A Pad By Any Other Name...

There has been a lot of banter about the name of Apple’s latest electronic gizmo, most of it centered on associations with feminine hygiene products and all of it burdened with the searing insight junior high boys bring to the topic of menstruation. Naming is perhaps the most difficult product and process to go through with a client, believe me, regardless of industry. Yet when it is done properly, and the product or service actually delivers, the name loses all the previous associations and connotations with its word or words.

Let’s take an easy example from the world of consumer retail. No one in their right mind would name a chain of stores after a repressive form of government in which a corrupt elite conspires with foreign business interests to ruthlessly rule a country for the sole purpose of extracting profit. Yet very few clothing shoppers would say that’s what Banana Republic stands for today.

When a product or service succeeds in its industry, its name—like Banana Republic—sloughs off all its prior meaning and takes on the shape of the product itself. Unless, of course, there are legal implications.

The non-feminine hygiene responses to the naming of Apple’s iPad are the truly significant ones. Brad Stone, writing in the New York Times on January 29^th, notes that Fujitsu already sells a product named iPad in the US and a Swiss semiconductor firm owns the iPad trademark in Europe and MagTek out of southern California makes a portable magnetic card reader with the same name. Those are serious objections to any name.

Years ago I had a small start-up client at my agency with a handheld electronic organizer that needed a name, identity, packaging, and all the associated materials for a launch. We came up with dozens of names—including Jeeves, later used by others—but the start-up crew went with one of their own devising, one several of us within the agency felt had a not-so-hot sexual connotation. But despite the vague male masturbation reference, PalmPilot went ahead as the name. Until the company was contacted by lawyers from the Pilot pen company of France.

We repeatedly asked the founders to reconsider the name. They felt confident they would succeed in any legal challenge because they had the start-up gods on their side. That belief ran smack into the harsh reality of copyright and trademark law, since the PalmPilot as originally configured was indeed a pen-based electronic device. Shortly thereafter the PalmPilot became simply Palm. Oops.

I wish Apple all the best with the iPad, even though I once had a 7 minute interview for a marketing position with Steve Jobs in which it became rapidly obvious he would rather deal with gum on the bottom of his running shoe than speak further with me, but in my long experience with naming products ego never trumps the truly blind and severely unforgiving nature of trademark law.

–Timothy Cohrs

www.TimothyCohrs.com

Oops, your product is just another commodity!

I have met with so many product teams over the years all of whom believe their twist on this category or that category has made their product completely and undeniably unique. They believe it so strongly that any words to the contrary are viewed as plainly negative, perhaps even an attack, and certainly to be ignored.

I have had these conversations and confrontations over consumer electronics products, e-commerce start-ups, apparel merchandise, snack food and grocery items, and whether dealing with strictly brick-and-mortar outlets or solely online retail or wholly owned chains or third party distribution or some combination of them all.

Everyone believes that their thing is unlike any other thing out there. And they are certain their consumer can see it, too, at a glance.

Here is the one rule that I try to get all product marketers to understand: Everything sold at retail is a commodity.

What does that mean? Harsh as it is to hear, it means that the consumer, the end-user, the specifier, the purchaser perceives no difference between the specifics of your masterfully crafted product and those of every other competitor in your category. Let me repeat that: the purchaser sees no difference.

Since some products win and other products lose, there must be a difference that is perceived by the purchaser. Of course there is, but that difference is marketing.

Some quick examples—Abercrombie jeans and Gap jeans are both quality denim pants in a similar variety of fits and washes. Abercrombie jeans cost more and come complete with an aura of sexuality, hipness, and exclusivity. Gap jeans cost less and come with associations of well-scrubbed honesty, approachability, even wholesomeness. Just picture Abercrombie’s in-store imagery and advertisements of scantily clad boys with 12-pack abdomens cavorting alongside topless girls with flowing hair through endless afternoons of black-and-white sunshine; then picture Gap’s Xmas commercials of wholesome dancers decked out head-to-toe in plaids and stripes and denim chanting little ditties about warmth and cuddliness. Tell me there isn’t a huge image difference at work there. Sexy vs. wholesome; lust vs. cuddles; raw vs. well mannered.

It’s all denim. The difference is how you market it. And the same holds true for smart phones and e-book readers and photo scanning services and digital video recorders and women’s necklaces and Valentine’s Day candy and any other product sold.

They are all commodities until you force the consumer to view your product, through marketing, in a unique way. Then and only then your product is no longer a commodity. Then it moves into the realm of the truly unique.

And isn’t that what every product manager and product marketer wants?

--Timothy Cohrs

www.TimothyCohrs.com

Recession marketing– who gets it?

There is a New American Consumer

Right now we are experiencing a brand new period in the consumer market because the recession has spawned a new American consumer. Over-the-top expenditures, over-the-top status symbols have all gone the way of the Hummer (which, I suppose, also means they’ve migrated to China). This is what we are hearing daily, this is what we are telling ourselves, and this is how we are acting in our personal lives and as a class.

Now try explaining that to America’s consumer advertisers.

During the run-up to the start of the holiday ’09 shopping season, the usual clichéd appeals to and depictions of the consumer were rampant. Kohl’s and Target had their hyperbolic hyper-shopping women beside themselves with anxiety prior to black Friday. After the official launch of holiday shopping, Kohl’s gave us TV spot after TV spot showing that old standard of pre-recession marketing: the female consumer on the rapacious and unquenchable hunt for goods, goods, and more goods, dangling her trophies out of car windows in mall parking lots and extolling her own purchasing successes.

This is a recession, right? A mind-boggling downturn in the American economy has swept aside home equity, savings, job security, homes proper, and millions of jobs themselves. CNNMoney.com reports today (1/12/10) that there are six jobseekers for every available position in the United States. In your town and mine we pass scores of empty store fronts in dedicated retail centers and on commercial streets. It certainly feels as if they will be joined by other closures soon.

So where is the new messaging from America’s advertisers? Where is the thought leadership that speaks to this new reality? Where is the appeal that incorporates the depth of the recession into is pitch?

You’ll have to look quite hard.

The only two national advertisers I have noted that are taking the recession head-on without blinking are Hyundai and Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart, arguably, began its “Save money. Live better.” tagline and ads in 2008 prior to the full formation of the disastrous economic collapse. And they have been steadfast in repeating that message over and over again, framing it with a happy bridge mix of families going about their daily lives with the improved possibilities that Wal-Mart’s pricing allows them. No big breakthrough conceptually, but a consistent drumbeat. One that speaks clearly and loudly to the economic distress we are all experiencing daily.

Hyundai goes much further than Wal-Mart in communicating a position based on the economic downturn. The Hyundai Assurance Program allows car buyers who lose their jobs after purchasing a Hyundai to return their car to Hyundai without damaging their credit. What a coup! The company has parlayed its value-based-but-rapidly-improving-quality image with a guarantee that may sway potential buyers balancing their lack of job security against their need for a new car. The very liquid yet honest-sounding voice of Jeff Bridges has made the television ads for this program believable and powerful. Also successful, since Hyundai’s sales in the US have soared more than 40% in the last two months when compared against last year.

My guess is that more advertisers will attempt to crack the success code on the meaning of the economic downturn for their products. Why it hasn’t happened already and thoroughly is beyond me.

--Timothy Cohrs

www.TimothyCohrs.com

Back-to-School with Terracycle

Like most parents, my wife and I were shopping for school supplies with our soon-to-be sixth grader the week before school started. We went to a big box retailer because we're on a tight budget. We had a very specific list of items our public school wanted each student to bring on that first day. One of these was a pencil pouch.

My son uncovered a very cool looking pencil pouch that came complete with pre-punched holes to fit in a three-ring binder. What made it cool was that it was composed of recycled Doritos chip bags. The bags were joined together side by side and topped by a single zipper opening. My first impression was that it was another shameless marketing ploy by Frito-Lay to claim the minds of underage consumers.

But when I looked a little closer, I discovered Terracycle.

The Doritos pencil case and some 50 other products that Terracycle offers, are part of a surprising program that partners with product manufacturers, major retailers, and the general public to get rid of garbage. The goal is to not only stop throw away items from piling up in landfills, but to see these waste items as a valuable raw material. A raw material that can be turned into new products intact, and employing as little energy as possible to do so.

Terracycle has exclusive arrangements with major consumer product goods (CPG) companies, including Kraft Foods, Frito-Lay, Clif Bar, Stonyfield Farms, Mars Wrigley, and others. These arrangements create free collection programs that pay schools and other non-profits to gather used energy bar wrappers, chip bags, yogurt cups, cookie wrappers, et al. This detritus is then upcycled into tote bags, backpacks, purses, shower curtains, kites, and more. Retailers such as Target, The Home Depot, K-Mart, and Wal-Mart carry these products (which are also available on the Terracycle web site).

Check out the list of products Terracycle has created and sells at www.Terracycle.net. And while you are browsing the recycled pots, all purpose cleaner, Clif Bar wrapper holiday bow, the drink pouch messenger bag, and the ice melt in its re-purposed soft drink bottle, you can find out how you can join an existing terracycle collection brigade to gather and repurpose these waste materials and earn money for non-profit organizations in the process. Or better yet, you can discover how to set up your own collection group.

Each brigade earns two cents ($0.02) from every item of trash collected (energy bar wrapper, chip bag, drink pouch, etc.) for a designated non-profit. It seems a no-brainer for schools to jump on the bandwagon to help spruce up their grounds, put less burden on landfills, and earn money for programs canceled or scaled back in the current economy.

I have contacted my son's school and school district to see if there is interest in participating. Perhaps you should do so with yours.

--Timothy Cohrs

www.TimothyCohrs.com

Scary, Scary, Scary-- retail bankruptcies and brand dynamics

Retail analyst Howard Davidowitz leveled some frightening predictions today on Yahoo's tech ticker site: we are going to see hundreds of thousands of stores and thousands of malls close because the consumer and the consuming market that have accounted for 70% of our economy in the past have fundamentally changed. He cites the continuing tsunami of retail bankruptcies, closings, and liquidations as evidence of this shift.

A little research on my own revealed the following recent bankruptcies or closings: Bailey Banks & Biddle, Fortunoff, Whitehall Jewelers, Wickes Furniture, Z Gallerie, Lillian Vernon, Linens 'n Things, Goody's, Mervyn's, Boscov's, Mrs. Fields, Gottschalks, Ritz Camera, Drug Fair, Filene's Basement, Bachrach, Oililly, Eddie Bauer, Crabtree & Evelyn, Virgin Megastores. And I'm betting there are a great many more teetering on the edge.

Last night I attended a sharp panel discussion in San Francisco hosted by The Luxury Marketing Council on the disquieting topic: "Discount or Die?" Moderator Alf Nucifora of the Council kept a tight rein on four Bay Area panelists who debated the topic and kept returning again and again to the cautionary example of retailer Saks Fifth Avenue and its repetition of sales, discounts, and savings events.

Karla Martin of Booz & Co. made the point to the panel that Saks had indeed damaged its luxury brand status irreparably not just by discounting but by publicly flaunting its discounts and discount rates in ads, mailings, etc. She compared the sinking of Saks into discounting its new receipts in season against the recent Neiman Marcus email to its customers announcing 'silent sale' discounts on merchandise from the previous season-- one is brand death by discounting (Saks) and the other is simple clearance (Neiman).

When a brand loses its place in the market, when it disappoints its customer base and slips accidentally and inevitably toward a new shopper in order to stay alive, its options become fewer and fewer. (I personally watched Casual Corner and Petite Sophisticate become addicted to the crack cocaine of 50%-, 60%-, 70%-off pricing in order to incent dwindling store shoppers who in turn were attracted, ultimately, only to the percentages; both chains spiraled into liquidation.)

I have to wonder when Saks, which has been sold and repackaged multiple times in recent years, will join that list of bankrupts up above.

--Timothy Cohrs

www.TimothyCohrs.com

An Affordable Luxury in the Great Depression 2.0

Recession. Layoffs. Cutbacks. Downsizing. Banking crisis. Mortgage crisis. 401(k) crisis. Belt tightening. Bailout. Meltdown. Bankruptcy. Foreclosure. Debacle in Detroit.

There is definitely not a lot of good news out there as we edge into the one year anniversary of the financial crisis. Millions of us across the country are all over any personal expense that can be pared down or dispensed with. Most things discretionary have already been done in: Meals out-- forget about it. Fall's new clothes-- definitely not essential. New car--completely a thing of the past.

And yet... disaster and downgrading cry out for relief, or at

least some leavening.

As Frank Lloyd Wright put it so eloquently: "Give me the luxuries of life and I will willingly do without the necessities." While few of us can be as profligate as Wright in the face of repeated financial ruin, most of us crave a little luxury in our lives. And these days, that luxury better come with a pretty small price point.

Enter the Mrs. Meyer's Clean Day brand.

Delivering luxury in the most

mundane of product categories-- household cleaning supplies-- the Mrs. Meyer's brand provides a series of breakout products for those of us desperate for relief from the generic and the cheap. For a couple of bucks more than the name-brand-plain dishwashing liquids that come in ugly bottles filled with science fiction lab fluids emitting science fiction lab odors, you get this instead: Aromatherapeutic household cleaners scented with naturally occurring essential oils that are "refreshing, invigorating, and... pick-you-up." (per the label)

On top of all that, the product labels are wonderfully designed-- a combination of generic industrial and knowingly hip-- the products are biodegradable, are never tested on animals ("cruelty-free" again per the label), and just plain work well. Instead of covering your hands and cleaning your counters and wiping your plates with something that looks like the Klingons might have guzzled it in the last Star Trek movie, you have an experience that is refreshingly scented and retro cool and stays around the kitchen doing that over and over again for the next 6 weeks.

Perhaps Mrs. Meyer's products aren't quite at the level of Frank Lloyd Wright's obsession with grand pianos during personal ruin, but they are affordable luxuries. For two dollars more than Dawn or Palmolive or Joy or Dove you can feel as good about a necessity as you might about a luxury. Or as I believe one of the recent out-of-home ads for the Mrs. Meyer's brand puts it: "Work hard/smell nice/there are worse things in life."

--Timothy Cohrs

www.TimothyCohrs.com

Abercrombie & Fitch-- echoes of the Banana Republic safari store

A lot of retail writers, analysts, and commentators are taking a swing at Abercrombie & Fitch recently. And it isn't hard to understand why. (One of the most intelligent and entertaining commentaries is former Wall Street analyst Kristin Bentz's "talented blonde" blog, August 16th posting #3.)

The chain's July '09 comp store sales were a negative 28%, topped by June's astonishing 32% comp store decline, and matched again by May's negative 28%. Add those astounding negatives to a 23% drop in revenue in the second quarter plus April's negative 22% comp sales figure, March's negative 34%, February's negative 30%, and the fact that the chain hasn't posted a positive comp sales figure since April '08 (positive 6% ) and November '07 (positive 2%), and the financial picture is just not pretty.

Abercrombie's signature brand imagery has been much debated. Maligned as 'teen porn' and 'sexvertising,' the brand's male model

s cavort in an endless afternoon of sharp sunshine, even more sharply defined abs, and sharply beside-the-point young women. There is a blatant eroticizing of the teen male body and just as blatant a marginalizing of the female form (with or without clothing, they always look bored at being beside the point).

The stores themselves are also a signature experience: Basted in wall-to-wall music, at a volume level inexplicable and forbidding to customers over the age of 26, and darkened to an extreme matched only by the chain's Holister and Ruehl spinoffs.

Where to point the finger of blame for this well-branded failing brand? The recession...price points...merchandise...

Let's take a trip through retail history to a point in time just 20 years ago when another highly stylized and visually unique retail brand was experiencing a similar fall-off in consumer interest and sales.

Banana Republic-- in 1989 a store known for interiors awash in wild safari theme decor. Twelve foot tall stuffed giraffes, real size off-road jeeps, thatched roofs, elephant tusk door handles. And the merchandise itself was riddled with multi-pocketed vests and pants with

zippered legs for conversion to shorts and women's clothing reminiscent of Merrill Streep's wardrobe in the film "Out of Africa."

Banana Republic had begun its existence as a catalog offering vintage military surplus gear and apparel. It morphed into a catalog business with a small retail presence (Mill Valley

and San Francisco) until Gap, Inc. purchased the business and supersized it.

The catalog was filled with item copy written with a decidedly un-catalog-like tone and was studded with item entries written by literary and celebrity guest writers.

The camp stores, the wildly un-chain-store tone of the catalog, the romantic style of the garments offered for sale-- it was all just wonderful until the consumer stopped being interested. Then absolutely none of it mattered.

Banana Republic began a long, slow transformation from a novelty chain to the clothing resource for urban professionals that it is today. The question facing Abercrombie & Fitch is whether, or when, they will begin their own transformation from the highly unique point in the market they have achieved to one that will register with consumers in the future.

Retail is littered with chains and concepts that ran their course and failed to evolve further. Banana Republic is one of the few to have ever survived such a total identification with a merchandising fad. Abercrombie's fate remains to be seen.

--Timothy Cohrs

www.TimothyCohrs.com