J.Crew Admits It Made Two Critical Mistakes

J.Crew sent an e-mail to its customers this week acknowledging and apologizing (well not really apologizing) for the two big mistakes it has made over the past few seasons:

1. Drifting the fashion style too far away from the brand core
2. Raising price above what the brand value proposition can support.

The email was sent as an informal memo from CEO Mickey Drexler and carries a very casual tone.  Take a read...

The refreshingly simple and conversational style of the e-mail definitely caught my attention.  I believe the messaging does the trick in terms of getting lapsed consumers to at least give J.Crew another look and may even help put J.Crew back in their consideration set the next time they are browsing for new clothes.  Based on a quick trip to J.Crew's website, the styles do feel more aligned with the brand equity than the past few seasons.  That said, the ticket price still feels more premium in many categories than I'd expect many customers to pay full price for.  Sure J.Crew may have invested in the quality, but observing that requires consumers to take a trip to the store and feel the product for themselves.  Given how reliant J.Crew has been on promotions over the past few season, one has to also wonder if they have trained their consumers wait for sales and not pay full price.

Coca-Cola "One Brand" Approach Likely To Fail

Facing declining soda category trends in the United States and flat category growth globally, Coca-Cola is launching a new go-to-market strategy aimed at securing its market share and growth prospects.

The heart of this new strategy is unifying Coke, Diet Coke, Coke Zero, and Coca-Cola Life under a "one brand" marketing brand campaign and packaging architecture design. Historically, the company has treated the variants more as individual brands. The new design will be rolled out in Mexico first this May, with other markets adopting the new packaging throughout 2016 and 2017, with the US likely at the tail end of the transformation.

The marketing campaign will be based on the "Taste the Feeling" concept and supported by 10 TV ads, digital, print, out-of-home, and point of sale materials. The objective of this effort is to have all variants of Coca-Cola will be unified under this message and speak together as one voice instead of separate marketing for Coke, Diet Coke, Coke Zero, and Coca-Cola Life.

The packaging design is also aimed at driving a greater sense of brand unity and halo across the business.  All of the Coke variants will now all display the signature Red Disc, although the different variants will still feature a splash of their own unique colors: black for Coke Zero, silver for Coca-Cola Light/Diet Coke and green for Coca-Cola Life.  Marcos de Quinto, Coca-Cola CMO explained this decision by saying "Packaging is our most visible and valuable asset, . . .The Coca-Cola Red Disc has become a signature element of the brand, synonymous with great taste, uplift and refreshment. By applying it to our packaging in such a bold way, we are taking the next step towards full adoption of the 'One Brand' strategy, uniting the Coca-Cola family under one visual identity and making it even easier for consumers to choose their Coca-Cola with or without calories, with or without caffeine."  Although the company admitted it is still working to determine the exact packaging execution of this vision in the US where Diet Coke has a large market share and utilizes "Coke" on its packaging vs. the other variants, which use the more formal "Coca-Cola".

My take on this brand strategy approach is simple - it's a mistake and will likely fail.

The objective of this strategy is to clearly drive greater scale, which from a marketing standpoint traditionally means driving greater efficiency in advertising spending (e.g., getting a bigger bang for your buck because any advertisement should now drive sales across the broader brand portfolio vs. just one Coke variant like the historic marketing was targeted).  Accepting this premise would obviously seem very financially attractive as it would allow Coke to reduce its overall marketing budget because it no longer needs to run four independent advertisements to support the four different variants, it can now look to drive all four behind one advertisement.  However, I would argue that any shorter-term cost savings will be more than offset by longer-term revenue declines because the effectiveness of the 'one brand' advertisement will likely be lower than Coke's historic variant focused approach.  This is the case because to make this strategy work, Coke effectively needs to dilute its messaging to the least common denominator that halos across all four variants.  What made Diet Coke and Coke Zero so powerful is they each spoke to two very different target consumers than original Coke and I worry that one advertising campaign will soften the brand's ability to both target and resonate as deeply with each individual target, instead opting for being a bit of everything for everybody.

From a packaging standpoint, the company is also clearly trying to make a scale play by increasing the visual brand block at shelf with a sea of red.  This in theory should grab more consumer attention in store.  Additionally, for a design purist standpoint, the simplicity of the new brand architecture is far more beautiful than the current disaggregated design.  However, sometimes the uglier solution is the more effective solution from a consumer standpoint.  What consumer has ever complained they cannot find Coke on the shelf?  I have real worries that the new packaging will lead to significant confusion at the shelf and in some cases will lead to the consumer either walking away empty handed or with the wrong item.  Simply put the packaging is just too similar across variants to allow the consumer to quickly find their variant of choice - especially in a category dominated by a grab and go mentality.  Additionally, from an on-pack communication standpoint, the variant name is in the wrong location on the can and bottle.  It should be below the brand name where consumers eyes are trained to expect it, as opposed to up top.  The location on the top of the label is likely to be missed by many consumers based on the fact that the packaging pulls their eye directly to the brand logo and consumers are trained to read down, and not glance back up.  Finally, I'd argue consumers have a strong affinity for the can color of their personal favorite variant.  In many ways, what can color can you prefer has come to express something about your personality to yourself and others in our society - not necessarily good or bad - but something about who you are.  I'm a black can (Coke Zero) guy.  I don't think consumers will ever articulate this, but I expect the black can people and the silver can  (Diet Coke) people to have some hesitations about picking up a new red disc can.  I think they'll miss how their old can helped expression a very small piece of their personality.  In this way, Coke will be a victim of its own historic success.

Victoria’s Secret Takes One Giant Leap Forward, Followed By Two Steps Back

Victoria’s Secret has made two big announcements recently, the first I believe will set the brand up for long-term success, while the second will likely compress sales until the decision is reversed.

Victoria's Secret's first announcement was to combine the store and direct-sales (online and catalog) businesses into one formal organization and P&L.  This is a move every retailer should make as soon as possible. The move will create a more seamless omnichannel shopping experience. Consumers do not put up artificial walls between a retailer's physical stores, catalog business, website, or mobile/digital vehicles - and neither should retailers if they want to serve them effectively.  Separate organizations and P&L's create misaligned incentives to maximizing a customer's journey across channels and hence risks hurting purchase conversion, compressing basket size, and limiting the ability to drive longer term loyalty and lifetime value.

The second move was to announce the brand was discontinuing its paper catalog.  This I believe is a large mistake.  On the surface, it's easy to understand why the Victoria's Secret management team made the move.  In past years, the company has mailed up to 22 issues per year to over 15 million consumers and fans alike, which in some years likely total to more than 300 million catalogs per year.  Printing and shipping all these catalogs is no doubt quite expensive, even accounting for the brand scaling back the number of total catalogs it sent out in recent years.  In fact, according to recent Citi retail analysts estimates the company could save up to $100 million with this move.  Couple the large cost savings opportunity with the fact that sales coming directly from the catalog have likely fallen significantly over the last several years as consumers shift their spending to online and mobile channels, and its not hard to imagine how the brand completed the math to decide to eliminate the catalog.  Victoria's Secret will look to reinvest much of this savings into its loyalty program and "brand-building engagement".

Still, I believe this move to be a mistake for a few key reasons.  

• First, the catalog is an iconic element of the brand identity.  Yes, the Victoria's Secret fashion show that's televised world-wide is pure genius in terms of generating priceless media impressions, social media commentary, and brand engagement outside the point of transaction, but nothing says Victoria's Secret like it's catalog.  It is a critical element that brand leverages to reach inside of consumers' homes and showcase what the brand stands for.  

• Second, the catalog's ROI or effectiveness can no longer be measured in terms of sales it drives directly.  It's role has shifted to driving awareness and consideration, which ultimately pushes consumers to purchase online or in store.  This creates real challenges with directly measuring ROI and effectiveness, especially if the catalog has not been full optimized from a format and content style to fulfill this new role.  It is also very hard to optimize the catalog for this role or accurately measure ROI or effectiveness, when the store and direct division P&L's are split.  

• Third, digital awareness vehicles, while highly efficient from an ROI standpoint, typically reach a saturation point in terms of effectiveness (e.g., driving revenue). So I have a hard time believing redeploying the savings to digital vehicles will drive the same amount of sales either online or in stores.  

For these reasons, I believe that brand sales will suffer, at least to some degree, with the elimination of the catalog.  That said, I'm all for scaling back the catalog to some degree (both in terms of frequency of the mailings as well as the number of pages in each issue) to save costs and redeploying some of this money to digital vehicles.  I'd also potentially recommend revising the style and content to ensure it fills its new role of driving brand equity and traffic to the stores and digital channels vs. direct sales. 

Is Audi Naughty or Nice?

In only a matter of few months, Audi appears to have done a reverse shifts on its brand positioning, or at least the articulation of its brand character - leaving consumers to wonder if its naughty or nice.

Audi launched a new advertisement last summer entitled "nice performance" that aims to position the brand as the performance vehicle for considerate people, while BMW as the car for self-entitled jerks.

"The Audi A4. Engineered with a spirit of excellence, thoughtfulness and respect - traits also shared by those that drive one. Sure, it's a German luxury performance sedan, but it's these special qualities that put it in a class of its own," Audi says.

 

However, in January, in an abrupt change, Audi started running a commercial entitled "swim" that features a school-aged boy breaking the town pool rules, only to be commended by his approving mother.  Sure his main crime is doing a cannon ball into the community pool.  But, nevertheless, the brand communication is clear - society's rules are meant to be broken. That with Audi, its okay to be a little naughty in order to express yourself.

"When a young rebel considers taking a plunge, he envisions the consequences of challenging everything he’s been told. For over 100 years, Audi has embraced that same challenger spirit. You’ll see it in our cars, our company, and in everything that we do," Audi says

I find the ad funny, but pushing the brand too far from its non-conformist messaging.  There is a difference between expressing your individuality and encouraging kids to break society's rules.  And more importantly, a far cry from the position as the "nice" guy.

Interestingly, Audi recently started re-running it's 'nice performance' ad.

So is Audi naughty or nice?  Either can potentially work, just not both.

Apple Pay Gets Rolling Via Bank Partners

I'm a big fan of how Apple has started promoting Apple Pay.

Apple itself has yet to run any televised commercials for the service.  Instead, Apple has been partnering with the largest credit card issuers to promote the product for them.  In fact, Apple recently claiming that Pay is supported by credit cards representing roughly 90% of U.S. purchase volume.

Recently banks such as Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Chase, and Capital One have all aired commercials promoting Apple Pay . . .

Capital One:



Wells Fargo:



Bank of America:



While all of these advertisements are done by different banks, Apple has done a great job to partner with each to make them all feel relatively consistent and delivering on the same message.  Apple's influence is also clear in showcasing the product in use.  Since the launch of the iPhone, Apple has hands down had the best product demos of any TV commercials.

More importantly, the launch strategy of handing over the product promotion to business partners is successful because it accomplishes three key goals:

1. Helps generate a tremendous amount of product awareness
2. Simplifies the notion of mobile payments by making it just an extension of an existing credit or debit card
3. Creates credibility by linking the new technology with the financial institutions that consumers already trust for their banking needs

Now all Apple has to do is continue to enroll more retailers and start pumping out more iPhones.

Bud Light Recycles Coke's Label Campaign

A few years ago, Coke launched its "Share a Coke" campaign first overseas and then in the US over the past summer where the brand put the 250 most popular American teen names and other millennial sayings on its labels.

Now it looks like Bud Light is taking a page out of Coca-Cola's playbook.  As part of its "Perfect Beer For Whatever Happens", Bud Light is launching new bottle labels featuring over 100 different varying messages.



Each label touts Bud Light is the "perfect beer for ... ". 

For example:

• "the perfect beer for when you're eating breakfast meats outside of breakfast hours"
• "the perfect beer for forming a one-person conga line"
• "the perfect beer for leaving your comfort zone in another time zone"
• "the perfect beer for taking off the blindfold and showing that piñata who's boss"
• "the perfect beer for tuning up the old air guitar"

The messages are suppose to help position the brand around inspiring spontaneous fun. And while the messages are fun enough, they do not have the same compelling call to purchase as consumers seeing their names on a bottle or labels such as "BFF,” “Star,” “Bestie,” “Legend,” “Grillmaster,” “Buddy” and “Wingman” like Coke featured. 

Additionally, the messaging in at least one of the accompany TV advertisements fails to hit home on this core benefit because it over complicates its message by trying to communicate too many things...



The area of the campaign that has the most promise is where the brand will customize beer bottle labels sold at sporting events and concerts that allow some drinkers the chance to win random, on-the-spot prizes, such as backstage passes or other real-time rewards.

Using the beer labels as a ticket for entry into a contest or a treasure hunt is clever and I believe will be compelling enough to drive consumers at the events to purchase.  The biggest question is how much scale can Bud Light generate with event based programs and will it be enough to generate sufficient social buzz to drive a noticeable lift in sales?  The other question is why didn't the brand aim bigger?  It seems like the brand could replicate this strategy on a much large scale with a McDonald's like Monopoly game where the notion of spontaneous fun can support itself organically.

Radio Shack Had The Best Superbowl Ad

In a year with few great Super Bowl commercials, Radio Shack won the battle for best Super Bowl commercial in my mind. Not only was it entertaining, but it was also highly effective and had a strong brand linkage. Take a look . . .



First and foremost, the ad is fun and entertaining. They engage the audience by bringing back highly recognizable 1980's characters and playing well known music.

Second, the ad hit hard against a highly relevant consumer insights - Radio Shack has lost relevance in consumers' minds. By owning up to this insight and embracing it head on, the advertisement connects with consumers current perceptions and provides a launching point to then move the conversation beyond this basic belief by actually showing the store being striped down to the bones and rebuilt.  This commercial approach is actually highly reminiscent of what Domino's did with the re-launch of its new recipe pizza 4 or 5 years ago, when it showcased insights from its harshest critics.

Finally, unlike most Super Bowl ads, this commercial was actually about the brand (vs. a puppy and horse) and had strong brand linkage throughout, which should help make the ad more effective than most of its peers in actually moving the needle on revenue.

Overall, I thought this was an exceptional ad. Well done Radio Shack, well done.

Yoplait Deals Latest Strike in the Yogurt Wars

As I noted in previous posts, the yogurt wars are on center stage. . .

If the Greek yogurt market was a boxing match, Yoplait would be badly blooding coming out of the first several rounds (with less than a 10% market share). However, now the brand has come out of its corner swinging for Chobani, the Greek yogurt heavy weight champion.

In a good old fashion Coke vs. Pepsi style rumble, Yoplait is challenging Chobani to a taste test to determine who has the best Greek-style yogurt in an effort to win over consumers.

The backbone of their fight is a national TV campaign ads that doesn't pull any punches. . .



Yoplait's is also making the fight personal by opening a pop-up store in New York City very close to where Chobani's SOHO flagship operations are located. In the meantime, Chobani is counterpunching with the recent launch of its 100-calorie line, Chobani Simply 100, to challenge Yoplait Greek 100 ($150 million in sales) as well as running a Super Bowl advertisement to drive national awareness.

At the very least, Yoplait's highly-competitive actions will force Chobani to decide if it should switch from offense (in support its own new product innovation) to defense (by double down support of its base business). My viewpoint is Chobani is the category leader and it has to stay the course of dictating the terms of competition in the category. This means fixing its GMO image and celebrating its "nothing but goodness heritage" in the core business and leading the evolution to adult mix-ins behind its newest product launches. Keep Yoplait chasing you.

Subaru Turning Into a Lifestyle Brand

Subaru gets what few other automobile manufacturers understand, the days of marketing specific product features or racing through curvy streets are over. The future is all about understanding your core consumer and marketing your brand around either their actual or aspirational lifestyle.

More and more, specific car features are becoming commodities, with slight design elements and brand image now the primary factors points of difference.  Think about it.  Volvo use to be all about safety, now all brands have state of the art breaks and airbags all over the place.  Toyota was the brand of reliability, but now America cars have joined Japanese cars at the top of the charts and the 100,000 warranty no longer even raises eye brows.

At a time of increased competition, Subaru is making waves by playing a different game.  Subaru advertisements focus on using real life scenarios to relate to their consumers vs. closed course riving stunts. The ads are all about demonstrating how Subaru safely gets you through real life.

I've included several advertisements to highlight how well they paint different slivers of people's lives.

Subaru "Stick Shift" TV Commercial

Subaru "View from the Child Seat" TV Commercial

Subaru "Best Friend" TV Commercial

Subaru "Teenager Driving Responsibility" TV Commercial

Subaru "New Car Smell" TV Commercial

Subaru "Redressing Room" TV Commercial

Subaru "The Date" TV Commercial

Subaru "Cut the Cord" TV Commercial

Subaru "Nature Painting" TV Commercial

Subaru "Let's Do That" TV Commercial

The results are not just impressive for Subaru, but record breaking.  In August, Subaru sold 41,061 cars in the US, a 45% increase versus a year ago, and more importantly its highest ever in one single month. 

Even more impressive is that Subaru saw superb sales across its entire line, including its staple models (Outback, Forester, Impreza) as well as some solid traction with the newer XV Crosstrek and BRZ models.

Soon enough other car manufacturers will hopefully realize consumers are looking for more than product attributes, their looking for a brand that enhances their desired lifestyle.

The only thing I don't like is Subaru's tag-line "Confidence in Motion", it does not connect and comes off as artificial. However, the advertisement are very strong so they more than make up for it.

Gap "Back to Blue" Great Insights, Questionable Execution

Gap has made a huge investment behind it's back-to-school campaign, which is called "Back to Blue" and focuses on promoting its denim business.

I'm a big supporter of Gap focusing its marketing efforts on core wardrobe categories like denim or khakis because I believe these are the type of items the retailer is famous for and has the most right to win with. I also really love the "Back to Blue" tag-line, not just because it fits with denim theme, but also because Gap = Blue and it signals Gap's resurgence in many consumers' minds driven by a strong turn around strategy over the last several quarters.

However, I do not believe the execution of the Back to Blue campaign is on equity for Gap. Take a look at some of the campaign imagery....

The imagery just does not say Gap to me, it looks much to hipster versus mainstream All-American. It's fine if Gap wants to start evolving its imagery to have a bit more personality, but it cannot just jump there too quickly. Perhaps a more preppy hipster look might work to bridge to Gap's equity but the slightly disheveled, glassy-eyed, slouched over look just does not fit with the Gap of today. I think the brand is reaching too far and risks alienating existing consumers as well as coming off as a poser brand to true hipsters.

Gap CM Seth Farbman explains that "The entire Back to Blue campaign embodies what it means to be comfortable in your own skin".  This might be case, and I can see this attitude come to life in the imagery, but it doesn't mean the execution is done in a way that is consistent with the brand equity. Great campaign insight, great tag-line, poor execution. That's my view at least. We'll see what the consumer says. At the very least, Gap should see a bump from fielding its first TV ads in 4 years.

The Yogurt Wars Heat Up and YOPLAIT Appears One Step Behind . . . AGAIN

The US yogurt wars are heating up again and about to become even more intense...and Yoplait appears to be one step behind again.

For years the US yogurt market was dominated by Yoplait and Dannon. However, five years ago the US market was fundamentally changed with the emergence of Chobani, which helped usher in the Greek yogurt revolution.

As Greek yogurt mainstreamed growing from 4% of the US yogurt market in 2008 to nearly 45% in 2012, Chobani was transformed a small challenger brands into a $1 billion power-player that is giving Yoplait and Dannon a run for their money.

Dannon reacted with the 2011 launch of its Greek yogurt sub-brand Oikos. Oikos growth has been tremendous, surpassing over $400 million 2012, which is a ~45% growth from its first year sales. Not only was Dannon able to leverage the brand to grow the overall Greek Yogurt segment, but also start winning back some share from Chobani by advertising its superior taste behind a claim that Oikos is preferred 2 to 1 over the leading brand.

On the other hand, more than 2 years later Yoplait is still trying to figure out how to win in Greek yogurt.  Yoplait's initial entry into Greek Yogurt was a bust...as was its first relaunch attempt in 2011. Now Yoplait, which is owned by General Mills, is hoping to make up for lost ground by relaunching its Yoplait Greek yogurt again, this time behind a new formula, packaging and advertising. In it's new TV ads, Yoplait declares that "it's time healthy gets a dose of happy" and carry the tag line "it's time to lick the lid again."

The insight Yoplait is basing its bet on is that American consumers will prefer a less sour Greek yogurt and fruit pre-blended into the yogurt, as opposed to being on the bottom of the container.  I personally, don't buy that this positioning will be enough to catch up to Chobani and Dannon, but it will likely be sufficient to remain relevant in the category.

Meanwhile, as Yoplait focuses on and invests in getting its base Greek yogurt offering right, the yogurt market is about to take its next major transformation - adult yogurts with flavor enhancing add-in. 

• First Pepsi's Quaker unit launched Muller (a new joint venture with a European based yogurt company) that features an extensive line of flavor add-ins.  Expect major marketing pushes behind this product over the next several months

• Chobani's answer was to launch  "Flip" and "Bite" sub-lines.

• Now Dannon is jumping into the game via its recent acquisition of YoCrunch, the market leader in yogurt mix-ins.  YoCrunch features 27 different varieties of mix-ins (though most are geared at kids).  Not only does the YoCrunch acquisition give Dannon instant market share in this segment, but more importantly instant access to critical packaging capabilities that will eventually allow Dannon to bring this innovation to their Dannon brands.

While Yoplait does have a mix-in granola offering...

...its already a step or two behind and is going to have to quickly invest in major innovation to keep its offering competitive. But in all likelihood, Yoplait will be spending the the next few years playing catch up again.  Proof a market leader can never stop innovating or it risks being surpassed.

Does Taco Bell hate kids?

Taco Bell recently announced it plans to stop selling kids meals and toys in its restaurants at the beginning of 2014, making it the first national U.S. fast-food restaurant to kill kids meals (although west coast based Jack-in-the Box did eliminate kids meals back in 2011).


Why would Taco Bell risk alienating moms and kids?

The short answer is Taco Bell is doing a smart job of tightly targeting their consumer (the edgy millennial) and positioning its marketing and product offering to best serve that consumer. "The future of Taco Bell is not about kids meals . . . This is about positioning the brand for millennials" according to Taco Bell CEO Greg Creed.

The longer answer also includes the fact there is likely a sizable benefit to cost payout by removing the kids meals:

• Benefit:
• Remove operational complexity and inventory costs
• Trade-up to a higher ticket. A kids meal with a Crunchy Taco, Cinnamon Twists and a small beverage currently costs ~$2.84 vs. $3.17 when purchased a la carte from the full menu
• The menu space and signage can be better utilized for higher margin items
• Marketing can be better focused on core target
• Removes risk of lawsuits or negative PR around child obesity

• Cost:
• Limited as kids meals only account for half of 1% of Taco Bell's overall sales (Unlike McDonald’s where Happy Meals likely account for ~10% of sales)

So, no, Taco Bell doesn't hate kids it just loves 'edgy' millennials more and is willing to sacrifice a few consumers to do a better job targeting its core consumer.

Quest for Marketing Efficiency puts Market Share Growth at Risk

Procter & Gamble spent $9.3 billion on advertising last year,which helped generate $84.2 billion in global revenue. The company currently projects to increase its advertising spending on an absolute dollar basis, but is anticipating slightly reducing its advertising spending as a percentage of overall revenue while trying to win market share. This translates into a need to improve marketing return on investment.

To accomplish this objective, P&G is planning to  improved marketing efficiency by holding all of its brands to minimum success standards. CEO A.G. Lafley recently declared, "We are holding all of the businesses to a minimum ROI. . .We're pounding away on best media."

A.G. Lafley and Jon Moeller, CFO, explained on a recent earnings call that a significant portion of this ROI improvement will be achieved by continuing to shift traditional media dollars into digital marketing. Lafley indicated some brands are spending up to 35% of their marketing budget on digital, with plans to raise the bar on its other brands.

As a former P&G marketer, I understand why P&G management is making this push. P&G's marketing mix modeling analyses often indicate digital marketing has stronger ROI's than traditional advertising. That said, if my primary objective is winning market share over the next year versus maximizing profitability, the move starts to raise a caution flag in my mind.

It's very easy to overlook advertising effectiveness (volume impact) on a quest to maximize advertising efficiency (ROI). In other words, yes, digital is much cheaper and hence tends to produce a stronger ROI , but its reach is often limited and thus typically does not drive as many transactions as television ads. Additionally, you can only throw so much money at any one marketing vehicle before it reaches saturation and digital has a tendency to max out at a lower spend. The combination of these factors makes it difficult to drive market share, while also dramatically cutting back TV advertising. 

Lafley also indicated the next big wave of P&G product innovation may not arrive this coming year, meaning the business will have to rely on a high mix of commercial innovations creating another growth hurdle.

Net-net, if I was an investor, I'd be hard pressed to anticipate significant market share growth over the next year.

'KFC Eleven' a Branding Failure?

KFC, one of the world's largest fast food chains, is set to unveiled a new fast casual concept (think Chipotle or Panera Bread) called KFC Eleven, on August 5th in Louisville, Kentucky. 

The new concept will target more health conscious consumers by offer both higher-end food and a more modern, comfortable environment. 

• The menu includes sandwiches, flatbreads, salads, and rice bowls that are available in a mix of global flavors like Sweet Orange Ginger, Caribbean Tango and Southwestern Baja. All entrees are made with grilled or fried chicken, but unlike KFC, the menu does not feature a bucket of fried chicken, any bone-in chicken pieces, or biscuits.

• The experience emphasizes freshness utilizing an open kitchen so consumers can watch their food being assembled, is geared towards slower-paced dinning experiences, and features WiFi to encourage consumers to hangout.

On the surface, KFC Eleven may seem like an appealing solution to help KFC reach new consumers, but I'd suggest there are large branding barriers that will likely be impossible for the concept to overcome no matter how strong their in-store execution is. More specifically, the branding of the concept name has several fatal flaws in terms of generating strong trial conversion. 

KFC Eleven gets its name based on the 11 herbs and spices in the colonel's original recipe chicken. While its nice that the name connects back to the heritage of the brand, unfortunately, "KFC Eleven" sounds like the cross between "KFC" and the convenience store "7 Eleven". This combination makes the concept sound less premium than even a traditional KFC -  not an easy task.  Even the sign and logo look like they should belong to a convenience store.

Additionally, KFC has a larger negative halo surrounding freshness, health, and wellness. This negative halo will likely be very difficult for consumers to overcome. 

Creating the optimal brand image is key to any strong marketing strategy. To this end, I do not understand why YUM Brands!, the owner of KFC, did not launch the concept under a different name.

Mr. Clean Re-Stage

As a Mr. Clean marketing alum have to say I love the new re-stage of the Mr. Clean brand.  It does a great job of starting to form a more emotional connection and bringing to life the product benefits in a way no other clean brand can...

"I take down arm wrestling opponents like I take down grime, stains and dirt. Things got pretty intense with these bikers, but we're all friends now" -Mr. Clean

Great job Mr. Clean Team!  

On a side note, I'm also glad to see the the Magic Eraser Handy-Grip is finally being launched, something that was suppose to happen 5 years ago, but that's a longer story... 

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".

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.

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.