Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Mr. Clean finds his feminine side
“Well, the funniest woman I ever seen
Was the great-granddaughter of Mr. Clean.”
-Bob Dylan
Was the great-granddaughter of Mr. Clean.”
-Bob Dylan
It’s great when a brand comes out of hibernation and finds there’s plenty of new ground to cover. For years (since 1958, in fact), Mr. Clean® was Mr. Muscle. He handled tough jobs like those dreaded black heal marks and greasy, grimy stovetops. But in the last few years, he’s started to extend himself with innovative products—from Mr. Clean MagicErasure™ products to Mr. Clean MagicReach™ tools to Mr. Clean MagicDry™ carwash. By the way, I bought the carwash product nearly two years ago. Unfortunately, it’s still in the box, so I can’t report on its performance.
What does Mr. Clean do in his off time? One can only guess. But based on the latest P&G brand extension, Mr. Clean Multi-Surfaces Liquid Cleaners , he might have been watching Oxygen, HGTV or Lifetime. Because these new products come in five fresh scents that according to the Mr. Clean Web site, “will leave your home and all the items in it clean and smelling great!” The scents are Ultimate Orange, Sparkling Apple, Summer Citrus, Invigorating Breeze and Spring Garden. Think household cleaner meets aromatherapy.
The point of all this? It just goes to show that brands can’t grow by being one-trick ponies anymore.
Another good example of how far you can extend a brand is Newell Rubbermaid's Sharpie® brand . They are in the midst of a brand renaissance, taking what was once a somber permanent black ink marker and raising it to a colorful, cult-like status.
What does Mr. Clean do in his off time? One can only guess. But based on the latest P&G brand extension, Mr. Clean Multi-Surfaces Liquid Cleaners , he might have been watching Oxygen, HGTV or Lifetime. Because these new products come in five fresh scents that according to the Mr. Clean Web site, “will leave your home and all the items in it clean and smelling great!” The scents are Ultimate Orange, Sparkling Apple, Summer Citrus, Invigorating Breeze and Spring Garden. Think household cleaner meets aromatherapy.
The point of all this? It just goes to show that brands can’t grow by being one-trick ponies anymore.
Another good example of how far you can extend a brand is Newell Rubbermaid's Sharpie® brand . They are in the midst of a brand renaissance, taking what was once a somber permanent black ink marker and raising it to a colorful, cult-like status.
When it comes to brand extensions, both Mr. Clean and Sharpie are good models to study.
Labels: brand, brand color, brand extension, brand personality, brand positioning, brand strategy
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
AT&T to Cingular: Hit the road “Jack”
I live in Atlanta, the home of Cingular, and I was at BBDO Atlanta, Cingular’s advertising agency, when the brand was born, so I have soft spot in my heart for “Jack,” the Cingular logo. Even so, I’m not sure how I feel about AT&T dissolving the Cingular brand. In the beginning I was against it, if for no other reason than it washed a few billion dollars of brand equity down the drain. But when you look at why the Cingular brand existed in the first place, the AT&T move starts to make some sense. Cingular had two owners—BellSouth, with a 40 percent share, and SBC, with a 60 percent share. So naming it things like BellSouth Wireless, SBC Wireless or even BSSBC Wireless didn’t fly. But Cingular did. Now that AT&T owns the whole enchilada, maybe calling it AT&T is the right move.
One good thing—according to the folks at Strategic Name Development, they’re going about the transition in the right way. “AT&T's press release assures us that its efforts will "transfer Cingular's strong brand equity to the new AT&T." I think that, as reported in AdWeek, the brand transition technique AT&T is employing in its advertising to transition from the Cingular
brand to the AT&T brand will enhance its chances of a successful brand name transition.
But what about poor Jack? Will he be sold like the sock puppet? He could certainly pep up a bank or a fast food chain. Perhaps AT&T will list him on eBay. Stay tuned.
One good thing—according to the folks at Strategic Name Development, they’re going about the transition in the right way. “AT&T's press release assures us that its efforts will "transfer Cingular's strong brand equity to the new AT&T." I think that, as reported in AdWeek, the brand transition technique AT&T is employing in its advertising to transition from the Cingular
brand to the AT&T brand will enhance its chances of a successful brand name transition.But what about poor Jack? Will he be sold like the sock puppet? He could certainly pep up a bank or a fast food chain. Perhaps AT&T will list him on eBay. Stay tuned.
Labels: brand, brand personality, brand positioning, name, sock puppet
Friday, February 09, 2007
A Ford by any other name is still a Ford
What do you call a Ford Five Hundred that doesn’t sell? A Taurus. Or at least, that’s what the folks at Ford intend to do. They are renaming the Ford Five Hundred, the full-sized sedan that replaced the Taurus in 2005, the Taurus—all in an effort to revive sales.The logic behind this move? Here’s what Mark Fields, Ford's President of The Americas, had to say at the recent Chicago Auto Show: “Taurus has been an icon for Ford's family sedan for more than two decades, and it's time to return this powerful name to where it belongs. Consumer awareness of the Taurus name is double the Five Hundred that it's replacing.”
Fields went on to say, “By giving these vehicles the names that consumers recognize at the same time we're making significant upgrades, we're confident that even more people are going to be attracted to these great products in the future." I love it when they talk like that.
This reminds me, in a way, of when The Coca-Cola Company launched New Coke, and then,
because of consumer backlash, hastily relaunched Classic Coke. Marketing-wise, it was the stuff that dreams were made of. In fact, when asked if the whole deal was simply a marketing ploy, Roberto Goizueta, Coke’s Chairman and CEO answered, “We are not that smart, and we are not that dumb."Time will tell where the Ford Motor Company sits on that continuum.
Labels: brand personality, brand positioning, brand strategy, Ford, Goizueta, name, The Coca-Cola Company
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
What color is your carton?
Close your eyes and picture a Tiffany and Co. gift box. Now picture a gift box from, let’s say, Zales Jewelers. Unless you just bought something there, you probably can’t recall what the Zales box looks like. That’s the power of color. Too bad so few companies take advantage of it.
Here’s one that is, however: CB2. They’re a division of Crate and Barrel, only they skew younger and hipper. Basically, they offer cool design at an affordable price. Or as they describe themselves on their Web site:
“A new destination from Crate and Barrel that dials up the fun. Smart designs, clever materials. Neat stuff, cool colors. A point of view: In the know, on the go. A ‘look what I found’ kind of place. For all the places you live. We’re one find of a store (actually two) in Chicago, and because we get constant phone calls from all over about when you’ll be able to shop on our Web site, well, here we are.”Here’s one that is, however: CB2. They’re a division of Crate and Barrel, only they skew younger and hipper. Basically, they offer cool design at an affordable price. Or as they describe themselves on their Web site:
It sounds like something their agency wrote to get the business in the first place. But it does a good job of describing the brand personality. Anyway, getting back to the color story, a package from CB2 makes a big splash on your front porch. No brown kraft shipping carton for them. They printed their carton solid chartreuse (one of three colors in their identity). Even the tape carries its own weight, imprinted with the CB2 logo in color. Bottom line: I know it’s from CB2 the moment the UPS driver takes it from the truck. What’s more, it’s a happy-looking box that makes me glad I ordered from CB2—even before I open it.
How many other Web retailers can say that about their shipping cartons? ___________________________________________________________________________________
By the way, for an in-depth look at the Tiffany and Co, brand, go to:
By the way, for an in-depth look at the Tiffany and Co, brand, go to:
"Tiffany and Company, A Case Study" by Stephanie Blackburn
Says Ms. Blackburn,
“Upon realizing the strength of its brand and the image its blue box portrays, Tiffany also plans to continue launching new product lines, taking advantage of the growing popularity of branding among jewelry consumers today.”
Says Ms. Blackburn,
“Upon realizing the strength of its brand and the image its blue box portrays, Tiffany also plans to continue launching new product lines, taking advantage of the growing popularity of branding among jewelry consumers today.”
Labels: brand, brand color, brand personality, brand positioning, brand strategy, CB2, packaging, Tiffany and Co
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Taking care of business gets a helping hand
Office Depot, the $15 billion, global office products company, launched a new broadcast campaign centered around a “Helping Hand.” Literally. The spots feature a forearm and hand that protrude from an Office Depot box and guide shoppers around the store. I was all set to write about it, but the folks at American Copywriter beat me to it with their post "Office Depot casts Thing to battle Easy Button." Thing, if you’ll remember, was the creepy hand-in-the-box on the Addams Family.It’s easy to compare Helping Hand to low hanging fruit like Thing. And while were on the subject of “easy,” how about Staples’ Easy Button? You can’t ignore that one, either. So, why did Office Depot launch Helping Hand? For the answer, I contacted Mindy Kramer, Director of Public Relations at Office Depot.
According to Mindy, it’s not about Helping Hand vs. Easy Button. “Office Depot believes that being a helpful resource is a distinct platform that will differentiate us from competitors and cement our point of difference in the minds of business customers. The 'Helping Hand' gets the message across in a highly entertaining and memorable way that is relevant to businesses everywhere. It is a metaphor for the role Office Depot plays in the lives of customers.”
Asked if Office Depot will offer a branded hand-in-the-box to compete with Staples Easy Button, Mindy states, “Doing whatever it takes to help our customers is much more important to us than creating a gadget that does nothing but sit on your desk.” Office Depot may have to rethink that one. People will automatically make a comparative connection between Easy Button and Helping Hand. So, why not exploit that? Personally, I’d take a hand-in-the-box gadget over a red Easy Button any day of the week—especially if the hand did something cool.
Despite the Thing-like execution, as a positioning line, being a “helping hand” to businesses is a good place for Office Depot to be. After all, the Easy Button is a tough act to follow. Depending on how Office Depot’s campaign evolves, it could have the legs they need to garner a bigger share of mind.
Other famous hands...
Labels: brand positioning, Office Depot TV spot, Staples Easy Button
