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WINNER:

Success is where opportunity meets preparedness –and there’s always got to be a little bit of luck too. In Jeremy Lin's case, all of that is there, but what matters most is that there are solid sports branding reasons behind him. As a result, we are probably witnessing the birth of one of the greatest sports brands of all time.

First you have the “Call-u” effect. C for connectivity. A for attractiveness. L for longevity. L for likeability. U for uniqueness. This is a quick assessment tool to get a rough idea of the potential value of a personality brand. Lin has each of these five features in abundance.

Next, you have add the fact that Lin is an athlete and hence a performance brand (i.e., the fundamental support for his brand is his continued achievement on the court). Given that Lin seems to have arrived as a player and should maintain his dominance, then the “Call-u” factors should all support and add value to his brand.

For example, you can have a great performance brand –take Barry Bonds or Alex Rodriguez— but without the connectivity and likeability components, you simply can’t achieve stratospheric brand value. But Lin has more than either “Call-u” or performance. He has an inspirational story that has already made history. On top of that, he has the massive potential of combining an adoring Chinese audience globally with a huge and adoring non-Chinese audience. Sometimes a difference in degree is a difference in kind and the size of Lin's possible following could re-define what it means to be an international brand.

The bottom line is this: not only are we witnessing the birth of one of the greatest sport brands of all time in terms of total value, but we are also witnessing a brand that will raise the profile of other brands like Harvard, his alma mater, and should we even go a bit farther afield brand-wise? Why not? Lin’s heritage is Taiwanese. Will he use his personal brand and basketball to bridge the gulf between the mainland and the island of his heritage?
Stay tuned. Here's what I said about Jeremy on Fox.

LOSER:

Folks, Mitt Romney has an elephant in the room that is threatening his campaign. This particular elephant follows him onto the campaign bus, is at every event, stands behind him at each podium --in short, this elephant will never go away and can never be ignored no matter how much Mitt Romney may try to wish for it.

Many candidates for high office in our great land are familiar with Romney's kind of elephant. For the most part they, too, try to ignore it and for the most part this is successful because their elephants are fed on professional salaries and speaker fees. Not so for Romney. I'm speaking about his huge personal wealth and the fact that if he hopes to win the GOP nomination, let alone the presidency, it is high time for him to not only acknowledge this elephant, but praise it.

That's right, Mitt Romney needs to be honest and admit that he's rich --no, he needs to trumpet this fact (please excuse the pun). You see, Romney is a likeable man but because he's not being upfront about this one issue, he has erected a wall between himself and the American people.

Since when has being rich been a crime in America? Romney must deliver the speech. Not about religion and not about a grand vision for America. Mitt Romney must endorse himself, all that he is, by saying something like this: I'm rich and I'm proud of it. I'm not proud of it for selfish reasons, but for what it says about this country and opportunity. I'm rich because I was given a chance to work hard and get rewarded for that work.

From there Romney needs to underscore that wealth in America must not become fodder for class warfare and that income mobility has and will be one of the defining qualities of our nation. The Romney campaign has to ask itself why it is that Michael Bloomberg's vast wealth, many multiples ahead of relatively poor Mitt, was a virtue for the New York mayor.

The answer is pretty straightforward. Bloomberg was smart enough never to make it an issue by never, ever, denying the obvious. Moreover, he harnessed his curriculum vitae to drive the perception that he was a great manager and a superb businessman who could breath fresh life into city government.

Bloomberg didn't even curtail his Bermuda getaways. Why should he --he essentially argued--this is America and there is no law against using the fruits of one's labor however one chooses? After all, we celebrate the monetary success of those in other areas like sports and entertainment -- most people would never think of going after Oprah for her wealth or Tom Cruise for his.

If Romney has religious scruples around this question (such as appearing to lack humility), he can use them for the broader message that his personal wealth is ultimately not about him. Romney can tie his wealth to the immigrant story and the goal of economic freedom and freedom from too much government regulation and interference.

In marketing, the core features of a product can never be denied. Romney is a rich man. That is a core feature. And for Romney being rich is a virtue not a vice --but only if he embraces it. It's time that the elephant gets out of the living room and begins pulling this campaign.

And remember, it's always easier when you keep marketing and branding in mind.

TODAY'S TANTILLO TAKEAWAY-- If you have feature that is central to your brand, you can never ignore it or act as if it doesn't exist.

John Tantillo is a marketing and branding expert who has a doctorate in applied research psychology. He is president of the Branding and Marketing Group and markets his own services as "The Marketing Doctor." He is also the author of People Buy Brands, Not Companies, an AMA member, and the host of BrandTalk, Wednesdays from 3 to 4 p.m. ET on radio station WVOX 1460 AM, and streaming at www.brandtalkradio.com.

The opinions expressed in this post are the views of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the American Marketing Association.

Posted by Christine Birkner at 1:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

WINNER:

Folks, the branding gods giveth and they taketh away and sometimes they giveth back again. That’s what happened this week with J.C. Penney.

Last week the department store chain was our loser for their “screamingly” awful commercials, but this week, they’re our winner for sticking with their spokesperson Ellen DeGeneres despite a firestorm of controversy. I’ve talked about the difference between public relations and what I call targeted relations a lot. Basically, I believe that often companies get it wrong when they buy into public relations industry thinking that says the entire public is somehow in play for each and every company.

That’s simply not true. Most of the time, a company has a targeted public and thus should only concern itself with targeted relations. That’s why not every firestorm or controversy actually matters and why not responding and not reacting can be the right way to go. That was true of the Tiger Woods debacle where I argued targeted relations was critical and public relations could largely be forgotten –the sector of the public he alienated by his behavior was never really his target market to begin with. It is certainly true of J.C. Penney and the Million Moms debacle.

Ellen DeGeneres is pretty much universally loved and, even if she weren’t, she’s certainly loved by her target audience which closely aligns to the core target consumer for J.C. Penney. By calling for J.C. Penney to drop her as a spokesperson because she is a lesbian, the Million Moms might have been appealing to their own core constituency and like-minded folks, but they weren’t appealing to the majority of J.C. Penney shoppers. J.C. Penney wisely and rightly ignored the call –wisely because its unlikely that a boycott will have teeth and rightly because to do otherwise would be to throw someone under the bus to appeal to a minority belief while offending many others in the process. There’s another winner here and that’s Bill O’Reilly. By supporting DeGeneres and J.C. Penney, he actually strengthens his own “fair and balanced” street cred and might even gain viewers who might have simply put him in the knee-jerk conservative, Million Moms camp.

LOSER:

Folks, the cruise ship industry has taken a real blow from the tragic Costa Concordia sinking. Apparently, cruise ship companies will begin requiring lifeboat drills before leaving port for all passengers. Usually, I would applaud the quick response of a stricken business to a crisis like this, but, frankly, there are some industries where ensuring safety should be taken for granted: airlines are one; cruising is another.

Fact is, there hasn’t been a mea culpa from the big companies like Carnival, which owns the company behind Costa Concordia. I understand that there are legal issues, but Carnival is the leading cruising company and its behemoths are cruising all over the world. One used to assume they were safe and have all the right procedures in place – but not anymore. That’s the problem here. The industry first has to admit that there was a problem. Having passengers embark and disembark without getting safety instruction just isn’t good, but that is what was happening. Another problem is more of a long-standing one and that involves the life boat array itself. The whole world saw that because the way the ship was listing, many of the lifeboats couldn’t be used. If the weather had been bad and the ship had been far from shore, it isn’t clear at all that many more people wouldn’t have died.

Many ships are literally in the same boat. Basically, the industry needs to run a campaign –probably driven by Carnival— to address these issues to underscore that safety is paramount for cruising. A big study and an active initiative to develop a comprehensive safety response is needed – and it needs to be done now. Until this happens, news that bits and pieces of safety improvements will probably only draw attention to the deficiencies until giving potential cruisers the assurance that the industry is really on top of the situation.

And remember, it's always easier when you keep marketing and branding in mind.

TODAY'S TANTILLO TAKEAWAY-- Not every response to a crisis is good especially if the response isn’t part of a comprehensive strategy.

John Tantillo is a marketing and branding expert who has a doctorate in applied research psychology. He is president of the Branding and Marketing Group and markets his own services as "The Marketing Doctor." He is also the author of People Buy Brands, Not Companies, an AMA member, and the host of BrandTalk, Wednesdays from 3 to 4 p.m. ET on radio station WVOX 1460 AM, and streaming at www.brandtalkradio.com.

Posted by Christine Birkner at 11:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

WINNER:

Folks, public relations often suggests that it must be apologies all around when controversy comes to a company.But sometimes standing firm in the face of controversy is exactly what a brand needs to do. That's why CareerBuilder is our winner of the week.

The company is getting heat from animal rights activists who say its use of monkeys in its upcoming Super Bowl ad is wrong (the image above is a screen shot from a similar ad a few years ago). Despite the fact that these ads are apparently very funny --or perhaps because of this fact-- conservationists including zoo keepers and even Anjelica Huston are rallying against the insensitivity of making fun of the primate and also argue that to their detriment, performing chimps have been taken away from their mothers at a young age. But this issue really goes down to what is considered reasonable, and a brand's reasonable conduct. Let's face it, CareerBuilder's audience is wide, mainly professional and looking for work.They probably need a laugh and these commercials might provide that (whether they'll get viewers to the CareerBuilder door --well, look to my general criticism of Super Bowl ads for the answer to that question).

Even more, CareerBuilders is in a strong position even in response to these critics. Here's their statement: “We hired top trainers known to provide the highest standard of care for their animals. We also had a member of animal rights group, the American Humane Association, on set during the entire filming to ensure the chimpanzees were treated with respect. This was very important to us.”

Bottom line, by conventional standards CareerBuilder is doing nothing wrong and the company is clearly thinking about their target market instead of the vocal minority who object.

LOSER:

Folks, what is Starbucks doing?

In an apparent response to customer demand in the Northwest, some stores will be adding beer and wine to the menu in the evenings. It's good that they're rolling this out locally so that it need not become a nationwide debacle. Overall, though, this is a pretty bad idea.

First, while the move is apparently in response to customer demand for "more options," is alcohol really consistent with the Starbucks' brand?

I have serious doubts and also suspect that there is a silent majority who don't think that alcohol belong in Starbucks. Let's face it, once you start serving alcohol, you change the atmosphere, the clientele and maybe just in subtle ways begin to color the brand image.
So I'd vote no to this Starbucks move (though, again, if it works locally, it can stay local without hurting the wider brand --like McDonald's sells beer in Germany).

One last point: What kind of wine are they going to serve? It had better be quality on level with the perceived quality of their coffee --and take it from this wine aficianado, that won't be easy!

And remember, it's always easier when you keep marketing and branding in mind.

TODAY'S TANTILLO TAKEAWAY-- Sometimes the best response to brand criticism is simply to ignore it.

John Tantillo is a marketing and branding expert who has a doctorate in applied research psychology. He is president of the Branding and Marketing Group and markets his own services as "The Marketing Doctor." He is also the author of People Buy Brands, Not Companies, an AMA member, and the host of BrandTalk, Wednesdays from 3 to 4 p.m. ET on radio station WVOX 1460 AM, and streaming at www.brandtalkradio.com.

Posted by Christine Birkner at 11:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)