brandzillas

Flying Monkeys Should Scare Gorillas Too

Last week we were in New York seeing clients and squeezed in a little time to walk the floor at Macy's Herald Square.  Each time I go there, I feel like a little kid watching the Wizard of Oz for the very first time.  It's such a wondrous place. In the book of the Duratran Company, it's the Emerald City of retail space marketing.  All that merchandise, oh my. Exciting displays, you bet. And signage that motivates, oh boy!

In the past few visits, one couldn't help but notice (and feel), the emphasis that Macy's was putting on in-store video as signage. Most with sound, but a lot of screens without it too.  So much so, that our company started investing more and more time on how we could become part of this seemingly growing trend.  But around each corner of our journey, we encountered another time sucking challenge.  Just when we thought that we were almost there, a restless night's sleep would have us seeing the flying monkeys in the forest.  This can't be the yellow brick road, we thought.

What really was stopping us was the fact that video seemed very distracting to the shopping experience.  Too much noise, both audio and visual. Not to mention that cost of hardware and the even greater cost and challenge for compelling content.

Our trip last week uncovered an entirely different feeling in the Emerald City.  The signage environment at Macy's had changed significantly. Gone was all the video and all of the sound too.  It seems that it confused the consumer.  A lot of what was in the video zones was replaces with what else? Duratrans!  (Sorry for the not so subtle plug). The fact is video in its present form isn't working well in the retail environment.  I hope you didn't get involved with it. There will be a place for controlled video somewhere in the future for jewelry and watch manufacturers that will enhance the jewelry store shopping experience. I'm pretty certain of that.  But right now, there's no place like home Toto.

Video as signage seemed like a great idea. I guess that the flying monkeys of business opportunity sometimes scares us for a reason.  Be sure not to confuse them with opportunities for gorillas.

A New Media Strategy for Love

I didn’t realize it until I saw the music CD at Starbucks while I was having my Saturday morning coffee.  “Love”, the Cirque du Soleil/Beatles collaborative production soundtrack (now showing at The Mirage in Las Vegas) was starring me in the face.    But what really hit me, was how it came to be my had-to-have CD.    For you see, I had just heard a sample of the soundtrack on the msn.com website just the day before.   This re-mix CD had been out since last summer, but I wasn’t ready to buy until my Starbucks moment.  The interactivity of “New media” captured my attention.  The store environment got the sale.

Just last week in the Wall St. Journal, there was at least one article in each daily issue talking about the importance, effectiveness and evolution of “New Media” vs. “Old Media”.   Ad agencies, marketing companies and savvy brand mangers are now realizing that traditional “old media” (newspaper, TV, magazine and radio) have lost its voice and has become “advertising noise” to most of today’s consumers.  A New Media strategy is what’s working.   New Media centers on interactive communications technologies such as web, mobile, TIVO, viral email, computer games and the convergence of web and TV.   The key to all of this is the fact that it is all interactive where Old Media is not. 

Think about it.  Most people under 35 use New Media more than Old Media to get their information.  With the growth rate of these technologies, In the next 5 years this will almost assuredly effect all people under age 40.  This age group will be buying most of the jewelry in this country.  And 50 somethings (ugh) like me will be getting most of our news and information that way too.  And we’ve got most of the disposable money.  Jewelry and watch brands need to embrace the web and develop dynamic email opportunities to bring the consumer to a web presentation that woos them and introduces them to the essecene of their brand.  How effective is that Town and Country magazine ad?  Can you track it?  You can if you have a New Media strategy to leverage it.  Look, I’m not saying to get rid of newspaper, magazine, TV and radio, but we keep hearing from jewelers how their advertising in these channels are becoming less and less effective.  With the interactivity of New Media, its easy to see why.      

If you don’t develop and implement a strong New Media strategy soon, your brand may just reach either deaf ears or the wrong customer.  You’re seeing it affect the marketing of other luxury goods categories already.  Cars, fashion, handbags, entertainment, travel and many more competitors for the luxury consumer are already getting involved.  And they would be more than happy to see dollars go away from jewelry and watches to their categories.  

In the next few months, this blog will explore some emerging New Media strategies for our industry and discuss ideas for new ones.  Please feel free to let me know what you’d like to see discussed?   

By the way, at Starbucks, the sign for my new CD read “A great Valentine’s day gift”.  Our industry may currently have the corner on gifts of love, but even the Beatles and coffee houses are horning in on our party.      

D'oh

My friend Matt Lopez from London brought it up.  How could I miss it?  Without it, no branding effort can reach its potential.

It’s now officially the sixth trait to becoming a brandzilla. I’m going to call it the sixth sense.  Cause if you ignore it, your brand may be seeing dead people.  What Matt so astutely reminded me of is DISCIPLINE.  

To quote Matt: “I also think a key to being a brandzilla is discipline. The discipline to know your brand positioning and staying true to that positioning. Too many times in the quest for growth a brand may take on marketing and distribution opportunities that do not enhance or compliment their brand image and positioning. In fact, the wrong opportunity may give the consumer the wrong impression of your true positioning. Every partnership, communication and point of sale becomes an input in the mind of the consumer as to what you brand image and positioning is. Proactively or opportunistically, take on opportunities and communications that are in line with your brand positioning. I believe a brandzilla needs to have the discipline to focus on supporting the brand positioning with every marketing dollar spent and distribution point gained as well to say no to those that do not.....choose wisely grasshopper”.

FYI.  This is the reason that we created the Brandzillas blog.  If this was just a newsletter, Matt’s valuable addition to our jewelry industry branding forum would be a lot harder to communicate.  Please feel free to make (or view) comments to this or any post to the blog. The interchange of ideas is what Brandzillas is all about.   It’s O.K. to make me feel like Homer Simpson. (As I get older I’ve been reminded that I act more like him). 

Mmmmm Donuts!

It Better Be About The Experience

If you haven't read it yet, you might want to do it now.  It's one of the lead articles on the home page of msn.com this morning! 

The article goes on to discuss how big box retailers like Costco and BJ's are going after the affluent consumer with luxury items like DIAMONDS.  If this doesn't make the hair on the back of your neck stand up, nothing will.  And what to they list as the reason people buy luxury items like this in a warehouse environment?  Price Bubba.  Price, price price. 

Get the point.  If you are not going to create another reason other than price for the consumer to buy your products then you might as well close up shop like Fabrikant. 

Creating emotional connections and the experiences that goes with it is the key for the Bandzilla brand manager.  We'll be getting into this much deeper in future posts. 

By the way.... a great book to read that talk to this very subject, Shopping: Why We Love It and How Retailers Can Create the Ultimate Customer Experience by Pam Danziger.

Are you a Brandzilla?

2006 may go down as THE defining moment in the jewelry industry.   No longer is the handwriting on the wall.  As a matter of fact, it filled the entire wall on the side of the building we passed several blocks ago.  The companies that can articulate a clear brand promise are growing and the ones that can’t are going extinct.  Branding in the jewelry industry is now a part of the fabric of how to best market to an evolving consumer. 

But, I can hear you say, “The business landscape in our industry is littered with failed brands”.  Remember Kung Fu?  “Ah yes grasshopper, but those who see the signs, know of unbridled (no pun intended) growth for the future.” There are great new and not so new jewelry and watch branding efforts that are exciting today’s consumers with fresh promises of experience and performance.  Congratulations jewelry industry! Welcome the digital age where it ain’t about availability anymore, it’s about what makes you different.

Jewelry brands like Hearts on Fire, Simon G, Chimento, Scott Kay and Ritani were not even in the consumer vernacular just a generation ago.  Old watch brands like Raymond Weil and Tissot are seeing resurgence and are now having to share mindshare with consumer names like Kenneth Cole, Fendi and Tommy Bahama.  And we haven’t even mentioned the retail brand.  Savvy jewelers are now realizing the power to connect with their customers when they position themselves with the manufacturer brands that they offer. But don’t think that this is just a fad.  This is what the new digital native consumer wants to buy.  And this is how profitable marketers are growing.

With consumers flocking to emerging communication venues and the rising costs of advertising, is it any wonder why jewelry and watch brand managers need a new approach?   Professional brand managers need to become branding gorillas.  Thus is born the Brandzilla. 

 

Here are 5 traits that I believe a brand manager needs to have to be considered a Brandzilla. 

1)      A Brandzilla understands the need to embrace new marketing channels to communicate their brand promise and that the web needs to be a part of their brand’s future. 

2)      A Brandzilla demands the most out of their brand’s marketing spend.

3)      A Brandzilla wants to dominate their part of the retail jungle.

4)      A Brandzilla knows that his consumer is changing!

      and

5)      A Brandzilla understands the importance and nourishes the relationship between the retail brand and the manufacturer brand.

Last year when I sent out our “Wake Up Call” newsletters, most of the feedback and questions that I received revolved around branding issues.  At the Duratran Co., we deal with more jewelry brands than anyone in the world.  And we do it on a daily basis.  Brandzillas was created to help the industry communicate their problems, ask questions and help solve the issues as jewelry and watch branding evolves in the upcoming years.

In future blog updates, we plan to discuss all types of issues that effect branding in our industry.  Topics like store design, displays, packaging, product mix, signage and sales training will be discussed.  We want you to feel free to contribute to the discussion.   Your comments are what will make this new communication tool a valuable asset.

Here's to going bananas and becoming a Brandzilla in 2007!

    

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