Category Archives: Thinking Aloud

October 1, 2013 · 9:50 am

Any Road

TunesDay, and today it’s one from my favorite Beatle, George Harrison. I was reminded of this song the other day (listening to Further’s version of it) and I knew instantly it was something for today on the screed.  The song is “Any Road” which was written in the late 1980’s but not released until 2003 after George’s early passing in 2001. In case you’re not familiar with it, have a listen:

This one speaks to me both on a personal level as well as to me as someone who works with businesses.  Let’s see if it does to you as well.

But oooeeee it’s a game
Sometimes you’re cool, sometimes you’re lame
Ah yeah it’s somewhere
And if you don’t know where you’re going
Any road will take you there

That’s sort of it on a personal level.  We all have our ups and downs and probably need to focus more on the journey than on the destination.  I went through school knowing I’d be a high school English teacher.  40 years later, I’m a teacher of a very different sort.  I wasn’t quite sure where I was going (and I’m still a trifle confused) but I’m very happy about the road that took me here.

But oh Lord we pay the price
With the spin of the wheel with the roll of  the dice
Ah yeah, you pay your fare
And if you don’t know where you’re going
Any road will take you there

Thinking about that with respect to business, my immediate response was  “well, that won’t work – businesses need far more focus.”  Then I thought of all the great businesses and products that were born out of not knowing where they were going.  The microwave oven, the Post-It note, penicillin, Teflon, the Slinky and others were all accidents.  The inventors didn’t quite know where they were going but the road took them there.  Today we call it “pivoting” but I like George’s notion of it better.

Maybe that’s the point of the song.  Staying calm and focused despite a sense of not exactly knowing where the journey ends is a far better idea than a stubborn adherence to something that might not be working.  Open minds about destinations can erase doubts since the doubts surface when we’re thinking we’re lost.

What’s your take?

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September 26, 2013 · 10:31 am

What’s In A Name Brand?

How difficult would it be for me to get you to change the brands you use in a number of household categories?

Costco

(Photo credit: coolmikeol)

Would it be hard for me to get you to drop a national or name brand in favor of a store brand?  You know what I mean – Market Pantry (Target), Great Value (Walmart), and Kirkland Signature (Costco) are all brands with which you might be familiar.  They’re generally less expensive although not always – Trader Joe’s and 365 Organic (Whole Foods) are pretty pricey.  The quality is generally very good – as good or better, according to this piece from Consumer Reports.

Why do I bring this up (and it isn’t even Foodie Friday!)?  Because a lot of effort and money goes into branding, mostly spent by the national brands, one would think that there is some sort of clear distinction in consumers’ minds between quality, cost, and the value of those brands.  Not so much:

While more than half of shoppers (54 percent) named quality as their top priority when shopping for everyday products, less than a third said that name brands are better quality or more reliable than private label. However, 56 percent of shoppers have the perception that name brand packaging is more attractive than private label.

That’s from a study conducted by The Integer Group and M/A/R/C Research.  They also found that:

  • Only 29 percent of the survey’s respondents feel strongly that national brands are of better quality, down from 36 percent last year and 43 percent in 2010
  • When asked what types of private label household goods shoppers are okay buying, 66 percent of respondents listed over-the-counter medicine at the top of the list with milk as a close second with 61 percent
  • The least purchased private label category in the study is pet food, with only 18 percent of shoppers saying they would be okay purchasing this as private label
  • Millennials (18-24) are 13 percent more likely than the general population to be increasing their private label brand purchases. Shoppers aged 65 and older are 33 percent more likely to be upping their private label purchases.

It’s way too easy to write this off as a manifestation of the economic times.  Higher prices no longer mean better quality nor does having a national brand name.  It will be interesting to watch how the national brands handle this.  Coupons can reduce the pricing differential but that doesn’t immediately change the preferences of a consumer who now has seen that there isn’t a difference in quality.  National brands can probably do a better job of consumer engagement as well as in partnering with other national brands.  It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

Are you using more store brands?  How can a national brand win you back?

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September 23, 2013 · 10:11 am

Crazy

I like crazy.  Not in the clinical sense since that’s kind of disturbing once you’ve seen it.  I like crazy in a couple of the other senses of the word and I think craziness is actually a desirable characteristic in most businesses.  You might think I’m encouraging strange behavior and wild rants.  I’m not, unless “strange behavior” encompasses pushing back against the status quo.

The Jetson family (clockwise from upper left) ...

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

First, I think our goal in business is to get our customers to be “crazy” about our brands.  That might sound easy but if so, why don’t we see more brands with fan bases as engaged and passionate as that of, say, Apple?  The newest iPhones went on sale to so-so reviews and yet there are lines to buy them.  Apple fans are so crazy for the brand that competitors make commercials about it.   That’s the kind of crazy we want.

Second, most of us are very afraid of the crazy idea.  We use crazy as a pejorative.  That’s…crazy!  All great ideas began as someone’s crazy concept.  Put a human on the moon.  Humans flying.  Driverless cars.  When I was  kid watching the Jetsons, that was all just someone’s crazy imagination.  Today, it’s reality for the most part.  What slows us down as businesses is resistance to the crazy idea, not the idea itself.  Look at the what the music business went through as digital emerged.  Had they embraced the crazy idea of separating songs from albums and distributing the product digitally they would have prevented years of piracy, the need to sue their customers (now THAT’S crazy), and lost revenues.

Finally, there are the offshoots of crazy – crazy like a fox – or crazy as a word to add positive emphasis – crazy smart.  Personally, I’m a fan of what others might call “crazy talk” – what Steve Jobs was referring to when he talked about those who push the human race forward.   “While some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.”

So call me crazy, but I’m with him.  You?

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