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Three Reasons Why the HQ Trivia App Failed

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Tuesdays With Coleman

When the HQ Trivia app was released in the summer of 2017, it was an instant sensation. It was #1 on Time’s 10 Top Apps of 2017. Partnerships with brands including Nike, Google and Warner Brothers brought in millions in revenue. The popularity of HQ influenced internal discussions about what lessons radio shows could learn from it.

HQ Trivia app shuts down

My family was so addicted to the app in the summer of 2018 that we set our alarms to 8:55 PM, giving us five minutes to prepare for the daily 9 PM start time. We even stopped what we were doing on vacation–I specifically recall playing the game on a bench at Spruce Street Harbor Park in Philadelphia, because that was the night we won. A whole two dollars and seventeen cents.

There are always behind-the-scenes and internal reasons that can contribute to a company’s failure, and this is not a referendum on that dynamic. It is, however, a first-hand observation from a regular user who stopped using the app long before its demise last week, on Valentine’s Day.

When tactical strategy overwhelms brand strategy, brand growth is stunted. Ultimately, HQ was a game built heavily on tactical content rather than brand strength. Here are three reasons why the HQ trivia app failed:

  1. THE PRIZE WAS THE REASON TO PLAY, AND THE PAYOFF WAS A DISAPPOINTMENT

I play three games on my phone: Words With Friends (my favorite), Jeopardy and Family Feud. In the case of all three of these games, I win nothing but pride. They are strongly branded apps that focus on the strategy and the joy of playing the game.

While trivia is fun, the carrot dangled by HQ was the prize, the amounts of which varied. Usually around $5,000, sometimes as high as $100,000. Unfortunately, if you actually got through all the increasingly difficult questions to win, it was a share of the jackpot (like my $2.17 windfall).

It’s hard to not be disappointed when a brand markets huge jackpots as the selling point, but you can’t actually win the whole jackpot.

  1. PLAYABILITY FRICTION

A live trivia game show played on a mobile device is an ambitious idea but a highly risky proposition. If there are no technical issues on HQ’s end and everyone is on super-fast Wi-Fi, it should be a seamless experience! Unfortunately, there were sometimes technical problems on HQ’s end that required delaying game times or interrupting within games. As for the end-user, if you had a connection dropout or the picture started pixelating, you were out of luck and unceremoniously dropped from the game. With a stronger likable brand, perhaps players may have given HQ more leeway and forgiveness. There are only so many times you’ll put up with that.

  1. HQ DIDN’T BUILD THE BRAND FIRST

Instead of focusing on making HQ a world-class trivia app, the company hitched its wagon to line extension. They launched HQ After Dark, HQ Sports, HQ Words, HQ Tunes and HQX.

More often than not, line extension is a trap.

 

While brands across industries can find takeaways from HQ’s failure, brands (including radio stations) that spend a great deal of their focus on tactical strategy like contesting should use caution to ensure this does not come at the expense of brand building.

While tactical may bring a consumer in, your brand is why they will (or will not) stay.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Three Branding Lessons from the Campaign Trail

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Tuesdays With Coleman

“Don’t write a blog about politics!!”

That’s my inner voice talking. And my wife. And maybe a co-worker or two.

But here’s the thing. Although there’s plenty about politics I loathe, there’s a lot about “the game” I enjoy following. When there are twists and turns (maybe it’s the researcher in me,) I want to know why there are twists and turns.

So when news broke last week that Elizabeth Warren is leading an Iowa Democratic Primary poll for the first time, I found it interesting.

A little digging indicates her surge isn’t isolated to Iowa.

If we look at an aggregate of three sources of polling data: Politico, Economist/YouGov and The Hill/Harris X, according to national surveys conducted the week of May 27 – June 4, the top three candidates were:

Joe Biden: 33%

Bernie Sanders: 17%

Elizabeth Warren: 9%

According to the same polling sources conducted the week of September 7 – September 15, the top three candidates were:

Joe Biden: 28%

Elizabeth Warren: 18%

Bernie Sanders: 17%

I wanted to know the answer to the question, “What’s behind Warren’s rise?” While only research can effectively answer that, in digging for reasons behind what may be fueling her poll numbers, I found some branding takeaways I feel are worth sharing,

It’s truly a sign of the times that I went back and forth on whether or not to share them. It might anger people! It may make us appear like we’re endorsing her!

So, here’s the disclaimer. Neither I nor Coleman Insights is endorsing any candidate. We acknowledge Elizabeth Warren is not the only candidate deploying noteworthy strategies. My hope is that we can set partisan politics aside to appreciate some branding strategy you may borrow with the understanding that there’s no agenda attached.

Here are three strategic moves Elizabeth Warren has made that are worth noting.

  1. SHE’S TURNED NEGATIVES INTO POSITIVES

According to Democratic consultant Doug Rubin, who worked on Warren’s 2012 Senate campaign, she was depicted as someone detached from the average voter – someone who “dined with the intellectuals at Harvard.”

She developed a reputation for being stand-offish with the press.

She is a “policy wonk” – someone who knows a lot about many things, but perhaps gets in the weeds too much for the average voter.

Remarkably, Warren has turned her nerdiness into a strength with one simple phrase:

“I’ve got a Plan for that”.

Elizabeth Warren has a plan for that

Negative perceptions can hold a brand back from progressing and linger for some time. What if you had market research to inform the positive and negative perceptions of your brand? What could you do to turn your perceived negatives into positives?

  1. SHE’S USING SIMPLE, CLEAR MESSAGING

Need to convey the message that the country is on the wrong track?

“Make America Great Again”.

Make America Great Again hat

Hope and optimism?

“Yes We Can”.

Like other simple messages on the campaign trail, “I’ve got a Plan for that” conveys that Warren has considered everything that might come her way. It conveys stability.

And, it repositions negative perceptions of her as a policy wonk into a strength against an incumbent president who many perceive is lacking in preparation and planning.

Do consumers clearly understand what your brand is about? Can they regurgitate it back to you?

Could Elizabeth Warren have changed the narrative from “Oh, Elizabeth Warren – she’s that know-it-all” to “Oh, Elizabeth Warren, she’s the one with a plan for everything” without a simple slogan like “She’s got a Plan for that”?

In what ways can you simplify your messaging so consumers can easily describe what you stand for?

  1. SHE’S MASTERED THE ART OF SOCIAL MEDIA AMPLIFICATION

Have you heard of “The Selfie Line” yet? At a rally last week in New York, Warren hung around for four hours after her speech to take a picture with anyone who was interested. The campaign estimates that over 60,000 pictures have been taken. And it isn’t some website you have to visit to get the pics. You get it taken on your phone. Within minutes, rally attendees are posting their photos with a presidential candidate all over social media. Their friends, of course, like and share it.

Now, every campaign manager knows paid social media advertising is an integral part of a strategy. Meanwhile, here’s Elizabeth Warren spending a few hours meeting fans and hearing feedback, while racking up organic social media exposure worth far more than any paid campaign. She decided to ditch the traditional “rope line” at campaign stops for something more intimate.

As noted in #1 above, what better way to shed an image of being detached, cold and stand-offish than by hanging around for hours to take photos with everyone that wants one?

Your brand, too, has fans and potential fans. Do you have a “rope” between you and your fans? What can you do to create more intimacy and generate more buzz?

As the U.S. presidential election season continues, we’ll surely find other examples of impressive branding and content strategy. If there’s one thing we can count on between now and next November, it’s that anything can happen.

 

 

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10 Quotes from 100 Blogs

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Tuesdays With Coleman

On October 10, 2017, we started our Tuesdays With Coleman blog series as a way to share branding, content and research strategy. Last week’s entry, “Seven Solutions for the Podcasting Brand Challenge,” was the final of three consecutive blogs about podcasting, centered around the increasingly popular Podcast Movement conference in Orlando.

It was also our 100th Tuesdays With Coleman blog.

We love a good benchmark, and 100 blogs feels like an opportunity to look back and mine some nuggets from the past couple of years. Since 100 quotes seems excessive, here are 10, curated from a wide range of topics, strategic advice and members of our team.

“We sometimes get too close to the product for our own good, and are unable to see it through the lens of our customers.”

Warren Kurtzman, in “Is Inside Thinking Blurring Your Strategic Vision?” explains the Coleman Insights principle of Outside Thinking and how to achieve results by changing your mindset.

“If Bill Belichick showed up to a station remote, what would he think of a station banner hastily hung behind a bored jock eating a cheeseburger?”

One of our most-read blogs, “What if Bill Belichick Programmed Your Radio Station?” features Jon Coleman imagining New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick as a radio station program director.

“We’ve all become so hyper-focused on the now, the instant gratification of numbers, that it is easy to take your eye off the big picture.”

After attending a talk by marketer Seth Godin, I wrote “Direct Marketing Is Easy. Brand Marketing is Hard” to reinforce the value of brand marketing, despite its lack of trackability.

Seth Godin Internet Summit

Marketing expert Seth Godin

“The Trader Joe’s lesson is that you beat a leader not by being better. You win by finding the inherent weakness in their strength and creating your points of differentiation.”

In “The Branding Genius of Trader Joe’s,” Sam Milkman explores why Trader Joe’s is so profitable in an industry with traditionally low margins and how to apply the lessons to your brand.

Trader Joe's Hawaiian Shirts

“TV is looking for talent in new places and banking on that talent. Why can’t radio?”

In “When it’s Time to Hunt (for Talent), Go Outside,” Jessica Lichtenfeld makes the case that radio should look outside the industry to find fresh, new, memorable stars for the medium.

 

“Don’t confuse the lack of 90s music exposure with the desire for hearing 90s music.”

In “The 90s Music Research Conundrum,” John Boyne explains how compatibility, not appeal, influences 90s airplay on many Adult Contemporary and Classic Hits stations.

 

“It’s possible while you’re programming on intuition alone, your competition is making data-influenced decisions.”

In “How Research Won The Super Bowl,” Sam Milkman debunks the myth that Philadelphia Eagles head coach Doug Pederson was a crazy risk-taker in winning the 2018 Super Bowl, when in fact he used a combination of research and instinct to take down the Patriots.

“There are a few iconic brands in every category and there isn’t much changing going on.”

In “Don’t Change Your Radio Station,” I explain how the instinct to “freshen things up” can be detrimental to brand growth.

 

“Chipotle doesn’t sell pancakes. Hip Hop stations don’t play Taylor Swift.”

In “Should I Play That Song On My Radio Station,” Jon Coleman warns that playing popular songs or even songs that test strongly on your station that don’t fit your brand is a slippery slope.

 

“The ultimate success of the industry will depend on its ability to build brands.”

Warren Kurtzman, in “Joe Rogan and the Podcasting Brand Challenge,” writes that while producing great content is very important, listeners won’t discover it if the brand isn’t strong.

Thanks for reading Tuesdays With Coleman. If you haven’t yet subscribed, we invite you to do so. If you have an idea for a topic you’d like us to cover, feel free to reply and let us know. It may just show up in one of the next 100 blogs.

 

 

 

 

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Media is for Branding, not Commoditizing

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Tuesdays With Coleman

I spotted a billboard this past week for a cable company that claims you can run a TV campaign for as low as $250.

For less than half the price of a Toro lawn mower, you too can run a TV campaign!

Would you rather have a Kenmore Elite vacuum cleaner?

Or a TV campaign for your business??

Because they’re both the same price!!!

Kenmore Elite 31150 vacuum cleaner

You can buy a TV campaign for $250, but it won’t pick up pet hair like this baby

I’m comparing the $250 TV campaign to household items because claiming you can have a television campaign for 250 bucks on a billboard immediately turns television advertising into a commodity.

Is that really a good idea?

The campaign may get the desired results for the cable company. If sales volume is the goal, then on paper, attracting a bunch of new clients that wouldn’t have otherwise spent money seems like a good idea.

Plus, it’s on a DIY platform of sorts, where clients can build their own schedules and even create the spot online. Great!

Anyone out there think a business can run a successful TV campaign for $250? Click below for the answer.

OK, fine. For the sake of argument, let’s just pretend a business can run a branding or tactical campaign the client will consider a success for $250.

Is that really how we should be selling the value of television advertising?

Every form of media advertising has the potential to be wildly effective, with the right message and delivery.

But it should never be treated as a commodity.

At Coleman Insights, we help media properties build strong, long-lasting brands that listeners keep coming back to because the brand means something important to them.

They’re not thought of as commodities.

It’s natural in the face of increased competition to want to find a way to win at any cost—but selling TV campaigns for $250 can only devalue the product.

Not to mention that it puts the focus on the price, not the results.

As I wrote back in December’s “Direct Marketing Is Easy. Brand Marketing is Hard,” brand marketing takes patience and discipline. It is a marathon, not a sprint. Just as programmers carefully craft the positioning of their radio stations based on strategic research to give them the greatest chance of success, sales teams carefully craft campaigns and schedules designed to yield the greatest returns over time for their clients.

Our work is all about increasing the perceived value of media brands. We encourage the sales departments of those brands to engage in the same mission.

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4 Lessons From the Last Blockbuster Video

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Tuesdays With Coleman

There is no reason why a Blockbuster Video should still be in business.

But in fact, there are quite a few reasons it is.

And when you’re the last one standing in a business segment that many might perceive is from the Mesozoic era, it’s probably a good exercise to ask the obvious question…

How is the last Blockbuster still in business, and what can I learn from it?

The last Blockbuster Video on Earth is in Bend, Oregon—population 94,520.

No kidding, if you go to Blockbuster.com, there is a link that says, “Blockbuster Store Location” that pops up with only the Bend store.

Just 15 years ago, there were 9,000 Blockbusters on Earth, and generally speaking, we all know what went wrong.

Blockbuster missed the move to DVD-by-mail (it even passed up the chance to buy Netflix for $50 million in 2000. Oops). Blockbuster missed the move to DVD in a box (Redbox). It missed the move to streaming. And, perhaps the biggest self-inflicted wound was the dreaded customer-service killing late fee.

So, we know why Blockbuster closed. What’s the last one doing open?

Is it because Bend is such a small town? Doesn’t hold water. Bend is a Nielsen rated market (#196), and what about all the smaller areas that had Blockbusters?

Is it because Bend doesn’t have high speed internet? No. It does.

Well, what? What is it then??

LESSON 1: Promote what differentiates you

When you walk into the last Blockbuster on Earth, the employees wear gear and they sell t-shirts that scream, “Last Blockbuster in America!”. You can buy a “Last Blockbuster” sticker for $2.

It could very easily just be the last Blockbuster on the planet and not tell anyone about it. But what’s the fun in that?

Media brands make subtle changes to their strategies and hope the audience notices. Or, the positioning doesn’t cut through. That’s not how you build an image.

A great exercise for any brand is to think about what truly makes it different. Why consumers choose it over other brands. You may find it’s not what you’re promoting now.

Once you determine what that differentiator is, you hammer it like you’re the last Blockbuster on Earth.

LESSON 2: Use memories and nostalgia

A man drove 1,000 miles to the last Blockbuster because, he said, he “just wanted to relive [his] childhood”.

Its social media is littered with photos of customers taking pictures of themselves at the last Blockbuster on Earth.

Blockbuster brings back memories.

You know what else brings back memories? Music. Funny, radio can be pretty good at capitalizing on emotion too when it remembers to tap into it.

LESSON 3: Make your brand easy to use

We’ve covered the paradox of choice too many times to count in this blog. Today’s consumers are overwhelmed with choices and “subscription fatigue”. A customer at the last Blockbuster on Earth compares Netflix to a dating app. “You’re on it for hours, it’s almost overwhelming.”

No, it is overwhelming.

Customers appreciate the incredible customer service and recommendations provided by the staff at the last Blockbuster on Earth.

Radio is free and already curated. Make the listening experience as easy, painless and personal as possible.

LESSON 4: Make it a fun place to work

When I was a radio program director, you could always tell which station in the cluster was mine. The studio of the last station I programmed was the one with the inflatable couch and the autographs of the station’s celebrity guests on the orange wall that the air staff painted on a Saturday while listening to the new Kings of Leon on repeat.

Just as listeners can tell if your team is having fun, so can customers of every business.

The employees at the last Blockbuster on Earth clearly love working there.

There are pictures of them through the years in the owner’s office.

They write handwritten notes, have been known to offer home delivery, and host movie trivia nights and movie dance parties.

If the last Blockbuster on Earth can thrive, your radio station can too.

Just run it like it’s the last Blockbuster on Earth, and you’ll be just fine.

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The Palessi Brand Fit Lesson for Radio

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Do listeners visit your radio station or podcast for the product or the brand?

While you chew on that, let’s visit the story of Palessi.

A couple of weeks ago, Payless ShoeSource opened a pop-up boutique store at a former Armani location in Santa Monica. The company invited groups of upscale fashion gurus and social media influencers to a grand opening event, complete with gold mannequins, soft lighting and models. The name of this new store?

Palessi.

And so, this fashionable, trendy new brand in town brought in their target crowd where they could get a good look at the merchandise.

The customers loved what they saw. Influencers used words like “elegant,” “classy” and “sophisticated” to describe the shoes, which attendees guessed cost between $400 and $600.

The shoes were from Payless. Actual retail price? $19.99 to $39.99.

The stunt brought the Payless brand a great deal of publicity, but perhaps more important is the larger branding lesson.

Would it have worked if the store was opened, same mannequins, same lighting, same models, same pricing….using the name Payless?

Would it have worked if the store was opened, same mannequins, same lighting, same models, same pricing….using a line extension? Like Payless Premium?

Of course it would not have, because fashionistas have a preconceived notion of what Payless Shoe Source is and it is not for them. It is not a brand match.

But what about the product? Could Palessi have gotten away with selling $20 shoes for $400?

For a short time, yes – while the store’s newness had a halo effect and word spread about how cool it was.

But before too long, the inferior quality of the shoes would probably have become apparent. Straps would fall off and soles would start wearing out long before they ought to for shoes that cost $400.

In a different decade, this ruse could have played out a little longer but not today. The Google reviews would be vicious, Instagram would be littered with photos of the disintegrated shoes, and someone would make a video outing the store for selling $20 shoes for $400 that would go viral. Then TMZ would show up, and well…you know the rest.

Back to the original question.

Do listeners visit your radio station or podcast for the product or the brand?

It is the brand that brings your listeners in – just as Palessi brought its customers in. It is the product that keeps them there. If your product is misaligned to the brand – as Palessi’s was – you will ultimately pay the price.

 

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International House Of Branding Bewilderment

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Tuesdays With Coleman

International House of Burgers. Not Breakfast. Not even Brunch. Burgers.

If you were able to tear yourself away from Singapore this past week and pay attention to something with slightly lower stakes, you’ve seen and/or heard about IHOP’s total branding switch to IHOb. No longer the place we think of when it’s 2am and we want some pancakes. Now IHOP wants us to think of them for… burgers.

IHOP becomes IHOb

National—nay, global—reaction has been pretty harsh, though bewildered might be a better word for it. Wendy’s used its stealthily snarky Twitter account to raise its proverbial eyebrows. Those of us who work with brands and branding for a living raised our actual eyebrows.

Back in March, our president, Warren Kurtzman, wrote in this blog about how restaurants can make changes while still staying true to their brand identities. It is similar to the way we encourage radio stations to keep their base music positions in mind when they want to make changes. When developing images, we believe a brand’s base position is most important, as indicated in our Image PyramidSM  below.

Coleman Insights Image Pyramid

Making changes to your brand is nuanced and not without its challenges, but it can certainly be done. And I can kind of understand why IHOP was feeling a bit old and tired and wanted to make a change. Pancakes aren’t exactly hip these days.

This change, however, boggles many minds. There are a couple of reasons why this has raised so many questions, both to the branding community and the general public:

First: It’s too abrupt. Start with more… burger promotion, if you will. IHOP has served burgers for years (don’t they have a pretty good tuna melt, too?), so promoting those instead of the Rooty Tooty Fresh ‘n’ Fruity might have made a welcome change. It would have allowed customers to remember that oh yeah, IHOP isn’t ONLY for pancakes. But they can still get their short stacks if they want them.

Second: The rollout isn’t complete. In the screenshot of the website on this page, the URL still reads “ihop”, and that tab on the top? “Pancakes, Pancakes, Pancakes.” Now, the company has since said this is simply a temporary stunt and wasn’t intended to stick. But then, why change the company’s Twitter handle? Why plan to use the name in promotions all summer? It’s just clunky. Either go all in with a re-brand, or run a well-thought-out promotion focusing on the burgers you already serve.

Third: It simply doesn’t make sense and it’s not true to the essence of the brand.

Let me elaborate on that one. In a few past lives, I’ve done a lot of work studying Millennials and how they operate. The one word that always comes up is “authenticity.” Millennials are very sharp and aware when someone or something isn’t authentic. This does not mean that a brand can never adjust or change, nor does it mean that Millennials expect products and brands to always “behave” the same way. What they’re looking for—what even we older-than-Millennials are looking for—is a brand that remains true to itself and doesn’t try too hard to appeal to some suddenly desirable yet different demographic. If Old Navy changed its name to Young Navy and stopped selling cheap jeans, that would be inauthentic. If Whole Foods started selling Heinz ketchup, that would be inauthentic, but if it started carrying a line of Heinz Organic Limited Edition ketchup, that would be more true to the Whole Foods brand. And customers are smart. They know when a brand is trying to be “too cool for school.” They especially know when a brand is turning its back on its base.

IHOP (oy, “IHOb”) is trying to be too cool for school. What is so wrong with pancakes? That’s what you’ve been known for since… well, forever. And even if pancakes aren’t chic or fashionable, being the International House of Pancakes makes you different from Applebee’s or Chili’s or Bob’s Big Boy.

Go ahead and promote your burgers. But please, don’t do it at the expense of your awesome, strong, iconic brand. As we like to say here at Coleman Insights, your base position is the core of your brand, and you should always be true to it.

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Identify A Need And Fill It

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Is your radio station filling a need? Many brands that identified the needs of their customers and then served those needs are finding great success.

Do you remember the term, “Bankers’ Hours”?

Bankers' Hours

Not often heard in the lexicon anymore, this referred to a short working day because banks were traditionally open to the public from about 9am-2pm.

The banking industry has gone through enough disruption to minimize the once common usage of the term, “Bankers’ Hours”. Adoption of online banking means you’re not limited to managing your accounts during the typical 9-5 workday. Many banks offer extended hours—some, like Coastal Federal Credit Union, use centralized tellers to offer services 7 days a week into the evening.

As the saying goes, the only constant is change. If you can identify something that needs changing based on negative perception and you fill that need, positive results could be on the horizon.

You know the feeling of calling a technician when your heating or AC goes out? You know, with certainty, that the company is going to try to sell you a new unit.

So, what if the company didn’t sell furnaces or air conditioners?

6 & Fix

6 & Fix addresses two issues in the HVAC industry. One, they only service the unit—so they build the perception that they will do everything in their power to fix it with no upsell. Second, if you call before 6pm, they guarantee service the same day. Trust and convenience.

Getting a flu shot can be a hassle, especially if you have to make an appointment with your primary care physician.

Now you can walk into most pharmacies, get the shot (usually without much wait) and even pick up some Benadryl and a bag of gummy bears if you’re so inclined.

CVS took it to the next level with their in-store “Minute Clinic”, offering everything from physicals to B12 injections.

CVS Minute Clinic

Dollar Shave Club identified a need for cheaper, quality razors.

Uber identified a need for a better taxi.

We work with a great many successful radio stations that utilize research and strategic insights to identify listener needs.

When you know what listeners want and what lane is available, the strategic plan and path to success becomes crystal clear.

Identify a need and fill it.

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The Branding Genius Of Trader Joe’s

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Tuesdays With Coleman

Trader Joe’s has a distinct and defined image in a very crowded, competitive grocery space. While most grocery market chains struggle to eke out very small margins, Trader Joe’s profits soar.

How do they do it? Let me count the ways.

IT’S FUN.

A grocery store? Fun?

Trader Joe's Hawaiian Shirts

It’s true, it’s hard not to smile in Trader Joe’s. There’s the quirky music selection playing overhead (think “More Bounce to the Ounce” by Zapp and Roger into “Alive and Kicking” by Simple Minds). The freshly cooked free samples at the back of the store no matter what time you’re there. The employee walking around with the wacky giant question mark available to answer questions. The Hawaiian shirts. The stuffed animal always hidden somewhere in the store for kids to find.

IT’S SMALL.

Read: focused. Far easier to navigate than most supermarkets, yet vastly wider selections than your typical small grocery store. We’ve blogged a few times on the tyranny of choice. Rather than presenting a benefit to the consumer, too much choice and selection often creates nothing more than stress. At Trader Joe’s, you know where everything is and can generally get in and out quickly.

IT’S SYNONYMOUS WITH QUALITY.

I don’t usually buy generic brands. I like Heinz ketchup, French’s mustard and Vlassic pickles. In the typical grocery store, I completely ignore the generic brands for products like these. Piggly Wiggly ketchup? No thank you. I wouldn’t even want to think about where it may have come from.

But Trader Joe’s brands? A totally different story. You trust them—they did their homework and found a better pickle. Trader Joe’s made their generic brands cool, because they made their brand cool.

Trader Joe's Ketchup-Mustard-Relish

THEY READ RIES & TROUT’S MARKETING WARFARE AND LEARNED TO PLAY GOOD OFFENSE.

Rather than being just like Whole Foods, the leader in the healthy, gourmet grocery category, Trader Joe’s found the “weakness in their strength” and attacked it.  Where Whole Foods takes itself very seriously to the point of being stuffy, Trader Joe’s is fun and whimsical. Whole Foods is expensive. Trader Joe’s is gourmet on the cheap. Whole Foods’ color is green. Trader Joe’s is red. As marketing/positioning experts Al Ries and Jack Trout might say, Whole Foods as the category leader is playing a perfect game of defense, while Trader Joe’s as a challenger is playing a perfect game of offense—which isn’t being better than the category leader, it’s taking a different approach than the category leader.

Trader Joe’s isn’t that different from Whole Foods when it comes to the products it stocks. No Trader Joe’s branded products have high fructose corn syrup or GMOs, and their seafood comes from sustainable sources. It’s just that everything else around it is the opposite.

Radio stations find themselves in battles with format competitors every day. It is easy to get caught up in thinking only in granular terms. We both play 80s music, but we’ll do it better than them. We both have big ensemble morning shows, but ours will be funnier than theirs. We both have big contests, but we’ll give away more money or tickets to hotter shows.

The Trader Joe’s lesson is that you beat a leader not by being better. You win by finding the inherent weakness in their strength and creating your points of differentiation. Some of the most successful brands are categories in and of themselves.

Do your research. Find your lane. Define your base position, then create brand depth.

Just don’t wear Hawaiian shirts and ring bells. That position’s already taken.

 

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Why Toys “R” Us Is Closing

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Tuesdays With Coleman

“Digital photography killed Kodak’s business.”

“Netflix put Blockbuster out of business.”

“Amazon put Toys “R” Us out of business.”

When an iconic brand goes under, the blame game always commences.

The truth is, Amazon didn’t put Toys “R” Us out of business. Neither did Target or Wal-Mart.

Toys “R” Us put Toys “R” Us out of business.

My colleague Warren Kurtzman wrote last week about how essential it is for every brand to have a clearly defined base position. But is that enough?

What’s a better base position than “the photography company”? Or “the movie store”? Or “the toy store”?

Kodak, Blockbuster and Toys “R” Us didn’t just have strong positions in their categories, they owned the dominant positions. The problem is, each of these brands lacked positive brand depth beyond their base positions.

An engineer at Kodak actually invented digital photography. In 1975. Navigating the consumer through the digital space using the brand equity of Kodak moments would have been a perfect and natural complement to its base position. Unfortunately, Kodak couldn’t see beyond its history as a film company, and competitors swooped in.

Blockbuster had an incredible, dominating base position. Unfortunately, it had negative brand depth in the form of late fees, which left it vulnerable. By the time Blockbuster removed late fees, it was too late.

If Blockbuster had entered the DVD-by-mail category or streaming category first, the company would quite likely still be around. Blockbuster had the chance to buy Netflix in the early 2000s for $50 million.  Today Netflix is valued over $100 billion, worth more than every media company that’s not named Disney.

Would Netflix have had that growth under the leadership of Blockbuster? Probably not, and that’s the point.

Netflix started as a DVD-by-mail company, but its base position centered around convenient entertainment delivery. All the moves and innovations Netflix has made, including doubling down on streaming and adding original programming, has been complementary to its base position. Netflix added brand depth.

Amazon online bookstore

Amazon started out as an online bookstore that became an online marketplace. Its moves and innovations, including ease of app use, marketing automation, customer service and free two-day delivery, have all supported its base position as an online delivery service.

Toys “R” Us had an enviable base position and an emotional connection to legions of children who wanted to be Toys “R” Us kids.

Where did the emotional connection go?

Although the road would have been challenging, Toys “R” Us could have added brand depth to its base position. It may have been through incredible marketing automation techniques (like Amazon and Starbucks) or hiring an ace social media manager (like Wendy’s). It could have been a research program that let kids test toys. It may have been partnerships with kids’ museums around the country.

Not to say any of those ideas would have definitely worked, but Toys “R” Us needed to try long before Amazon posed a significant threat.

Integrating Babies “R” Us into Toys “R” Us stores was definitely not the answer–it detracted focus from its own brand.

Last year, Toys “R” Us CEO David Brandon said the chain hoped to add playrooms where kids could try out toys and spaces for birthday parties.

Unfortunately, they never got the chance to give them a shot.

When we work with radio stations, we illustrate the base position on our Image Pyramid, but also explain the perils of a misguided Image Pyramid–which is what Kodak, Blockbuster, and Toys “R” Us all ran into.

Coleman Insights Image Pyramid

Clearly define your base position. Once you do, never stop adding brand depth.