Category: brand names

As seen on (TV) Google

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

As seen on TV Google… 

Back in the halcyon days of the TV industrial complex, an oft used selling point was the fact that something was actually on TV.

The thinking went something like this: 

  1. TV advertising is expensive
  2. They (brand X) are advertising on TV
  3. They have the money to make this investment
  4. So people must be buying this product
  5. This product must be good
  6. I will buy this product

as-seen-on-tv.jpg 

It built a sense of trust. Trust that evolved from assumed scale.  

Guess what? It’s back! Only this time it’s ‘as seen on front page of Google’. 

The new thinking isn’t too different:

  1. Google knows everything on the web
  2. It’s on the front page of Google
  3. Google has done the sorting for me
  4. Lots of people must be using this site
  5. Lots of sites must be linked to it
  6. I can buy from (trust) this website

The cool thing about this for start ups, is that it really only takes an investment in time and thinking to get there. Not a big media buy.

Hema – Wow!

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

HEMA is a Dutch department store. The first store opened on November 4, 1926, in Amsterdam.

Now there are 150 stores all over the Netherlands. HEMA also has stores in Belgium, Luxemburg, and Germany.

hema.png

Take a look at HEMA’s product page (switch sound on first).

You can’t order anything and it’s in Dutch but just wait a couple of seconds and watch what happens.

  

Click here to see it.

Click on ‘nog een keer’ to replay, it’s worth a second look…

Startups – get Wow !

How to kill a brand – 101

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

It seems that the National Heart Foundation just can’t help themselves. They’ve put the next nail in the coffin of the brand that was the once respected National Heart Foundation Tick.

 Heart Foundation Tick 

A logo which once upon a time meant the food it appeared on was healthy.

  

If the Mcdonalds disaster wasn’t enough last year. Then surely they’re getting very close to the tipping point now.

  

By endorsing a certain pizza chain’s pizza, they are saying:

 

“Oh well, people eat junk food, so we thought we’d recommend the best of a bad lot”

Brands are never about ‘content’ they are about ‘context’. So what if this particlar pizza has less salt and fat? The association with fast food wont change the opinion of pizza, just marginalise the heart tick. Our world view on pizza is already formed.

You can read more about it here.

“If you can’t beat them, join them” ?

Startup blog says: such a mentality is a sure way for you and your brand to be absorbed into nothingness.

Perspective – internet boom 2.0 ?

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

There’s been a lot of talk lately about an ensuing second internet boom. With the billion dollar sales of many web 2.0 companies it’s easy to see why:

 

facebook-logo.jpg                          $15.1 billion

 

skype_logo1.png                                   $2.6 billion

  

feedburner_logo.jpg                            $100 million

  

aquantive-logo.gif                         $6 billion

 

doubleclick_logo.jpg                       $3.1 billion

 

youtube-logo.jpg                                $1.7 billion

 

digg-logo.gif                                     $60 million

Among others…

To give a little perspective the Nasdaq composite index peaked in the year 2000 at 5132 points. Yesterday it closed at 2320, just under 8 years later.

If you invested $10,000 at the peak, today it would be worth $4521. Still a very bearish 55% capital loss.

  

Sure we’d have to question some of the valuations, but the market hasn’t started to value ‘ideas’ at over a billion – yet.

  

Start up lesson – your company is worth what someone is prepared to pay for it.

Succession planning

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

Sadly Roc Kirby the founder of the Village Roadshow empire in Australia died last week. While reading an article in the Australian Financial Review the reporter mentioned how his kids had taken over the organization with great success. But we also were given another clue as to why.

As soon as his kids were old enough they worked the concession stands serving soda and popcorn and selling cinema tickets. Not in junior executive positions. They learnt the business bottom up.

 village-roadshow-logo.jpg 

No amount of explaining spreadsheets, balance sheets, P & L statements, and public company boardroom battles can prepare someone for a running a business like working at ground level can. The real understanding of any business comes from being where the money is exchanged with actual customers. This is what builds the foundations for a deep understanding of what’s important in a business – operationally and strategically.

If you’ve got a business which is succeeding and you need to think of succession. Startup blog says – think bottom up, not top down.

‘Game changing’ – Nintendo Wii

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

If anyone ever needs proof that the market leader can be given lesson, Nintendo provides this.

 

From a brand which dominated the 1980’s with handheld games and fell into relative console obscurity during the 1990’s it’s comeback has been astounding as has the performance of the Wii.

And it’s all based on simple consumer insight:

“Games everyone can play”

  

A direct quote from their current advertising. Enough said. 

  

 nintendo-wii.png

  

They are clear console market leader now in Australia. Overtaking the previously thought ‘unbeatable’ Sony Playstation franchise. No incumbent is ever safe. This maxim will only increase in relevance over time.

Often we build complexity into things because the technology allows it. We are better off focusing on what makes sense for the end user, not what’s possible.

Chris Anderson of Long Tail fame has been espousing for a long time that the future of gaming is not in the console, but the controls. He’s obviously ahead of his time.

Start up lesson: The offer with the best user experience, always beats the offer with the best technology.