I went shopping for tooth paste today.

As a human being, I hated it.  As a so-called brand marketing expert, I was disgusted.

The major brands and companies have so jumbled and confused this category that it is impossible to shop with either precision or brand loyalty.  Even if you found an individual sku that you liked, you would never find it again.

I have no idea what the whole idea behind Crest is anymore.   It could be any one of a dozen things, but even then none of them would be the “whole” idea, just part of it.  In what way is Colgate different from Crest, or what is even the name of Arm & Hammer’s toothpaste?  The multiple sku’s in each line with different reasons for being create a situation where” each brand differs from itself” more than it differs from other brands.

You know of best “practices studies.”  Well my friends, this is the absolutely “worst practices” study that I have ever seen.

I gave a speech on the principles of KILLER BRANDING a few years ago at the William Mason business school at William & Mary college, and one of the students whose name escapes me now, immediately branded himself as “the Generator,” someone who generates change, who makes things happen.  He put it on his letters, his resume, etc.

I understand that when it came time to send out resumes, he got the highest return of his class.  But vs. the previous blog on The Chief Story Teller, I am going to give this young man’s effort a “Near Miss” because when I went to Google to find him, I was not able to.  I could track him down thru the school and would do so if I wanted to discuss a job with him, but all the pieces were not put together quite well enough for him to benefit completely from his differentiation.  He has some more work to do.

You don’t become a KILLER BRAND just by following the principles, you have to finish the drill.   The principles put you in position to become a KILLER BRAND.  They don’t get you there.   My new book, in development now, KILLER BRAND™ Marketing, is about converting strategy to marketing plans and finishing the drill.

I discovered Ira Koretsky today, not a very compelling or memorable name is it?  How about if I said that I discovered The Chief Story Teller™ today?  That is how Ira brands himself.

In fact, if  you go to the website of The Chief Story Teller, you will note that he does not use his name one time.  He might be a one man shop.  He might have a staff of hundreds.  I am very impressed with his use of branding principles to create his own story.  Focus is clear.  Alignment is solid.  And Linkage is right there in his name.

I am not endorsing his work.  I know nothing of whether he is good or not, but he has done an admirable job for himself and I find him compelling.  And thus suspect that he has something to offer.  I am going to find out.   Watts Wacker the futurist once told me that he consulted by “dominant anecdote.”    I have always remembered that phrase.  I read once about a one person company where the founder made herself the Executive VP, automatically suggesting that she was part of something larger.

Point is that branding, and the principles that are involved are not just for big companies.

A few years ago, certain bakeries started selling the top of muffins because so may people prefer them.  Problem was, no one could own the idea.

That brings me to the Edge™ brownie pan, where an entrepreneur figured out how to make a pan that would bake brownies all of which had at least two edges, some three.  Google this one.  It is a perfect example of creating your own brand.  Find a need, solve it, invent it, protect it, align it, name it and introduce it.

May or may not be a big idea, but the first step is a brilliant one.

“You don’t need more sleep.  You need more coffee.” is a new billboard campaign for the am/pm convenience store chain.  This is an excellent example of using advertising to build behavior.  Unfortunately it builds category behavior rather than brand behavior.  You can respond to this ad positively and stop and get coffee at any number of places other than am/pm.

That is because there are multiple different places that serve hot coffee in the U.S., including quite a few that are much better known for coffee than the am/pm chain.   Interestingly I have seen these billboards several times, and not a one has been anywhere near an am/pm store.  Think about it.  Here is how ads work.  I see the ad.  It registers.  I decide to act and what do I do?  I stop at the next place that I see for coffee.  If there is not an am/pm store nearby, it won’t drive me in.  If one of these billboards added “just 500 feet” and there was an am/pm store 500 feet down the road, they might actually work to build business.  As they are now run, the best they can do is make me remember coffee when I see an am/pm store, if I notice it at all.

Contrast this campaign to another category building message on coffee, which is the slogan for CoffeeDay, a chain of coffee shops in India where there is virtually no competition.  The CoffeeDay slogan is “A lot can happen over coffee.”  This is a brand building, business building thought for CoffeeDay because they are competing with tea in India, not with hundreds of other coffee shops.

Net, net.  Good idea for am/pm.  Not executed as well as could be.

I was working today with Julie Paige Grant, one of our newer people.  We were struggling through the first draft of a Brand Backbone Strategy document for a project of hers.  I sympathized, “This is not easy.  That’s why so few people do it, actually write down a brand strategy document for the long haul.”  Her feedback in the midst of her struggle was, “Actually, this is kind of fun.”

I was reminded of Dean John Drewry in the University of Georgia’s Journalism School who taught us in the 60’s that “Nothing is work unless you would rather be doing something else.  Find something that you love to do and it will never be work.”  No wonder I have no desire to retire.  It is fun.

Ask yourself.  Do you go to work every morning, or do you go to fun?

In the previous post, we talked about an excellent new sku (Butter with Olive Oil spread) within a broad line of products by Land of Lakes, and how the fact that it is hidden in a line mostly of “me too” items will keep it from ever being a big idea.

Here is an example of worse.

There is an Activated Charcoal Body Wash with Zinc in a line of products from Collective Wellbeing, (http://www.collectivewellbeing.com/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage1&product_id=39&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=26&vmcchk=1&Itemid=26), that has now lost its distribution because the balance of the line does not sell well.

This particular item is the best deodorizing body wash I’ve ever experienced by a long shot, but its few stores like Whole Foods have stopped carrying it because it was the only good item in a long line of “me-too” items under the Collective Wellbeing brand name.

Hiding a really distinctive sku within a line of me-too’s is the marketing equivalent of Journalism’s “burying the lead.”

Think about it.  The task of developing one truly great formula is difficult.  What are the odds that a company will have a line filled with unique, really great items?  Having once been the President of Neutrogena, I understand the limiting and challenging characteristics inherent in line marketing.

Land ‘O Lakes has a new spread, Butter and Olive Oil that is so good tasting it is just unbelievable.  Try it.  I am not exaggerating.  The taste will blow your mind.

There-in lies the enigma of modern marketing.  Land ‘O Lakes has so many sku’s that as a brand, they can stand for nothing specific, not even specific taste.  So they stand for what expectation?  Duh.  Hard to answer, isn’t it?

What if this new item were a separate brand?  That brand could rightfully claim that it “tastes better than butter and better than margarine.”  Because it does.  But Land ‘O Lakes cannot claim either because it makes more than just this spread with butter and olive oil.

What penalty is thus imposed on the item by the realities of the marketplace?  Here it is.  Every new user will have to “stumble” upon this product as I did to even try it, no matter how good it is.   This is how we modern marketers turn Big Ideas into Little Businesses.   Don’t you just hate this problem?

Brands die because their owners let them die.  If no-one is in command of the health and welfare of a brand it will go away.  If no-one seizes responsibility, good things rarely happen.

A friend made a statement to me today about the history of the Tango so I did some research and found a few factoids very relevant to brand strength and decline.  Consider Tango as a brand of dance.  In 1903 to 1910, 1/3 of all music recorded was the Tango.  In 1910-1920, of 5500 recordings, 2500 were Tango.  But no-one owned the Tango, and no-one was charged with keeping it vital and leading it into the future.  So today, Tango is a mere shadow of its former self.

During the same years, 1903 to 1920, brands like Coca Cola and Hallmark were embryonic.  Both Coca Cola and Hallmark grew to Killer Brand status in the 20th century.  How healthy are they today?  The answer is that neither is as strong as it once was.

Compare both to Geico, which was founded a touch later, in 1936, and continues to strengthen.  Geico had only $150 Million in policies in 1966.  Geico has $24.4 Billion now, 95% of which developed after Warren Buffett bought the company and increased brand marketing from $31 Million in 1990 to $900 Million today.

Is there a lesson here?  Do old brands have to decline?

This is one of the big issues in marketing? When is it time to change the brand’s differentiation?

Overall, it is always time to improve.  It is rarely time to change.

No matter how good your position, you can always improve.  I call your attention to Aflac.  Their new campaign (woman on crutches coming to watch the kid’s soccer game)  is the best yet at getting the point across on both their difference and why you need it, as well as building the linkage stronger (four quacks of the duck in 30 seconds.)

Aflac is still improving.  Note:  Here is the first question to research if you are Aflac.   “What brand first comes to mind when you think of supplementing your health insurance?”  Here is the second question to research if you are Aflac.  “Do you have supplemental health insurance, and if you do not have it, why not?”

Here are the principles.  Once you have compelling differentiation in place, manage it like this:

1.  First, keep trying to increase the unaided awareness of the number of potential users who are aware of your compelling differentiation.  Do this until there is no more room for increased top of mind awareness (90% of prospects are aware not just of your brand unaided, but of your difference).

2. Second, when there is no potential left to increase awareness, make your differentiation more compelling.  Show aware prospects why they need your brand.  Make your brand difference more important to the people who already know about it.

Only when you are have maximum awareness of the most compelling proposition, and it is as compelling as you can make it, is it time to change the idea.  And then only if you are not reaching your volume or share objectives.  Far too few brands lack this discipline.  They change while there is still awareness not developed and sustained, and they change before they have maximized their differentiation.