-Aid Survey allows us to accurately measure the present hot buttons and pain points within your specific industry or product. It establishes the best mediums for you to allocate your marketing budget dollars to. How? By zeroing in on which vehicles your clients and prospects would use to find a company/product like yours. It helps you modify and align products, positioning messages and communications with laser pinpoint accuracy on your customers'/prospects' specific needs and wants. Why waste marketing dollars on trade ads if search engine optimization fulfills your clients/prospects needs?
The Brand-Aid Survey is really a personality profile of your market. It discovers the markets strengths, but more importantly, highlights where the market is weak.
We'll conduct phone interviews, web surveys and direct mail response with clients, prospects and your key employees. We'll uncover segments of company operations that can do more to nourish the brand, helping you pinpoint areas ripe for improvement. Our external research includes surveys with clients, prospects, vendors and key industry personnel. We'll conduct a "competitive analysis" which tells us how targeted audiences see you, your products or services and how you stack up against the competition. We tabulate the results and provide you with a customized Brand Analysis Report. Very informative. Often revealing. Only after analyzing all the essential components of branding can we provide this detailed document that shows exactly where you can improve.
In the end we will deliver a new and improved positioning, brand promise and value proposition. Branding efforts will be directed in the proper marketing and advertising mediums saving you valuable budget dollars. Your company will be set up to have one brand voice and to capture market share and brand equity.
Other BIG Research Capabilities:
Marketing Plans (The BIGPicture) http://www.brandidentityguru.com/bightml/bigpicture.html
Branding Audit/Analysis Research (The BrandMasterpiece)
http://www.brandidentityguru.com/bightml/brandmasterpiece.html
Does your marketing collateral look like it comes from different companies?
Is your brand image different than you want it to be?
Do your employee's know your corporate positioning?
Do you have a brand promise?
Do you have a value proposition?
If you answered no to any of these then please read on....
Introducing the Brand-Aid Research
The Brand-Aid Research is a proprietary process created by brand identity Guru that, when professionally executed, delivers a clear and measurable competitive advantage to your firm. It does so by helping you establish a positive connection and value-relationship with your customer/prospect, which over time, will build brand equity and increase brand value.
Strategic Customer/Prospect Research Designed To:
Determine client/prospect hot buttons and pain-points in the market for a company/product like yours
Uncover marketing/advertising mediums primarily used by clients/prospects when searching for a company/product like yours (trade ads, direct mail, internet search etc.)
Compare your company/product against 2-3 competitors
Uncover current brand image perceptions of your company/product
Develop value proposition
Develop positioning
Develop brand promise
Brand-Aid Survey
Customers factor brands into every purchase. The stronger the brand, meaning the clearer the position it occupies in their minds, the more value it has and the more likely they are to choose it - again and again. The goal is to get them to choose your brand over your competition's. And that's where the Brand-Aid Survey from Brand Identity Guru can help.
The Brand-Aid Survey is an in-depth assessment, a strategic survey we use to determine the state of your specific industry/product. It helps you discover key elements important to satisfying your customer base utilizing brand research findings. The Brand-Aid Survey provides us a foundation upon which to develop the best model for customizing your brand positioning and brand promise.
The Brand-Aid Survey allows us to accurately measure the present hot buttons and pain points within your specific industry or product. It establishes the best mediums for you to allocate your marketing budget dollars to. How? By zeroing in on which vehicles your clients and prospects would use to find a company/product like yours. It helps you modify and align products, positioning messages and communications with laser pinpoint accuracy on your customers'/prospects' specific needs and wants. Why waste marketing dollars on trade ads if search engine optimization fulfills your clients/prospects needs?
The Brand-Aid Survey is really a personality profile of your market. It discovers the markets strengths, but more importantly, highlights where the market is weak.
We'll conduct phone interviews, web surveys and direct mail response with clients, prospects and your key employees. We'll uncover segments of company operations that can do more to nourish the brand, helping you pinpoint areas ripe for improvement. Our external research includes surveys with clients, prospects, vendors and key industry personnel. We'll conduct a "competitive analysis" which tells us how targeted audiences see you, your products or services and how you stack up against the competition. We tabulate the results and provide you with a customized Brand Analysis Report. Very informative. Often revealing. Only after analyzing all the essential components of branding can we provide this detailed document that shows exactly where you can improve.
In the end we will deliver a new and improved positioning, brand promise and value proposition. Branding efforts will be directed in the proper marketing and advertising mediums saving you valuable budget dollars. Your company will be set up to have one brand voice and to capture market share and brand equity.
Other BIG Research Capabilities:
Marketing Plans (The BIGPicture) http://www.brandidentityguru.com/bightml/bigpicture.html
Branding Audit/Analysis Research (The BrandMasterpiece)
http://www.brandidentityguru.com/bightml/brandmasterpiece.html