sarahharmonbranding

[sarahharmonbranding]

Burberry: A Brand Lacking Control

The Burberry case demonstrated how important, yet fragile, a luxury brand really is. Luxury brands stand in a league of their own; as the case noted regarding star brands: "[they] should be timeless, modern, fast-growing, and highly profitable". This very rare combination, paired with a cultivated aura of mystery and exclusivity, keep names like Burberry, LVMH, and Prada in the most elite consumer category. Yet the case highlights how fragile this formula is when faced with changing business conditions and, at times, uncontrollable cultural forces. How a brand responds can either secure their continued success or sink them to irrelevance.

In Burberry's case, at the time of writing, the company was starting to see the consequences to its evolving strategy. One element was applicable to all luxury brands and one was Burberry-specific. As outlined in the case, all luxury brands faced the challenge of appealing to three distinct customer segments: absolute, aspirational, and accessible, all the while curating unique experiences and protecting from brand degradation. In addition, Burberry was losing its grip on its product quality and experience (major parts of the luxury experience!) via its licensing and wholesale business units. "Chavs", a mostly undesired customer type in Britain, were beginning to represent the brand en masse. This was coming at the expense of aspirational and absolute customers who had options elsewhere.

Burberry had to make a decision, and quickly, to re-engage its core customer base, innovate away from a now stale brand association, and take back control of its distribution. I would suggest doing so by launching a new logo/core product design, perhaps within fashion to gain quick exposure, re-investing in their in-store experiences and legacy absolute products, and winding down the weakest of their wholesale/licensing partnerships to ensure better quality.

This case was highly relevant as my team thinks about Peloton's brand struggles today. While not a direct comparison, Peloton would be wise to consider the absolute, aspirational, and accessible customer segments for its business while maintaining its brand integrity and exclusivity. For the absolute customers (those with hardware), how do we keep them engaged and excited? Promotions, shoutouts, press packages? For the aspirational customers, how do we get them to try hardware? Partnerships with public gyms to install bikes? Free trials of unlimited class videos? And for accessible customers, what are the minimal offerings Peloton can provide to let them gain access to the community? Class passes for Peloton virtual? The possibilities are both endless and worth digging deeper on.

[sarahharmonbranding]

Product diffusion from the past -- Is it a bad sign that I've barely heard of these?

I really enjoyed this week's case, which covered the early product diffusion process of four offerings: a pre-packaged slice of peanut butter, a silver-lined bandage, Sirius/XM radios, and an "odor printer". I was struck by the absurdity of most of these offerings, despite the very real coverage they earned at the time, and the fact that with the exception of one, I'd never even heard of them. The case asked for our ranked analysis of which products will diffuse most quickly/broadly. Here are my thoughts:

Sirus/XM radio. While known to me as a single entity, Sirius and XM were once competitors in the emerging pay-for-radio space. The business case is clear: commuters and drivers who spend significant time in their car each day were unsatisfied with the unreliable, ad-riddled, and un-customizable radio experience. Sirius/XM had insight into their customer base, size, and could estimate who was willing to pay for more targeted, high quality content. Pair this with a deal to offer the service with car purchases from GM, Ford, and Chrysler, and you've removed significant barriers for customers to adopt the product. No wonder this is the only offering I've heard of.

Westaim Biomedical silver bandages. As someone who grew up in the small town of Exeter, NH I was excited to see a company from Exeter represented in the case. The bad news: I, nor my friends or family, have ever heard of it. However, that does not mean it was all bad for Westaim. While anecdotally it seems the silver bandages did not reach OTC consumer appeal, the company had insight into its addressable market and proven efficacy in medical applications like chronic wounds. My guess is that the patent was acquired or is maybe used in more specialized hospital settings today, which is still a relative win for diffusion.

Pre-packaged slice of peanut butter. This offering feels like nothing more than a spoof food item, and I doubt it had mass diffusion in the consumer market. On the plus side, the company did appear to try and solve a problem faced by its consumers (peanut butter pulled on soft bread when making a PB&J) and thus had a better chance of diffusion than one less researched. While I believe society is always looking for a shortcut, this might be one step too far and too unnecessary. Maybe the better product is the R&D put into non-stick packaging--now THAT could be useful in several applications.

"Odor spray/printer". This idea was both ridiculous and broad. Who were they appealing to? The article mentioned "foodies", or people with a heightened appreciation for the value of good smell, but overall the product strategy felt directionless and unattainable. Seeing as I've never heard of such a thing, I imagine this idea died before there was even a product to test.

Doing these types of thought exercises has been valuable as my Branding group thinks about our project addressing Peloton. Peloton has most likely reached its peak diffusion when it comes to its hardware bike. Peloton now has to re-brand to diffuse a new product offering, its fitness software, and gauge a whole new group of customers for potential adoption. This won't be easy, as YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and even gyms have begun offering similar content.

[sarahharmonbranding]

The Good and Bad of AI for Digital Health

As my project team begins its work on the branding challenges facing Peloton, I found Professor Gosline's article on AI and friction particularly relevant. Peloton gained mass appeal during the Covid pandemic, when individuals wanted a way to work out and participate in a fitness community, albeit from the safety of their homes. Peloton's experience hinges not just on a quality exercise bike, but on engaging and challenging content. Each class, Peloton is tracking my Output performance (both speed and resistance) and showing me a live comparison of my performance relative to my peers in the class. Motivating? Yes. But it does lead to questions around how this data is used and how it's informing Peloton's business decisions. Furthermore, Peloton has a record of my entire class history, performance, and the instructors and class types I like to take. With this wealth of data (power) comes real responsibility. A key area for our team to dig deeper with Peloton is how they are using this data, and if users are aware of the types of insights being gleaned by their health information. Is Peloton actively auditing its existing AI models for bias? What are the increased implications when dealing with consumers' health data?

[sarahharmonbranding]

Reflecting on my own customer journey with the viral Stanley cup

When reading about traditional customer journey mapping, I was struck, in particular, by the Sharing component of the customer experience. While Sharing has undoubtedly grown in relevance with the emergence of social media, I believe it has always been an incredibly impactful (and sometimes overlooked) part of the customer journey.

I immediately thought of my personal experience with the viral Stanley cups. I have long used a reusable water bottle for the environmental and personal health benefits, though I would argue I was fairly agnostic on brand. I have never once thought of purchasing a water bottle for anything other than its ability to store water, and bonus points if it keeps it cold.

This past summer, I received a vibrantly colored orange Stanley as a gift on a bachelorette party. Many of the other girls shared their excitement about getting one, all different colors, as they'd "seen this color on TikTok", and their "friend has the same one in pink". While I didn't personally purchase it, I found myself thrust into the middle of this customer journey, immediately bombarded with stories and excitement around the Stanley. Truthfully, I enjoyed the product, I liked the handle, I liked the straw, I liked the color. Would I have spent $50 on it? Probably not. But now that I had one, I found myself using it daily and sharing my experience with others who asked.

Many asked what the hype was, and not having a great answer, I found a Vox article titled "The Stanley water bottle craze, explained". The quote that most resonated with me was from product review podcaster Caroline Moss who said "They aren't that great. But they are pretty. And that's all trends really seek: is this thing moderately useful and does it look good?"

I continue to use my Stanley daily. I bring it to work, class, the gym, and everywhere in between. Maybe I became a customer inadvertently, but the journey isn't over. Time will tell if Stanley's brand power is enough to keep me a loyal customer, or if I finish my customer journey and jump on the next trend when it emerges.