What a Brand!

Across the country, little leaguers with dreams of making it to "the show" have parents and grandparents descending on baseball complexes and sports fields in droves. I can't explain the connection, but there is some weird, symbiotic relationship between watching baseball and eating sunflower seeds. My family is no different. Before we head to the diamonds, we always make the requisite stop at the local c-store to load up on our fav ... GIANTS Dill Pickle Sunflower Seeds.

Last week we made our purchase and headed to the ball park only to find the seeds didn't have the Dill Pickle flavor. On the first mouthful, my husband discovered the bag was full of regular, plain ol' sunflower seeds. His consumer reponse was one of disappointment and irritation at the mislabeled bag. He reacted by placing a call to the company to let them know there was problem.

What has this got to do with marketing ideas that stick you ask? Branding, baby, and this company really gets it!

GIANTS took the opportunity to turn an un-happy customer into a brand loyalist. Just a couple of days after the call to the North Dakota based company, we received a box in the mail with not only a replacement bag of Dill Pickle seeds, but also free bags of GIANTS Salt & Pepper and KC Style BBQ varieties. Included was a letter of apology thanking my husband for alerting them to the problem.

GIANTS took what could have been a negative touch-point and turned it into a positive impression about that company. In this case, GIANTS took the point of contact as an opporunity to build - not erode - their pyschological capital with my family. And they succeeded big time. My husband's response was "I'll never buy another brand of seeds again."

This company rooted themselves in the sacred ground of my husband's heart and mind. Yes, their Dill Pickle product exists in the real world, but the impression the brand made exists in the mind. It's this mindshare that has significant intrinisic value to GIANTS' bottom line.

Marvel gets lost in translation

Judging by a few articles I’ve read lately, Marvel Entertainment and DC Comics are taking two very different strategies when it comes to translating their properties from comic page to movie screen. I’m making a prediction here. One will work extremely well short term, but eventually cause a sort of backlash. The other approach will lack dazzle, but produce a solid body of work that will come to stand for bankable franchises.

First is the Marvel approach. I don’t want to go too far into it. That can be done here. In the article, they use the words “care” with film making. But boiled down, their approach is going to be to take some second fiddle characters, using youth demographic unfriendly acting and make 10 movies over the course of the next five years. Not to mention, they want to make film’s that will appeal to everyone. Long tail economics be damned. In movies, this approach can arguably lead to films that appeal to no one. Best-case scenario…10 action pop corn flicks that are fun but ultimately marginal to fair for box-office after big opening weekends. Worst-case scenario…the term “based on a comic book/graphic novel” and the Marvel Brand becomes synonymous with leprosy.

The DC tactic. Summed up, it takes them longer to get movies out because they like to match the talent up to the project. Though, I do think it could be argued, that since DC is ultimately owned by Warner Bros., it may simply be a matter of red tape. Instead of the standard Hollywood model that Marvel likes, DC actually wants talent that is passionate about the DC characters and storylines. The worst-case scenario for DC will be identical to the Marvel’s best case. DC’s best-case scenario is that their brand will come to stand for quality story crafting put together by people who are actually familiar with the characters before casting even begins. 

Thirdly there is the Dark horse, literally. Darkhorse Comics. With the commercially and artistically successful release of Sin City, they may actually be pioneering comic based movies relying on near-total control of the original comic’s writers and artists. A similar approach was met with success by the movie 300. Which, like Sin City, went bravely into the realm of trying to capture the original book’s voice and visual approach, as seen here and here.

So, to avoid seeing the death of a genre, let’s hope that these companies take a long-term strategy that let’s these stories be handled by people who “get it”.

Cure found to pop burnout!

I think it’s safe to say that being an active purveyor of pop culture means that you take in a lot of little narratives that are all meant to sell you an idea, a philosophy, a lifestyle, a creative endeavor, a product or a service. They all use emotion as the lever and fulcrum to move you. Whether it is from the flavor of the week movie, some reality show or those poor, misunderstood Geico cavemen; the storytellers want you to buy-in with a feeling. That much targeting through thin fiction can leave a person feeling a little intellectually and emotionally drained and perhaps even a little jaded about our culture.

Here’s the remedy. Story Corps.
They are still narratives all leveraging emotion, but here are the differences. It’s real people and the narratives are little parts of their real lives. And they have no agenda.

Rather than trying to tell you all about it, I’ll just let our mutual friend Wikipedia take care of that for me.

So, instead of pursuing another moment of vapid, shallow pop-sentimentality for the sole purpose of getting you to buy-in to something, you should do yourself a favor. Have a real moment of real feeling about real people. Let yourself have an actual instance of connection with the human race. Even if it is via the story of someone you will likely never meet. Though in a way, you have met them. They are the person working across from you, the lady you bought your cup of coffee from this morning and the dude who worked on your car. Your fam, your peeps, even that girl at the gym (you know the one). They are you and me, baby.

Need a practical reason? If you want to advertise to people, you should do what you can to really be in touch with them. Take a look at real American culture. You won’t see the bright lights and bling. What you will see is what all human culture is really about. People being close to, caring about and remembering other people.

Go ahead. Go to Story Corps.
…it will make you feel good.