JCP, I mean jcpenney

After months of significant sales declines under the leadership of Ron Johnson, Mike Ullman is back in the CEO chair at jcpenney.  Ullman now has the tall task of steering the retailer back to growth.

While most of the attention surrounding Ron Johnson's downfall has been linked to his botched attempt to move from a high-low pricing strategy to every day low pricing, another critical factor that led to the struggles was Johnson's push to try to win with a younger, more fashion forward consumer that jcpenney traditionally never had much traction with. The push included discontinuing several of the retailer's own brands and revamping the marketing strategy to appear more cutting edge, by featuring young, slim models sporting fashion forward outfits. However, this move alienated some of jcp's loyal consumers, leaving many for them feeling that jcpenney was no longer a retailer for them.

While Ullman has only been back for a brief period, there's no doubt he recognizes this mis-step is actively working to win them back. He's moving quickly to turn around the ship, for example in the matter of 2 months he's apologize, brought back old brands, invited consumers back, thanked consumers for returning, and launched a new home goods department. It's ambitious, but the tone and approach for the most part has been right on target:

1. He apologized to his consumers in a campaign called "Yours Truly" where the voiceover read:"It's no secret, recently jcpenney changed. Some changes you liked and some you didn't, but what matters from mistakes is what we learn. We learned a very simple thing, to listen to you. To hear what you need, to make your life more beautiful. Come back to jcpenney, we heard you. Now, we'd love to see you"                                                                                                      
2. He's brought back St John's Bay, a private label brand brought that use to account for over a billion dollars in annual sales. "We heard you. St. John's Bay is back! What will you snag first, pants or shirts?" the brand posted on Facebook
3. He ran an advertisement reminding consumers of jcp's brands and inviting consumers back.  Listen to the end of this ad "So come back to jcpenney and save on his favorite brands. We'd love to see you"                                                                                                                                     
4. He also ran an ad educating that jcp recognizes they screwed up, but has corrected itself and thanks consumers for returning (potentially a little bit premature)                                                                                      
5. While he's moving forward with many elements of Ron Johnon's home goods department makeover, the execution is done in a way that is homy and connects authentically                  

However, a lot more work remains and there will no doubt be some awkward moments during the pivot back to the brand roots.  For example, I just received jcpenney's father's day catalog and there are several inconsistencies that make it appear as if the cover was just slapped on at the last moment, including:

1. The logo on the front is "jcpenney", where as everywhere else Ron Johnson's "jcp" in a box logo still appears
2. The cover says "It's all about you, dad", however many of the models in the catalog (including the ones on the first page) look like they are maybe 20 years old and are wearing styles that are all very slim cut and too fashion forward to be for most of the fathers I know
3. While Ullman has moved quickly to restore sales and discounts, the catalog takes that to the extreme. Every page is tattooed with several value message, from a $10 off coupon, sale prices highlighted in red vs. original prices, % off claims, buy one get one offers, and value pledges. The result is an overwhelming barrage of promotions that looks like a design agency translated a marketing brief too literally

It's an awkward execution and highlights the challenges brands face as they try to jump from one strategy to another quickly. While there is no doubt that Ullman has to move quickly, the brand is stuck in a transition period that is blurry will likely continue to confuse the consumer until jcpenney has the time to get its feet under itself and resources aligned to return to a consistent brand position and execution. 

Bounty DuraTowel . . .I'd Understand Stronger or More Convenient, but Cleaner?

Procter & Gamble launched the new Bounty DuraTowel in February...

According to the company website "The new Bounty DuraTowel is a cloth-like, durable paper towel that leaves surfaces three times cleaner than a used dishcloth. This breakthrough paper towel provides peace of mind by combating the dishcloth’s dirty little secret: after just one day’s use, a dishcloth can harbor and redeposit millions of germs on the surfaces families come into contact with throughout the day".

The positioning as a cleaner version of a dishcloth is particularly interesting to me, as I would have expected the positioning versus the dishcloth to be around convenience (e.g., never ever wash a dishcloth again). While removing germs always tests well with consumers, the positioning seems a little foreign to my personal perception of Bounty's brand equity. My sense is this "cleaner" positioning will not be highly effective and will be evolved over time. 

I'd also be very interested in reviewing Bounty's research on what are the most frequent jobs consumers use dishcloths for; drying dinner dishes after they have been washed seems like it would pop to the top here, and I question if the germ message would resonate with these consumers given their assumption is likely that the dishcloth is clean as it would never be exposed to germs since the dishes are freshly cleaned. 

Additionally, I am somewhat surprised that Bounty chose to launch the DuraTowel as a white colored towel if they are really positioning as a dishcloth vs. paper towel, because the white does not come off as distinctly different from regular Bounty towels or competitors. A unique color would seem to help support the differentiated positioning in consumers' minds, whereas the white would make more sense if it was positioned as the strongest paper towel. 

Perhaps Bounty chose not to color the paper towel based on insights from past attempts. The Bounty Super Duty Paper Shop Towel was blue and positioned as Toolbox tough. 

"Bounty Super Duty has heavy duty texture for multi-purpose durability! Grease and oil; Painting projects; Barbeque grills; Patio furniture; Car detailing; Outdoor equipment".

"Happier than the Pillsbury Doughboy on His Way to a Baking Convention"

One of GEICO's new commercials features the Pillsbury Doughboy and is titled "Happier than the Pillsbury Doughboy on His Way to a Baking Convention".  Take a look...



The ad is highly entertaining and conveys positive emotions for the Pillsbury Doughboy.  My problem with this advertisement is I'd expect very low recall for GEICO.  So while it may entertain, I'd be surprised if it moved the needle much in sales for GEICO.  On the other hand Pillsbury might expect to see a nice little halo from the commercial as it allows consumers to connect with the Doughboy.

GEICO Dough Boy commercial - Pillsbury Doughboy scores, GEICO loses

Old Spice Bar Soap Commercials Spoof Competitors

Old Spice recently launched into bar soap and is driving awareness behind TV commercials that aim to capture consumers' attention by spoofing traditional bar soap advertisements.

I really like this 15 second spot. It's clever and engaging.  Wieden + Kennedy, the creative agency behind the campaign does a really great job with the details, even placing the bar of soap in the traditional product shot at the end upside down.  Take a look...



The next 30 second spot does not go as good of job capturing the magic of the campaign in is a little too far over the top...

Kmart "Ship My Pants" Commercial Connects on Omni-Channel

I have to give Kmart credit for their new "Ship My Pants" commercial, which highlights an element of their omni-channel strategy (link between the store and website) in a creative fashion that is sure to breakthrough and at least get a few laughs.  Take a look:



Two thumbs up for the creative advertisement, though I am curious are out-of-stocks really a large purchase barrier at Kmart?

Nike to Tiger Woods: "Winning takes care of everything"

Nike released a new ad on it's Nike Golf Facebook and Twitter pages after Tiger Woods won this past weekend's Arnold Palmer Invitational and regained the world No. 1 golf ranking. Despite the win and reclaiming his position at the top of the golf hierarchy, the ad was met with backlash because it's controversial messaging of "winning takes care of everything".

While Tiger does finally appear to be  "back" at the top of the game, having won 3 of his last 6 tournaments including the last two he has entered, the message suggests that all of his infamous personal flaws should be forgotten because he is the world's best golfer. Not surprisingly, this message isn't sitting too well with everybody. The question is, did Nike put its brand equity at risk with the contentious statement?

My view is that while Nike will not win any new fans and its not a play I would have suggested, the bold message echos the sentiment of many golf fans who are ready to move on from the Tiger train wreck of yesteryear and see him make a serious run at Jack Nicklaus's record of 18 majors. In this way the ad can be viewed as distinctly honest and has a chance to connect with its core target consumer. To Nike's credit, it has stood-by Tiger while his standing in golf plunged and most other sponsors jumped ship, so there's no doubt Nike has much to gain from watching Tiger regain his status.

The bigger question is why would Tiger's publicist allow Nike to post this ad? I see more harm to his brand than Nike's as it seems like a counterproductive message for a man who should be working on humanizing his image. That said, Tiger has quietly been picking up new sponsors (e.g., Rolex), while returning to a more active role with some of his other longer-term sponsors (e.g., EA Sport), so maybe winning really does take care of everything afterall...

Rating Pepsi's New Bottle Design

Pepsi recently announced plans to launch new bottle shape for the first time in 16 years, with the new bottle starting to ship as early as next month.

The bottles will feature a swirled grip on the bottom portion of the bottle, a shorter label edged in a "cola-colored" border, as well as, a larger version of the brand logo. A spokesperson for Pepsi explains some added features of the design and how they fit with the equity: "It's not uniform, it's a little asymmetrical, there's a little edginess and playfulness, which is consistent with Pepsi's equities and youthful spirit."

Take a look...

I'm a fan of the new bottle for three reasons:

• The new bottle is more unique.  It's takes on a distinctly more masculine shape (e.g., broad shoulders, narrower waist) than the old bottle, which is also a sharper contrast to Coca-Cola's more classical feminine "contour-design" or "hobble skirt" bottle shape

• The new bottle design, higher label placement, larger logo, location of brand name do a much better job drawing your eye to the logo and brand name, quickening/improving brand recognition and brand building

• There's no doubt this new bottle design offers significant cost savings for Pepsi and lowers the environmental footprint. Part of this comes from the smaller label size and smaller cap size, but I also suspect the new bottle design requires less plastic as well - I just hope the structural integrity of the bottle is stronger than most environmentally-friendly plastic water bottles.

Do I think the new bottle will ever challenge to be on par with the classic, iconic Coke bottle?  No, definitely not.  But it does appear to be a solid effort to modernize the Pepsi bottle, while reducing costs and the environmental footprint.

More Super Bowl Commercial Thoughts...

After a day of reflecting on the best Super Bowl ads, I'd still argue that from a marketers perspective the M&M and Best Buy commercials were two of the best.

My assessment is based on a mix of how effective I think the commercial is across three dimensions:

1. Grabs you're attention and entertains - nearly all Super Bowl ads did this
2. Sells a clear product benefit that links with the brand equity
3. Strong brand recall (e.g., you actually remember what brand the ad was from)

While many other of the Super Bowl ads did a good job across one or two of these dimensions, few delivered strongly against all of them.  

Some of the best of the rest:

Mercedes-Benz's Soul super bowl commercial

Tide's Miracle Stain super bowl commercial


Samsung's The Next Big Thing super bowl commercial


The other interesting thing to note was how many advertisers chose to go with a long-format spot versus the standard 30 second ad.  There were at least 5 commercials that pushed 90 seconds as advertisers took advantage of a captive audience to tell their stories and seek to connect with consumers in new ways.

Best Buy Super Bowl Ad on target

Best Buy's 2013 Super Bowl Commercial was right on target.

How do you convince 150 million Americans that you can still be relevant in the days of Amazon and Walmart?  You remind your lapsed customers of your point of difference over and over again. The commercial leveraged Amy Poehler in a humorous manner as a technologically challenged and a little outrageous customer.

The ad is right on because Best Buy's only chance for survival is winning customers back on the basis of delivering superior customer service to customers who need a little extra hand holding.  Call it a return to their original secret sauce. Timely, especially given that founder Richard Schulze is currently trying to make a bid to retake control of the company.

Good work Best Buy.  Call it a baby step forward.

M&M's: My Favorite Super Bowl 2013 Ad

Well done M&M's for being my favorite Super Bowl 2013 TV Ad.

Officially titled M&M's "Love Ballard" commercial.  The commercial featured "Glee" star Naya Rivera and Red M&M, with a Meat Loaf classic song playing in the background. Take a look...



Not only is the Ad humorous and entertaining, but it also sold the product benefit and had strong brand linkage - two important criteria many Super Bowl commercials forget about.

On Second Thought - JCPenney Brings Back Sales

Attention shoppers, a JCPenney sale will be coming to a store near you soon! 

That's right, nearly one year after announcing it was phasing out its traditional sales promotion strategy, JCPenney has done an about-face and will now significantly increase its pricing discounting strategy.  This step is aimed at increasing traffic by making the chain appear more price competitive to its peer set.

By killing traditional promotions, JCP severely damaged its value perception.  In an effort to further battle negative consumer value perceptions, JCP will also introducing price tags that include also show what competitors are charging for the same merchandise.  The big question is it too little, too late given JCP same store sales declined over 25% in 2012?

JCP's major mistake was thinking they could retrain consumer behavior - that is train consumers to move from shopping a high/low strategy to an everyday low price mindset - consumers love a value treasure hunt. Needless to say this would be an extremely difficult task for even the strongest brand to take on (e.g., Apple), but it proved to be an impossible for a merely average brand with limited equity and loyalty.  Sorry CEO Ron Johnson, you cannot turn a JCP into Apple overnight.

The sad thing is that much of Ron Johnson's transformation turnaround plan is right on - building a portfolio of exclusive brands, dramatically revolutionizing the JCP shopping experience and re-staging the brand image.  If he had only been more patient and executed these strategic elements prior to changing the promotion strategy as opposed to trying to move simultaneously, he may have successfully increased consumer traction, loyalty and advocacy.  This would have then given him more permission to then cut back the level of promotion.

Toyota Corolla 'It's a Trap' TV Commercial

An example of another great TV ad, this one surprisingly from Toyota...



I'm not sure how old this Toyota TV commercial is or in what country it aired in, but its a fantastic ad.  Not only does it capture the audience and entertain, but it sells the car's primary consumer benefit and connects deeply with the brand's equity in a clever and authentic manner. 

Coke's 'Coming Together' Obesity TV Ad

Coca-Cola just launched a new tv campaign entitled 'Coming Together' that seeks to address concerns about soda's role in the nation's obesity problem.  The campaign is supported by a 2 minute tv ad...



It's an interesting advertisement in that it pushes consumers to consider better for solutions versus full calorie sodas without fully condemning Coca-Cola, and in fact praises how proactive the company has been about delivering better for you alternatives.  It's done in a smart way as to be honest about the connection of full calorie soda consumption with weight gain, but also actual has an strong underline sales message about many other products in Coke's product portfolio such as Dasani, Vitamin Water, Coke Zero, Diet Coke, and juices.  In reality, the tv commercial is not really an admission of fault, but rather a scale advertisement for all of Coke's better for you products. 

Is it dishonest to be selling products while trying to look like their doing the right thing?  No, I think its a smart business approach.  Granted, I think health nuts (and many non-health nuts) would argue that the artificial sweeteners in many of their no or low calorie beverages are actually worse for you than the full calorie alternatives.

Nike's New Ad - Tiger Woods vs. Roy McIlroy

Nike just launched a great new tv commercial (Nike Golf: No Cup Is Safe) staring Tiger Woods vs. Roy McIlroy. Take a look. . .



Call it the new take on the old Larry Bird vs. Michael Jordan McDonald's commercials . . .



Call it a passing of the torch, call it whatever you want.  It may not be the most original advertising idea, but it's simple a great tv ad and breaths life back into Nike Golf. 

Chevy no longer 'Runs Deep', but will 'Find New Roads'. At least for the time being...

Chevy recently announced that it was replacing its tag-line "Chevy Runs Deep" with the new tag-line "Find New Roads".

"Chevy Runs Deep"was launched in 2010 and only lasted a few years.  Though switching tag-lines is nothing new for the General Motor's brand.  Past tag-lines include "See the USA in Your Chevrolet," "Heartbeat of America,", and "An American Revolution".  The question is will this new tag-line have more sticking power?  

My guess is no.  My guess is Chevy will be searching for a new tag-line in another few years and they could have better spent the few million dollars they invested on this re-launch effort on something else that better built the brand. 

It's not that I don't like the tag-line from a creative standpoint.  And, I'm confident all the consumer research GM surely did prior to rolling out the new tag-line showed positive consumer sentiment.  After all, "Find New Roads" is very likable.  Its optimistic and it points towards the future not the past.  It grabs hold of the current America sentiment for wanting something new, something better.  The problem is that being popular with consumers in testing, doesn't necessarily make it a successful tag-line.

So what makes a successful tag-line?  There are four elements that have to be true:

1. It has to be unique
2. It has to be ownable (by connecting to the brand heritage or underlining equity)
3. It has to brings to life a consumer benefit (ideally a high order benefit than just the product performance)
4. It has to have the potential to tug at the consumer heartstrings or make an emotional connection

To me the biggest problem with the new Chevy tag-line is it doesn't resonate as an unique, ownable benefit that only Chevy can deliver on.  What about find new roads distinctly connects with the Chevy brand?  For me, the line fails to connect with the brand heritage and brand equity.  While it is clever, I struggle with the brand linkage to Chevy and that makes the tag-line feel empty and somewhat soulless to me.  

Aspirational for sure. A great internal compass to guide the future development.  Just not a great fit from a consumer branding standpoint.