silasbranding-blog

[silasbranding-blog]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ArICuA9NYI; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoEKWtgJQAU

Differing views on how to take the top off of your new Maybach

[silasbranding-blog]

Why I love America, and Amazon

Americans are wonderful people, or at least I think so. Why is that, because I assume that all Americans are just like me, and I really like me. But could my love for America extend to brands? Consider Wal-Mart and Amazon. Both are retailers that undercut their competition by leveraging their massive scale delivering a wide selection of goods at the lowest possible prices. But I love Amazon, and Wal-Mart is just for poor people (not people like me).

Objectively, I will admit that both companies offer the same thing, convenience, wide variety, and low prices. But why do I feel so differently about the two brands? I googled "I love Wal-Mart" and received 158,000,000 search results. That's a lot. But after looking past the first few, I realized that a lot of the results were in jest, people didn't actually love Wal-Mart. And why not? Well, Wal-Mart does a lot of bad things: 1) it wrecks communities by destroying the livelihoods of local shop keepers, 2) it has terrible employee relations, paying near minimum wage and offering few benefits, 3) it is full of the weirdest and worst people on earth (not just America). It reminds me that America isn't quite as wonderful as you thought it was when I thought America was filled only with people like me.

When I googled "I love Amazon" I received 1,060,000,000 hits. And these people really love Amazon. I mean this is a company that gives you the cheapest goods delivered directly to your door. And up until now, you didn't even have to pay sales tax (I mean technically you were supposed to from the beginning, but...). Amazon does a lot of great things: 1) it simplifies your life by allowing you to go to one virtual store rather than going to actual stores that employ real people in your community, 2) it only employs people in good jobs, automating everything it can and outsourcing its manual jobs to other companies so that it doesn't have to directly employ "wage earners", and 3) I know that the only people who shop at Amazon are wonderful people, just like me.

[silasbranding-blog]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_gGAPOZbFA; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODmfmUWqlSA

Weird things happen when you see two competitors commercial back-to-back. Even if you are familiar with the products, you start to doubt yourself and subconsciously lean towards the ad with a catchy jingle, or a more striking image. Sometimes the two commercials advertise the same capabilities but the message is so dissimilar that you start to doubt if they are really the same. This happened to me tonight as I saw a Samsung and an Apple commercial back-to-back. Check it out.

When viewing the Samsung commercial (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_gGAPOZbFA) the message is clear: WE ARE LEADING THIS REVOLUTION.

Apple (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODmfmUWqlSA), seems to have a different message, quietly saying, yes we can do that most of the things that you can do too. Apparently Apple’s ad agency is scared of reminding customers of the long-lines and public hysteria that previously associated new Apple product launches. Now their commercial is so subtle that if I hadn’t seen the commercials back to back I wouldn’t have noticed that they advertised such similar capabilities.

[silasbranding-blog]

Military gear to iconic brand

Having been in the military for nine years, I often find it amusing to see items designed for military use now as "classic" icons of fashion and branding. While these brands may not have been founded with the hope of producing military grade uniforms or equipment, once adopted by the military, their fame increased dramatically. With just one contract, these brands became standard issued gear for millions of men and women. While the Burberry Trench Coat is certainly one of the most famous examples of this trend there are many others. Here's a sampling of some of my favorites:

Burberry Trench Coat:

  Victorinox Swiss Army Knife:

Jeep:

Ray Ban Aviator Sunglasses:

[silasbranding-blog]

“CASH IN THE ATTIC” is one of the jewels in the BBC’s crown: “The show that turns hidden treasures into cash and viewers’ dreams into reality”. The...

It is rare that at the same time you are paying a very high price for one product that you receive the same product at the same time for a very low price. This happened to me this week when my branding class at MIT Sloan covered the same material as this week's Schumpeter article in the Economist. While I am happy that the course is teaching relevant and insightful material, I can't help but wonder why the price differential is so high (expected cost of MBA of $150K before factoring in lost wages versus $99 annual subscription to the Economist). 

Perhaps the answer lies in the reading. If I were to recount what I learned from the articles to a friend, but cite one source as the Economist and the other as from MIT, I would expect that the MIT brand would be more valuable. Perhaps this explains why companies hire employees and advisers from top-ranked universities rather than hiring those who subscribe to the Economist, the Atlantic, or who read the New York Times. I guess I'll leave MIT Sloan MBA on the top of my resume and "reading" in the hobbies and interests section at the bottom.

[silasbranding-blog]

Experience the romance of travel with the Singapore Girl in her latest journey across the globe.

"The Romance of Travel" is something that is not often associated with long-haul flights. Spending over 8 hours on a plane is rarely as romantic as imagined. Singapore Airlines knows this, and they work to create small pleasures which make your flight more pleasant. As the commercial demonstrates, Singapore Airlines does not even have to say a word to convey the message that they care for you, that they are looking out for you, and that they are proud of the service that they provide. An uncommon commitment in a near commodity business.

#mitbranding #mitsloanbranding

[silasbranding-blog]

I will not pretend that I believe that anyone can tell which wine is good (see the attached link) but that does not mean that there isn't plenty of money to be made producing "good" wine. Marketers know that when given the same wine marked with different prices, people actually think that the more expensive wine tastes better. This results in a deluge of "premium" priced wines. Marketers also know that when given the same wine presented in different bottles (or with different labels), people rate the fancier bottle (or more prestigious label) as higher quality.

However, all these things make me wonder in Trader Joe's isn't leaving a ton of money on the table. When I read a survey that says that people chose $3 buck Chuck over some expensive wine in a blind tasting test I ask myself why Trader Joes isn't charging more for $3 buck Chuck. After all, a high price would probably make it taste better.

#mitbranding #mitsloanbranding

[silasbranding-blog]

New product difussion, Bass model or the "Tipping Point"

At a school of budding entrepreneurs the focus is often on the technology, the innovation, and the product delivery. However, we are also taking time to think about who will be buying this new product, and the products’ diffusion into the marketplace. In the terms of the Bass Model, we are to think about the innovators (who buy the product first regardless of what others are doing) and the imitators (who wait to gather information from the innovators before making their purchase).

We could just as easily think in terms of Malcolm Gladwell’s “Tipping Point”. Here “mavens” are the early adopters. They are the innovators, who test new products and have keen insight into the best products in the marketplace. Next we have the “connectors”, they are the ones who enable the flow of information from the mavens to the general public. This is the key element of diffusion of knowledge and in the Bass model would be critical to the coefficient of imitation. Finally, in Gladwell’s model there are the “salesmen”.

Entrepreneurs, brand managers, and sales executives should ensure that they are providing sufficient outreach in order to convey the benefits of their innovations to mavens. They should also provide the salesmen, who will build the sales pitches that resonate with potential customers. Finally, they should work to identify customers who will serve as connectors to the larger market (brand ambassadors). In this way, a company can take control of its sales cycle and successfully enter new markets and expand existing markets.

#mitsloanbranding #mitbranding

[silasbranding-blog]

Beer: Yes, I'll have that

Corona evokes the image of great Mexican food, spring breaks, leading to tequila shots, a great time, and then to memory loss.

Heineken is to beer what tumblr is to the written word. Just something smucks do to feel like they’ve made it.

Seriously, I think my prof must get paid in Yahoo! stock. Who uses tumblr?

#mitsloanbranding #mitbranding  

[silasbranding-blog]

Beer: Yes, I'll have that

Corona evokes the image of great Mexican food, spring breaks, leading to tequila shots, a great time, and then to memory loss.

Heineken is to beer what tumblr is to the written word. Just something schmucks do to feel like they've made it.

Seriously, I think my prof must get paid in Yahoo! stock. Who uses tumblr?

#mitsloanbranding #mitbranding  

[silasbranding-blog]

Blogs

I had no idea people wrote blogs anymore. I thought the last blogs were about Occupy Wall Street or the Iraq War. Really, people, we have TWITTER now. No one wants to read your blog if they can get the same info in 140 characters. I might as well be creating a Myspace account right now! This seems a lot like using the same brand to sell cute household appliances to housewives as well as "power tools" to burly professional craftsman. #mitbranding #mitsloanbranding