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August 07, 2004

Fast Company Better Brand Contest - Part II

Remember, Fast Company did a contest on how to make 15 brands better. We entered using the ABCs (for which we got an honorable mention).

Here are our thoughts on the next set of brands:

Brand 3. Fast Company - Faster/Safer Company

A. Yes, Fast Company broke through, survived, and thrived post the bubble burst as one of the very few most compelling new magazines to make it in the tough business category.

B. But, the Fast Company generation is now at least 5 years older

• We were pulled in by the desire to be "in fast company"
• We've been through a lot since then and are hopefully a bit more mature, humble, realistic and prudent.

C. So, Be Faster Company/Safer Company - The Volvo of Business

• Move (like we did) to the Volvo Turbo Station Wagon - with tons of airbags and all the power and speed a grown up could want, responsibly.
• Be Faster - Put the wheel in the hands of your drivers.
• Give every subscriber their own blog as part of the subsription, make them editors, contributors, etc. to Fast Company itself.
• Be safer, follow the Fast Company generation and our needs as we grow up.
• Ask the hard questions of us, like how to make your brand better (whoops, I guess you're doing that with this contest and in other surveys)

Brand 4. Kmart - Kbazaar

A. Yes, well, Kmart is still alive. It is a brand that everyone remembers, it still has lots of real estate.

B. But, it's getting totally squeezed.

• It can?t compete with Wal-mart or Costco on plain pricing (it's not a warehouse) and it's too late to compete with Target on design.
• It seems to have lost track of it's customers, now mostly imigrant and ethnic folks in suburban stip malls.

C. So, Throw Open Your Doors and Floors

• Don't try to beat either Wal-mart or Target. Number 3 or 4 is no good.
• Embrace who's really shopping there, fully. Appeal to the Latin, Asian and Indian immigrant communities who go there.
• Take a cue from Uwajimaya or the Great Wall Mall here in Seattle. You have all these stores and floor space, become a mini-mall with lots of smaller stores and brands that have it all: groceries, clothes etc AND a great ethnic food court.
• And let others do the job for you, become a platform for lots of other small retailers (many of them your customer base) to succeed inside.

Brand 5. Martha Stuart - Martha Twelve Step

A. Yes, Martha evangelized a new generation of the perfect "homemaker".

• She built an amazing brand on creating/managing the perfect home
• She did this by demonstrating and inviting emulation of her own ability to make life and home perfectly lovely and well organized.

B. But, she screwed up, big time.

• She never really accepted her audience's weaknesses (no one was ever as organized or perfect as Martha seemed to be),
• Or her own. Well, now she is going to jail and her perfection has cracked.

C. So, embrace the ordeal and sell it.

• Build a brand on how you fell, accepted your faults and rose again.
• Martha as 12 stepper. Martha as born again, self help evangelist.
• Step One - repent, Step Two - get out and renew, Step Three- tell everyone else about it in your magazine and shows

Brand 6. McDonalds - Eat Your Own Lunch

A. Yes, MickeyDees is one of the biggest brands in the universe. They still sell more burgers and happy meal toys than most countries' GDP.

• They are a cheap place to eat for families for families of all income brackets.

B. But, the Golden Arches have kind of lost their way.

• It's not really a very upbeat or happy place to go.
• Maybe Ronald and his kids are eating more at Taco Time , which doesn't have toys that are as cool but boy they are clean and the food is really healthy.

C. So, Quality is it. Get back to it, for real.

• The new exec team at McDonalds needs to look back to their basics. Food Folks and Fun - McDonald's stood for dependable, quality food and experience.
• They need to do what Gordon Bethune did with Continental when he flew all the time on his own planes anonymously. They need to eat there with their families - everyday. And improve it based on their first hand experience.
• They need to do what Les Schwab did, get their owners/employees excited about quality and service.

Click here for the previous set of brands and here for the next.

Posted by johnza at August 7, 2004 09:38 AM

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» Just A Branding Contest? from Crossroads Dispatches
Fouros alerts us to Fast Company's "How Can This Brand Be Better" Contest: Oooh, a contest for armchair brandbuilders and pros alike. "Armchair" brand-builders is right. I thought maybe David Wolfe's post about marketing was a wee bit harsh - [Read More]

Tracked on August 9, 2004 05:58 PM

Comments

Posted by: Heath Row at August 10, 2004 08:53 AM

Posted by: Ankesh Kothari at August 7, 2004 11:18 PM

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