The 90% Rule, innovative entrepreneurial thinking for businesses

Apr 11, 2012

Despite the Recent Headlines: Offer Still Outranks Price

Branding Insights 
One of a series by John Paulo Cardoso, Spyder Works Chief Creative Officer & Founder

The big box retailers are singing the Amazon blues on a daily basis. They say that they can’t compete with Amazon’s model and the lower prices for commodities that it offers. While price is always important, I believe that the real issue is that their stores and brands just aren’t offering anything unique to engage customers.

Unless, of course, you are the retailer Loblaws. Currently, their President’s Choice (PC) brand is third on the Ipsos Reid list of Most Influential Brands in Canada…that’s 33 spots ahead of Loblaw’s itself.

The PC phenomenon speaks to the consumer’s relationship with a brand and its promise, versus that of a commodity. It also demonstrates that the power of the brand and branding can greatly outweigh the distribution channel and price.

It also explains why Loblaws calls PC the brand “worth switching supermarkets for”.

By John Paulo Cardoso Blog, branding, marketing, Spyder Works, strategy 1 Comment Tags: Amazon, brand influence, branding, Innovation, John Paulo Cardoso, Loblaws, President's Choice, Spyder Works Inc.

Mar 28, 2012

“Kraft Singles” out its Snack Division

Branding Insights
One of a series by John Paulo Cardoso, Spyder Works Chief Creative Officer & Founder

There are no red flags with Kraft’s new name change. On Aug. 4, 2011, Kraft Foods Inc. (NYSE:KFT) announced plans to divide and create two independent public companies: a high-growth global snacks business and a high-margin North American grocery business. And now on March 21, 2012 they announced its plans for its snack food corporate name as Mondelez International, Inc.

As their press release describes it, “‘Mondelez’ (pronounced mohn-dah-LEEZ’) is a newly coined word that evokes the idea of “delicious world.” “Monde” derives from the Latin word for “world,” and “delez” is a fanciful expression of “delicious.” In addition, “International” captures the global nature of the business.”

What this demonstrates is that the company truly understands the strength of its brands and how they have built a relationship with customers. And now they are using this knowledge to manage the branding of its new independent company to leverage the platform “make today delicious.” The move to invent a new word and taking the time to let everyone know the phonetic spelling is the right thing to do for a multinational conglomerate rather than trying to leverage one of its current brand names. As the Chairman and CEO Irene Rosenfeld has said regarding the new global snacks company, “we wanted to find a new name that could serve as an umbrella for our iconic brands, reinforce the truly global nature of this business and build on our higher purpose – to ‘make today delicious.’ Mondelez perfectly captures the idea of a ‘delicious world’ and will serve as a solid foundation for the strong relationships.” Kraft Foods Inc. brands know how to build relationships with its customers and now it’s applying it to the market and investors.

By John Paulo Cardoso Blog, branding, marketing, Spyder Works, strategy No comments Tags: 90% Rule, brand positioning, branding, John Paulo Cardoso, Kraft, market, strategy

Mar 26, 2012

Too Big To Fail

Innovation Insights
One of a series by Ken Tencer, Spyder Works CEO

While the assumption that a company or an industry could be “too big to fail” has been used mainly since the recent financial crisis, the notion itself has smugly resided in corporate boardrooms since the dawn of the modern corporation. “Our technology dominates the market, no need to worry,” said the buggy-whip maker to his horse.

Failure and evolution are a natural part of business, but sometimes it’s hard to watch. Sadly, we may now be witnessing the demise of a key industry giant in Kodak – a company that actually foresaw and invented the future, yet somehow managed not to learn from it.

As reported in the New York Times, “The big story here is that their core business, the yellow box business [film], got cannibalized by the digital camera, which ironically they invented,” said analyst Chris Whitmore of Deutsche Bank Securities.

The good news for investors is that Kodak’s management claims that the company is now soundly and strategically focused on digital printing technology – this in a world that is increasingly going paperless. I don’t mean to pick on Kodak; they are not the first company or industry to resist change, nor will they be the last.

In an upcoming Innovation Insight entitled “Fueling Green,” we will look at how the auto industry is managing changing technologies very well by re-imagining their own future… and actively trying to adapt.

By Ken Tencer business, business strategy, Entrepreneur, Entrepreneurial Thinking, entrepreneurship, marketing, optimzing innovation, planning No comments Tags: branding, business, business strategy, Innovation, Ken Tencer, Kodak, marketing, planning