Metz, The Social Concept

Why Your Brand Is Not Lady Gaga

January 28, 2010

It’s understandable.

Lady Gaga is probably the biggest, most individual pop star in a generation (previous reference points are Prince, Madonna and Bowie). Maybe your brand has some good qualities, and wants to be like her. Maybe your brand is not selling any kind of “cool,” and doesn’t really care. Maybe your customers would be offended and confused if you constantly reinvented and innovated, like a mercurial rock star.

It works for some brands (Apple, Nike), but it doesn’t work for others. Here’s why it works, or doesn’t.

Reinvention
Your brand isn’t willing to reinvent itself every six months, for three to five years, back-to-back. Think Thin White Duke .

Risks
The brand isn’t willing to take risks, for fear that customers will be confused, and will divest.

*Storytelling props *
Your tells a story, but it’s your story, and not the story of your customers. Your “props” don’t lead the “props” your customers use.

Choosing Your Customers
Lady Gaga embraced her bisexuality, publicly, from Day One. Obviously, she didn’t want to make music for people that aren’t comfortable with this. Does your brand specifically state who you’re not interested in serving?

Hooks
Your brand writes songs and jingles that are not cool, funny or memorable.

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Walgreens Prepping To Compete With Big Grocery Stores, Sell Fresh Food

January 26, 2010

According to Bloomberg, it looks like Walgreen Co. is chatting up food manufacturers like Unilever, Nestle
and Sara Lee – to white-label and also sell at Walgreens stores.

“Everyone is time-starved and we have the most convenient 7,000 locations in the US,” Bryan Pugh, the company’s vice
president of merchandising, told Bloomberg. “They’re on-the-way-home destinations that are easy to get in and out of and will
provide a good value.”

According to the story , Walgreens hasn’t set an exact timetable for the program, but they’re preparing to engage and compete .

Bloomberg stated that ex-Tesco employee Pugh is about to hire someone to run the company’s fresh food program. Wonder where he’ll get his strategic orientation from?

Some analysts are lukewarm. Andrew Wolf, a Richmond, Virginia-based analyst with BB&T Capital Markets said: “If they can get consumer acceptance, this would be good for sales,” said , which recommends that investors buy the shares. “Consumers aren’t used to buying salads from a drugstore chain. That would have to change.”

Target Stores followed a similar strategy in recent years by opening 108 stores in their PFresh chain. They plan to have 350 stores open by late 2010.

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Possibly The First iPad Commercial?

January 25, 2010

From Techcrunch…..

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