Tag Archives: Promise

General

How to start a movement and build brands in the marketplace?

The category comes first and the brand second. Once buyers understand the category and desire the products or services, they will look for credible brands. In this blogpost, four important aspects of brand building in the market are discussed. 

1. Get a follower

In the TED talk How to start a movement Derek Sivers shows how to create demand for a category in real life. He features a video of a guy dancing in a park full of people. At some point, the dancing guy gets a follower, and a movement starts to form. Sivers says:

‘It is the first follower that transforms a lone nut into a leader. The second follower is a turning point: it’s proof the first has done well. Now it’s not a lone nut, and it’s not two nuts. Three is a crowd, and a crowd is news. Everyone needs to see the followers because new followers emulate followers — not the leader.’

Brands need to go through the same process, growing desire for their category and connecting their brand to it. The dancing guy was not promoting himself. He did not do any advertisements. He just performed the act of dancing and got people interested. Successful brands promote their exciting category (the What of the brand) to get followers. Once people realize how it benefits and affect them positively the brand becomes an easier purchase.

2. Get people interested using the Stadium Pitch

An effective way to build a brand is by educating people about the category and using the brand as a prime example. The late Chet Holmes called this the Stadium Pitch. The idea is that a brand can take the stage with an audience that can leave at any moment. The purpose is to grab anyone’s attention and keep them as long as possible inside the stadium.

An ineffective Stadium Pitch would be something like ‘The top five reasons why you should buy my organic juice’. Probably only a few people are at the moment of pitching really interested in organic juice with an empty stadium as a result.

A much more effective Stadium Pitch starts by building the overall category and then slowly narrowing down to the category (the What) and finally the brand. An effective opening would be ‘The top five effective ways to improve your health right now’. The first way to improve health will have nothing to do with the organic juices the brand is selling. Towards the last step, the audience can relate the concept of Health with Organic juices, and the brand can start promoting the category. All the critical criteria for healthy organic juices can be reviewed. Of course, the brand fulfills all of them and many more! The presenter was a category educator and became a salesperson only in the very last step.

3. Get other people to talk about your brand

One of the best ways to promote the category and the brand is to have other people write or talk about it. When people read, hear, or see about categories and brands on trusted blogs, video channels, or review sites, they are more inclined to explore further. Credible voices in the Earned channel are required in building the category and attaching the brand to it. Established brands require a continuous stream of substantially new products, features, or stories to keep the Earned media interested. Without anything new, a brand becomes old news fast.

The brands’ Own channels are essential. Think of the brands’ social media accounts, website, and blogs. In the Own channels, it is also about creating a desire for the category/ the What. Research firm Nielsen published for years the report ‘Global Trust in Advertising’16. Every year, the most trusted type of ‘advertising’ is recommendations from friends and family. The second place is the brands’ website underlining that people do not expect a company or brand to lie on their own site.

Advertisements lack the credible voices of the Earned channel. The brand speaks in the Bought channel. People have learned how to read, watch or listen to advertisements. Contrary to what companies think, advertisements are not ranked high in trust. In the Gallup annual figures of the image of professions ranked by honesty and ethics, Advertising practitioners are at the bottom together with members of Congress and car salespeople.

Gallup Honesty and Ethics ranking – January 2020

The role of the Bought advertising channel should be to maintain or defend an already established position inside a category. Advertising should reinforce the unique What, the product, and benefits. Refrain from the fluffy ‘feel good’ commercials as these do not reinforce the position of the brand in de minds of people.

4. Keep excitement and interest high

Every brand has the task of keeping the excitement and interest in the category high. The excitement in the category will benefit every brand inside the category, relative to the market and mind share each brand has. The more the category remains on the radar of potential buyers, the more people will eventually convert and make a purchase.

 


This article is from the book Win With What – the first category-led growth book for anyone who wants their business to thrive and survive.

Get your preview at WinWithWhat.com

 

Brand Promise, Brand Strategy, Perception, Portfolio

Birkenstock – from “sandals and shoes” to “sleep systems” (Part II)

Birkenstock makes moves outside the perceptual category of “comfortable and stylish quality sandals and shoes”  

I discussed the Birkenstock Natural Skin Care line extension in the previous post. After sharing it on LinkedIn, I learned from Ruben Lekkerkerker that Birkenstock had already extended into sleep systems.  

To recap: Birkenstock is known for its quality sandals and shoes, and Google confirms its strong positioning. Yet the company wants to be known for: sandals, shoes, socks, bags, cosmetics (creams, cleansing, oils) and belts, mattresses, frames, beds, and pillows.

 

Birkenstock also saw the opportunity in sleep systems and connected the world of a Shoe with Sleeping. In their words:

“Taking a great idea one step further: Just like the original BIRKENSTOCK footbed, our anatomically designed sleep systems also adapt to the shape of your body. This enables our mattresses, slatted frames and beds to support and ease the strain on the human body in an ideal manner when lying – helping you sleep as comfortably as possible. Feel refreshed from tip to toe.”

If you think this sounds like any other sleeping systems brand, then you are right – it does. Great mattresses adapt to your body and all great sleeping systems help you sleep as comfortably as possible, so you can feel refreshed when it is time to wake up…   

The thinking inside the company must have something like this: we are known for our “anatomically shaped cork-latex footbed” – this is all about adapting. In which growing category can we extend this thinking? SLEEP SYSTEMS!

The question is: will consumers buy Sleep Systems from a high-quality shoe and sandal brand?

Turn it around, would people buy Shoes or Sandals from sleep systems brands like Tempur or Hästens because they have great nights of sleep?

I seriously doubt it.

The secondary problem with these many line extensions is that Birkenstock signals that they are not so serious about what the brand is known for: shoes and sandals. Shoes and sandals are now part of the many other things the brand does.

In other words: if you have to make a call on buying shoes and you can choose between a brand that is only designing, manufacturing and selling shoes or one that does shoes, skincare, bedding and more… which one would you pick? Most often, the specialist wins over the generalist.

The best path for Birkenstock would have been to do exactly what Google and Facebook recently did: sell products with different target audiences or purchase intensions under different brands. The product looks so great that it would be a shame if they do not succeed because of the position Birkenstock has in the mind of the buyer: Birkenstock = Shoe/Sandals.

Brand Promise, Brand Strategy, Perception, Portfolio

Birkenstock sandals and shoes going natural skin care

Birkenstock stands for comfortable and stylish quality sandals and shoes. With Birkenstock Natural Skin Care, the company moves into a new category. 

Birkenstock is known for its quality sandals and shoes, using the legendary footbed, providing support and comfort since 1774. A quick search on Google confirms the strong positioning.

The brand is moving in many directions. Its 1774 line is taking a position in the luxury sandals and show segment. Birkenstock joined forces with, for example, Maison Valentino, “Dior by Birkenstock” (reread the last three words again…), and other high-end brands.

At the same time, the brand is moving into a new category with “Birkenstock Natural Skin Care”

Birkenstock line extensions
Birkenstock line extension logos

 

While the 1774 product line is connects to the Birkenstock core, Natural Skin Care is an actual departure into a new category.

The product development team connected the world of sandals and shoes with skin care  using a cork cap on all-natural skin care products.

The question is: will consumers buy natural skin care products from a high-quality shoe and sandal brand?

Like any other professional company, Birkenstock has probably done all the research to answer the question with a firm Yes.

My experience is that consumers who purchase the core product are often asked whether they would buy the line extended products as well.

The answer is often Yes, simply because the people who were asked the question already like the core product. Never mix the intention to purchase with an actual purchase decision. People buying skin care products will do so in the context of the skin care category. Birkenstock competes with brands like SkinCeuticals, CeraVe, Kiehl’s, and Rituals. A tough one!

To answer whether Birkenstock Natural Skin Care will be a huge success inside the skincare category, we could turn the question around. Would Kiehl’s “Finest Apothecary Skincare” ever be a success as the finest shoe and sandal brand? I doubt it.

What Birkenstock could have done is to apply the Conquer strategy: growing a new brand in a new category. Using a new brand gives freedom to operate and grow into currently impossible areas. At the same time it is also easier to stop without harming the brand in the original category. The Birkenstock Natural Skin Care products look great on the paper – it would be a shame if they do not succeed because of the “wrong logo”.