In the past few weeks I’ve had a chance to reconnect with two old friends who recently joined two of the coolest brands in business. Both are having a blast creating terrific products with energetic, passionate coworkers. And both companies are doing very meaningful marketing. In each case, the moment I stepped into their offices, I noticed that the environments pay off the brand as much as the product, and likely help the people behind the brands step out of the old ways and fashion a new approach. Let me share my experiences at OXO and Red Bull.
The OXO brand is a small, high-growing business. A few choices in OXO’s office help to direct its people and thus both product and marketing. The company makes high-quality, very well-designed kitchen tools. You will find OXO products often at Target, where the brand has helped defined the unique “cheap chic” that powered this retailer’s growth and customer passion. For a great view of the company’s belief in design, check out this video of its President, Alex Lee, from a recent Gel conference.
The OXO office is headquartered in the neighborhood of Chelsea in Manhattan, considered one of the trendiest and artiest neighborhoods in the city. When I walked into the building I noticed several attractive 6-foot or taller women speaking in multiple languages. I later learned that this was the Starrett-Lehigh Building, home to fashion designers and modeling agencies, as well as Hugo Boss, the School of Visual Arts, and Martha Stewart’s brand. This setting helps OXO attract and inspire the great designers that it needs in order to stay on the shelves of Target and in the hearts of its consumers.
Inside, I found the OXO office to fit well with my impression of the brand: lots of clean, clear space, a large kitchen, and a group of people who fit a combination of artist and architect. But I was specifically drawn to one of the walls of the office, where there was a vast collection of various gloves hung upon it. I learned that Alex Lee asked employees to bring in gloves that they found discarded on the streets of New York City, and he posts them on the wall to remind everybody that they are here to design quality tools for real people with many diverse needs.
It is a very interesting visual reminder of the purpose of the OXO brand. It does not exist to “move product” but rather to be a helpful part of people’s lives.
My second interesting trip a few days later was to the North American headquarters of the Red Bull brand. As you no doubt know, Red Bull is a beverage brand that has charged onto the scene in the past few years with a rebellious, action-oriented attitude. The brand is a huge believer in the power of events as marketing tools, as it owns several motorsports and soccer teams, helps big-name athletes train, and has created events such as the Red Bull Flugtag.
Red Bull HQ is located in Santa Monica, CA, nestled close to the shore and near media companies such as MTV and Yahoo!—a very inspiring location if you love the outdoors but want to hit the hottest clubs in L.A. in the evenings. That’s a bit of what the Red Bull brand seems to wish to be—powering your morning mountain bike ride, and then keeping you up at the bar scene until 3 a.m.
The Red Bull building itself has what you would expect if you are a true fan of the brand: a gigantic wooden skate ramp that the entire building seems to revolve around.
In doing some digging online I discovered the company hosts skating events at its office on the weekends, of course. A giant 40-foot glass door can be raised or lowered to make the ramp accessible for the inside and outside (more details here and here if you’re fascinated like I was). Clearly it focuses perspective on what your brand stands for when there is a massive skate ramp over your head. And if that doesn’t do the trick, try to ignore the guy pedaling his bike down the hallway, or the handful of people who refuse to wear shoes of any kind. It’s the combination of rebellion and athletics that the brand stands for in our hearts and minds.
These are only two examples of the many great product and marketing companies in the world. But many others are out there. Go back to the coolest companies you have visited and I’m sure you will agree that their office space often lives up to the brand buzz. Another example I love is Pampers, which years ago chose to follow a purpose of improving babies’ development. A key step in this shift was to completely redesign the office space of its employees, decorating it with oversized chairs and brightly colored walls to help people see the world through babies’ eyes.
Perhaps you can do meaningful marketing and design killer products in a boring building with bland conference rooms and cookie-cutter cubes… but I doubt it. At the end of the day, brands are built by the people who work on them. Success starts with convincing your employees that your brand is special, and inspiring them to share that specialness with everything they create.
