Citizen Brand

March of Dimes

Today, one of America's great nonprofits starts a new and exciting chapter in its 70 year history.

Our client, the March of Dimes is launching its re-brand today.  All of us at Barkley are incredibly proud to be partners with them in this effort.  You can read about it all right here.

We want you to be able to experience the re-brand today and share it with your friends, families, post it on your blogs, etc.

There are so many new things going on with the March of Dimes and here is how you can experience the changes for yourself.

Visit marchofdimesbaby.com to experience our newly created campaign site – a fascinating site geared toward what “mom” or soon to be “mom” is wondering about.

Visit marchforbabies.org to experience the name change and re-brand of WalkAmerica to March for Babies.

Visit the March of Dimes YouTube site to watch the television PSAs, Shoes, Soccer and Dumbbell and forward to all of your friends.

See page 89 of O Magazine for our first print PSA placement for March for Babies..the first time MOD has been included in O.

Google March of Dimes and see all the great media placements that are starting to come in about the re-brand and March of Dimes offering new resources for pregnancy and baby health!

The March of Dimes solved polio; has sponsored Nobel Prize winning research; and is out there fighting everyday for stronger, healthier babies.  Every parent to be or parent in the world should turn to the March of Dimes to find out what they need to do to best ensure a healthy pregnancy and healthy baby.  And every grandparent, uncle, aunt, sister, brother, neighbor or friend of those parents to be and parents should check out the March of Dimes too.  It is a deserving and worthwhile cause.

Seeing RED

My email rang yesterday with a request from my former colleague Andy and I am going to do my best to answer.  The subject is Product Red and my opinion about it.  I have been observing and thinking about this campaign as it has unfolded and here is what I think.

I'm disappointed.  I'm a little mad.  But I think cause branding as a strategy will survive the excesses of Product Red.  I believe that because if you step back from the edge of the cliff and view the campaign, Product Red is not cause branding.  It is a product promotion campaign.  Granted, it is a big product promotion campaign executed on a global scale.  But cause branding it is not.

When the news broke this week that Product Red had spent $100 million on marketing and returned $18 million to the cause of fighting AIDS in Africa, it was like a slap in the face to all of us who believe in cause branding not just as a marketing tool, but as a real way to make change in the world.  The Better Business Bureau says charitable efforts must return a minimum of 65 percent of all proceeds to the cause to be considered successful.  Product Red has a ways to go to meet the BBB minimum.

Product Red is all the rage right now.  We know because clients we are working with are constantly referencing it with envy and admiration.  It's big and bold and it has certainly captured the attention of the world.  But thus far too much money has been spent for too little return and the celebrities involved have outshone the cause itself.  That is why I don't want this program confused with true cause branding efforts.

Perhaps Product Red is creating a new category for which we will need to come up with a new moniker.  Maybe we call it marketing cause instead of cause marketing.  That may seem like semantics, but the simple juxtaposition of the two words illustrates that there is a difference between selling products to benefit a cause and creating a program that educates, enlightens and raises money for solutions to a societal problem.

I'm sure there are people who will disagree with my opinion.  I may have even offended a potential client out there somewhere.  I'm comfortable with that.  I know from the great organizations that we are now working with that there is a great understanding of the power of true cause branding. 

What do all of you think of Product Red?  Let's keep this conversation going.  I have my opinion, but I believe this is an important discussion for us to have if we care about cause, public relations and branding.

So now Andy, all we have to do is figure out how you can possibly dislike the Beatles. 

As P&G goes.......

When the CMO of Procter & Gamble speaks, we should take note.  Especially now.  You can link to the entire story below and read it for yourself, but let me pull out an operative quote of interest from it:

"Mr. Stengel....used his platform to describe a different set of imperatives: the need for brands to be authentic, trustworthy and generous."

Stengel says the days of “telling and selling” are over and he began his presentation to AAAA this week showing his Second Life avatar visiting the Second Life office of P&G’s agency Leo Burnett.

If P&G is sounding and acting like this, we can assume there has been a seismic shift in the marketing world.  Creating authentic brands that care about the world, not just making an extra buck, is the world we live in today.

The full AdAge article is here.

Along those lines, what is to be made of the Product Red cause initiative.  Is it selling products successfully?  Is it raising money and awareness for an important cause?  I think the jury is still out on both of those questions.  Others think so too.  Witness this recent website called buylesscrap which suggests that people not buy the Red products and instead donate more money to the cause.

Authenticity and transparency are critical in branding today.  Same goes for cause programs.  Jim Stengel at P&G has it right - authentic; trustworthy and generous are what people want today.  How is your company doing?

Personal foul in the Red Zone

I understand the need for companies to protect their brands and proprietary products but I think the Heinz Company is offsides in asking the Red Gold  Company of Indiana to stop a charity program because of trademark infringement.  The brouhaha started a week ago or so - The Indianapolis Star tells the story for us.

"The H.J. Heinz Co. of Pittsburgh has filed a complaint with the Colts over the NFL team's partnership with ketchup and tomato products manufacturer Red Gold of Elwood, Ind., over some informal naming rights.

Red Gold says in a statement today that Heinz filed a cease-and-desist order with the Colts objecting to Red Gold being a sponsor of the Colts' "red zone" during team's time on offense. "Red zone" is a nickname for the defensive team's area of a football field inside the 20-yard-line.

For the past four seasons, Red Gold, which is an official Colts sponsor, has donated 136 tons of canned tomato products to Indianapolis area food pantries each time that the Colts have scored a touchdown from the “Red Gold Red Zone” during home games.

Red Gold officials today say Heinz filed a legal challenge claiming ownership of the term “red zone.”

Details of that legal complaint were not immediately available. The news release says that the “red zone” is not trademarked but became accepted vernacular of the game 22 years ago.

Heinz sponsors the “Heinz Red Zone” at Heinz Field, home of the Pittsburgh Steelers."

So Heinz says it's  a trademark infringement.  Red Gold and the Colts say no way.  The Red Gold Red Zone program in Indy has filled local food pantries with 136 tons of food over the last four years.  The Heinz effort appears just to be a branding program for themselves.

It always amazes me when these kind of David and Goliath scenarios crop up.  And they seem to do so with regularity.  Goliath just never seems to learn his lesson.  Heinz looks like the big bully and Red Gold, a regional brand, gets tons of awareness and good will they would never have paid to get.

Another reason to cheer for the Colts in the Super Bowl.

The age of consumer philanthropy

As we prepare to give thanks in America this weekend, retailers are preparing for the beginning of their make it or break it time of the year. Tis the season to shop 'til you drop and if enough of us don't, then there will be a lot of slashing of prices and wrists in store aisles everywhere.

But let us remember it is the season of thanks and hope and charity as well. And as those of us involved in the cause arena know, the worlds of commerce and charity are colliding. Here is a great point of view from Tom Watson via the the Huffington Post.  (Not that Tom Watson golfers.)

If you don't feel like linking, read this excerpt which isn't news to us in the choir, but there are still people who need to hear this:

".....philanthropies and charities are quite naturally spending more of budgets on marketing. Brand-building is growing in importance, as is long-term cultivation and donor loyalty. And increasingly, partnerships with consumer product companies can open new paths to funds. For non profits, cause marketing brings more than money, after all - it brings exposure.

On the other side, there are companies that genuinely have a a mission to change the world, that clearly buy into the notion of doing well while doing good. But others are driven by a purer market motivation. As their own marketers understand that the strength of the brand in some way hinges on public perception of "doing good," they're looking for ways to harness the philanthropic impulse in American society. Buy my product, and help others. It's got a ring.

The problem sometimes lies in convincing shareholders; why are we giving away some of our profits, they rightly ask. Go to them with a pure message of changing the world, and they'll slam the board room door in your face. But pitch the notion of extending the brand, aligning the product with the growing world of consumer philanthropy - well, there you've got something, son. Let's tell sales about this right away. According to the IEG Sponsorship Report, American companies spent nearly $1 billion on cause related marketing campaigns in 2004."

The train is leaving the station.  Is your company going to be on it?

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Staying inside the box

We are fortunate at our company to have Ernie Schenck as an outside member of our board of directors.  For those of you who don't know Ernie, he is one of those advertising guru types.  He would appreciate the use of the word types.

I had the opportunity to spend some quality time with Ernie earlier this year driving to an off site board meeting.  He had just finished a book that is about to be published called The Houdini Solution.  In it, Ernie takes the long held notion of thinking outside the box and turns it on its head.  Hence the title of the book. 

You might recall one of Houdini's most famous escapes involved being chained, roped and otherwise tied up inside a big chest and heaved into a deep body of water.  (I can't remember if it was a lake, river or ocean.  Anyone?)

The point of Ernie's book is incredibly interesting.  Instead of always "pushing the envelope" or "thinking outside the box" - what if we take an idea and go inward with it and work it so hard and drill down so deep that we find just as many, if not more, insights and opportunities to move a brand forward.  That was my take away from our conversation anyway.  I'm anxious to read the book.

Ernie has a great blog called Ernie Schenck Calls This Advertising.  He recently posted one of his book's chapters.  Also, here is another great post he did that tells us why the chaos theory can teach us much about the marketing environment today.

Enjoy.  And here is a shameless plug for Ernie's book.  Go buy it starting September 15.

The Cause Generation

If you are between the ages of 18 and 30, then it is likely you are part of the generation that will tip the balance in moving cause and corporate social responsibility from a nice to have in business to business as usual.

Proof of this comes from the 5th Annual College Explorer Study sponsored by Alloy Media + Marketing and conducted by Harris Interactive.

Calling all brands.  Are you paying attention?

Cause is Growing

Investment in cause programs will increase more than 20 percent this year breaking the $1.3 billion mark.  That according to IEG, Inc.  Cause branding is now the fastest growing segment in the entire sponsorship arena.  Sponsorship on the whole will grow a little more than 10 percent this year.

What does this mean?  It's real simple.  More and more companies are realizing they can make better and more real connections with their customers if they are doing something to help society.  As sports sponsorships see another year of decline, it is cause branding that is picking up the slack.

As my fellow cause colleague at Selfish Giving  says: 

"If you're a retailer and don't believe me, test it out for yourself.  At one register, ask your shoppers if they can donate a dollar to help a poor, sick child.  At a second, ask them if they could spare a dollar so you can flash your company name on the jumbotron at Fenway.  Believe me, just because New Englanders love the Red Sox doesn't mean they don't think like Yankees."

Want to learn more about cause branding?  Download our white paper on the topic at www.beappr.com.

Have a great Fourth of July.  I'm heading to San Diego for a few days of R & R but will try to stay in touch.

Talking to Customers

One key attribute of a Citizen Brand is open communication with everyone inside or outside the organization. Southwest Airlines is one of my favorite brands and it is a company that has always been open in all of its communications.

Right now, for example, Southwest has been in the news regarding a potential change in their open seating policy.  If you have never flown Southwest Airlines, then you may not know that there are no assigned seats.  You board in three groups - A, B and C - and you take whatever seat you want when you get on the plane.  It has become part of the Southwest culture and an important part of their ability to operate more efficiently than other airlines.

Not everyone likes it of course.  In fact, some people will avoid flying Southwest just because there are no assigned seats.  I personally like it.  But the fact that there are customers who don't means Southwest has to listen.

So what do they do about it?  Do they just suddenly change their policy and then try to spin some kind of announcement to make it sound good?  No, they don't.  Instead, the CEO of Southwest is discussing the issue on the Southwest blog.  There has been no decision made, yet here is the CEO talking direct with customers about the issue and its pros and cons.  Refreshing.

Too bad it seems refreshing instead of being the norm in business communications.

More on this at Andy's blog.

The best chair ever made

It may be the perfect combination of form and function ever produced - the Eames Chair.

It celebrates 50 years of exuding both comfort and style.  The Chicago Tribune tells the story.

 

I am the proud owner of an Eames Chair and the truth is that I love to both sit in it and look at it. 

If only more products were produced with the care and insight that produced the amazing Eames Chair.  Happy 50th birthday!