There’s been a bit of a change in the reading material causing a stir in the Bloom office this week. Instead of the usual copies of Design Week and Creative Review, we’ve all been pouring over the April Issue of Horse & Rider. That’s because this month’s issue features our very own Account Director, Francesca Newman.
The six page feature shows Francesca, a seasoned competitor, demonstrating the tricky art of dressage riding.
There is no doubt that Adam Morgan’s book “Eating The Big Fish”, first published in 1999, has had a profound impact on how we perceive the relationship between the underdog and the brand leaders. This seminal book was dramatic in its honesty about how precarious life is for the little fish in an environment utterly dominated by big fish. As a solution Morgan offered eight credos that were intended to be a compass with which these challenger brands could navigate and set new rules of engagement to disrupt the status quo and “eat the big fish.”
In 2009 the second edition of “Eating The Big Fish” has evolved the term “challenger brand” into twelve different challenger stances from “The Irreverent Maverick” to “The People’s Champion.” Indeed the archetypal David vs. Goliath challenger stance, whereby a brand launches a directly positioned attack on the market leader with the intention of replacing it, is problematic as many brands today are adopting alternative routes to earn their challenger status. In addition, often when the little fish become the market leaders they gradually shed the values and ethics that propelled them into that position in the first place.
Dollar Shave Club demonstrates the evolution of the challenger model perfectly and falls into the category of the “Value Changer” - offering a proposition focused on superior value for money.
Despite being a tiny contender, Dollar Shave Club succeeded in muddying
the clear waters of the shaving market when it launched its unconventional and entertaining
YouTube video, which has achieved over six million views.
Although it is essentially challenging the shaving giant Gillette, at
the heart of this company is a product that is sincerely valued. The brand
achieves a distinct visual identity through the use of wooden imagery and a
heritage-style seal to compliment its clubhouse theme, which differentiates it
from the sleek and ultramodern razors produced by the rest of the category. As
a result this is primarily a brand-led challenge that offers quality razors at
a cheaper price and not simply a David vs. Goliath scenario.
Often successful challenger brands begin to face an identity crisis after they become leading players in their market and thereby outgrow their challenger positioning. Virgin Atlantic certainly demonstrated its challenger credentials when it dared to take on British Airways using its unconventional brand personality to agitate its conservative counterpart. Having earned a place as one of the best long-haul airlines, can Virgin still be considered a challenger brand? Virgin’s marketing trends certainly suggest that the brand has been loyal to its mischievous personality that propelled it into the position it is in today.
Virgin’s 2009 “Still red hot” advert, which celebrated the business’ 25th
birthday, was launched during an economic downturn. At a time when the airline
industry saw passenger numbers falling, Virgin deliberately swam against the
prevailing cultural tide and increased its marketing spend. This gives credence
to the argument that Virgin is still a challenger at heart, as it continues to
adhere to its core values – that flying should be a pleasure, not a chore –
even during a recession.
Apple is an exemplary challenger brand that dramatically ate the big fish, Microsoft. Yet it is arguably beginning to act like the very brand it set out to defeat. Recently Apple won a lawsuit against their rivals, Samsung, which saw a jury order the latter to pay the former $1 billion for patent infringement. This is not the behaviour of a challenger brand and is perhaps more symptomatic of a market leader wielding a club to protect its position.
The shift in the challenger brand paradigm is evident as brands seek new and innovative ways to disrupt the marketplace. In particular, brands are actively avoiding the formulaic David vs. Goliath scenario of a direct challenge to the market leader and are forging alternative routes instead. Moreover, if a challenger brand does become the market leader it must reconcile its new position with the core values that define it, or else it becomes an adaptation of the brand it set out to crush and ironically may suffer the same fate.
The London 2012 Olympic Games have been hailed universally as a resounding success, from the wonderfully eccentric opening ceremony to the phenomenal achievements of our athletes and the resounding expression of British unity. But where does the once volatile subject of the Olympic logo fit within this story and in our minds?
Brands and logos are specifically designed to make an impact and drive an emotional response, and the London 2012 logo certainly provoked a powerful reaction in the lead up to the Games, albeit mostly negative. However, when Bradley Wiggins rang that enormous bell to announce the commencement of Danny Boyle’s colourful and quirky take on British culture, the logo did not appear so awkward and alien. In fact the London 2012 symbol with its vibrant colours and jagged edges seemed to fit well with this celebration of British peculiarities.
Throughout the Games the logo proved to be incredibly versatile in the way that it was applied in the various sporting contexts, which demonstrated its ability to become an actual brand.
Given that the motto for the Olympic Games was “Inspire a generation” it would appear that this logo was particularly apt. The design is easily identifiable as the number 2012 and bold in its originality, it is not just an artist’s abstract interpretation of Big Ben or Tower Bridge or a London bus.
Of course the logo could have been designed to be less obtrusive and more delicate. But as the London 2012 Olympic Games will undoubtedly be remembered as the time when the world took a peek at British eccentricities, it is perhaps befitting that the logo was just as peculiar and individual.
Looking back on those 17 days it is clear that the logo was dominant and effective, it did its job, and in the words of Lord Coe in the Olympics closing speech, '...we did it right'.
It is no longer enough for brands to deliver satisfication simply through a quality product. Brands today, must 'excite me, involve me and respect me as an individual'. No small task for businesses who historically drive profit margins through uniformity and volume. Hence the rise of the pop-ups.
Pop-ups are the perfect platform - a single-minded branded presence on the high street offering pure brand theatre through experience and engagement. Cost effective against the exposure they generate, they offer a visible and real channel to celebrate the brand by creating something special if only for a limited time.
So hats off to Magnum who have just opened up a pop up store in Westfield Stratford (conveniently near to a certain global event starting in a few days). We recently heard about the 'Make your own Magnum pop up store" and had to go check it out. All in the name of research, of course.
With 2 types of ice cream (vanilla or chocolate & caramel), 18 toppings ranging from caramel swirls to coconut shavings to edible rose petals, 3 dipping chocolate sauces (white chocolate, milk chocolate and dark chocolate) and the option to drizzle some more chocolate on top, there are over 104,500 different possibilities to create your own Magnum.
Magnum-inspired cocktails were also available at the bar.
Twitter campaign to go hand in hand with the pop-up store
Our creation was a chocolate & caramel Infinity ice-cream dipped in white chocolate topped with hazelnuts, popping candy and brownies and finally drizzled with dark chocolate.
If that wasn't enough, once you've created your guilty indulgence you are invited to sit in the 'Pleasure Pod', to measure the pleasure that you give out whilst eating it.
The pod records your sensory output through measures of skin tension, facial expression, deglutition (aka swallowing) and heartbeat to capture your responses and displays them through a series of visual animations chart the pleasure journey.
This is just a short interpretation of the visual animation inside The Pleasure Pod.
Congratulations to Magnum and Unilever for creating such a compelling brand experience. So Mars was wrong...here is an example of Pleasure you can Measure.
Many of the world's loved and respected brand icons are born through happenstance. This week we’ve picked 3 famous food brands and investigated the unusual stories behind their conception.
Heinz ‘57 Varieties’
You’d be right in thinking that Heinz must have more than 57 varieties today. In fact they sell more than 5,700 different products in 200 countries. So how did the claim come about and why did it stick?
Back in 1896, Henry John Heinz was riding a train in New York City when he noticed an ad for ’21 styles of shoes’. He thought it was a clever way to advertise the plethora of canned and bottled foods his companies sold under one banner. At that time the company already sold more than 60 items. The number 57 was literally born from 5 (his lucky number) and 7 (his wife’s lucky number). He owned the company, it was his prerogative ... and Heinz ketchup still carries this claim today though less prominently.
La Vache qui Rit
The Laughing Cow was born soon after World War 1. French cheesemaker Léon Bel had a lot of comté, gruyere and emmental cheeses left over and decided to melt them down to create a new type of cheese.
In 1921 he noticed a meat truck go passed nicked name ‘Wachyrie’ after ‘Valkyries’ the creatures from Norse mythology that determine victors in battle. Considering it a relevant association Bel created the pun ‘La Vache qui Rit’ (‘The Laughing Cow’. He then commissioned Benjamin Rabier, a cartoon artist, to draw up the cow which has evolved into what it is today.
Green Giant
In 1925, Minnesota Valley Canning Company wanted to market its range of can peas. Unusually it came up with a grumpy grey gnome wearing a bearskin, stooping and scowling.
Realising that this was not the most relevant or consumer friendly face of the brand they soon hired an ad agency to revamp the mascot. It was none other than a young Leo Burnett who evolved the mascot into a friendly giant, painted him green, with a leaf strewn tunic, wreath and boots and called him ‘Jolly’ all in an attempted to make him more friendly.
The Jolly Green Giant was such a successful marketing campaign that the company actually changed its trading name to Green Giant.
Swiss light artist Gerry Hofstetter projected pictures of the Titanic on a giant iceberg off Greenland to mark the 100th anniversary of its maiden voyage.
2011 has been a strange year. There's been continuing economic turmoil, an Arab spring and a Euro autumn, interspersed with a fairy tale Royal Wedding and an eagerly anticipated feast of celebration with the Olympics and the Diamond Jubilee. We take a look back through the year and pick out 10 events, products and campaigns that have made us sit up and go wow or simply put a smile on our faces.
1. A beautiful CSR campaign
You can put your name to a star, a number plate or a stone in Wembley Way, but now, thanks to Dulux and UNICEF’s partnership, you can also own a colour. For a donation of at least £1 you get to choose a colour from a range of 16.7 million available on the average screen monitor. All proceeds go to UNICEF's campaign to bring clean water, education, medical assistance and other aid to children across the world.
UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Sir Roger Moore is a proud new owner of Swedish Blue, the colour of the flag of his wife’s homeland Sweden, and not far off the cyan blue that represents UNICEF. “Both Kristina and UNICEF are extremely close to my heart”.
Christmas is fast approaching; supermarkets are stocking up on ever more treats and delights and our televisions have transformed into beacons of feel-good advertising.
As the social season arrives, the drinks category in particular is expecting a boost in sales; last year 17% of all adult soft drink sales were sold in December, equating to £20.5m worth (The Grocer). Naturally brands seek to maximise this boost. Here we feature five of the most interesting yuletide offerings and debate the likely forerunners of new trends.
J20 Limited edition Glitter Juice Drinks
A grown-up Christmas twist and an innovation bound to generate more sales. The glitter juice drinks drive interest and differentiate themselves in a very positive way.
Shloer
Limited edition Berry Punch is the newest offering from the adult special soft drinks brand. Created specifically for Christmas this variant will add to the popular range and enhance the brand positioning as a drink best served shared over the winter months.
Stella Artois
Though a revival of their Originally Crafted for Christmas campaign, Stella Artois are using digital and traditional media to align themselves with the festivities. This includes a transformation of their facebook page, which now includes a free download of an original Christmas jazz album Under the Christmas Star. The designs may not be novel but we appreciate their act of generosity.
Copella
Drink-Me-Hot Winter Warmer was an obvious market gap that Copella have successfully filled. As a non-alcoholic alternative to mulled wine we suspect it will fare well, however taking on more traditional winter warmers such as hot chocolate and Horlicks may be too far for the brand to stretch.
Coca Cola
With a combined total of well over 30,000 official Coca Cola Christmas facebook fans, it would be impossible not to mention the drink in any seasonal commentary. It’s sure sign of the times that the campaign will now operate on a more integrated, multichannel basis than ever before. It has also made a conspicuous effort to be more environmentally friendly (Popsop), revamping their world-famous Piccadilly sign to save 20% more energy.
Ads were once copy heavy. Back in the 60's, images were used to display product/beauty and lengthy copy communicated the brand's benefit.
By the 80's and 90's the clamour for attention demanded a different approach. Audiences had neither time nor headspace to read words, so arresting imagery took precedent.
Now it seems some advertising is striking a happy balance of the two.
We love French Connection's 2011 executions with their unusual imagery and thought provoking copy. The ads, which are part of a broader integrated campaign, serve to disrupt both the high-street fashion category and the brand's history (consigning the over-used FCUK idea to the rubbish heap).
It's refreshing approach from French Connection. We'd expect nothing less...
Jeff Potter: Cooking for Geeks: Real Science, Great Hacks, and Good Food
Allen P. Adamson: BrandDigital: Simple Ways Top Brands Succeed in the Digital World
Davis Dyer: Rising Tide : Lessons from 165 Years of Brand Building at Procter & Gamble
Douglas Holt: Cultural Strategy: Using Innovative Ideologies to Build Breakthrough Brands
D. B. Holt: How Brands Become Icons: The Principles of Cultural Branding
