Attend the CPG Forecasting & Planning Summit, and use the exclusive discount code: CPG20 to qualify for 20% on published summit prices!

View the schedule.

Wondering what to expect? Check out a previous CPG presentation by Stanley Black & Decker: Rapid Supply Chain Assessment in Collaboration.

Confirmed speakers include:

• Chief Financial Officer, Marc Fisher Footwear
• Vice President, West Lac Supply Chain, Diageo
• Director, FP&A, Merisant
• Manager, FP&A, Dr Pepper Snapple Group
• Vice President, Supply Chain, Ariens Co.
• Director, Sales Finance, PepsiCo
• Director, Supply Chain, Chamberlain Group
• CFO, California Olive Ranch
• Vice President, Finance, Dean Foods
• Director, Global Supply Chain, Energizer
• Director, Global FP&A, Newell Rubbermaid
• Senior Director, Supply Chain, Philips
• & many more…

If you are interested in attending this exclusive two day summit please reach out to Zain Yasin at zyasin@theiegroup.com (+1 415 992 5352), alternatively you can secure your pass here.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank the Innovation Enterprise for partnering with us and enabling us to provide you with this discounted offer to attend the CPG Forecasting & Planning Summit.

Join Stephen and Scott for a live training session specifically for executives and innovation leaders who are:

• Disappointed with the lack of innovation ROI within their organization
• Struggling with what to do with “great” isn’t good enough to grow the business
• Unsure of how to create a culture of innovation

Innovation is not about new products, new services, or new processes. It’s about changing your organization on a predictable and repeatable basis.

It’s not about one change.

It’s about ongoing change.

Why does this matter?

Because today’s competitive battles are won by creating innovations downstream that reduce cost, reduce risk, and shape customer’s perceptions. You must innovate where you differentiate.

2-Minute Overview of the Event

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Additional Details and Registration

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It wasn’t all that long ago that the only way to reach a large number of potential customers was through the medium of advertising on billboards, in the press and on television. Then, it made sense that advertising was king and the brand was, …well just the company name or the box a product came in!

But all that has changed. The wider distribution of cable TV and niche programming, the coming of the internet with it’s open access to information and more importantly the enormous rise of retail, and with it, access to choice and purchasing power. All these changes that have happened in the intervening years, have all come together to create a shift in power from manufacturers to consumers.

Because of the growth of all these influences, and because consumers are now much more informed, or at least have more access to information, advertising has changed, and is now much more subtle and diversified than ever before, blurring the distinction between what used to be ‘above’ or ‘below the line’. Brand design, on the other hand, has been like a shooting star, seeing it’s importance to brands and branding climb to dizzy heights, recognised by all to be the bright and dazzling way of the future.

Brand design brings brands closer to consumers, it’s brand design that builds company or product notoriety and has even been responsible for changing the way companies now operate. In our modern world, companies are now evaluated by the power of their brand or brands, and are bought and sold, not to expand production facilities, but to complete or expand their brand portfolios and market presence. In fact, more and more, we see that brand companies don’t actually manufacture at all and that in some cases the product is actually irrelevant!

Behind this expansion of the power of the brand and with it, brand design, there grew an entire new creative industry, some might say ‘cottage industry’, because in the beginning, most of the design companies were set up, by talented individuals who created ‘small teams’ of highly creative people. However looking back, we can see now that these ‘small teams’ had an influence that far outweighed their size, for there is no doubt that these ‘small teams’ became in a large part responsible for the growth of brands and the expansion of many of the worlds largest companies that we see today.

In time, the influence of the brand design companies expanded even further, and the strategic thinking and brand development tasks, previously in the hands of the advertising agency, shifted to the design companies, and with this shift, the design companies began to include marketing, research and strategic thinking departments into their offer, thereby capturing an even larger part of what used to be the advertisers territory.

But, just like any shooting star, the brand design company’s meteoric rise wasn’t going to last!

Advertising agencies were, and remain, rich and powerful, with their large functioning offices throughout the world, whilst their clients, ‘the brand companies’, became truly international with global aims, global strategies and global needs. Whereas, apart from a few exceptions, the now aging founders of the ‘cottage industry’ that was brand design found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time, thinking and acting local when the world of brands had become global!

In this brave new world, the needs of the brand companies had changed and the advertising agencies were there with the infrastructure that the brands needed, and if they didn’t have the brand design expertise any more in-house? ……well, no problem, they had the money to buy up the best design companies and with them, all the expertise they needed. This is just what they did!

So, does this mean the end for design companies as we know them?

I suppose the answer is yes and no! Clearly, there is no going back to the way things were in the dizzy heights of the past. What we are seeing today is a polarisation of the design industry, with, on the one hand, the bigger, ‘advertising agency owned’, design companies expanding to deliver the needs of their global clients, and on the other hand, the smaller, highly creative, design studios acting like ‘squat teams’, successfully intervening when necessary to bring the sharp creative thinking that is so hard to get from larger organisations.

Where the outlook is bleaker, is for the medium sized design companies sitting in the middle, where, just like for the brands themselves, the market is shrinking, or rather migrating to the edges.

The good news is, that the future of brand design itself continues to be as healthy as ever, of that there is no doubt, but the industry is inevitably undergoing a radical change. It seems that we are returning, once again, to the age of the advertising agency, although because of the brief and brilliant rise of the design companies, the shape and the role of advertising has been forever transformed. Now, the advertising agencies find themselves to be the owners of some of the biggest and best design companies of the world, companies they can feed with projects from their advertising clients, and can expand throughout the world to support the global aims and local proximity that their client’s marketing strategies demand. But also, these ‘agency owned’, brand design companies will inevitably change their thinking and change their organisations from within.

However, I still believe there is an important role for the smaller design company, because as we are all aware, ‘innovation rarely comes from the centre’, large corporate companies are just that, ‘large’ slow moving and often managed from high up, far away from the ‘factory floor’. This is where the smaller ‘design squat teams’, can have the advantage, by being highly creative, fast moving, knowledgeable and effective, working close to the market, close to consumers by creating young, dynamic teams of creative people who are in-touch with what’s going on.

Challenging the status-quo and daring to be different is the natural territory of these teams, being ‘ahead of the curve’ even ‘creating the curve’, when necessary – for these creative individuals, there has never been a ‘box’ to think outside of, it’s the larger organisations that create the ‘box’ around themselves.

Rowland Heming © 2012
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Competitor pressures, plummeting sales revenue and outdated marketing strategy are some reasons behind a company’s need to reposition itself and remain financially viable. REBRAND is the leading global resource for case studies on effective brand transformations: the repositioning, revitalizing and redesign of existing brand assets to meet business goals.

Showcased expertise and case studies represent over 36 countries and range from multi-national firms like Unilever, Procter & Gamble, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, Virgin Atlantic, to nonprofit organizations, regional, and local small businesses.

REBRAND has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, CNNMoney, FastCompany, Yahoo! Finance, other publications and various media. The REBRAND 100® Global Awards is the highest recognition for excellence in brand repositioning – and the first and only competition of its kind.

• September 25, 2013 – Entry Deadline Via Electronic Upload Submission
• October 9, 2013 – Late Entry Deadline with Late Fee

Details on the REBRAND website.

In his book Mr. Kahneman uses this study to shed light on peoples’ and organizations’ resistance to change. In essence the book illustrates that change creates winners and losers, and that those who are in a position to lose from change will dig in and fight harder to prevent those losses than the people who stand to gain from change will fight to ensure that the changes succeed.

You can see this dynamic repeatedly played out in corporations, organizations and in general culture. Simply look at the U.S. health care debate, or the Film, Music & Print Publishing industries who are having such difficulty embracing digital distribution platforms. In all cases entrenched parties are fighting feverishly to keep the status quo even in the face of clear need for change.

This is why change is so difficult to enact and why innovation is so hard to come by. It often takes a state where everything is almost lost to create a cataclysm for change. The U.S. auto industry is a testament to that.At some point almost every organization goes through a need for change in order to drive growth and innovation. So how, in the face of an entrenched opposition with biologically induced odds of success, can change be enacted?

The Importance of Apples

Over a decade ago a small group of elderly care professionals wanted to advocate systemic change in nursing home culture. They sought to transform the prevalent attitude of nursing homes as a setting for decline, to a place where the elderly can go to thrive. To do so they needed to shift from a rigid, institutionalized and regulation guided culture to one that was guided by the emotional needs of the patients. It was a shift that required flexibility at the individual home and caretaker level; essentially the direct opposite of rigid, institutionalized and highly regulated.

To enact the envisioned change the group did many tactical things, such as creating a case for adoption, providing a toolkit for execution and developing a resource center for education. However, the most transformative weapon the group leveraged was the ability to change the stories of the culture.

Margaret Thacker worked at a nursing home where one Monday morning someone delivered a bushel of apples to her doorstep. Thinking of the new culture her mind turned over all of the activities, from applesauce to apple pie, that these apples could provide as a way to enhance the daily routine of her residents.Upon bringing the apples into the home, the entrenched regulation driven culture quickly became apparent when Margaret was told that she couldn’t use the apples because they weren’t FDA approved. So there the apples sat until a few days later, when a group of executives from corporate visited the home to review progress against the new cultural initiative.

By all appearances the home resembled how the culture should look based on the suggestions in the toolkit, but had the approach changed to match the appearance? The bushel of apples said it hadn’t.After the meetings concluded the Corporate Director of Dining Services, upon seeing the bushel, inquired about whether there were some “apple activities” planned for the week. In response Margaret said that there weren’t since the apples lacked the necessary FDA approval. Historically the conversation would have concluded, but in the spirit of the new culture the Director took an apple out of the basket, washed it, and in taking a bite exclaimed that they seemed like perfectly good apples to her, perfect for cooking and eating.

With that simple gesture the power of entrenched thought was cracked and the story that went through the organization of why apples couldn’t be used due to FDA regulations was transformed into stories about all of the positive activity generated by a bushel of apples. If you change the stories that are told within a culture then the culture itself changes. It’s apple seed innovation.

As someone with a particular interest in building tough, resilient brands of the future, I’m always curious how big companies keep their innovation, well, innovative.

After all, innovation tends to thrive in open, collaborative environments where failure is welcomed and old ideas can be jettisoned. Not what you find in your typical multinational.

So when I was introduced to Volker Schaedler as a preamble to the 2012 Sustainable Brands conference, I sat up. Schaedler is head of innovation and technology for BASF North America. What did the chemistry giant have to say about innovation and sustainability that would warrant a keynote at SB 2012?

Turns out, the chemistry Schaedler wanted to talk about was not of the molecular sort.

Diverse People, Diverse Results

Schaedler is a chemist who never lost his passion. “I still love the new, unexpected results that can come from blending two seemingly ordinary elements together. It’s what makes chemistry magic.”

That said, he was quick to point out the time of just creating new molecules had passed at BASF. Instead, the company’s focus had shifted to integrating their molecules into smart solutions and bigger systems. That meant partnerships.

“What does our ‘Creating Chemistry’ tagline mean in this context?  That great results are the result of ingenuity on both sides of the table” said Schaedler.

To illustrate, he described a BASF / Daimler partnership on the Smart Car  ‘Smart forvision‘ project that led to – among other things –  heat reflecting paints that reduced the need for air conditioning, transparent solar panel materials for the roof, and all plastic composite wheels.

Even inside the company, the focus is on creating new partnerships in the form of cross-functional, diverse teams. A far cry from the days of chemists in their lab, and all others outside.

Focusing Chemistry On Sustainability Megatrends

Schaedler then described another key element that fostered innovation: focusing on issues that lead to a sustainable future.

BASF has organized its innovators around four key ‘sustainability megatrends’, as Schaedler calls them:

• Energy and resources
• Health and nutrition
• Construction
• Transportation
• Packaging

Grouping technologies around these big challenges doesn’t just provide focus, but it fires up the teams working on them – working for a greater good has proven to be extremely motivating.

Looking Outside

A final point Schaedler made was that ‘game-changing’ innovations were being accelerated through appropriating technology from the outside.

“Make no mistake – we still have massive R&D resources in house. But why would we try to replicate a technology that someone else is willing to share with us?”

Of course, outside partnerships did have their own complications – the sharing of IP, for example. But the benefits of accelerated innovation tended to overshadow these issues.

Lessons

We finished our chat with a conversation on how Sustainable Brands fit into the equation. Not surprisingly, Schaedler was going to the conference to share his story, but also learn from other sustainability leaders (from what I understand, experts from Wal-Mart, Patagonia, Dell and Best Buy are confirmed).

This seemed like a fitting lesson for other innovators. The way to get accelerated thinking was to put yourself into a situation where chemistry happens. Granted, it may not happen with every experiment. But the results at BASF seem to underscore the upside of sticking with it.

A recent story has hit a number of news outlets and got me thinking…

If a relatively inexpensive product and widely-regarded consumer packaged goods brand can be threatened by counterfeiting, what sort of long-term impact might bogus products have on marketing? While misleading claims and fake products may have given rise to modern discipline of branding over the past century, has our industry helped solve the problem or created easy targets for fraud and copyright infringement to run rampant?
Of course knock-offs have are understood to be an ongoing international threat within many luxury and high-priced categories—media products, cigarettes, and even pharmaceuticals, as well as apparel and accessories.

Hey buddy, do you wanna buy a watch?

But if a brand is a promise, what happens when that promise is broken by a third party? Is imitation the most sincere form of flattery, or just the latest (and one of the oldest) threat to marketing?

If Heinz Ketchup is at risk, what steps are you taking to keep pirates and scoundrels from blowing up your brand? Do we need more relation? More technology? More differentiation?

As a side note, the Heinz story appears to be a very isolated incident and has not impacted my opinion of what is perhaps the world’s greatest condiment.*

* The comments and opinions expressed in this discussion are of the individual author and/or members of this group and may not reflect the opinions of the rest of the world. Although many individuals may believe that Heinz Ketchup is in fact the world’s greatest condiment, others may prefer Hunt’s Catsup or even mustard. Hot sauce is also very popular. Regardless, Heinz Ketchup is a staple in my own kitchen and I have been known to exaggerate claims (but never in a misleading or criminal way).

Last week, I delivered a talk on motivating consumers to action. My formula for success boiled down to two simple fundamentals. Understand yourself, and understand your customer.

How hard could this be? There isn’t a brand manager alive who doesn’t understand their brand and target market, right?

Wrong. If my experience working with a spectrum of clients is any indicator, brand managers tend to look at their consumer and brand very rationally, in a way that is easily quantifiable. In the process, they miss is a deeper, more powerful undercurrent.

Understand Your Brand

As Simon Sinek argues, most brands know what they do, and how they do it. But they utterly fail to understand why they exist.

I’ve worked on some of the biggest, most sophisticated brands in the world. Even these guys usually  reflect their reason for existence back onto their consumer: We exist to give moms pride in their home, or We exist to provide you a refreshing pause in the day. Makes for a great tagline, but a lousy reason for existence.

I’m encouraged by the success of purpose-driven companies like Apple and Seventh Generation. Their company was an extension of their founders’ personal beliefs. Steve Jobs wanted to challenge the status quo in everything he did; Jeffrey Hollender wanted to create a world where humans and nature co-existed in harmony.

But what to do in the case of, say, a major label household cleaner? More often than not, the product was created by in-house chemists to fulfill a particular market niche. No personal belief in sight.

Complicating matters is the fact most of these products aren’t branded as extensions of their company. Few consumers know Mr. Clean is Procter, or Vim is Unilever.

But Unilever does seem to be unveiling a strategy to answer this dilemma. The packaged goods giant now ties product to company in advertising – for example, unfurling a small ‘U’ logo flag at the end of commercials. And Unilever the company has an extremely strong corporate belief system, complete with social and environmental platforms that are industry-leading.

Although it’s still more difficult for a Unilever brand manager to connect the dots between their product and their corporate beliefs than, say, a Seventh Generation employee, the giant packaged goods company is closing the product / belief gap.

Understand Your Consumer

It’s no secret consumers are looking for more than products. In fact, the more products are commoditized, the more consumers want brands with congruent beliefs to buy into.

Brands have always been about aligned beliefs, its true. Consumers defined themselves by the brands they kept – I’m a Harley guy, or I’m an Armani woman. These alignments, although heartfelt, seldom went deeper than the message the brands advertised to consumers – the ‘lifestyle’ they promised.

Today, consumers want brands that fulfill deeper emotional needs. Brands that are willing to be transparent and humble. Brands with sincere commitments to the environment, social equity and responsible governance.

This is a far cry from consumer needs just a decade ago. I believe it’s a reflection of the rising insecurities we all confront (I call them the four forces of chaos). And for brands, it means understanding – to paraphrase John Marshall Roberts – your consumer’s worldview as much as their rational, pragmatic needs.

The Intersection: Where Futureproof Brands Are Born

Your brand’s belief system will not align with your consumer’s emotional needs on every point. Even if you love the way Seventh Generation sees the world, chances are you’ll still see plenty of areas of disagreement.

However, if your beliefs are aligned on a few points, those anchors open the doors for a conversation. As Blair Enns says, they are the foundation upon which you inspire the interested.

And as your relationship deepens, these points of alignment can align your brand’s direction with your consumer’s vision of the future. Influencing your direction in areas like innovation.

And building that futureproof brand we all want.

AdAge reports that Australia has ruled in favor of plain packaging requirement across all tobacco brands. Regardless of how you feel about the product, is uniform packaging the end of big tobacco?

If the product becomes stripped of brand equity and visual recognition, is there a need to compensate a company for lost revenue and lower overall brand valuation? What about all that lost tax revenue? What about piracy concerns?

Certainly this will have implication in other countries and regions, but what about other product categories? Are candy bars and fast food next? Is consumer packaged goods branding and packaging a public health concern?

What do you think? Is this the end of branding as we know it?

AdAge Article: Australia Is First Country to Require Plain, Logo-Free Cigarette Packaging

Image courtesy of AdAge and Bloomberg

Competitor pressures, plummeting sales revenue and outdated marketing strategy are some reasons behind a company’s need to reposition itself and remain financially viable. REBRAND is the leading global resource for case studies on effective brand transformations: the repositioning, revitalizing and redesign of existing brand assets to meet business goals.

Showcased expertise and case studies represent over 36 countries and range from multi-national firms like Unilever, Procter & Gamble, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, Virgin Atlantic, to nonprofit organizations, regional, and local small businesses.

REBRAND has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, CNNMoney, FastCompany, Yahoo! Finance, other publications and various media. The REBRAND 100® Global Awards is the highest recognition for excellence in brand repositioning – and the first and only competition of its kind.

• September 26, 2012 – Entry Deadline Via Electronic Upload Submission
• October 10, 2012 – Late Entry Deadline with Late Fee

Details on the REBRAND website.