If you feel like your re-branding effort might have been missing a few things, look here and see which element you might be missing:

Branding Elements.

Labels: Branding

There is no recipe for originality or authenticity, but there are some pointers on how to find it.

Bill Breen's great article for Fast Company hits on a number of smart points that are worth further commentary.

The essence of authenticity, he claims, are in the following points:

• A sense of place
• A strong point of view
• Serving a larger purpose
• Integrity
  

There is a unifying theme here: an authentic brand is not a brand that manufactures something that you didn't have before and then sells it to you. Instead a brand is authentic because it encourages the creation of authentic moments in its customers, it is the backdrop for your authentic experiences. Apple doesn't give you authentic injection molded plastic music players, it gives you a music player you can enjoy your favorite music on, a backdrop to the authentic enjoyment you receive.

This final quote helps explain this further:

"Sometimes even the most homogenized of places can evoke a flicker of authenticity. The morning after last fall's congressional elections, the newly elected senator from New Jersey, Robert Menendez, breakfasted at his usual spot, the International House of Pancakes in Union City. Menendez, formerly mayor of Union City, sat in his regular booth, ordered the same breakfast he always orders, and spent an hour catching up with longtime friends.

Few restaurants are more prefab than IHOP, yet there Menendez was, paying homage to a staff that knew his breakfast by heart and to patrons who've watched his kids grow up. On the surface, the Union City franchise is hardly authentic--it's similar to the IHOP in, say, Muncie, Indiana. But the friendships that Menendez has made there are certainly genuine. It's not that Starbucks, Cold Stone Creamery, BMW, Nike, or any other brand is really, really real. What's real are the experiences and the connections that the brands allow us to make--if they give us an honest chance."

A quick look at some authenticity plays from fast company.

Labels: Apple, authenticity, Branding, IHOP, marketing

I am behind on the times, but I wanted to make some comments about MSNBC's re-branding to msnbc, and talk a little bit about what I think about this new logo.

Labels: Branding, Logo, msnbc, Old Media Deathwatch

Labels: Branding, Dairy Queen, Food Design, Logo

NPR did a story this weekend on the Starbucks brouhaha. They went to Pike Market in Seattle to visit the original Starbucks, and it was downright funny because--although the original Starbucks has stayed utterly true to its original incarnation--all the NPR people found the place "soulless" and not very pleasant.

I know, it's NPR people--soulless? C'mon! But it underscores a real issue with this Howard Schultz memo, which is a can't-see-the-coffee-plantation-for-the-trees problem. The "original" Starbucks wasn't all that great, but they had good coffee--so the nostalgic past imagined by the memo is bunkum. The "brand" of Starbucks has actually NEVER been about "the corner coffeehouse"--it's about quality coffee delivered in predictable ways.

Brands are not what marketing people and CEOs think they are. When Starbucks first came up, good coffee just wasn't an option. Props, Starbucks, for making that a standard--and that became the brand. That's great! It doesn't have to be about hanging around in coffeehouses to be a good brand. It can be about standards and quality. Starbucks overextended themselves with new stores, whatever; they put themselves in airports, ok; but they made a lot of money and, as far as I can tell, they still serve the same product with the same attention to detail.

So the narrow-mindedness of this memo is surprising--"it's the chain store thing! It's not a corner coffeehouse experience!" It misses the point entirely. Starbucks IS the McDonalds of coffee now, better or worse; imagining some high-minded goal about "experience" is not going to grow that company. Far better to focus on ongoing quality, sustainable long-term growth strategies, shareholder value, and sticking to core principles. Stop pretending to be cool. It's too late for that. But Starbucks offers predicatable quality, and if they can maintain that (no small task) then they will succeed, and for good reason. If Howard Schultz feels bad about it, he's crying all the way to the bank.

My favorite quote from the whole memo:
"We achieved fresh roasted bagged coffee, but at what cost?"

Um, $8.99 a pound, far as I can tell. And that ain't bad.

Labels: Branding, Starbucks

Starbucks chairman Howard Schultz allegedly wrote this memo to CEO Jim Donald earlier this month. There is some doubt in the blogs I have read about its authenticity. Regardless of its lineage, it is a good read and helluva good dissection of an expereince. This is also a fascinating and perceptive look at how business decisions have impacted design and the customer's interaction witha well known brand. The Starbucks experience is a well crafted and highly successful brand and yet it makes mistakes - so here are some to chew on.

------------------------------------------

From: Howard Schultz
Sent: Wednesday, February 14, 2007 10:39 AM Pacific Standard Time
To: Jim Donald
Cc: Anne Saunders; Dave Pace; Dorothy Kim; Gerry Lopez; Jim Alling; Ken Lombard; Martin Coles; Michael Casey; Michelle Gass; Paula Boggs; Sandra Taylor
Subject: The Commoditization of the Starbucks Experience

As you prepare for the FY 08 strategic planning process, I want to share some of my thoughts with you.

Over the past ten years, in order to achieve the growth, development, and scale necessary to go from less than 1,000 stores to 13,000 stores and beyond, we have had to make a series of decisions that, in retrospect, have lead to the watering down of the Starbucks experience, and, what some might call the commoditization of our brand.

Many of these decisions were probably right at the time, and on their own merit would not have created the dilution of the experience; but in this case, the sum is much greater and, unfortunately, much more damaging than the individual pieces. For example, when we went to automatic espresso machines, we solved a major problem in terms of speed of service and efficiency. At the same time, we overlooked the fact that we would remove much of the romance and theatre that was in play with the use of the La Marzocca machines. This specific decision became even more damaging when the height of the machines, which are now in thousands of stores, blocked the visual sight line the customer previously had to watch the drink being made, and for the intimate experience with the barista. This, coupled with the need for fresh roasted coffee in every North America city and every international market, moved us toward the decision and the need for flavor locked packaging. Again, the right decision at the right time, and once again I believe we overlooked the cause and the affect of flavor lock in our stores. We achieved fresh roasted bagged coffee, but at what cost? The loss of aroma -- perhaps the most powerful non-verbal signal we had in our stores; the loss of our people scooping fresh coffee from the bins and grinding it fresh in front of the customer, and once again stripping the store of tradition and our heritage? Then we moved to store design. Clearly we have had to streamline store design to gain efficiencies of scale and to make sure we had the ROI on sales to investment ratios that would satisfy the financial side of our business. However, one of the results has been stores that no longer have the soul of the past and reflect a chain of stores vs. the warm feeling of a neighborhood store. Some people even call our stores sterile, cookie cutter, no longer reflecting the passion our partners feel about our coffee. In fact, I am not sure people today even know we are roasting coffee. You certainly can't get the message from being in our stores. The merchandise, more art than science, is far removed from being the merchant that I believe we can be and certainly at a minimum should support the foundation of our coffee heritage. Some stores don't have coffee grinders, French presses from Bodum, or even coffee filters.
Now that I have provided you with a list of some of the underlying issues that I believe we need to solve, let me say at the outset that we have all been part of these decisions. I take full responsibility myself, but we desperately need to look into the mirror and realize it's time to get back to the core and make the changes necessary to evoke the heritage, the tradition, and the passion that we all have for the true Starbucks experience. While the current state of affairs for the most part is self induced, that has lead to competitors of all kinds, small and large coffee companies, fast food operators, and mom and pops, to position themselves in a way that creates awareness, trial and loyalty of people who previously have been Starbucks customers. This must be eradicated.

I have said for 20 years that our success is not an entitlement and now it's proving to be a reality. Let's be smarter about how we are spending our time, money and resources. Let's get back to the core. Push for innovation and do the things necessary to once again differentiate Starbucks from all others. We source and buy the highest quality coffee. We have built the most trusted brand in coffee in the world, and we have an enormous responsibility to both the people who have come before us and the 150,000 partners and their families who are relying on our stewardship.

Finally, I would like to acknowledge all that you do for Starbucks. Without your passion and commitment, we would not be where we are today.

Onward…

Labels: Branding, Business Differentiation, Starbucks

Labels: Branding, Design, Fine Financial Branding, Logo