branding – Page 7 – Johnny Lyle's new brand thinking

What Chance do Comet and any other electrical retailer have?

What chance Comet and any other underfunded high street retailer?

Sadly, on November 2nd Comet slipped into administration. It was probably inevitable, even though it was only purchased by private equity firm OpCapita last year for £2. I guess they overpaid for the 236 stores.

Maybe i’m an idealist, but I do think these stores have a place in the market and this is where I see it.

1. They are brand showrooms. They price match any price anywhere on the Internet. It means they will lose out on some margin on sales to those who are price sensitive, but reward the ones who make all the effort to search for the best online price (like I do). There is no substitute for seeing the product and pressing the buttons and you just can’t get this from a photo online.

2. They then charge for delivery or installation as no Internet retailers seem to offer this.

So, is this possible?

Amazon seem to be able to match any online price pretty closely and whilst they don’t have 236 stores, they still have lots of warehouse space and staff. My suspicion is that the rent and rates on the stores are simply too high to make these spaces pay. I hope Comet survive. Not because I am a fan per-se, but because I believe in choice. I don’t want to just buy from Amazon and John Lewis, but I do want to be rewarded with a better price for my research and for making the effort to drive out to see them in their store.

I just went down to Comet in Nottingham Castle Marina. The only sign of any change at all is an A4 sheet in the window. It isn’t a bad looking store really and the staff I spoke to were all friendly and helpful. The staff have said that anything can be sold at face value only, no gift cards and no discounts. It did look a little like it had been robbed as there were lots of gaps in the stock (particularly in the upstairs bit!). Expect a fire sale soon.

PPS

Interestingly, when they bought the cahain, they said they would focus on low prices http://www.opcapita.com/news/OpCapita-puts-focus-on-value-at-Comet What i’m suggesting is just that.

brand values, branding

Jamie Oliver in Boots – Two brands that don’t work together

I quite like Jamie Oliver and I quite like Boots. I sometime pop into the latter for a cheap meal deal and something to make me look less old or ugly. BUt I don’t think they are brands that sit well together. As i’ve said before, brands work well together when they approach similar audiences who share a close match when you overlay their combined values. This isn’t the case with Boots and Jamie.

And I have some evidence to prove it.

Jamie Oliver and his so far unsuccessful assault on Boots lunch time audience

If you look at these two shelves side by side the one on the right is the normal Boots meal deal fare. £3.29 for sandwich, drink and crisps. On the left is Jamie’s good work. Sandwiches (which look lovely) starting at £3.70 and specifically excluded from the meal deal. By the time you add crisps and a decent smoothie you are at £6 or nearly double their normal price. 50p off isn’t going to impress or influence anyone.

As you can see one gondola is very full and one is very empty. That shot was at 14.45 today, so very little else will sell today.

Now, I don’t consider myself a tightwad in the lunch department, but this is a big step up in price for Boots customers. Too big. In Waitrose it may work, but not here.

This range will have to be included in the meal deal – even with a small price premium – or it will fail fast.

It’s not because the sandwiches are bad or the retailer is at fault. It’s just that there is nowhere near enough overlay in the values.

The promo video

This is what Jamie Oliver said before the launch.

I genuinely believe he is passionate about the product, but sadly unless there is a fundamental shift in Boots customers’ buying behaviour, it will be in the meal deal and dumbed down to meet the price point, or sadly it will fail.

Update 25.10.12

I went in again today at 17.05 to see how it was getting on today. The picture still doesn’t lie. There is an enormous amount left in Jamie’s stand and far less in the one on the right. It looks more even because the standard one has been re-merchandised to bring the remaining stock forward. And of course, we don’t know whether they had a jamie delivery overnight and how much will have to be thrown away.

Jamie Oliver’s lunch in Boots – Stlll not really selling very many sandwiches

branding

A great 007 branded PR stunt by Coke Zero

http://youtu.be/RDiZOnzajNU

We were always taught that for every £ you spent on a sponsorship deal you needed to spend £2 more to exploit the relationship, When Tetley came into rugby it’s one of the reasons they did so much better out of it than the likes of B&H and Cornhill did in the old days of cricket sponsorship.

Well, Coke Zero have set up this fun stunt to to challenge people to get a few people to try and be a (tiny) bit like James Bond. Offering them free tickets, but putting an urban obstacle course in the way.

I’ve never quite understood the point of Coke Zero before. I guess it is a Diet Coke for blokes who don’t want to be seen to be drinking a diet drink. By using young blokes to carry out the stunts, they have done a good job of positioning the brand for me.

I think it’s quite clever and very much more powerful than a simple trailer promo.

Looking at the YouTube Stats it shows it’s working too, with just about 3,000,000 viewers in four days, 26,000 likes and demographics as follows:

Top demographics
Male, 25-34 years
Male, 35-44 years
Male, 45-54 years

Therefore, money well spent.

branding

Bus travel is cool

I’m not sure that everyone would agree but bus travel is now officially cool. This ad from Denmark proves it.

This ad, which is completely tongue in cheek is being run by a small bus company called Midttrafik based in Aarhus in Denmark. It’s brave, t’s quite funny and I can’t quite see many UK bus companies running anything similar anytime soon.

branding

The beginning of the end for Apple

iPhone 5 is almost here, but does anyone really, really care?

I was asked by my good friend Simon Egan today to comment on what I thought about this article on the BBC about Apple, which basically says they are no longer innovative and have become merely followers. And, despite being an Apple user for well over 20 years (before it was this widespread) I have to say, I agreed with it.

In fact, I completely agree. Apple is no longer special or surprising. It’s too ubiquitous to be different or sought after.

iPhone five with its new dock will annoy masses of people as it will render all their own kit worthless. I have a beautiful Valve based Amplifier that was totally designed around that very connecter. Admittedly I use it with my old style disk based chunky iPod and not my iPhone, but it means the end is nigh.

My sixteen year old daughter broke her iPhone (by dropping it down the toilet) and moaned for a few days but it’s all gone quiet. She is now using my old Nokia and has just stopped complaining because it’s a better phone and you can still text. The rest is a waste of time done better by other devices. I experimented a few years back and lived without my iPhone for three months. I enjoyed it and may well go back there.

Unless apple do something truly radical it will begin to fail. The new Televsion they are due to launch will give them a big positive blip but I can’t see them being able to do much after that. Most of our tech is covered and unless they invent a new category like they did with the original iPod, they may well be left high and dry.

They could obviously extend into Domestic appliances? But for me, that really will be the end. Look at Bugatti, Dualit and the other once great brands that have gone into pastiche brand extensions. That’s where apple will arrive soon enough unless they go back to where they should be and innovate.

branding

Microsoft copies Apple (again)

There has been some debate about the new Microsoft logo and the specifics of typography, but for laypeople, it looks very much like the new Microsoft logo is either derived from, or very closely related to the Macbook Pro logo by Apple. I’ll show you the argument, you decide whether they have learnt from Apple.

Branding is far more than just logos, but in my eyes, there’s a real case of one looking very much like the other. I still wouldn’t want to own a Microsoft product though.

Thanks to Andrew Brett Watson for the image (and for leading the debate)

brand values, branding

Nike and their response to the O*ymp**s

I have to write the blog post title like that to stay the right side of LOCOG. Don’t want to get sued for using their name in vain. Well, anyway here’s a response from Nike which is a nice piece, but probably rubbish, when it comes down to the facts.

http://youtu.be/LsXRj89cWa0

If you look at the real story, it’s just not true that we all have the ability to be great at an individual sport. I accept that we can all become the best we can, but beyond this, it’s down to physiology and our mental capacity. Lets look at the facts.

Heather Stanning and Helen Glover who won gold in the women’s pairs had been identified as strong candidates for brilliance through British Rowing’s Sporting Giants programme. In this, they not only check their physiology, but they go through some psychological profiling too. As a junior Helen Glover ran cross-country internationally and Heather Stanning won a British Army scholorship to study sports technology at Bath University, so she was already exceptional and disciplined. That’s hardly leaving it to chance is it?

But I do think this is a brilliant way to find future winners. Physiology first, attitude second and then teach them how to do the sport brilliantly.

Bradley Wiggins is an even clearer case. The average male is 5’9″, Wiggins is 6’3″. His lung capacity is 8 litres, compared to a more normal 6 litres. That’s over 30% greater capacity. His resting heart rate is 34bpm compared to a normal man’s at 64bpm. ( I wish mine was as low as even the normal bloke) and his body fat is only 4% compared to 16% for a normal fit man of his age. Add to this the mindset to win and train for years and years to succeed and you have a rare beast indeed.

So, in summary, he’s a freak. A brilliant, brilliant freak. A total one in a billion and the finest fancy running shoes in the world aren’t going to allow you to compete with people who have a physiology as perfect as this.

I love the inclusivity of the Nike ad, but in summary. Doing your best probably won’t make you a champion in anything.

branding, Social media

Internet Usability and the $300m button

A little while ago, I read this article called the $300m button. Whilst I took some of it with a pinch of salt, it made me think and change the way I advise clients on their Internet and social media behaviour.

But I’ve now discovered that I am living it myself. I have stopped wanting to become friends with organisations online, unless they are amongst my very few special online friends.

So there is a very simple lesson for all of us involved with brands, websites and social media strategies. Stand in your own shoes and see how you behave.

I probably don’t want to be your mate. if I do, I want it to build slowly and get to know you first, before I commit long term.

Ooh, that sounds rather like building a normal relationship doesn’t it?

So, the new lesson i’m sharing everywhere is that you mustn’t expect people to create a unique user name and password to buy, comment or login to your site. keep it simple, keep it slow and let them log in with their Facebook, Twitter or Google identity and you will make far more friends and build a far more active community. When they show they want to get to know you, that’s when you think about moving the relationship up a gear.

brand values, branding

Margate, Mr Simms, Tracey Emin and an amazing regeneration of a town centre

If you have read any of my blog posts before, you may remember that I spent some of my formative years in Margate and I still rather like the place. But for many years it has been a seriously depressed and depressing place to be. I’ve suggested ways for them to improve things before and already reported that it is getting better, but I am delighted to report that after my visit this weekend the town feels really like it is well on its way to a complete recovery.

The Turner Contemporary was showing a huge Tracey Emin exhibition. Not even slightly my cup of tea and I can’t show any of the work as you’re not allowed to take photos. But it is a huge draw and there were far more people here than on the beaches.

The Turner Contemporary in Margate

The statue by Rodin ‘The Kiss’ was far easier for a simple bloke like me to understand and whilst I did think the characters in the statue did have extraordinarily large hands and feet, it did feel like a huge privilege to see something so beautiful and obviously world class for free in (one of) my home town(s). It is made even more dramatic by the backdrop of the sea through the spectacular windows of the Turner, which completely frame the view.

Rodin’s Kiss at the Turner Contemporary in Margate

But at the same time, there was a massive UK beach volleyball championship going on further up the beach. The Margate Masters was beautifully organised across 12 courts and again free. It had quite a few people watching and cheering. from my completely limited knowledge, it looked to be played to a high standard too.

The Margate Masters – Beach Volleyball Maragte Style

But then, a new highlight and a sign of the real regeneration. Mr Simms Olde Sweet Shoppe.

Mr Simms Olde Sweet Shoppe in Margate

What a fabulous and world class little shop. For regeneration to take place, it needs world class inward investors. The Turner started it, but little retailers like this are picking up the baton and really carrying it forward. I know it’s only a sweet shoppe, but it was beautifully designed, offered great service from knowledgable staff and had things from around the world that I have never seen in the UK, such as Vanilla Coke Zero and Peanut Butter Snickers (which I have enjoyed already).

The whole town felt like it was becoming a little Brighton and the retail centre is slowly building itself back out from the Old Town. there areother new retailers throughout the Old Town and back up the High Street.

I was so impressed with how far Margate has come that now i’m hoping for the rebirth of Dreamland and even more great things to come.

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The promo video

Update 25.10.12

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