The Seattle Times reports that Starbucks is dropping its global corporate name from its store in the Capitol Hill neighborhood in Seattle. The store was one supposed to close last year under the consolidation plan. Instead, it is being reborn as an eco-frendly outlet with a rustic, neighborhood feel. How far is the local branding effort going to go? Pretty much all the way. You won’t see the Starbucks’ name or logo, and the coffee beans, teas, and other products will be branded with the 15th Avenue Coffee and Tea name. Those names are meant to give the stores “a community personality,” said Tim Pfeiffer, senior vice president of Starbucks global design.

Most branding discussions I have with clients have to do with taking a local brand global or maintaining a global brand identity. Here’s Starbucks taking an opposite course. Smart move? You bet! Howard Schultz is taking advantage of the consumer trend of buying local, a particularly strong sentiment here in the Northwest. Starbucks has been losing foot traffic in recent years. The new coffee house will attempt to attract local residents not only with the re-branding, but also by serving beer and wine, hosting musical performances and poetry readings - all items that should appeal to Capitol Hill residents. But can the new store distinguish itself and hold its own against the truly small, locally owned and operated coffee house, like Victrola Coffee Roasters also located on 15th Avenue? Its owner, Dan Ollis doesn’t think so. “Starbucks is Starbucks and we are different from them,” he was quoted in the newspaper.
I think I’ll have to drive up there next month and check it out for myself.

Popularity: 40% [?]

Two years ago I wrote extensively about how Starbucks had undercut its brand experience to rapidly grow the number of outlets. I warned that degrading the customer’s sensual interaction with coffee beans and the espresso making process would open the door to low end competitors. Sure enough, McDonalds and Dunkin Donuts, among others, are making a strong play for high-end coffee drinkers who have been held captive by Starbucks, Peets and local coffee shops.
And Starbucks gave them plenty of ammunition. Specifically, in its desire to cut costs of opening new stores, the comapny had lost many of the core experiences that made Starbucks a Starbucks. Walking into an outlet, you did not get the wonderful aroma of freshly brewed coffee beans. Baristas were placed behind high counters with espresso machines that were fast, but not particularly fun to watch. Artistic flair was replaced with functional speed. In an internal memo to his managers, Howard Schultz had himself complained that the aroma and theatre that had originally catapulted Starbucks into the world’s premiere coffee house had been lost.
Facing this increased competition, Starbucks is bringing back the core Starbucks experience. Hurrah! Beginning next month, baristas will grind fresh coffee beans each time a fresh pot of coffee is brewed (currently they grind the beans once in the morning). Based on how busy the shop is, baristas will brew fresh pots every 8, 12, or 24 minutes, switching to different varieties so that customers won’t have to be disappointed when they request a particular blend. Espresso will once again be made with flair, the hiss of steam filling the air. Will it slow down the process? Probably. Is this a good tradeoff? Absolutely. Speed and efficieciency is not a battle Starbucks is going to win with McDonalds or 7-Eleven. More importantly, it’s not as relevant to the customers as the true coffee house experience. 
Investing again in a superior customer experience is a wise brand strategy. Managers focused on quarter-to-quarter results would have been tempted to dumb down the Starbucks experience, perhaps offering a sub-standard cup of “everyday espresso drinks” to match the price of the fast food giants. But Howard Schultz is adopting a high road strategy. To some this may be counterintuitive, given the current economic downturn. To me, it’s right on, and will position Starbucks for growth as the economy recovers.

Popularity: 43% [?]

Today we launch the new design4brand home page, with the specific goal of increasing contacts and client contracts. We’ve applied insights and tips from our friends at Marketing Experiments to increase clarity and reduce friction. The fancy term for this is “landing page optimization.” What it means is that your website visitors know where they are when they hit your site, what they should do, and why they should do it. Why should they buy your products or services?
So, what specific changes have we made? The graphics at the top remain, but we now have a stronger and clearer value proposition. Visitors know right up front what we do and how that may benefit them, and how they can contact us to start the discussion. The flow of information follows a natural progression with a call to action.
We’ve moved the educational components of branding strategy from the home page. We thought we were so smart in placing tips and tricks right there so that clients would realize just how smart we were.  Now we know better. Now we want to connect with our clients’ issues first, then educate them later. We still have our search engine optimization words so that you’ll find us organically, but now you have clearer information as to whether our services match your needs.
We are now certified by Marketing Experiements in the area of Landing Page Optimization - which simply means that we can help you get more sales once a customer finds your website. 

Popularity: 43% [?]

Mainstream high-tech firms have been dipping their toes into the shallow waters of web social media for the past five years. But finding a shining example of social media among the fortune 100 firms is a futile search. Take HP, for example. Their websites are designed to present, and sell, to you their prdoucts and services. All well and good, especially as they have made selection easier by customer segment. But conversations with, and among, customers is not visible. You have to go within the Customer Support area to find any kind of forums. And while kudos to the Customer Assurance groups for even having these forums, the content is naturally geared toward solving product issues. And the forum page is filled with legal cautions and warnings HP wants you to know before you dare join a forum (talk about throwing some roadblocks!). Apparently participants can be awarded points, but who knows what those points will get you?
Compare this with the Skittles website, which takes you directly to the conversations from and among customers. Some are very positive, but there are the negative ones as well. How about “I don’t like skittles,” or even “Skittles are (swear word). M&M’s rule.”? This is akin to having customers complain about the price of ink on the HP Home page. Don’t see that happening? Neither do I. But they and IBM and Nokia and others should lean more in the direction of Skittles. What does this say about Skittles? That they have FULL FAITH in thier Brand!
“Some will question whether it’s wise to give up control on the Web–whether this is a good use of social media,” says Charlene Lin, author of business best-seller Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies, consultant, speaker and blogger (altimeter.com). “But they are controlling content in the most important sense, which is that they’re getting people to talk about and engage with the brand. It’s hard to get people to engage with a candy, but this is generating incredible buzz and PR. This is a big brand pushing the envelope toward what a brand will be in the future.”
High-tech marketeers - go take a look at Skittles, and then chew on it.

Popularity: 51% [?]

Faced with the need for additional revenue streams, Microsoft corporation is planning to open a “small number” of retail stores, ostensibly to gather better insights into what customers truly want (apparently they are not hearing enough from Vista users…). To spearhead this effort, Microsoft has hired David Porter as VP of retail stores. Mr. Porter has recently served as the distribution manager for DreamWorks Animation SKG, but has spent a much larger part of his career as an executive at WalMart. Does this choice alone predict how successfully Microsoft will compete? Eight years after the opening of the Apple Store, will Microsoft’s efforts follow in the tradition of Vista or will they truly innovate the retail experience?

The folks up the road in Redmond have been testing out retail designs in their 20,00 square foot wharehouse. But the hiring of a former WalMart Exec suggests that the emphasis will be more on destination shopping strategies and efficient supply chain versus an inviting atmosphere and superior staff that one finds at the Apple stores. I imagine if an MS Store opens in Pioneer Square here in Portland, I’ll be standing in line with others, bringing in my laptop with the Vista OS and pleading with the MS sales staff to fix this @*&## thing! I doubt I’ll get much help.

And this raises a fundamental issue for Microsoft as well. The Apple Stores are designed to work wonderfully well in promoting the Apple products. People come in to try out the latest iPhone, iPod, etc. Microsoft will need people to come in and try out the newest version of their software, but will that draw them in. People love to play with new gadgets, not new operating systems.

 I wish them luck, but they will have to double down on the retail experience or face the equivalent of the Vista failure.

Popularity: 58% [?]

Now that the election is over and we can all calm down a bit, it’s time to reflect on the learnings on brand strategy from the Obama and McCain campaigns. No matter which candidate you favored, there are distinct differences in how Brand McCain was managed versus Brand Obama. Here are 5 important lessons.
Lesson 1: Know the Trends that Impact Your Customers and Your Brand
If there was one advantage that Brand Obama had going into the early primaries, it was embracing the trend of change. He was the first candidate to stake his positioning around it. Hillary Clinton jumped on the change trend, but much later than Obama. And by adding on “experience” to the change message, she left herself hanging in-between these two brand attributes.
How well do you know the social, business, marketing and design trends that are impacting your brand? Are you using these trends to help shape your brand strategy?
Lesson 2: Address the Emotional and Social Needs of Your Customers
Remember the early days of the campaign when most people insisted that Obama was merely a great orator but lacked substance in his talk? What he understood was that the Democratic candidate needed to first resonate with the customer base (e.g. all voters in the U.S.). Making the rational arguments of the political platform without keying into the emotional needs of the constituents has been detrimental to the Democratic brand since the time of Ronald Reagan. The economic meltdown obviously amplified this desire to turn a new page. Obama made sure that his brand first met the emotional and social needs of his customers, and only then did he specify how the functional elements of his plans would work. Sarah Palin obviously understood and strongly met the emotional and social needs of her customer base as well. The difference? Obama viewed his market as the entire electorate, thus extending his brand into many more sub-segments.
Can you map the emotional and social needs of your customers? Do you have specific plans to address these?
Lesson 3: Create a Clear Positioning and Stick to It
This was perhaps the most important element of the success of Brand Obama and the greatest failing of the McCain brand. Once Obama staked his positioning around change, he stuck to it. When his competitors attacked him on his lack of experience, his associations, etc., he and his team kept to their positioning and stayed on message. Brand McCain, in contrast, did not have a clear position. Was it experience and change? Was it old, but not too old? Was it conservative, but centrist (except for the Palin sub-brand)? The position seemed to shift week to week, as opportunities arose.
Do you have a clear and differentiated brand position? When your competitors attack you, do you react by changing your position, or do you hold firm to the value proposition you have taken to the market? 
Lesson 4: Use Social Networking to Create Brand Evangelists
It’s been well-documented that Brand Obama embraced the learnings from the 2004 Howard Dean campaign and heavily leveraged the social networking power of the Web. From acquiring donations to getting supporters to volunteer at a moment’s notice, to deflecting any unwarranted attack, Brand Obama fully understood how to use the Internet to take action. His site was well designed and easy to use. He used the power of social networking strategically. And it reinforced the emotional connection with his volunteers and kept them engaged as active evangelists.
Is social networking a core part of your promotional strategy or a mere afterthought? 
Lesson 5: Have a Design Strategy that Supports Your Brand Identity
Remember John McCain standing in front of the green screen and looking old and tired as he addressed his audience? Clearly someone was not paying attention as to what this would communicate about the McCain brand persona. What was the persona of the McCain Brand? The campaign theme was “Maverick”, but the persona seemed to be “loyal and experienced.” At the end of the day, the brand identity was confused and confusing. How many times did you hear, “Is this the John McCain of 2000 or the John McCain of 2008?” Then there was the $150K shopping debacle of Sarah Palin. It’s not that I begrudge her the clothes, and I certainly think it is the right of the RNC to spend their campaign dollars as they see fit. But it just was so contradictory to the brand persona that Sarah Palin and Brand McCain was trying to build. Once again, Brand Obama was disciplined in its identity and conveyed a persona of “youthful, forward-looking and presidential.”
Do you have a clear line of sight of when and where your customers meet your brand? Does every point reflect your brand identity?

At the end of the day, you need to manage your brand strategically, review and refesh it as needed, but don’t change your tactics every quarter, based on tactical goals.

Popularity: 70% [?]

Boost Mobile, a unit of Sprint best known for its teen positioning (”Where you at?” campaign) is changing its positioning to a value message, according to Todd Wasserman in BrandWeek. Facing strong pricing competition from the likes of Cricket and Tracfone, Boost is reducing its rates from 20 cents to 10 cents a minute. The new pricing is centered around an all-you-can-talk-for-one-dollar plan, which applies to in-network calls. The campaign uses a “Dollar a Day Chat Plan,” with George Washington as the metaphor figure. It’s a definitive shift from lifestyle positioning to price positioning.
Which begs the question: Given the current economic climate, is this the time to put all your brand eggs in the price-value basket?
It’s tempting to do so, especially when your boss is looking for the next quarter’s results, but beware!
We could do a whole series on price wars, and maybe my colleagues at the Chasm Institute would like to comment on pricing strategies in the mature market. But let’s just take the positioning itself. The problem with positioning on price only, is that it leaves you nowhere to go when your competition comes back and undercuts you with special promotions or even long-term pricing drops. This approach gets you into the dreaded Price Promotion Doom Loop. If Boost is trading off long-term brand value for short-term gains, they will find it difficult to recover to any type of premium positioning. This leaves room for competitors like Virgin Mobile (”You Rule!”) to maintain its Cool factor with youth, while offering alternative plans to compete with Boost. I believe Boost will weaken its brand and paint itself into a corner that it may regret. Its teen customers will only buy on price for so long. In the end, the personal image connection will win out. That means cool designs, and rebel positioning. We’ll see. But in these times, it is far better to keep your core positioning and emotional connection strong, and play with pricing, rather than the other way around.

Popularity: 100% [?]

If you are a local government or publicly-funded organization, or a non-profit entity, then now is the time for you to create a compelling brand or refresh the one you already have. Brand is all about relationship and both the economic conditions and the high mistrust of government means that your relationship with those who fund you may be suffering, without you even being aware of it. And the steep drop in consumer spending will be more than matched by a drop in contributions and support for the governmentt and non-profit sectors.
If you are a local provider of governmental services, then you may be suffering through an association with the governmental master brand - “those folks in Washington.” The record level of mistrust and frustration with the national government means that organizations who provide local services need to renew their relationship with those who fund them. Brand is all about a trusted relationship. How trusted is the one your local citizens have with you? Do they feel that you provide an important service and do so in a highly efficient and trusted manner? Or do they associate you with a bloated and misguided bureaucracy?

What should you do?
First, assess where you stand today. Survey a percent of your local citizens. And conduct some deeper interviews to get at what is really important to your constituents. Look for areas where you can not only fix problems, but where you can innovate new solutions.
How deep is your relationship? Do citizens support you out of a sense of necessity, or do they feel proud to be associated with you? Are they loyal to what you stand for?
Review your value proposition. Are your services still what people need? Do you deliver them in a way that matches your community’s lifestyle and adoption of technology? 
Have members of your community give feedback on your brand identity. What does your name, logo, etc. communicate to your community? Do they convey that you are professional, yet approachable?
Finally, how do you maintain and build on the relationship you have? Newsletters? Community events? What about blogging? Do you do these on a consistent basis. How effective are they and how do you know)?
If you are a leader in your organization, then you need to have a good handle on your brand strategy. Don’t wait until the next election cycle.
Do it now.

Popularity: 46% [?]

In the words of Jerry Seinfeld, “What’s up with Microsoft’s corporate brand identity?” The new ad campaign with Misters Seinfeld and Gates is remarkably unfunny, unconvincing, and just boring. And I’m a great Seinfeld fan. But who wants to see Bill Gates nerdily shake his suburban rear end? I don’t mind the absurdity of future PCs being made out of chocolate, but how does that help Microsoft position themselves against Apple? Answer: it doesn’t.
A worse problem is in the ads where a John Hodgman look-alike pathetically whines that he is a PC and he has been mocked. Alas! Oh, shame! Then the ad cuts to real world/global PC users who work outdoors, as artists, etc, all to show us that there are “cool” people who use PCs powered by Microsoft. The effect is to reinforce in the viewer’s mind just how un-cool the PC is, compared to the MAC. The old adage of not wanting your customers to think about the competition applies here.

Microsoft doe shave the ability to differentiate their brand. The idea around working without walls is intriguing. it would help if we actually saw these people with a PC doing something creatively or making a breakthrough discovery. Microsoft should have started and stayed with the “working without walls” theme, and drop the pathetic attempt at responding to the popular Apple ads. 

Popularity: 65% [?]

Some colleagues and I were discussing the branding of the Green Works cleaning products when I was in New York last week. As you may know, Green Works is the eco-friendly brand by Clorox. The question was whether Clorox was literally too harsh of a master brand for a group of products marketed for environmentally friendly properties. If Clorox equals bleach, can a Clorox product equal eco-friendly.

When you see the product on the shelf, “Green Works” is the primary brand. This is emphasized by the sunflower drawing and logo. The Clorox logo is also there, but smaller and lower on the package. This allows Clorox to serve as an enabler brand to Green Works. It gives Green Works credibility to the shopper that the product comes from a trusted brand. And having a third-party endorsement from the U.S. EPA helps to verify that this is a genuine green product. I do find it confusing that Clorox chose to have both clear and white packaging, but that is most likely due to the color of the cleaning product itself inside the white packaging.

As a direct brand, Clorox would have had some difficulty going after the green-conscious consumer. Green Works allows them to target this segment with a primary brand. But a green product must also fulfill its primary function, as well as be environmentally safe. If a cleaning product does not perform the job of a good detergent, few people are going to buy it. Both the name “Green Works,” and (more importantly) the Clorox logo tells the consumer that this product will get the grime out, while being safe.

Clorox is a believable endorser brand because of its history. Having non-chlorine bleach products, such as Clorox 2, also helps to close the perceptual gap.

Choosing how to align your parent brands and sub-brands is an important step as you extend your company’s products and services into new customer segments. Think it through and test it out.

Popularity: 60% [?]