K-Fed Ex and Jared from Subway Shack Up in Brand Brotherhood

The Fed Ex nickname is great, kudos to whomever came up with it deserves a bonus. K Fed sucked because it actually lent him some level of credibility, of which he deserved none. Fed Ex is spot on. This couple never made sense to me so it figures that only after it's over does anything make sense.

So what does Federal Express think about Fed Ex? There has to be a few people that have searched Fed Ex and have Federal Express come across the radar. Maybe a few even went to the web site, and I am certain that people have actually used FedEx over UPS simply because it was funny. Not sure if I see any negatives in this for Federal Express, seeing as you can't buy this kind of borderline buzz, especially in the fourth quarter.

This reminds me of when Jared tried Subway on for size and his 6 grams of fat diet that counteracted umpteen years of Big Macs. Did the jeweler Jared receive any benefit or detriment for simply existing with the same name? Did the Jared name in general get more or less popular and take Jared the Jeweler with it? Did Jared the Jeweler raise the Subway Jared's popularity?

Brand names can cross market borders. It seems that the well of brand names dries up more and more every day. Consider the rate that domains are being gobbled up. So what are marketers to do when the right name is in use in another market? The examples above are more for entertainment than practical market challenges. In both cases, the presence of the second instance of the brand is in an unrelated market. The Fed Ex nickname works better because FedEx exists outside of the celebrity market, although some would argue that FedEx is a celebrity business. The Subway Jared has enough range because even though Jared the Jeweler is a consumer focused brand, sandwiches and diamonds are not typically associated in the same sentence or paragraph. As markets expand, this will become more commonplace, and when it does, you'll see it markets that might be in the same town, but not the same neighborhood.

Quick Quiz: What is NFL Network?

A great brand should make sense. According to that hypothesis, NFL Network does not. All football season, viewers have been exposed to Gumbel and Collinsworth talking about how the best of pro football is yet to come. ? I missed a meeting. I thought the networks had general control over televised games and the NFL provided the content. Perhaps I am wrong.

So I pose the question: What is NFL Network and why does this brand make any sense?

For extra credit, don't look up any news stories, just tell what it is at first glance.

Blog Brand of the Week: Tightwire

One thing that is clear after months of searching the blogosphere for great blog brands is that blog brands generally suck. Blog after blog have horrible brands. In trying to stay away from the mainstream and select blog branding that truly stands out amongst the millions, we are looking for special brands. Which blogs focus on a specific topic? Which blog has the focus that can generate an audience?

Tightwire

This week's (month's) blog brand is Tightwire. This blog focuses on car electronics, such as car audio/video, GPS, Satellite Radio, etc. Furthermore, Tightwire is centered around the installation of such systems. The blog is young, but over time you can look for Tightwire to provide strong content for those interested in vehicle electronics. Tightwire is a sharp brand name that subtlety infers the act of properly wiring a vehicle for car systems. Tightwire has a great niche focus and should grow a strong and steady following.

The next time you are going to put anything in your car, take some time with Tightwire for advice on getting a top notch system installed easily.

The Netflix Attack on Blockbuster: Blockbuster Online is Useless

Netflix is a great brand. Strategically, the founders got into the action and pre-empted a move into the web video rental space by Blockbuster or emerging efforts by Amazon and Wal-mart. Intelliflix and Peerflix are also on the rise, but none of these competitors will hold a candle to Netflix.

Netflix was first. Blockbuster was second, and as some argue, better. Amazon and Wal-mart have little hope of competing strongly in this niche and can only hope to gain the share-of-customer with those already loyal. I don't expect many non-Amazon and non-Wal-mart customers will all of a sudden subscribe and become first time Amazon or Walmart buyers because of a DVD service.

By getting out of the gates early, Netflix grabbed the most critical share of all - the enthusiasts. These were the people who were visiting Blockbuster and the movie theatre on a regular basis and now found themselves a huge time saver. Existing Blockbuster customers had something new that was a little more refined than the ill-fated "no late fees ever" campaign launched by Blockbuster, which was lame because everyone got the point that they would be paying the same fee just in a different fashion. These early adopters cemented the Netflix hold on the market as the leading brand and unless they implode with an Enron-like scandal, Netflix will always rule this space.

Where does Netflix go from here? Netflix the brand should stay just that: digital entertainment and getting the next experience to you as fast as possible. Blockbuster will keepcoming hard because it doesn't have a choice, either they succeed at the service model or they die. Blockbuster was once a hot brand. And it will do things like the current campaign allowing service customers to return DVD's to their stores and get free in store rentals. It will not be easy for Netflix, but it's theirs to lose.

Blockbuster = Great brand for video rental STORES
Netflix = Great brand for video rental SERVICE

Dynamite idea? More mainstream brands should established newly branded services (not line extensions like Blockbuster Online) in order to capture the imagination and not dilute the brand. People might tell you Blockbuster stands for entertainment, but for the mainstream is stands for movie rental. If Blockbuster had moved into the newly developing niche concept of video rentals over the web, and branded that new service a different name, the stock would be hot and no one would be in their league. Too bad for them. New brands are born in the niche. Need more proof? Think Kodak in digital cameras. They should have seen the revolution, created a newly branded product and annialated everyone. But that would be too easy. What's too easy is the brand extension.

Told You So - ESPN Mobile

OK it's time to brag. Remember when I told you that ESPN Mobile shouldn't have started up as an independent network and instead licensed it's content? Well, I told you so. ESPN Mobile announced it is changing its business model from stand-alone network to content provider to major carriers. There were some arguments to keeping ESPN Mobile alive, the strongest of which is that some people are waiting for their service contract to end with another provider so as not to get hit with penalties. That's still not enough to save it, this brand approach did not work and they should have focused on what was practical, providing content. I hope to have a specialized ESPN service offered through my carrier soon.

Nike | Bauer: How long will Nike be able to keep its cobra intact?

A long, long time ago, Nike, the all sports apparel and equipment junkie, acquired the parent company of Bauer, a long-time supplier of hockey equipment. Nike has worked their name into hockey since the mid-nineties, but are now refering to the Bauer brand as Nike Bauer. Sounds hokey, but the Swoosh's global status lines up nicely next to the traditional, respected hockey brand Bauer. The cobra works because it leverages the names toward the buyer's two most important buying criteria: style and tradition.

Sure it can't be too hard for any manufacturer to figure out the optimal design for a hockey helmet. But the hard core hockey players know a thing or two about the NHL since they started requiring helmets. And one thing they do know is that Bauer has been around a block that Nike hasn't. It's called the first skate with a blade attached to a boot. They also did something else that may have pioneered a path Nike has since paved. They sponsored Bobby Hull to wear the Bauer skate. Who doesn't Nike pay to wear their stuff?

For your cobra to work, the brand you bring into the fold needs to answer the brand attribute the market may suspect your brand lacks. This example is served up because Nike owns both brands, but the thing to keep in mind is that they're doing the right thing by playing to both brand's strengths.

Web 2.0 Brand of the Week: Limbo

The Web 2.0 Brand of the Week is Limbo. Limbo is synonomous with 'How Low Can You Go,' and Limbo's brand promise is the person with the lowest unique bid wins. Most auctions go to the highest bidder, these ones go to the lowest and most unique. Somebody now owns an H3 for the wager of $36.65. Sweet. They paid a buck to place the bid (and a lot of other people paid a dollar for the same opportunity), and scored big. Low risk, high reward. You can bid a penny, but the minute some other nerd bids a penny, you are no longer unique. The bidder of something offbeat like $15.33 could be the winner of a nice prize like $500, 2 mos of free gas, or a Sony Cybershot.

Another thing I like is the url. 41414.com is a great url because it is a twisted call to action. It's an ad, a reminder and a brand reinforcement all at the same time. You have to know the url to get to Limbo and you have to know the text number to send in your low bid.

Limbo is seven letters of less, the url is brand centric, the brand name connects smartly to the value prop. Limbo is the Web 2.0 Brand of the Week.

Blog Brand of the Week: Joystiq

It's hard to find a great blog brand. In the blogosphere, it's trendy to think of some cute, clever names instead of a great brand name. Another thing it's trendy to do is to forget about focus. Broad topics seem to be popular. Great blog brands are focused and have a sharp brand name related to the topic. That's what the Blog Brand of the Week is all about.

This week's Blog Brand of the Week: Joystiq. Part of the Weblogs, Inc, Joystiq has two key attributes of great blog branding: Great name, Great focus. The name Joystiq has seven letters and instead of being called 'Video Games Blog,' or 'GamerBlog,' the founder figured it would be smart to choose a key component of the gaming experience, the joystick. Then, they twisted the end of the word to make it stick out, keeping it to seven letters or less. Just 'Joystick' wouldn't be nearly at compelling or attractive as Joystiq.

Is that all? No. Joystiq foqused. Go to Joystiq and find something (other than paid advertisements) that does not reinforce the video game focus. Gamers go here to find out the latest for one reason: great content on the subject they love.

Blog Brand of the Week: Zutnick

Welcome to a new segment on Brand Land: The Blog Brand of the Week. Each week, we will feature a blog that has a great brand. The Blog Brand of the Week is to acknowledge the brand, not necessarily who has the best content, rather which blogs have great content focus, a major part of building a blog brand.

Zutnick

Zutnick is a great blog brand. The Zutnick name itself is 7 letters or less and I was drawn by Zutnick's similarity to Sputnik, the world's first satellite. GPS, short for Global Positioning System, is a satellite navigation system. Zutnick also has a clear promise to the customer, producing great content on GPS and GeoCaching. The content is focused and entirely relevant to anyone who loves the topic and had great resources for anyone seeking to learn about what GPS stands for or what in the world GeoCaching is. If you need GPS gear for your car or a gift or a friend or family member wants to go GeoCaching, spend half an hour with Zutnick and it will absolutely be worth the while.

Keeping the Company and Product Names Separate

Of all the mistakes a business can make, this one will not affect you until it's too late. Your product or service needs a name and that name should be different than the company name. Furthermore, you should not use the company name + product name together. When doing so, it implies that the latter is generic, when in fact you want the brand name of the product to stand out and be distinctive. If a product/service brand is distinctive, it doesn't need the company brand name to support it.

In consumer markets, successful brands often do not need to have the corporate endorsement. Other brands rely on the strength of the company's reputation. Proctor & Gamble does not use its corporate name as leverage to sell Tide, or any of the hundreds of consumer packaged goods it sells successfully. Kellogg's uses a similar model with its brands, except the Kellogg's name is a little more prominent in some cases, such as Kellogg's Frosted Flakes and Kellogg's Frosted Mini-Wheats or Kellogg's Rice Crispies, key brands developed in house over the years. The best brand names that Kellogg's developed itself were Apple Jacks and Pop-Tarts, which have the capability to stand on their own without referencing Kellogg. Acquired brands such as Lender's and Eggo also do not need the Kellogg's name. Beverage manufacturers have learned lessons in bridging companies with products. Coca-Cola did make a collasol branding mistake by reverting its popular '80's diet cola brand Tab to Diet Coke. Al Ries discusses this error in the 22 Immutable Laws of Branding. In the consumer goods market, P&G has one of the best product brand strategy, none of which has to do with advertising. On the flip side, Service Brand International, Inc. manages a portfolio of service-based franchises, including Molly Maid, Mr. Handyman, 1-800-DryClean, Certified Restoration Dry Cleaning Network and Ductz. The individual service brand that I like the most here is Ductz. Certified Resotration Dry Cleaning Network is too long and too generic. Ductz is short and sweet. The Service Brand International strategy, containing a few solid individual brands is likely more lucrative and valuable than if each brand carried the SBI name. If you provide services, divide them down as far as you can and brand everything individually.

B2B's often attempt to leverage the company name as part of its product branding strategy. The reason this concept gets so much traction is that in B2B, the customer places more of an emphasis on the company and the decision to buy is often equally company and product/service dependent. B2B corporate acquisitions often times transition the use of corporate names into the use of product names. Microsoft Windows is an example of company/products kept together. Windows doesn't need the Microsoft name. When IBM acquired Tivoli, Rational and Lotus, each was previously used as a dual corporate-product brand, but came to be a product line brand post-merger. Now, IBM markets the product brands keeping the namesake of the former company as the brand.

Small businesses usually do not consider the difference. In business infancy, the product or service is the basis for the company. There isn't a lot of harm here, but if the entire business is focused on one product and the names are intertwined, it often makes it difficult to launch seperate, distinctive product or service brands. This leads to poor market performance as perception of the company/product/service appears to be diversified, and the jack of all trades brand never wins. When you keep the company and product/service separate, and giv ethe products AND services distinctive brand names, the business adds value. The brand is an investment in the value of the business.

Using Net Promoter(r) Score to Bolster Your Brand

Anybody in business wants to know how they are doing. Feedback on what customers like, what they don't like, what they want, etc. There is a lot of effort spent on discovering what will make for a bigger, better, more profitable business. But, there is something very simple about what a customer feels/knows/wants that when learned, can help a business work backawards to find out what really could be better.

Bain & Co, a management consultancy, developed Net Promoter Score. The formula suggests that customers fall into three (3) categories:

Promoters: People who buy, continue to buy, and promote you to others
Passives: The satisfied customers without an anchor (competitor bait)
Detractors: Unhappy customers who don't see value in the relationship, usually telling others about their unhappiness

Understanding this segmentation, you ask your customers the following question:
How likely is it that you would recommend us to a friend?

On a scale of 0-10:
Promoters: 9-10
Passives: 7-8
Detractors: 0-6

Take the percetage of total respondents who were Promoters and subtract the total respondents who were passives. For example, if you gave the question to 10 customers, and five gave you a 9 (50%) and four gave you a 6 (40%), your NPS would be 10%.

So what does this all mean? The Promoters represent the portion of your customer population that are most likely to continue doing profitable business with you. They represent long-term value to your business. The example also means you have a great opportunity to explore the world of service, because with a 10% NPS, you could have a long way to go. You need to take care of your brand and for every detractor you have, the value of your brand goes south. If you don't think so, just think back to the last time you told someone to stay away from a car dealership or a credit card. You are not immune. Your brand is at stake.

Net Promoter Score is an awesome brand. One question + One formula = Amazing Results. NPS is not complicated and easy for one to communicate to another. Even if you are not prepared to find out how your brand is working in the marketplace, I encourage you to visit the NPS web site and spend 15 minutes getting your arms around the concept. Then, spend 15 minutes planning how you are going to go about asking your customers the questions. Then, get to work. This is a high priority item, no matter how many complaints or compliments your business receives. Good luck.

Brand Ingredients - What makes for a meal?

Brands have participated as ingredients for a while. Intel is likely the most famous brand ingredient. Their Intel Inside tag line opened people's eyes to the guts of the PC (and now the Mac). Intel is a great example because as their ingredient strategy has grown with its brand extension strategy. It's no longer Intel Inside. It's Centrino Inside, or Centrino Duo Inside, albeit with the Intel logo prominently displayed above it. The point is that Intel became a sought after ingredient. And maybe more importantly, it drew a line between the computer manufacturer and the chip manufacturer as not competing, but working together. Intel is a great example of an ingredient.

Now let's consider your brand. Part of what makes Intel an easy example is that there isn't local competition in the chip world. For the greater portion of the consumer business, you don't see everyday people savvy enough to buy their own parts for PC assembly... most buy PC's off the shelf. When we look at a local/small business, what has to be considered?

Here's an example of a modern day small business example of great ingredient branding: Rochester, NY's Dibella's Subs using Red Osier roast beef in their roast beef subs. Consumers in western NY know the Red Osier as a restaurant that serves high quality prime rib. It's a little off the beaten path, so most people don't get there on a regular basis. However, a couple years back, the Red Osier started moving into the concessions business, setting up kiosks at sports stadiums or airports. Red Osier = great beef. So now the thousands of customers who order subs from Dibella's every week know that the main ingredient of the hot roast beef sub is that of one of the most respected local food names. What are Dibella's options? Well, they could just buy generic roast beef. People would still but their roast beef subs. But they wouldn't buy as many. Or as often. Or with passion. The Red Osier gets people hungry, and now Dibella's gives them a convenient way to get an ingredient with a great reputation.

What ingredients can often let brands do successfully is attack new opportunities without diluting the value of their brand and enhance the value of what they offer by substituting a brand when a generic might otherwise be expected. Slice your business up into as many segments as possible. What could you offer as an ingredient to other providers? Then think about your own business and adjacent opportunities that you might not be able to reach without specific expertise. Find a partner who does that and get them on your team. It can expand your opportunities for revenue and keep customers for looking elsewhere for products or services you do not provide.

Brand Extensions - Disney & ESPN Mobile Phones

Just how do you extend the brand? This is always a tough call. Let's look at Disney (DIS) and ESPN (part of Disney family via ABC).

Disney has introduced Disney Mobile. No debate here, this is what safety moms have been waiting for. The problem with the brand extension is that the value delivered in the service doesn't match the Disney name. Kids who are hard-core Disney fans are not to the age where parents need to have total control over the phone, let alone the kids even having regular phone conversations. Then, you have the tweens and teens. Aren't they already on IM 24/7? The key parent-friendly feature here is with GPS, so that kids can be tracked when they are out on their own. If I am a kid I would not be caught dead with the Disney phone and I would not want mom to know where I was. This feature will be much better put to use when kids who are on family plans through Cingular, Verizon (VZ) or Sprint/Nextel offer a similar program that lets parents use GPS to find their kids. And there we have the great compromise: kid has age/socially acceptable phone and mom/dad knows where kid is. How does this all relate to Disney: brand loser. Disney is not delivering and worthwhile content and they have a problem with the kids accepting the phone. Don't get me wrong, some kids would and that's fine. But how does ANY of this actually help Disney? At best I see this as an ad campaign that promotes disney wanting kids to be safe. They should have created a sepearate brand for the phone instead of Disney Mobile. Disney Mobile is pure lazy. Dizmo would have been better than Disney Mobile. It's all about getting over the social and for a kid on the phone, nothing matters more. Kudos to Disney for taking a chance.

Now for ESPN. ESPN loves its name. It puts it name on everything. ESPN The Magazine. ESPN2. ESPN News. The ESPN Zone. To a degree it is fine, as long as it stays within the bounds of extending ESPN's core value: getting sports into every ounce of your life. ESPN The Magazine is the only one that isn't worhty of the ESPN headliner. They should have named it something else. It's not up to the minute, so it isn't consistent with everything else ESPN promotes. Anyways, ESPN Mobile fits the bill. Every sports fan has been stranded to some degree without being able to access sports info they needed to have. And die hard sports fans NEED their info. The concept of the insane amount of sports data being pumped over that network is mind blowing. What is also mind blowing is that for what it is, its restrictive. Today, I don't see the ESPN phone in a family plan or the Mobile ESPN service being offered through standard phone outlets. If Dad or Junior could get a Samsung on Verizon's network featuring Mobile ESPN? Done and done. And with the move to converged handsets, I see the market for Mobile ESPN as single guys with 40 hour-per-week blue collar jobs who like to watch football at the bar. If that's the segment they are targeting, good for them. Love the concept, just wish it fit my profile a little better. The middle class loves the family plans because they don't have to spend twice as much to get the core function of a phone: the phone.

Disney should have co-marketed the features with the majors and ESPN should have figured out a way to effectively license the model. Maybe all of that is in the works.

Lesson to everyone: Disney got excited because of growth in the mobile phone market. Disney looked for major differentiation. Disney did not properly brand the concepts. Disney did not choose the best sales execution strategy (technically not branding but who cares). Disney will be under intense pressure to shut down the businesses within a year or change the model. If something is popular and your brand can add value to a concept, don't get carried away and let your brand be the concept because like Disney, the excitement will cloud the fact that the strategy is wrong. Disney's name is cuddly and safe. Disney is not a phone. ESPN is sports. Mobile ESPN shouldn't isolate a person from their family more than sports already do. ESPN would have won big if they found a way to make sports fit into the family.

For the small service business: stay focused on what makes your name valuable. If you absolutely need to get into a new business opportunity. Sleep on it. If you still must get in, you need a new name for that new business!!!! Nothing dilutes a brand like the jack of all trades. I know a guy who as a plumber and started his own business doing bathroom re-modeling. He does great at both. What does he do with the customers he helped with plumbing over the years? Sends them to someone else that he trusts. Why? Don't they have money too? Yes, but it's not bathroom re-modeling and therefore is not what he does. Obviously there is some plumbing involved in the business which puts his skills to work, but the brand intact.

Branding -101 (that's a minus sign)

Take a step back. Why did you select the name(s) of your company, products, or services? Did you even consider branding a service that you offer? Most entrepreneurs I know have a couple of reasons why they picked a brand name.

1. They selected the brand name(s) because they needed a name and it was the 'most logical name.'
2. A clever idea provided by themselves, a friend or a relative.
3. They thought forever and could not come to a conclusion, so they just gave it a name.

A business needs a good name. It's important. Opportunity may be knocking and you feel that you need to have a name to pursue something. Just as serving each of your customers to the best of your ability is important now and in the future, your brand name is important. But the only thing that could be more important than a brand is what it stands for. What is unique about the company? The products? The services? If you are lacking in differentiation, you are lacking the foundation of a brand. So, before you can select a brand, you need to know what it stands for. The brand's value is what should actually be communicated. Without it, there is nothing you can establish about the brand.

Big business examples usually do not work when you are branding the small business. But there is a recent campaign where a big brand got in touch with its value. Allstate. Before the campaign, Allstate was in my mind (and many other minds I am sure) just another insurance provider. Many small businesses that are not as successful as they would like to be might take a lesson from the Allstate book. Allstate took a portfolio of services inside of an insurance policy and explained to the customer why those services were important to Allstate's identity. Further, they took standard services that many are commonly familiar with and set an expectation about the services.

Here are examples of how Allstate chose to brand services they offer within an insurance policy:

* Accident Forgiveness
* Deductible Rewards
* Safe Driving Bonus
* New Car Replacement

Posturing the brand's value in such a way will help you towards one of your primary goals: gaining new business. It will also help in two other ways not often considered, but incredibly important - delivering continuous value to past or existing customers and becoming the 'backup' choice in the category. The backup brand is the one which you would choose if you were not satisfied with your current provider. Being the next brand of choice is key in winning future business as you can give your prospects comfort that they have a confident provider. More on being the 'next brand' in a future post...

In closing, make sure that your brand offers value first. If not, it may not deliver value where it counts. Your pocket.

Assignment: Think of 25 things you do or could consider doing to deliver distinct value to your customers. Then, think like the customer. What are the top five most important things to be considered when making this purchase? Did those five make your top twenty-five? If so, ask yourself if delivering these values are truly something you can provide. One rule: price doesn't count. Quality doesn't count. So don't bother including them in your top 25 and in no way should they be part of your top 5. More on that in a future post...