Babies & Brands

As my wife and I prepare for the birth of our first child (expected later this month), I find myself making product decisions and forming opinions where none had existed only months ago (much like our wedding).

Preparing for baby, made me think of a piece of flawed logic in an otherwise decent book about consumer behavior. Lou Carbone makes an illogical comparison in Clued In. He compares the brand equity and ad spends between Starbucks and Huggies. It’s a comparison of caffeinated apples and disposable oranges. One product is addictive and the other is not used by the purchaser. Diapers are purchased by people who don’t use the product and had no idea that they would need to make the purchase months earlier.

I find myself engaging in righteous, social, and pragmatic evaluations of potential products and services for the home. In this case, diapers:

Righteous – nothing’s too good for our future daughter, as my wife and I bring multiple consumer guides to baby stores.

Social – asking my friends what diapers they’re using and why. Turns out that Pampers has less blow-outs than Huggies. It sounds like we’re going to be Pampers house.

Pragmatic – what’s the cheapest way to get Pampers? Costco, here we come.

The above assumes the pragmatic argument of disposables beats out the righteous eco-argument of cloth diapers.

Wiki now used for shopping commentary

In the April 24th edition of the New York Times, Bob Tedeshi wrote about ecommerce companies trying to embrace Wiki style reviews. This is another flavor of consumer generated media. As stated earlier with CGM, it’s imperative that symbolic identity and brand are managed.

What I know is…the continued duality of fragmented and converging channels of communication require more disciplined brand management.

I covered this topic last month with the Chevy Tahoe contest. http://www.sanctioningagent.com/blog/2006/04/chevy-tahoe-consumer-generated-media.html

Takeaways:
1. CGM is not inherently good or bad.
2. Position or be positioned…with the speed of the net, make sure you’re managing your story and that it’s grounded with tangible reality links.
3. Me too is not a brand strategy.

New Case Study

A new case study is available on the Sanctioning Agent site. Read how Sanctioning Agent helped a Minneapolis-based theatre company.

You’ve come a long way, Sony.

Honorary Agent Cory notified Sanctioning Agent of Sony’s new product and campaign.

Sony has launched the BRAVIA (Best Resolution Audio Video Integrated Architecture) flat screen TV. They’re billing it as “the world’s first television for men and women.” I was caught off guard to find we're living in a world that had TVs strong enough for men, but not made for a women.

I applaud Sony for including women (ok, well not really because this is as diverse as the United Colors of Benetton), but from a brand identity standpoint what are they thinking? Don’t try to be all things to all people. Men and women, that just about covers…well, it just about covers everyone. Also, just because you say something in your ad doesn’t mean it’s grounded. In this case, just because you mention women, doesn’t mean you’ve done something to truly cater to women. A trip to the Sony site doesn’t seem to indicate anything truly differentiating for men or women; or, men AND women. The campaign doesn’t seem to ring true.

Gladwell: Anatomy of Explanations

Interesting NEW YORKER article from Gladwell.
http://www.newyorker.com/critics/books/articles/060410crbo_books

Even more interesting and related blog post from Gladwell.
http://gladwell.typepad.com/gladwellcom/2006/04/tilly_and_focus.html#comments

Comments (Re)Activated

Greetings.

An update about comments, comments on the Sanctioning Agent blog have been reactivated. They were turned off while blog spammers were hitting the site.

While you need to be a “registered user” to comment, I hope that doesn’t dissuade you from continuing the blog dialogue.

Thanks for your understanding.

Beth what can I do?

KISS fragrance? Will it be a little more "Detroit Rock City" or "Beth"?

Alternate tag: "The fragrance that smells like Ace Feels"

Translating Brand Online

Today I presented "Translating Brand Online: Managing Message & Media" at a MIMA (Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association) event.

Here's the presentation.