Archive for the ‘Brand Management’ Category

Don’t turn back on your brand

Sunday, February 21st, 2010

This morning after Jourvert celebrations, I got stuck in a massive traffic jam. Nothings moving and I change course a few times to try to get through the mess. Several people in front of me eventually turn back. I decided to stick it out. And one hour later (for a trip that’s normally five minutes), I’m through and on my way.

Sometimes our brands get into a traffic jam. Sales are not what they should be or a new entrant has come in and are buying share through discounting or trade deals. And we are tempted to turn back. We drop price or drop ad spend or anything that seems expedient at the time. We sometimes forget where we said we wanted to go with the brand. What we wanted it to mean and to whom.

With branding, we need to stay the course. Make some adjustments in the tactics as needed and stick to the strategy we worked hard to develop. Otherwise like some folks this morning, we might end up going west when we want to go east. Brands need patience, discipline and sometimes a sense of humour to overcome traffic jams in the market place. Brands must stick to their plan.

Title: Don’t turn back on your brand
Author: dennis.ramdeen
Posted: Sunday 21st February, 2010 at 8:00 am
Tags: Brand Management, branding, carnival, Trinidad & Tobago
Posted in Brand Management, Opinion | No Comments »

Standing out on Times Square- American Eagle

Monday, December 7th, 2009

AE storefront on Times Square

It’s hard enough to stand out in the global market place. Can you imagine what it takes to stand out on Times Square. If you were meeting someone at Times Square and you told them you would be wearing a red shirt and black hat with a NY logo; chances are there will be someone else in a similar garb.

American Eagle (AE) competes for attention on Times Square against Taxis, Buskers, Coca Cola’s iconic hoardings, the M&M and Disney stores and of course their more direct competition like The Gap, Eddie Bauer and Abercrombie & Fitch

Unbeatable Brand Experience

Women’s Wear Daily, a clothing industry periodical, called AE “one of the hottest retailers in the country,” citing it as “a case study on how to build a brand.” On a recent trip to NY two things got my attention; 2 new pieces of media renaissanced by American Eagle. They have this 40 foot by 30 foot electronic biilboard on the side of their building that makes their customers stars for 15 minutes. So who won’t want to see themselves and their date (or class re-union or marriage proposal or whatever grouping of people) on the big screen of all big screens on the square of all squares. I and my son and his 5 friends did it and even the 3 degrees didn’t bother us while we waited for our moment of fame. Talk about a compelling and memorable brand experience. All the while you wait you get the full AE brand tutorial aka brand video.

The Pink Bag

And then there’s the pink bag. A stroke of genius. Just 12 inches by 8 inches , with an imprint that makes it look like it was hand-done one at a time rather than churned out 1 million at a time, the AE bag is the embodiment of the brand. It is as powerful as any TVC because it gives AE customers something a TV ad cannot; badge value. They target the lucrative youth market–ages 16 to 34–through a young and hip feel to their clothing and in their marketing communications where the medium is the message. Remaining at the chain’s core is its venerable rugged, outdoorsy style.

What’s your brand’s pink bag?

Title: Standing out on Times Square- American Eagle
Author: dennis.ramdeen
Posted: Monday 7th December, 2009 at 9:28 am
Tags: American Eagle, Design & Visual Communication, fashion advertising, Times Square
Posted in Brand Management, Design & Visual Communication | 1 Comment »

Is T&T TV on its Deathbed?

Tuesday, November 10th, 2009

Blast from the Past

When did local TV start to decline? Was it the coming of cable? Or was it when it started expanding its hours into daytime; so that it lost its special treat status. So too much TV killed TV?

Or was it the proliferation of radio stations each nipping at the heels of TV, one viewer turned listener at a time. Then there were the heavyweights of the past few years; the keep fit craze that has lasted and the internet that is growing exponentially. More than a third of T&T are expected to have a Facebook account by end of next year. Teenagers are as comfortable with You Tube as they are with 2 and 1/2 men. Except they share the former and that makes them feel special.

And now comes 2 more cable companies to add to local TV’s woes. According to TATT, about 30% of the households in T&T have cable already. Will this reach 60% in a couple of years? And with Flow promising to be able to tell advertisers whose watching what programmes, if I were working at TV6 or CNC3 I would start thinking about where else I could use my skills. Plus we can expect Green Dot and TSTT to make the same promise.

What can local TV do ? Can it survive and thrive? It’s going to be very tough because mass marketing is losing some of its lustre even in emerging markets like ours.

Broadcasting is being replaced by narrowcasting to markets of one. And the internet is the major culprit. Newspapers all over the world were in denial and then they started closing down. TV needs to skip the denial stage and figure out how they stay tuned in. They need to upgrade their research capability and understand their viewers better than they have ever understood them. The truth is that none of them are investing in viewer research in any serious way. Local TV needs to become special again and if my theory of narrowcasting is right, then the last shall be first. There is only one local TV brand that’s differentiated and narrowly defined. I’m going to buy Gayelle stock.

Edit: Even local Canadian TV stations are confronting this problem

Title: Is T&T TV on its Deathbed?
Author: dennis.ramdeen
Posted: Tuesday 10th November, 2009 at 9:12 am
Tags: Flow, Gayelle, T&T Tv, TATT
Posted in Brand Management | 4 Comments »

What Minister Hunt could have done differently

Monday, November 9th, 2009

T&T's $2M Flag

I have not been following the Flag at the National Stadium issue very closely; however, I know enough to know that from henceforth Minister Hunt will be known as the $2M flag man. I also know that his political enemies see this as manna from heaven and will do anything to position this as a symbol of the ruling party’s squander mania.

Letters to the editor have started to list what could have been done instead with $2M. People are doing research on the internet on what the pole should have cost. Someone has asked if Fire One’s forte is engineering fireworks or engineering works.

I would like to add my voice to the discussions from the point of view of what could Mr Hunt have done differently when this ‘crisis’ broke. The first thing I would say is that he and all Ministers must acknowledge that they are first and foremost accountable to the people of Trinidad and Tobago.

So they should be prepared that information on their actions will reach the public arena by whatever means. If Mr Hunt knew that people would find out what the flag at the stadium cost; would he have still put it up? And if the answer is yes, did he have a clear rationale for his decision?

Make sure you have a crisis plan

Recently, in the USA, there was a scandal involving South Carolina Governor Sanford, who had an extra-marital affair with an Argentinean woman. Referring to his staff, Angie Andresen of Story Teller Media, a crisis management advisor, said: “They didn’t appear to have a plan and they didn’t appear to tell us the truth.”

She said the Sanford staff missed these two key components: there was no plan when the Governor went missing, and then there was the lie that he was out hiking. “In the absence of truth, people will come up with their own stories,” said Andresen, “And they’ll dig and they’ll find out other things, and what they can come up with can often times be worse than what the truth is.”

Be Prepared

At that first post-cabinet press briefing Minister Hunt needed to come with all his artillery and even if he did not have it there, he should have dealt with it the next day. He needed to say the flag cost $2 million. He needed to say the buck stops with him. He needed to say why his Ministry chose a bidder with a price tag double that of another. Instead he let people come up with their own stories.

People can deal with the truth. Even if it’s not pretty.

Title: What Minister Hunt could have done differently
Author: dennis.ramdeen
Posted: Monday 9th November, 2009 at 7:00 am
Tags: $2M flag, Gary Hunt, million, national flag, public relations, Trinidad & Tobago
Posted in Brand Management, Opinion | 1 Comment »

Sonnet to Venky’s

Friday, October 23rd, 2009

We did not know her because we just met

A perfect stranger in a far far place

She saw no religion she saw no race

Welcomed with open arms we won’t forget

Our sweet new friend for life without regret

More than you expect from corporate face

Sponsor, no partner with maximum taste

Helped keep us focussed yes helped get us set

So we could tell the world our own story

So we could let them fall in love with us

Write our islands in their rich history

We thank them for their love and for their trust

We see them as more than a company

We now see our Venky’s as one of us

Title: Sonnet to Venky’s
Author: dennis.ramdeen
Posted: Friday 23rd October, 2009 at 8:30 am
Tags: cricket, distribution, sponsorship, tobago, trinidad, venky's
Posted in Brand Management | 1 Comment »

Has Venky’s paid it forward…..

Friday, October 23rd, 2009

One cardinal rule in marketing is that you must get distribution before you start advertising. Why tell people about a product that they cannot find. That is a double whammy. You’re throwing away ad dollars and getting people vex as well. Some of them never return, even when you eventually make the product available.

So clearly Venky’s sponsorship of the T&T miracle makers had everything to do with their business in India and also their export markets in Africa, Europe and Asia and nothing to do with the T&T and wider Caribbean markets where they are yet to hang out their shingle. The ROI on this transaction so far is in the triple digits. Venky’s could not have got it much better. In a country where a cricketer is revered like a God, Venky’s won the toss and decided to bat for T&T.

So maybe without planning it, Venky’s is paying it forward for its eventual entry into these parts. After large markets are saturated companies turn to emerging markets. If and when they do eventually get here we will be rolling out the red carpet to welcome them. Trinidadians and Tobagonians are at our core very decent people. We don’t forget easily kindness especially from strangers. You see you expect your friend to be your friend. When a stranger gets you out of a spot of trouble then you’ve got a friend for life. And a spot of trouble we were in with Darren Ganga being the catalyst off the field to help us find our saviour, to add to his onfield steady, mature and inspirational leadership. Darren Ganga’s stock could not be higher and he and his team will have to be sure they are free on August 31 2010. They have a date at President’s House on that date. Expect as well that the State’s cheque writer will be called into action, as was the case when we went to Germany.

Venky’s may not be available in our Supermarkets. However, they now have a place in our hearts, like Crix, Angostura, Carib, KFC, Kiss and Stag to name a few iconic brands in T&T Not bad for a brand that we heard of for the first time only 10 days ago. And once you get into the hearts of T&T, it’s ok not to have distribution for a while.

Title: Has Venky’s paid it forward…..
Author: dennis.ramdeen
Posted: Friday 23rd October, 2009 at 8:00 am
Tags: Brand Management, cricket, distribution, india, sponsorship, tobago, trinidad, venky's
Posted in Brand Management | Comments Off

2 Branding Ideas not born from a Press Ad

Thursday, October 22nd, 2009

Two outstanding examples of branding, NOT involving traditional media.

CUNA chooses to feature their employees in newly designed uniforms. UTC awards a more than worthy scholarship winner with a laptop.

How can you build brand awareness and do good at the same time?

Title: 2 Branding Ideas not born from a Press Ad
Author: aisha.williams
Posted: Thursday 22nd October, 2009 at 4:47 pm
Tags: Brand Management, branding, cuna, utc
Posted in Brand Management | 1 Comment »

Give me a Harry Potter and a Barbecue Pit

Tuesday, October 20th, 2009

I worked at KFC for eight years and one of the key skills they train associates on is up selling. So when you order a 2 pc and fries the team member behind the cashier should smile and ask you Would you be having a “corn on the cob” today with that Maam?

You see there are 2 things that retailers live by; Transactions and Ticket Average (the size of your purchase) They drive you into their store (transactions) through high investments in media and with product news and then once you get there they try to shake every thing they can out of your pockets. In a nice way, of course. Because they also know that the experience you have with them is more important than anything else.

Wal-mart treads on Amazon’s turf – eCommerce

So that Wal-Mart is now going after Amazon’s transactions does not surprise me. The battle is on; Wal-Mart is taking off its gloves and taking on the titans of the online experience, the great Amazon. These Wal-Mart guys keep reinventing themselves and keep innovating, never happy with just winning, they want to annihilate. So they bring you in for the book and up sell you to the Barbecue Pit with a built in stainless steel, frost free refrigerator.

Industry analysts suggested that slashing prices on just 10 titles won’t make much of a dent to the massive Wal-Mart’s bottom line. “If Wal-Mart can use them to get people into the [online] store as a sort of loss leader, they can start selling them other higher margin products,” Mr. Froman an industry analyst said recently. “Wal-Mart is essentially using it to build a database of online customers … Wal-Mart is doing it to make a strong play in the online space.”

They picked up this habit of taking ideas from others from their founder Sam Walton. “I probably have traveled and walked into more variety stores than anybody in America. I am just trying to get ideas, any kind of ideas that will help our company. Most of us don’t invent ideas. We take the best ideas from someone else”, he has been quoted as saying.

Will Amazon still rule The Get-anything-online?

So with Wal-Mart stepping up from bricks to clicks is Amazon going to disappear? I think not. I see a parallel between McD’s McCafe and Starbucks. I was in NY recently and visited a McCafe. The McCafe TV ads comprehensively over promise. It really should have been called McCafeteria. Very unremarkable. By contrast I visited Starbucks several times and I don‘t even drink coffee regularly. The Pumpkin latte and scone got me a few times and the experience sealed the deal. No one, no matter if their name is Sam Walton can be a master of all trades McD makes a decent burger the same way every time in fairly clean and comfortable surroundings. Trying to position themselves as an oasis, the 3rd place you go to, nah!

So Amazon will not die. In fact, they will get better at what they do. Competition is good that way. And they have had a jump start of several years to play in the online pond. I’m betting they are going to keep on swimming all the way to the bank.

Title: Give me a Harry Potter and a Barbecue Pit
Author: dennis.ramdeen
Posted: Tuesday 20th October, 2009 at 8:00 am
Tags: Amazon, brand experience, ecommerce, Harry Potter, KFC, Wal-Mart
Posted in Brand Management, Positioning & Differentiation | Comments Off

Archive for the ‘Brand Management’ Category

Don’t turn back on your brand