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