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August 10, 2004

Fast Company Better Brand Contest - Part IV

Below is the forth of five installments of our attempt to use the Marketing Playbook ABCs to answer the question Fast Company recently posed in its contest (for which we got an honorable mention).

Brand 10. Radio Shack - Helpdesk Hut

A. Yes, Radio Shack is great when you need to find a special wire

• Still have a surprising variety of hard to find electronics in those little stores

B. But, what are you really all about - Radios?

• You have a weird range of stuff in your store from capacitors to robot cat toys.
• You're too small to compete with CompUSA/Best Buy on electronics prices or with Sharper Image
• And, frankly, your staff is not as knowledgeable as it should be.

C. So, embrace being small, be special, be expert.

• Your stores, often in malls are more the size of boutiques than warehouses.
• So, go ahead be an electronics boutique, and like a boutique sell hard to find accessories AND the expertise on how to best accessorize.
• Hire or train the experts, become the folks people turn to cope with or even fix the ever more complicated world of wiring (or wirelessing) stuff in their homes.

Brand 11. Starbucks - More than a "Coffee Company."

A. Yes, an unbelievable, positive, global coffee/cafe brand.

• Honestly just doing an amazing job on quality, consistency and ubiquity.
• Symbolizing the "you deserve a break today" of this generation.
• All with basically no advertising. Wow.

B. But, just scratching the surface.

• You already have a store on almost every block.
• You've already priced beverages about as high as you can.
• Yet people can?t get enough of your brand.

C. Sell more than coffee, sell the whole Starbucks lifestyle.

• No longer "Starbucks Coffee Company" but "Starbucks, Inc."
• Take a cue from Virgin, who sells almost everything but is more about an attitude and a way of delivering value than about the stuff they sell.
• Go all the way with your concept of a "third place" where people meet, do businesses, feel relaxed and pampered - offer massages, Cranium tournaments, poetry readings, classes, install printers and MP3 stations (nice job by the way on the coming XM radio station!).
• Take that third place online, what better place for web/blog cafes than Starbucks? And when people are done meeting online let them schedule a face to face at the perfect Starbucks location (which includes online dating, what better place for a safe first date than a Starbucks).

Brand 12. Tide - Washing Machines for Wetlands."

A. Yes, a big bold brand that's been used forever.

• With a great logo and a memorable name in a very, very broad category.

B. Not hip or eco enough for the REI/Whole Foods Generation.

• Who knows what your chemical make-up is?
• Who knows how well you wash hemp, flax or bamboo?

C. So, embrace a cause, go green.

• Create a green box, that is the lowest phosphate etc.
• Give some percentage of profits to wetlands charities, under the "Tide Tidal Pride Foundation"

Click here for the previous installment and here for the final one.

Posted by johnza at August 10, 2004 10:12 AM

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