Tuesday, February 27, 2018

Is Gold Important When Branding During the Olympics?

With the Olympic Games now history, how did your brand integrate the international competition into your brand strategy, marketing campaigns, or email communications?

Two brands that stand out can be found in a unique product unveiled on February 22, toward the end of the athletic events that took place in South Korea. Krispy Kreme Doughnuts collaborated with Hershey’s chocolate and created a new doughnut called the “Hershey’s Gold” doughnut, which will be available at participating Krispy Kreme Doughnuts stores throughout the United States and Canada. A list of participating locations can be found at http://krispykreme.com/hersheysgold.

“One of the ways we bring joy to our customers is by innovating to create unique doughnuts that only Krispy Kreme Doughnuts can deliver. [This new doughnut is a] delicious pairing of Krispy Kreme’s iconic Original Glazed Doughnut, topped with pieces of the new Hershey’s GOLD bar and a salted caramel icing. This salty sweet doughnut flavor will surprise taste buds with every bite.” explained Jackie Woodward, Chief Marketing Officer of Krispy Kreme.

As a fan of Krispy Kreme sweets, I sampled the new doughnut in celebration of the Olympics and was happy with the taste.

As a brand marketer, I was surprised by the line that nearly went out the door of the Krispy Kreme store I visited in Southern California. Had this long line of consumers heard about the new Hershey’s Gold doughnut on the TV news, as I had, or were they simply buying doughnuts?

As a marketing professional, I noticed that nearly every person left the Krispy Kreme store with a box of a dozen doughnuts. I have to admit that I had entered the store with the intention of only buying four of the new Hershey’s Gold doughnut, but I too, left with Krispy Kreme’s signature box of a dozen.

So, was the tie-in to Olympic gold the reason for this doughnut’s attraction, or was the reference to Olympic gold not important? Only those who’ve sampled Krispy Kreme’s Hershey’s Gold can be the judge.


Image credit: Krispy Kreme Doughnuts.

Tuesday, February 13, 2018

Top 10 Branding Quotes

When someone asks a marketing professional to explain branding, brand management, or brand-building, are there easy answers? In lieu of directing someone to Google or Wikipedia, or even the online dictionary of marketing terms presented by the American Marketing Association, there are some excellent quotes by famous people that succinctly explain branding’s importance when creating products or services for either the B2C, B2B, or nonprofit sectors. 

Do you have a favorite branding quote that you’ve taped to your wall? Here are MY top ten branding quotes.

[1] A brand is a living entity – and is enriched or undermined cumulatively over time – the product of a thousand small gestures.
-Michael Eisner, former CEO of the Walt Disney Company

[2] Products are made in the factory, but brands are created in the mind.
-Walter Landor, Founder of Landor Associates

[3] Your brand is what other people say about you when you're not in the room.
-Jeff Bezos, Founder of Amazon.com

[4] A brand is the set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer's decision to choose one product or service over another.
-Seth Godin, author and entrepreneur

[5] Within every brand is a product, but not every product is a brand.
-David Ogilvy, Founder of Ogilvy & Mather

[6] It's not the customer's job to know what they want. In order for a brand to be truly successful, it has to know how to anticipate need. Think different.
-Steve Jobs, Founder of Apple

[7] A great brand is a story that's never completely told.
-Scott Bedbury, CEO of Brandstream

[8] Brand is the sum total of how someone perceives a particular organization. Branding is about shaping that perception.
-Ashley Friedlein, Founder of Econsultancy

[9] If people believe they share values with a company, they will stay loyal to the brand.
-Howard Schultz, Founder of Starbucks

[10] The art of marketing is the art of brand building. If you are not a brand, you are a commodity.

-Philip Kotler, Marketing professor and author

What’s your fave? Please chime in and share.

Monday, February 5, 2018

Hashtags Were More Memorable Than SuperBowl52 Ads

Image Credit: NFL
Super Bowl 52 ended like a super game should end: everything coming down to a single play to decide the winner. But if you live and breathe marketing and branding, the game is just a minor blip on your radar. Your focus is the ads that take place in between the football action. With a staggering cost of “north of $5 million for 30 incredibly short seconds,” is it possible for a brand to tell its story effectively and memorably? Were there any ads that rivaled Apple’s 1984 ad? Were there any Tweets that rivaled Oreo’s Tweet during the 2013 power outage? Bottom line, can YOU recall any of the ads?

While noted in my post last year, this quote from Landor Associates is worth repeating:

"Here are three tips to help you, your dad, or even your football-crazed grandma decide which brands scored a touchdown with their commercials: Is the ad on-brand? Will you remember the brand tomorrow? And, does the ad speak to the times?”
During the game, Jim Joseph hosted his annual #SuperBowlExp party on Twitter (minus chips and guacamole). Although it's always fun to see what fellow branding and marketing folks say about the ads in real time, there are a couple of challenges. First, some ads run in regional or local markets, so there were some instances that Tweets referenced ads I didn’t see. Second, there are so many hashtags that draw attention to the ads that it’s sometimes a challenge to keep up – for instance, #BrandBowl, #BrandBowl52 (led by @TwitterMktg on Twitter for the first time), #SuperBowlAds, etc.

This year, many brands and brand icons were noticeably absent. There were no Oreos, Coca-Cola polar bears, or the group of Clydesdales with their pal, the adorable Dalmatian. While many automobile brands were present, Audi and Volkswagen were noticeably absent. These brands and icons have become part of the Super Bowl advertising tradition, so viewers were left to wonder why they were absent.

Without further ado, here were my five favorite ads:

TOYOTA – “Start Your Impossible Dream” – This ad told the inspiring story of Lauren Woolstencroft, an eight-time Paralympic gold medalist born without legs below the knee and no left arm below the elbow. Woolstencroft, an alpine skier from Canada, said, “I hope that my story encourages and inspires others around the world to pursue their passions, and reach for their own personal best.” Toyota is the presenting sponsor of March’s Paralympics on NBC.

TOYOTA – “One Team” – A rabbi, a priest, an imam, and a Buddhist monk get into a Toyota truck on the way to a football game. Two nuns criticized the group for its late arrival. This was the best ad by far.

HYUNDAI – “Hope Detector” – Hyundai donates money for every car sold toward childhood cancer research — $130 million since the program started 20 years ago. Most Hyundai owners had no idea that their purchases contributed to this cause – now they will.

TIDE – Several funny ads using the hashtag #TideAd highlighted the brand’s capability to clean. The best part of the campaign may not have been part of the campaign at all. During the end of the second quarter, there was 20-30 seconds of darkness in lieu of an ad. There must have been a technical glitch somewhere at NBC, so everyone in the Twitterverse wondered if their cable went out, if the game ended early, or if aliens landed. Turns out, Tide remembered the buzz created by Oreo’s Tweet back in 2013 when the power actually went out during the Super Bowl. Tide creatively added the blackout to its advertising campaign.



Image Credit: Twitter

AUSTRALIA – This ad promoted the country of Australia and featured the original Crocodile Dundee and a new version. Viewers were entertained by the surprise appearance of the original.

Oddly, this year, hashtags stood out rather than the ads. I recall these hashtags from ads: #TideAd, #HopeComesStandard from Hyundai, and #OneTeam from Toyota. Budweiser brought viewers into the stables to show a party featuring the Clydesdales with its #ClydesdalesCam. And when the screen went black, everyone on Twitter was talking about the #blackout. As a result of this phenomenon, it’s hard to remember a year when we weren’t talking with hashtags.

And lastly, Jacques de Cock, a faculty member at the London School of Marketing, said the game will have been watched in half of US households. 

"The Super Bowl is a phenomenon unsurpassed in the world. It is one of the few national social events, which is also why social media traffic during the game is so high...What is also remarkable is that advertising is not viewed as something to skip, but is seen by 77 percent of viewers as part of the entertainment and therefore more watched and engaged with than any other television advertising during the year."
So, are you counting the days to Super Bowl 53? Will that mean a trip to Atlanta or will you simply tune in to watch and critique the ads either on TV or on your mobile device?