Tiger: The Bad Boy of Golf?

Recently, I read the Vanity Fair article on Tiger Woods. I think the cover shot by Annie Leibovitz perfectly depicts the new direction of the Woods brand - bad boy.

Pre-scandal, Woods was the golden boy of golf - outstanding performance, control, integrity & grace. It was no wonder so many brands wanted to align with his personal brand - they wanted some of his golden boy magic associated with their image!

But now, with the uncovering of Woods' infidelities, his reputation will never go back to its once squeaky clean self. It will be too hard for the public to trust him as a squeaky clean celebrity.

In fact, according to the article, Woods' brand experienced "the greatest single fall in popularity of a non-politician in the history of public-opinion surveys". He went from an 87% approval rating to a 33% approval rating! People no longer trust the good boy brand - Tiger must work with what he now has and feature what's broken.

Knowing this, Tiger should embrace his new bad boy image! It's time for a rebrand.

Golf has never had a rebel player - it's a gentleman's sport. All the players are pretty straight and narrow. But, if Woods comes back and outperforms the competition, I think we will see the first bad boy of golf!

I mean why not - like all successful brands, their actions must reinforce the public's perceptions of the organization to maintain its brand value. And frankly, Wood's actions do not align with his previous image. So, if he wants to be a play boy who lives life as hard as he plays golf, embrace it - don't create a superficial image which, in this case, can hurt people (i.e. Woods' poor wife & children).

Yes, he will lose current endorsements like Accenture, because this new image does not align with the brand perception Accenture is going for. However, Tiger's new brand will attract new sponsors. The important thing is that he represents something and avoids deceiving the public which harms his public approval rating (i.e. brand value), and therefore, impacts his endorsement revenues!

The lesson to be learned here applies to all brands, not just Tiger - a brand's true actions speak louder than all the messaging and facades one can produce to create a faux image, because today, with all the information people have access to, the truth will always rise to the surface! So to maintain and grow brand value, organizations must act according to their brand purpose and values everyday.

Ferrari - The 599 or The T-shirt?

A few weeks ago my boyfriend told me about an article he read in an EVO magazine around the Ferrari brand and how it is painting everything red and placing the company’s logo on it! I instantly thought – what a way to dilute your brand and begin to devalue it. But after reading the article, my opinion changed! Instead, I think this is a great way to continue to feed the aspiration for the brand!

Ferrari is about performance and the passion for racing! Ferrari has been designing some of the most sought after vehicles for close to 60 years – engineering cars that give people the chance to experience what racing feels like!

This experience doesn’t come easy. Not only must you have the financial means to buy one of its cars, but, in some cases, you also have to go through an interview process to be deemed Ferrari worthy! So, it’s clear to see that only a fraction of an already small percentage of people have the pleasure of obtaining the true Ferrari experience, which leaves the rest of us in awe and wonder craving to know what a glimpse of that experience is like.

Ferrari knows that the majority of its biggest fans will never be able to own one of its cars. So, the brand satisfies its fans' desire to feel a part of the Ferrari tradition of performance and racing with branded T-shirts, watches, coffee mugs, etc. There is even a museum next to the factory, in Maranello, Italy, where people can soak in some of the Ferrari culture and history!

The Ferrari merchandise does not dilute the brand like it may for others, because it’s not taking away from its core business (designing and building high performance vehicles). Ferrari does not manufacture the merchandise, rather it licenses the brand or co-brands with other more accessible brands like Puma. Ferrari simply wants to continue to excite and inspire those who admire the brand and can only dream of owning one of its cars.

If Ferrari were to focus its energy on creating trinkets and trash, rather than creating world-class performance vehicles, killing Enzo’s founding purpose for the organization, then I would resort to my initial instinct that the Ferrari branded merchandise is a distraction. But until then, I feel it’s a great way to foster love and passion for the brand!

The Evolution of Brand

This past week, I read a great article by Paul Worthington, the head of strategy for Wolff Olins New York - a brand organization I greatly respect!

His article talks about the evolution of brand moving from a unique selling proposition to an experience selling proposition. What I liked most about the article was its reference to the importance in brand consistency through actions (i.e. innovations, product development, services, etc.) in developing a strong brand in today's market.

Because I feel this article should be shared, I have posted it below, with the permission of Paul, for you to enjoy. It can also be found on the Wolff Olins blog here.

USP ESP & XSP

Creating a definition of the word brand seems to be both the easiest and perhaps the hardest thing to do. The challenge is not that the existing definitions aren’t correct (or more accurately weren’t correct). The challenge is that the environment in which brands live is inherently Darwinian.

As the environment changes brands must adapt. Once brands have adapted enough then what you get are effectively new species - entities unlike what have gone before and that must now be defined in completely new ways.

This has been a constant process over time, but I think we could now define ourselves as being in the third age of brand.

1. USP

The first age was the product age. The environment was post war baby boom America and the defining factor was the rapid growth of the middle class.

In this age brands were built from functional attributes of the product, which spawned the concept of the Unique Selling Proposition or USP.

The technology that enabled this age of brand was television and the platform was television advertising.

In this age the Creative Director was invented and their role was to find creative ways to communicate this USP to the consuming public at large.

2. ESP

The second age was the marketing age. The environment was one of 1980’s excess and the growing demands of Generation X.

In this age the realization was that functional attributes were not enough. It spawned the concept of the Emotional Selling Proposition or ESP, which was defined through the mechanism of Brand Positioning - the technique of identifying and then owning an emotional territory for the brand.

The technology that enabled this age of brand was the desktop PC and the platform was consumer research.

In this age the Account Planner was invented, and their role was to more deeply understand consumer wants and needs in order to understand which emotions to manipulate for each of the brands audiences.

The second age represented a logical progression from the first. Marketing followed product. The connective tissue was that brand owners retained an information advantage relative to brand consumers. In both these ages an information asymmetry benefited the brand owner at the expense of the brand consumer.

3. XSP

Today we are in the third age, the experience age. The environment is one of unprecedented choice and transparency and the defining factor is a fickle Gen Y audience who demand more from less.

In this age brands must be built around their Experiential Selling Proposition (XSP). Unlike the simplicity of USP’s and ESP’s, the transparency of the third age demands that brands manage complex systems of value - understanding how all of the actions of the brand owner (product/service, societal, environmental, technological, marketing) interrelate to create the experience.

The technology that enables this age is the Internet and the platform is Social Media.

The definitive role that this age will invent is not yet clear, but so far we see Innovation leaders, Engagement leaders, Digital leaders, Social Media leaders and Experience leaders.

The fundamental and exciting shift is that the third age represents a sea change from the other two.

The brand owner no longer benefits from an information asymettry over the consumer. Instead this relationship has been reversed. As such, the old rules and indeed the very definition of how brands must behave in order to succeed has also changed.

The tools of brand positioning and advertising that have held such strength for so many years must now be replaced by both new tools and new rules.

XSP demands integration of product, service, social, environmental and marketing layers. It demands the creation of value across the system of the brand. And fundamentally it is built from a trust that brand owners will have to earn from their consumers on a daily basis.

The implications of this change for many brand advisers are potentially dire. Entire industries optimized for the more effective communication of a brands ESP now find themselves facing a systemic decline in efficacy and indeed value.

This will mean one of two things:

1. Brand advisers will need to focus less effort on how a brand communicates its ESP through marketing communications, instead focusing their efforts on helping brands to innovate across the entire system of the brand in order to generate revenue driving XSP.

2. Brand advisers who choose to remain focused on marketing communications will need to find ways of innovating and re-engineering their business model and offer for a lower value, lower fee world. Seeking structural change to create value both for themselves and the brand owner.

Wolff Olins have chosen to follow the first path: Our focus is increasingly on helping brands create new revenues and new value across the entire system of the experience.

Victors and Spoils on the other hand appears to represents an innovative new model designed to deliver the second.

Whichever model wins, whoever defines the new role(s) that will represent the third age, there is no doubt that this is an incredibly exciting time to play.

We may even get a new definition of what a brand is.

(Paul Worthington)

The New Aol.

In December, AOL ended its relationship with Time Warner and became a publicly held company, and with that, came the launch of its new brand – identity and all! Wolff Olins was the mastermind consulting on this re-branding initiative!

I was interested to see the response to the re-branding work:

“What happened to branding having meaning and actually having set out rules. These are just as bad as the little logos- meaningless, and just look like someone playing around. Very pretty, but why not choose one 'look' and run with that, rather than doing loads and being vague?”

“This new Aol thing seems to have no idea where it is going, and seems to be meaningless dicking around in the hope to make something pretty. If each logo/motion graphic was assigned to a certain element [can't give any examples, as I have no idea what Aol actually do anymore....kind of proves my point] then it might make a modicum of sense”

“I quite like them. However as a launch campaign I'm not the sure that the average Joe would get it, they are a bit too designery and lack any kind of emotion to connect to the average consumer. For a company to hit back I don't think this has done the job.”

Quotes from the comments section of www.creativereview.co.uk

Reading these comments intrigued me. Like the title of my blog entails – a brand is more than a logo! It’s the actions a brand takes that define who it is and creates meaning. It is through an inspiring brand purpose where these actions are born. So judging a brand after only a few days/weeks/months based on its logo seems pre-mature!

AOL’s new focus, content, seems like a good move in remaining relevant.

AOL used to focus on access – enabling people to get online (America Online) to access content (the end user benefit). So, rather than focusing on the means to get to the destination, AOL is focusing on the destination – Content!

In the past, AOL used to charge for content. This was in a time when online content wasn’t as readily available as it is today. But, now, content is free and more accessible that ever before – thanks Google! It no longer makes sense to charge for content – people are too used to getting it for free.

So what’s the value AOL can provide today?

Rather than giving people what they already have – easily accessible content – AOL has begun to focus its energy on providing the best content. They want to make online content better. To me, this is a great purpose to have and a meaningful promise to deliver!

I feel the essence of AOL still exists, but the new direction makes an already known brand more relevant to today’s online environment and its users!

But, this is only the beginning. The direction is good and the first steps forward, in hiring freelance journalists among other extraordinary creative talent to develop “world-class content”, is on brand. We will know better if this re-brand really paid off by whether AOL continues to deliver on its promise through new actions/innovations/etc.

As for the logo, I, personally, really like it! I feel as though it makes people look past a logo to see what the brand is actually doing. And as the logo implies, it’s what’s behind the logo that really matters!

Branding in 2010

Happy New Year! I hope you had a wonderful holiday season with friends and family.

I thought I would start the New Year with a post on key trends for 2010.

Although brands are long-term initiatives and things like maintaining your brand purpose should never change, it is important to understand how the world is changing, and how your brand must continue to stay relevant to your consumers and employees!

I believe the key trends in 2010 boil down to the idea of brands “being human”.

Since the market crashed we find, in the US, only 13% of the population trust corporations! That means the majority of people are highly skeptical of organizations/brands.

I read an article recently, 10 Branding Trends for 2010: Value is the new black, and what it said was:

“Consumer spending, even on sale items will continue to be replaced by a reason-to-buy at all. This may spell trouble for brands with no authentic meaning, whether high-end or low"

So, what this is saying is that organizations must create genuine reasons to believe in brands! This does not come from a one-way dialogue where the brand states its positioning and we’re all suppose to believe it. Rather, it has become a multi-way dialogue, where people (both your current/future consumers & employees) are talking to each other to validate the brand's claims, learning if what it has said rings true through its actions and latest innovations! And trust me, people will find this information, as they are more hungry for information than ever before, as seen in the Trend Watching Infolust trend briefing, because it’s so accessible!

Brands can no longer treat themselves as these all mighty, untouchable beings! Rather, they need to realize like everyone else, they are human! Capable of stumbling, making mistakes, and being seen for whom they really are!

Instead of hiding mistakes, which will inevitably come to the surface and make you look shady, feature what’s broken! People will admire your honesty, and feel better knowing that a brand is confident enough to say, “We’ve made a mistake”. But the crucial part, is to acknowledge the mistake and then take a corrective path – “We’ve made a mistake, and this is what we’ve done to fix the situation”.

Actions are essential, like people, actions speak louder than words. What we do defines who we are. So to build back that lost trust and credibility with people, and create consistent stories about who we are, what we do and why it matters, we must act on our brand purpose. We must innovate with our brand purpose in mind, we must hire with our brand purpose in mind, and we must remain relevant in ways that satisfies our brand purpose!

So for 2010, brands must realize that they are human (not immortal), and shouldn’t hide their flaws as people will figure them out, only creating greater distrust! Therefore, brands must be honest, open and speak through actions to influence consumers’ “reason-to-buy [your brand] at all”.

Thanks for reading, and I look forward to many more exciting comments and topics to come about in 2010!

Nik