Wide Angle

While the English language is certainly a common denominator in the business world, assuming everyone speaks it is definitely ill-advised.  So how does a marketing team ensure its product materials are accurate in another language?  One executive poses this question in our recently-launched Marketing Org & Ops Forum, asking “What are the best practices in assessing the quality and correctness of translation service jobs?” Read More »

On Monday, Fortune came out with a long, in-depth piece on the success of Trader Joe’s – the wildly popular small gourmet grocery store. The chain, owned by German grocery conglomerate Aldi, has experienced dynamite growth in the last 15 years, expanding from its base in Southern California to over 200 stores nationwide. Their sales numbers ($8 billion in 2009) are similar to those of semi-competitor Whole Foods, and their sales per square foot are an estimated $1,750, more than double those of Whole Foods.

Fortune spends a lot of ink (or pixels, I suppose) analyzing aspects of Trader Joe’s success. It’s a good article, but what has made TJ’s such a cultural phenomenon isn’t too difficult to discern. I’d separate it into a few key buckets: Read More »

I met with a retail-industry member last week that’s in the midst of growing one of their businesses from a regional brand focused on Latin America to a global brand with a strong footprint in the US and the UK.  As we talked about what it will take to enter a crowded retail space, our member expressed it this way, “we need to be very clear what are our brand standards and what are our brand standouts.”

I loved the simplicity of the statement and the depth of the insight. Given the increasing prevalence of mobile/social/location technologies like Foursquare, it can be awfully tough for retailers to differentiate, so the customer experience has never been more important.  Do you know the difference between your brand standards and your brand standouts?  If you are like most businesses, the truthful answer is “no”. Read More »

The US is in a kind of tough place right now. Let’s see: unemployment is hovering around 10%, not only idling millions of workers but keeping millions more stuck in jobs they don’t like; it’s shaping up to be the hottest summer on record in many parts of the country; and, to top it all off, traffic is getting worse as local governments run out of money to invest in public transit and new roads. Add these (and many, many other) factors up, and it’s no secret why your average American is a little on edge these days.

So when JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater made a dramatic exit from his job on Tuesday, delivering an expletive-laced tirade to passengers over the intercom before grabbing a beer from the service cart and sliding down the plane’s emergency chute, it wasn’t surprising when he became something of a cause celebre. A Facebook fan group established after the news broke on Tuesday now has nearly 200,000 fans, and there’s talk of a legal defense fund (Slater was cited for public endangerment). Slater has been hounded by reporters and paparazzi since being released on bond, and his relatives have made the talk-show rounds. Read More »

Sometimes the cornucopia of plenty in American grocery and general merchandise stores can be, well, a bit monotonous. The bread aisle is a monochrome light brown (occasionally accented by, oddly enough, brown shelves), the dairy case a washed out sea of white plastic bathed in a pale fluorescent glow, the men’s undershirts an undifferentiated mass of white, brown and light gray. It’s no wonder, then, that consumers crave a little variety in packaging and presentation. It’s not just to make the scenery a little less boring; it also makes products dramatically easier to find. Read More »

Here in Washington, the community is abuzz with news that Wikileaks, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing whistleblowers a safe place to publish sensitive information, has released a gargantuan store of documents related to the war in Afghanistan. The documents paint a picture that is decidedly at odds with more official portrayals of the war.

The same day, the Library of Congress’ Copyright Office determined that “jailbreaking” the iPhone – a process that allows users to access apps not available in Apple’s App Store – does not violate copyright laws. Apple contends that jailbreaking can harm the phone’s user experience, and leave it vulnerable to viruses; the company voids warranties of jailbroken phones. The Copyright Office, however, said in its ruling that jailbreaking is “innocuous at worst and beneficial at best.”

Regardless of your opinion on the war in Afghanistan, the ethics of leaking sensitive information to the public, or the use of products in ways that weren’t intended, these examples serve to illustrate one principle of the changing information economy: You are not in control. Read More »

It’s that time again – we’re spotlighting the top 5 case studies, event replays, and MLC studies as accessed by our members in the travel and leisure industries! Read More »

Surely you’ve seen the TV ads. Ex-football player Isaiah Mustafa, “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like,” taking his audience from a bathroom, to a sailboat, to a beach scene on horseback, all the while spouting an absurd, deadpan hyper-masculine monologue. It’s great advertising, a campaign that I think has helped shift Old Spice’s image away from “little white bottle in my grandfather’s medicine cabinet” to “cool, masculine scent that [young] women love.”

Now they’ve gone and outdone themselves, with a social media campaign that might be better than the TV spots. Last week, our Old Spice hero began making personalized videos for bloggers, Web celebrities, and a few average web users. Notable examples include a get-well message to Digg founder Kevin Rose, political punditry in response to George Stephanopolous, and a hilarious response to the Yahoo! Answers question “How many teeth do sharks have?”. Read More »

Everywhere we look, there’s evidence that consumers are a little more skeptical, a little more cynical, and sometimes even a little angry. While these consumer sentiments are widely recognized by marketers, many brands continue with the feel-good aspects of their message: family, friendship, security, trust, and even hope.  At the same time, Surly Brewing and Angry Little Girl totes are migrating from niche to mainstream with a different message—you’ve got attitude, and we understand that. Red Tettemer illustrates the approach perfectly in Tub Gin’s recent campaign:

One of the sharpest subversive ads of the year (a humble opinion) is available at http://www.tubgin.com/, and click on “A short, short story”.

These brands offer just a few examples of a broader trend in tapping directly into the edgier, snarkier sentiments of today’s consumer (Whitney had to tell me what snarky means).

Iconoculture—MLC’s new partner for bringing real-time consumer insights to our members—has picked up on this trend in its most recent research on “Subversive Branding.”  Iconoculture’s findings point marketers in an interesting direction: while subversive branding can breathe new life into our marketing messages, it also runs the risk of alienating consumers. Read More »

Susan Wassel, PR Manager at Sharpie, launched a social media campaign with the help of a single fellow employee and now manages the project singlehandedly – with a $2,000 budget.  Her work exemplifies how your team can move forward even if you lack the resources necessary to bring on external support.

Video: Social Media on a Shoestring

Slidedeck: Social Media on a Shoestring

“Sharpie Susan’s” goal was increase brand loyalty by leveraging brand advocates they termed “bold expressionmakers,” who are Sharpie uber-users that gravitate toward new media.  To achieve this objective, Sharpie decided to showcase content from these “bold expressionmakers” that demonstrated creative ways to use Sharpie pens in daily life. Read More »