Mark Delman

Does Apple's i-Brand Strategy Make Sense?

On June 6th., Apple announced a free service called iCloud that allows users to seamlessly connect and syncronizing their content with any iPod, iPad, iPhone, or Mac device. According to the company's press release, iCloud is intended to reduce the difficulty of managing digital content:

“Today it is a real hassle and very frustrating to keep all your information and content up-to-date across all your devices,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “iCloud keeps your important information and content up to date across all your devices. All of this happens automatically and wirelessly, and because it’s integrated into our apps you don’t even need to think about it—it all just works.”

iCloud is the second service to carry the "i" sub-brand designation (the first being iTunes.) and now joins a product line-up that includes i-branded products including the iPod, iPad, iPhone, and iMac. Apple's success with these products and services is reflected in the increase of the company's stock (see below graph that compares Apple price shown in green versus the NASDAQ shown in red from 2006 to the present)

Apple's Sub-Brand

Financial success of Apple's i-products notwithstanding, I believe Apple's creation of the "i" sub-brand was unnecessary. Sub-brands make sense for businesses that want to extend into new consumer segments that don't resonate completely with the master brand.  For example, Disney created the "Disney Touchstone" brand to extend their business into movies that were more edgy than their traditional PG fare.  Likewise, Hallmark created the Shoebox brand for cards to appeal to an audience that wanted more irreverent messages. 

The same can't be said of Apple's decision; the company's master brand attributes are the same as those for it's "i" sub-brand products.  Specifically, those attributes include:

• Independence
• Non-conformity
• Innovation
• Ease-of-use/simplicity
• People-power over technology
• Exceptional user-experience/awesome interfaces
• Superior customer service.

Given how savvy Apple generally is about it's marketing, it's tempting to seek a more reasoned explanation for the creation of the "i" sub-brand.  For example, one might believe that Apple intends to re-enter the business market and is preparing for this by sub-branding all the consumer products with the i-brand designation.  Ostensibly, the business products would carry a new sub-brand to appeal to those new users.

Unfortunately, this theory falls apart when one looks carefully at Apple's product line; one would expect Apple to have changed the names of all its consumer brands including the Mac Mini, MacBook and Apple TV to reflect this intention. 

As unsatisfying as it may seem, I don't think there's really much of a strategy at work here and the most logical explanation for the "i" sub-brand is that Apple simply fell into a naming convention after the development of the iPod. 

If true, then all of Apple's products could have just as effectively been sold under the Apple master brand.  For example, the iTunes Store could have, and should have, been named the Apple Music Store. 

If you have a different opinion, please post a comment to this blog.

A Review of Kraft Food's Athenos TV Ad Campaign

In April, I reviewed Kraft Food's new campaign for Miracle Whip.  On the heels of that daring marketing effort, is another dilly from the mid-western food giant generally known for "bite and smile" advertising.

The campaign is for Athenos brand hummus and yogurt and features a series of YiaYia's (Greek for grandmothers) who deliver humorous one-liners that are the heart of the campaign.

In this first ad for Athenos yogurt, YiaYia provides her opinion about the living arrangements of a modern couple:

 

In this second ad, YiaYia provides her perspective on fashion to a young woman serving hummus at a dinner party.

 

Finally, here's YiaYia's opinion of a stay-at-home father:

 

Opinions will vary, but I think these commercials are quite funny.  Of course, the real issue is whether these commercials effectively position Athenos brand to consumers.  In my opinion, the campaign is quite effective.

YiaYia is the heart of these commercials.  Dressed in peasant garb, she is hopelessly out-of-step with modern values.  Her stern disapproval of the other characters in the commercial makes her funny and it also sets her up as the perfect spokesperson for Athenos; As the bulwark of tradition, YiaYia knows what real Greek hummus and yogurt taste like.  If she approves of Athenos, then you know it's delicious and authentically Greek. 

And that's Kraft's message ...Athenos brand delivers authentic Greek taste.  This is supported by  specific claims in the advertising such as: "Athenos is made the traditional Greek way, never using preservatives or artificial flavors" and "Only Athenos is made the Greek way, with 100% olive oil." 

In many commercials, the use of humor is gratuitous and distracts from the advertiser's message.  This is not the case in the Athenos campaign; the humor and the message are tightly bound together.  The humor is most edgy in the commercial where YiaYia criticizes the young woman for dressing like a prostitute.   Some viewers will be offended by this commercial, but I think they are more likely to be outside the target market for this campaign (Based on casting and wardrobe choices, I think the target is probably urban twenty and thirty year olds).

The campaign was developed by Droga5, a New York based ad agency.

Using a rating scale of 1-10, where 10 is the highest, I give the Athenos campaign the following ratings:

Message:                        10

Creative:                         10

Production Values:           7

Google Maps Reviews: Searchable Terms Create Opportunity for SMB's

According to a recent survey done by MerchantCircle.com, over 56% of small businesses have marketing budgets under $2,500 and 22% have marketing budgets less than $1,000.  With so little spent on marketing, it's clear that word-of-mouth is the most important marketing vehicle for these enterprises.

In days gone by, word-of-mouth was passed directly from person to person but the advent of review sites such as Yelp, Angie's List, City Search and Google Maps have taken word-of-mouth into the digital age.  These sites now allow "Word-of-mouth" to reach more people faster and the popularity of review sites is growing.  According to data from Compete.com review sites attract millions of viewers each month and are growing at rates in the high double digits. (See below)

 

A recent announcement by Google now adds a new twist to local search and creates an opportunity for savvy small businesses.  Google Maps searches now add "descriptive terms" that optimize local search.  Below are two examples -- the first shows search results for "Chinese Food," while the second adds the word "spicy" to the search.

Search #1:

Search #2:

Small businesses, particularly those with limited marketing budgets, should already be soliciting their best customers to write positive reviews.  However, the advent of descriptive terms opens the way for the smartest of these SMB's to also encourage customers to inlcude specific key words in their reviews that make the business even more visible than their competition. 

TomTom Viral Video: I Want To Break Free

In the posting, I review TomToms "I Want To Break Free" Viral Campaign.

TomTom, the maker of GPS navigation systems is currently running a viral video campaign on YouTube.  The videos are built around the song "I Want to Break Free" released in 1984 by the British rock band Queen. The campaign features a variety of situations in which characters depicted in the commercial either sing or dance to the song while driving.  Two of the commercials feature comedian John Cleese who appeared in the TV shows Monty Python and Fawlty Towers.

In the below execution, Cleese is stuck in traffic.  I wont kill the punchline for you, but I will say it's classic Cleese.  The combination of a good punchline and a catchy toon set the campaign off to a good start. 

 

Unfortunately, the second Cleese spot is far less engaging.  Again, Cleese finds himself in bumper-to-bumper traffic.  Frustrated, he gets out of his car and starts dancing to I Want to Break Free.  The car in-front of him pulls forward ten feet and those behind Cleese's car immediately begin honking their horns at him.  Cleese dashes back to the car, pulls his car forward 10 feet, and then gets steps out of his car again to do his dance number.  This repeats three times during the spot and the ridiculousness of the situation is the intended humor. 

 

The problem is that the video is fairly long and the humor isn't good enough to justify the wait.  Cleese's dance number isn't very engaging either.  When the comedian was part of the Monty Python group, he displayed great physicality in sketches such as "The Ministry of Silly Walks."  But at aged 72, Cleese just can't pull this off anymore and the whole spot falls flat.  In short, it's boring and that's deadly if you are trying to create a viral campaign.

 Below are two other spots from the campaign.  The first is a group of girl friends having fun and siniging I Want to Break Free.  The second is a group of Mongolian throat singers doing the same.

 

Neither of these executions is particularly engaging in my opinion.  They're not dreadful, just not funny enough, clever enough, or surprising enough to be passed along.  In other words, their not going to be be viral.

The campaign also has another serious shortcoming - the brand is really lost in the campaign.  The campaign idea is that TomTom's navigation system let's you escape traffic jams.  But the executions don't really pay that out at all.   Nowhere do we see anyone taking a back alley or short cut that let's them zoom to their destination.  Cleese may be happy to dance to the music but he's still is locked in traffic like a bug in amber.

On a scale of 1-10, here's how I'd rate this viral campaign:

Message:                     2

Creativity:                     5

Virality:                         2

Production Values:       5

 

Ads: Message Open To Misinterpretation

Developing effective advertising is difficult because so many things have to be done well simultaneously that it's easy to miss the mark.  The message needs to be clear, it needs to be relevant and compelling to the target audience, it needs to differentiate the product from the competition and it needs to intrusive enough to break through the clutter of all the other ads consumers are bombarded with every day.

Even when intrusive, an ad may be built on a creative idea that can fail depending on the interpretation of the viewer.  Presneted below are two such ads.

EPA Panamericana School of Art & Design, AlmapBBDO, Brazil

This ad juxtaposes a doodle with a finished artwork.  The two drawing are linked together as if created in one continuous line and the pencil in the center presents the headline "It's in your hands."  The intended message is that the Panamericana School of Art can help you move from being someone with mere creative impulses to an accomplished artist. 

To convey this point quickly requires that the "artwork" shown be instantly recognizable to any viewer.  Herein lies the problem.  Using one of Picasso's most famous paintings (Guernica) opens the ad up to two interpretations:

• Intended Interpretation - we'll help you become a real artist.
• Alternate Interpretation - we teach you technical skills, not how to create something new.

 
Land Rover, Young & Rubicam, Mexico

Land Rover is a four wheel drive vehicle designed for the toughest terrains.  This ad from Mexico focuses directly on the central brand promise of this famous car marque.  In the advertisement, we see a man making his way across a steep canyon wall.  In his hand is a Jerry-can and the ad leads the viewer to the conclusion that the man is carrying gas back to his Land Rover.  There's no headline and the only copy in the ad is the tag line "Go Beyond."

• Intended Interpretation - Land Rover can take you anywhere you want to go, even to the most remote locations.
• Alternate Interpretation - With fuel economy of 14 miles to the gallon, Land Rover helps you get stranded in remote places.

Facebook & Google: The War Turns Ugly

Last Thursday, the Daily Beast revealed that PR firm Burson-Marsteller had been hired by Facebook to pitch anti-Google stories to newspapers and other media outlets.  The anti-Google pitch accused Google of invading consumer's privacy and encouraged reporters to further investigate Google's privacy practices. This smear campaign came to light after a blogger published emails sent to him from Burson requesting that he create an anti-Google op-ed piece.

Some analysts have speculated that Facebook seeded the story in order to shift the focus of consumer and regulatory attention to Google.  While this may be part of the reason, I think Facebook's motives are motivated by broader rivalries between the two companies as the two cross over into each others territories.

Blurred Lines

Over the last few years, Google has made a number of  attempts to break into social media space.  These include: Google Buzz, a social networking tool that is a direct competitor of Facebook, Google +1, a consumer rating service that has some similarities to Facebook's "Like" button, and Google Social Search, a service that helps users find relevant content on the web using content created by friends, family and others in the consumer's social circle.  While Google has made much headway with these attempts, it's power on the Internet and intention to be a player in social media are a real and recognized threat to Facebook.

For it's part, Facebook is also intruding on Google's traditional turf.  In March 2010, Facebook briefly unseated Google as the most visited site on the web. Facebook also drives large amounts of traffic to other web sites and blogs.  While not a direct substitute for search, Facebook controls a significant amount of Internet traffic flows.  If the company can effectively monetize that traffic, it might siphon off advertiser dollars that would have gone to Google.  Facebook also has a cosy relationship with Microsoft whose Bing search engine is increasingly putting pressure on Google. (Bing has 20% market share inclusive of Yahoo powered search) Finally, while Facebook claims its new messaging service is not a "GMail Killer," it's clear the service will be a substitute for some communication that might have been done via a e-mail; I would not be shocked if Facebook eventually rolled out a dedicated e-mail product.

The Cold War

Last week's fiasco with Burson-Marsteller underscores Facebook's immaturity and the naivite of its leadership.  Facebook got burned badly and they probably will not attempt similar skulduggery in the near future.  However, this incident points to the increasing competition between the two Internet giants and that rivalry is likely to heat up, even as Facebook's smear campaign fades from the headlines.

New Application Illustrates Privacy Risks of Location-Based Applications

In recent weeks, there's been quite a bit of press coverage regarding the collection of smart phone location data by Google and Apple.  The controversy started last month when it was discovered that Apple was storing 12 months of data showing a users longitude, latitude along with a time stamp -- effectively giving Apple a detailed picture of a consumer's movements. 

Apple claims that it was storing this data in order to improve the operation of its service by maintaining a data base of cell phone towers and WiFi hotspots.  The company has since updated its iOS 4 software to reduce the size of the data cache to one week and claims that the length of data collection was merely a programming error.

Whether or not this will be difficult to determine, but I'm sure that Apple and Google (whose Android phone, also is collecting location data) see location data as a valuable potential revenue stream. Google Boost, an adjunct of Google Places, already sells ad space and map listings to local businesses and a service called Peekaboo Mobile is building a business that allows local businesses to deliver coupons to consumers located near their establishments. 

Pending Privacy Legislation

The outcry over Apple's collection of location data further fueled concern among U.S. lawmakers who are already investigating data breaches at Epsilon and Facebook's ever shifting privacy policy.  Senator Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia recently introduced a bill called the "Do Not Track Online Act of 2011" that empowers consumers to stop companies from tracking their internet activity.  In addition, several other proposals by John McCain (Senate Republican from Arizona) and John Kerry (Senate Democrat from Massachusetts), as well as Joe Barton (House Republican from Texas) and Edward Markey (House Democrat from Massachusetts) are also circulating.  These bills are intended to give consumers greater control and curb corporate use of consumer data.

How Safe Are You? Check Out This Application

While much of the controversy has centered around Apple and Google, the reality is that many commonly used consumer services track location data and developers can access this to create new services if they so choose.  To highlight the risks posed by this, one developer has created a geo-location aggregator called Creepy.  

Creepy is a free application that allows anyone to gather geo-location related information about a person using data from social networking platforms and image hosting services (For example from Twitter, Flickr etc.) The information is presented in a map along with the longitude and latitude coordinates. 

If you have friends who use their mobile devices tweet their locations can now be tracked.  All you need is their twitter handle and Creepy does the rest.  I tried the application this week end and found that it was far from perfect in operation - sometimes finding people and sometimes not.  That said, it worked effectively enough to convince me not to tweet from my smart phone.

Below are screen shots from Creepy.  To protect the privacy of this individual, I will not mention their name and I have blurred all the longitude data in the first column.  The location information corresponds to my knowledge of their movements including a trip to San Fransisco and attendance at the South by Southwest conference (SXSW) in Texas.

If you want to try Creepy, you can download it from Github.

Facebook's Dominance of Display Advertising Misleading

According to a report today in Comscore, Facebook now accounts for 31% of all display ads delivered to U.S. consumers.  Growing 15 share points in just one year, Facebook now generates 346 billion ad impressions.  By this measure, Facebook is not only the largest display ad publisher, it is three times larger than the number two publisher, Yahoo and twelve times larger than Google. 

But despite the impressive growth, the numbers may be a bit misleading.  I barely notice Facebook ads and never click on them.  Apparently, many other consumers have similar behavior.  For all the ads Facebook delivers, the revenue generated by these is far less impressive.  According to eMarketer, Facebook 2010 ad revenue was $1.9 billion.  A huge number to be sure, but Facebooks share of ad revenue is much closer to that of its rivals -- Yahoo generates $1.6 billion in revenue (16% share) and Google generates $1.7 billion (17% share). 

Calculating the revenue generated per impression leads to a very different view of the market.  On this basis, Google wins hands down.

Miracle Whip "Take A Side" Ad Campaign Review

Earlier this month, the folks at Kraft Foods, began airing a very unusual TV commercial in which Miracle Whip lovers and haters shared their view on this sandwich spread.  The campaign is notable for both its candor and its daring. 

It's not uncommon for product marketers to use positive testimonials to promote their products.  It's unheard of to provide the other point of view; yet this series of commercials Kraft brings together Miracle Whip lovers and haters to share their views on the brand.  Here are some of the brutal comments made by Miracle Whip detractors:

• The stuff is just awful.
• On a scale of one to ten, I hate Miracle Whip at like twenty-two.
• It tastes like lotion.
• I'd never eat it.  It's just wrong.

The commercials feature testimonials from common folks and the more famous such as James Carville.  All get to air their loves and hates.

 

The campaign is clearly very risky, so it's interesting to think about the strategy behind Kraft's "Take A Side" campaign.  Some commentators have stated that they believe that Kraft is looking to generate buzz and/or that they are trying to challenge mayonnaise users to switch to Miracle Whip.  I think neither is the primary strategy behind "Take A Side."

While it is true the campaign has generated consumer interest (see below Google Trends data), buzz is most beneficial to brands that seek to generate awareness. I doubt that there are many consumers in the U.S. who are unaware of Miracle Whip.  The bump in consumer interest is good for the brand, but it's likely to be short lived, and not of great enough benefit to justify the risks. Nor do I believe that Kraft is trying to encourage switching as in the "Pepsi Challenge." The commercials never explicitly or implicitly encourage a mayonnaise user to try Miracle Whip.

 

Brand Tribalism

The "Take A Side" campaign celebrates the division of the world into two tribes -  the Miracle Whip lovers and haters.  It encourages the lovers to see themselves as different and special.   In doing so, it attempts to create group identity around a shared set of taste preferences.  The Miracle Whip haters play a critical role in this because they act as a foil to sharply define the the existence of Miracle Whip lovers.   It's the lovers that Kraft cares about.  The company wants them to feel proud of their brand.  To stick up for the brand versus the haters and to slather Miracle Whip on sandwiches with pride.

Secondarily, I believe that Kraft is promoting the idea that it's OK to purchase both mayonnaise and Miracle Whip because when it comes to sandwich spreads the twain shall never meet.  The current practice among consumers is for mom to purchase one product for everyone in the family -- you either buy Miracle Whip or you buy mayonnaise.   In new households formed by spouses with different historical taste preferences, the least common denominator is mayonnaise;  a Miracle Whip user may not love the taste of mayonnaise but they can tolerate it.  However, the reverse is not true; mayonnaise users abhor the taste of Miracle Whip and will never eat it.  This phenomenon means that new households formed by spouses with different taste preferences results in mayonnaise buying household.  Kraft may be attempting to stem sales erosion created by these "mixed marriages" by sharply outlining a tribe of Miracle Whip users and encouraging them to buy Miracle Whip in addition to mayonnaise to satisfy both taste preferences within the family.  Check out the version of the commercial called "Relationship Battles" at Miracle Whip's Facebook page.

Tablets Become Entertainment Devices

According to a research study conducted by Admob in April 2011, tablet devices like the iPad are used primarily for entertainment and for accessing content.  The top uses of the tablet include playing games, searching on the internet, and e-mailing.

The study also suggests that tablets may displace traditional computers for some consumers -- 43% of respondents say that they use their tablet more than they use their traditional computer and 28% report that the tablet is their primary computer.

The research doesn't appear to have polled respondents about their on-line and offline behavior prior to purchasing a tablet, so on the face of it, it is hard to draw the conclusion that tablets are really on their way to overtaking computers. 

While I couldn't find specific data on the subject, I suspect many Americans use the computer primarly for entertainment, e-mail, social media, and shopping, not word processing, spreadsheets, photo/video editing, or other productivity oriented uses.  As tablet devices become more robust, and as more heavy duty applications appear as cloud-based services, I suspect tablets will replace desktop and laptops in many American homes.