“May you live in interesting times.”

I’ve always used this quote in a positive way. I recently found, however, that it is really the English translation of a Chinese curse. Well, in today’s brand driven world, that saying…in both translations may never be more true: For brands these times are a blessing AND a curse.

A recent research report, released by Deloitte, suggest that this recession has actually put brands in a more difficult position than we’ve witnessed in the last great recession of the 70’s. (To read more about the Deloitte Study as reported in Media Post, follow this link: Deloitte Study: Consumers Love Spending Less.

Way back in the 70’s—well maybe NOT so long ago, people were gravitating to brands more. Brand were what cost conscious consumers trusted and in hard times; consumers wanted to be certain they spent their money on, what they perceived as, quality products they knew and trusted. And while Private Label and Generic products were a short-term rage an buying haven for price driven consumers, brands continued to thrive even in tougher times.

Today, however, the major grocery chains and retailers have done such a good job and packaging their own private label products as “brands” the way we know them, that consumers are widening their consideration set and including more store “brands” in than ever before. Grocery chains and retail outlets have been largely successful through copy-cat marketing and taking a big page out of the brand development book. But they also have weeded out secondary and third level competing brands in favor of their own store brands to help their own margins and strengthen their bottom line.

As a result, consumers believe that these store brands are bona fide “Brands”, but they feel that if they are store brands they are likely, according to the Deloitte study, made by the major brands anyway.

It is a fascinating turn of fate, and further illustrates the power of brands and brand development—no matter the source.

It’s not about the ads, it’s about your brand.

Take this quick quiz: tell me which brand is associated with these famous ad taglines. (Answers are at the end.)

• The Ultimate Driving Machine.
• When It Absolutely, Positively Has To Be There Overnight.
• What Can Brown Do For You?
• Fly The Friendly Skies.
• Think Different.

OK. How’d you do? Now that you identified who they are…tell me what they stand for?

A little tougher in some cases. It surprises me, and maybe it shouldn’t, how many people really don’t understand what a brand is and how it’s built.

The most common misperception is that a brand is built by advertising. Not true—and that’s coming from a guy who has spent the better part of 34 years developing some very effective, award-winning ads.

Advertising builds awareness. People build brands.

Yes, advertising has the opportunity to help you define your brand through copy points, visuals, emotion, etc. But a brand is built by arriving at and understanding its essence.

It starts at the top, down to the ground floor, through a carefully crafted brand development plan and a commitment by the top management and CEO to not only do the heavy lifting and provide the guidance needed—but to continue to nurture their brand daily, weekly, monthly, annually. Or they risk having it diminish.

As MOST, it all starts with a Brand Development session called Brand Discovery. It’s there that our proprietary process helps identify “who you want to be when you grow up” and puts in place the key steps to get you there—your entire organization there.

It starts with understanding what is unique about you, your organization and your brand and the development of a clear, complete, concise brand essence: that which defines who you are.

Can you tell me what your brand essence is…completely, concisely, clearly? More importantly, can everyone in your company?

That’s just one step. Stay tuned and we’ll be sharing others in future issues.

(Answers: BMW, Fed Ex, UPS, United Airlines, Apple Macintosh)

You’re a Good Brand, Charlie Brown

In my office I have an original Charles M. Schultz marker—signed by Schultz himself. It’s a simple drawing of Charlie Brown on the pitcher’s mound conferring with Lucy and Schroeder. Likely, Charlie Brown was about to deliver a pitch that would get his wardrobe blasted off of his body, as it always was.

I found the drawing in a gallery in Soho and it’s special because it reminds me a lot of my childhood and reading the funny papers on Sunday’s. Peanuts was my favorite comic strip: I related a little too well with Charlie Brown and loved Snoopy. In fact, we had beagles and one of them was named Snoopy. That was several decades ago and after many TV specials, music DVDs, books and an unlimited amount of merchandise sales, Peanuts and its characters have a strong place in the hearts and minds of almost anyone you’d meet around the world.

The power of the Peanuts brand was further demonstrated this week when the brand franchise and rights we’re purchased for $175 million by the Iconix Brand Group and—oddly enough, the Schultz family, (who have regained a 20% stake.)

There is a great article in Ad Age this week, “It‘s a Great Franchise, Charlie Brown,” on the brand franchise and it only further illustrates—no pun intended—the power and longevity a brand can capture if properly nurtured and managed. It’s likely that very few of today’s kids will have a strong affection for Charlie Brown and company—short of watching the “Charlie Brown Christmas” or “It’s The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown” at the behest of their parents. They’ve become attached to something as god-awful as SpongeBob SquarePants. But for millions, the Peanuts brand, its characters that everyone seems to be able to relate to in some way remain an enduring and relevant part of American pop culture.

Even Metropolitan Life saw the value of associating themselves with the Peanuts brand. By virtue of their Met Life brand association with Snoopy and the other characters, the big bad insurance company looks a little more caring, approachable and human as a result. A lot to be said when were talking about insurance companies. Every insurance company out there has their icons:

• Traveler’s has their red umbrella—I happen to love their campaign

• Pacific Life, who have offices right outside my window—have their whales. A huge Wyland whale is directly out in front of their building and I am the beneficiary of their investment

• The Hartford using a large stag

• The Prudential has what might be one of the best recognized and most iconic of all—the rock, which they have used for decades to exemplify the “Rock Solid” financial standing of their company (I worked on that account, too!)

Each of these brands has carefully crafted and build a brand image supported by an icon to give them a presence, a way to remember and a quick imagery that will make consumers feel better about using their services.

Good brands stand the test of time and changes in pop culture. It’s nice to see that a great brand franchise has done that and the care and feeding of this American icon has paid off handsomely.

Listening to the Consumer: Wal-Mart vs. Washington

As I was putting the finishing touches on a blog questioning the sanity of giant retailer Wal-Mart and their decision to eliminate over 300 branded items from their store, I ran across THIS story in Advertising Age, Walmart Reversal Marks Victory for Brands.

Apparently Wal-Mart did two things:

· They listened to the consumer backlash caused by the removal of their favorite branded products.

· They came to their senses.

OK, maybe these are really one and the same. Had it not been for the voice of the consumer and the ability of Wal-Mart to listen to them, this would never have occurred.

On the other side of the aisle—as they like to say in our nation’s capitol— you have Congress who has decided NOT to listen to the consumer. On Sunday March 21^st, the House passed Healthcare legislation that in nearly every credible poll—left or right of center—shows consumers are against the plans that were passed. Chief among the complaints are about how this was accomplished: the earmarks and special deals that were cut to “buy votes.”

It remains to be seen what will happen to this legislation, but the message is clear: listen to us (the consumer) or we will take action. Wal-Mart, to their credit, got the message and quickly, in a matter of weeks after their decision, reversed field and delivered back to their constituency.

When will the politicians do the same? I guess we’ll have to wait until November to see if they get the message.

Brands That Almost Weren’t

I was in a Carl’s Jr. the other day and was surprised to see that one of the country’s strongest hamburger chains never started out that way. In fact, originally Carl’s was a hot dog stand that morphed over time and repositioned itself as a hamburger QSR legend. Apparently, from an article I just read, it isn’t uncommon.

“If you don’t know where you’re going…any road will get you there.” It’s one of my favorite quotes and I use it most often to refer to creative executions or ideas in search of a strategy.

But in this case, my favorite quote almost works in reverse. Some very favorite brands are household names that almost were not, if not for the one ingredient that sometimes separates the brand “haves” vs. the “have-nots”... and that is persistence.

Wrigley, Raytheon, Taco Bell, Samsung…even Ben & Jerry’s didn’t start out to be the businesses or brand icons they are today.

There is a great article located on MSN that traces these rather meandering roots: MSN Money: 10 Companies That Almost Weren't

I recall the story about Ray Kroc, the founder of the McDonald’s franchising empire, who started as a milkshake machine salesman. He saw the concept and had the vision that the original McDonald brothers never did. The brothers McDonald, you see, were happy to keep their success and vision located in Des Plaines, Illinois. But Ray Kroc saw more and ultimately bought the brothers out. Later when the brothers finally got it, and opened another McDonald’s nearby (thus violating their contractual agreement), Kroc had to sue and legally made the McDonald brothers take their own (brand) name off their new restaurant…and they were never heard from again.

All this leads to some of the intangibles of building a brand:

• Having an idea or unique concept.
• Uniquely positioning it in a way that cannot be easily or inexpensively duplicated.
• Having the vision to know where you are going and staying on the path you’ve chosen.
• Not being afraid to modify the vision of a better concept that arises from the experience.

After all, Edison didn’t start out to invent the lightbulb.

Personal Brand Value: Another “Brand” soon to be diminished?

We’ll here we go again…if it wasn’t bad enough that someone that I believed to be one of the real stand-up guys in sports, Tiger Woods, had his life and his “Personal Brand Value” implode publically—we have another impending disaster on the way—if someone doesn’t ride to the rescue.

One of the hidden benefits to my recent marriage is that I am the “new” father of a now 8-year old darling girl named Jenna. She’s an amazing young girl and reminds me a lot of my first-born, Jennie. Having Jenna in my life is a window to the world of an entirely forgotten brand audience: I’d simply grown beyond them and their influence. As a result, I now know who Selena Gomez and even Sponge Bob are!

One of Jenna’s favorite media outlets is the Disney Channel. Disney is a great, well-recognized brand, though I think they struggle with the urge at times to be all things to all people. One of Jenna’s favorite shows has been Hannah Montana, which stars a very talented young lady named Miley Cyrus. Miley is the daughter of Billy Ray Cyrus, (of Achy-Breaky Heart fame—oye, don’t get me started). Miley simply has become her own little cottage industry: she and her Hannah Montana character are a multi-million-to-billion dollar enterprise.

But all good things must come to an end, and the pre-teen Miley has now grown up. As a result, Miley decided that part of “finding herself” is to do things like a questionable photo-shoot in Vanity Fair and to add some more edgy and risqué features to her live shows. Hey, I understand she’s growing up: I was a teenage boy once too, so believe me, I understand.

But in the recent issue of Harper’s Bazaar, she states that, “… she’s not someone’s parent.” Meaning she’s not a role model or responsible for how what she does is imitated or emulated by her teen fans. It harkens back to the days when Charles Barkley, the gregarious, trash-talking Hall of Fame NBA star proclaimed, even in an ad, “I am not a role model.”

Miley, Charles, Brittany, Lindsay…guess what? You are! Whether you like it or not …and too bad. You wanted to be the star. Your wanted public adoration and all that came with it. Well, be careful, you just might get what you asked for.
What celebrities fail to understand, especially today’s crop, is that who you are, what you stand for and how you present yourself does matter and it comes with the turf. Celebs want all the pluses at no cost of the minuses. Wouldn’t we all.

But that’s not how it is. Unless you want a “bad boy” or “naughty girl image”, do not present yourself otherwise or prepare for the backlash. No one is above that simple marketing precept. And no one found out they weren’t immune more hardly or quickly, than Tiger.

The morale of this story is that the same holds true with brands we deal with daily. They are presented or positioned to us in a way that we buy into, believe in and make a part of our own identity, so much so that we are devastated when they betray us. Look at how the world reacted when, for the first time ever in history, the #1 brand changed their formula to be more like the #2 brand. Coke vs. Pepsi. Coke is THE most ubiquitous brand known worldwide. The betrayal felt by their lifelong fans shook the earth all the way to the hallways in Atlanta. Just like we were all shaken by Tiger and sadly, just like how I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop for Miley Cyrus.

I like Miley Cyrus. I think she’s very talented, and I hope she will make the right decisions about where she takes her “personal brand image” and its value. If she doesn’t get a good circle of advisors, (much like a company has advertising agencies, brand development gurus and trusted consultants to understand, live and breathe the brand), I am fearful that Miley will become the next running joke on TMZ. Let’s hope not and let’s hope for better.

Domino’s: A Brand with a new crust, new sauce and a ton of marketing guts

I, like many of you, am sure you’ve seen the recent ads for Domino’ Pizza, who have taken the remarkable step of admitting that their pizza wasn’t the stuff that dreams are made of. And the battle lines are being drawn on their decision from late night talk show hosts to marketing professors and consultants.

I feel that it’s a pretty bold move to step out front and confront your own brand weaknesses. For me, it’s a smart move that will serve them well…but only time will tell. Credit a lot of this to the time we live in, where social media allows the consumer to spread their feelings everywhere, on just about anything. We’re in a more transparent age where the old PR spin of the past simply won’t do. You have to be true to yourself and in this case, admit and act on your shortcomings.

Domino’s has done just that by reformulating their crust, which they seemingly admit was closer to the flavor profile of cardboard and their sauce—usually the secret to any great food, which was closer to Heinz ketchup than it was an authentic sauce.

The question is, how will the public react to this startling revelation? I don’t think we’ll see the backlash that a ubiquitous brand and brand franchise like Coca-Cola did when they did the unheard of—and reformulated their product to more closely imitate the #2 brand, Pepsi. The Coca-Cola essence was far more than the formula—a little sugar and bubbly water with some caramel color added. When Coke foolishly changed their product, they tampered with a brand that seemingly forgave what they thought was a flaw. So what if they lost in blind taste tests in the “Pepsi Challenge.” What Coke forgot is that they were established in the hearts and minds of their customers-loyalists—as “The Real Thing” or “Coke is IT.” Pepsi, also a strong brand was very clearly the “choice of a new generation”…the Pepsi generation. With the rebound via Coke Classic, they tapped back into the core loyalist and brought back all of the flavor—but more importantly, the nostalgia, the memories and the “gestalt” that people plunked down their cold hard cash for every day.

Domino’s doesn’t face quite the same barrier, which is why I believe they will succeed in delivering a better product. Another important question is, will their customer base really like the flavor? Flavor profiles are sensitive things to tamper with, but Domino’s clearly feels that it’s worth the risk to do it all now at once, vs. a slow, dial-turning adjustment over the next several years.

Stay tuned, it will be interesting to see the response from Pizza Hut, (who appear to be positioning themselves as more of an Italian Restaurant choice) and Papa John’s, (who have been banging the drum on their “best ingredients” for years.

Here’s a great article on this subject with comments from the president of Domino’s.

Enjoy. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34812047/ns/business-consumer_news