“Multi-tier Branding” – the middle isn’t as bad as we all thought it was….

Packaging World Magazine recently invited David Kendall to comment and review the current state of multi-branding in the grocery aisles. Watch the short video and find out why the middle isn’t as bad as we all thought it was.

Recognition for Design that Fits like a Glove

One of the package design programs our office developed for Wells Lamont’s line of hi-performance work gloves recently was recognized with a Gold Award for Packaging from the National Retail Hardware Association. The award-winning design extends the structure of a product hang tag into a 3D  form by incorporating a die-cut logo revealing the bright yellow interior of the dimensional hang tag. The rough and tough nature of the work gloves  is further expressed with spot varnish nicks and scratches, industrial design cues and embossing to simulate stamped metal.  While the NRHA has been serving the needs of independent hardware retailers in the United State and Canada and Well Lamont has been providing durable, work proven work gear for over 100 years, we’re just honored to be part of both of these legacies.

When Worlds Do Not Collide: The Real Retail Gap

No really, if you are an agency principal or strategist you’ll want to read this, all the way to the end. Some things we write create a huge amount of buzz – they always will. Others are intended to strictly inform, provide perspective or give insight to a current trend. However, in this case, I’m reaching into the ol’ common sense bucket. In fact, if I was to mention I’m writing about social networks or why Groupon is a brand risk everyone in the office would jump in with ideas, opinions and buzz words. But writing about a rather overlooked and somewhat commonsense topic such as innovation within an actual bricks and mortar store, well…radio silence…check for pulse…did someone forget to refuel the DeLorean? But stick with me here, I’ll get to cover new media, don’t worry.

I’m talking about the growing brand experience gap between online retail and conventional in-store retail, you know retail centers, stores, malls, shopping districts with store fronts – actual spaces with real products. Remember those? Well apparently in the rush to build online communities retailers have forgotten them. Sure, to their credit they have made some face lifts, hired extra help, re-merchandised and even had “daily deals”. For the most part it’s minor tweaks. Noticeably, research is showing that in-store shopping is losing its edge to online shopping. A recent DataMonitor study shows that 90% of shoppers say the environment influences their day-to-day purchasing decisions. Moving to the ease of online shopping may seem like a natural retail purchase progression since we are all time starved and the cost of shopping online reduces our time expenditure. However, the real crisis, as I see it, is the online experience is most often not truly reflected in a brand’s in-store shopping experience.

There are many reasons for this, such as back of house logistics issues, front of house help, marketing silos or even lack of appropriately budgeted tactics to each segment of business. Still with me? Well think about your most recent shopping inexperience. If you’re anything like me you’re finding it increasingly difficult to part with your hard earned dollars especially in a tough economy. And you’ve probably used a combination of online and in store tactics. Whichever way shoppers make their shopping plan, there are some key things to be learned which you can share with your clients to close the gap between their online and in store experiences. Here’s how the pro’s are looking at the gap and a few keys to their success at creating a unified brand experience.

Seamless Product Inventory. Interestingly, sales are up again at Nordstrom. Latest figure quotes same store sales up 5.1%. As evidenced from my online/in store seamless shoe buying experience at Nordstrom (I bought Chukkars in case you want to know). They have worked tirelessly and invested heavily on closing the gap between the online experience and the retail store experience. Last September they opened up their inventories to be shared across the company. For example, when the customer is shopping via the website they have access to out of store inventory and vice versa. Simply stated; before when Nordstrom ran out of an item at their fulfillment center the item would automatically unpublish, eliminating that selection online. With shared inventory it stays published because they still own inventory in the stores and the customer can still buy it. One key thing is that the product (wherever it is) ships from the store that has the slowest sell thru on those items. Hence the experience online matches the in-store inventory experience and allows for a natural sell down of items instead of traditional clumps of left over items by region or store location. In the end, the customer doesn’t really know the difference and more product is sold.

This system also allows Nordstrom to drop ship in case the inventory is out at the stores. Again, the product arrives in the same time frame and the customer is unaware of where it was shipped from. From a retailer perspective it also creates less holding of inventory or money spent on dead inventory – always a plus. This inventory management also allows for a customer to use the online “pick up from the store” function and see if it is in stock at their local store. Then mosey on over to their store and check out the product. Pretty sweet way to make my online experience tie into my real world needs of efficiency into a seamless event. Remember, efficiency is important in bridging that gap. It’s making the real world experience efficient just like the online experience. And as we all know, creating loyal customers is more than just offering free parking.

One Multi-Channel Authority. In addition, consolidating the entire merchandising organization across all channels to one multi-channel team allows the team to leverage each business unit’s buying and merchandising power with others, – again, creating more efficiencies. This approach provides the merchandising team the ability to use promotional business drivers across multiple channels. For instance, the use of a GWP (Gift With Purchase) program can happen at the same time in the online and in-store channels and for the same length of time if so desired. In the case of cosmetics department inside a retailer, it allows them the realization of events across both channels. For cosmetics, their business depends a great deal upon that type of in-store activity for survival. Add the extra online support at the same time and you have solid cross channel event.

Beyond the basics of inventory control, a single channel mindset allows for consistency in advertising, marketing and sales. It keeps the hot products hot in all channels. It keeps a consistency from store to store to online. This clever consistency helps each channel support the other. A team spirit if you will.

Pop-Up Store Experiences. I know it seems like a stretch to say pop-up stores in this context. Yes, they to can help close the gap. If you think about the goals and ambitions of a pop-up store they are fairly simple: create buzz, sell product, demonstrate nimbleness and generate brand awareness. Not too far from what an online store tries to do. Still questioning it? Well here are some hard facts to ponder. Last year in the Northwest an independent toy store opened a 3,000 sq ft store space for 30 days, through November and December. Their revenue was about $210,000 for 30 days. I know, you are all saying it has to do with the time of year. And I say exactly right. That’s what you should be recommending to your clients. Like a typical online experience, take advantage of timing and easy deployment to your customer base.

I’m not aware of specific revenue figures for Target’s Bullseye Bodegas in N.Y., Gap/1969 on Robertson Ave in L.A. pop up store or Illy’s Coffee guerrilla store efforts. But, I would say that these formats are working for them on many fronts in helping them close the online and in-store experience gap. They are what you might call “planned spontaneity” – very much a similar freedom which the online channel allows its marketing managers. Many other retailers, including Bloomingdale’s and Nike, are experimenting with smaller stores as well. Think micro-site as a store front. Think of it as “nowism” – instant gratification. Think of how much easier it is to stock, market and run half the current space you have right now if you could. Remember the customer has a short attention span in both the online and in-store experiences. Reward their attention span with easy experiential treats.

Location Integration. Technology allows us to reach people in the physical world as well as the virtual world and in a unique way merge those two. The Gap recently ran a campaign coordinated with Foursquare which allowed customers to receive a discount in-store after check-ins online. The newest evolution is an online another campaign featuring Foursquare. This time the location-aware ads feature holiday fashion deals and appear on several sites including Mashable and Gawker. When the “Add to Foursquare” button is clicked, the wanted item is added to a Gap to-do list and the shopper is entitled to a 30% discount on any regular priced Gap item when they purchase in the store.

OK, that was long and a lot to ponder, but since we all have short attentions spans, here is the gist.

1. Ubiquitous Product. Apply back of house functions to the front of the house.
2. Environment Fluidity. Think of each retail location as temporary.
3. Channel Efficiency. Create efficiencies for each channel through the use of the other channel.
4. Shared Experiences. Allow customers the freedom to create and share their own experiences.
5. One Channel. Drive sales back and forth from in-store to online channels back to in-store.

Some will argue with me that recent trends and research point to the retail store experience going the way of the drive-in movie theater. I have to disagree and say that the data only points to a deficiency in a retailers efforts to make their in-store experience closer to their online experience. If a retailer has a consistent in-store and online experience you will see better results and growth in the brand as well as the bottom line no matter the economic climate. And, according to Nordstrom, the customer has spoken.

Double secret probation: A university re-brands…badly.

First they dropped a whole truckload of fizzies into the varsity swim meet. Then they delivered medical school cadavers to the alumni dinner. And now in the midst of a severe financial crisis, they undertook an expensive and time consuming re-positioning and branding initiative. So, who are they? Well the fizzies and the cadavers were the work of our friends at Delta Tau Chi also known as Animal House. As for the branding initiative? That was spearheaded (or manhandled) by Bruce Shepard, the new president at Western Washington University possibly with the assistance of Dean Wormer and Niedermeyer given its boneheadedness.

So, what’s the big deal here anyway? Well, we may argue about merits (or lack of) of the most visible outcome of this initiative – the new brand identity, but more importantly this initiative appears to be misguided on many levels. And, from my perspective, a poor process and outcome reflects badly on the business I’m in – brand strategy and design. Re-positioning and branding is a complex, time-consuming and expensive endeavor, especially at a large academic institution. It requires commitment from a diverse set of stakeholders, a clear and focused path to success and, finally well-organized implementation. There are numerous recent success stories, such as the University of Phoenix, Macquarie University and even the nearby Vancouver Island University; unfortunately this one appears to be more of a cautionary tale. Well, to quote Dean Wormer, “The time has come for someone to put his foot down. And that foot is me.”

The time has come for someone to put his foot down. And that foot is me.

A lot of questions have been raised by this branding initiative, but the most obvious is, why? Why undertake this now with many academic institutions, including Western, in deep financial trouble? Why divert the time and energy especially “during these times of severe budget cutbacks”? Why create confusion and uncertainty when, now more than ever, focus and clarity is needed? However, in spite of this, according to the university, the goal is to “increase the overlap between how Western’s campus community perceives itself and how others see the university.” Noble goals, for sure, but right now? Really?

Re-positioning and new branding is undertaken for a number of reasons. It may be purely functional in the case of a merger or name change.

Goodbye cute NBC Universal peacock. Hello tepid type on purple.

It may be undertaken when reputation is in trouble. Look for a new BP identity coming to a gas station near you soon. Or it may be to signal a wider scope of services such as in the case of UPS who eliminated the cute little package in favor of positioning that reflects its strength in logistics.

Paul Rand is weeping in his grave.

In most cases, these changes are positive and provide an opportunity to build further brand equity. However, in the case of Western, to re-position and introduce a new brand identity merely to improve perceptions has, in fact, created a perception of frivolous spending and an inappropriate use of resources. This negative perception is furthered especially when the process and the final outcome of the brand identity is so questionable.

Okay, another question? How much did this initiative cost?  Well, according to Paul Cocke, Director of University Communications, the university spent $112,000. The funding was from “earnings from service-delivery functions by the university,” which apparently means not from the state taxpayers or tuition. Well, no matter where the money comes from, we all know that it’s in short supply and needs to be spent appropriately. If we’re talking about improving perceptions or raising the visibility of Western, then I think there are other areas that address this more directly. In fact, according the Seattle Times, fewer students have applied to WWU this year, because the school scaled back recruitment efforts to save money. Hey, how about we spend it on recruiting? Jes’ sayin’.

So, where did they spend it? Well, apparently they hired “top Seattle commercial branding firm,” Lyric to help research and re-imagine Western’s identity. Good luck if you can find much info on the firm (well, actually, it’s one person) or what the criterion is for being ranked at the top. They, in turn, hired Epiphany Research (well again, it’s actually one person) to collaborate on the research portion. Now, I’m sure the university went through some sort of RFP process and did their due diligence, but I’m having a lot of trouble understanding or seeing any background or expertise in institutional or academic branding – one of the more challenging areas of branding.

Now Western has a lot of bright and talented people – it’s a university, fer chrissakes! It has a superb College of Business and Economics in addition to an outstanding Fine Art department that includes a nationally recognized design program. I know. I’ve hired several of their graduates. But unfortunately, no one was included on the project leadership team from the design program and apparently no one in business school raised their hand along the way.

It’s often said that design is a bit like sausage, it is better not to see them being made. That being said, the outcome still should be tasty and appealing. However, in this case it seems like the university essentially undertook a long in-depth and time consuming research study. So what did they learn? From what I can tell in reading the quantitative reports from the alumni and student survey, there wasn’t anything really pressing or wrong! In fact, the first key point states, “a love fest”. The big problem? A bit more diversity would be nice and, oh, some more school spirit. However, 51% chose Western due to the academics and its reputation. Other more practical or objective considerations were affordability, class/campus size, curriculum and proximity to home. Many of these considerations are ones that will be directly affected by budget shortfalls. The survey results for faculty and staff stated that they chose Western because of the location, the academics and the size – all very positive images. The stated misperceptions? The feeling that they are over-compensated, elitist and too liberal. I think that you’d find that misperception at most colleges and universities in the United States. Many of these issues are ones that a new identity or position is ever going to directly address. So where is this research that points to a need to “increase the overlap between how Western’s campus community perceives itself and how others see the university.”

So, at the end of this “sausage making” process we have the visual touchstone – the new brand identity. Now this is also where it gets weird. After spending a great deal of time and money on the research and re-imagining phase with a “top Seattle commercial branding firm”, the identity portion was handed over to a student at Western. Now I commend them for engaging in one of their own and, no matter how talented or skilled, isn’t that like having one the accounting students do the books for the university?

Introducing a new brand identity is a tricky and delicate dance. Starbucks recently revised their brand identity only slightly (for the better I might add) and still received a bit of flak.

The retailer, Gap, committed identity hari-kari recently indicating where the gap truly lies. What this means is that people need to be educated, perceptions have to be managed and the reasons or the stories behind the identity need to make sense. Unfortunately, in this case, they weren’t and they don’t.

Apparently, the “concept” (I use that term loosely here) of the mountain and the bay was developed by Lyric despite the fact that these are not unique to the institution nor due they clearly convey the academic excellence of Western. In fact, just on purely visual evidence we can find numerous cases of the mountain and water motif most notably from a little college up the road called Skagit Valley College. I don’t think it was intentional, I just think that the designer inherited a weak “concept” that fell more into the civic/community design approach. But perhaps this approach appeals to someone from Wisconsin like President Shepard who is still enamored with the Pacific Northwest scenery, but I think his academic institution deserves better. It’s a university and not a convention bureau.

But how does the actual designer of the new WWU mark feel about it? He says, “I’m very meh about the design. I was asked to show them stuff the next morning, so I only had a couple hours to work it before [the] presentation. It’s certainly not the highest quality logo I’ve done. If I could have been apart of research, and had six weeks or so, I’d feel a lot better about it”. This is what we do after spending $112,000? Oh, and by the way, he originally wasn’t paid proving once again that you get what you paid for. Perhaps Western’s biggest problem is not perception, but with ethics? Now to be clear, President Shepard did call him into his office and offer him $500 (hush money?). The designer, apparently turned him down.

And so, now we have a new ill-conceived identity, a grammatically incorrect tagline, “Active Minds Changing Lives,” and all of this launching in the midst of when high school seniors everywhere are deciding on where to college. Perhaps President Shepard’s real game was to attract students from Wisconsin and elsewhere to visit beautiful Bellingham Bay and Mt. Baker and while they’re here pay three times as much in tuition and fees. Just don’t let them find out that you really can’t see Mt. Baker from campus. Now I know that visual communication can be very subjective. We all have our unique experiences, our likes and dislikes and generally random associations with various items. In the medical world, we say, “do no evil,” and in the visual communication realm the thing we need to keep in mind is, “do not confuse”. I think many of us are a bit confused. Look for a growing Facebook backlash soon.

In the final analysis, you can’t hold a whole design agency responsible for the poor outcome of a single individual. For if you do, then shouldn’t we blame the whole design industry? And if the whole design industry is guilty, then isn’t this an indictment of our creative institutions in general? I put it to you, isn’t this an indictment of our entire American society? Well, you can do what you -want, but were not going to sit here and listen you to you badmouth the United States of America. In fact, my advice to you, President Shepard, is to start drinking heavily.

A Tsunami of Aid

As you know, Japan was hit by the largest earthquake ever recorded on Friday, March 11th. The huge quake and devastating tsunami have left overwhelming damage to the country. Fortunately, our friends and families are safe, but many others have lost their families and homes. It is at these times when the words of the poet Shiyoji Miyazawa are particularly meaningful.

“kokoro” wa dare ni mo mienai keredo, “kokoro-zukai” wa mieru. “Omoi” wa mienai keredo, “omoiyari” wa dare ni de mo mieru.
One’s “kokoro” (spirit) cannot be seen by anyone, but “kokoro-zukai” (compassion) can be. “Omoi” (thoughts) cannot be seen by anyone, but “omoiyari” (thoughtfulness) can be seen by everyone.

Here are a few links where you may donate for the relief and recovery in Japan:

• American Red Cross or you can text REDCROSS to 90999 to make a $10 donation (added to your phone bill).
• Save the Children
• Global Giving
• World Vision or text “4JAPAN” to 20222 to send a $10 donation to the group (added to your phone bill).
• Mercy Corp

Mo betta butter…please!

Stick butter has been around almost as long as the butter churner. It seems that innovation in this category has stalled out with the butter tub, squeezable and spray butter. Yet, despite these so-called innovations, we still wrap four cubes in wax paper and stuff them into a box. How quaint.

As consumers of this everyday item, we are constantly challenged with peeling the greasy waxed paper from the cubes while trying not to manhandle or have it slip out onto the floor. This consumer frustration has become so pervasive that we have a name for it –butter-fingers! And what about the leftover portion? Do you put it back into the box or do you leave it buried in the back of the refrigerator?

There has got to be a betta butter way. I use to buy salad mixings by the head, but now the most consumer friendly format is pre-cut in a bag. I, for one, am eating a lot more greens strictly based upon the ease and convenience of this new format. I use to suffer the anticipation of the slow pouring ketchup, but no more thanks to the upside squeezable bottle. And I stopped slicing bread a long time ago thanks to the best invention since…well sliced bread!

Surviving the Creative Cage Match

Guidelines to surviving the most dangerous improv in the world

You may have received this call. You know the one. It begins, “Hi, we’re soliciting creative work for an upcoming redesign. We’d like to pay you for some creative thinking and concepts”. And so it goes, more or less. Some firms eagerly jump at these requests while others dread and despise these calls. However, let’s take a look at what’s behind these requests and see if we can uncover a little bit of insight into what’s driving these requests. I mean, why has this become such a hated approach?

The most common approach in package design today is to solicit the best creative solutions from different firms. In the past design firms may have relied on relationships, internal research or proprietary processes to solve these challenges. However, today the research is provided, the cloak has been lifted on the so called proprietary design process and clients are far more brand savvy than ever before. In addition, talent has moved around the industry from company to company improving their expertise and ultimately sharing it along the way. It’s not the same game it was five years ago.

Testing…testing…1, 2, 3: Let’s go shopping…virtually.

I hate tests. It’s a wonder I even made through school, but then again, I guess that’s why I gravitated towards the creative field. But, alas, I still can’t rid myself of tests. However this time, I’ve taken to giving them rather than taking them – it’s a whole lot more rewarding. Here’s an example. A recent club store package design project allowed us to partner with the San Francisco based research firm, Socratic Technologies to analyze and test consumer perceptions of current, new and competitor packaging utilizing their online research tool.

As we all know, the club store environment is especially challenging for retailers and consumers alike. It’s poorly lit with large aisles surrounded by towering shelves and filled with palettes, crates and boxes. It is, after all, a warehouse turned store, but without all the charm, intimacy and coziness of our neighborhood grocery store. In addition, the consumer is presented with a very limited selection, yet is compensated for that limitation with low prices and the opportunity to buy in bulk. Anyone for a gallon of mayo? So, success in this environment requires a different design approach as well as establishing key metrics that help guide the design to align with consumer perceptions.

POP: Power of Persuasion

It’s always nice to create a package design program. It’s even better when we can also extend that design further into the in-store experience. As part of the launch of a new lines of work gloves, Wells Lamont needed a flexible in-store display program for both specialty and large format store environments. The result was a system of tabletop, floor and hanging units, each reflecting the design look and feel established on the glove tags.

Lather, rinse, repeat: Is the so-called “repeatable experience” really worth repeating?

I’ve listened to many management consultants trot out the “repeatable experience” as a desired go-to strategy for agencies. They go the great lengths to describe the power of repeating the same processes over and over again. They say that you can’t survive unless you focus on that one single nugget that you do well and nibble it to death. They even say that you should fold it into your tagline.

And I’d have to respond that they’re absolutely correct….to a certain extent. Let’s take a look at a frequent occurrence in agency life. New prospects often will say, “hmm…nice work, but j’ever worked on a bee pollen energy drink? We’re different, ya know.” Yeah, right, we’re all different in our own twisted ways, but in my book, the experience of visual problem solving and strategic thinking still remains the same – no matter if it’s the first bee pollen energy drink or the bazillionth. Now I understand that there may be a sense of comfort in working with an agency that may be familiar with bee pollen, energy drinks or whatever. But what exactly are you hiring? The fact is you should be engaging an agency not because of what they do, but because of what we can do for you. A rather Kennedy-esque way of thinking about it.

And yes, there should be a repeatable process internally for managing the work. There shouldn’t be any confusion about how to get from client briefing to drunken award show mayhem. No one should be standing around wondering what’s next. But those are production principles. The repeatable experience as a production principle has been around even before Henry Ford shoved the first Model T off the line. It worked then and it works now.

But does the repeatable experience really help in the clear blue sky thinking of innovation? I would argue not so much. True innovation is essentially thinking about what hasn’t been done before or even why we are doing things the same way over and over again – the true definition of insanity.

So, I guess the repeatable experience has its place in agency management, but let’s be clear about where it goes and how it functions. Either it works to manage a production process or to reassure a certain type of buyer. However, just don’t count on it to generate experiences that may be worth repeating again and again, because if you do you’ll just end up with an empty shampoo bottle.