Today, let’s look at a different destination that was re-branded closer to home.

In the late 1970′s The Herschend family purchased a small, Smoky Mountain theme park called Gold Rush Junction. It had a steam train ride, a few general store type shops and a saloon with a family oriented saloon show and that was about it. The brothers already owned a very successful theme park in Branson, Missouri called Silver Dollar City. When they bought the TN park they re-named it Silver Dollar City, TN. They added a few rides and 1880′s craftsmen and attendance grew to several hundred thousand per season. Not bad for the little tourist town of Pigeon Forge.  But wait.

In the fall of 1985, it was announced that the Herschends had done a “Joint Venture” with Dolly Parton (the details of the JV were never made public). The park was going to receive an extensive makeover and open the next season as Dollywood. Because Dolly is a living legend and folk hero in the East Tennessee area, the park’s fame spread like wildfire and within a very short time annual attendance reached the millions.   All they really did was re-brand a current park and re-open. Quite a success story of what a great brand can do.

Well consider what Muzak did years ago when they created the idea of using music in the background in the workplace.  Muzak is known as elevator music.  It even created the term “elevator music.”  Now it’s in office buildings, lobbies, restaurants, schools, etc.   And the category that resulted, Business Music, has competitors.

I assumed this category began in the 1960′s, but research showed me that it is much older than that.  The company Muzak Inc was incorporated in 1934.  This brand gained credence after a British study in 1937 showed that music increased work efficiency.  Then another study in New Jersey showed that music added in a manufacturing plant reduced absenteeism by 88%.   The brand Muzak introduced a form of franchising in 1938.  William Benton of Benton & Bowles advertising was an owner of the brand at one time.

Technology has changed but the fundamental idea is the same.  Even the Ipod owes its success to the same basic idea.  Background music increases work efficiency, whether in the hallway, at the desk, or in the gym.  What an idea to brand!

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.

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.

The promise of “covers any surface universally even” is new in the spray paint category, and the actuator over-cap on the aerosol can is just down right cool.

The commercial does a good job of demonstrating that the canister can be sprayed at any angle, including upside down. This product feels like a potential big idea that has not quite been made one yet. I wonder what is the biggest idea here? Multi-surface coverage or paintability?

By the way, the packaging looks way better in commercials than it does on the website, so much better that I wonder if it’s the same.

Look it up and let me know what you think?

Meet Vic Firth.  Every heard of him or his company?  If you play the drums you probably have. Vic Firth drumsticks are the undisputed Killer Brand in the drumstick category.

Vic himself, now in his 70′s, was for years the chief timpani player for the Boston Symphony.  Never satisfied completely with his drumsticks, he began to experiment and make his own.   Soon, he was making sticks for snares, quads, bass drums, etc.  Then one day the real magic happened.

Vic dropped a lapful of snare sticks on a cement floor one day by mistake, and realised as they rattled on the concrete that they made different sounds.  Therein was born the idea of tuned drum sticks, a pair of sticks with exactly the same percussive characteristics and tuning, the Perfect Pair, his invention and his trademark.

Sounds suspiciously like “compelling differentiation” to me.  Since the introduction of the Perfect Pair for snares, quads, every kind of drum you can imagine, Vic Firth has contantly grown until now it is both a Killer Brand and a dominant brand among high school, college, drum corps, rock, symphony and all serious drummers.

It would be hard to find a better example of a true Killer Brand than Vic Firth’s Perfect Pair drumsticks.   How would you like to have a 62% share of your category?

The manager is dressed like a physician and carries a stethoscope as do the waitresses who are all dressed as nurses.  Since the clientele is almost all male of course, the nurses outfits are more interesting than found in a hospital.

This is a perfect brand construct.  The name, Heart Attack Grill tells you exactly what they serve and allows you to self-select yourself as a target customer or not.  And nothing on the menu is off-strategy with everything in the restaurant itself perfectly aligned to the expection and the name.

The product is called anti jet lag relief emergency booster.  I think “anti” jet lag and “relief” are contradictory.  Are they guarding against the effects of jet lag or repairing the effects?  If I glance at this product, or in Malcolm Gladwell’s jargon, if I blink at this product I get it, but the minute I start thinking about it, the confusion sets in.

This is the opposite of simple.  I wonder what it really does.

Regardless of the business need to move away from all-leather, the Studio name does little for me, a prospective buyer.  I fly two to four times a week, and the name Studio communicates no expectation that would drive me into the stores that i walk past weekly.

What do you think?

The Fat Burger unit is minimal and dated. The food is good. Once you stop in, the marketing is clear, the concept makes sense. They explain the name, that in 1952 when Fat Burger was founded that the concept of “fat” was good. It reflected the post WWII economy that arose after the “lean” times of the 30′s. For example, the term, “you’re in Fat City,” was coined. Now that I know that, I will never again wonder why Fat Burger is Fat Burger. Even if you do not know that fact, Fat Burger as a name sets up the expectation of a fat, juicy burger. But I have known of this chain for over 30 years and never stopped in before. Thirty years as an aware non-user is not a good reflection on any marketing plan.

Down the road is Habit, with arguably the best, biggest nicest burgers of any fast food restaurant ever. The name Habit sets up no expectation for me. To weaken it further, the name Habit is followed by no generic in the signage, not Habit Burgers, just Habit. And the logotype for Habit looks like it might be a Mexican concept. The official name is The Habit Burger Grill. But from the road I read only Habit.

Don’t get me wrong. Both of these companies are successful. Fat Burger has been in business for 56 years (3 years longer than McDonald’s); Habit for over 25 years. But in my opinion, each could benefit from better marketing.