Red Bull: The Ultimate Brand Builder

A pioneer in energy drinks three decades ago, Red Bull is now the world sales leader with estimated 2012 fiscal sales of over $3 billion, profits over $400 million, and a 43% leading US dollar market. To establish a new category in the face of Coke and Pepsi and then hold it for decades is very impressive.

Four quick observations about Red Bull’s unique approach to brand building:

Red Bull’s brand building is largely based on associating its brand with an amazingly wide range of people, teams and events.
Red Bull believes in owning teams and events rather than being one of several sponsors.
Because of this ownership model, they can and have turned this buzz machine into a profit center.
Their on-brand activities reflect two very different personalities that live side by side.

The scope of Red Bull activities is overwhelming. It gets involved in a wide mix of sports such as wakeboarding and motorcycle racing, dozens of Red Bull music events, sponsoring athletes such as motocross racer Ashley Fiolek, teams such as the New York Red Bulls soccer team and much, much more. The Red Bull website has entertainment features such as the Red Bull Soapbox Racer video game, weekly rock music bulletins on the Rock Report, plus sections on movies and TV shows as well. The list of their entertainment features goes on and on and is captured on their Facebook Page, which has more than 37 million followers. With well over 100 potential points of contact, Red Bull will connect to their target market many times, in multiple ways. And more importantly, Red Bull becomes a big part of their customer’s lives. …Continue reading

Social Media Isn’t (Always) the Answer

It’s not uncommon for social media to be praised as the ultimate key to unlocking meaningful customer relationships – and it’s certainly no secret that over the past few years, brands have rushed to “join the conversations” on Facebook and Twitter or risk being labeled as old-fashioned and out of touch.

While “likes” and “followers” are an indication of interest and loyalty, and sentiment analysis can help brands predict and act on customer trends, they are not a key reason behind brand and business failure. Factors integral to success are often more closely tied to strong management, sufficient capital and a focused emphasis on product quality and customer needs rather than the presence of a branded page. …Continue reading

The Power of Real Time

At Fast Company’s Innovation Uncensored conference earlier this week, there was a lot of talk around brand messaging. There were some favorite analogies: Many people mentioned Dove’s beautiful storytelling, Translation’s engagement with pop culture and lots of talk around Kmart’s great use of humor in their viral Ship My Pants ads, but by far the most mentioned messaging move was Oreo’s response to the loss of power at this year’s Super Bowl. For the two people out there who haven’t heard of this, this year’s Super Bowl was marked by a major power outage. Within four minutes of the outage Oreo posted a clever reaction on their Twitter page: a photo of an Oreo half lit, underneath of which followed the tag line “You can still dunk in the dark.”

Oreo’s move wasn’t just mentioned because the Mondelez International VP of Customer Engagement, Bonin Bough was speaking at the event. Oreo’s Super Bowl moment was a hot topic because they epitomized something that great brands are doing these days, something that will be defining what makes your brand stand out in a crowded market: real time engagement. …Continue reading

Wanted: Better Brand Advocates

The last time I visited San Francisco, I was looking for a place to eat and came across a neighborhood with a remarkably high concentration of restaurants. I had plenty of choices, but with so much clutter, nothing really stood out. Some places tried to differentiate with an approach I’d never seen before: They paid people to stand on the sidewalk and stop pedestrians to tell them about a “favorite dish” or something they “had to try.” The strategy didn’t seem to work. It was clear these “advocates” were paid, and as a result everyone tuned them out like verbal spam.

Many attempts to build brand advocacy don’t look much different. Whether it’s an offer of 20% off your next purchase in exchange for a Facebook “like,” or a $50 store credit for referring five friends, many brands try to build advocates through incentives. In the short term this may be effective, but for many potential customers, encounters with this type of advocacy can feel inauthentic and transparent. We move it directly to our mental spam folder, and sometimes create negative associations with the brand as a result. Brands interested in creating lasting, long-term relationships with customers should avoid the temptation to incentivize and focus on building advocates that are authentic and genuine in their recommendations…but how? …Continue reading

Non-Profits Get Social: The Shift to Micro-Donors

Non-profits thrive with the support of their extensive networks. Networks of partners, donors and volunteers are all crucial contributing factors to the financial health and effectiveness of an organization. Increasingly, these networks are evolving from high-net worth individuals to large groups of micro-donors, each of whom give small contributions that drive to big change.

While the notion of micro-fundraising is a proven strategy, with highly successful programs like “Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF” and St. Jude’s point-of-sale campaigns, non-profits continue to find new and innovative ways to meet potential donors where they are. In many cases, this means leveraging more social, unconventional channels and platforms to facilitate brand awareness and generate donations. …Continue reading

The Top 3 Brand Winners & Losers of 2012

It’s the time of year to assess what stories stood out for better or for worse, for richer and, for some, poorer and those that just left you scratching your head.

2012 did not disappoint from a brand perspective. From the BBC to the NHL. From HP to Lance. From Blackberry to Newsweek. From Tom Cruise to JC Penney. From Hostess to Red Bull and from the London Olympics to Detroit. This was a brand year we will not forget any time soon. There were brands that inspired, influenced and compelled and there were those that just, well, continued to disappoint…think Sears and MySpace again and yet again.

While there were a lot of great brand stories to choose from, below are my picks for the three best and worst brand stories from 2012, culled from informal nominations from our global Prophet team of over 300 brand zealots. …Continue reading

Is Your Brand Strapped for Social “Cash”?

Believe it or not, a successful bank robber might have more in common with your company’s social media strategy than you think. Both are fabled to result in fast gains that will set you apart from your competitors – But without a long term plan, you’re probably not walking away with much.

Significance, the magazine published by The Royal Statistical Society and the American Statistical Association published a study after leading economists gained rare access to data provided by the British Bankers’ Association. With this unique opportunity, the scientists investigated an oft-unexplored economic phenomenon: The robbery of English banks. Their findings revealed some very interesting discoveries; chief amongst them was the mediocre gains achieved by successful bank robbers.

According to the study, the average take in a British heist per person, per robbery was only £12,706.60, or the equivalent to six months average wage in the UK.

Taking several factors into consideration – the number of robbers, the presence of weaponry in the crime, the total amount lost by the bank – the study was conclusive in its findings: Robbing banks in England is a pretty poor career move.

These findings fly in the face of the smash and grab, get-rich-quick perception that has long been attached to bank heists. Perhaps it’s the cultural allure of crime; that unfamiliar, exotic, larger than life feeling that convince us the gains are worth the risk. Perhaps it’s the romanticizing of Dillinger or Hollywood’s Clive Owen. Either way, criminals are working very hard for very little.

So why should you care? Because your company might be doing the exact same thing.

A co-branded touchpoint, with a twist

While visiting my local Walmart, I noticed this (yet-to-be-activated) touchpoint, co-branded for P&G and Walmart, with Facebook activation. Basically, the consumer will “check in” at “Freebie at Walmart” on Facebook and receive a free sample of a P&G product.

It’s an interesting way to get product samples out, track who is actually taking them, encourage people to check-in at Walmart, and continue to link Facebook to the physical world.

Of course, if information is a currency of sorts, the sample isn’t really “free”…