SIGMA::BLOG

Let’s face it, we’re a society who wants to have our cake and eat it, too.  We’re consumers who say one thing…but embrace new products and services that indicate something else.  Often, for a brand person, it’s seemingly impossible to serve up engagements that satisfy these mixed signals among consumers.  How do you address the needs of a consumer when they say one thing, and you have the brand or product that offers great benefits, but then they just don’t buy it, or they just don’t act, or they head in another direction?  Honestly…when all is said and done, it’s simple:  don’t just satisfy consumers, make them feel good.

A great example of the contradictions in behavior is with food.  Look at the landscape in recent, food headlines and news bytes (no pun intended).  And then take a peek at what’s tantalizing our pallets as trends and recent intros.  The juxtaposition not only demonstrates consumers’ contradictions in choices, but at its core, it reveals consumers’ desire to be surprised, delighted, and to just walk away feeling happy. Check out this “salty and sweet mash-up” of sorts…

Headline: “Food Safety Leaders:  Kraft, Subway, Starbucks to Cut Salt.” Both restaurants and packaged food companies are signing up for the challenge of reducing sodium in their products by 20% over the next five years.

But then there’s:  Bacon cupcakes.  Bacon lip balm.  Bacon marmalade. Bacon vodka. Bacon ice cream.  Bacon bacon.  It’s one of the top food and flavor trends cited for 2010 and if you don’t believe us, just check how two ‘Bacontrepreneurs’ from Bacon Salt grew an enterprise in three years with a $5,000 loan from a 3-year old.

Headline: “For Corn Syrup, the Sweet Talk Gets Harder.”
What started as a narrow movement by proponents of natural and organic foods has morphed into a swell of mainstream opposition.

But then there’s:  The recently revealed, million-dollar winning recipe in this year’s Pillsbury bakeoff:  the Mini Ice-Cream Cookie Cup, which included pre-made refrigerated sugar cookie dough, ice cream, melted chocolate, and raspberry jam.  It won because it was simple and it just tasted good.

Headline:  “Santa Clara Bans Happy Meal Toys.” This proposal is believed to be the first of this type, and would ban the inclusion of a toy in any kids meal with more than 485 calories, 600 mg of salt, or high amounts of sugar or fat.

But then there’s:  KFC’s new Double Down Sandwich.  Two fried chicken filets, two kinds of cheese, and (yes) bacon.  (Apparently, adult consent = OK)

All rational reasons that are making headlines—yet consumers’ emotional sides being fulfilled in trends and new food choices.

As marketers of food and non-food brands we realize that the new normal in spending is driven by careful consideration and prioritization:
•    88% of consumers have taken steps in 2010 to reduce spending overall
•    93% say that their spending has become more strategic

But at the same time, 90% of consumers are seeking small treats for themselves, as well as others, in what they buy.   Why?  Because small treats feel good.  And it’s that “small treats” insight that points us to the emotional connections a brand can bring to the table.  Whether it’s added value, or undeniable proof that only your product can do the job, or a free sample, or stellar customer service, or just a great online experience.   Delivering small treats that satisfy is like a consumer magnet!

Turkey bacon.  I think that’s a good way to visualize the happy medium tempering the rational needs with the emotional wants.  It’ll be our ongoing challenge to find a turkey bacon like balance in every marketing recommendation.

(Source: Coming of Age in the Great Recession: A Grounded Consumer Followup, Carton Donofrio Partners, Context-Based Research Group)

If you own a car, there are countless ways you can find yourself at a body shop: you back into a fire hydrant, you develop a strange attraction to shopping carts, someone keys your door. You get the idea. Most cars have also become quite good at letting us know when someone needs to look under the hood – idiot lights on the dash, funny sounds, a new smoking habit, or one day it just decides to not move.

Why is it then, that we fail to act when we think—sometimes even know— that our brand is in disrepair? Well, whether it’s an abandoned Buick on the side of the road, or a brand new Prius with a sticky accelerator, there are identifiable indicators that it’s time to make a visit to “the brand shop”. The following are a few things that may light up your brand’s dashboard:

1.  Your market environment has changed. Your customers’ expectations of how a brand in your space looks, means, and behaves has altered. Are you keeping up with it? What your brand offers is still relevant to your customers, but how they think of you (and talk about you) needs to change to allow you to be more competitive.

2.  Your organization is transforming. You may have identified a new line of business, or adopted a new model, new markets may have emerged—your brand has to evolve with these changes, right down to its fundamentals. While you are not remotely a start-up, in many respects you need to act like one. You must carefully identify the perfect positioning, employ the right strategies and develop new messages and digital properties that are in sync with your transformation.

3.  Your competition is more aggressively managing its brand to better connect with your customers and prospects. If someone in your category is creating a lot of buzz, inspiring messaging and visual expression. You need to react before it’s too late. They say in the next five years there will be more change than there were in the last fifty. If your brand foundation and products are sound, you should be able to adapt and manage any change.

4.  Your communications—print, video and digital—just don’t reflect your brand position. If you’re on top of your offerings and operations, but find yourself apologizing for every brochure and URL you hand out, then it’s time to take a new look at how you express yourself visually. There have never been more tools available to you to refresh your brand.

5.  You took a wrong direction. A lot of things can lead us down the wrong path: Misinterpreted research, aggressive purchasing, even a shift in the market. Or maybe you just took a gamble.  At any rate, your brand is currently out of sync with the direction your industry is taking—or more importantly what your customers are wanting. A brand course correction is needed.

6.  Your brand has changed, but the perception hasn’t. Your products/services are in the forefront – you offer great innovations, higher quality and greater value to your customers. But they’re just not getting it. You need to eliminate this lag and allow your company to move forward. The good news is that you have the vision, model and value to fuel new messages, a new visual expression and a brand that will advance your evolved organization.

Once you have identified your ‘flashing sign’, understanding what course you need to take to transform your brand will go a long way towards ensuring the work you undertake will be necessary and effective.  A good full service ‘brand shop’ should help you better understand what’s wrong (diagnostic), what it will take to get you from here to there (planning), which experience will take you to your destination (creative), and how to continuously stay on the right track (stewardship/optimization).

At this time every year, Information Resources, Inc. (IRI) issues an interesting report about what they call “pacesetter” products.  Essentially, it’s the best performing new product introductions from the prior year for consumer packaged goods, food and non-food.  Now, aside from the brand-specific details (e.g., “Love those Arnold Flat Breads!” or “Bud Light’s beer with lime flavor, who knew?!”), what’s interesting are the consumer behavior implications and trends.  Given that most new product launches fail, and that consumers – particularly in today’s economy – tend to purchase their known favorites, these trends are interesting indications of what’s sticking with consumers today.

So what’s grabbing consumers’ attention and share of wallet?

•    Known Equities – Line extensions and slight variations in products made consumers feel comfortable with their choices, for example, Campbell’s Select Harvest was #1, selling $201.8 million in better-for-you soup.

•    Feeling Good – Self care is on the rise, as consumers seek product solutions that help them avoid doctors and other professionals. And really, just stay happy!  Feel good new products helped meet this need, through healthy, functional foods such as Green Giant Valley Fresh Steamers frozen veggies or Kellogg’s FiberPlus – which are granola bars with high fiber, multiple vitamins, and antioxidants.  Or just feel-good-fun from products like Dreyer’s/Edy’s Fun Flavors ice creams and sorbets like Double Fudge Brownie, Butter Pecan, and Cookie Dough…(yum!) or Bud Light Lime.

•    Better, Easier, Convenient, More Effective brought to you through Technology – Particularly among non-food, top performers, if a consumer could get and do more thanks to technology, they bought it.  From three-ply toilet paper (Quilted Northern Ultra Plush at #1 in non-foods, $134.8 million) to multi-tasking laundry detergent  (Tide TotalCare) to deodorant that releases as you move (Secret Flawless).

•    Value & Brand Experience – A common theme we’ve all heard again and again is how today’s consumers are seeking best values.  Not just in pricing, but as a total picture of what they’re getting for their money.  Successful new products delivered more than just a solution – they offered extras like recyclable packaging, professional grade formulas, in-home sensory experiences, and highly targeted benefits.

IRI’s entire white paper report is free to download and a worthwhile few minutes of your time.   It shares the lists of pacesetters mentioned and others, as well as rising star products, and trends to watch in 2010.

Whether you’re lucky enough to have a brand new product launch, or just need to infuse a little news into your existing brand, tapping into consumers’ hot buttons and what’s grabbing their basket rings are good places for a brief to begin!

In 2009 we saw marketers everywhere seeking out one-to-one connections with their customers. The world of “mass” seemed a far-off reach in a world pressed for ROI, leads and conversion. But what was most interesting to watch in 2009 was the up-rise of technology and new channels, once only used by a small portion of the market, gaining scale and turning consumers from passive brand observers to active participants responsible for shaping brands and extending the marketing dollar. A “new mass” market approach unfolded in a big way that forced even the most traditional brands to take note and take the plunge. Once upon a time, a satisfied or unsatisfied customer would tell their close circle of family and friends if they loved or hated a brand. Now that same customer can tell the whole world in seconds–it’s mass marketing turbocharged. Pretty exciting stuff. (more…)

In our line of business, we interact with many different businesses, from start-ups to Fortune 500 international conglomerates.  It’s always interesting to hear them apologize for not being as educated as they should in the area of emerging media. They often tend to get disjointed or siloed. The truth is that as we get deeper into the diverse, converging landscape between digital media and marketing, many of the old rules of marketing no longer apply.  Whether you are big or small, deep in resources or entrepreneurial in spirit, the landscape can be intimidating.

During a roundtable at our Fuel for Thought event, we discussed on a topic we often get asked by clients.

How can marketers incorporate the consumer’s point-of-view as a regular part of strategy sessions, extending beyond consumer-generated content, consumer-created advertising, corporate blogs and focus groups? (more…)