Author:Marshall Strategy

October 25, 2011 In Blog By Marshall Strategy

Brand Decision Mistakes: The High Cost of Brand Reversals

Brand decision mistakes happen.

We saw it decades ago with New Coke. More recently with the Gap. And most recently, Netflix reversed a highly unpopular brand decision after realizing their once successful branding strategies had been tone-deaf to the customers who had made their brand a success.

Brand Decision

How much do these reversals cost companies? The protests and general ridicule that erupted upon Netflix’s announcement that they were separating their DVD and streaming services were immediately everywhere. The new name for the DVD service, Qwikster, took the brunt of the punishment, however this was backed by a strong sense of customer betrayal. Customer defections, according to yesterday’s earning report, surpassed 800,000, due largely to unpopular price increases, but accelerated by this announcement.

The source of these feelings and actions came down to two justifiable points: 1) Netflix seemed to be putting its business priorities ahead of the needs of its customers, and 2) Netflix was trying to get out of the DVD rental business as fast as it could. Reid Hastings’ letter to customers said as much when he proclaimed:

“We realized that streaming and DVD by mail are really becoming two different businesses, with very different cost structures, that need to be marketed differently, and we need to let each grow and operate independently.”

This is what we would call “sacrificial lamb” branding. By splitting the DVD business off, giving it a lowbrow name, and offering customers less for their money than they had received before, Netflix was signaling how little it now cares for the business. Having a different website with a different name would, hopefully, allow Netflix to disavow DVD rentals without tarnishing their own name.

Putting the business before the brand obviously did not work for Netflix, and it remains to be seen whether their brand reversal can repair the customer damage. What is clear, is instead of looking at pigeonholed brands like Borders and AOL when making their future plans, Netflix should have considered those brands that have successfully led customers along major brand transitions, notably Amazon and Apple.

Under astute leadership and keen customer insight, both Apple and Amazon have seamlessly transitioned multiple times from physical product to digital services, taking excited and faithful customers along for the ride each time. Successful branding strategies like Apple redefined music, media and telecommunications with each advancing initiative, announcing each revolution in a trademark keynote address. Amazon has redefined how it sells books, music, media, and everything else under the sun without major brand reversals. In the end, it is these brands, with the loyalty that they engender that will probably unseat Netflix.

The lesson learned here is, successful branding strategies never put the business before the brand. Customer engagement, understanding and loyalty to your business should be considered alongside decisions to cut costs, or streamline or evolve businesses. Not making these considerations can result in embarrassing and costly brand reversals.

Marshall Strategy

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September 27, 2011 In Airlines, Blog, Branding By Marshall Strategy

Destination Branding: Where to Start?

As visitor and meeting planner budgets shrink in a struggling economy, many cities have chosen to use destination branding in an effort to increase tourism and business travel to their location. Knowing where to start when developing a destination brand can mean the difference between success and failure.

Understand Destination Complexities

Because the branding of a city or town is designed to not only bring tourists to the area, but also to assist in economic development, many voices must be heard in the development process. Business owners may have a different view on how to brand the city than the visitor’s bureau may have, while an economic council may have its own unique, bottom-line driven perspective.

Know Your Strengths

Often, cities forget to brand themselves as “something different” and focus on standard tourist attractions or on the business aspect of the location. In 2007, Santa Rosa, Calif., whose previous slogan was simply “Come Visit” found that visitors were choosing smaller, surrounding towns for conventions and vacations. City officials conducted research and learned that Santa Rosa was considered an excellent place to conduct business. With more than 200 wineries surrounding the city, Santa Rosa designed a new strategy to promote their agricultural heritage. The new campaign, “Place of Plenty,” was designed to attract business visitors who were looking for excellent food and wine venues in addition to business and convention amenities.

Use History and Geography to Your Advantage

Many cities rely on history or a unique geographical or historical attribute to promote the area. East Coast cities attract visitors to the Atlantic Ocean, while Williamsburg, Va., focuses on the history aspects of the surrounding area. One city that has enjoyed success in its rebranding effort is Lexington, Kentucky, the self-proclaimed Horse Capital of the World. In 2010 the city hosted the World Equestrian Games, and thousands of tourists visited from around the world. The Lexington Visitor and Convention Bureau worked with Pentagram Design to create a distinctive identity for the city centered around amythical blue racehorse named “Big Lex”, a cross between the famous Kentucky bluegrass and their equestrian heritage. The new campaign gave the city a memorable icon that builds off its unique heritage.

By knowing the strengths of your city or town, it is possible to develop successful destination branding strategies that will increase visitors and economic growth.

Marshall Strategy

September 22, 2011 In Blog By Marshall Strategy

You Named Your Golf Course What?

Article originally published by John Paul Newport of the Wall Street Journal on September 17, 2011.

To take a spin through the many online registries of golf-course brand names, as I did this week, is to be humbled by the imaginative power of those who dream up the names. In golf-course America, almost every valley is a Happy Valley. Eagles soar, buffalo roam and the deer and the antelope still play.

golf course names

There are, to be precise, 149 U.S. golf courses with eagle in the name, according to a count of nearly 13,000 golf facilities by the National Golf Foundation. They range from the Soaring Eagles Golf Course in Horseheads, N.Y., to the somewhat less inspiringly named Spread Eagle Golf Course in Spread Eagle, Wis. There is an Eagle Point golf course in Oregon and an Eagle Pointe in Indiana. The difference, primarily of interest to marketers, is approximately the same as between shop and shoppe.

Antelope-named courses predictably show up mainly in the West. Colorado, Wyoming and Arizona, for instance, each have courses known as Antelope Hills. But buffalo (alluded to in 131 course names) and deer (with 149 mentions, tying the eagle) span the country. The word “deer” is a convenient naming device because deer are ubiquitous, to the point of actually being a nuisance in many regions, thanks to a fall-off in natural predators. Yet deer still connote woodland innocence. Thus real-estate developers, the primary source of new golf courses for at least the last 40 years, retain plausible credibility when they transform previously featureless tracts of land into golf nirvanas with names such as Deer Park, Deer Creek, Deer Meadow, Deer Run, Deer Ridge and Deer Trace, not to mention Doe Valley and Fawn Crest. These samples barely scratch the surface of deer-golf nomenclature.

The allure, or illusion, of golf as a country sport, as opposed to an urban or suburban one, dates back to its late-19th-century arrival in America. The Country Club in Brookline, Mass., which built its first course in 1893 and has since hosted three U.S. Opens and a Ryder Cup, didn’t need more than that for its name because it was the first.

About 30% of U.S. golf facilities are still called “country clubs” (even though a quarter of them are open to the public and thus not true clubs). That’s down from 40% in 1990, according to the NGF, as naming conventions have grown less hidebound. Who needs “country club” when you can dub your new course The Wilderness at Fortune Bay (in Minnesota), Ragged Mountain (in New Hampshire) or Spreading Antlers (in Colorado)?

It used to be that golf clubs primarily strove to project images of tranquil refuge and stability. Thus you have scores of courses named Lakeside, Lakeshore, Lakeview and so forth. Also popular are meadows, valleys, springs and brooks, frequently in combination: Meadowbrook, Valley Meadows, Meadow Springs, etc. As for strength and stability, the only conceivable thing more reassuring than the mighty oak—Oak Hill, Oakmont, Royal Oak, Charter Oak, Lonesome Oak, Twisted Oak, etc.—would be some kind of stone oak. Sure enough, we have Stone Oak Country Club in Holland, Ohio.

But in recent years the pendulum has swung to the other side of the clock. To create buzz, developers are using macho names like Horse Thief Country Club in Tehachapi, Calif., Renegade Golf Course in Wyoming, The Bandit in Texas, The Hombre in Florida, the Devil’s Claw in Arizona and Thunder Canyon—one each in Idaho and Nevada. The names of some of the newer “The” courses are basically dares: The Gauntlet (Fredericksburg, Va.), The Fortress (Frankenmuth, Mich.), The Challenge at Manele (Hawaii), The Quest at Houghton Lake (Mich.) and The Nutcracker (Granbury, Texas).

If you were of a mind, you could plot a fine bachelor party based on golf-course names. First, ditch the bride and her friends at Chippendale Golf Course in Kokomo, Ind., and proceed 25 miles west to Bachelor Runn in Flora. From there, visit Rogues’ Roost in Bridgeport, N.Y., or Rogue Valley in Medford, Ore., drop by Rooster Run in Petaluma, Calif., and perhaps the LuLu Country Club in North Hills, Pa., before winding things up at the Studley Wood Golf Club in Oxford, England. The next morning, depending on how you feel, you might trot over to the Isle of Wedmore Golf Club, also in England, or decide to chuck the whole thing and disappear. Suggested destinations: Stoner Creek Country Club in Paris, Ky., or Par T Golf Course in Anchorage, Alaska.

Many such journeys could be planned. Golf-course names, if not the courses themselves, provide a fair gloss on American history. You could start at Plymouth Country Club in Massachusetts, and continue to Patriot Hills Golf Club and Rip Van Winkle Country Club in New York. Then, Peace Pipe Country Club in New Jersey, Pocahontas Golf Course in Iowa, the Links at Davy Crockett in Tennessee, Little Bighorn Golf Club in Indiana, Westward Ho Country Club in South Dakota, Oregon Trail Country Club in Idaho, Conestoga Golf Club in Nevada and, finally, Settlers Bay Golf Course in Wasilla, Alaska (Sarah Palin’s town).

My favorite golf-course names, however, are the most whimsical. I love Clustered Spires in Maryland, True Blue in South Carolina and Ozzie’s Corner Golf Course in Hamlin, N.Y. Sadly, the Three Little Bakers Country Club & Dinner Theater in Delaware recently closed.

I’m also partial to the many names that play on golf’s unknowableness, such as Mystic Dunes (Florida), Mystery Hills (Wisconsin), Magic Valley (Tennessee), Druids Glen (Washington), Superstition Mountain (Arizona) and Spirit Hollow (Iowa).

Sometimes those responsible for naming courses simply try too hard, resulting in alliterative misfires like Tees and Trees, The Timbers at Troy and Krooked Kreek. In other instances they don’t try hard enough, such as the Outdoor Country Club, the Hi-Level Golf Course and the uninviting Naval Inventory Control Point Golf Course, all in Pennsylvania.

Far too many course names sound like they were lifted from children’s books: Candywood, Melody Valley, Happy Hollow, Sunny Meadows, Sugar Isle, Songbird Hills, Kissing Camels, Growling Frog.

Luckily, these are countered by a slate of names that seem to get golf’s personality just about right: Chagrin Valley, Crab Meadow, Bogey Hills, Grindstone Neck, Murder Rock, Nutters Crossing, Ruffled Feathers, Sourwood Forest and The Creek at Hard Labor.

I’m not sure how retirees respond to courses with names like Trails End, Twilight, Teetering Rocks, Tumbledown Trails, Coldwinters and Petrifying Springs. You’d think they’d prefer to play at Endwell Greens or Paradise Pastures.

House Speaker John Boehner was recently caught on an open mic describing his two-under-par round at a remote high-end course in Nebraska called Dismal River. There are a surprising number of similarly dour course names: Stoney Links, Stumpy Lake, Reedy Creek, Useless Bay, Potholes, Charwood, Rainsville, Furnace Creek and The Pit Golf Links, much less Mold Golf Club in Wales. Maybe the owners are just doing the best with what they have. If scenic knolls are all you’ve got, I guess you go with Scenic Knolls (Mitchell, Neb.). At least nobody, so far, has tried to perk things up by using the word “Golfe.”

Article originally published by John Paul Newport of the Wall Street Journal on September 17, 2011.

August 24, 2011 In Blog By Marshall Strategy

Creating a Distinctive Brand Experience

Brand Experience (definition): “The cumulative brand impressions garnered from visual, verbal and experiential encounters with the brand. The brand experience encompasses a range of intellectual, sensory and emotional connections.”

Last month there were several stories in the news about fake Apple stores in China. Not only did these stores carry counterfeit Apple products, they also mimicked the architectural details, staircases, genius bars, graphics, employee uniforms and ambience of an Apple store. Unlike the myriad of brand knockoffs in China, though, these were easily detected because Apple has so scrupulously choreographed the brand experience within its stores.

All retail, service and hospitality businesses have a brand identity – an image of the business that is inscribed in their customers’ or prospects’ minds. Each identity is shaped by all that it is, says and does. An identity is more than a logo and a name, it includes location, products, staffing, design, service, amenities, architecture, signage, menu, music and more.

All these elements can be allowed to evolve tactically, with no particular plan, resulting in an undistinguished, contradictory and confusing place. Or, all of these elements can be orchestrated to create a coherent brand experience that provides a distinctive, appealing and competitive offering to its audiences. The latter is called a strategic identity, and it’s crucial for creating a distinctive brand experience. When it’s done well, it is memorable and unique. When it’s done poorly, it can be easy to imitate, or worse, confusing to the customer.

For example, Starbucks invested heavily in décor, product and personnel to create a distinctive brand experience within its stores. Customers know that wherever they are, whether travelling or close to home, they will always get their satisfying venti latte, served by friendly people, in a comfortable and familiar environment. The locations aren’t cookie-cutter in their layout, but they have an ambiance that their customers recognize and appreciate. A recently renewed focus on brand experience has been a key to Starbucks’ success.

By positioning a service business appropriately and focusing on delivering a meaningful and unique brand experience, a business can successfully increase visits, encourage loyalty and command a premium.

August 15, 2011 In Blog By Marshall Strategy

Google + Motorola

Google's acquisition

Google’s acquisition of Motorola’s Mobile business raises a number of fundamental brand questions and is sure to be a topic of much discussion this week. Some of the critical brand-oriented questions for Google, and for Motorola, are as follows:

What business is Google in?

Most people still think of Google as a Search company largely due to its consistent domination over Yahoo! and Microsoft. Others think of Google as a technology enabled advertising company, since something like 97% of the company’s revenues come through paid search and display ads, and also considering that most of its myriad of free services are advertising supported. But then there is Android, the smart phone OS that has been growing by leaps and bounds. Google now adds the handset vendor to its core competitive set of Microsoft, Apple and Facebook, making their business focus hard to pin down.

If you look at Google’s original mission: “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful”, it seems like Android, and now Motorola are somehow tangential to that mission. Accessibility and usability, in terms of a presence on every mobile device available, seems to be taking priority over organization, or is it?

How do these brands interrelate?

A big question on everyone’s mind will be what happens to the Motorola brand on smart phones and tablets. Will they all get “Googled?” What about the heritage, history and midwestern work ethic of company based in Libertyville Ill, vs. the kinetic energy and opportunistic drive that emanates from Mountain View? How tightly or loosely will these companies be integrated?

And how about Android’s dramatic rise in customer adoption, based largely on its openness and hardware neutrality? One very good reason to keep the Motorola Brand separate would be to maintain that neutral position for Android. To indicate that this was a clear priority, Larry Page today posted a list of supportive messages from Android hardware partners on his Google+ page.

Was this a brand buy or a patent buy?

Much has been made about the patent wars being fought in the mobile space, and in fact Google has claimed that Apple and Microsoft have been cooperating to keep the Android OS on the defensive by aggressively pursuing patent lawsuits. Google today used that exact example this to explain the reasons behind its Motorola investment. Larry Page himself said the following:

“Our acquisition of Motorola will increase competition by strengthening Google’s patent portfolio, which will enable us to better protect Android from anti-competitive threats from Microsoft, Apple and other companies.”

There is no doubt Google will seek to combine their OS-oriented mindset to Motorola’s hardware expertise, much like Apple did with the iPhone. The big difference, of course is that Apple has always been a hardware and software specialist, an expert in integrating the yin and the yang to deliver the premium customer experience that drives the Apple Brand. Can Google do the same with its brand? With both brands? We foresee a number of interesting discussions and questions on this subject for many months to come.

August 8, 2011 In Blog By Marshall Strategy

Be The Brand Experience

Brand Experience: Focus on Airline Brands

There is one word that captures the problem with most airlines’ brand experience, which also suggests a solution for improving brand experience. That word is anxiety.

Airlines today create anxiety for their passengers at every stage of the experience.

Anxiety is created:
– by not knowing which airlines fly to which places.
– by rapidly changing dynamic route and fare models.
– by suspecting you may have overpaid for the flight.
– by learning that your “reward” miles can’t be used.
– by learning you have to stay a weekend day to reduce your fare.
– by feeling business travelers are being taken advantage of unfairly.
– by not understanding the relative comfort of different planes.
– by not knowing the time that may be required to pass through security.
– by the uncertain types of meals, snacks or amenities offered.
– by anticipation of over-filled planes and crammed seating.
– by potential delays in departures and missing connections.
– by not knowing if your luggage is overweight.
– by knowing that your luggage might get lost.
– by not knowing if and where you need to check in for your flight.
– by long, slow check-in lines and the fear of missing your flight.
– by last-minute changes in departure gates.
– by changes in equipment that invalidate your reserved seat.
– by “cattle call” boarding procedures.
– by trying to find space for carry-on luggage.
– by wondering, once boarded, if the plane will actually take off.
– by uncertain timing of in-flight drink and meal service.
– by wondering if the plane will be diverted or circled before landing.
– by having to watch every single bag that is unloaded.
– by the possibility of theft, damage or misdirected luggage.

Anxiety reduced:
If the airlines would hire creative brand strategists to evaluate the airline experience from a passenger’s point of view, with the sole intent of finding ways to reduce passenger anxiety, they could significantly improve the brand experience, and do so largely at minimal cost.

Airlines today fly the same planes to the same places, at the same speeds, with the same services, for the same prices. Most airlines have pretty much become commodities, competing based on price. Few have truly differentiated brands (or try to be the brand experience). Providing an actually improved brand experience will create a strong competitive advantage.

Philip Durbrow, CEO of Marshall Strategy was rewarded for being Pan Am’s Number One Passenger in miles traveled by being given an all-expense paid first-class, two-week African safari for two – back when air travel was pleasant and efforts were made to treat passengers like humans, not cargo.

July 29, 2011 In Blog, Branding, Corporate, Identity, Identity and Brand Strategy By Marshall Strategy

Strategic Identity and Your Corporate Image

Corporate Identity Branding and Strategy

Some people believe that “image is everything” when it comes to marketing their company. Others think ” brand identity” begins and ends with a logo.

The reality is, both are important, and identity and image have a critical relationship in telling your unique story.

We believe that a strategic identity should help you clearly articulate who you are, what you do, and why you matter to your key audiences, in ways that are ownable, believable, beneficial, sustainable, and profitable.

July 21, 2011 In Blog By Marshall Strategy

Repositioning a Brand: The Power of Brand Stories

Repositioning a Brand: Stories are a powerful way of organizing and sharing brand experiences. They put information in a memorable and compelling context.

Numerous psychology and neurology studies have shown that stories imprint more lastingly in human minds than facts, rationales, logic and bullet points. Stories unite ideas with emotions. Stories build and preserve the community. They align people, build connections and support a feeling of shared purpose. Stories can forge strong allegiances between brands and customers.

One of the most meaningful ways to ensure people engage with your brand is to understand the places, activities and dreams that matter to them, and then to discover where all these stories and your own brand story intersect. This can provide a sense of connection and continuity.

The North Face, a premier outdoor equipment company, was trying to grow its market beyond a narrow niche of hard-core outdoor enthusiasts and reach to a broader active lifestyle user, without alienating either.

By repositioning a brand, for example, from “Fine Alpine Equipment and Apparel” to “Never Stop Exploring,” their story changed from “we’re a company that makes stuff” to “like you, we’re a company believe in pursuing new challenges, no matter how big or small.” This aspirational repositioning helped them connect to a broader audience without losing the authentic brand elements that defined them.

Psychological, organizational, social or brand transformation is usually preceded or accompanied by a change in the story governing that system. Trying to change forms and behaviors without changing the story that holds them in place almost never succeeds. Once the story is changed, however, patterns and behaviors tend to realign rapidly.

Learn more about branding positioning at Marshall.

July 14, 2011 In Blog By Marshall Strategy

Successful Branding Strategies and Your Internal Audiences

Successful branding strategies incorporated with your human resources policies can have profound effects on your company’s competitiveness. In the late 1980s, the now defunct Eastern Airlines promoted the idea that they worked to “Earn its Wings Everyday.” Unfortunately, during this time, the company was undergoing significant labor union issues, and many of the employees were disgruntled. Rather than providing the superior customer service that the brand claimed, the airline lost luggage, cancelled flights and served some of the worst food in the airline industry.

By contrast, Southwest Airlines has grown and prospered over the years without compromising its brand position, due in large part to the culture, attitudes and behaviors embraced by its employees. From booking to ground staff, luggage handlers, pilots and attendants, everyone seems to understand their role as brand ambassadors, fulfilling an important promise to customers.

One of the lessons that Southwest’s success and Eastern’s demise teaches is that a branding strategy must connect to and be reinforced by staff education, internal support and company culture.

A successful company should focus on converting promises into behaviors.

Human Resources directors are the front line in hiring quality employees companywide, and should therefore be involved in major rebranding or marketing strategy decisions. If employees are not educated about and inspired by the company’s branding strategy, corporate identity and company values, they are less likely to deliver on the promise of the brand. Employees who understand, and are motivated by company objectives are more likely to promote the brand and contribute effectively to the overall corporate identity.

Employees are what bring customers back.

IKEA has built their business philosophy around providing a superior customer experience, offering service that is customer-oriented and personal. This in combination with attractive, inexpensive furniture, has made the company a consumer favorite, It is no secret that customers are more likely to keep coming back if their experience is positive. In Ikea’s case that experience begins with the in-store visit, which is made unique through a combination of innovative product, engaging displays, and helpful people. To achieve better customer loyalty, it is essential for Human Resources to recruit and train employees who are or who become advocates for your brand, and who also understand how their actions reinforce the company’s corporate identity.

Human Resources can provide internal and external alignment

By focusing on internal audiences as key stakeholders in any branding strategy, your company will promote an environment of loyalty to the brand that can help set you apart. Externally, perceptions of products, services and brands are often a direct result of employee attitudes; if those who make and sell a product, or create and provide a service believe in the branding strategy, the customer is more likely to as well. Harley-Davidson can boast an impressive 45 percent loyalty rate among current owners, and many of them say their loyalty is directly related to the connection they have with the employees at their local Harley dealer. Even among non-motorcycle owners, Harley-Davidson has a high level of loyalty – a significant percentage of revenue comes from the sale of clothing and other branded items. This type of aspirational following is a hallmark of success for any brand.

Your company brand is only as good as your people; they should be willing to live your brand, whether it is newly formed or part of a rebranding effort. For more information on what we can contribute to your branding strategy, please contact us.

June 29, 2011 In Video By Marshall Strategy

Corporate Brand Architecture and Brand Strategy

A critical and often underappreciated discipline in marketing is brand architecture, which are the defined relationships of a company’s brands to each other and to the corporate brand.

When new brands are created, sometimes they’re just added to a company’s portfolio without clearly thinking through the long-term ramifications of their impact. Whatever your brand architecture strategy may be, it’s critical that you consider how you can manage, and market, all of the brands in your portfolio.