Kelloggs Pops Up in Times Square
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Times Square boasted a new store recently and the streets have been abuzz over the sweet addition. Promoters call it Pop-Tarts World and the 3200 square foot space contains an hourly light show, a café offering over 30 snacks and desserts including Pop-Tarts Sushi a as well as an interactive create-your-own-variety-pack vending machine. Though the 3200 square foot store has a lot to offer Pop-Tart fans, renting a space on Times Square is really more about brand marketing than it is about sales. “Our long-term hope is to strengthen the bonding between the brand and the consumer, and that has great benefits for the brand,” Senior Director at the Pop-Tarts brand, Etienne Patout, told the Wall Street Journal in a recent article. Averaging $1000 per square foot, Times Square presence comes at a cost but a 50-foot store front and a six-story billboard in view of 26 million annual visitors a year delivers priceless visibility.
Contributed by: Allison Jobes
Confessions of a Name-Induced Shopper
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Be honest - have you ever bought a product solely because of its name or packaging?
*whispers* I have.
The bottle’s appearance sucked me in, the matte hot pink and matte yellow bottles at the end of a sea of glossy blue and purple cans. I moved in closer, seeing the name EOS emblazoned across the top. Instant adoration! I love the name because Eos is the ancient Greek goddess of the dawn, often signifying a new beginning. Double bonus verbal branding: they’ve made it an acronym apropos to their product line, the “Evolution of Smooth.” So, even if you didn’t know that Eos was the goddess of the dawn, they are telling you this is a new beginning, an innovation in shaving, a new era of smooth legs!
Thankfully, I have ended up loving the product, too. Vanilla Bliss, indeed.
Will I now buy their lotion, lip balm (smooth stick or smooth sphere) and other flavors of shave cream?
*shouts* Yes!
Maybe it’s not the smartest way to shop, but EOS sold me in five seconds flat. I wasn’t even looking to buy shaving cream that fateful day in Target.
I wasn’t even in the aisle.
The 6th Food Group: Crayons
cray·on / [krey-on, -uhn]
–noun
1. a pointed stick or pencil of colored clay, chalk, wax, etc., used for drawing or coloring.
2. a drawing in crayons.
–verb (used with object)
3. to draw or color with a crayon or crayons.
–verb (used without object)
4. to make a drawing with crayons.
When I hear the word crayon, my mind immediately goes to the iconic art supply and the brand I grew up with ... the Crayola crayon and its magnificent box of 64 with a built-in sharpener. I remember holding them with little hands, learning how to use the different shades together, and even melting them for cool grade-school art projects.
So this new beverage line has me puzzled. You want me to 'drink crayons?' I've been taught all my life to keep the markers, paintbrushes and crayons out of mouth, and now there is an imperative to do so?
As a mom, I can appreciate the premise behind the beverage: a drink with no high fructose corn syrup, less sugar and more juice than leading drinks for kids. As a verbal branding associate, I see a great opportunity for a fun, new name that can appeal to kids in its tonality, and to moms in its approach to nutrition.
Using an arbitrary word for a brand can work, if it's executed well. Apple built its brand off ease and the approachability of something as simple as a piece of fruit. Is Crayons trying a similar approach? Capitalizing on our childhood nostalgia and hoping that translates into a mental shift? That now, it's ok to 'drink our crayons?'
As for kids, will this product be confusing in real-life scenarios? "Mom, can I have Crayons with dinner tonight?" Or, "Kate, you can drink these Crayons, but don't eat those in your art supplies." For some reason, I can't reconcile the idea of now consuming or drinking something that has been a part of my life for so long, and used in a very different way. What do you think? Are you ready to 'drink your crayons?'
Paint Scheming
My latest obsession: virtually painting my fingernails on OPI using their vast palette of audacious hues.
Why don plain old red when you could rock Tasmanian Devil Made Me Do It? You could scrap a shade of red altogether and try Who the Shrek are you? Or, you could really splurge with Extravagance. Hard Candy makes seductive shades like Mr. Right, Mr. Wrong, Hypnotic and Frenzy.
On my own personal fascination scale, that activity is followed closely by this game.
Why paint your walls a basic blue when you could coat them with a Fragrant Cloud or take an Aegean Cruise or dip into an Inky Pool? Why brown when Labrador Sands is an option? Or, how about Enigma from Sherwin-Williams? Valspar’s Ancestral Haze?
The verbal branding of these types of products is challenging (seriously, how does one delineate between I Think Pink and Pink-a-Doodle?), but it is clearly a powerful tool. Color naming takes advantage of the subjectivity and emotional responses of customers. These names help to paint a picture (no pun intended, I promise) for the consumer; they are buying not just a can of paint, not just a bottle of nail polish, but an entire experience created from a single shade. These special names make the customer part of a secret, a little wink-wink in an up close and personal world.
Perhaps you would like more than just warmth for your family room; try Buttered Toffee. If you wanted, you could turn your cabin den into a rustic getaway with help from Wild Frontier. Maybe your sunroom could be accented by Pool Party.
Did I recently have Mrs. O’Leary’s BBQ brushed on my toes? Why, yes. Yes, I did. Because for me, summertime isn’t just about the vibrancy and heat, it’s about family gatherings and pulled pork sandwiches. And, I had thought about moonlighting at a nearby diner for the summer, but I’m Not Really a Waitress.
New Kotex Commercials
Need a good laugh? Be sure to check out the latest Kotex commercials. If you've already been caught off guard by them, you are not alone! The commercials mock feminine product commercials of the past that have typically featured women "practicing yoga in white spandex, riding white horses along the beach, or airborne in cheerleader outfits," according to New York Times writer Andrew Newman. The commercials feature women who ridicule the history of feminine product advertising, ironically including material from their own ad archives.
Kotex hopes this re-branding effort will help separate them from other feminine products. They recently launched their youth-driven U by Kotex line which features new black packaging and bright colors, signifying a revolution in feminine care. Their new slogan, "Time to break the cycle" enhances the humorous route they are taking to extend the brand's reach.
Contributed by: Ashley Popham
How Much Is YOUR Facebook Page Worth?
A question Social Media Management Company, Vitrue, raised by creating a Social Page Evaluator, a tool designed to “provide an assessment of a brand's Facebook Page value and the effectiveness of its social media efforts.” According to Vitrue, Starbuck’s has an annual page value of $20.7 million. The basic calculation starts by assigning a value (a conservative default of $5) to each “like”, but also takes into account the number of posts and the number of interactions. A smaller fan base can earn more than a larger one if the brand uses Facebook to its full potential. Skittles pot of gold, for example, has 1 million fewer connections than beverage giant Coke but is valued higher because of a greater frequency of posts. Can a Brand go too far? Absolutely. With 147 posts in the last month, ESPN has maxed out their page value at $4.8 million. To maximize page value, Vitrue suggests brands post up to twice per day, post photos and videos, and use Facebook tools like the "share" button.
So who do you “like”? What brands have you “shared” recently? Are you doing your part to contribute to the how much your favorite brand is worth?
Contributed by: Allison Jobes
Arizona Boycotters Impact a New York Tea
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AriZona Iced Tea is suffering the consequences of sharing a name with the southwestern state as people upset by Arizona's new irrigation law boycott the state as well as businesses based there. The ironic thing is that AriZona Beverage Company was founded in 1992 in Brooklyn, New York and maintains all operations in this northeastern state. I suppose the founders may now wish they had put a little more strategy behind their name generation instead of merely taking cues from their home decor.
Contributed by Allison Jobes
Jorts, Jeggings and Now... Jiapers?
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So we've seen all jorts (jeans + shorts) and jeggings (jeans + leggings) but a jiaper?!? Jeepers! Must we subject our little ones to American's obsession with denim by putting them in a diaper disguised as a jean brief? According to Huggies (and 4 enthusiastic mothers' reviews on target.com) we should. Would you dress your child in Huggie's Little Movers Jeans? Have you contributed to the product's out of stock status on target.com? Would you?
Contributed by Allison Jobes
And the American Graphic Design Award goes to ...
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Kudos to our Visual Design Department who recently was recognized for four brands by American Graphic Design and Advertising.
Carnival Cruise Lines: Drainpipe logo
Carnival Cruise Lines: Twister logo
FUJIFILM Medical Systems: Synapse logo
PPG: VIVATI Collection logo
Kristin Everidge, Manager of Visual Branding for Addison Whitney, commented, "It has been an honor to be a part of ADGA’s annual awards for the past 12 years. The 2010 winners represent a synergy between the core competencies of our organization, which include naming and design work for these clients. Because of our iterative and collaborative processes with these clients, we share the credit for these awards with Carnival Cruise Lines, FUJIFILM and PPG."
Green Brands Put to the Test
We've talked a lot about how brands are trying to add "Green" to their corporate color palette, sometimes with real, valuable initiatives and sometimes with just words. (Green: Who Can Claim It? and Greenwashing) So in honor of this Earth Day, the 40th Anniversary actually, we'd like put some of those brands to the test to "verdify" how green they really are.
Last month, SunChips introduced the world's first fully-compostable chip bag. The new bags, made of plant-based materials, should fully decompose in 14 weeks (under typical hot composting conditions). A few weeks later, Snyder's of Hanover announced it too would be using sustainable packaging (on its organic line of pretzels).
I don't have a compost pile, much less the perfectly mixed 1-2-2-2-1 “hot" compost that SunChips recommends, but I do find the random scrap of trash in my yard after trash day. Would the bags eventually decompose in my yard or on the side of the road? We plan to find out.
For our Earth Day experiment, we have staked one of these composting bags to the ground to simulate errant trash. We will photograph our progress and share the results on the blog.
