Quality, more often than not, is based on perception more-so than the actual quality. Toyota had a great overall quality perception a year ago, but with the recent revelations of some poorly handled recalls, Toyota's are now ticking time bombs.

My wife displayed a great example of this quality perception idea. Where we live, there are only a few major supermarkets - the closest is Berkeley Bowl West, a local market that is great for produce and organic stuff, but their meat selection, while impressive is really really expensive (I don't personally place much more value in grass-fed beef or free-range chickens). The next closest supermarket, is called Pak 'n Save, which is owned by Safeway, though you wouldn't know it from the outside. Inside, it is essentially a big Safeway, the only real difference, is that you bag your own groceries at the end of the process (get it? you Pack and save). They sell all the same stuff as Safeway including Safeway branded products, use the Safeway bags and packaging, and use the same Safeway Club Card. Granted, there is a less upscale feel that the newer and remodeled Safeways have, that this one lacks ... which conveys a Physical Evidence that doesn't reinforce quality.

My wife hates shopping there and would rather drive an extra few miles to the smaller, crowded Safeway or pay more at the organic market. She is suspicious of nearly all their products, making sure to double-check expiration dates of whatever we buy. She's convinced that this is where all the unsold products go to die. I personally don't mind, because its closer, usually a faster checkout, and I don't have awkward encounters in tight aisles where my cart is in somebody's way.

The thing to think about is this: While your business and product/service may be on the mark. How do your customers and prospects perceive it? What are you doing to manage that perception?

Labels: Branding, Positioning

# posted by Ray Huang @ 10:25 AM
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Wingman Marketing Communications has just re-launched our website at http://www.wingmancommunications.com. Our old site was dark and rough around the edges, but that was reflective of our nation's economic death spiral. The revamp has been long overdue, and reflects our fresh new outlook on the future of our business, our lives, and hopefully the rest of the economy. We really think there may be a correlation.

Labels: Branding, Creative, Positioning, Wingman

# posted by Ray Huang @ 1:34 AM
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My last post, several months ago, chronicled my experience with auto insurance, which ultimately led me to drop my insurance company to go with Geico. I've noticed over the last several couple years, that Geico has a unique multi-pronged advertising campaign.

The current landscape only brings three, maybe four prominent auto insurance ad campaigns that come to mind, All-State, Progressive, State Farm, and Geico. Geico by far is the most active, with so many different themes going on at once.

At first I questioned their strategy... so incohesive and seemingly disjointed. But each of their campaigns has a series of print and and TV commercials behind it. They realize that their brand is known, and they want to keep it top of mind with several commercials, aimed to reach you and touch you in different ways ... mostly through comedic entertainment. You may have fast forwarded through the entire commercial break with your DVR, but if you're old-school like me, and usually channel surf during commercials, I rarely will switch away from a Geico commercial. They do a great job of keeping the ads fresh and entertaining, with a little bit of shock and awe.

	All-State - featuring actor Dennis Haysbert (or as I know him, Pedro Cerrano from Major League movies). These ads typically recount all the simple and common things we do that can cause accidents and then he tells us cpecific features of the All-State coverage.
	Progressive - featuring Flo, the "Progressive Girl," played by actress/comedian Stephanie Courtney. She takes a light-hearted approach to letting you know about different features and types of coverage.
	Geico Caveman Campaign - One of Geico's most successfully entertaining campaigns
	Geico Kash Campaign - "I always feel like, somebody's watching me."
	Geico Gecko - He used to just hang out quietly, then he was stalked by a clumsy old documentary host, and more recently has gone corporate.
	Geico Celebrities - features real customers alongside professional celebrities, Burt Bacharach, Peter Graves, Don LaFontaine, Little Richard, Charo and Verne Troyer.

Labels: Advertising, Branding, Positioning

# posted by Ray Huang @ 12:42 PM
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Dear Wingman,

Is “branding” a valuable information-providing tool for consumers, or a tool by which firms persuade consumers to pay premiums for goods that they don’t really need?

William B.

A brand provides a guarantee of reliability and quality. Consumer trust is the basis of all brand values. So companies that own the brands have an immense incentive to work to retain that trust. Brands have value only where consumers have choice. Think back to the last time your mobile phone dropped a call, either you kept blabbing for a a minute before you realize the person you called stopped giving you the obligatory, "uh huh," every other sentence. Well whatever mobile phone provider you have, you've always been promised a very good network.

• "America's most reliable wireless network" - Verizon Wireless
  
• "The country's largest and fastest digital voice and data network" - AT&T
  
• "The largest voice calling area and the largest mobile broadband network" - Sprint
  
• "Stay connected across the nation with America's Largest Network" - Alltel
  

When your competition is touting the same or similar features in their brand, what are you going to do to differentiate? Here's what some of these companies did:

• Verizon Wireless has been conducting ongoing field testing, and that they've been pounding into our heads for the last several years, "Can you hear me now? Good!"
• AT&T Wireless is actually not the old AT&T you grew up with. SBC (who owned Cingular Wireless), bought out the old AT&T Wireless business, and changed all those old customers to Cingular customers. After SBC completed the acquisition of the rest of AT&T, they strategically changed they rebranded it as "the new AT&T." It created some confusion to some with all the name changing, but ultimately, AT&T is a stronger and longer known brand, and they wanted to leverage that. Strategic partnerships with other great brands like Apple and their iPhone also helped boost their own brand.

What do people think of when they think of your brand?

Labels: Branding

# posted by Ray Huang @ 11:37 AM
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Dear Wingman,

Is “branding” a valuable information-providing tool for consumers, or a tool by which firms persuade consumers to pay premiums for goods that they don’t really need?

William B.

Suffice to say, branding is both, and so much more. Its primary purpose is to increase awareness and familiarity of a product’s existence and secondarily, to differentiate or provide information about a product. When done properly for long enough duration, branding differentiates a product from its competitors and makes a product less of a commodity.

In the case of cola, there are probably hundreds of cola makers out there, but branding has led us to only think of Coke and Pepsi primarily, and each has their dedicated following. For me, I understand the flavor differences of Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi, and they both taste fine to me and I usually will only purchase whichever is on sale at the given time that I am at the grocery store and in want of 12-pack of diet cola. My diehard Pepsi drinking friend, Andy, will purchase the Pepsi pretty much at any price if he was out of Pepsi at home. Of course, Andy rarely runs out of Pepsi, because when it goes on sale at 3 for $10, he’ll literally fill his cart up with 12-packs, take them home and stack them in his garage (he once had two twin towers that were 8 feet high (true story).

Branding plays a key role in these two examples of cola drinkers. I, as a consumer, will only choose the Coke or Pepsi brands when they are on sale, but I am not likely to purchase R.C., the store brands, Jones, or some micro-brew cola at BevMo. Andy will only purchase Pepsi, because he’s been brainwashed as a consumer to thinking it is a superior product, and his mom may have put it in his bottle as a baby.

Certainly we can make the argument that we don't 'need' to be drinking soda, but branding and repetition has made us want to drink soda. We stick with the brands we know because of the consistency of the products and the expectations that we have come to learn.

Labels: Branding

# posted by Ray Huang @ 11:19 AM
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