Posts Tagged ‘frito-lay’

Big Brands Borrowing Interest Everywhere

Monday, May 11th, 2009

I’ve been watching more live television than normal lately, mainly because I’ve gotten the NBA Playoffs bug. Something that has amazed me as I dip back into “normal” non-ad-skipped TV viewing is that there are a LOT of television commercials for big brands that advertise completely different products. Here are some examples:

Microsoft advertises Quiksilver. In this ad, Microsoft plays a sketchy and scratchy phone interview with Quiksilver President and CEO Bob McKnight, and we learn that “without technology, we would be nowhere.” There’s nothing in the ad about Microsoft, other than an animated, wadded-up piece of paper suggesting that Microsoft technology is “people ready.”

AT&T advertises TOMS Shoes. In the ad below, we follow the day of Blake, Chief Shoe Giver of TOMS Shoes. During a 30-second span, we learn that for every pair of shoes the company sells, it actually gives away a pair to a child in need. Blake is running around the world giving away shoes, so he depends on a global communication network that works. While his company doesn’t clearly endorse or even mention AT&T, there is a simulated, branded screen on Blake’s BlackBerry.

TrueNorth Snacks advertises Inspiration Cafe. This is one of a handful of ads in which TrueNorth (a Frito-Lay brand) highlights the story of an individual who is improving the world. The ad below (which I wrote about in this blog post a few months ago), tells the story of Lisa Nigro, who created the Inspiration Cafe to serve Chicago’s homeless population with dignity and respect.

There you have it: Three really big companies are spending millions of dollars on media and commercial production to advertise other brands. In each case, the spending brand plays a very minor part in the background of the message, somehow “powering” the featured businesses, or in TrueNorth’s case, sharing a mission to change the world.

My Takeaways:

1. Many brands are struggling to find a purpose and become meaningful. The fact that these brands cannot find a way to stand out on their own suggests a breakdown in their brand equities. I cannot fault these brands for leveraging others’ stories to break through and attempt to connect with their target customers, but I believe borrowed interest is very, very difficult to win with in today’s market. First, in a 30-second sitting when people are barely paying attention, they are lucky to recall the featured brand, much less the “sponsor” of the ad. My wife, for example, recalled everything about the TOMS Shoes commercial when the topic came up over dinner the other night, but she had no clue that AT&T was involved.

Second, people love TOMS Shoes for what it does, and likely cast aside the very weak connection to whatever global communications network the company happens to use. Further, I find it weak that none of these brands is actually doing something to be part of the mission/vision of the organizations they are borrowing interest from. AT&T is not offering free mobile service to TOMS Shoes efforts around the world, and TrueNorth is not actually helping establish new Inspiration Cafes around the country.

2. Meaningful brands attract attention, and maybe even free advertising. I tell people all of the time that there has never been a better time to launch a new brand. The costs of launching a new product are declining everywhere thanks to contract manufacturing efficiency and low-cost global marketing tools on the Web. All you need is a quality product, great story, and some fans to personally spread the buzz. Now add in the fact that big companies just might swoop in and put tens of millions of dollars of marketing support into your lap for the chance to borrow your mojo. Hell, the ads above show that your new brand doesn’t even have to explicitly endorse the big spenders.

So what should Microsoft, AT&T, and TrueNorth be doing instead? Simple: not rest until they have found a way for their brands to become cherished by their customers. Commit the entire organization to a brand purpose that resonates with the target customer, and then create marketing that itself delivers meaning.

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Posted in Marketing Without Meaning, non-profit | 3 Comments »

TrueNorth Needs ‘Acts, Not Ads’

Wednesday, March 4th, 2009

“Without action, thought can never ripen into truth.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson

Several people over the past week or two pointed me to a new campaign for the TrueNorth snack brand from Frito-Lay, suggesting that its ad campaign might be a good example of Marketing with Meaning. The brand broke a television campaign during the Oscars last week, celebrating the efforts of individuals who are making a difference in the world. But does the new campaign bring meaning to customers’ lives? Does it support its good thoughts with actionable deeds? I’m not so sure…

Back in fall 2008, the TrueNorth brand began a search for inspiring stories from real people. The prize offered was $25,000 and a chance to have one’s story turned into a 60-second commercial directed by Helen Hunt during the Academy Awards. The winner was Lisa Nigro, founder of Inspiration Cafe, which feeds homeless people. Other ads featured the stories of a program that organizes kids to gather pennies to help others in need, and an environmental program in the Bronx.

These are worthy causes and moving stories, but I’m not sure this passes the test of meaningful marketing. There are two basic tenants that we believe marketing with meaning must fulfill: (1) it is marketing that people choose to engage with; and (2) it is marketing that itself improves people’s lives.

My biggest problem with the campaign is that it is simply a television ad with a small contest attached. The brand has chosen one of the largest interruptive advertising audiences, the Oscars. These awards are known as “The Super Bowl for Women” because they provide a large audience for advertisers, and they come at a cost of $1.4 million per ad for media alone. It is one of the few remaining “scale” tools for reaching a large audience, but simply airing an ad—no matter how meaningful the story—is not engaging. And it’s a stretch to say that a simple commercial—even one directed by Helen Hunt—can itself improve people’s lives.

It’s a strong positive to read that more than 1,000 stories were submitted, but I grow concerned that a special YouTube channel with behind-the-scenes Helen Hunt coverage has gotten less than 150 views.

It is not a completely meaningless campaign, and I believe TrueNorth does have potential with its brand and marketing. I love that the brand has a desire to “own the idea of finding your singular passion.” Although it might seem a stretch for a nut brand to think it can stand for this, the right kind of marketing can make a successful connection. But an ad campaign alone is not enough.

Overall, I believe that TrueNorth is halfway to the promised land. On the positive side, it has recognized the need to become a purpose-based brand. As described by Jim Stengel and Roy Spence, brands with a purpose have a guiding drive to improve consumers’ lives in a higher-level way. Pampers has a purpose of “helping moms develop healthy, happy babies” and the purpose of Southwest Airlines is to “democratize air travel.” TrueNorth has a purpose of helping people pursue their personal passions.

But it falls down on the marketing execution of its purpose. The marketing itself must fulfill the purpose, not just shout the purpose aloud. Pampers fulfills its purpose with cause-related marketing that donates vaccinations to poor children. Southwest fulfills its purpose with a desktop widget that notifies people when their favorite routes are on sale. To quote too many marketing gurus to credit here, TrueNorth needs “acts, not ads.”

TrueNorth needs more than an ad campaign—it needs to trigger actions that help people actually fulfill their dreams of improving the world. While expensive ads might inspire some, imagine what else the brand could do to actually help make a difference. It could shift the $1.4 million Oscars buy toward investing in small businesses and worthy causes, it could sponsor local events and activities, and it could help organizations attract donations from corporate sponsors. TrueNorth might hire community activists to run its marketing instead of traditional MBAs and advertising agencies.

If these ideas are not inspiring enough, TrueNorth can look to its sister brands at Frito-Lay. Doritos has embraced participatory marketing by hosting contests for young adults to create commercials or name its next flavor. And SunChips has gone as far as to build a new solar power plant to truly live what it stands for.

Kudos to TrueNorth for a noble beginning, but I hope it changes course toward a more true course to marketing with meaning.

But maybe I’m being too tough on the brand. Let me know what you think in the comments below.

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Posted in Marketing Without Meaning, purpose | 3 Comments »

SunChips Becomes a Meaningful Brand

Monday, February 9th, 2009

Back in November I had a chance to join a panel on social networking at the Harvard Business School’s annual marketing conference. It was a chance for HBS students and other guests to get firsthand perspective from a range of leaders on the front lines of marketing change today. My panel went well, but I had more fun listening to some of the other speakers who joined the event. One of my favorites was a keynote presentation by Jaya Kumar, Chief Marketing Officer of Frito-Lay North America.

Kumar shared how the company is really rethinking its entire marketing approach across its brands, and was enjoying a 10 percent organic sales lift in 2008 as a result—the highest rate among the largest CPG companies in the country. Perhaps the best story he shared was that of the incredible shift of the SunChips brand toward meaningful marketing. I wanted to share his story here, bolstered by some other research I discovered.

SunChips was originally launched in 1991 as a healthier snacking choice, featuring whole-grain chips made with sunflower oil. The key benefit pitched at the time was its 30 percent less fat versus regular potato chips. While the brand held a niche on shelf, it never really took off and growth stalled over time. Most people only encountered it as a snack option on airline flights.

A few years ago, however, the brand team discovered that the same people who buy SunChips because they are more concerned about health also happen to be more concerned with the planet around them. According to Gannon Jones, Frito-Lay VP of Marketing, in Brandweek:

We started to see that there was an intersection of people who were concerned with their health and with the planet’s health. Out of that was born the hypothesis that we could begin to connect SunChips more prominently with the environment so [the brand would become] a small step for me and the planet.”

The team decided to test the hypothesis and realigned its brand and marketing to deliver on a promise to “Grow the best snacks on earth.” One early step was moving to a California manufacturing plant that is completely solar powered—thus literally delivering on the “sun” in SunChips. It’s the largest solar power field in the state and produces 145,000 bags per day. The brand also “buys green energy credits to offset 100 percent of the electricity needed to produce SunChips snacks.” The billboard above is another clever way to show what the brand stands for.

The results of the SunChips repositioning have been dramatic: Sales grew 17.6 percent to $201.8 million in 2008. It has tripled its household penetration in the past four years. Remember, that’s for a brand that has been around since 1991.

Now the company is driving aggressively to do more in support of SunChips by doing more for the environment. Kumar described how Frito-Lay is working to invent the first completely biodegradable bag. A teaser video claimed that they are targeting Earth Day 2010 for its arrival, and he promised to give away the technology to all competitors. Naturally, SunChips will be the first to bring it to market.

Lessons from the SunChips story:

1. Even an older brand can remake itself. It’s never too late to teach an old brand new tricks. Here, SunChips simply stretched what it could mean as a brand and discovered insights into what its core target market found meaningful.

2. “Marketing” means much more than advertising. Nowhere in Kumar’s speech was talk of high-scoring television copy or digital media buys. Rather, the marketing came in the form of PR about a change in the brand’s production process. It is remarkable that the brand positioning was able to impact how a factory was powered. It is extremely rare to see this happen in a large, established company—making this story even more powerful.

3. Actions speak louder than words. A few posts ago I wrote about how marketing with meaning involves actually doing something to show what you stand for as a brand, rather than simply throwing up a piece of advertising that talks about it. SunChips gets the fact that today’s consumer is skeptical of claims (take the oil companies’ advertising, please), so it had to take big actions to win.

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Posted in Cause Related, Organizational Behavior | 3 Comments »