Kenmore - Still At Home In More Homes

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Once upon a time Sears carried Kenmore, the appliance brand Sears introduced, to national prominence on the back of the retailer's overwhelming marketing clout. Now, long after the luster of Sears has faded, Kenmore is still recognized as a dominant appliance brand.

A recent post on Brandchannel.com reported a staggering figure that reveals just how strong this brand remains. It notes that one in every three American homes contains at least one Kenmore appliance. It also stated that Kenmore ranks first or second in every major appliance category.

Perhaps even more amazing is that Kenmore, now some 90-years old, recently announced that throughout 2010 it planned to add 450 new and/or improved products across its large and small appliance product lines. They're not standing still. They are continuing to modernize and extend the high-value proposition of the brand.

Besides refreshing the nameplate logo font, Kenmore is also upgrading:

1. Handles and Knobs - more elegant and ergonomic touch points for users

2. Technology - better, easier and more attractive interfaces and displays

3. Design - newer, more modern shapes, colors and materials

It's all about finding new ways to attract, engage and make the brand relevant to a whole new generation of homeowners.

Read the entire article.

To talk to someone about helping you improve the relevancy of your brand, contact us today by email or phone 903-534-5220.

A New Brand Home

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We believe the real, enduring power to make a difference for your business through marketing communications is in brand development. That’s the story told throughout our new website.

Every page, article, image, example and link is designed to promote the idea that a brand builds incredible value, ownership and loyalty in the minds of your audience. It establishes deep personal and emotional connections that facts, features and even low prices can never produce. Consistently communicated and fulfilled, it can motivate the responses necessary to achieve your objectives.

That’s the reason brand development is the focus of everything we do – and our new website.

Here are a few examples of the content you’ll find on our new site:

• Articles on a variety of brand-related subjects
• A portfolio demonstrating a broad range of brand development work
• Our blog featuring selected brand news and commentary
• Links to a growing list of brand and communications resources

Plus more. So, we invite you to take a look for yourself.

Then let us know what you think.

 And if you want help building a website that helps you make the most of your brand, contact us today by email or phone 903-534-5220.

Smell Like A Man, Man

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Launched in February 2010, the Old Spice “Smell Like A Man, Man,” campaign has been a huge success by any measurement.

Only four short years ago, Proctor and Gamble had all but walked away from its Old Spice brand while Unilever’s Axe brand had carved out a large share of the market for themselves. Fast-forward to 2010 and the deodorant marketing world has been turned upside down yet again.

Sales of Old Spice deodorant brands have more than doubled while body wash brand sales were up over 1700% in a six-month period from February – July 2010. A Brandweek article details the sales success of the campaign.

As a result, Brandweek recently named Proctor & Gamble brand manager James Moorhead Marketer Of The Year, 2010. Moorhead, who has been with the Old Spice brand for only three years, spearheaded the effort to revive the Old Spice brand.

Remaking an existing brand can often be more difficult than introducing a completely new one; but in the case of Old Spice, there was just too much value in the 70-year old brand to abandon it completely. Instead, Moorhead and his team have done a brilliant job redefining an old American image by appealing to our instinctive desire to be attractive individuals.

The “Smell Like A Man, Man” campaign was launched in February incorporating several advertising vehicles, but it has been the TV commercials that have garnered the most attention. The comical spots, which star a former NFL player asking ladies if their man smells like him, have been an extraordinary success. One of the commercials has received over 19 million views on YouTube. Old Spice also took the campaign to social media sites where almost one million users now “like” the campaign on Facebook.

But the main thing that strikes us about this campaign is that it proves again that the secret to success is not how long the brand has been in business or how self-important it thinks itself to be – success depends on how well the brand connects with the interests and motivations of its audience.

If you want help connecting your brand to the interests of your audience, contact us today by email or phone 903-534-5220.

Picture Positive Results

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Before you can deliver a memorable message that establishes your brand's competitive difference or motivates your audience to a new and different behavior, you have to get their attention. Otherwise, you're just talking to yourself.

One of the techniques you can use to do that is to help your audience picture the benefit your brand provides. More than just showing what the product or service does, it gives them a sense of how satisfying an experience with it can be.

If you want to see what we mean, watch this video.



To talk to someone about developing this type of attention-getting imagery for your communications, contact us today by email or phone 903-534-5220.

Domino's Successful Failure

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Going back to their story of taste failure and re-creation, what has been the result of Domino’s strategy of self-deprecation? It appears to be SUCCESS.

In a brief follow-up story published on BNET.com, it is reported that Domino's Pizza’s sales are up 16.5% for the first 6 months of 2010.

For those who have missed it, Domino’s began 2010 with domestic advertising featuring the not-so-flattering comments of customers about the poor quality of the brand’s pizzas. Spots went on to say that many such comments had caused the company to take an honest look at themselves and make some significant changes which they invited the audience to try.

Long story short, franchisees are now voluntarily giving up an additional 1.5% of sales to support the national advertising program, and the overall effect is even expected to raise international sales by somewhere between 3 to 5%.

Finally, the campaign is going to continue with other examples of failures the company is taking responsibility for and vowing to improve.

To me, this is just another really good example of a company making a gut-level connection with the interests and issues of their customers and doing something to meet those needs. It is about a brand saying we must stand for something significantly better and we are tired of a reputation of mediocrity.

Read our original post. Read the full follow-up story.

To talk to someone about helping you make your brand stand for something significantly better, contact us today by e-mail or phone, 903-534-5220.