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Tag Archives: branding
Ask Sig: “Radar Eating”
Q. Dear Sig,
I am in charge of a group of brands for a large maker of snack foods, including a brand of popcorn. A fascinating article I’ve just read discussed the different motivations behind eating, but used an unfamiliar term. Can you explain “radar eating” in more detail?
Sincerely,
Curious in Chicago
A. Dear Curious,
How fascinating and technological are today’s contemporary terms! Radar – as any competent schüler knows – is an American acronym for “radio detection and ranging,” introduced by the U.S. Navy in 1940. Eating isn’t just for nutrition and hunger; the radar metaphor is apt when eating is used as a tool for “forward movement” amid other activity. Allow me to explain.
Whats Does Your Brand Stand for?
Understanding Brand Architecture
By Brian Sowers
UNRAVEL THE MYSTERY
Do you know what your brand stands for in the eyes of your customers? How does your current product portfolio support the master brand? Is your brand’s meaning and purpose still relevant in an increasingly competitive marketplace? If the answer to any of these questions elicits an “I don’t know” response, an examination of your brand architecture is in order.
Having well-defined brand architecture is a critical component of an effective marketing strategy, as it provides the structure for leveraging strong brands, assimilating acquired products, and successfully launching new products.
In developing cohesive brand architecture it is important to follow three steps:
- Determine what the master brand stands for
- Assess how well current products fit into and support the master brand
- Understand how far the master brand can be stretched with new product introductions
Ask Sig: Noogies Over Nougat
Sig,
It is difficult to market a snack food that, while delicious, is not particularly healthy. I’m fighting significant trends; there simply aren’t enough people open to a product of this sort. What’s an appropriate product benefit when today’s parents won’t give their kids this sort of thing?
Thanks for reading,
Getting Noogies Over Nougat
Dear Getting Noogies Over Nougat,
Ah, reader. Your letter reminds me of my grandmother’s marzipan, which she pressed into large pans to let cool on the window sills of her farmhouse in Pribor. The aroma was so wonderful it made the Yellowhamers sing! One can only hope that your product is a lovely marzipan?
But your question is also important! Consider for a moment my neighbor at #17 Bergasse, Otto, who is somewhat portly. He enjoys ale and a good Kaisersemmel roll, and even if he gets them at Franziskanerplatz Kleine Café around the corner, he prefers to take a carriage than to walk. Otto is not what one would call spry.
Positioning for Motivational Impact: Does My Brand’s Difference Matter?
By Jeremy Pincus, Ph.D. and Amit Ghosh
A Brief History Of Positioning
In earliest advertising, the goal of communicating to the consumer was to convey factual ideas about a product or service to promote its unique features and benefits. The logic of this traditional strategy was well expressed in Rosser Reeves’ (1961) famous unique selling proposition (e.g., “melts in your mouth, not in your hand”).
But this approach only works well when something factual about one’s product is truly new and unique. As more and more products entered into the market to make purely factual distinctiveness less and less obtainable, Ries and Trout (1972) developed the concept of “Positioning”, arguing that marketing should stake a unique position in the minds of consumers. The focus of communication under positioning theory became a psychological one, with an emphasis not just on reality, but on perception of reality.
Over 80 percent of new product launches in the last five years consisted of “new and improved” brand extensions, and the majority of these failed.
Success in today’s marketplace requires positioning skills of Olympian proportion.
Research ON Research: Rating 2 Brands at Once
A Time Saver or A Waste of Data?
Background:
There may be time saved by asking a respondent to move through an attribute battery in an online survey j
ust once and rate two brands – rather than rate a single brand, item-by-item, only to go through the battery again to rate a second brand. However, could this slightly more time consuming method yield richer data?
Research Method:
Using standard security screening and a demographically representative online panel, 1,250 respondents, at least partly responsible for household shopping decisions, answered questions about sports drinks. About equal numbers of respondents rated a pair of brands one at a time (n=580) or both at
once (n=586) on 28 attributes. For each attribute, the average gap between ratings when brands were rated one at a time was tested for a significant difference against when brands were rated both at once.
