There's no such thing as a free launch

The trouble with television programmes like High Street Dreams and Dragons Den, is that they only provide a
‘snapshot/soundbite’ of branding and the product development process, making it all appear oh-so-easy to the average ‘personon the street’. In reality, it’s a complicated process and there are a number of steps involved that should be considered before even thinking about approaching a branding or design agency and spending ‘hard-earned’ cash.
At Design Cognition we routinely get approached by all manner of entrepreneurs and small business owners who have very limited experience of branding and New Product Development (NPD). So we thought that we ought to provide some ‘pointers’ for those of you new to this arena, to get you to ‘stop and think’ and focus on what it is you are actually trying to achieve! It’s not in your interests or ours to develop products that have a high probability of failure.

So here are some fundamental questions to ask yourself, before you even think about branding & packaging:

What is your ‘Unique Selling Proposition’? – It is important to establish your USP at the outset so that you know what makes you different and how you can position yourself versus competitors.

What about your ‘Emotional Selling Proposition? – People don’t usually buy on logic, they buy based on many complex emotional feelings and triggers. This could be based on their aspirations or to help alleviate a problem. Tapping in to these emotional benefits will help bring your brand ‘alive’, build long-term customer relationships and help create differentiated ‘competitive advantage’ for your brand.

Who are your target market? Can they be segmented? – Generally, the narrower you can ‘cut’ the segment in which you are intending to operate, the more specifically you will be able to target key benefits & marketing effort in a particular niche. Be realistic about the size of the potential market. Reaching a global market on day one (or even in the first year) is usually a ‘pipedream’ and can take many years to achieve (if at all). It is best to concentrate initially on one smaller market (that you are familiar with) and use that as a valuable learning exercise.

Market Research – Why will someone buy your product, as opposed to someone else’s? Get an impartial view on this
(not friends & family – because they will tell you what you want to hear). You are too close to your cherished product and need to avoid myopia and ‘rose-tinted’ spectacle syndrome! A new methodology is gaining popularity in the US called ‘Customer Development’, which focuses on intelligently assessing the opportunity for an idea before developing it. In its simplest form, customer development could be summarised as:

• Customer discovery: What need is your initiative going to fulfill for the user? Is that really important to them (or is it just wishful thinking)? Do you offer a credible solution or are other alternatives more compelling?
• Customer validation: Are users willing to take the desired step, whether it is to try a sample of your product, buy it or try your affiliated services?
• Customer creation: How are you going to reach out to new users, build your audience base and build confidence? What are the costs and (measurable) outputs for each of your activities?
• Company building: Do you have the resources and processes to achieve the desired goal? Do you have the right skills yourself to brand, develop, market, sell and produce your product? If you haven’t got the skills yourself, it’s critical that you ‘buy-in’ the relevant expertise to help. It may seem an expensive approach but will avoid expensive & time-consuming mistakes, get you to market quicker and will pay ‘dividends’ in the long-run. However, with all of this information you should assess whether there is likely to be a reasonable return on your organization’s investment of time and resources (your own +/or bought-in resource)? No-one said that building and developing a brand would be easy – did they?

A useful tactic in customer validation is to market a product even if you haven’t built it yet. This “pre-marketing” of a product can help you assess the potential viability of the idea before spending a fortune. If it’s going to be a ‘flop’, it will inevitably be disappointing, but best to know early and ‘kill it’ before spending too much money – and turn your attention to more ‘valuecreating’ ideas.

Even if you think that the idea is strong, your target audience might not agree. There are a number of online tools that can help you test ideas, including:
www.performable.com: set up quick web-based landing pages, highlighting product benefits & see how they perform
www.usertesting.com and www.silverbackapp.com: put your project in front of users and get high-quality feedback
www.surveymonkey.com and 4Q: survey your users. But remember that people aren’t always objective in their responses

Or set up a temporary ‘outlet’ in an area in which your target market will congregate, such as a shopping centre, gym, sports club etc to talk to ‘real consumers’ face-to-face.

Many companies start by selling their products on-line, which can also provide useful feedback and can be ‘dovetailed’ with social media campaigns to build brand awareness and feedback. Google Adwords and Facebook Ads are also very useful for marketing tests, and can give you useful information about the possible cost of an advertising campaign.

Who are your potential competitors? – Important that you know who they are and what they are doing. Don’t just assume that you won’t have any. Who is operating in an affiliated area, with an established supply chain, that could migrate easily? This also gives a steer on your branding and packaging as you may need your product to ‘fit’ a certain category and yet still have stand-out.

How easy will it be for your competitors to copy you? – If your competitors are large and they take a liking to your product it might only be a matter of weeks before they launch a similar product. Have you engaged the advice of an IP attorney and:

a, undertaken an ‘IP’ search +/or

b, thought about ‘protecting’ your own idea?

If it’s as new, innovative and differentiated as you think it is – isn’t it worth protecting? It is critical that you do this earlier, rather than later. It should be your first task – before leaking your ideas into the ‘public-domain’.

Have you decided a target selling price? – What price will the market bear? At what price are your competitors presently selling? How will that affect where you pitch your price?

Have you considered who will produce & fill your products and where? – Are they being produced overseas? How will you manage supply? What leadtimes? How will you control the quality?

Have you calculated product costings? – What is the estimated cost price? How accurate is that? Does that include packing/filling/assembly? What about shipping? Does it include primary, secondary, transit & Point Of Sale (POS) packaging? If you will be selling through a distributor, have you allowed for their margin? What about retailer margin?

Have you considered any legal regulations relating to your product? – You will need to know what regulations will apply to your product in the specific country in which you want to sell. Any illegal claims or weights and measures could entail a hefty Trading Standards fine and/or a product recall, with all of the associated costs and litigation involved.

How are you going to distribute the product? – If you are hoping to sell into one of the large multinationals you may well find that they routinely take from 3-4 months to pay for goods received. How will you fund the first production run of your product? If you are intending to ‘pitch’ to their buyers, what stimulus material will you need? What benefits will you sell to them?

How are you going to fund the development of the product? – Getting a good looking and legally compliant product to market does take money. There may be grants available but you need to take a realistic look at all of the costs involved and consider how you will pay for them. At the end of the day the old adage ‘you only get what you pay for’ is true and developing a product or brand on a ‘shoestring’ in a ‘half-cocked’ manner will only end in disappointment and failure for all concerned.

Chris Penfold

Captain Morgan wielding his packaging assets

A few weeks ago I had the privilege to listen to Paul Walsh CEO of Diageo, the world’s leading spirits, beer and wine company, deliver a ‘marketing’ talk at Nottingham Business School (Nottingham Trent University). It was entitled “Marketing & Communication in 2010 – Responding to the New Stakeholder Condition” and was such a powerful &  interesting insight, I thought I’d provide you with an overview and share some of my thoughts with you.

Diageo is the proud owner of some of the biggest ‘power brands’ on the planet, such as Smirnoff, Johnnie Walker, Guinness, Baileys, J&B, Captain Morgan, Jose Cuervo, Bushmills & Tanqueray. Both Guinness and Johnnie Walker have been around for over 200 years and Bushmills almost 400 years. Some feat! and a tremendous bank of heritage on which to pull (or push – or whatever you like really!).

Walsh is a fine orator, who is passionate about his brands and company. He talked about the basis of all iconic brands being ‘great products’ driven by FACE (Flair, Agility, Consumer insight and then Executed flawlessly). But he also acknowledged that the global marketplace is constantly evolving which affects the way we live and interact with our favoured brands.  At the same time, broadband is proving to be the biggest technological development since the introduction of television. As the world ‘goes on-line’ a whole new media stream has opened up to feed a young and dynamic market who have ‘bags of energy’ and want to ‘party’.  Walsh highlighted this momentous change by showing the video Shift Happens – some mind-blowing & thought provoking figures (I’m sure you will agree).

So the ‘rules of engagement’ have changed, and indeed are constantly evolving. Advertising spend in traditional media such as magazines, newspapers and TV has ‘nose-dived’ and has been diverted into new media, where Diageo, and other companies for that matter, have “up-weighted their spend in the digital space” and enjoyed much bigger ‘bangs for their buck’, realising huge cost savings.

It is clear that Diageo have become masters of leveraging the new technology. Key to their success, according to Walsh, can be attributed to a 5-point plan:

1. Having a good product

2. Being clear about the target

3. Identifying the single most compelling benefit

4. Effectively dramatising that benefit

5. Saying and constantly repeating it through the most effective channels

Affiliated to this is the ability for brands to attract and become “participants in a conversation NOT simply involved in a top-down message”. Metaphorically, he likened this to a change from a game of ten-pin-bowling, with a one-ball strike to a game of pinball, banging, bouncing, to-ing and fro-ing through a maze of buffers and pins. In this new media world, Walsh alluded to 3 types of people:

Passive participants – Those who are completely passive and soak up all of the information ‘thrown at them’ via static websites

Engaged participants – people who are engaged and share information via social media platforms

Active participants – those who voraciously add content on-line and are hugely influential

These 3 groups of people seem to inhabit this digital world in approximate ratios of 90 : 9 : 1 (respectively). It is the small group of active participants have been key to Diageo’s new media brand success. By influencing these people in this sector they have turn their brands from on-shelf icons to (almost) living and breathing entities.

A classic example of this success is Captain Morgan, which has rocketed over recent years and now holds a prestigious No2 position for premium rum brands. The driver behind this has been the building and grooming of the ‘Captain’ icon as a ‘living legend’. This hasn’t happened by accident. A carefully orchestrated campaign has evolved through the ‘Captain’s Cup’, video and photo ‘collateral’ and word-of-mouth – driven by social media. The Captain has a certain physical stance or  ‘pose’ and when an interpretation of that ‘pose’ was ’struck by a famous US NFL football star on the pitch during the Super-bowl, it took on a completely new iconic dimension. There followed a series of copycat ‘poses’ by a number of esteemed brand advocates, including David Letterman on his prime-time  TV show. Media-savvy Diageo capitalised on this by offering a $10,000 prize to famous people striking the pose in public places & at high-profile events, all building on the character of ‘The Captain’ and acting s a ‘viral’ growth driver for the ‘living legend’. It has proved a very cost-effective way of marketing.

As an aside, it is interesting to note that this type of ‘non-sponsorship’ could be classed as a more passive form of  ‘ambush marketing, which is actually very topical at the moment. In the South African World Cup this week (14th June), 2 Dutch women were arrested for ambush advertising and 36 women ejected from one of the stadiums when they were spotted wearing short orange dresses made by the Dutch brewery Bavaria, in conflict with  Anheuser-Busch’s Budweiser who are the official beer of the event. It led to quite a fuss and ITV media pundit Robbie Earle was sacked from his role when it was claimed by FIFA that he had sold tickets meant for family and friends on to the Dutch beer company.

Getting back to Diageo, another fine example of leveraging the new technology, has been the Smirnoff ‘be there’ media campaign built on a ‘viral’ marketing platform. Here young (25-30 yr old) party-goers were encouraged, via social networking sites like Twitter & Facebook, to provide ideas on their perfect party events – a party that they would remember for all time – to have ‘been there’. Diageo then picked the best ideas, provided funding to hold the event and a short video was shot at each which were then posted on YouTube. Here’s an example of a Smirnoff ‘Be There‘ TV advert. These have also proved a phenomenal success for Diageo at moderate expense – a terrific Return on Investment (ROI).

So, all in all, Diageo have shown great foresight in their on-line endeavours; an area that has worked well and is sure to be developed by them further across all of their brands. If companies want to stay ‘ahead of the game’ in an increasingly fragmented market, they need to embrace and adopt new ways of working and promoting themselves (and their brands), using creativity, flair and imagination. In this respect they could learn much from Diageo.

It also goes without saying, that in these recessionary times, where marketing budgets are being slashed, left, right and centre in huge cost-cutting exercises, the time and effort invested will also reap huge benefits in cost and greater ROI…..and will also work wonders for a brands’ ’street cred’

Chris Penfold

New Healthseeker game on Facebook

A new game called HealthSeeker has been launched  to more than 400 million active users of Facebook, with the goal of helping adults with specific lifestyle and nutritional challenges. The benefits of the game are actually available to anyone, but HealthSeeker specifically helps people with diabetes make more informed lifestyle decisions in an innovative way that complements their daily use of social media. Leading experts have reiterated how important a source of support, information and inspiration social networking tools like this can be for someone living with a chronic condition like diabetes. Many diabetics struggle with the lifestyle changes that are needed to help manage their condition, such as adding more fibre, fruit and vegetables to their diets, or increasing their daily activity. HealthSeeker can help them stay motivated by presenting simple, everyday steps to help them achieve their lifestyle goals.

So the game really takes ‘healthcare compliance’, and social media for that matter, to a completely new level.  Chris Penfold

Read the full article at Pharmaceutical & Medical Packaging News

Mr Singh's new branding logo

A  new mini series High Street Dreams (8 programmes) kicked off on BBC1 last night that is a ‘reality TV show’ about product branding, packaging & design development – and very entertaining it was too. Over the series Jo Malone and Nick Leslau will help a number of individuals as they try to launch new products. Last night’s ‘guinea pigs’ included:

Mr Singh’s Chilli sauce (www.mrsinghssauce.co.uk) and Asian Singh family of 7 from East London who have developed a unique “dynamite” chilli sauce over a number of years and now want to “take on the world”. Having already developed their own packaging they were ‘knocking out’ 1000 bottles a day in their garden shed. However, after undertaken some market research on local doorsteps they redefined their key brand messages and with the help Pearlfisher, undertook a complete brand overhaul. Anyhow, it must have been successful because the conclusion was a trial in 3 London Asda stores and their website now lists a number of other independent stockists.

New Muddy Boots brand logo

Meanwhile, Roland & Miranda Ballard, the couple behind the gourmet ‘Aberdeen Angus’ burger range Muddy Boots Foods, worked with Blue Marlin. Together they revamped their vacuum packed burger range, which when showed to shoppers in it’s existing packaging, was described as “looking like dog food”. Anyhow, after development of  bespoke ‘windowed’ carton to show-off a tantalising view of the top-quality prime cuts, they managed to secure a trial in a few Waitrose stores (although Waitrose weren’t totally convinced of the merits of the small window). So top marks to all concerned! A good insight for those of you not involved in teh industry, on how a brand and packaging can be redeveloped & invigorated. You can find out more about Muddy Boots foods at (www.muddybootsfoods.co.uk). Both companies also have Twitter accounts (@mrsinghssauce & @muddybootsfoods ) and they both have Facebook accounts.

Next week the High Street Dreams team will help two sets of partners market children’s products. If you want to watch last night’s programme again you can download it on i-player here: 10th May programme

Cheers Chris Penfold

It’s a short video summary of the presentation I gave at the recent easyFairs Packaging Innovations event at the NEC in the UK, entitled ‘Web 2.0 & Web Squared – implications 4 packaging design now & future’

In it I talk about the growing effect, implications and opportunities of the internet on the packaging design process and on ways of working. I also highlight the convergence of Web & technology and the effect on consumer and patient interaction and personalisation, with some great examples of emerging and leading-edge packaging design.

Once you’ve had a look at the video, if you’d like more information or access to a ‘more complete’ version of the presentation – drop us a line to enquiries@designcognition.com

You can find the video here: ‘Summary video – Web 2.0 & Web Squared – implications 4 packaging‘

Cheers

Chris Penfold

Packaging Top 10 Tips

In order to help you develop your packaging more productively, we have generated a series of  FREE short 1-2 minute videos detailing our Tip Ten Tips for getting it right. We will be posting 1 x video per day on this blog site over a 10 day period – so keep a look out for them – they could save you a £££$$$ fortune in the long run!

So here’s the first of our Top 10 Tip videos:

DAY 1 – Tip No1: Packaging ideas & issues to consider early on in the process, bringing your ideas to life and undertaking market research. Click on the link below to go to the video.

Happy Packaging. Cheers Chris

Today’s Video:

Packaging Tip No1 – Planning it out – by Chris Penfold – Design Cognition

Look out tomorrow for Tip No 2 – keeping it simple & fit for purpose…..

Very interesting and thought provoking article by the New York Times.  Interestingly some of the comments below the article appear to have been submitted by individuals who haven’t read the article very carefully.

The Design Cognition team have put together the attached video production as a bit of light hearted seasonal frivolity.

We hope that you like it.