brands Archives - Page 10 of 11

Response to Quiksilver Diworsification

Posted on April 29, 2009 by Steve Sammartino

A colleague who gets Marketing strategy as well as anyone gave me this response as an email to the blog post on Quiksilver brand extension. I thought it was worth sharing:

Analogy.

I’m a Ferrari driver. It’s a badge that represents my success and status, and I’m proud to admit it.

Do I want to see the bogan or hodad driving down Chapel St on Friday night with a Ferrari key ring?

I earnt that Key ring.

Which stall at Vic Market did he buy it with his $7.99 VB T-shirt?

Like it or not, I’m now slightly resentful of the exclusive brand I thought I was a part of, and will think twice about the same brand next time around (Actually if I had a Ferrari I wouldn’t give a rats, but you get my point…)

As a surfer, I’m stoked that my exclusive board brand which bonded me to my boarding community, is now being slutted to mummies and daddies to dribble on every night when they go to sleep, who wake up wondering what that symbol on their pillow actually represents, and who are even more fascinated as to why they would also put that logo on surf boards which they see when they frolic in the sand down on the coast once a year….

That’s Diworsification.

PS What’s exactly is a Hodad?

(me – A hodad is a person who wears surf clothing but has never been surfing, or on a beach for that matter)

Diworsification of the year – Quiksilver

Posted on April 28, 2009 by Steve Sammartino

For many years Quiksilver had a tagline which served them well – ‘The boardriding company’. Although their roots are in surfing it allowed them to expand into related areas for their target market including skate and snowboarding. Makes sense, many surfers also skate and snow board. The brand could possibly be enhanced with such diversifications as the fit is a nice one psychographically.

As a surfer I never wear Ripcurl or Quiksilver clothing as I think they have been hijacked by bogans and hodads. But when I saw Quiksilver’s latest brand extension – they have clearly jumped the shark, the rot has set in. Justification by Steve Tully Quiksilver Americas president was something about allowing it (photo below) to further their vision of creating a complete lifestyle company….. I am calling it the Diworsification of the year – heaven help them.

Advice for startups – Brand extension should not be about what we can make, rather what we stand for.

Steve Sammartino

Why speed wins

Posted on April 17, 2009 by Steve Sammartino

In start up land the most important thing we can do is do things fast. It’s the opposite of the perfectionism we learn in graduate school and large corporations especially as it pertains to marketing.

Here’s why:

So the startup blog explanation of my above chart goes something like this:

No project, task or strategy is ever perfect. Even if we spend a large amount of time developing it. At best it will be around 90% of what we need or imagine. If we cut the available amount of time in half (which is this example is 6 weeks) we may be able to achieve 70% of the desired outcome. But what option 2 presents for us is the ability to learn and revise quickly. In fact we can launch another version (version 2.0) of said project for another 70% progression.

The net result is pretty simple – we’ll be a progression of 140 vs 90. Pretty simple. And in startup land the reality is we often don’t know how effective something will be until it is implemented, and from here the lessons will emerge. In addition it moves us up the learning curve and in all probability the next implementation will be far more effective than the first.

The other fact we have to consider is that speed is important for our customers. They like to see progression, even if it is less than perfect. They know things are improving and that we are making stuff better for them. It’s also far less confusing to deal with incremental consistent change than it is a total re-design. We also remove the risk of better ideas and methods putting a kibosh on doing anything at all and creating inertia.

And this is why in startup land, speed wins.

Creating Brand Loyalty

Posted on April 4, 2009 by Steve Sammartino

Here’s a list of brands for which I am personally brand loyal with. And to the right of each brand I have a given a reason.

Brand & reason
Qantas Domestic: They are the only full service domestic airline in Australia.

Ripcurl Wetsuits : They are simply the best quality, and the warmest. I will never, ever switch as the cost of getting it wrong is $600+ mistake. I also love the brand history.

Collingwood FC: I am a fan and I support the club, in this category performance wont create switching, but it does reduce my purchase frequency

iphone: I love it’s seamless funcationality and integrating so much, I find it hard to believe a better option will ever exist. I don’t even mind putting up with a few dropouts

Crumpler Bags: I love their design, and functionality, I also love the story of how they started and the fact the owners are from my local city.

Seth’s Blog: I know I’ll get a golden entry aroud once a week.

Twitter: It’s the only social network which suits my attitude & lifestyle. I like it’s brevity & immediacy.

Google Search: Works best. Would switch if better one came along. On occasion I now search on twitter for attitudinal & results based on timeliness.

Lavazza Coffee : Best tasting Roast & ground coffee after trying many others.

If we are fortunate enough to have a level of brand loyalty, then it’s equally important that we understand why we have it. In the case of Qantas, it’s more serendipitous than through providing a super product. Notice I’m only loyal with domestic travel, I’ll switch to Singapore or Cathay on international travel. Other brands like the Collingwood football club suffer from reduced revenue rather than losing market share. And Google, well they are only as good as their product where the switching costs are extremely low…. Once upon a time I was loyal Yahoo search…

The point for startups is simple. The reasons for brand loyalty are varied. Generating it is almost always related to having an awesome product. If our product isn’t awesome enough, then we need to ‘Awesomize it’. Only then will the brand story matter. Once we get loyalty our next job is to build a wall around it where switching costs are too high.

Humans aren’t resources

Posted on March 20, 2009 by Steve Sammartino

Something I put on twitter referring to any business I ever run, including rentoid.com – which is certainly worth sharing with my startup blog readers:

picture-9

New York Series – Coke is ‘not’ it

Posted on March 4, 2009 by Steve Sammartino

All cultures differ in terms of what is acceptable commercial behaviour. It’s become clear to me that the US has a stronger lassie-fare attitude when it comes to consumer goods and product claims.

coke-plus

Coke with Vitamins!

The government allows this folly, and then wonders why there is an obesity crisis. More like an Intelligence crisis.

Startups – Don’t just make stuff people will buy, make stuff you can be proud.

New York Series: Barbie Celebrating in Style

Posted on February 17, 2009 by Steve Sammartino

It’s not secret that Barbie has had her challenges in her 50 year history, from promoting ridiculous body image, to the more recent market share battle with Bratz.

But on her 50th birthday I saw one of the coolest promotions I had seen in some time. Bloomingdales New York. It has the entire history of Barbie on display. Nearly every doll ever made in uber cool glass cases, right through the entire ladies clothing floors. It cannot be missed. and demands attention. In addition they have some life size barbies who have been dressed by leading fashion designers. Here’s a photo essay, and some important comments about it below:

If we are in the fashion business (which more of us are than we think) then we must constantly be re-inventing, and reminding our people why we are the coolest.

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