Nespresso ad - brand with comms that makes me crave...

This Nespresso ad is absolutely great at doing what it is supposed to do - make people crave to become Nespresso users. I'm already a brand addict - and I don't even own a Nespresso coffee machine. But I want one... I think Nespresso has managed to do 'an Apple' - i.e. create a must have item via communication buzz, fab brand and 'cool' factor. The 'Nespresso way' is, just like the 'Apple way' an impressive example of how one can utilise brand to sell expensive equipment. And perhaps 'slightly' unnecessary equipment?

George Clooney is the perfect brand ambassador for Nespresso - sleek, sexy, clever and so desirable... just like the Nespresso machines of course. And what's also impressive with Nespresso is that they've managed to continue to remain focused on the high end consumer and build a very successful and profitable company during the recession - I quote FT in their May 20 2010 article about Nespresso "Nespresso has not only become one of the Swiss multinational’s best-selling brands, with sales last year of SFr2.8bn ($2.4bn), but is also a remarkable exercise in luxury branding in a niche of an otherwise mass market business". It's certainly a good achievement!

But, as FT also reports - the next step for Nespresso will be tea machines. Hmmm. Will tea machines really emulate the success they've had with coffee machines or is it just a must-have add-on to the current selection? Is it really Nespresso to make tea machines? Does the brand have the power to sell tea? Personally I think they should stick to coffee and not only because the terrific guys at FT think so too... It will be interesting to follow.

Pour Tea - clever way of promoting consumer engagement

A colleague and friend of mine told me about this lovely concept by the swedish coffee and tea makers Johan & Nyström (a company that I hadn't heard about before - but I'm now well impressed!). Those guys apparently noted that there was a gap in the market and a great opportunity to promote ice tea in Sweden - well spotted for a start! And they realised that they needed a good, well positioned and well designed concept to make it work. So, here comes Pour Tea, a new brand with a range of products that I'm sure are refreshing and tasty, but where they've also realised that it takes more to create consumer buzz, build brand personality and sell lots of modern ice tea! The packaging design was done by Identity Works - nice job! In their analysis they did a great job of utilising the insight that 'ice tea is a drink for social moments, and often drunk in cafés' - this insight they utilised to build a great conceptual idea i.e. the idea of creating the modern 'message in a bottle' by utilising the inside of the label to print different messages from other Pour Tea devotees. And the label also has information on how your own message can be printed on Pour Tea labels or on the Pour Tea website (which I can no longer find - hmm would have loved a link here but you have to google it yourself). Well, apart from the non existing website issue - Don't you love this concept too!?

Pass it on - example of clever digital peer to peer marketing

Image by swisscan via Flickr

I find Pass it on an innovative and very fresh way of promoting a country - this time the lovely country of New Zealand, a country that's very special for me. On the Pass it on site you'll find great stories and little movies about NZ that you can pass on and share with other people. And when you pass on a story and the receiver follows your link and sign up to the site, you will earn credits and win prizes! Great thinking - for simple peer to peer marketing!

Urban Deli - fresh retail and restaurant concept in Stockholm

I feel slightly frustrated when I come across a cleverly conceptualised retail concept that I just know that I would love, but I haven’t had a chance to visit yet….

So, I will share with you my most recent discovery called Nytorget Urban Deli. It’s an upmarket food retail and casual eating concept that’s situated in the fashionable Sofo area of Stockholm. Apparently it opened in October 2009… maybe some more ‘drums and whistles’ guys!

The concept idea takes is to take you back to the ‘market square and delicatessen feel’ but with convenient, modern food alternatives and in a setting where you can enjoy delicious food and refreshing drinks (also alcoholic ones!). At Urban Deli you can eat breakfast, lunch or dinner, but you can also choose your own fresh groceries and produce to cook at home. Or why not try the ‘weekly dinner kit’ – a bag that contains ingredients and recipes for four dinners that can be cooked at home.

Based on what I’ve understood about the concept so far I’m tempted by the ‘eat in’ idea which I enjoyed in at old Fresh & Wild in London where I so many times ate a fantastic organic/veggie deli lunch in the actual retail space. But Urban Deli also has the cool, clean, airy and crispy Dean & Deluca upmarket NYC feel – well suited for Stockholm. I cannot wait to go and check it out in person! And, purely based on my now very high expectations I wish the next Urban Deli would open near to my home…

Integrated systematics for strategic brand tracking

Currently I'm intrigued by the thought of identifying some magic tool for 'Integrated Strategic Brand and Product Tracking'. Clever tracking is tricky - and I haven't come across a single company that have a strategic tracking systematics that's totally integrated with segmentation tools, brand platforms and strategic KPIs. And, on top of that - also cleverly reported via customised / tailored reporting systems. If anyone comes across the ultimate tracking device - do let me know!

Sussex Safe Roads - One of the best emotional communication you've seen?

I saw a twitter note by Brandamentalist about this road safety ad by Sussex Safe Roads. And I think it's so good so I really want to make a note of it here too. Being a firm believer in the power of tucking into the emotional side of communication I find this ad refreshing, appealing and very creative. So, enjoy some powerful emotions and a very strong message! I guess the issue of wearing seatbelts is not huge in lefty brain safety focussed Sweden. But in countries where this is an issue this message should be very powerful. Would you wear your seatbelt after seeing this?

Fresh brand extension from WASA - 4 crisp mix

I've recently noted the brand extension of Wasa into the Muesli category and, since I find this a pretty wise move I wanted to tell you about it too. Wasa is the crisp bread specialist and a crisp bread institution. For years the Wasa brand has pretty successfully developed and grown the crisp bread category far beyond it's origins. But, to be fair, crispbread is a rather limiting category and it may be very hard to recruit more crisp bread eaters beyond the current base. So, what to do? Well, the recent launch of cereal is an interesting example of how to utilise brand strenght in crisp bread to sell another category i.e. cereal. I haven't tried the '4 crisp mix' cereal yet and can but hope that the product delivers on consumer needs in the cereal category. But I do believe that Wasa stands a fair chance to succeed as an innovator in the rather dull and Kellogg's dominated cereal category. Go Wasa!

However, Wasa needs to do a better job at ensuring bloggers get hold of the link to the '4 crisp mix' ad - unfortunately it's nowhere to be seen online.... And, it's also impossible to find good images of the recent product launch. Some more work needed there guys!

Steve Jobs on Innovation

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Steve Jobs said: “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.”

"Innovation has no limits. The only limit is your imagination. It’s time for you to begin thinking out of the box. If you are involved in a growing industry, think of ways to become more efficient; more customer friendly; and easier to do business with. If you are involved in a shrinking industry – get out of it quick and change before you become obsolete; out of work; or out of business. And remember that procrastination is not an option here. Start innovating now!"

I read the above text on a website today and being a firm believer in the power of innovation I just had to put it on my blog. Enjoy!

Proctor & Gamble launches E-store for online sales of consumer products

Today P&G launches an E-store to U.S. Consumers featuring P&G brands. It's called the eStore, and it is an online shopping site owned and operated by PFSweb featuring the breadth of P&G brands including Tide, Pampers, Olay, CoverGirl, Swiffer and Febreze. The eStore has been created with shopper insights to provide a premier online retail site with the goal of offering new and better ways to shop online for household, beauty and grooming products. More brands will be added to the eStore over the next year. The store also gives shoppers a forum to share feedback on their eStore shopping experiences and provide ideas to improve the site. Shoppers can also post ratings and reviews for P&G products and share tips and tricks for taking care of their family and home at the eStore.

Is this the first bold step by a consumer goods producer to try to bypass the big retail chains. Bold move that I'll follow!

FMCG concept development - part 2. Concept crafting

In my little piece on Concept Development - part 1 I wrote about the importance of concept development. I also mentioned that concept development isn't as simple and straightforward as many believe. No, I would claim that good concept development is a skill that needs to be honed by hours of practice. And, in order to be a good concept developer, a marketeer needs to understand a great deal about the consumer or customer, have an idea to conceptualise, and be able to put that idea and the benefit it offers into words and imagery. Those words and the imagery need to carefully crafted so that the concept is crystal clear and can be truly comprehended by the target group (without empty words of marketing bullshit!). For me concept writing is important. And it is NOT about simply explaining an idea in words or some creative rhetorics. No, concept writing is a marketing skill. And a marketing skill that too few marketeers master really well. I've seen too many poor concepts die in qual or quant research - not because of a bad conceptual idea but simply because that idea has been poorly crafted into a concept.

The key building bricks of a good concept? Well, Ï believe those to be the following three:
Consumer Insight: your concept need to rely on a foundation of insight. What's the thing that you know about the consumer that makes your idea relevant? Ideally you've already researched the relevance of your insight.
Idea presentation: This is the opportunity to explain your offer. This should be presented in an appealing way but do work hard on steering away from choosing 'sales' language here! The one thing that one needs to work very hard on is the uniqueness of the idea in the market - is it something new or different that's really relevant to your target group. If it's not I'm not sure whether you should bother writing a concept at all!
Benefit: concept benefits need to link to the idea presentation. What are the key benefits that your concept offers to the intended target? This is where many concepts really fail. They try to claim too many things, they sometimes claim non relevant benefits or they claim just poor, undifferentiated me-too benefits that no one cares about.

I find the above to be the basics of the actual 'concept crafting' exercise - But to that comes the topic of concept stimulus, not to mention the hard work of researching and honing concepts through different development and screening stages. To that comes the development of moodboards, illustrations, packaging shots or whatever other stimulus you chose to bring your concept to life. I'll get back to these topics at some later stage. Meanwhile, good luck with your concept development!