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A Burger Fit for The King

Posted by Chris Wilson May 8th, 2008

The Burger King

Burger King is rumored to have plans in the works to introduce a “premium burger” in select London upscale neighborhoods and suburbs. The sandwich will be made from top-quality Kobe beef from Japan and topped with foie gras, a French delicacy, and a gourmet blue cheese.

Here’s the kicker. The sandwich will cost a startling £85 (or $170).

Even though the proceeds of the sandwich will be donated to charity, the burger is not likely be a hot seller. It’s probable that he offering an attempt to enhance the brands’ overall perception of quality.

Dan Ariely, author of Predictably Irrational, thinks that the high-priced burgers could also increase customers willingness to spend money on the usual low-priced offerings.

It will be interesting to see how this turns out (if it turns out at all).

I know exactly what Jack Trout is saying about Burger King right now, “Sorry Marketers, You Can’t Go Up.”

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What do you think?

Premium idea, or premiumly ludicrous ploy?

CATEGORIES: Advertising, News, Marketing

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Debate: Fake It Till You Make It, or Will That Break It?

Posted by Chris Wilson May 7th, 2008

Fake it till you make it

As the old adage says, “Fake it till you make it.” If you want to position yourself to move up the chain, you first have to move up mentally before everyone else will let you fill that role. Act as if you have truly reached that next level and the world around you will start to align to make the goals that once eluded you a reality.

This technique might just give you the confidence and charisma necessary to move up. In fact, there seems to be a lot of legitimacy to this idea when it comes to personal branding and setting yourself up to succeed.

The Debate

But does this method of thinking hold any truth where a brand is concerned? Should a brand try to “fake it until they make it” or is it just setting itself up to break promises to customers?

What if it’s a new brand beginning it’s launch into the marketplace? Does that change the about of “faking it” that should be allowed, if any?

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What do you think?

Let the debate begin!

CATEGORIES: Branding, Marketing

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Scratch & Sniff Marketing (Without the Scratch)

Posted by Chris Wilson May 1st, 2008

Smell the Wheat Grass and Oranges

Does your brand have a smell?

I’m not talking about how many of your employees shower regularly (lets hope all of them), or the woman on fourth floor that no one will get on the elevator with because her perfume (or the amount she wears) has a way of removing all the oxygen from the air in a 6ft radius.

I’m talking about the touchpoints of your brand. When consumers come in contact with your brand, do they smell anything? If they don’t, should they?

Chances are you haven’t given it much thought unless you are selling home and beauty products or you’re competing in the food industry (taste and smell go hand in hand). But what about if you’re brand consists of consumer electronics or home appliances? Does it scent matter? Or better yet, what if you are an accounting firm, beauty salon, home builder, or any other business competing in the service sector, smell surely doesn’t matter to you. Or does it?

Martin Lindstrom, author of Brand Sense, writes,

Scents evoke images, sensations, memories, and associations. Smell affects us substantially more than we’re aware of. We underestimate just how large a role it plays in our well-being… Smell can alter our mood. Test results have showed a 40 percent improvement in our mood when exposed to a pleasant fragrance—particularly if the fragrance taps into a happy memory.

Dennis Syracuse, senior vice president of consumer retail sales, was quoted saying,

“From research, we found that scent is closest to the brain and will evoke the most emotion, even faster than the eye.”

Scent not only ties into our memories, but also into our emotions.

So maybe it is time to start giving smell some thought. Should smell become part of your brand mix?

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To find out more about scent marketing be sure to check out the recent additions to Brand Strategy Insider by Harald Vogt, a guy who knows smell for a living:

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What brands do you closely associate with their smells?

This afternoon I asked myself this question and immediately thought of Jamba Juice (which is one of the reasons for the graphic above) and the strong citrus smell in all of their stores. This is interesting since I haven’t been there in well over a year. This was followed with a craving for one of their fruit smoothies.

CATEGORIES: Branding, Marketing

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Free Lunch

Posted by Chris Wilson April 17th, 2008

Free Sandwich for Lunch

My boss came back from lunch this afternoon and told me how both he and his wife got to eat their lunch for free. They stopped into a new artisan bakery that just opened up a few blocks away from our office. While he was looking over the menu to see what the place had to offer he noticed that something was missing. The prices. When he asked the woman behind the counter about the prices she simply said, “It’s all free.”

The restaurant had earned one of their permits but was still waiting on one and couldn’t legally open for business. So instead of letting all the food they had already had in stock go to waste they decided to have a soft opening and give it all away, in hopes of generating some buzz.

It worked. They started the day offering three shelves full of different kinds of pastries, and there wasn’t a single one left by the time my boss and his wife got their for lunch. Both my boss and his wife came back to the office raving about how delicious the food was, and now I’m making plans to stop in there for some pastries in the morning.

If you have a special talent or ability that no one knows about, volunteer your time and talent. If you have an amazing product or service that you believe can change lives, but don’t know how to get people to notice it, give it away. If what you have to offer is as good as you think, it won’t take much more to get people talking.

CATEGORIES: Buzz, Marketing

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What is a Brand?

Posted by Chris Wilson April 1st, 2008

My background combo of advertising, design, and marketing often puts me in a somewhat unique position when it comes to any of points of intersection in these three areas (which should happen all the time). It’s no wonder that I’ve been led into the world of branding. I’ve found a great passion in branding, because it is the ultimate convergence of these three areas + the consumer.

With that said, I’d like to start writing more on the subject of a branding, and what a better way to start than by taking a look at how some of the industry’s gurus define brand.

A brand reflects the special relationship and bond we forge with our customers. It is a constellation of values that goes beyond physical attributes to include intangibles (that have tangible value) and, importantly, customer perceptions. It is what distinguishes Starbucks from the commodity coffee, Gillette Sensor from razor blades, and American Express Platinum Card from credit cards.

- Richard D. Czerniawski & Michael W. Maloney, Creating Brand Loyalty

A brand exists in your mind. It’s a collection of associations or feelings people have about a particular product, service, or an organization. It’s what makes Evian pure even before you read the label. It’s why a FedEx envelope gets opened before anything with a postage stamp.

- Allen P. Adamson, BrandSimple

A brand is a person’s gut feeling about a product, service, or organization. That’s my short definition. The brand isn’t what you say it is. It’s what they say it is.

- Marty Neumeier, The Brand Gap

A brand is an expectation of someone or something delivering a certain feeling by way of an experience.

- Tom Asacker, A Clear Eye for Branding

My definition of brand is pretty short: A brand is a short-cut that connects the consumer-mind to a product, service or company.

It’s that first, quick, burst of emotion that’s stirred up when a person thinks about a product, service or company.

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What’s your definition of brand?

CATEGORIES: Design, Advertising, Branding, Marketing

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THE LAUNCH: The Age of Conversation Bum Rush

Posted by Chris Wilson March 28th, 2008

It’s time to execute the plan that’s been in the works for weeks.

We are launching The Age of Conversation up the Amazon charts. The book “brings together over 100 of the world’s leading marketers, writers, thinkers and creative innovators in a ground-breaking and unusual publication.” All of the proceeds generated from book sales and referrals will be donated to Variety, The Children’s Charity.

Buy, Starting Saturday March 29th

Click Here to buy your copy!

Please purchase 1 copy at a time, using the link above, for maximum impact, and because all referral fees will be donated to charity as well.

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Don’t go too far because starting Saturday I will making continual updates to this post, reporting the books movement up the Amazon charts. This will be your go to post to find out how the plan is being carried out.

You can also follow the conversation on Twitter. Gavin (@servantofchaos), Drew (@DrewMcLellan) and I (@freshpeel) will be giving a play-by-play throughout the day. Join in the fun!

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Since this is a global effort, I thought I would post the ranking as of 2pm CST on March 28th as a beginning marker. The ranking has already gone up in the last couple of hours because of sales from the other side of the world.

March 28th @ 2pm - #102,282

I will start a regular stream of reporting when March 29th gets to this part of the world!

March 29th @ 1:30am - #16,879

March 29th @ 8:00am - #3,559

Nice surprise to wake up to. We made a huge leap while I was sleeping! Things should start to pick up even more in the next few hours.

March 29th @ 9:15am - #1,562

We’ve overtaken almost 2000 more spots! I’ve gotten a lot of verbal confirmations of people buying the book.

March 29th @ 10:15am - #1,562

We are still sitting at #1,562. Join the rush and buy your copy if you haven’t already!

March 29th @ 11:30am - #1,161

I guess updates don’t happen right on the hour afterall. Ranking jumps up 401 spots!

March 29th @ 12:00pm - #917

We’ve broken the top 1,000! Lets send this baby to the top!

March 29th @ 1:15pm - #368

Wow! We’re at #368 in books and I guess Amazon finally added the book to the Business category, which we are sitting at #53. I’m seeing #1 in Business! Lets go!

March 29th @ 3:15pm - #368

It’s been 2 solid hours suspended at #368. There’s still a lot of conversation around swimming around Twitter and the blogosphere, so I have my doubts that we’re finished here. Let’s break the top 100!

March 29th @ 5:00pm - #368

Still no change since 1:15pm. I’d still like to see the book make it into the top 50 Business books.

March 29th @ 5:15pm - #293

I spoke too soon. We just busted into the top 50 business books at #39 and ranked overall at #293! Join the rush!

March 29th @ 6:45pm - #293

We’re still holding on to the 39th spot in business bestsellers and ranked #293 on Amazon overall. Gather up any and everyone you know. We need one last push! Let’s break top 100!

March 29th @ 9:00pm - #293

It looks like things are slowing down a bit. Lets give it one more hour to see if we can give it one last jolt! If you haven’t gotten a copy yet, better do it fast.

March 29th @ 10:00pm - #262

We made one last push up the charts that came in just under the wire!

What an amazing day! I along with the 103 authors of The Age of Conversation thank everyone that bought a copy (or more) of the book and helped generate buzz. Our combined efforts created a wave of conversation, blowing up on blogs, Twitter and other social media outlets, ultimately propelling the book from being ranked at 102,282 all the way to #36 on the Business Bestsellers list and #262 overall. Thanks for joining the rush!

I can’t wait to see what The Age of Conversation 2 has up it’s sleeve.

CATEGORIES: Social Networks, Blogs, Events, Books, Marketing

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