Trendspotting 2011

Marian Salzman of Euro RSCG PR just posted her annual trends report for next year. In 11 trends and 52 pages, she offers a thorough examination on everything from current societal gender roles to public "mycasting". Definite food for thought if you're an avid trendwatcher.

Enjoy!

~ alicia

a letter from Starbucks

Hi, We're making a change. Using simpler recipes and taking out artificial ingredients. So your food not only tastes better, it is better. It's a start. But we think it's a good one. Hope you do too. Enjoy.

Your Friends at Starbucks

PS. More to come.

I don't always enjoy lots of copy on my product packaging, but Starbucks has done a nice job handling theirs over the years. And this "letter" of new development is no exception. I think this will do good things for them in the wake of McDonald's offering premium coffees. If Mickey D's ever wrote a letter like this on their packaging, you'll bet they'd earn more media than Monster and Threadless combined.

Yelp!

That's what I was telling people last night during the first ever Oak Cliff Art Crawl. I had volunteered to greet people as they came into Art n' Go, the table I sat behind had a bunch of art flyers, biz cards, art crawl maps, in addition to FREE, re-usable bags from Yelp.

I WILL POST A PICTURE OF THE BAG HOPEFULLY LATER TODAY

I thought this was an awesome thing for the brand to do, and it helped me make the case for supporting local businesses in the area. It was a perfect conversation point, and almost everyone who came in picked up a bag. :)

hats off to Skittles

I am dazzled (If Skittled were an adjective, I'd use it) by the new Skittles site, yesterday and today. Yesterday it was skittles.com - the Twitter page; today it's skittles.com - the Facebook page. The change has been credited to spam/vulgarity (one and the same in my marketing book), and I think this says more about us as humans than it does about the brand.

I think people will take advantage of any chance to publicize themselves; "oh what? Skittles.com is publishing anything related to skittles in real time? Oh shit, I better type something so I get my 5 seconds of fame." - seriously? Oh yeah, it's America, the country of democracy and 15 minutes of fame. What happens when we place control in the hands of media hungry, socially-active consumers? Not decency in this time of good, but foul language and foul play. Gross.

I commend Skittles for going out on a limb, where most clients are scared to not have a TV ad, Skittles said we're doing social media all the way. They took a risk, and we've made them pay. As a young advertiser and social media advocate, I'm not happy with my fellow Twitterers. We abused the medium and teased a brand for having some balls.

Like this post says:

No one knows all the rules apart from the fact that the rules change every time you want to play. Trying to play it safe is the riskiest play of all right now.

So here's to Skittles, my hat's off to you for taking a risk; you've been the bravest, aside from Modernista (but they're an agency so they don't count), in terms of thinking outside the box when it comes to marketing yourself and interacting with your customers. High five!

Not to mention, that Farmers came to our agency the other day and left bags of Skittles on all of the tables, little did they know that just days later, I would be eating them still (they were huge bags) and happy to be part of a very brand-worthy social conversation. pretty cool.

Definition of smart?

I have a homework project to answer the question: what is your definition of smart? The task paper says "throughout life we have all used the word smart to describe a multitude of people, places, things, and ideas. In the world of advertising, this word followed by a brand name or campaign title has become the epitome of success for agencies and brands across the globe, yet it remains largely undefined."

When I think of smart, these brands come to mind: Google, Nike, Macintosh, and Barack Obama (Starbucks would be on this list, but I feel the brand's situation is sort of hush-hush these days, do we really want to talk about how bad it's doing? :( ). These four brands represent simplistic function, authentic intentions, forward-thinking activism, consistent personalities, and are both a mirror to society and change-makers. I think this is my definition of smart, now that I laid it out.

Does smart have value? To answer this, I ask you is brand loyalty worth something? And your answer should be damn right, I want cheezy poofs!

Does smart depend solely on its audience? I would say no. A smart brand, to me, is a brand whose smartness stands independently of its said actions which have an intended audience. A smart brand is holistically smart: smart intentions, smart mission, smart moves, thereby summoning a smart audience. :)

And there we have it. My opinion on what smart means in the world of branding.

Sound of Color

I bet Sony wishes they'd come up with this first. Soundofcolor.com by The Gap is definitely pushing branding boundaries. No?

I would embed the video but...there are serious issues with its viralability currently. Just go to the site and check all the colors out.

And now for a little blog attention: This is a blog Post with No Thinking (PNT). Regular readers will be able to call these out from now on with PNT and PWT (With Thinking). I'm a big fan of honesty and calling things how they are, and I haven't come up with a solution for the posts that I do in lue of time. I actually Onelooked "lue" and it turned up nothing. Then I Googled the phrase and was verified by other bloggers who used the term: Everyone else is doing it. :P

A PNT for you because sometimes us bloggers have to compete with RSS feeds. I'll post a PWT soon; because on the other side of the coin, we owe it to you to give the web innovative content.

Starbucks: One year from now

A colleague and I made a friendly wager today: my $5 says Starbucks will be successful one year from now. Howard Schulz is returning to the helm because he sees the rapid growth plan is backfiring and dissipating the brand's worth. My coworker's $5 says Starbucks is sunk, soon to be outrun by the independents that sprinkle the marketplace worldwide.

A BusinessWeek article states what differentiates Starbucks, and what will ultimately test the competition as it tries to take first:

Schultz: Starbucks is the quintessential experience brand and that brand is brought to life by our people…we have no patent, no secret sauce whatsoever…. The only competitive advantage we have is the relationship we've built with our people and the relationship they have built with the customer.

McDonalds or Dunkin Donuts may have their sights set on taking the top position within consumers' minds for "coffee," but my money's on Starbucks. They owned it first and they owned it well. Howard Schultz is no sissy when it comes to passionately being unique and rising above the challenge the marketplace puts forward.

Where do you place your bet?

a little branding history

I saw this sign at the Fort Worth Stockyards last weekend. Cowboys were the first branders:

• Brands are one of the most interesting tools used by livestock people. Each brand is by necessity different than all the others and often conveys the character of the owner.
• Choose as simple a brand as possible.
  
• Apply the brand properly.
• Brands have a language all their own. That language, like any other, follows certain rules. The ability to read these symbols is referred to as "callin' the brand."

Hmmm, maybe this makes Cowgirl Planner even the more relevant. And for Planners everywhere, here's to callin' the brand correctly. :)

Wal-Mart as a neighborhood market?

WTF? I saw one of these yesterday in Dallas' Uptown area. Wikipedia had more:

• Launched in 1998, these "Neighborhood Markets" are a quarter the size of a Supercenter and are meant to woo shoppers in search of a quainter Wal-Mart experience. There are currently 118 of these nationwide.
  

I think this is a bunch of bologna. It's just a way for "what's wrong with America" to weezel its way into the shop local trend that is sweeping America. Ok, smart business plan WallyWorld but...I am still not buying it.

branding at its best

two spots to note for awesome branding:

Dove Onslaught



and Axe Naughty to Nice



Girl Branding and Boy Branding aren't categories yet but I think if they existed, these spots would win awards in each for their brilliance.

convenience, food tech, control and opportunity

The consumption of food is a cultural conundrum. Us Americans just can't figure it all out: diet, convenience, health, family-time, 6 small meals, 3 large ones, no breakfast, Kellogg's flakes for breakfast-lunch-and dinner, etc.
How does one make sense of it all? A recent article in Dallas News, has called it out: Convenience.

• Restaurants are in a bid to replace Mom as the family's primary chef.
• Today, consumers are eating more but cooking less. (ouch)

For some examples, look at California Pizza Kitchen, TGI Friday's, Wolfgang Puck and Marie Calendars. More from the article:

• Food technology has blurred the line between ready-to-eat food from a restaurant and ready-to-heat food from a grocer.
• Sales of frozen entrees are growing slowly > the challenge has set in.
• "Companies will be tempted to offer fresh - not frozen - prepared meals. And that will put the competition between grocery and restaurant take-out on more equal footing."
  

There is something to be said for being the brand on the shelf when the consumer says, I want convenience.

• "It all goes to the Starbucks strategy of giving the consumer 360-degree exposure to your brand."

Personally, I don't think restaurant take-out can viably compete with ready-to-heat frozen food. Both sound as in-convenient if I'm in a lazy mood. I propose we combine a delivery service with customer-service for a solution. These vehicles could be a chance to exhibit more sides of a brand personality: say an SUV with TGI Friday's comes to your door and a hybrid from California Pizza Kitchen pulls up at the neighbor's. I know some consumers would cringe to hear about advertising creeping into another area of their life but there already is advertising on the road - Billboards.

Delivery = Convenience. Brand that pulls through with the solution = Awesome. Let the races begin. Good lucK!

kid's advertising: Kandoo

For just $4.69 you can make wiping FuN! Kandoo wipes are flushable and smell like melon; Perfect for the kids!

Was watching the Biggest Loser (more on this later) and a surprising amount of kids' commercials were being aired. (based on audience demographics/psychographics...think about it; kind of interesting to think that the audience watching the biggest loser are parents, and not just parents, they are obese parents: what does that say between the lines?) Kandoo has a cute, playful, brand character that is geared to intrigue and excite children.

[Kandoo makes you think of Kangaroo, but the character is more of a frog creature than anything. I think some creatives were getting high or were tripping on acid; or maybe it was one of those genius word agencies that label themselves Verbal Identity.]

Kandoo is a brand available to help kids through their stage of potty training. On the website, you can click the character to hear songs to help kids master the toilet. And actually, now that I think about it, kids these days in their potty training stage ARE online, clicking around, going to websites, etc. I met a 5 year old who has her own laptop for crying outloud; so suppose this 5 year old is having problems in the lavatory > Presto, she's got a fun brand to access in her own time to help her in a fun way. Wow!

Kandoo maybe for You!

creative inspiration & clues

was researching the new JCPenney Ad with (I believe) Feist as soundtrack vocals, and stumbled across Boards > "the creative edge in commercial production."

• Boards is a brand focused on bringing the international commercial production industry community together for dialogue, debate and discussion about the global business of commercial production.

kind of cool.

Hope + Change: Barack

Obama's message takes experience out of the equation, saying that his is a different kind of experience.

Obama's got the social network thing going with pages on myspace, facebook, partybuilder (?), eventful (?), flickr, and youtube.
Again, I am not turning this blog into a political forum, just wanted to get the messages out there for discussion.

Wowsers, just found out he's got a page on LinkedIn. Only 152 connections thus far. Hmmm...

Experience + Change: Hillary

"Change is just a word without the strength and experience to make it happen." I like Clinton's campaign title.

It's all about making ideas actionable. I agree there needs to be a plan in place (eh hem Mr. Bush) and experience is more likely to make the plan a good one.

This is not indicative of who I'm voting for, just a campaign and a brand's message.

how to have a conversation

In this age of conversation, it might be nice to evaluate the pieces that contribute to this art form. I just finished Plato's Symposium, and for anyone who hasn't read it, it is the ultimate conversation book. The topic is Love, but on a larger scale, the topic is discourse. Read it and learn. I will now take this post as an opportunity to expand on what Richard said a couple weeks ago: "great dialogues start with a passionate monologue."

When I came to New York, my roommate gave me some interview advice: Make statements rather than ask questions. Say what? It's important to have a point of view. Someone else told me, "It's easier to react to a statement than answer a question." Interesting.

So when a brand (new or old) comes into the market and starts spouting brand speak, this and that, shouting deals or mantras, or whatever, think about it. If the brand wasn't opinionated or didn't have a point of view, it would be neutral in a sense. And of all things, neutral is certainly not engaging by nature.

To conclude, I'll give you a rough idea of how to have a proper discussion via Plato and his buddies:

1. fill everyone's cup with wine and refill as necessary
   
2. set a topic for the evening and lay the ground with some established definitions
3. start on the left, do not speak out of turn, and only speak your pov when the person is finished entirely with their own pov
4. borrow snippets from each speaker to show respect for each and to also help make your point more relevant
5. sound as wise as possible (i.e. have a point of view and speak with conviction).

engaging brands

"The annual Brand Keys Customer Loyalty Engagement Winners are those brands best able to engage consumers and create loyal customers."

The 2007 Winners are:

• Pepsi (over Coke), this was quoted as a "major upset"
• Diet Pepsi (beat out Diet Coke): diet soda category
  
• JetBlue: favorite airline, #2 - Southwest
  
• New Balance: favorite athletic shoe, #2 - Adidas, #3 - Sketchers (donde esta Nike?)
  
• Toyota, BMW and Mercedes: top 3 automotive brands
• Coors Light: favorite light beer, #2 - Miller Lite, #3 - Bud Light
• Coors: favorite heavy beer, #2 - Sam Adams (really?), #3 - MGD
• Aquafina: favorite bottled water, #2 - Fiji
• Dunkin Donuts beat out Starbucks for coffee & donuts category
• Discover Card: favorite credit card, #2 - Capital One, #3 - Visa
• NFL: favorite major league sport, #2 - NBA, #3 - MLB
• Domino's, Papa John's, Pizza Hut: top 3 pizza brands
• Subway: favorite quick-serve restaurant, #2 - McDonalds, #3 - Quizno's
• Target: favorite retail store, #2 - Costco, #3 - Walmart
  
• Verizon: favorite wireless phone service, #2 - T-Mobile, #3 - Sprint