Pic Tip Friday: Be the first, brand something unqiue

Pic Tip # 9: Create a unique product. Be the first to brand a genre. Do something different. Combine two genres or two things to make something interesting and new.

Pic Tip Friday: Reinvent

Pic Tip # 3: Reinvent (like Lincoln Center did), but without completely throwing out the original. Slow change is better than huge change all at once.

Branding Tips: Be the original

I recently reviewed Riverdance. It was a spectacular show, but not nearly as mind blowing as I expected. So why has it been so successful? Far more successful than all the knock-off dance shows it has inspired? Because it is the original!


Be the first to establish your brand, and you'll live long and well.

Netflix changes its mind.... again

Remember my previous posts on Netflix's bad moves in price hikes and splitting the streaming and dvd services? Well now they've changed their mind again based on customer complaints and are staying the same, but keeping the price hikes.

I know they're trying to please customers, but even worse than making irrational, unpleasant changes is staying inconsistent in your brand by going back and forth of the teeter totter. Netflix has a lot of damage control to do, and the Marketing, Public Relations people aren't doing a good job at it so far.

What do you think? Is Netflix making the right decisions?


Here's the letter Netflix sent out with its most recent announcements:

Dear Harmony,  

It is clear that for many of our members two websites would make things more difficult, so we are going to keep Netflix as one place to go for streaming and DVDs. This means no change: one website, one account, one password…in other words, no Qwikster. While the July price change was necessary, we are now done with price changes. We're constantly improving our streaming selection. We've recently added hundreds of movies from Paramount, Sony, Universal, Fox, Warner Bros., Lionsgate, MGM and Miramax. Plus, in the last couple of weeks alone, we've added over 3,500 TV episodes from ABC, NBC, FOX, CBS, USA, E!, Nickelodeon, Disney Channel, ABC Family, Discovery Channel, TLC, SyFy, A&E, History, and PBS. We value you as a member, and we are committed to making Netflix the best place to get your movies & TV shows.

Respectfully,
The Netflix Team

Netflix redeems itself... sort of

Back in July I wrote about Netflix's decision to split the prices and charge separately for instant viewing and delivery by mail. I felt satisfied, as I am sure many other Netflix customers did, when I recently saw an article on the extreme drop in Netflix customers after its announcement on the price changes, which went into effect this month.


Now, Netflix co-founder, Read Hastings, has sent out an apology letter to all members and opened a forum for discussion on a similar blog post. Watch the video announcement at the end of this post. Here's an excerpt:

It is clear from the feedback over the past two months that many members felt we lacked respect and humility in the way we announced the separation of DVD and streaming and the price changes. That was certainly not our intent, and I offer my sincere apology. Let me explain what we are doing.

Turns out, Netflix is renaming its direct mail service Quixster and keeping the name Netflix for streaming.

We realized that streaming and DVD by mail are really becoming two different businesses, with very different cost structures, that need to be marketed differently, and we need to let each grow and operate independently.

Personally, I don't like the new Quickster logo, but I understand their reasoning, branding-wise. They would have been smart to hold off changing prices until the announcement about the new brand, though. It might have saved them a lot of complaints.


The problem remains, however, that people like things simple. Netflix was the original "have movies sent to your home" service, and it was one of the first to offer streaming of movies online. I think a lot of people liked Netflix because it combined the two and made it simple. If Netflix wanted its new branding to work, it would have kept the Netflix name for both streaming and direct mail, but started a new streaming/instant brand and worked that up separately without the Netflix association. Then they could have slowly weaned out the instant on Netflix and referred people to the new brand.


So, while this new announcement and apology has redeemed Netflix in some ways, it has made things worse for them in other ways.


What do you think? Where did Netflix go wrong? Did they have the right idea for all these changes?
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Reinventing and rebranding yourself

When it's old, don't be afraid to reinvent it. Just look at Simon Cowell. As American Idol got old and boring, he left and recreated it in the form of a new brand: The X Factor. We'll see how it goes for that show. Rebranding by creating a new product has worked for plenty of other companies before FOX.

Are rebranding and creating new products successful and reasonable actions? Will X Factor succeed and American Idol fail?

Giving your organization a face

Customers like organizations and businesses to have morals, personality - to have a face to them. This applies to a website just as much as it applies to the need to provide good customer service.

I've been doing some work for Hillhouse Opera Company, a new opera company in Connecticut. Currently, their website is not attractive. The colors aren't engaging. There's no logo. And the website has no production photos. Playhouse Merced, which has a lot of good information on its website, has a similar problem. It is missing a face, as well. It has a logo, but the photos are old and are only on one page.

Think of logos and pictures as a major part of your branding. In many ways, they are your face. They set the atmosphere of your website. And, aside from this, they wet the appetite of your customer. If a customer sees something they like, they'll be more interested in buying your product. But if the customer doesn't even know what your product looks like, they'll think it a risk to try your product.

You have to earn their trust. You have to own the right impression in their mind.

What are some other ways you "brand" your company?

A Google Makeover: Google+ is only the beginning

It's clever marketing, and it makes Google a lot more modern looking. That's right, Google is getting a complete makeover. You may have noticed that Google search has been getting a new look lately. You may have heard that Google+ is the new social network trying to surpass Facebook.

Now Google is switching up Gmail a bit too.

And all these aesthetic changes serve to build up excitement and talk about Google+, and they give Google a bit of a different brand image, too. Sure, Google is still fun and personable. You can still personalize the look of your Gmail, you can still personalize your Google home page, and you can still view those fun Google designs on holidays and special occasions. But now Google is giving itself a more modern look, setting itself up as a company looking to the future, a company that is the future.

Is Google making a good decision by changing its image?

Lessons in branding from Social Media success and failure

One of the keys to successful branding is finding a niche and being the first in to do something unique in that niche. We've seen this develop in different social media outlets.

MySpace allowed you to personalize your page, and it acted as a great center for musicians and artists to promote their work. Unfortunately,

this was never capitalized on, and with the high risk of being hacked, as well as with the rise of Facebook, MySpace has lost its appeal, much like one of the earlier blogging websites, Xanga, lost its appeal when Blogger and Wordpress came around.

Facebook was a cleaner version of MySpace and included more information options. It focused on relationships, and it was successful.

Twitter made its mark by only allowing 140 characters and by owning the word "tweet" in the consumer's mind. It also brought about new ways of getting information out with hashtags, @ abilities, and mobile options.

Now, Google+ is attempting to do something similar by focusing on the idea of "circles," "sparks," and other unique terms. Google Buzz didn't work because it was too simple, too out of the way, far less convenient than Facebook. It didn't have a point. Google+ seems to offer easier organization of friends, and it offers the extra plus of the ability to edit photos.

Will Google+ succeed? There's no telling right now, as it is in its beginning stages. It definitely seems to offer some things Facebook does not offer. We'll just have to wait and see if it's unique enough to stand out as a first, rather than a rehashing of Facebook and Twitter. It's already had enough of a demand to warrant shutting down invites for the time being.

What are some other firsts in social networking?

Does Advertising Work?

Advertising doesn't work the way it once did. At least that's what most marketing experts tend to say. People don't pay attention, and teens tune out the ads. Newspapers (supposedly dying) don't make as much as they once did on advertising, not even online. Al and Laura Ries (authors of The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding) would say advertising reenforces, but does not guarantee success (which is more likely to come from publicity and word of mouth).

But advertising is finding a new way to get at the younger generation, and, contrary to the majority opinion, advertising is working — at least when it comes to mobile users.

According to Website Magazine,

"Google recently released the results of a smartphone-user survey it conducted... at the end of 2010. Among the key findings was the mobile consumers are particularly responsive to all kinds of advertising. ... More than 70 percent conduct searches on their phones after exposure to an ad... and nearly half of the 5,000 respondents (49 percent) said they'd used their phones to make actual purchases after seeing or hearing an ad."

Your Turn: How much importance and priority do you place on advertising? Is it still effective?

Branding with an extra layer of love: Delicious Girl Scouts cookies

I bought some Girl Scouts thin mint cookies the other day. They were delicious. Not any different in flavor from the store-bought chocolate mint cookies or the healthy version my mom buys, but far more delicious.

Why are Girl Scouts cookies so much better than store bought cookies? Remember when your mom used to make you a sandwich with an "extra layer of love"? I do. The Girl Scouts brand, not to mention the cute young girls who sell the cookies, give the Girl Scouts cookies that extra layer of love.

Girl Scouts has built a name for themselves. Everyone knows who they are - far more than they know about the Boys & Girls Club of America. Not only has Girl Scouts branded themselves with that memorable green logo and publicized themselves through their contributions to the children

of the world, but they have also put their name into the mind of every cookie lover in America. That's successful branding for you.

I could ask you what you've done to successfully brand your company, but I think I'll just ask the fun question: What's your favorite Girl Scouts cookie?

P.S. Mine is Thin Mint

Creating a Wonderland for your customers: Simplicity and Creativity

The (so far) hit musical "Wonderland" is coming to Broadway in the spring. The modern take on the classic Alice in Wonderland is beginning to brand itself, not only with its regular website, but also with a simple, enjoyable, interactive story book that allows viewers to flip through a few pages that tell the basic premise of the show and that give viewers a preview of the show in pictures.

The show has also come up with a clever tag line: "A New Alice. A New Musical."

The story book certainly has my attention, and I look forward to seeing how the show markets itself in the future. The musical is one of the first Alice in Wonderland musicals, but Alice in Wonderland has been rehashed in film many times, so it should be interesting to see how this takes on.

How To... Play on Words

When you have an interesting title, it can be fun to do a play on words in your marketing material. The upcoming Broadway show, "How To Succeed in Business without Really Trying" has mastered this technique. They make the revival interested, not only by hiring Daniel Radcliffe to play the lead, but by using the "How To" part of the musical's title to sell the show.

The show's website features several "How To's." Viewers can learn "How To... Get Tickets," "How To... Get to the Theatre" and "How To... Tell Your Friends." Not only is this creative, but it allows users to interact with the site through social media and ticketing services. It attracts attention.

The website also features a recently released commercial for the show with "How To Succeed on Broadway."

The New Mr. Peanut: Finding Ways to Rebrand Yourself Successfully Part 1

Obviously, your brand can't stay new forever. All businesses have to change their slogan or brand at some point, even if it merely means adding something simple to it. In all cases, however, audience research is important. If you don't know what your audience wants, you won't succeed. If you don't test your new product or slogan or whatever it is on your audience, you have less of a chance of succeeding.

Research doesn't always work, as evidenced by Coca Cola's change in flavor, which tested well but didn't make it on the market. I'll write more about Coke in another post. You can't always completely depend on your research, either. Planters peanuts asked consumers what they'd like to see added to their Mr. Peanut mascot, and the number one answer was that no addition was needed. Some times the old still works. People like classics.

Planters went ahead with a major change, however, adding more clothes and a new voice to the character, as well as turning him into a computer-animated character. The voice, provided by Robert Downey Jr., may attract Downey's fans, but it doesn't fit the upper-class English accent associated with the character. The new commercial, itself, is funny, but you have to wonder how it will go over with the public. Personally, I like it, but we'll have to wait and see if it succeeds or not.

Cinematical.com and E! have more on the switch.

I'll be writing more on the successes and failures of Coca Cola and Mattel's Barbie movies in Part 2 and Part 3 of the "Rebranding Yourself" series.

Branding Yourself: The Sea World Car

Never hurts to be creative. Never hurts to put your company on a product like a car. Try combining the two. Sea World has this down. The Sea World car has people staring at the company's name every day. What do you think of the Sea World car? What have you put your company name on?