Posts tagged branding
An Oscar Winner’s Lesson for Branding
Mar 11th
scene from "Logorama"
This past Sunday the Academy Award for Animated Short Film was awarded to the creative film Logorama that poked fun at the pervasive, ever-present nature of our favorite brand image – the corporate logo. If you haven’t seen it, you can watch it here (WARNING: adult language and content): http://vodpod.com/watch/3059295-logorama-15-min-oscar-nominated-short
According to H5, the French creative studio who created the film:
“Logorama presents us with an over-marketed world built only from logos… Logotypes are used to describe an alarming universe (similar to the one that we are living in) with all the graphic signs that accompany us every day in our lives.”
As fun as the fast-paced Logorama is to watch, it does channel the malaise and distrust many customers have developed regarding corporate identity and traditional branding/advertising practices. Logos are still a necessary and effective tool for consistently providing a global brand identity, but they were born from an outdated approach to brand management that doesn’t work for today’s information-connected customer.
Customers need to shape the brand
The last decade has seen a growing distrust of corporate efforts perceived as unauthentic (thank you Gen X and Gen Y). More folks understand the concepts behind branding and have a lot to say about how it’s been handled by the brands that intersect with their lives. They want to be involved with the brands that matter to them and interact with other likeminded people about these brands. They want experiences.
The traditional approach of company-to-customer brand management where the key objective was to “own” and “manage” brand channels conflicts with this new reality. The approach should be to influence, not control. Organizations must engage their customer network to manage a brand collaboratively versus “telling” customers why they should be loyal. Customer distrust is boiling beneath the surface; don’t let it sink your brand.
It’s more than the Logo
Most efforts to evolve brands have focused on the identity elements (logo, imagery, advertising), probably because they’re the easiest to execute. However, these don’t represent the experiences that drive customer loyalty. Developing a strong sense of your customers’ perceptions, needs, and expectations was once a difficult and costly exercise, requiring lengthy market research and focus groups. Today, social media provides a real-time and cost-effective way to partner with customers quickly to gain valuable insights. No doubt it can be a bit overwhelming at first, but testing, failing, learning and designing a strategy that works is no longer a “nice to have”.
The Brand is alive
Brands are a living organism and need to evolve and change over time. Your brand represents the positive experience delivered when your company meets a customer’s need. Those needs change, your organization’s approach to meeting customer needs change, so the connection point between the two also needs to change. Engaging with customers to manage this evolution will ensure you don’t make any missteps.
Chocolate Milk is Good for Kids?
Feb 4th
That’s right. According to the new ad campaign from Garelick Farms for its TrueMoo chocolate milk (http://www.trumoo.com/ ) it is. Check it out for yourself here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qN5S0fCF5rY. The ad certainly grabbed my attention, but probably not for the reasons they wanted.
From www.garelickfarms.com
The ad features typical child behavior; boredom with anything nutritious but excited about chocolate milk. A confused mother is saved by her guardian angel (ala the Animal House classic treatment) who lets her know it’s okay to give the boy what he wants because…”hey, it’s good for ‘em…you betcha’”. Her conscience’s devil even appears to concur. By the way; what ever happened to Tom Hulce?
The pitch: TruMoo is not high in fructose syrup, the evil elixir parents battle in soda and some juice drinks, so it’s a healthy choice. They also casually add that it’s “just enough” sugar for a tasty snack.
At a time when consumers are looking for socially conscious behavior from their brands, TrueMoo is telling you chocolate is good for kids. When childhood obesity has become a national epidemic and everyone from parent groups to pediatricians agrees we need to focus on changing kids habits and behaviors, TrueMoo is telling you chocolate is good for kids. At the height of the Networked Era, when customers like me can broadcast our dissatisfaction with the click of the mouse, TrueMoo is telling you chocolate is good for kids.
Look, I’m a parent, I get it; children can violently refuse the healthy options we present them, and they’re eating habits can be very fickle. Our daughter is apparently the only child that doesn’t like those Graduate puffs (I’m currently looking to offload a three-pack we purchased at BJ’s Wholesale Club). Parents try all sorts of tricks to get their kids to eat the essentials (including using chocolate milk). But it’s the consumers’ choice to cut these corners in desperation – and no product company should be developing a campaign around the concept.
Garelick Farms claims it responded to “consumer demand” when it “removed high-fructose corn syrup and replaced it with 100% natural sugar.” I doubt that the parents of obese children made this request. Masking an effort to increase product sales as an attempt to be “customer-centric” is a fast way to diminish your brand’s reputation.
As for the assertion that TrueMoo has “just enough sugar for a tasty snack”; that’s based on the premise that the drink will be one of the few snacks the child has all day. In reality, the families and children that will embrace this product are not those who are currently making disciplined and healthy choices on a daily basis. I’m not saying chocolate milk is a gateway food that leads to Boston-cream donuts, but it’s a slippery slope
Two thumbs down on this product campaign from me. You tell me if I’m being overly-critical.
