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A Stadium Full of "YES!"

Talking about 'power poses' today made me think of this amazing video from a Michigan State basketball game.  What if we did this every day when we woke up?  How good would we feel!?  

I imagine this type of cheer sets a powerful tone not only for the game itself but for how everyone in the stadium feels during and after.  Pretty neat to think about 3 degrees of separation - perhaps in this case, the ripple effect is even louder.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0ttEbPycDs

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Intel Inside and Avalanche Airbags

The 'Intel Inside' campaign of the 1990's was a terrific way for Intel to gain brand equity, alert consumers of the importance of their internal offering, and gain negotiating power on price with OEMs.

It is interesting to compare a similar strategy employed by ABS Inside Technology for avalanche airbags.  ABS is an avalanche safety system similar to an airbag in your automobile.  If caught in an avalanche, victims can pull a rip cord which deploys an airbag rapidly, increasing surface area and making it more likely to end up on the surface of an avalanche, thereby avoiding asphyxiation from being buried under the snow.  ABS made a strategic decision to be the 'inside technology' as opposed to the designer of the entire backpack system.  By doing this, they were able to gain rapid market share and work with most of the top backcountry backpack manufacturers in the world such as Mammut, The North Face, Dakine, and Orthovox.  Whether you are producing microchips for computers or avalanche airbag technology, employing an 'inside' marketing campaign helps brands rapidly expand throughout an industry and maintain a unique value proposition for a broader set of customers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=le5S7TnNAS4

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The Evolution of Brands

Growing up, Nintendo was one of the coolest Brand's out there.  While randomly pouring over Interbrand's top 100 brand list this evening, I couldn't help but notice Nintendo's placement at 67, down 14% YoY, and 42% since 2001.  What drives some brands like Apple, up 28% YoY to $98B and others to fizzle out?

The Brand Manifold developed at MIT Sloan helped me think through this interesting question.  Brands derive meaning not only from the past, but also the future along both internal and external dimensions.  In the case of Nintendo, a brand that was once a world leader in gaming, known for creativity, entertainment, and sheer fun, it has become clear that drastic market shifts are slowly deteriorating the brand. Today, we live in a world full of of free gaming solutions on smartphones and tablets and competitors playing with new technologies such as virtual reality.  Gameboy nintendo is still cool, in an old fashioned, retro sense, but it's not what it once was.

Apple on the other hand, has trended in the exact opposite direction.  The brand was worth only $5B in 2000 and is now worth nearly $100B.  So what's the difference?  Apple has become known for game changing innovation, harnessing both positive perceptions of its past with visionary dreams of the future.  We imagine what Apple can be, what it will be, and this becomes closely intertwined with the Brands true value.  Bottom line, for brands to stay relevant, they need to continue to dream, to innovate, and to revolutionize the current world we live in.  Those brands are the ones that will survive and thrive.

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Concha y Toro: Unexpected Loyalty

I traveled to Chile for the first time in 2006 for an internship in the microfinance industry.  During my first summer there, we took a company trip to the Concha y Toro vineyard.  To this day, it remains one of my very favorite trips abroad.  I remember the beautiful, lush vineyard nestled in the Maipu Valley, the impressive gold shimmering estate-like home on the property, and of course the "Devil's Dungeon", where the famous Casillero del Diablo is stored, sometimes for decades, before going to market.  Since this time, my opinions and expectations of the Concha y Toro brand have been exceptionally high.  To date, I continue to rave to friends about the special Carmenere varietal (which by the way I thought was Chilean until I read in this article it came from France originally!), the quality for value of the wines, etc.  If I ever have a go-to wine, it is generally one of Concha y Toro's.  In addition, depending on the occasion, Concha y Toro has a wide variety of brands spanning the basic, premium, and ultra-premium segments.

Thinking about expectations and confirmation bias, it's pretty clear that I have developed a fairly unexpected loyalty.  Every time a buy one of these bottles of wine, it's an opportunity to share my experiences in Chile, and I have a level of familiarity with these wines I lack with all others.  It is fascinating though, that because of these experiences, I am certain that my perceptions of the wine are forever altered and biased.  And when I'm with friends or family and bring a bottle of Concha y Toro, I also end up biasing them, albeit unintentionally.  Whatever Concha y Toro is doing has worked in my case -- I feel like I have discovered great wine for great value, Concha Toro's intended marketing message, and something makes me feel like I'm not the only one.

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Four Potential Products

Silver lined Bandaids, Satellite Radio, Scented Kitchens, and Sliced Peanut Butter?  What will be the next big thing and why?

1) Silver lined Bandaids - I found this to be a well thought out idea.  Proven technology, sizeable market, nice premium over existing products, strong value proposition.  This is my vote for #1.

2) Satellite Radio - My vote here is largely driven by market size and a B2B play.  I think satellite radio can drive rapid adoption in rental car markets, OEM, etc. as it establishes fairly easy feature differentiation in vehicles.  I think demand among the consumer segment will be significant as well, but I think penetration will be quite limited.  With online solutions like Pandora that offer even more customized learning experiences, this will be big, but just like radio, may fend for its life someday vs. other web-based solutions.

3) Sliced Peanut Butter - Is there really a market for this?  Has our society become that lazy!?  Well, perhaps.  People love peanut butter and I could be convinced.  That said, I see the market as pretty limited.  The current solutions are just fine and incremental solutions aren't likely to drive significant adoption.

4) Scented Internet - Interesting idea but I don't see legs, at least not in this decade.  Smelling something out of my computer just feels artificial and I think it would weird a lot of people out.  It's a bit too 'out there' and I don't think could ever jump the chasm to the mainstream.

All for now.

#MITBranding #MITSloanbranding #Brint