WINNING IN THE FUTURE? DO YOU NEED TO OWN THE CHANNEL AS WELL AS THE CONSUMER?

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One of the challenges facing all providers of goods or services, especially the fast moving consumer or packaged goods ones, is that - in reality - all are selling more or less the same products. The same products with what amounts to small differences in reality. Not surprisingly, therefore, we have seen that private label brands have surged as consumers realise this reality.

The ability to create brand values and imagery is increasingly difficult and costly, as the all mighty power of TV has waned due to fragmentation, time shifted consumption via PVR, greater use of online and watching of content via Internet. The ability to surround the brand with a brand aspiration through mass paid for media is reducing.

And so as we look ahead, we will need to consider how to build brands a different way. For without a brand, categories will become more commodity and price will play a big role. It will be harder to innovate and fund brand image investments as the profit margins are squeezed. Consumers will see less innovation and more commodity of offers.

I believe that to build brands today and in the future, the focus now needs to be more on the brand experience, and not just on the image and aspiration that used to be more the case.


Brands need to create a world around them. A story that consumers can enjoy, embrace and buy into. Something above and beyond a collection of benefits and features. I see this happening in many categories, and especially in the skincare and beauty world that I am most actively working in. Brands that are robust and growing are ones that have perfectly good products, but that has become an order qualifier rather than the order winner. The order winner is more related to the business model, and how they engage everyday with their target and the story and experience they are building and maintaining around the brand.

Brands like Caudalie and Nuxe in Europe are great examples of this. They are making much ground as the TV focused brands are losing ground due to the daily and tangible brand experience they offer.


I also believe that in the future the best way of succeeding is by actually owning and having a direct relationship with your consumer, and trying to reduce the role of the gate-keepers to this relationship, which for most of us is the retailer. To be able to create an experience you will need to be able to create the space and the environment. Retailers are trying to create their own. Digital tools can help build a world and a relationship, and the role of social media like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube along with CRM and email can help.

But to really differentiate and really own your consumer, you may need to actually own the distribution channel.
Apple have shown this with iTunes and their devices. This may be an extreme example, but there is no doubt that once signed up their ability to own that relationship and understand what you like and do is key. I cannot imagine how difficult it would be for me to switch away now from my link to Apple and iTunes.


Avon for decades has been the same. In many markets around the world they dominate or hold major shares of categories. They own the channel, but more importantly they own the relationship.

If I was advising anyone looking to innovate today, it would be to focus on how to create an experience for a brand that ensures you can tell a differentiated, compelling story via an experience and direct to consumer channel. These are the brands and ideas that will win.


What do you think? Leave a comment on the blog or email me at Gary@bembridge.co.uk



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PEOPLE ARE NOT COMMITTING TO MARRIAGE AS EARLY! Is this important or not for you as a marketers and advertisers?

I was listening to a news item recently that stated that people are marrying much later, and every year the average age that people get married gets older. They chose to date and commit much later in life. This was given as a fact, with no comment.


It did however give me a slight “aha” moment, as it strikes me that beyond the usual reason that women are choosing to have a career and work longer than in the past before marrying or having children later, there may be something more significant underlying this and an important trend emerging.


People are avoiding committing. They are avoiding making a firm promise to stick with one through thick and thin. They are keeping their options open for longer.


This is all at a time when the digital world that has emerged and is growing around us has meant that we are used to getting immediate and instant outcomes. At any time of the day or night if we want to buy a song, watch a movie, find a hotel or flight or compare prices for an item we want to buy we can – and then immediately but it or often get it. In the past we were more constrained, we tended to have a smaller scope and ability to access many alternatives and tended to commit to a brand, a store, a supplier that we liked, trusted and felt was probably the best we could get based on everything. But that is no longer true, we have almost limitless ability to check out, try and access alternatives. Chop and change allegiances. Constantly look for something better, and then get instant gratification.




People growing up post the creation of the internet, are growing up with this as standard. It is said that attention spans are getting shorter, we focus on something for less time, can check out many alternatives and – importantly – can get fast, instant results.


I was listening to an interview with the creators of Google, who pointed out that even life of products (especially digital ones) is getting shorter and faster as news and trial can spread fast, and as soon as the next and better thing comes along then people jump allegiance to the next thing coming along.


This has huge implications to a marketer and advertiser. How can you ensure you get people to commit to a longer relationship with your brand/ product when this is something that is not a trend and habit that consumers seem to be living by as much? The ability to access information and options faster and broader is changing the nature of relationships and expectations.




Some thoughts on implications:



1: It seems to be one thing all have to do is ensure that we have to be more nimble, faster and constantly evolving and changing the service and product to keep interest up and avoid the ever faster boredom and impatience kicking it. Constant and more frequent updates and improvements, not only to keep up interest but ahead of competition as your consumers will know and be more informed.


2: News driven communication. To keep up interest and focus, better to focus

Thoughts, leave a comment on the blog, or email me gary@bembridge.co.uk


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THE TIME PAYWALL AND IPAD APP: 4 REASONS I LIKE WHAT THEY DOING AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN!

Much has been made by journalists and media commentators (mostly competitors of News International who own the title) of the move to charge for access to The Time's website, and to buy subscription to the iPad app to get the daily paper.

The data will finally tell us who was right, although early data suggests traffic on the site fell by three quarters (versus the 90% many projected). Also the charts I saw suggested that unique visitors to the competitive news sites was not up (meaning that the same set of people were looking at multiple sites versus a big unique set of people). Anyway, I thought it would be good to enter the discussion as a user and explain what I like and think about the move and the experiment - and what I think marketers and digital players can learn from it.

I have subscribed to the iPad Times news app (at £9.99 a month)

So here are the 5 things about the move so far that I like:

1: it focuses on the core target. In all the debate, the assumption has been that news is generic. It has not focused on the brand. It does not surprise me that the competitive sites have not seen a huge increase in unique users, as I suspect that many people - including me – would look at multiple sites covering news to see different points of view and coverage. But as a loyal Time reader off line, I ended up putting money where my loyalty lies.

When it comes to news there are brands and providers that users are loyal to and have affinities with. I love getting my TV news from Sky News, others from BBC. I love reading The Times. I buy and consume The Times as I like the editorial focus, style and screen. I like the familiarity. This is why people choose brands. The move is focusing on brand users and loyalists, at the expense potentially of volume, but they can focus on serving the needs of loyal users and try to get them to stay longer and spend more. Finding ways of adding value and keeping loyal users and repeat is a good marketing instinct and tactic. Volume and trial is easy to get, especially if it is FREE. But that is not what makes money and profit....

2: they are experimenting and learning. They have made a move, they are trying and experimenting. They are daring to go against the considered opinions and are constantly evolving the offer and actively asking for thoughts and input. This is what good innovation is about. I learnt recently that the best and most successful innovators are ones that keep doing things, trying changes, prototyping, testing live and constantly evolving. They have a belief (that good journalism costs) and are trying to make it work. I admire trying. More people win by trying than by sitting by and waiting for others to prove something.

3: they are using the tools to interact and engage. They have a very active Twitter feed that will contact you, feedback on queries and engage in a conversation. It is excellent and they will actively ask and push information. I feel like a person that is important to the brand, and not just one of a zillion of readers. I think this part of the mix is something that is really powerful and under-estimated in importance. They are making the loyal user feel part of the family and valued.

4: the iPad app is better than the paper, but familiar. It is a product improvement, it has added value and is not a substitute! The app is better than the website which is just like other websites. The iPad app is great. Has the occasional tech problems, but they work on it fast. It is – for me – key. The Times LOOKS BETTER on the iPad than on paper! It feels familiar and reads like the paper we are used to, but has added features and easy to navigate. For me the iPad app is much better than the site, as it feels like the product I like and consumer (but better) while the site looks like any news site. I think this is a missed opportunity.

Also one can access the paper earlier and easier than before as you can download it from about 4 or 5am. It also can be read offline, and for me who is away and out the country a lot means I can see and read my familiar product in “real time” not some day or more old thing.


Don't like
1: That for the £9.99 monthly fee, you don’t get access to the website online. You would need to pay again. Having one charge to access would be better.

 I think the 4 things above are key, as they provide some guidance for us as we think about digital and online. Focus on the brand loyal? Experiment and learn, push boundaries just don’t copy? Ensure your offering a product improvement not just an alternative? Use tools to engage and interact?

I hope it succeeds as I am hooked to the app!

Leave a comment on the blog in comments or email me with thoughts: gary@bembridge.co.uk



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ANNOYINGLY, ANNOYING ADS WORK! IS THAT A REASON TO DO THEM THEN?

And so the insurance comparison website called gocompare.com ads are the most annoying ones of the year - as voted by UK consumers.

They also are proving to be very successful, and based on sales results issued this week, they seem to be driving sales like crazy and putting pressure on other competitors. I note that is the same week one of the key ones (confused.com) has even "parted ways with their ad agency".This is usually a sure sign sales are down - and the ad agency takes the bullet.The gocompare.com ads feature a large opera singer popping up and singing a song that will stick in your brain all day. It seems to be on air all the time, is pretty crass and without a doubt means whenever you come to relook or renew your insurance they will be one of the first to pop into your mind. No doubt why they are doing so well. (If you not seen them, an example is at the bottom of this posting).


It also really annoying. But as it does the job that is probably enough. Isn't it?


In the UK three types of ads seem to do best.


1: Highly entertaining ads that people love to watch, and will be voted and played in those "favourite ads of the year/ decade/ whenever" shows, and that people talk about. I don't think any country quite does this style of ad as well, nor do they work as well. In the UK it is really hard to get high impact with ads, and this seems to encourage this. People reward being entertained with sales, as Cadbury proved with that Dairy Milk Drumming Gorilla

2: Ads that get banned. Nothing seems to get the result as having your ad banned. The press seem to love both songs and ads that get banned. You are guaranteed acres of comment, and now - thanks to YouTube - a lot if people seeing it. These ads get people to buy through being aware of you usually more through borrowed interest to create the fuss. One of the more popular techniques is having a gay theme, used by Heinz and more recently by McDonalds in France where a father and son go for a meal and clearly the son is not interested in girls that his dad keeps going on about. Huge uproar. Huge publicity. Huge hits on YouTube. Huge increase in awareness of McDonalds and as top of mind people popping by. (the ad is linked below as well)

3: Annoying ads. Ads that pound away relentlessly and pop into your brain. It seems these work best when all the advertiser really wants is brand recall and top of mind. They do seem to work in cluttered markets - like insurance - where products are largely seen as the same and pretty much commodity. So the key is to stamp your name and service firmly in the brain so you are always in the consideration set. Here it seems that annoying people is not a barrier to people actually using or buying you. They remember you when they need you, and if your offer is good then you sell. As the go compare.com experience shows.

Does this mean we should all focus on being more annoying or courting controversy? Should we be looking to being able to say when agencies present work: "great, that is really annoying!"?


No. But it does remind us how much advertising - be it online or traditional media - is all so bland and blends in. The above shows how important it is to be noticed and remembered. This is where to focus. You need to be remembered. And it has to be better to be remembered over time for being good, entertaining and interesting than just annoying?


Thoughts? Leave a comment on the blog post or email me gary@bembridge.co.uk

An example of a confused.com ad




THE FRENCH DAD-SON MCDONALD AD




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WORLD'S MOST ADMIRED COMPANIES: nifty new visual way of showing them!

The http://www.money.co.uk/article/1005525-the-worlds-most-admired-companies.htm website has produced this nifty and interesting visual showing the most admired companies in the world. They have tried to show where they come from and who they are in total and then also by category.

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THE IMPORTANCE OF KEEPING OPTIMZING AND IMPROVING: A moving target is harder to hit...!

I was listening again to one of the most downloaded of all the Marketing Unleashed Podcasts that I have done in the last few years and it reminded me of some really key thoughts and points it was making about marketing and how to ensure success in the marketplace. The podcast is the one about Lastminute.com and the learning that the marketing director had got when he moved from a traditional “off-line” background into an “online” business.
There were some key thoughts that I wanted to reflect on and talk about again.

The key thoughts were

KEEP OPTIMIZING AND IMPROVING
Do not stand still. Do not wait until you have an issue. A moving target is harder to hit.

One of the things that he spoke about was how he learnt the ability and importance of constantly fine tuning and optimizing what you do. They found that even small changes had a huge effect (increasing the font of links grew click through by 30%). In the traditional goods and services business, we are used to – or maybe inclined to – try and keep things constant once we pass that consumer in use test or have strong shares. The mantra is “beware of alienation” and “if it is not broken don’t fix it”. We keep things constant, and then have to do major changes when we slowly start to erode and slowly but slowly our share or sales drifts away. The issue is that it tends to erode rather than be dramatic.

I was listening to some people talk about innovation recently. One of the things they spoke about is how the most innovative groups of people have been proven to be the ones who focus on constant variations, pro-typing and constant improvements – versus those that focus on a big end result. I was shown an video but this chap that gets people to try and build a structure that balances a marshmallow on top as high as they can using straws and pretty much nothing else. The group that gets it the highest on first session are young children, as they start with placing the marshmallow on top right from the start even though low and go from there. Constantly adding and constantly experimenting.

As consumers we get bored. We are always looking for something that meets our needs better. So is it not sensible to focus on giving our consumers small, comfortable improvements, tweaks and things that optimize and evolve their experience than just keep churning out the same thing. I know from all my years in packaged goods, that we find this uncomfortable as the plants and associated functions find this state of evolution frustrating and concern about complexity and cost. But we need to work out how to achieve this, as this is also the nature of evolution itself. To keep relevant and to keep interest we need to be constantly optimizing and fine tuning.

The online players have learnt this and can see fast results. The retail business also knows the power of this. I think this is going to be key for packaged goods and services overall.


IMPORTANCE OF LOYAL CONSUMERS
It costs a lot to recruit. So keep your users happy and engaged

He spoke about how people that came to the lastminute.com site directly spent around 60% more than people that they recruited via search and other tools. People that had come to love the brand and the site and came there were open and keen to spend more with them. They liked what they got and so they tried to focus on ensuring that these people were happy, through offers, regular contact and better personalizing their offers.

So often we invest in recruitment, and of course that is important. But it is as important, or more important, to keep users engaged and happy. For example, in the category I am familiar with, the skincare brands doing best in the channels we compete in are the ones that ensure that once people have tried the brand that they keep them engaged through news, offers and cross selling. Users of the fastest growing brands buy more often per year and more per basket – simply because these brands have invested in it and focus on it. Others that invest more in trial get more peaks, more volatility and less share in the end.

I think the thing that struck me most, was the ruthless consumer centric focus of online companies. You have to be! As things move fast and you see immediate effects and results. In traditional goods and services it is not always as easy to see the change, as you get lost behind supply chains, stock sell in and slower evolutions. I think there is a lot to learn from these brands and companies...


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About Gary Bembridge

Currently one of the Global Vice Presidents of Beauty Care at Johnson and Johnson and running a global beauty care brand present across Europe, North and South America and Asia. Born in Zimbabwe, and been based in London for over 20 years, Gary has also run food, baby care, ebusiness and global marketing and skincare training. 

With over 25 years of global marketing experience, Gary Bembridge provides thought provoking comment, advice and tips to guide and inspire  marketers and advertisers. Always challenging and trying to find new ways to ensure you stand out, attract and retain your target consumers, you will find the short weekly podcasts entertaining and practical.



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