Today I experienced something even more special.  I am in NYC working in my hotel room, and scheduled to checkout at noon.  Then I find that my flight is delayed until 4pm because of weather.  The desk person extended my checkout until 2pm.  Her words to me, “I am doing this because . . . because . . . well, because you are Mr. Lane.”  Is that a cool way to break a rule by exception or what?

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.

This is a great example of focus.  The Montgomery Inn is a full-service full-menu restaurant.  Very upscale, in a very nice part of town.  But they know that one thing on their menu is special, the ribs, and that is all they ever advertise.  The Rib Place.

Focus on a compelling differentiation and deliver.  For longer than I can remember that is exactly what the Montgomery Inn has done.   I went there deliberately because when I think of that part of the country, I think of the Montgomery Inn.

In 1902, Nabisco created a special package of Barnum’s Animal Crackers, the circus wagon box as a one-time Christmas promotion.  The box had a string so that when empty it could be hung on a Christmas tree.

Up until then the crackers were sold only in bulk in barrels in store.  You bought them by weight.

The circus wagon package was so popular, and the string became popular because kids carried the box by the string, that over time Nabisco came to own this category with its Barnum Animal Crackers, which clearly are a KILLER BRAND.

Let’s compare this to Wall Street managers who pocketed millions in bonuses, hundred of millions in bonuses, while letting their companies die and rank and file people who worked for them lose their jobs.  Now when the going remains tough, they jump ship and go to foreign companies like rats leaving a sinking boat.  I believe that this makes them technically rats.

In business real leaders rarely if ever must risk their lives for the people under them, but they should risk their wealth and their reputations for them.  A REAL LEADER TAKES ALL THE HEAT AND RESPONSIBILITY WHEN THINGS GO WRONG, AND GIVES ALL OF THE CREDIT TO OTHERS WHEN THINGS GO RIGHT.

That is what we are seeing of Captain Richard Philips.  He offered himself as a hostage for his crew’s release when things went wrong.  Today, he is calling himself no hero, but giving all credit to the Navy seals who saved him.  THIS IS A LESSON FOR ALL OF US.

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?

It also enjoys one of the truly great slogans or copy lines that I have ever heard.  “If these walls could talk, they would sing.”

It was built on the expecation that if you owned one and used it, you distinguished yourself as a fashionable person who was not overcome by fashion.  It delivered style with simplicity, and was meant to sustain its style from year to year without change.   According to the brand records there were new market conditions that led Coco Chanel to develop the bag.  The post WW II “cocktail” party had arrived, particularly among the wealthy and influential.  Chanel herself did not like cramming everything into a small evening bag and trying to hold it in her hands at the same time that she negotiated a martini in a crowd.  She thought women needed to be able to wear their bag on their arm and keep their hands free for touch, greeting, etc.  So she added the chain handle.  She always insisted that women secretly adored “chains,” but many who knew here thought that the chain was a personal throwback to her fascination with janitorial keys on a chain from the orphanage where she was raised.

She created a bag that would go with everything and disappear so that women did not compete via their handbags, and one that was functional, including a secret compartment where a love note or phone number could be discretely stuffed.

The quilted pattern she copied from the silk jackets worn by the boys at the racetrack.  She loved the horses and adored the neatness of the little quilted jackets worn there.  Above all she was creating a “neat” bag.

The Chanel Bag stood out without standing out.  The crossed C’s logo was not added until the 80′s, so this was not a brand identity “graphic” success as some of today’s designer inputs seek.  It stood on its on.  The Chanel Bag has consistently demanded a premium price that women in the know will still pay or wish that they could.

Of course when you forward this video to friends, it replaces your name with their name on their video.  I cannot remember when I have seen a more exciting marketing execution.

Here is the link if you want to try it.

http://www.cnnbcvideo.com/index.html?nid=4mBhz.Y_.Qth4mq_Qlw7nDkxNDIyOA–_by=13310199-iiKi5wx <http://www.cnnbcvideo.com/index.html?nid=4mBhz.Y_.Qth4mq_Qlw7nDkxNDIyOA–&referred_by=13310199-iiKi5wx>

WOW !!!  This is why most of us went into marketing to start with.

His name is John Weiland and his concept that “Dream Homes Still Exist” resonates from billboards all over town. Some times they even have bread baking in the oven of a home for sale. Another builder friend tells me that Weiland homes knock down about a 16% premium vs. comparable properties, pretty close to the 19% premium that a McKensie study shows for brands over commodities.

You may even live in a John Weiland home.  A quick check of his website shows that the Weiland brand has expanded into Nashville, Charleston, Charlotte and Raleigh.