“Andrex® Shea Butter Knickers” Drive TP into UK Top Brands List?

In a Sunday story reporting the Top 10 Brands in British grocery stores, it wasn’t the news about best seller Coca-Cola that attracted me. I was riveted by Andrex – the toilet paper that’s the No 9 brand in the grocery stores over yonder. (It is in The Grocer ’s annual Britain’s 100 Biggest Brands survey.)

The puppy is so charming – and the “Be kind to your behind” slogan so clearly British – I could hardly wait to get to the brand’s website. That’s when I discovered the most luxurious toilet tissue ever has tapped Ayten Gasson, identified as a British lingerie designer, to create its limited edition range of Andrex brand Shea Butter Knickers. Just ₤10 the pair.

Now I have received certain – so to say squeamish – comments about using a beautiful, luscious, four-color photo of Italian lingerie model Elizabetta Canalis in a previous Signalwriter post. This time I’m playing safe: you get the pup. That’s all I’m going to say about that.

However, Dear British colleagues, here’s your chance to help me get to the bottom, ha ha, of this special announcement. American’s have had their own love affairs with TP (“Please don’t squeeze the Charmin’,” 504 TV commercials, etc.)

So give us the story behind Andrex, ha ha. Some of us Yanks want to know what we are missing.

From Bland to Brand! Eight New Branding Rules to Rock Your 2011.

With the new year kicking off so much consumer and business branding/re-branding activity, now’s the time to look at some new rules – all focused on a single thought:

Be bold – it makes selling stuff easier.

That’s not just my opinion: some ideas* here are based on a four-year-old blog post I’ve been saving. When you read ‘em, though, remember what Hector Barbossa (Disney pirate captain and MTV “Best Villain”) said as regards the Code of the Order of the Brethren? It’s “more what you’d call guidelines than actual rules.”

1] Stand-tall branding sells better. So make a stand. A brand with no P-O-V has no point. Whether you hate Fox News or love it, you do know where it stands on the issues. Ben & Jerry’s is more than just ice cream; it’s a company (even though owned by giant Unilever) that stands for a cause. Younger consumers – even IT pros and refinery managers – have grown up in a consumer world. I think they want their brands to stand up and be counted.

2] Feed the leaders. Consumers are more selective, more experimental, more interactive…and they lead from the front. They have strong opinions on brands, and a lot of brands are getting consumers involved. Even with engineers: check out the Emerson Process Management blog for superior customer-generated involvement. Adopt the leaders as your brand stakeholders.

3] Customization is today’s thriller. Customize whenever you can, whether it’s for iPod tunes or oilfield control systems. Consumer-wise, the power of the Internet has all kinds of customers wanting something all their own. Customers say, ‘I need just what fits my life.’ The best examples are Apple’s iPhone app store or Starbucks.

4] Deliver clarity directly. Quicker information, literally. Tell customers (or website visitors) as concisely as possible what you are selling. Anything that simplifies understanding for customers is a big thumbs-up. Strong brands recognize you have to be concise about what you’re selling at the point of contact; even complicated Athens Group is pretty direct, for example.

5] “Brand” is the promise of an experience. It’s a simple mandate: find the best way to give consumers a brand experience. Manage the whole experience. Consumer brands like Coca-Cola and Coach have done it. Forget the transaction, even forget about the logo or the tagline; deliver an experience and sales will follow. Can big industrial brands say the same? Compare Apple and Schlumberger websites.

6] Innovation is still a boardroom favorite. Brands are inspired by Apple more than anyone else. They continue to transform the computer business, the music business and the telephone business. Smart branders watch them like hawks. Procter & Gamble, 3M and GE drive this too – they have made innovation the core of their corporate strategies as well as their brand.

7] Do be responsive. Are you getting bad comments about your most recent brand change? Boo-hoo. We live in a world where everyone not only has an opinion; each one feels free to express it online. Participate with your brand’s stakeholders, let them vent. Take it like Starbucks recently – in good spirit. (and see Rule 1.)

8] Know what’s happening to your brand. Our instant-on culture isn’t forgiving. More people know instantly when a brand makes a mistake or if a website isn’t good enough. Negative PR will stick no matter what you do to correct it. Brands like Nike and Walmart still suffer (somewhat) from negative PR about alleged abuse of workers outside the US; BP is still hammered by Macondo. Use marketing research to find out where you’re vulnerable. Be open about fixes.

Bottom line (IMHO) – being bold is good. When it comes to branding, though, be smart-bold. Try to avoid the stupids in 2011. Now feel free to share your own “rules of branding” with the rest of us, eh? And that’s your pieces of eight for today.

*Based in part on “New Rules of Branding” by Derek Day, Branding Strategy Insider. Day deserves all the credit for the good ideas; the bad ones are probably mine. Or you could read the McKinsey version. “Hector Barossa” is © The Walt Disney Company. All rights reserved.

Walgreens is Back in Beer – Big Flats 1901 Priced to Move.

America’s largest liquor retailer? Used to be Walgreens. Its alcoholic beverage sections accounted for close to 10% of the chain’s sales and the inventory included beer. Then, in the mid-1990s, booze was phased out, mainly for inventory reasons: too many SKUs for the retailers’ managers and employees to handle.

Starting about a year ago, though, Walgreens’ second thoughts began to resolve themselves. And this past June Fox News (among others) reported:

The nation's largest retail drugstore by store count has reintroduced a limited beer and wine selection in about 3,100 of its roughly 7,500 stores. The drugstore has plans to stock the alcohol in about 5,000 stores by the end of 2010.

Wine began to show up on the Walgreens shelves in this part of the country. Maybe the move was also driven by increased competition from CVS, which offered wines from that chain’s appearance in Houston.

Now there’s…beer. Here! And there and everywhere.

The displays went up here right after New Year’s and what’s being sold is a private label brew called Big Flats 1901. It appears to be a national rollout; blogger Jake Parillo, for example, spotted it in downtown Elmhurst, IL.

From Houston, let me offer a closer look. The beer’s trip to market is modestly complex but that’s not so unusual today. Winery Exchange out of California created the brand for Walgreens. The packager describes itself as the “leading corporate brand beer supplier for premium quality beers from the USA, Latin America, and Holland.” It is, in fact, a creator for retailers; some of its beers have been award-winners.

Next comes Winery Exchange’s partner in creation: Genesee Brewing Company in New York, a long-lived brewer with 400+ employees. Not only does Genesee brew its own brands, including its famous Cream Ale; it contract-brews like crazy. Maryland’s Hook and Ladder Brewing company and Dundee Brewing in New York have their beer recipes executed by Genesee.

I’ve already purchased the “premium American lager” and posted a RateBeer.com review. The price point/taste combo can’t be beat. But it is merely okay beer, not great beer. The brand story is weak: “big flats” supposedly describe river flatboats which don’t appear on the label.

At this time, it’s all price. The wines and (now) beers don’t appear on the Walgreens website but they are in this week’s sale flyer, and that includes the Big Flats 1901.

I can’t see “America’s drugstore” making a big push for its new brew. Maybe the drugstore chain will report on how it goes. I hope so. Marketers learn their world one brand at a time – at least I often do. Following the progress of Walgreens, Winery Exchange and Genesee could be instructive and tasty, too.

NOTE: Thank you to Walgreens Store 5536 in Houston.

Coffee #2: “Bringing the Siren to Life” at Starbucks.

This was the project of a lifetime. The designers here at Starbucks have such a love for this brand – it’s what drives our creativity.

It’s what the Starbucks Senior Creative Manager wrote about on the company blog January 5. It’s what’s exercising the profanity of hundreds – if not thousands – of Starbucks brand loyalists who hate it: the spanking new 2011 Starbucks logo.

I vote in favor of the change forthwith. It (the change) is pretty dramatic for a strong, popular brand. It has far more cogency and thoughtfulness than the recent Gap logo misstep, to which the Starbucks re-brand has been compared. It’s more cohesive than the United-Continental re-brand which I wrote about here.

Steve Collier of Collier Graphica has a different take. He wrote me:

Like Continental Airlines, it was not the logo that needed changing, it was the management and core business structure that needed changing. Starbucks reinstated its original CEO and founder which was a great move but now it needs to find its footing and direction for the future business model and the logo is not the answer for a brand that is already established and accepted by their customer base…

The creative director at 2020 Exhibits, Marilyn Muller, is eyeing the Starbucks customer base too:

It seems a pretty bold thing to do to remove the name recognition and stand on the logo alone. There are so many knockoffs and emulators that try to mimic Starbucks as the kind of ‘generic’ coffee brand (like the Kleenex of coffees) that it would seem to blur the integrity of the initial brand.

Contrariwise, I applaud the company that pours a lot of my coffee. First is the immense benefit of proximity. Starbucks is everywhere I am (mostly) with the brews I want. They taste good, too. Second is “destination.” Rachel Parker, principal of Resonance, responded to another Signalwriter post:

Starbucks isn’t a coffee – it’s a destination. It’s where friends connect, where business deals take place, where solopreneurs set up shop to stave off cabin fever.

Third, Starbucks have taken evident care over the siren’s new look – I hope you’ll read the design details on the company’s blog.

So there are at least three great reasons I’m going with Starbucks on its logo. At the end, it’s as simple as what Upstream Marketing’s Brian Bearden Facebooked onto the Starbucks wall:

The new logo is fine. I knew one day that word coffee would be removed from the logo… because their business has grown to offer more. Just keep making good coffee…

“D’oh!” Dunkin’ Donuts Launches a 2011 Campaign, Hold the Homer.

There aren’t many famous quotes about doughnuts but we’ll always have Hollywood. Perhaps you don’t recall Chevy Chase remarking, “A doughnut without a hole is a danish!”*

Then there’s – oh yes – Homer Simpson. The iconic donut consumer. The most influential everyday Joe in America, if not the world. So I’m wondering about the news that Dunkin’ Donuts released early this week. The company announced it’s launching a new multimillion-dollar marketing campaign for its coffee business because the competition for coffee-drinkers is heating up.

I mention Mr Simpson because the new retail campaign is being called “everyday Joes,” at least at this point. However…it appears that these particular Joes will be drinking the fairly well known Dunkin’ Donuts coffee rather than chow-hounding the chain’s crullers. Kim Conte, writing on The Stir blog, has already noted:

The commercials, which star ordinary people (firefighters, cops, construction workers, etc.) who are fans of the brand and auditioned for the spots last year, are accessible and relatable.

Dunkin’ Brands’ John Costello, chief global customer and marketing officer, is quoted as saying: “The love that our customers have for Dunkin’ Donuts is truly unique, and this campaign ties into that passion in a very personal way.”

I buy Mr Costello’s “personal” and – given the strong product identification in the TV spot I found online – there’ll be some gain in share-of-coffee-slurpers. The new commercials have been created for the campaign by Hill Holiday in Boston. I haven’t seen them running here, possibly because the Dunkin’ Donuts stores have all but disappeared from my neck of the woods. There’s a store northwest of me, 7510 Highway 6 N, which I’ll visit to see if there’s evidence of the new “I’m Drinking Dunkin’” campaign theme.

But I wonder: Can you truly separate the coffee from the donuts? It’s like calling the old Kentucky Fried Chicken by a new name, KFC, and hoping that everyday Joes won’t notice that you’re still selling the wonderfully sinful chicken. Or donuts, or whatever else is supposed to be bad for the American people this week.

Dunkin’ Donuts will probably do just fine. But here proximity tops brand: one of Dunkin’s few Houston stores is still 11 miles away. I’ll stick with Starbucks^†, thanks.

*That was in “Caddyshack,” look it up. ^†Even with the revised logo. Actual illustration of “Homer Simpson” created by Matt Groening. Copyright ©2006 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved.

New Wheaties Fuel™ Intro Features Grim-Faced Guys for Man-Marketing.

They’re back – frowning athletes who seem to reflect the idea that sport is serious business. The cop-an-attitude that turns sporting events into gang rumbles or combat maneuvers is now on every box of Wheaties Fuel, the newly evolved “delicious honey cinnamon crunch!”

General Millis is rolling out the new generation of Wheaties, the first cereal admittedly marketed to men. This probably explains why the creative consultants for the new breakfast yummy* are high-performance celebrities from a variety of sports...all men.

As a marketer, I get the need to evolve the Wheaties brand. I love niche-marketing to men after decades of skewing in the other direction. And I cheerfully admit that the cereal-maker is making a valiant attempt to capture the macho/humorous appeal of the light beer advertisers – for this, watch the videos on the website.

I think what I’m reacting to, since a sample box arrived with my morning paper, is the imagery of the frown. I’ve been watching it grow for years, infecting first the photos of high school footballers who, at 16 or 17, keep glaring out of the newspapers like they’re carrying pistols in their pockets. This has shaded over into the current iconography of some women’s teams, too, from fast-pitch softballers to high-school lacrosse players.

Prospectively, there were other avenues the Wheaties product-line people could have explored (there’s an admittance of experimentation in the marketing materials). But the “brooding look” created by Minneapolis ad agency Boom Island goes beyond the joy of winning into the dour realm of do-or-die-trying.

Now I put an asterisk (*) by the word “yummy” above because, when I finish this post, I’m headed to the breakfast table to try the latest version of The Breakfast of Champions, wherein the third listed ingredient is…sugar, the sixth is honey and the 11th is brown sugar syrup.

Hell, no wonder these guys are glaring. Their teeth hurt.

I Propose “Welcome to Earth! Souvenirs” to Compete with Betty’s Attic.

Dear Mr Tatulli: I’m already a fan but I’m no cyber-squatter. Even though I think there’s a great opportunity for some e-tailer to compete with Betty’s Attic, you came up with the name.

So – in case you decide to expand your horizons –  www.welcometoearthsouvenirs.com is waiting for you, $12. Have a great week and thanks for the continuing entertainment.

Cartoon ©2010 by Mark Tatulli. Distributed by Universal Uclick.

Upset at IKEA Logo Change? Get a Life.

Did IKEA really change its logo? Not as far as I can tell – can you? It’s weird, you know – talking about a Japanese logo one day, and stumbling across an apparent change to the IKEA logo type font that “erupted into controversy” – according to Houston Chronicle reporter Mary Tuma – the next.

Tuma poses an interview with Rice marketing prof Vikas Mittal: “…about ways companies can prevent brand blunders.” Mittal’s main point is that companies changing their logos really ought to consult with their customers first:

A typical redesign can take up to two years and cost $15 million to $20 million for a large company. Yet, there isn’t too much research done on how it affects their customers. Anything from size, typeface to color can trigger different associations…A lot of customers against this change see themselves connected to what IKEA represents – progressive, modern style. Changing the font jeopardizes all of those associations.

Fine except that it doesn’t appear IKEA changed the type font of its well-known logo. The company changed the typeface used in its catalogs, its corporate typeface, to Verdana from Futura.

Not logo change - body copy style change. Big diff – and virtually no difference at all, not in the grown-up world of life, the Universe and everything. It may be that some type designers and fans are strangely upset – one blog respondent said, “IKEA should change to Verdana. Futura is too good for IKEA, and they don’t really deserve to use it.”

There are several insightful explorations of the IKEA “font fiasco” online. Read the coverage provided by Jennifer Farley of Laughing Lion Design for a more complete review of what’s what. (The IKEA catalog cover images come from Brandacadabra’s Marius Ursache, who writes that “…as a designer, I feel betrayed.” Read his comments next.)

Gracious. I missed this minor outbreak of brand silliness amid the media’s far bigger reporting screw-up of the US Coast Guard’s Potomac River exercise yesterday. So, first, thanks to reporter Tuma for getting this “backlash” in front of me, even as I seriously question just how serious a problem IKEA really has.

Second, as even designer Ursache admits, “…this isn’t world hunger.” It’s not even worth a puff piece in the Chronicle. Ta for Saturday...