The Origin of Brands Blog

Do it like JetBlue

In case you missed it, JetBlue suffered a major brand crisis this past week after an ice storm hit the Eastern United States and the airline failed to properly respond due to a communications meltdown. Nine planes sat on New York’s JFK tarmac for six hours or more. Nearly a quarter of its flights had to be canceled even days later and service to 11 cities was shutdown entirely.

While other airlines cancelled flights ahead of the storm, JetBlue rolled the dice and came up more than short. An all-out consumer revolt, a media frenzy and a stock collapse has since ensued.

JetBlue is a strong brand founded by a charismatic leader (David Neeleman) and is focused on low prices. Once flying high, the JetBlue brand has come crashing down to earth. The JetBlue brand, which was used to being cited as a favorite among passengers and stock analysts alike, has suddenly fallen from grace.

So what should JetBlue do? Exactly what they are doing. In my opinion, their response will become a textbook case for how to solve a PR problem. Much like the Tylenol case in the 80’s. "We'll do it like JetBlue" is bound to be the rallying cry of future brand leaders.

Here are the steps to follow so you can do it like JetBlue if your brand faces a similar PR crisis:

1: Admit your mistake and apologize publicly immediately.

Brands need a strong spokesperson to pull this off. Sending out a press release will just not do. You need a well-known leader the public trusts to make the media rounds and eat crow.

David's first move was to talk with The New York Times. The front-page story that ran quotes David as being “humiliated and mortified” by the breakdown in airline operations. Brilliant! Since then he has been speaking to almost every media outlet in town. Brilliant! The public likes nothing better that seeing and hearing an apology straight from the horse’s mouth.

2: Do something.

After a few days of hearing how sorry David is, the apology can wear thin and feel more like he is trying to save his stock options than the brand’s credibility with consumers. So after saying sorry, the brand needs to do something big.

Today JetBlue has done just this by rolling out a customer bill of rights that promises to compensate customers for delays. Brilliant!

3: Don’t advertise at all.

The worst mistake companies make is trying to use advertising to save the company’s reputation. After an E.Coli outbreak, Taco Bell ran full-page ads saying “Taco Bell food is safe to eat.” Yeah right, thinks the public.

Advertising is great for getting a message out to the masses quickly. But advertising lacks credibility. So it is not an effective way to educate or reassure consumers of anything.

The best thing to do is halt all advertising until the crisis cools down. Any ads that run during the crisis will just remind people of your problems without changing any minds. Even if the ads simply say your are sorry, they will unlikely ring true.

4: Give it time.

The best medicine for any PR crisis is time. Over time people are more than likely to forget about whatever has happened. Over time, if you don’t mess up again, people are willing to forgive. Over time what is left is your brand message in the mind. If you have a strong brand, you will survive just fine. Tylenol did and so will JetBlue.

Build a strong brand in the mind and if the unthinkable happens just follow these four steps so you can do it like JetBlue and survive too.

Wal-Mart save your pennies.

Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, started a new ad campaign yesterday designed to defend its reputation and praise its record, as an employer and corporate citizen.

Come on, who are they kidding? Not me, that’s for sure.

After being hammered for decades by bad PR for the low wages and benefits it pays its workers, Wal-Mart thinks a few slick advertisements will repair its brand? Management must be drinking the Kool-Aid served by their ad agencies down in Bentonville.

Advertising messages cannot change the mind of a consumer. And most consumers believe that Wal-Mart is a great place to shop for low prices but not the best place to work.

Wal-Mart management says they want to take their case right to the people. But unfortunately the public is unlikely to believe or listen to their message because advertising delivers a self-serving message which holds no credibility.

Running ads might make board members feel better in the short term, but ads are unlikely to do anything for stockholders in the long term.

If you are faced with bad PR, running ads defending yourself actually sends the wrong message. People think the reverse of what you want them to believe. The more you deny something, the more people tend to believe you are guilty. Remember Bill Clinton saying “I did not have sex with that woman.” The more he denied it, the more we all knew he did it.

Or Taco Bell last month running full page ads with the headline “Taco Bell food is safe.” Why do they need to say that thinks the consumer, maybe there is something wrong with the food.

Wal-Mart should learn from its own mistakes. The company was unable to change any minds when it used advertising to try and move the brand upscale to sell expensive wine, clothing and jewelry. So it is unlikely to be successful using advertising to convince people it is a good place to work. Advertising cannot change a human mind.

So how can Wal-Mart repair its image? First they need to do something. Something big. Then they can use PR. The media gives the message the necessary credibility to get into the mind of the consumer.

Saying to “do something” to get PR sounds easy, but obviously it is hard. Powerful ideas are not always easy to come by. That is why sometimes the best ideas are those you steal. Or shall I say recycle.

Leaders should lead and set the standards for the whole industry. In 1914, Henry Ford shocked the world by paying his workers $5 a day instead of the standard $2.34. By doubling the working wage he made buying his cars affordable for his own workers. While Ford was initially ridiculed by the Wall Street Journal and other business leaders, the move is legendary in terms of building consumer trust, support and loyalty.

Wal-Mart could easily do the same thing. Wal-Mart could introduce a new Wal-Mart minimum wage at twice the federal minimum. Moving the minimum from $5.15 to $10.30. That would be dramatic change. And it would be the start of a program for building back worker support and consumer affection.

Wal-Mart also has some other good initiatives they could use increase support for the company. One is the promotion and use of compact fluorescent light bulbs that use 75 percent less energy and save consumers $30 over the life of each bulb.

Last October, Wal-Mart held a Light Bulb Summit in Las Vegas and invited manufacturers, academics, environmentalists and government officials to figure out how to sell more fluorescent lights. The light bulbs have been available for years, but consumers have been turned off by the idea primarily because the bulbs looked so unusual and cost more.

A recent front-page article in the New York Times brilliantly outlined the idea and gave Wal-Mart a huge PR boost. They should springboard this concept into a major campaign. The opportunity is enormous and something Wal-Mart is set up to do in a way big enough to make a meaningful national impact on our energy use.

Wal-Mart’s recent program to cut the prices of 300 prescription drugs to $4 each for a one month supply was another huge initiative it should continue and expand. Delivering low-cost goods and promoting energy saving ideas are both right in line with the basic Wal-Mart tenet which is to save money.

Wal-Mart loves to save us and itself money. And the one thing Wal-Mart should really save its money on is advertising. Spending ad dollars defending itself is pointless and wasteful. Nobody should understand that better than the bean counters in Bentonville.

I also discussed this issue last night on CNBC. You can see the video online. I don't know where they got the guy to debate me, he made no sense at all except to say that he loves Wal-Mart and they can do no wrong.

A New Yellow for the Wiggles

The Wiggles brand is back on track now that Greg Page officially retired from the kiddie super group on Thursday, November 30th. The ongoing saga has been put to rest as Greg’s mystery illness was finally diagnosed as orthostatic intolerance. (It is a condition which often makes him feel unbalanced and faint while standing because of a loss of blood pressure.) Luckily it is not life threatening, but it is chronic and will therefore prevent him from continuing in the Yellow Jersey. (Read my earlier post for more information.)

In a brilliant branding and PR move, Greg appeared in a video on the Wiggles website and made a ceremonial passing of his jersey to Sam Moran, his permanent replacement. A longtime backup singer and dancer for the band, Sam was Greg’s understudy for the past two years and filled in for him in the 150 live shows Greg was forced to skip due to illness.

Now that the brand is whole again, the future success of the Wiggles seems certain. What put the brand in serious danger was the missing Wiggle, the lack of information regarding his illness and the lack of media interviews with him. Nothing whips the media into a frenzy more that a missing celebrity. If Madonna walks the red carpet without Guy, the rumor mills starts up right away about trouble in the marriage.

The Wiggles can survive a new guy in the yellow jersey but they could not survive a missing guy in the yellow jersey much longer. I’m sure there was a lot of fear and uncertainly over what to do since Greg as lead singer was so instrumental in the success of the Wiggles. Many critics doubted if the Wiggles could survive without him. Even I myself have commented on how disappointed I felt after showing up at a Wiggles concert where Greg was a no-show and feeling like I came to a U2 concert where Bono didn’t perform. Could there be a U2 with no Bono, could there be a Wiggles with no Greg? The answer is no and yes.

What enables the Wiggles brand to continue, perhaps even stronger than before, is the enormous PR attention celebrities command. Powerful brands have endless opportunities for PR. And PR is what helps resuscitate even fallen brands. Everyone wanted to hear from Martha after she got out of jail. Or Mel after he sobered up.

Just look at the headlines the new Wiggle got. It made the FRONT PAGE of the New York Times on Monday. That’s right, not Entertainment Weekly but the New York Times; that is how powerful the brand is. Now that the group is whole again, the guys are wisely making the television rounds promoting Sam and the Wiggles big time. After 15 years together the group had run out of much of its PR potential. So the new Wiggle creates news value for the group and renewed interest in the brand.

Had the Wiggles dragged this out, not made a decision on a replacement and kept Greg away from media any longer, it could have been devastating to the brand. I can’t even put into words the beauty of the passing of the yellow shirt segment. I am personally saddened by Greg’s health problem because I loved watching him. But I am glad the Wiggles are on thier way to a fabulous recovery and that my favorite Wiggle Anthony is still performing!

Learning from the Wiggles

Do you have kids under five? If so, you need no explanation of who or what The Wiggles are. But for those of you who have not changed any diapers in the last fifteen years, I will explain the phenomena that are known as The Wiggles.

The Wiggles are an Australian pre-school sensation now celebrating their 15th year together. There are four members: Greg (Yellow), Murray (Red), Jeff (Purple) and Anthony (Blue). In 2003, they sold out 12 shows at Madison Square Garden in New York. This year they earned $38.4 million dollars with their tours in the United States and Britain helping greatly. The windfall meant that for the second year in a row The Wiggles were crowned the highest entertainment earners in Australia ahead of AC/DC, Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban.

The Wiggles story began in the early 90’s when Anthony Field, Murray Cook and Greg Page studied early childhood education together at Sydney’s Macquarie University. The three began writing children’s songs as one of their music projects. They enlisted the assistance of Jeff Fatt, who played with Anthony in the popular 1980’s band The Cockroaches, and The Wiggles were born.

Kids and parents alike are drawn to the enthusiastic, educational and easy on the ears music of the Wiggles. While hearing Barney makes most parents gag, the Wiggles makes watching television with little ones actually enjoyable. I believe the key to the Wiggles branding success are the “real” guys of the band. They are cool guys who could have (and some did) played in a rock band, but instead took their talent and good looks and applied them to preschooler entertainment.

While Barney and the Teletubbies play down to kids, The Wiggles play up to them. A Wiggles concert delivers a song and rock experience akin to U2 for little ones.

But today there is some Wiggly trouble going on. I first realized this when I took my two boys to the show here in Atlanta on Wednesday. As the lights dimmed, it was announced that the lead Wiggle, Greg, would not be performing due to illness and a substitute would be filling in. OK, I thought, everybody gets sick. But then the Wiggles commented during the show that Greg was in Australia and hoped to feel better soon. Well, in Australia meant that he was not just sick for one day but likely to be missing the entire US tour. I made a mental note to Google the Yellow Wiggle upon returning to the office.

And here is what I found out from an Australian newspaper:

YELLOW Wiggle Greg Page is reportedly suffering a mystery illness that threatens his future with the children's music supergroup. News Ltd says Mr. Page, 34, is at home in Sydney battling a condition that includes regular bouts of fainting while The Wiggles tour the US with a replacement member. The Daily Telegraph quotes Mr. Page as saying that he's “not really well enough to talk”. But in a statement to fans, Mr. Page said doctors had yet to diagnose his health problem. “I have had numerous bouts of this over the past eight months but they are getting more frequent, and more concerning,” Mr. Page said. “So I have decided that I must go home, rest and seek further medical advice to assure myself that I will be OK for future tours.”

Wow, this is a major problem, not only for Greg Page (who I hope gets better quickly) but for the Wiggle brand. What should The Wiggles do? I think the first step is honesty. When facing a possible PR and brand crisis, getting out ahead of the storm with the truth is the best strategy.

The problem of Greg being sick does not hurt a majority of The Wiggle brand business. The television shows, DVD’s, amusement park rides and merchandise are pretty much unaffected. But the live shows which are the bread and butter of the band are hugely impacted. Can you imagine showing up for a U2 concert and having no Bono on stage? That is exactly how I felt with no Greg. (My kids could not have cared less, running out of popcorn would have been much more traumatic.)

The reality was, the show was fine without Greg. Luckily there are three other Wiggles still on stage and Anthony did a tremendous job of picking up the slack. But keeping Greg’s absence a secret could backfire. I believe parents and kids would be very sympathetic and understanding to Greg being sick. It is not as if he is in drug rehab or jail. But feeling duped by not telling people that he will not be on the tour is a pain many could find difficult to recover from. It is usually the lying that gets you in trouble more so that the act itself. (Just ask Nixon, Clinton or Martha.)

This is always the danger of having a live brand. What happens if something happens to my brand’s persona? If Martha Stewart goes to jail? If Jack Welch retires? If Kobe Bryant attacks a girl? If Steve Irwin gets killed? If Mel Gibson gets drunk? If Greg Page gets sick?

Brand building always involves taking risks. But without taking some risks, you are unlikely to achieve the reward of building a strong brand. It is the price you have to pay to get into the mind of the consumer. So never be afraid to put your eggs in the basket of a person to stand for your brand. Build a strong brand and succeed first. After you are earning $38 million a year you can worry about the what ifs.

Because even if Greg has to retire, the Wiggles brand will likely survive because it is so powerful in the mind. But without Greg the brand would have never gotten off the ground in the first place.

Check out my new post with the latest on the Wiggle brand.

Nintendo does the opposite.

What do you do if you are yesterday’s brand? If the giants of the world have entered your category and have taken it over? If your competitors are bigger, faster, better and richer than you? What should you do now? Should you give up, go home and take up golf?

No, not necessarily. If you are losing the marketing battle, you simply need to change the battlefield. That is exactly what Nintendo is trying to do. Because of divergence, in a growing category there are always opportunities to narrow your focus, be the first and dominate a new segment.

In the early 1990’s Nintendo dominated the videogame market with its Super Nintendo. They were on top of the heap and sold 49 million units. But in 1994 Sony introduced the PlayStation and the rest you could say is history.

PlayStation 1 & 2 have sold 214 million units. Then in 2001, Microsoft introduced the Xbox. While Microsoft has yet to eek out a profit on its XBox, it has gained mindshare, market share and has sold over 30 million units putting the final nail in Nintendo’s coffin.

Or has it? Currently stuck in third place, Nintendo apparently has little going for it. It doesn’t have the resources or the where-with-all to compete in the ever-escalating videogame player arms race with Sony and Microsoft.

Nintendo has struck back not by trying to be better than the competition, but by doing the opposite. If you’re not winning the marketing war, change the battlefield. I learned that from a very good book, Marketing Warfare.

While Sony and Microsoft escalate the arms race with more and more computing power and faster-paced graphics, Nintendo has gone in the opposite direction. Nintendo’s new game console is a slower and simpler system. The keystone of the new system is a new kind of controller that players wave in the air and use with simple games like tennis, bowling and fishing.

Conventional wisdom in the videogame industry says that the fastest and most powerful machine will win. But conventional wisdom in marketing does not necessarily work. In marketing, you win by being the opposite of the leader. And that’s exactly what Nintendo has done.

Will Nintendo’s Wii be successful? No one can predict the future, but I think they have a good chance to come back and be one of the giants of the videogame industry again.

Marketing a Non-Profit Brand.

Many times marketing is seen as a dirty word in the non-profit sector. A necessarily evil that no one admits spending too much time or money on. But to build a successful non-profit organization to help people, you still need to follow the laws of branding. Because powerful non-profit brands will raise more money, attract more volunteers and help more people.

My friend Kate Atwood started a non-profit organization here in Atlanta. I met her through a mutual friend, Thomas Smith, from Northwestern and I have been overwhelmed by her instincts and guts every since.

Still in her mid-twenties, she has already been built a strong brand in just a few years. The brand is Kate’s Club and its mission is to offer hope, community and fun for children who have had to face the death of a parent. Like many non-profit founders, Kate started the club after her own experience with childhood grief.

When Kate was six years old, her mom was diagnosed with breast cancer and died when Kate was 12 years old. Losing a parent at any age is difficult, but it is especially traumatic for a child.

I understand this first hand. My Mom lost her father when she was 14 years old. My best friend Amy lost her father in high school. My friend Perry lost his father in middle school. And Thomas lost both his mother and father in high school. It is a terrible, lonely, frightening journey. Thank goodness that Kate’s Club is here to help guide and empower these children on their grief journey.

So here are my Seven Steps for Building a Strong Non-Profit Brand. (They are really the same as building a strong for-profit brand since the goal is the same -- to own a position in the mind.)

1. The name.

This is the first and most important decision any non-profit has to make. Too many charities have generic names that are descriptive of what they do, but lack the ability to distinguish them from similar organizations in the mind. How many American Associations of this or that are there? Too many, in my opinion.

Of course there are some powerful brands with generic names like the American Heart Association or the American Cancer Society. But these are brands that have been around forever and were first in the mind. The American Cancer Society was founded in 1913, The American Heart Association in 1924. What you could do back then and what you can do right now are two different things.

Take General Electric. You couldn’t build a company with that generic a brand name today. GE is successful despite its weak name because it was founded over 114 years ago and was the innovator of many technologies like the light bulb.

I love the name Kate’s Club. It does not say exactly what it is about. But that is OK. What it does do is build a unique brand name in the mind. It also personifies the brand using Kate’s name and Club says it is for kids and is fun.

2. The spokesperson.

All brands need a spokesperson, but it is incredibility important for a non-profit. Ideally the founder is the best person to take on this role. He or she has a powerful connection to the brand and can sell the story to the media, donors, volunteers and supporters.

A celebrity with a personal connection to the cause can make an excellent spokesperson. Think Michael J. Fox and the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research, Lance Armstrong and Livestrong Lance Armstrong Foundation, Elizabeth Taylor and the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS foundation.

Or sometimes just a regular person becomes the celebrity for the brand like Elizabeth Glaser for the Elisabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS foundation. In 1981, Elizabeth contracted AIDS from a blood transfusion and unwittingly passed it on to her two children via breast milk and in utero. Even though she lost her battle with AIDS in 1988, her memory and her story as the namesake of the organization lives on.

Charity brands can also have a CEO who serves as the brand’s spokesperson, one that will give credibility and accountability to the brand. There is always a fear that the money is being wasted, so a professional running the ship is helpful.

Kate Atwood, of course, is the perfect spokesperson for her brand. She is young, passionate and brave. You know you are supporting Kate’s mission when you give to Kate’s Club. And one day I think she will be a big celebrity for her cause.

Kate could also benefit from a high-profile celebrity endorsing her brand. My vote is for Stephen Colbert. When Stephen was 10 years old, he lost his father and two of his brothers (he is one of 11 children) in an Eastern Airlines crash. Such a loss must have had an enormous impact on him. Supporting Kate’s Club might be particularly rewarding for him and his celebrity would certainly help shine the PR spotlight on the Club. I have personally written to Stephen about Kate’s Club but so far no response. If anyone reading this blog works at Comedy Central please tell Mr. Colbert to check out www.KatesClub.org

Another possibility is Katie Couric. Couric's husband, Jay Monahan, died of colon cancer in 1998 at the age of 42 leaving two young daughters and Katie behind. Today Katie is a prominent spokeswoman for colon cancer awareness. She underwent a colonoscopy on-air in March 2000 which inspired many others to get checked as well. Katie and her daughters supporting Kate's Club might be very rewarding for them as well.

3. The position.

Every brand needs a focus. For a non-profit that wants to be as inclusive as possible, this is a very difficult task. But the only way to get your brand into the mind is with a narrow focus.

Take the American Heart Association. We think they need a more narrow focus. They should focus on one danger signal for heart disease. One of the biggest health problems in American, one directly connected to heart disease, and one that people can do something about is obesity. The organization should focus on obesity, the greatest threat to the health of your heart. The AHA can still support many other programs like CPR training and stroke prevention. A focus is for your message and not necessarily inclusive of all your work.

Kate’s Club has done a good job of focusing. The current position is: Empowering the Lives of Grieving Children. But I am always advising Kate to focus more. The more focused the message the more powerful it becomes and the easier it is to get into the mind. I really think of Kate’s Club as the place for kids grieving the loss of a parent. It might also make sense to focus the message on losing a parent to cancer since this is the leading cause of death for adults 35-54 years of age.

4. The enemy.

Every strong brand needs an enemy. This is something non-profits by nature tend to avoid discussing. But strong brands are built by figuring out who the enemy is, what the enemy stands for and then building a brand that stands for the opposite.

Mercedes are big, comfortable cars. So BMW positioned itself as the ultimate driving machine with smaller, lighter, more-nimble cars. Listerine is the bad-tasting mouthwash, so Scope positioned itself as the good-tasting mouthwash. Home Depot is messy and male oriented, so Lowe’s positioned itself as neat and female oriented.

Who is enemy of Kate’s Club? I think it is the American Cancer Society and other groups that focus on cancer patients and cancer survivors. Kate’s Club is for the children left behind, the children whose parents were not survivors and who at a critical developmental stage have a hole in their lives. Much like ACOA (Adult Children of Alcoholics) an organization that helps support those affected by the mayhem caused by growing up as the child of an alcoholic. Alcoholics Anonymous supports only the drinker, society often forgets about the collateral damage.

5. PR, PR, PR.

Not much to say, except that PR builds brand. The spokesperson need to spend the majority of his or her time doing PR for the charity, leaving the managerial duties to someone else. The most important thing for Kate or any other brand leader to do is to spend tireless hours looking for that one PR breakthrough. One mention in USA Today, Wall Street Journal or Oprah can put you on the non-profit map. And once you get one, the others usually come rolling in.

6. A signature event.

All charities, schools, clubs and teams have endless fundraisers. Hardly a day that goes by when some organization isn’t trying to shake me down for money for some good cause. Instead of a non-profit spending thousands of hours on multiple new programs every year, a better strategy is to focus on one or two big events and do them every year forever. Consistency is the key to success. Look at what the Girl Scouts have done with cookies and Jerry Lewis with his Labor Day MDA telethon.

Kate’s Club is following the same strategy with much success. Every August, Kate has a big Kate’s Club Cabaret in Atlanta. There is a silent auction, music, food and lots of fun. It has become one of the hot parties of the year, especially for young people. This year was the 3^rd annual Cabaret, an event that was able to raise over $100,000 for the charity.

7. Color and logo.

Any brand can benefit from the use of a strong singular color they can own in the mind. Pink and Breast Cancer is the best example of this. You see pink and you know what it means. The American Heart Association uses red. Lance Armstrong uses yellow, the color of the leader’s jersey in the Tour de France.

Kate’s Club colors are light blue with yellow. While Kate’s Club doesn’t use a single color, they do have a nice logo and use the colors consistently. Once the brand is well-known, the light blue might have a strong connection with the brand.

Good luck building your non-profit brand, Kate. And good luck to all the other wonderful people out there doing great things for the world with their non-profit brands.

Perfect Pitch People

When should your CEO make the move from the boardroom to the broadcasting studio to become the pitch person in your new advertising campaign?

Not an easy question to answer. It’s a move that can either lead to fame and fortune or embarrassment and ridicule. Dave Thomas is an example of the former and Dr. Z of the latter.

To help your company decide if your top person has the chops, I have put together a check list. How does your CEO score on the following criteria?

1. Authenticity. Does this person have an authentic link to the company? Is he or she widely known to be the leader? Founders, namesakes and longtime leaders have this built in. Michael Dell and Orville Redenbacher, for example. Bill Ford had the name but not the reputation as a leader.

2. Likability. Some people are instantly likable. Dave Thomas, Papa John or Lee Iaccoca, for example, are very likable. Dry and cold Jacques Nasser is not very likable.

3. Screen presence. Being likable in person and translating your likability onto the screen are two different things. A CEO needs to be natural, honest, and charismatic in front of rolling cameras. A little acting skill is also handy. Scott Blum of Buy.com has little on-screen presence or personality. Donald Trump seems to glow on screen.

4. Well-known. Is your CEO a household name already? Has he or she done enough PR so that the CEO is familiar to a wide audience? Dieter Zetsche was not widely known, especially as Dr. Z. In fact, most consumers assumed Dr. Z was an actor and not the actual chief executive.

5. Story. What is the CEO going to do and say in the television commercial? Is there a reasonable story that he or she has to tell? Frank Perdue talking marigolds was a great story. Or George Zimmer of the Men’s Wearhouse guaranteeing I will love the way I look also works.

Using the company CEO in the advertising is typically used for one of two reasons. One is that the company is in real trouble and putting the leader on television can repair confidence in the corporation. (By some it is seen as a desperation move.) It can either work wonderfully as with Iaccoca or miserably as with Dr. Z.

Another reason is that a company is young and the namesake of the company can sell the back story and heritage of the brand fostering credibility and authenticity. Papa John used this reason and built the #3 pizza chain in the U.S.

The truth is that all companies need a spokesperson, one key player that can be the voice of the company and/or brand. But the main avenue of communication for the spokesperson should be PR. There are many potential PR opportunities especially if the brand is first in a new category. Dell was the first to sell computers direct. Papa John was the first to sell pizza with better ingredients. Being first and using PR are how you build brands.

But in the case of well-known brands in mature categories where advertising plays an important role in the maintenance and defense of a brand, it can make sense to also use the CEO as spokesperson in the advertising.

However, it does work better when there is enough advance PR build-up to give the CEO credibility, experience and authenticity. In fact there are many high-profile CEOs who probably should have stepped in the role of pitch person for their brands.

With all the PR that Jack Welch received, he would have been an ideal pitch person for the GE brand. With all the PR Anita Roddick received in building her natural cosmetics chain she would have been an ideal pitch person for the Body Shop brand.

Going Hollywood is not for all CEOs; it takes a special combination of talents, skills and circumstance to really pull it off. And not pulling it off can be detrimental to your brand, not to mention your CEO’s ego.

Fight Fire with Fire

When someone attacks your brand, how do you fight back? With advertising? Forget it.

Fight fire with fire. To fight negative PR, advertising never works. To fight negative PR, you have to use positive PR.

In addition to being the tool of choice for brand building, PR is also the way to defend your brand against negative PR.

Why doesn’t advertising work to defend your brand? There are two reasons which both come down to credibility. First advertising itself is not a credible medium. Advertising is a self-serving message from the advertiser. And all consumers know this and treat it with a grain of salt. That is why advertising is only effective if you are reminding people what they already know. Advertising is not effective when trying to change an opinion in the mind.

Second, issue advertising itself not credible. Why pay for something you could get for free, thinks the reader. If the company really had a credible defense the media would cover the story in the editorial pages. Running an ad stating your position says the media refused to run your side of the story. Not a good message to send.

So what about Wal-Mart? There is no doubt that the Wal-Mart brand has been under attack for years by unions, politicians and several consumer groups to name a few of its critics.

The world’s largest retailer has simply become a victim of its own success. Protesters usually target the leader for industry woes. Why go after the little guy when the big fish will get you bigger headlines?

Wal-Mart initially ignored its critics. Being as powerful as Wal-Mart and being isolated in Bentonville, they felt they could. But to keep a brand healthy you need a steady dose of positive PR.

Wal-Mart has finally got into the game in a big way. I was really pleased to see Lee Scott on the CBS News with Katie Couric on Wednesday. Having Scott interviewed on the hottest new news program on television was a brilliant move and a long time coming. You know you’ve been bad when they start the interview with “in a rare interview with the CEO…”

No CEO should be giving rare interviews. It is a CEO’s #1 job to be giving interviews all the time. The CEO is the spokesperson for the company and its brands. Look at other successful companies, you would never hear the words “in a rare interview” being said about Howard Schultz of Starbucks, Bill Gates of Microsoft, or Meg Whitman of eBay. Because these CEOs know, that PR is part of their jobs, perhaps the most important part. And positive PR keeps these brands healthy despite the occasional attack.

Wal-Mart in the middle of Elle!

Last week I was getting my hair colored at a salon and to pass the time I was flipping through Elle magazine which covers high fashion and haute couture brands like Chanel and Dolce & Gabanna. Most of the advertising is for thoes same brands and others of a similar caliber.

Then right in the middle of the magazine I was hit with this surprise. A multiple page advertising spread from Wal-Mart! Yes, always low prices Wal-Mart. 

Now I wrote last summer about the world's largest retailer making a foolish play into the fashion world but I am shocked to see them still beating that dead horse. I searched the Elle website for the words Wal-Mart and not 1 mention came up. On the other hand, Chanel yielded 64 results.

You can see why, just look at the outfit on this model! I am not a fashion maven by any means, but this is the best they could do? Believe me it stood out like a sore thumb in the magazine. Who are they kidding?

But even the best outfit would not change the perception of Wal-Mart in the mind. In the mind, Target owns the low-cost fashion idea, but they are not even silly enough to advertising in the high-fashion rags.

Wal-Mart is a strong brand, a powerful company and global leader. They own a powerful idea in the mind. But it is not fashion, it is "always low-prices."

When you are as big and as well-known as Wal-Mart all the money in the world spent on advertising is not going to change your position in the mind. You can't buy credibility and authencity. You have to earn that.

http://ries.typepad.com/ries_blog/2005/08/wacky_walmart.html

Wake up and smell the coffee.

The coffee category has undergone a metamorphosis. You can blame it on Starbucks. The upscale coffee shop has greatly impacted the mindset of coffee drinkers across the country. What used to be the best part of waking up is now barely tolerated by most self-respecting coffee drinkers. Today drinking the ground-up stuff from a big tin can is like drinking wine from a jug. Done, but not proudly.

So what does Folgers, the former king of coffee, do now? Well, you know you what they would do. And that is exactly what they have done.

Coming to a store near you is Folgers Gourmet Selections. Folgers has moved into the premium coffee shelf with a Folgers coffee brand dressed up in pretty shiny bags, gourmet flavors and $20 million dollars in advertising.

Terrific! Now everyday coffee drinkers can move up to a premium brand they trust. Good thinking, right?

Wrong! The last thing a consumer wants is to move up the ladder with a brand from the bottom rung. Astonishingly, here is the strategy Procter & Gamble, owners of Folgers, gives for the move:

“Folgers is going after customers who drink a cheaper coffee every morning at home, but consider finer coffee to be a special treat. The brand is hoping there is an opening in the category for a gourmet-inspired coffee that could be consumed on an everyday basis.”

In other words, Folgers is moving into the mushy middle. Folgers Gourmet Selections is a classic mushy middle brand.

A once powerful brand sees the category moving upscale so it tries to appeal to consumers with an upscale brand at less than upscale prices with a down-market name. It never works, guys.

The lure of the mushy middle has gotten some of the world’s most powerful brands in trouble.

To combat the move to diet soda, Coca-Cola introduced C2, a half-calorie soda. A total disaster. Pepsi-Cola tried the same thing with Pepsi Edge. Another total disaster.

To combat the move to ultra-premium vodka, Absolut introduced Level from Absolut. So far, Grey Goose has nothing to worry about.

The Zales jewelry story chain tried to chase upscale customers by replacing almost a third of its merchandise with more expensive products. Result: The CEO was fired.

Gallo wine tried to move upscale with $80 bottles of Gallo Family Vineyard Estate Series. Ernest & Julio would turn over in their grave if they found out.

So what should Folgers do? Once a brand is so firmly established there is not much to do if the market moves upscale. All you can do is keep the brand focused, suffer some loss of market share and launch a new brand to appeal to the changing market.

In fact, Procter & Gamble does have another premium coffee brand on the shelves already called Millstone. But as a brand it is been expanded into too many varieties, so many it boggles the mind. Improving the focus and power of that brand make a lot more sense that trying to move Folgers up into the premium category.

Let me also comment on Starbucks, because I think they are making a big mistake selling their coffee in supermarkets. It diminishes the power of the brand. If I can make the same coffee at home, why should I spend $4 to buy a cup in the store? Starbucks should be a brand focused on an experience that can only be had in a Starbucks store.

So what should Starbucks do about supermarket sales, a huge potential market? First they need to keep Starbucks as a coffee shop brand. Period.

Second they have the perfect solution for a separate supermarket brand. Starbucks bought a company called Seattle’s Best Coffee (which most people assumed was Starbucks anyway). I would use the Seattle’s Best Coffee brand name as the supermarket brand. It gives a gourmet feel without bastardizing the Starbucks name by putting on retail shelves.

The best part about waking up for me is knowing there will always be another nonsensical line extension introduced to blog about in the morning.