What’s the breakout brand of the century?
Like, which one is the most unlikely brand in one of the most challenging categories?
I say Tito’s vodka.
I mean, think about it:
Do you know HOW your customers like to buy?
Like, how they physically like to GET and PAY for your products or services?
Domino’s, f’rinstance, recently revealed that there’s only a 15% overlap between their carryout customers and their delivery customers.
That’s right: only 15% of their customers do both carryout & delivery. The rest are like Capulets and Montagues: never the twain shall meet.
It’s as if the shopping style alone has segmented the world into two entirely different markets for pizza.
Who REALLY buys Dude Wipes?
Like, how well does the brand know its buyers?
You might’ve seen Dude Wipes. Launched in 2012, it is, quite simply, flushable wet wipes for dudes.
But is that tremendous growth really due to the cause? Maybe. But maybe not.
So you’d think the brand would, uh, rub women the wrong way. But you’d be wrong.
How is Dove’s “Real Beauty” like Geico’s Gecko?
We tend to think Dove’s campaign is a stellar example of purpose-driven marketing. But is it?
Yes, they’ve done amazing viral content on real beauty & self-esteem. (Including the recent one on beauty standards in AI-generated images.)
And yes, they’re one of only 11 CPG brands in the world with sustained growth over the past decade (according to Kantar.)
But is that tremendous growth really due to the cause? Maybe. But maybe not.
Want an ‘ownable’ logo?
Like, do you want your logo to never be confused with your competition?
Turns out there’s an interesting thing you can learn from some of the best in the world.
See, the first instinct for many logo designs is to do something “relevant” to the category.
Are Olympic medals a banana curve?
Like, is the medal count a bell curve, a banana curve, or something else?
No, this isn’t marketing per se. But it’s a fab example of this universal pattern.
The USA sits atop the medal count with 126 medals. China is next with 91. Then Great Britain with 65, and host nation France with 64.
Is churn normal in B2B industries?
B2B relationships have a reputation for being long and stable.
A common belief is, companies find a supplier they like — equipment, taxes, SaaS — and they stick with them. Because switching stinks.
Do Grocery Loyalty Programs Work?
Dr. Jorna Leenheer & Co looked at data for 1,900 Dutch households over 2 years, covering 20 supermarkets and all 7 grocery loyalty programs.
What’s the “car door thunk” in your category?
It’s an open secret that the sound the car door makes when you close it has an oddly huuuge impact on how you assess the car’s quality.
This is because our brains are leaky: impressions we get in one area bleed into other areas. It’s called the halo effect.
Want better recall for your ads?
After getting a lot of “I don’t remember” and “uh, I think it was for Lindt…”, they did some math to find out how much brand recall would change given different numbers and types of mentions. (Go math!)
Increasing the number of mentions increased the chance of recall for all types of mentions, from a 17% boost to a 56% boost.
Is customer satisfaction overrated?
Like, does it really matter if people say they’re ”highly satisfied” with your brand?
It turns out the evidence is… mixed.
Do Small Brands Follow the Law of Double Jeopardy?
Small brands are weird. How weird are they?
In the kombucha category, f’rinstance, big brands like GT’s have higher penetration AND higher ‘loyalty’.
This is the Law of Double Jeopardy. It’s an empirical regularity, with nice equations that predict it quite, uh, nicely.
Do platforms “own” their users?
TL;DR: Nope.
As a sequel to last week’s post (Do brands “own” their buyers?), here’s another set of cross-usage data. This time for social media.
We like to think we “own” our users. Or that “our” users are totes not like “their” users. Pinterest vs LinkedIn. Facebook vs Snapchat.
But it’s more complex than that.
Do we “own” our customers?
We often like to think we “own” our customers.
That “our” buyers are totes not like “their” buyers.
Coke vs Pepsi. Coach vs Chanel. Home Depot vs Lowe's.
But it mostly ain’t so.
Are you dead-set on refreshing your brand?
If you’re doing a brand refresh, there’s one key rule: if you have any equity in your brand, don’t throw it away.
Pleeeeeease.
Instead, build on what’s already in people’s minds.
Are you tracking trends for long enough?
Covid changed everything. Except when it didn’t.
F’rinstance, weekly new business applications in the US are now up 40% vs pre-pandemic. And that number doesn’t look like it’s going back down.
What helps new brands grow the most?
Launching a new brand is harrrd. And most new brands fail.
But of all the things you can do, what drives growth the most?
Ataman, Mela, and van Heerde dissected how the 4 P’s of the Marketing Mix impact brand launches (not line extensions).
Do people know about your cause marketing program?
All 87 of these popular brands DO have cause marketing programs. Some are long, well-established programs & campaigns.
But DoSomething Strategic polled 1,900 people aged 13-25 & found out that most of The Kids — don’t forget, “they buy based on values!” — have no clue.
Why do People Forget About Your Brand?
This is essentially the first Law of Brand Science: you’re trying to get people to buy your brand, and the first hurdle is, they can’t even remember where they put their keys, much less remember your brand.
