The BIG Kahuna

The other day I wrot on Yum Brands and how they’ve decided to include calorie counts on their menu items (Yum Brands Doesn’t Get It). But now I know they are completely out of touch.

In Yum’s wisdom they’ve decided to re-brand world famous Pizza Hut to…drum roll please….

Pasta Hut…

What say you kahunas? Are they meatballs or what?

Game 6 of the Red Sox ALCS?game and TBS is showing the Steve Harvey Show? Are you kidding me TBS? This is why these junior butt head networks should never get to play in the big boys pond!

Game started at 8:07, it’s now 8:21. Steve Harvey has never seen ratings so good!

Taken from my always working branding mind. Who was so different and made such an impact? Who?geniunely “lived” their brand…always??The Beatles? The Stones? Elvis? Not even close.

Only one man…

“Get up, stand up, Stand up for your rights. Get up, stand up, Don’t give up the fight.”

James Henke, author of Marley Legend (he’s also curator of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and one of my former editors at Rolling Stone), claims Marley’s more famous now than John Lennon.

“They had very similar philosophies,” he tells Evelyn McDonell in Miami Herald. “But the worldwide impact of Bob is much stronger. If you look at pure sales figures, Bob is a more vital artist now in terms of people still buying his music. Bob has this much broader appeal.”

Read more here

A few tidbits on the genius of the?Bob Marley brand:

Here’s the song list from Legend:

Buy the CD Here, the BIG Kahuna commands it!

“Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery;
None but ourselves can free our minds.”

Barack Obama has destroyed McCain in building his brand. As you may or may not know I’m a registered Republican and watching this race has really been frustrating for me from a branding perspective.

Obama will win this election because quite frankly he’s a better marketer. Let’s look at his tax break as an example:

1. 95% of Americans get a tax break (no one pays more under McCain’s Tax plan)

2. “Rich” people that make more than 250K a year should pay more, they have it right?

3. The 95% have been getting screwed for too long, blame the 250K people.

Man, he’s good. Most Americans believe this to be true now. Why not make the “evil rich” people pay more? Everyone’s upset so those financially successful people make easy targets.

Obama and his branding?machine have done it. He will win. McCain should attack these un-American principles but instead all he says is “Obama, you are redistributing the wealth”. He needed to make it simple so Americans understood it. He failed.

The truth:

1. It’s not the American way to penalize people who are financially successful. We all know this as the “American Dream”. Taking from the evil “rich” to give to the not so evil rich is inherently bad. Should we try and earn less now as a reward? What does this teach our youth? The more financially successful you become the more the government penalizes you? Aren’t we capitalists? Free market and all?

McCain failed miserably at this message. No one cares about hearing redistribution of wealth. He should have called it a penalty tax.

2. McCain should have really pounded home that these increased penalty taxes to people making over 250K will do many negative things, like:

A. Cut disposable income of the 250K people. These people stimulate the economy because frankly they have more to spend. Not all but most, by going out to dinner regularaly, home improvements, new cars every 3 years?etc. Some spend more on entertainment in one year than the average American makes…Should they suffer a penalty because of their financial success?

B. Many of these 250K people will be small business owners. Now they may be forced to spend less on advertising, or even lay employees off. This could cost the average American their jobs.

C. These 250K people already pay more than the average American in taxes. Most likely some pay more in taxes than the average American even makes in a year. Try swallowing that pill for a while. They’re already paying huge taxes, this is just adding a penalty tax above and beyond.

D. Lastly do the 95% understand that they?will in all essence be taking a handout from the 250K people? Because ultimately the money taken from the 250K group goes directly to the 45K person. Is that the message we want to send? If you can’t obtain the American dream no worries, the one’s that do will financially support you?

I could go on and on…

There are many issues in this election and you have to choose what’s important to you. But I could never vote for ANY candidate if they wanted to take away that one thing every American can obtain….the dream. And I certainly don’t want to be penalized when I obtain the American Dream, do you?

McCain’s branding is so detached from the average American. He’s failed and he will lose because of it. And the evil rich people deserve to pay more. Kudos to Obama for selling the branding?message and shame on McCain for not being in-touch with the people.

Good branding always beats campaign driven tactics. Feel free to comment and disagree but let’s not be disagreeable.

Give it away.

When all else fails just give your products or services away. That’s what word of mouth guru Andy Sernovitz suggests. In Andy’s latest article “Give away your buns” he suggests that when you have a product or service left over (never going to sell) that a company should just give it away to spread positive word of mouth.

Let’s look at this from a big boy branding perspective.

Andy:

*Unused hotel rooms: Use every empty suite for an upgrade or give empty rooms to families with kids

My brand perspective: Let’s say the Ritz Carlton has some unused rooms. Everyones pretty clear on the brand image the Ritz has, right? If the Ritz started giving rooms away to help spread happy thoughts do you think it could negatively affect their “luxury”, high priced image? Furthermore would non typical Ritz guests start waiting to the end to see if they can get a freebie? Are those the people the Ritz wants?

Andy:

*Car rentals: Reward someone with an unused upgrade

My brand perspective: Sure, maybe to loyal renters but once again it ultimately sends the wrong brand message. Basically you’re devaluing your product/service.

Finally Andy closes with this statement:

Give it away before you throw it away.? It’s worth a dozen referrals.

Yea, you’ll have people running around telling their friends and family to wait to the last minute so they can get it FREE as well.

Here’s a thought. Develop loyal brand ambassadors who understand the value in your product/service. They’ll run around telling everyone they know and you’ll actually get paid for it. Just my thoughts as a branding guy.

Hey, we’re still fighting hard to win this thing, please give us your vote.

Sometimes you just have to scratch your head and ask “do these people get it”? The other day I wrote a post on the financial crisis and made some bare minimum suggestions for what banks could do during a time when their customers are scared and worried.

My post was actually featured on Brand Mix (brand stategist Martin Bishop from Landor)?as one of the “6 of the best” top blog posts for the week (he’s also a “branding guru”). Then Jeffry Pilcher chimed in via my blog and then trashed me on twitter by saying this:

Quite possibly the lamest advice ever given to a financial institution from a “branding guru”: http://tinyurl.com/4zltp4 Seriously???

https://twitter.com/jpilcher

I love how he writes “branding guru”….way to make friends and influence people on your first post to their blog.

You have to check out the comments I received from Financial Branding Consultant Jeffry Pilcher. It’s really quite funny and bizare.

For the full story Click here to get a good laugh.

What do you think? Did I offer bad advice? Did Jeffry’s comments ring true? Is Jeffry playing with a full deck?

At Brand Identity Guru we suggest social media as a tactic over and over. Social networks, blogs, twitter, Facebook to name a few are all in our branding?bag. We suggest them based on our client’s market and situation. Not everyone should go to Ning and start a freakin network.

That said I’m so tired of these?one track mind word of mouth guru’s, identity specialists, buzz firms etc.?that discard integrated marketing. They think you build a social network, throw up?some tweets and you’re good to go. Wrong.

I’m coming out of the brand strategy closet?and saying it. Don’t do business with any marketing company, branding agency, Identity Firm, advertising agency or especially a word of mouth marketing company if all they recommend is Social Media or word of mouth. Just say no. You will waste whatever little marketing budget you have left.

Now, all these companies mentioned above will show you examples of why TV advertising, radio, billboards, direct mail, telemarketing, search engine optimization etc. etc. don’t work. And they will be partly correct but only in a snake oil salesman kinda way. They don’t work because 95% of the time these things are done wrong. Cheesy. Off message. Off target. You get the point.

What’s right? Here is a simple step by step method:

1. Define your target markets (exclude all those not in it and never try to sell to them). This is usually where much fault lies. You can’t be afraid to lose a few sales to make the right sales.

2. Ask who you want to be (how do you want to be perceived-Brand Identity). Branding reserach?is strongly recommended. This is the soul of your company and why you exist. Volvo exists to keep people safe. Why do you exist?

3. Create a MYRIAD of strategies and tactics based on your brand identity in #2.

4. Execute your tactics through the right communication vehicles (word of mouth, social media, seo, trade ads, events?etc.). Don’t be afraid of telemarketing and or direct mail because some whacky word of mouth guy says they’re nor good. Done right any tactic can and will be successful.

5. Deliver your brand identity message each and every time you communicate externally and internally. Volvo always seems to mention their safe. And when they don’t their brilliant tagline “For Life” does. It’s built in brand identity leverage.?

You’re done.

Now obviously there is a lot more to talk about but it can be broken down that easily.

Happy branding!

Strange mix wouldn’t you say?

Susan Gunelius over at Brand Curve did a great post on how big Tobacco used advertising back in the day?to?let’s say stretch the truth?(in my opinion)?to it’s customers. Here are a few examples:

?? ??

Now, get in your time machine an move forward 20 years from now. Think we’ll be laughing at how we were lied to (in my opinion) by some of our financial institutions:

Just like big Tobacco who knew what they were selling (nicotine addiction)?our unethical?banks also knew what type of mortgages they were selling (manipulation and greed).

Now before every bank sends me hate mail I’m not talking about you good banks. Just the evil failing banks…so relax.

What say you kahunas?

p.s. Ah, er….these are just my opinions big Tobacco and nice banks, please don’t sue little ole’ me.

We’d like to welcome Olivier Blanchard to the branding blog. Olivier writes a killer blog “The Brandbuilder Blog“. Lots of social networking, community building and blog talk, but why it’s really?great is he ties it to branding. Unlike those Kool-Aid drinking cult like?word of mouth companies who think that branding doesn’t exist.

Olivier is a lot like myself in the sense that he gives you straight talk and really doesn’t mind if he steps on a few toes. Maybe a little like myself as I step on a lot of toes!

The BIG Kahuna commands you to click on the link and sample his blog. And as we know absolutely no one really listens to my commands, so pretty please?

http://thebrandbuilder.wordpress.com/

p.s. Hey Olivier, for gods sakes, pony up and buy a URL/host, ya big cheapo!

My friend Jonathan Salem Baskin (Brand Behaviorist)?just put out a new YouTube video. I loved it. I’ll tell you why after you watch it:

Now why did I love it? Because most of these icons make no brand identity sense. For an effective mascot to work it must leverage the brand identity. For instance is Volvo (safety brand identity) decided on a mascot a swashbuckling pirate would be bad, but a?police officer?would be good. See the difference?

Sock puppets, Kool-Aid jugs and gecko’s mean nothing. I do happen to like the caveman mascot only because it does leverage “ease of use” which makes sense, hence “so easy a caveman can do it”.

Jonathan is a branding guy. He’s just a different kind of branding guy. I’ve coined him the Brand Behaviorist and it suits him well. Now if only I can get him to at least consider that brand identity and perceptions help drive a brand…

p.s. Jonathan, you haven’t made a comment on my blog in quite some time. The BIG Kahuna is angry!

I’ve never flown on Southwest. I’ve always had some weird concern that their price was too low and I related it to poor quality (like poorly trained pilots or something horrible like that). It was a perception that was unfounded but it was my?reality.

But their branding?and advertising of late has been fantastic. They’re really taking advantage of the airlines that are not or will never be customer centric or “get it”. Everyone besides maybe JetBlue in the US.

I love their new TV commercial(s) where they say:

We don’t charge fees, on the first bag or second. We don’t charge fees on an isle or window seat. We don’t charge fees on curbside check in. We don’t charge fees on phone reservations. We don’t believe in charging for things that should be free. Low fares, no hidden fees.

Then of course they apparently deliver on their brand promise.

I wrote a post on how the banks could take advantage of the same type of opportunity (click here). Who’s the Southwest of the banking industry? Has any bank come out and really taken the steps to be different and stand out in the crowd? I certainly haven’t seen any type of TV? Which bank will come out and claim their rightful spot?

Does anyone have any idea how difficult it is to have your own employees as a brand ambassador? I received a disturbing email from Lauren, a 14 year veteran bartender from the 99 Restaurant in Easton/Brockton. Let me say that again, she’s worked for the 99 Restaurant for 14 years… as a bartender. I wonder how many bartenders last 14 years at the 99?

I know Lauren personally so this email came as a shock. She loves her job and the 99 Restaurant?so much that she took the time to send me (customer) a personal email. Check it out:

Hi everyone,
As most of you have already heard (and I apologize to those of you I have yet to tell) I have been fired from the “99″ Restaurant after 14 years of service. It was done via voicemail a day after I had a meeting with both a general and assistant manager from the Easton restaurant.
No reason was given on the message but the meeting was about my usage of manager’s access codes and swipe cards. As a trusted senior unofficial head bartender, those codes and cards were given to me by the managers themselves.

I cannot begin to describe how sad I am to be leaving this way and to be leaving all of you as well. The “99″ was more than just a job to me. It wasn’t just the benefit package and the income that I will miss.?I have met some of my closest friends and some of the greatest people in my 14 years there. I will miss everyone I came into contact with (well almost everyone!)

Some people have expressed their desire to write to the company on my behalf. Since I haven’t had the opportunity to speak with my Operations Director or Human Resources (they will not return my calls) I think emails and/or letters on my behalf would be nice.
Though this termination took me completely by surprise and has devastated me, I am humbled and overwhelmed by the amount of support and kindness I have received.

The “99″ Restaurants
160 Olympia Avenue
Woburn, MA 01801

Karen Marchand (HR Manager) KMarchand@99restaurants.com
Michelle Dean (Operations Manager, the one who’s ultimate decision it was) Mdean@99restaurants.com
Jim Kiley (Regional Director) JKiley@99restaurants.com

Thank you all so much
I will miss you,
Lauren Dupre

Does that sound like an employee that has done wrong or one that truly loved her company? Whatever the circumstances Lauren was an outstanding customer relations person for the 99 Restaurant and unless she has done wrong the 99 Restaurant has made a huge mistake (in my humble opinion). 14 years as a bartender people. I couldn’t do it.

Since I get about 2000 readers a day let’s all send a quick note to the emails above, Lauren at least deserves the right to know why she was fired from the job she loved and worked 14 years for?right?

Like most professionals I’m supposed to get Saturday and Sunday off but I find myself working almost every weekend? Why you ask?

POWER.

1. Passion – I really love what I do. So in place of a hobby or time spent on my house I often choose to write a blog or do some work. That all typically ends when something really fun comes up like tonight’s game two Red Sox LCS.

2. Opportunity – Most people just refuse to work on the weekends. So when I’m not busy having too much fun my passion allows me to get in front of people when most are not. Less competition means more opportunity for my message to be heard.

2. Whacky – Now’s the time to experiment and have fun. It is after all the weekend. Answer the business line casually, like – You’ve reached Brand Identity Guru on the weekend you lucky duck. How can the BIG Kahuna serve you? You’ll find the caller will be instantously relaxed and amused.

3. Effective – I find even if a dedicate just one hour a day on Saturday and Sunday I become much more effective in my goals.

4. Results – Can’t tell you how many prospects I’ve converted to?customers just by answering our office phone line (which gets transferred to my cell on the weekends). Most of the responses I get are “Oh wow, I thought I would just leave a message”. Nope, you got the BIG Kahuna on Sunday at 10am, how can I help you.

Practice some POWER sometimes you may be amazed.

Yesterday I gave SpringBoost our Pump Up Your Brand workshop…and I kicked their branding?asses. Boy oh boy are their branding muscles gonna be sore today. I had a great time, very fun group.

Here’s the email I just received from them:

Thank you for the workshop yesterday. I was so happy to see that in 2 minutes you had come to the heart of our problem. It?s been so hard to communicate and I?ve been struggling to get us focused because none of us seemed to agree on who and what we should focus… It?s always easier to have someone from the outside point things out and help us get a step back. I very much look forward to the following exercises we?ll start. Your workshop is very well constructed and we all enjoyed your confidence, straight talk and direction.

Thank you!

Patricia

Well you’re very welcome! I’m surprised you could even type today after that workout.

Talk about a remarkable product? They sell a sneaker/shoe where the heel is lower than the ball of your foot so it forces you to use more muscles and you get a better workout. Check them out for sure.

SpringBoost US

So we’ve weeded out the crooks (not really). I must say this entire “bail out” mess really makes me upset. I truly wish these companies could have just failed and new (honest) companies could have emerged. But alas that did not happen. So what do they do now?

Here’s what?I would consider:

1. A letter from the President included in your monthly statement or via email. This letter would apologize for the?company and or industry and make promises with solutions.

2. Part of the letter should include a FREE 30 minute consultation at each and every branch and customers should call a special number to make an appointment. Or they could have 25 people?customer groups and offer this same advice in a 1 hour session. Free food and drink should be included!

3. Set up a hot-line to answers questions via the phone. This could be done by email as well.

4. Each bank should set up an internally department (internal affairs) to oversee transactions if they don’t already have one. Once set up they should be completely transparent with their customers. Policing themselves and reporting that will help to restore trust.

Obviously I can go on and on…

This is a HUGE opportunity for banks to be proactive and sincere. Instead of sitting on their butts tapping into the free money we just gave them DO something. Develop some branding strategies, and transparency to help ease concerns.

What do you think?

I receive about 6 emails a day that all start like this:

Dear Sir \ Madam,
?
We are a INDIA based Web Services company with primary focus on…

Then I go to my junk email account and hit “spam”, buh bye.??

They all sell the same way: We are cheap.

Do they think this tactic works? Because to be honest all it does for me is make me never want to hear from ANY India based company. Does this happen to you?

I work hard coming up with articles for the blog. I have many readers that never make a comment but enjoy reading. And I have dedicated folks that comment all the time.

I need your comments now. What are you interested in? I want to write more articles on things that interest YOU. Help a brother out and leave a comment so I can better the blog.

Yum brands (The parent of KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Long John Silver’s, and A&W All-American Food)?has decided to include calorie information on all their menu items. Hooray, now I can know how many calories I eat when I wuff down a 3 piece at Kentucky Fried Chicken. Here’s what they had to say:

“We believe this is the right leadership role . . . to be providing more information so consumers can make better-informed purchase decisions about the food they eat,” Yum spokesman Jonathan Blum said.

Yea, that’s just the reason I stop at a Taco Bell, to lose weight. The reason I eat your greasy, fat pills are because they taste good and are not good for you. If I want to watch my calories I’m not visiting your restaurants.

Why lose focus on who you are and the promise you make? Eating healthy is not and should never be a fast food chains responsibility. KFC is all about hi-calories, yummy greasy chicken. I want the gravy and biscuit when I go there. I don’t want to know it’s 3000 calories. I’m smart enough to know this as a consumer. Which is why I practice moderation.

So go ahead, put up the calories. The people you’re trying to educate won’t care and people like me just might walk out the door.

On Thursday I’ll be conducting my “Pump Up Your Brand” workshop at SpringBoost.?

A brief history on SpringBoost:

Springboost was formed from the collective efforts of a number of sport passionate and entrepreneurial individuals who came together to develop a high performance athletic footwear technology and brand. The footwear technology Springboost developed allows one to jump higher, run faster while using less energy.

After five years of intensive research in biomechanics and field testing, initiated by Behrouz Bayat and continued by Dr. J?rg Fuchslocher, it became clear that using new biomechanical principals one could positively affect performance in sports and in training.

In early 2005, SpringBoost launched its first line of footwear solutions for the fitness market under the name B-Fit. Simultaneously the company developed footwear lines for other sport categories. Since September 2005 B-Fit for men and the volleyball shoe B-Spike are available. In the beginning of 2006 SpringBoost presented for the first time footwear for walking, Nordic walking and performance training. Further models will be coming soon.

SpringBoost is out to train the world, to enhance performance and pleasure to all the sport enthusiasts who have a passion for what they do, for those striving to bring out the best in themselves while improving their well-being, health and vigor.

I hope they’re ready to have some fun!

1. They make you look small

2. They make you look desperate

3. They don’t work

4. They are a budget waster and if they are free see #5

5. They are a?time waster

6. They turn customer off

7. They are nothing more than a short term band aid if they work

8. They break trust with your clients/prospects

9. They most likely will make you look goofy

10. Here’s an example of using gimmicks in marketing (by Andy Sernovitz – an expert marketer):

Do you think that was an effective word of mouth marketing tactic?