Branding Corn Flakes...?

Just when I thought that I had heard it all... the design community is all a buzz with rumors of Kellogg's intention to brand each cornflake. Apparently Kellogg's plans on using high tech laser etching technology to imprint the Kellogg's logo-type on every cornflake! Will Kellogg's Cornflakes become this year's branding success story or brand suicide? I think it was Alice Cooper when discussing urban rock legends, myths and rumors once said... all press is good press... right...?

Whether these rumors turn out to be true or not... what a brilliant concept! Personally I hope it is true. A bold brand move like this has the potential to change the way we think about branding. Advertising and marketing is shameless at times... first we see logos on the bodies of hottie cheerleaders... now they may be staring back at us from our cereal bowls in the morning.

Sometimes branding happens... because we make it happen...

What's next? I don't know about you... but I can't wait to see :)

Sometimes, The Experts Aren't...

I remember the excitement in the spring of 2006 when home building projections for the next two years were off the charts according to local experts! We were all riding the big housing wave and with many clients in the residential construction industry, we thought we had it made. One of our local home builder clients was projecting 500 new home starts per month for the next 3 years and had purchased land to carry them through 2013. Oh how fast everything changed.

By summer July of ’06, this same client’s new projections were down to 300 new starts per month… ouch! But that wasn’t the end of the big slide down hill. In October, the projection dropped to 275 homes, by December it was down to 150. After the first of the year, things were looking up a bit and they sold a record number of homes in February of ’07, the experts predicted a big comeback along with some big numbers. The next month sales turned off like a light switch. Not just for this builder, but for everyone. By May, I was reading a letter projecting new home starts at 35-50 per month, they were closing nearly half of their communities along with massive lay-offs. How could it get any worse? It did… they announced in July that they would not be starting ANY new homes for an indefinite period and we lost our contract with them. Needless to say… they are no longer in business. How could the experts have been so wrong? Why were local builders blindly making huge business decisions based on these largely unfounded projections. Who were these experts anyway?

Sometimes, the so-called experts scare me. If you went to the doctor and said “I don’t feel well… something just isn’t right with me… I need your help.”… and he responded immediately with, “I happen to be a very good doctor with many years of experience, and I’ve seen a lot of sick people. I can tell by looking at you and hearing your voice that you have diabetes and need an appendectomy. We need to schedule you for surgery immediately and start you on insulin injections as soon as you are done.” This is ridiculous… right?

So why do so many so-called branding and business development experts seem to have all the answers before they have really had a chance to diagnose the current situation of their clients? Nobody knows your business like you do. When choosing a graphic design firm or ad agency, to assist you in your branding and marketing efforts, beware if they seem to have all the answers in the first meeting. Any firm worth it’s salt, will take the time to become intimate with your products, sales process and overall culture of your company before they start giving you “expert” opinions.

If you are in business in today’s competitive environment… you are doing something right. You just need to do it better. How can the experts solve your problems before they know what they are? How can they capitalize on the positives and reinforce your companies brand before they really seek to understand what’s working and what’s not?

Remember… a true expert just is… they won’t need to tell you.

The ABC's Of Branding...

The ultimate goal of any brand is to “own” the minds of consumers when it comes to their product or service. When an athlete is thirsty, Gatorade wants to own that moment in this athlete’s mind. Millions of dollars are spent every day in an effort to achieve this level of brand leadership. Some brands literally define their product no matter what their competitors try.

One day I was making a sandwich in the kitchen and could hear the television in the family room where my young children were watching Sesame Street. It was a lesson on the ABC’s. “A is for apple, B is for boy, C is for cat,” the host rehearsed. My ear pricked up as I later heard, “J is for Jello.” Wait a minute, how did Jello get their brand into the ABC lesson on Sesame street, I thought to myself. Wow, could Jello have surpassed Coke as a brand leader in their market? I think they have… they are without peer.

Many brands have owned their product in the past, only to eventually be undermined by a generic term. ALL jeans used to be referred to as Levis… now they’re just jeans. Kleenex still owns their market in a huge way… sometimes, you will hear people ask for a tissue. But when it comes to owning a product, Jello is the winner in my book. I have never heard a child walk up to their mom and ask for a gelatin dessert… ever!

All gelatin dessert products are Jello… why even try. Could any brand ever equal or surpass this branding achievement? I wonder… at my son’s high school, nearly everyone that has an MP3 player, chooses an iPod. The few that have other brands, Sony, Zune etc., still refer to the device as “their iPod."

I love Apple… they are branding genius in action.