September 15, 2011

A Taste of Italy

It’s a warm Sunday morning. My husband, daughter and I are off to the Marin County Farmer’s Market.  It’s as good as a trip to Disneyland for our eleven-year-old, whom my husband and I are convinced is a descendant of Julia Child. Her palate is more refined than most adults’; she describes a good meal with all the detail and gusto as she does a carefully savored Harry Potter novel.

We park and get out of the car. In the air, the festive beat of a local jazz band playing just inside the entrance to the market.

We head immediately for the line at the Belgian Waffle truck. We devour a perfectly cooked waffle (is that a crisp waffle, a fluffy waffle?) dusted in powdered sugar, then head for the taco truck for some protein to offset the carbs.  On the way, we buy Heirloom tomatoes on special. Life is good. Damn good.

We see some friends, stop to chat.  Our daughter wanders over to the Stonehouse California Olive Oil stall. She smiles at the merchant who dispenses a sample of green-gold liquid.  I join her while her dad goes off to look for the wild mushroom guy.

With reverence most kids reserve for ice cream, our daughter samples the Blood Orange olive oil on a square of bread.  She opens her eyes.  “Mom, you have to try this.”

“The product sells itself,” the merchant says with a satisfied nod.

We try the other flavors: Arbequina, Basil, Garlic, and Lisbon Lemon.  The sun is warm on our backs.  The jazz band has taken a break.  Behind us, the easy shuffle of shoppers, and up on the grassy rise where the pony rides take place, a soft whinny.

My daughter turns to me.  “Can we get a bottle of the Arbequina to go with the tomatoes? Please.”

“How much?” I ask the merchant.

I hand him $20, far more than I’m accustomed to paying for olive oil.

I am not so much persuaded by the product as by the experience. There’s a subtle difference here, which small business owners can learn from.  You may not be selling gourmet food, or perfume, or some other tangible product people can taste or spray at a counter.

But how can your prospects sample your product or service? What experience can you create for them that will inspire them to buy?

My husband rejoins us and we head to the car.

“Daddy?”

“Yeah, Bug?”

“Can we go to Italy?”

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September 12, 2011

NPR Slacker Moved to Pledge

Last week, on the eve of the 10th anniversary of 9-11, the stories were everywhere it seemed.  It was a time for reflection, grieving, and perspective.

On Friday, after dropping my daughter off at school, I turned on NPR. They were airing a story about Betty Ong, the flight attendant on American Airlines Flight 11 out of Boston, who got on her cell phone with an on-the-ground reservation agent to let them know what was going on inside the plane and cockpit.  During the 20-minute conversation, Ong demonstrated superhuman courage and grace. At 8:46 am EST, the plane crashed into the World Trade Center Tower.

Two NPR reporters interviewed Cathie Ong-Herrera and Harry Ong, Betty’s sister and brother.  They recounted how the family had tried to get American Airlines to release the recording of Betty’s conversation with the reservation staffer. Initially, the airline refused; but in January 2002, after a call from Senator Edward Kennedy’s office, American Airlines agreed to let Betty’s siblings listen to the tape.

The NPR story included excerpts of the recording.  As her siblings tearfully pointed out, these were the last moments of Betty’s life.

NPR followed up the story with an announcement of their new pledge drive.  Usually, I push aside the guilt I feel for not getting off my duff and renewing, and change stations or turn off the radio. This time, I listened.

I was so moved by Betty’s story, and by her siblings’ love for her that I immediately went into the house and got on NPR’s website to renew my pledge.  It was a small action that arguably would have no effect on the Ong family, who lost their beloved Betty that horrific morning.

And yet, NPR’s listener pledges help fund the kind reporting that can make tiny mends in broken hearts and worlds.

While no story can wipe away a tragedy of this magnitude, stories can help us to make meaning out of chaos– in this case reminding us that memory and love prevail. They can even inspire us to action–—sometimes the action is small, but sometimes it’s big.

Filed under Creative marketing programs, Story, Storytelling.
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September 7, 2011

Lululemon Totes The Story of The 21st Century Woman

I’m a sucker for cool yoga wear.  I’m also a seeker of less earthly possessions, like inner peace and better relations with my fellows. lululemon knows this about me.  They also know that there’s nothing like a cute pair of yoga shorts to ease the torture  of dripping sweat and pretzeled limbs during, say, Eagle Pose (see my post on the Bikram Yoga brand).

Lulemon understands the paradoxical story of the 21st century Marin County woman: On the path to enlightenment, looking sexy is part of the journey.

They company also knows that every customer touch point is an opportunity to deepen their customer’s connection with their brand, through story.  Their coveted red and white and black-trimmed, reusable tote bag is one of these touch points.  A textual collage of positive affirmations, healthy living statistics and self-help tidbits like,  “Breathe deeply and appreciate the moment,” and “Do the one thing a day that scares you,” lululemon’s story is strictly a feel-good narrative.

The story, which lululemon calls its “manifesto,” is crafted to appeal to the target market’s yearning for a fulfilling, well-balanced life–and hip, high-quality yoga wear. The narrative goes something like this:  “If I take care of myself, think positive thoughts and work and play hard, I’ll have a happy life.” Ultimately, the story works because it belongs to the customer. It’s a story she lives and breathes inside and outside the yoga studio.

It’s lululemon’s ability to engage her in her own story that creates emotional resonance for the customer and fosters a strong connection with their brand.

Speaking of modern Marin County women, Lynette, the main character in the novel I’m working is going through some major stuff. Maybe she needs to do some yoga…wearing lululemon pants, of course.

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September 6, 2011

What Don Draper Has to Teach Small Business Marketers

In the first season of “Mad Men,” Don Draper, the creative director at Sterling Cooper, the New York advertising agency at the heart of the TV series; is asked to present to Kodak, a new client.

It’s 1962 and Kodak has just come out with a new slide projector. The product’s main feature is a circular tray or “wheel” with slots for storing and organizing slides. (You remember it, don’t you?)

Kodak’s marketing people have charged Don and his team to come up with a creative concept based on the new “high-tech” main feature. (Unlike the straight slide tray, the new wheel tray will hold slides if dropped.)

Draper mulls over ideas for several days.  He’s going through an emotional ringer in his personal life and feeling pretty raw. Out of this emotion Draper hits on a brilliant concept: The Carousel Slide Projector.

Brilliant concepts are nothing new for Draper.  But this one is more evocative than most.

During the client pitch, Draper explains that a carousel—unlike a mere wheel or round metal tray—lets us experience memories as a child would—round and round and backwards and forwards.  With an undercurrent of emotion typical of Draper’s character, he runs the Kodak folks through a slide show of images of Draper himself with his wife and children. It’s a nostalgic moment. The client is thoroughly moved and give the concept the thumbs up.  (Watch Draper’s Kodak Carousel’s slide show here.)

Draper’s idea is strictly fiction (Although I couldn’t find the details, I suspect the real story is far less compelling).  Still, it shows us what’s required to conceive and craft a meaningful story that will compel customers to engage with our brands and products.

1.     Feelings are a bridge to creativity and narratives customers will connect with.

2.     Evocative words are the building blocks of a powerful brand story. One carefully chosen word or image (“carousel” vs. “wheel,” for example) can provide a novel’s worth of feeling.

3.     A brand story should communicate the product benefit in an emotionally engaging way.

4.    Story is the context or framework, features and benefits part of the narrative.

When I work with clients on crafting their brand story, the process is both linear and non-linear.  It requires not knowing what problem they’re solving, and how–i.e. the features and their benefits–but also nailing the feeling the product “experience” evokes for the customer.

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April 5, 2011

Girl Scout Cookies: All the Makings of an Irresistible Brand

My daughter and her Girl Scout buddy sit at the cookie “booth,” an ad hoc table display of Thin Mints, Samoas, Lemon Chalet Cremes, and Tagalongs. It’s a sunny Saturday in March and Trader Joe’s shoppers are out in droves.

Happy customers approach the girls. They wax nostalgic about the Girl Scouts, and then describe methods for enjoying Thin Mints, a Girl Scout classic: “I freeze mine.” “I eat them in one sitting.” “I hide mine from the rest of the family!” Other people slip a few bills into the donation can, explaining that while they don’t like sweets, they love the Girl Scouts.

A few people scurry past the display, avoiding eye contact with the girls, who call out “Have a Nice Day!” But most of the non-buyers toss out cheerful apologies: They just bought from the troop over at Safeway, they’re on a diet (pat-pat), their twin granddaughters already sold them a case.

I watch my daughter and her friend interact with customers, and realize that Girl Scout Cookies have the essential ingredients of an irresistible brand:

Emotional connection: Former Girl Scouts, parents and siblings of former Girl Scouts, neighbors with fond memories of buying cookies from former Girl Scouts–the  brand appeals to our nostalgia, and possibly a desire to re-connect with childhood. The brands we connect with emotionally are the brands we buy, over and over.

Novelty factor:  For an organization  just shy of its 100th birthday, the brand is as novel as the day it was conceived. Juliette Gordon Low founded the Girl Scouts in 1912; the idea to sell cookies as a fundraiser and the first recipe—for sugar cookies—were published in the The American Girl magazine in 1922. Some nine decades later, Little Brownie Bakers bakes and distributes Girl Scout Cookies. Available once a year in late winter/early spring, they’re a perennially novel product the public looks forward to year after year.

Traditional values: In everything they do—from troop meetings to community service activities–the Girl Scouts promote Courage, Confidence, and Character. The organization that now has an iPhone cookie sale locator app has not let the trappings of the Digital Age cloud traditional values. The slogan on the official Girl Scout Cookies website: “Every Cookie Has a Mission, to Help Girls Do Great Things.”

Kids as spokespeople: It’s a known fact that kids and critters open hearts and wallets—consider the cute factor in audience response to this year’s Super Bowl ads.  Who can resist the Girl Scouts’ smiling, young faces and an earnest desire to do good things in the world? I’ll take three boxes, thank you.

Yum factor: We can’t ignore the obvious factor in the brand’s longstanding success: The cookies are yummy—okay, addictive. Personally, I favor the Samoas.  (You try to say “no” to chocolate and coconut.) With cookie sales averaging 200 million boxes each year, it seems the Girl Scouts have the perfect recipe for a brand that will never go stale.

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January 27, 2011

This Brand is Hot, and it’s Sticking

Bikram Yoga eases my low-back pain, makes me sweat like a construction worker in August (why this is a good thing, I’m not entirely sure) and leaves me feeling clearheaded and energized. Oh, and I sleep like a newborn.

Sticky doesn’t even begin to define the Bikram experience; it does however, define the brand which has become known as the hot yoga. If you ever venture into one of these torture chambers, here’s my advice: Don’t look at the clock.  Bikram Yoga is 90 minutes of be here now in all your sticky, bad-ass glory.

Based on the Hatha tradition, the method consists of a copyrighted sequence of 26 postures. Each posture is performed twice during a single 90-minute class in a studio heated to 105 degrees that Bikram himself dubbed the, “torture chamber.”  Today, Bikram Yoga is more or less synonymous with hot yoga, the result of smart marketing and legal actions against yoga studios allegedly in violation of Bikram’s copyright.

A controversial figure in the yoga world, founder Bikram Choudroy, who was born in Calcutta in 1946, began his mission to bring yoga to the masses in 1974.  Several decades later, more than 5,000 licensed Bikram Yoga franchise studios exist worldwide. Thousands of Bikram followers have become certified instructors.

Bikram has done the seemingly impossible: Built a mega-successful brand in a market where the average consumer didn’t know his Astanga from his Hatha, and the phrase “hot yoga” referred to any yoga practiced in a warm room.

Instructors recite the “dialogue” via wireless headset, rarely straying from the script. A consistent experience is the brand’s core strength. Bikram Yoga is the same regardless of where you practice it, ensuring that consumers get what they pay for, class after class, year after year.  In an $18 billion industry, this kind of brand loyalty is worth its weight in sweat.

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November 12, 2010

Tell me a story

I’m a big believer in storytelling. I don’t mean marketing messages masquerading as narrative. That’s the old-school approach.  I’m referring to stories that put entertainment and/or education before marketing messages. We become so enthralled with the story, we want to spend time–and money–on that brand, product, service, or experience.

Think about that. No heavy-duty marketing message, no being talked or preached at. Rather, we’re engaged, entertained and educated. Here are five stories, told through text, video or both, that got my attention:

Good clean fun with Mrs. Meyer’s

Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day has a lot to talk about. This eco-brand–brought to us by a mother of nine uses video to communicate company values, origins, product ingredients and more. Sure, the company’s ultra-green cleaning concoctions smell good enough to eat and squeeze some fun into drudgery of house cleaning. But the back-story, warm, homespun voice, and fun, stick-figure animations are equally refreshing.

Compelling client stories

It’s not uncommon for marketing strategy consultants to serve up the usual tell-don’t-show client list, with a sprinkling of testimonials. Not Mark Levy.  Instead, he weaves an engaging tale of client experiences, using  case studies to demonstrate his expertise and bottom-line value.

Save the world from all this stuff

Storytelling as education is the goal on Storyofstuff.com. Black-and-white animation and concise narratives guide viewers step-by-step through complex issues related to the environmental and health hazards of consumer culture. Sobering, yet whimsical, these well-drawn and well-told spots are changing hearts, minds, and public policy.

Tale of two kitties at Powell’s Books

What better place to curl up with a good story than Powell’s City of Books. Follow the adventures of the beloved in-store feline Fup and Bear and Zooey. Fup has passed on, but there’s a new mascot  in the neighborhood to keep Powell’s customers reading.

Levi’s wears history on its sleeve

Edgy and textured, with hip graphics and fadeouts this pictorial history chronicles iterations of the Levi’s Trucker Jacket over the years. Those of us who prefer the written word can read the text version of the journey of this American clothing icon.            

Sometimes companies are afraid of storytelling. They say they want a story that will engage people, but if it’s too offbeat, or original, the audience might not get it. It’s understandable.  But is playing it safe really safe?

Is telling your copywriter to, “write like Apple” really in your company’s best interest?  Or will you end up with a watered down version of someone else’s story?

What brands or causes are telling a good story? Comment, below.

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October 13, 2010

Whole Paycheck? Reality is Perception

The battle for wallets and tummies has always been pretty fierce. But demand for organic food at reasonable prices is putting added pressure on big-brand supermarkets. Whole Food’s new store in Novato, CA had a big challenge: Convince locals it’s an affordable place to shop—more affordable even than Trader Joe’s and Safeway. For the basics, anyway.

The marketing team hatched a simple but brilliant plan to woo the hearts (and perceptions) of the average, budget-conscious family. A display of shopping carts at the store’s main entrance compares prices for basic food items bought at Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s and Safeway. The four carts contain 19-20 items each–pasta, olive oil, black beans, milk, butter, juice and other basics. Over each cart, a placard shows an enlarged, photocopy of checkout receipts.

Two of the carts compare Trader Joe’s items with similar foods under the Whole Foods 365 brand. Surprisingly, shoppers would pay less shopping Whole Foods.  Two other carts compare 20 Safeway “O” organic brand items to organic foods sold in Whole Foods. Again, Whole Foods is the cheaper bet–$65.21 vs. $81.49. Whole Paycheck is still a fair nickname when it comes to luxury foods and brands. But I bet savvy marketing folks at Whole Foods are banking on budget shoppers splurging occasionally, on, say–– organic cherries at a cool $9 a pound, or gourmet cheese sticks at five bucks a small package.

In the meantime, shoppers get to feel good when they leave the store.  I used to feel guilty walking out with my meager bag of groceries. Now I can fill it with the basics, and know I’m not costing the family our whole paycheck.

The most effective marketing tells the truth. Four shopping carts and four checkout receipts.  Reality is perception.

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