Brand Musings has been on a break for the last couple of weeks. Apologies!
A Harsh History for Gen Z
You can read about the harsh history that Gen Z has lived through, but when you see it edited together in a shocking video collage, it brings the point to life.
Credit goes to The Sound, who just published a report on GenZ.
Where Next for DTC?
IThe DTC world has been rocked a little in the past month, Softbank pulled the plug on Brandless and Casper had a less than flattering IPO.
Brandless was a somewhat confusing addition to the CPG space- promising to eliminate the brand tax that consumers paid regular brands and instead offered them high-quality products at a great value.
Consumer research to identify this opportunity lacked big time- no real due diligence.
Consumers do not mind paying the brand tax on the brand's they love and trust and when they are searching for the value they can buy those same brands at a bulk discount at Costco/Sam's, or they can turn to the private label offerings that have moved on leaps and bounds since their introduction in the 70s.
I am sure Brandless had their brilliant rationale as to their existence, but this was never communicated clearly to the masses, probably because they forgot they needed an advertising budget to launch their non-brand, brand.
Casper has been well-loved by the brand cognoscenti because it turned a manipulative and deceptive mattress category on its head and became the model for other DTCs.
Its biggest problem was the mattress in a box idea was easy to copy, and a market it thought was there for the taking suddenly became overwhelmed with 175 competitors- many buying their mattresses from the same suppliers. The volume of competition ratcheted up the required marketing spend for customer acquisition to over $100m.
The old-school formula of the growth hacking your way to success via social media by being first to market is over. The costs of social media have escalated- Dollar Shave Club may have become a $1bn company on the back of a 2012 viral/unpaid video on YouTube- but, rest assured, this is not happening again.
Then even if you can grow your user base- how do you expand it without either spending $millions or running right into Amazon?
The biggest challenge of all- how do you bring to market a brand that is truly differentiated and hard to copy?
"The most successful specialty retailers have a proprietary product or can create a voice by bringing together groups of products, Casper has neither."
NYU Marketing Professor Scott Galloway
The transforming DTC space is forcing agency players to think a little differently. Some are trying to move into the design business so that they can shape the brand from the beginning, and there is even a new entity promising special treatment for DTC companies in the OOH space.
Amazon Messes with the idea of brand
The NYT published a fascinating article about the rise of a new breed of brands that appear to be designed purely for Amazon. The US trademark office has been deluged with applications from Chinese Amazon sellers (mainly from Shenzhen)) trying to register their names so they can sell on the monolithic online retailer. These, of course, aren't brands in the most real sense of the word but play a part in categories where brands are of limited importance or the consumer is looking for the cheapest option or in brand new categorizes where brands don't yet exist.
Cadillac Brand Matters
The Cadillac brand has been through multiple guises in the past few years, but perhaps now it has settled on something.
A piece in The Drum covers the efforts of CMO Melissa Grady to get the brand's strategy right.
The process involved pushing the agency hard to create a manifesto that felt right for the brand and the times which helped take Cadillac to the advertising that ran during this year's Oscars.
The article revealed the manifesto in all its glory.
"We are born of ambition, optimism, and a passion for what's next. Our mission is to inspire those who don't wait for opportunities – they make them. Those who do not long for success – they create it.
"The restless, undaunted, driven few who achieved greatness through guts, grit, and determination. The ones who, powered by sheer force of will, go through obstacles, not around them, the ones who navigate the unknown with the fearlessness and unwavering belief in themselves, who wear their swagger like armor and live for the fight.
"These extraordinary people inspire us as well – inspire us to create an icon, change the game and raise the bar and then raise it higher still because we believe you don't wish or hope your way to what's next. You make your way."
Upbeat and Happy Ads Pay Dividends
In harsh and cynical times, advertising can play a crucial role in uplifting the spirits. System 1's Feel More 50 a review of the most effective ads of 2019 (according to its methodology) proves just that.
The heartwarming stories are the ones that seem to be working right now- be they Puffins for Coca-Cola, an older man sharing chocolate for Hershey's, or Microsoft's much-praised accessibility efforts.
Window Displays are Invaluable Media
If you have any physical retail space, your window displays, especially in high trafficked areas, play a critical media role.
These mannequins (see above photo) spotted at the Balenciaga store in Madison Avenue; Manhattan is a brilliant example of how to capture attention.
These more lifelike than life itself figures are 3D scans of models who walked the catwalk at the brand's fashion shows.
HOKA ONE ONE Takes on Nike
HOKA ONE ONE Athlete Scott Fauble - NY Marathon 2018
The US Olympic Marathon Trials will take place on February 29th in Atlanta, with over 500 athletes vying an Olympic spot. Doubtless, we will see many athletes decked out in Nike's dominant Vaporfly shoe, but in the men's race, one of the favorites Scott Fauble and ultra legend Jim Walmsley stepping down to the marathon distance, will not. Instead, they will be wearing a shoe from HOKA ONE ONE. It will be an intriguing David vs. Goliath battle to see how many of HOKA ONE ONE's athletes can claim a ticket to Tokyo.
In Other News
Name a group of gamers and social media geniuses all live in a house in LA, and if you are under 20- you can name the group over 20, and you are likely clueless. The point is- they are famous for being great E-Sports players, creating social media fame, and in the many appear to be suffering from severe burnout and mental illness.
"It's really hard to stay consistent with this level of work," said FaZe Adapt. "There was a couple moments when it got hard. If I wasn't posting every day, I was filming all day, editing all night."
Deloitte has woken up to the power of sleep and is encouraging its clients to take it seriously.
Byron Sharp's approach to brands, brand purpose, innovation, and budget cuts top Unilever's growth plan for 2020 (Presented at CAGNY)
Tesla's Cybertruck has over 500k reservations
PWC finds the Transcenders- 5% of companies who are getting moderate or significant payback from their digital transformation efforts
The data and tech wizardry behind Spotify's Wrapped Campaign
Strava attempts to segment runners (see below)