Science in aisle three: Nielsen opens shopper experience lab in Sydney

by Marketing ON 3 May 2013

Global research firm Nielsen is claiming an Pacific-region first with its launch of a full shopper experience lab at its Sydney head office to help manufacturer and retail brands better understand shopping behaviour and test concepts.

The ShopperLAB will include interview, eye tracking and neuroscience capabilities. The eye-tracking equipment will help determine what shoppers see and virtual shopping devices will help to comprehend what shoppers do when faced with different products and shopping conditions.

The facility is aimed at marketers, category managers and sales directors to provide insights into how shoppers react to packaging, point of sale, range alterations, layout changes and aisle activation.

Associate director of Nielsen’s shopper practice, Rachel Shaw, says, “Nielsen research shows that 25% of new products fail in market. However, proper testing can dramatically increase a new products’ chance of success. Shoppers generally spend just 15 seconds interacting with a product category, so brands need to know how, when and where to communicate their strongest messages to shoppers.”

David O’Brien, customer marketing manager for Wrigley, says that working in the Nielsen ShopperLAB his company to explore the shopper psyche in a way they had not been able to previously. “Nielsen Shopper’s unique approach and cutting edge technology uncovered exciting new insights into shopper behaviour at Front of Store that identified significant growth opportunities for Wrigley and helped to enhance our position as experts in this area with our retail partners’,” he says.

Budweiser’s reshaped beer can: less beer, more aluminium, innovative?

by Marketing ON 24 April 2013

We were able to send a man to the moon and create a bottomless portal of information called the internet and now, thanks to another milestone in the history of human innovation, US beer brand Budweiser has released a bow-tie shaped can.

Thanks to a technological breakthrough in aluminium manufacturing, the can, which will be released in May in the US, looks almost pre-crushed, and is skinny in the middle, to emulate the Budweiser logo, a bow-tie. The new beer can will also actually hold less beer than the original version, but still cost almost the same amount. Possibly in an attempt to assist customers to look more like the skinnier version of the can?

In a time where companies are becoming more concious about their environmental footprints, the new Bud can reportedly uses twice as much aluminium as the original can. If the cans prove to be successful with consumers they’ll stay on as the standard beer car.

There is some speculation Bud might be trying to emulate Coca-Cola and its iconic bottle designs. Pat McGauley, vice president of innovation at Anheuser-Busch tells Fast Co.Design, “Honestly, our brand needs more design to it. We have brown bottles and aluminum cans… Obviously, Coca Cola built their iconic shape over many many years. We’ve had this bow-tie icon, but we haven’t been able to shape the aluminium until now. It’s quite an opportunity for the Budweiser brand.”

“I think, like every invention and innovation, we had a lot of trials and tribulations. It was splitting and not shaping properly,” he explains. “So it does have twice the aluminum in it, but we like that a lot. It feels sturdy and high quality. And the shape of the bow tie fits nicely in your hand.”

Budweiser Bowtie Can

McCain gets major brand makeover

by Marketing ON 23 April 2013

Ahh, McCain, you’ve done it… for the first time in 50 years.

Frozen food brand McCain has had a major makeover, including a new logo, courtesy of strategic design agency BrandOpus, which set up shop in Australia last year. The new look packaging is the biggest change the company’s look has had in over 50 years and has taken over six months to develop.

Paul Taylor, executive creative director at BrandOpus says of the design, “We were challenged by McCain to imbue their brand identity with new meaning. Establishing the sunshine as the new symbol for the brand reflects the warmth and positivity of a natural world that will ensure the consumer reappraises the role of the brand.”

The new look is hoped to reinvigorate the FMCG brand, McCain’s marketing director for Australia and New Zealand, Mike O’Brien says, “BrandOpus’ portfolio redesign reframes the way people see our brand – to drive reappraisal, improve visibility, and act as an anchor for our renewed focus on leading category growth.”

The new identity evokes a natural landscape and anchors the logo in sunshine, which brings warmth to the McCain brand. The design also sees the removal of the ‘black box’ logo, fundamentally reframing the brand.

Brand Opus says: “The new visual identity, as well as a redefined brand architecture, typographic style, and colour logic helps to segment, signpost and simplify the McCain product range. The result improves shelf standout in crowded frozen fixtures.”

The new brand identity is part of McCain’s strategy to drive brand and category growth within the Australian market. BrandOpus worked closely with the local market to balance recognition of the key products and ensure ease of consumer navigation around the rationalised portfolio, through the new masterbrand identity.

The new look packaging is in stores now.

Michael Pezzutti to lead new JWT shopper insight division

by Marketing ON 5 March 2013

JWT is to launch a bespoke shopper and retailer insight and planning division known as Evocatif@JWT with the recruitment of shopper strategy expert Michael Pezzutti.

Pezzutti, formerly of Lion, will lead Evocatif@JWT with his appointment effective immediately, and is credited with reforming the alcohol business’ brand approach to retailing via shopper-led principles, resulting in extremely vigorous bottom lines.

He will be a shared resource between JWT and STW-owned shopper and retail creative agency, Evocatif, and will develop insight-led strategies for JWT clients to help them achieve their business goals.

JWT chief executive officer Australasia John Gutteridge is keen for Pezzutti to make an immediate impact. “It’s a crucial area that needs expert attention and we will be working closely with Michael to address the challenges our clients face in the retail environment,” he says.

Having spent 14 years at Lion, forging strategies for effectively investing in shopper-led brand and category solutions in retail, the acquisition of Pezzutti is a significant addition.

“I’m thrilled to be working with JWT clients, some of the best known FMCG and retail brands in the market, to enhance their retail and shopper strategies,” says Pezzutti.

“[This new venture] is also about connecting with the brands’ broader comms plans and priorities,” he adds.

The big idea – innovation and NPD series Part Two

by Marketing ON 11 February 2013

NPD SERIES ROADMAP
Part One: Necessity is the mother of innovation
Part Two: The big idea (this article)
Part Three: Building the product
Part Four: Launch

In the second instalment of Marketing’s series on innovation and new product development we focus on the ideation stage – an area that a third of our readers say is the biggest challenge they face bringing new products to market – and break down methods for approaching it.

When Air New Zealand sat down to rethink the appeal of its long-haul offer, it looked across different transport modes to find cues about how people like to travel. What it found was that some people think of an extended trip as a time to be social, while others would rather keep to themselves. Mindful that the majority of its long-haul flights run overnight, and on average 90 minutes longer than any other airline, it introduced two new seating arrangements.

In economy, the airline launched the Skycouch, or ‘Cuddle Class’, a specially designed row of three seats with a lie-flat space that lets couples and families lie down like they would on their couch at home. And, in premium economy, it introduced the Spaceseat in two variations – one for individual travellers preferring solitude and another so that couples could turn to face each other during the flight.

In May 2011, the Skycouch took top honours in the aviation category of Condé Nast Traveller’s 2011 Innovation and Design Awards, beating Singapore Airlines’ new first class A380 cabin. With the help of innovation agency IDEO, the airline focused on unmet consumer needs, creating new and differentiated products that travellers loved.

Cuddle Class

It is this step in the innovation process – the ‘front end’ or ideation stage – that we will focus on for the second instalment of Marketing’s innovation and new product development (NPD) series. The remainder of our investigation will focus on the specific challenges marketers face throughout the different stages of the innovation process, by breaking it down into the front, the middle and the back.

The front end of innovation

Dr Scott J Edgett, an internationally recognised innovation expert and co-creator of Stage-Gate, an innovation framework used by many of the world’s biggest brands, says the front end, or the idea stage, is where the highest risk lies. But it’s also the stage most commonly shortcut. “It’s interesting that the area with the highest risk is also the cheapest part of the process,” says Edgett, highlighting companies’ willingness to skimp on investment in the front end, often to their detriment.

Big companies have become skilled at the middle and back end of the innovation process – the product building and commercialisation stages, according to Edgett. But they do not excel to the same degree at ideas. “It is at the front end where we see the real change and challenges… companies are saying ‘We haven’t got enough good ideas coming in’.” With such intense competition and the maturation of many categories, good ideas are becoming harder to come by. Yet without them successful innovation cannot occur – no amount of testing or refining can make a bad idea good.

Stage Gate The front end is where the inspiration for the new product is found, and assessed for its viability. It includes tasks such as brainstorming and discovery, market analysis, matching to corporate capabilities and preliminary financial and business assessment. It poses a number of challenges, from understanding consumer insights and finding great ideas to accurate and early project selection.

Failure to understand and adequately respond to unmet consumer needs, or inadequate market analysis, was nominated as the number one cause of new product failure by several of Marketing’s sources. Because identifying and qualifying genuine growth opportunities is challenging, many companies leap from high-level ideas to concept development. It’s not that they ignore category assessment overall, but the urge to ‘innovate’ often leads to a compacted process that skips necessary steps. When the front end is left incomplete, the bridge between consumer need and product often fails to meet.

Innovation that invests significant time and resources into the front end is inevitably more successful than that which doesn’t. If steps are to be skipped, ensure the rigour of the process matches the complexity of the innovation being conducted, Edgett advises. “If it’s a high risk, highly complex project, do it through the typical five-stage [Stage-Gate] process, but if it’s just a tweak or an innovation, you need to go fast to market. Have you streamlined your process to match that?”

A slave to the customer

“A slave-like dedication to the voice of the customer” is an integral part of the new product development process, according to Stage-Gate’s research. Innovation that has a strong consumer focus enjoys more than double the success rate of innovation that doesn’t. Despite this, a strong market orientation and customer focus is absent from many businesses’ NPD projects.

Idea generation based on consumer insights or input is a constant presence in Arnott’s innovation pipeline. Regional marketing director at the snack food manufacturer, Susan Massasso, says market interrogation is a daily reality for her team – something they live and breathe. “We have extensive brand planning and processes that interrogate the broader marketplace opportunities and where we want to take our brands… we are stepping in and reviewing with consumers, with shoppers, with customers when we bring things to market.

“But we’re also really clear that consumers aren’t necessarily going to give you all the answers either,” Massasso adds. “We work very closely with our insight partners to also read between the lines and develop things that we have built upon in previous years.

“The power is in how we, as people that thoroughly understand our brands and the categories and the marketplaces, apply this insight in order to bring the innovation to market and be ahead of the game, rather than just retrospectively in the game.”

Junk in, junk out

“How much would I spend to get one idea that I could actually launch where I can make $300 or $400 million a year in revenue?” a marketing executive asked Edgett rhetorically. The implied answer: a lot of money.

The critical task of unearthing an idea that has legs is becoming an increasingly difficult feat. No matter what’s launched at the back end, if it came from a bad idea, it’s not going to sell. If it’s junk in, it’s junk out.

Innovators spend millions of dollars on insights and identifying ‘white space’ – opportunities made up of needs or demands, which can often be latent, not currently filled. Research organisations and consultancies have tried and tested techniques for finding white space, which package together a range of ideation approaches.

Nielsen has ‘Market Brand Adviser’, which determines the drivers of categories and seeks to understand how each brand is performing against those drivers. It screens ideas through to concept refinement using qualitative and quantitative approaches, Andrew McQuillan, vice president of innovation for Nielsen, Pacific, explains. “Concept development is often assisted by qualitative work to, in some cases, come up with concepts from ideas, and in other cases to refine concepts. We’ve incorporated factors of successful products into our qual interviews, so that we’re asking questions that improve the odds of success once we start doing the quantitative work.”

TNS has ‘Matrix’, an approach that identifies, sizes and prioritises growth opportunities based on consumer needs. Ray Crook, regional director of innovation and product development, Asia Pacific, at the research firm, says there are five ‘drill sites’ investigated for new ideas: the normal ‘friction life tensions’ that people have, core category needs, usage occasion needs, convergence and breakthrough innovation opportunities. The focus is turning back to breakthrough innovation as confidence improves, Crook notes, but it is hard to deliver on. “It’s bringing the polar needs that consumers have together. A classic one would be health versus taste within snacking.”

Edgett says the techniques companies are using to help generate ideas and turn consumer insights into something tangible to the product development team are changing rapidly. “It’s tough to constantly come up with a new idea, the techniques they’re trying are different, and they’re trying all sorts of different techniques in the hope some of them will work.”

Idea detectors: which techniques work best?

In 2010, Stage-Gate concluded analysis on a study of ideation techniques used by 160 US firms, sparked by earlier findings that only 19% of businesses had proficient ideation processes. Eighteen different sources of new product ideas were investigated, including eight ‘voice-of-customer’ techniques, six open innovation approaches, and a handful of other internal and strategic approaches. The study found voice of customer methods delivered the best ideas, while open innovation yielded disappointing results and the range of other techniques were suited to niche situations only. It also revealed that while some methods were used extensively, notably focus groups and studies of early adopters, others such as ethnography or co-creation communities were less popular despite proving to be more fruitful sources of ideas.

Ethnography

Ethnography was found to provide the deepest insights into users’ unmet and unarticulated needs and is a powerful source of breakthrough ideas, the study found. The approach involves ‘camping out’ with consumers in their natural setting for extended periods of time, watching and probing as they go about their everyday lives. The depth of knowledge that can be gained is unrivalled by other techniques. It is, however, time consuming and expensive to undertake, and also subject to the skill of the researcher or observer. If observation or interpretation skills are lacking, its accuracy can be compromised. A scaled-down version of ethnography – customer visit teams, where cross-functional teams interview customers – also emerged from the study as an under-appreciated approach.

Focus groups

The stalwart of qualitative research, focus groups are still widely used and a fruitful source of ideas. They often involve projection techniques to draw out the true drivers behind wants and needs. Inverse brainstorming – starting with product shortcomings, then brainstorming to propose solutions – is also a tried and tested methodology for ideation.

Lead-user analysis

Analysis of ‘lead users’, or early adopters that have been identified for their ‘future shaping’ proclivities, can yield innovative product ideas. It was an effective and popular technique among the firms studied, credited for uncovering ideas for people who are ‘ahead of the wave’. The major challenge with its use is in identifying lead users, getting them to participate and structuring the research.

Communities/ co-creation/ crowdsourcing

Online communities, virtual focus groups and crowdsourcing approaches have become widely used techniques. Qualitative research conducted online has a number of benefits, including cost and logistical efficiencies, the ability to use multimedia content as stimulus and a digital research environment where participants are usually more candid. Its useful application depends on the aims of the project and the participants recruited to take part. The panel recruited to take part can be made up of lead users, population representative groups or brand/category enthusiasts.

Researching enthusiasts can be a double-edged sword.While leveraging their passion for the brand or category can deliver great results, their engagement with the topic can lead to biased results.

Crook advises being targeted with co-creation and clearly defining to participants where the opportunity fits. “Co-creation is a good way to get ideas from consumers, but they need to be harvested in the right way. You need to ensure that you’re co-creating around areas where there is a space. We might get there and say, ‘Let’s go out and co-create a light tasting beer.’ But we need to understand if there is a gap in the marketplace first.”

Generally, the effectiveness of community approaches was rated highly in Stage-Gate’s research. They can be set up to be ongoing, similar to traditional customer advisory boards, but their running costs are low. A key challenge is, while this method comes with its efficiencies, it requires considerable skill, insight and time to analyse what is often a large amount of written responses.

Open innovation

Open innovation opens the doors of the organisation to ideas, technology, intellectual property and even fully-developed products to outside sources. In spite of the hype about this approach, open methods aren’t proving particularly popular, according to Stage-Gate, nor are they perceived to be particularly effective

as sources of new product ideas. Out of six open innovation approaches investigated, the three most effective were ideas from partners and vendors, ideas from the external scientific community and ideas from start-up businesses. None, however, proved to be as effective as voice-of-customer methods, possibly due to their newness. They have potential, however, by virtue of their access to a wide array of parties – a ‘brains trust’ of experts beyond the ability of the standard organisation to employ.

The open approach is one that IDEO has thrown itself into, according to its chief creative officer, Paul Bennett. The agency was contracted by the Queensland Government in 2011 to find solutions to the gap between rural food production and urban food consumption. An open challenge was posed at last year’s Ideas Festival to create a closer connection between local food production and consumption and improve sustainability. Concepts were then gathered together to input into the development of solutions to the challenges.

A major disadvantage of the approach is the sheer amount of time and work it takes to scan, solicit, handle and process the ideas or intellectual property. “It takes an army of people,” one of Stage-Gate’s respondents indicated.

Other methods

Top-down or strategic approaches to innovation have proven fairly popular over the years and include two methods: exploiting disruptive technologies and ‘peripheral vision’. Both emerged in the research as widely used and effective idea generation techniques.

Patent mapping and mining is also well-known and quite popular for identifying areas of competitor activity and hence potential areas of focus. Many firms engage in this activity to stay across what competitors are doing, but the approach is a reactive, rather than proactive, generator of new ideas.

‘Internal idea capture’ – formally soliciting new product ideas from your own employees – was the most popular ideation method in the survey, but its effectiveness was found to be disappointing.

The front end of the innovation process is the most important step in the journey; it’s the foundation upon which the project is built. Executing the first stage of developing a new product is a matter of formalising the search for a big idea, while doing background homework to assess its viability and listening to the voice of the consumer every step of the way. Nearly all of the best performers have a game plan and use a structured approach, such as StageGate. Innovation is integrated into the culture of their organisations, aligned to their corporate strategy and effective portfolio management ensures the right mix of innovation projects is put together.

With incremental innovation reaching near exhaustion, the hunt for bigger and better ideas is a top priority. Taking a big idea and making it a reality – like Air New Zealand did by making it possible for passengers to lie down in economy – requires a strong focus on, and respect for, the front end of innovation.

In Part Three of this series on innovation and new product development we get stuck into the middle – where things really start to take shape. For now, see our ongoing mini case study into how Kimberly-Clark approached the NPD process below.

Viva wiping

CASE STUDY: VIVA SHOWER FAST WIPES – THE IDEA

The cleaning category is a high frustration category and one where little innovation has taken place in the past five to 10 years, according to Lisa McKee, marketing manager for VIVA towel and cleaning products, Kimberly-Clark.

The paper product manufacturer brought a ‘blue sky’ shower cleaning product to market, adapting supply chains and manufacturing processes to incorporate cleaning product capabilities in order to meet consumer desire for a simplified cleaning process.

Prior to the launch of VIVA Shower Fast Wipes, over 140 SKUs contributed to the household cleaning market, with bathroom cleaning representing 12% of this group.

With the segment declining at approximately 4% each year, Kimberly-Clark identified a clear need to revitalise the segment to not only offer consumers a better and cleverer alternative to clean their showers, but also to drive value and incremental volume in the category.

Consumer research uncovered that the task of cleaning the shower screen is one of the most dreaded household chores. Three in five consumers believed they didn’t have a satisfactory solution for soap scum on the shower screen and tiles. They desired cleaning products that are easy to use and that allow them to fit cleaning into their busy lives. Many found the sprays, cloths, scrubbing brushes and need to change clothes put them off cleaning the shower and a source of frustration. Trends also showed consumers prefer not to use highly toxic, strong smelling chemicals to clean, and seek convenient solutions that deliver efficacy with ease.

The VIVA Shower Fast Wipes concept was developed to meet consumers’ needs by providing a simple, quick and effective solution to shower cleaning frustrations.

The business case for the idea was strong – there was no cannibalisation potential, as Kimberly-Clark had no existing products in the bathroom cleaning category, meaning all volume would be incremental. Brand equity in the VIVA name emerged as a competitive advantage.

We’ll continue this mini case study in the next part of this series by looking at the journey Kimberly-Clark embarked on to test, refine and develop its breakthrough cleaning product.

Necessity is the mother of innovation – innovation and NPD series Part One

by Marketing ON 4 February 2013

NPD SERIES ROADMAP
Part One: Necessity is the mother of innovation (this article)
Part Two: The big idea
Part Three: Building the product
Part Four: Launch

In an economic climate that sees businesses paralysed with the fear of failure, Marketing investigates the new product development process, kicking off a four-part series by looking into the current state of innovation in Australian marketing.

In 1879, Thomas Edison made one of the greatest breakthroughs of the era: he invented the light bulb. The bulb was, at the time, unusable to the rest of society – electricity as we know it today did not yet exist. But Edison’s foresight was not limited to his ability to understand carbon filament. His genius also lay in his ability to envisage how people would want to use what he made and what was required to make it scalable, desirable and accessible to a mass market.

He went on to create an electricity distribution system that powered American homes into the 21st century and became known for his shrewd business sense, as well as his ability to maximise profits through mass production and intellectual property rights.

What Edison was able to do was take an unmet need in people’s lives, develop a solution to it and engineer a product that was packaged, marketed, sold and supported in a manner that consumers desired. It’s an approach that design firm IDEO’s CEO Tim Brown calls ‘design thinking’ – a human-centred approach to innovation that integrates the needs of people, the possibilities of technology and the requirements for business success. And it’s an approach that organisations attempt to follow by putting consumers at the heart of their search for new opportunities. But, in a competitive market and an environment driven by commercial imperatives, human-centred innovation is achieved with mixed success.

The term ‘innovation’ is one of the most abused and overused words in our language. Adopted across countless industries and no longer merely limited to products or new inventions, ‘innovation’ encompasses new processes, services, forms of entertainment, modes of communication and styles of collaboration.

The marketing community most commonly uses it to refer to new product development (NPD). The marketing heartland of product innovation is made up of the FMCG and technology verticals, which we will focus on in a four-part feature on the innovation and NPD space.

One percent inspiration, 99 percent perspiration

Back to Edison. It was the man dubbed ‘The Wizard of Menlo Park’, New Jersey, who coined the phrase, “Genius is one percent inspiration, 99 percent perspiration”. Edison was incredibly successful, but he wasn’t shy about his failures. He believed they were merely endeavours that were yet to arrive at success and applied an iterative approach of endless trial and error to his work.

It is often said in the context of new consumer product development that the road to innovation is littered with failure. Researchers quote statistics of around nine in 10 products launched ending in demise. According to Nielsen, FMCG companies spend an average of $15 million per product per year guiding some 30,000 concepts to the shelf. With so much at stake, failure is a commercial reality (and, as we’ll see, a necessity).

Edison’s sentiments are increasingly echoed by marketers working in the space. Paul Bennett, chief creative officer at IDEO, looks at failure from a middle ground – valuable from a learnings perspective, but undesirable from a commercial point of view. He concedes that a lot of innovation being done is wasteful, but advises brands not to see botched attempts as failure, but rather as an opportunity to refine what’s already been done.

The concept of failure being part of the process is also starting to filter into the innovation ethos of some brands. Marketing director at Arnott’s, Susan Massasso, says her team embraces that not all innovation is going to be successful. “We don’t necessarily see that it’s not successful if things don’t work,” she says, adding that some products aren’t meant to stay in the market forever. “We are actively bringing things and breathing life into the category, and they are meant to be for a limited time only. They create a bit of interest and a bit of delight, but they’re not intended to be there forever.”

The researchers come to the party with ‘modulated’ and ‘calibrated’ techniques to prevent products from failing, ascertain potential yield, analyse ‘incrementality’ in order to understand cannibalisation and track product health post-launch to pick up areas where improvements are required. Their rhetoric is the most risk averse of any of the voices in the innovation debate – they provide the insights to maximise success and are employed by brands to stamp out chinks in any new product’s armour.

While there are many different perspectives on failure, the point on which each of them agrees is that there is much to be learned from a less-than-perfect result. Failure is becoming seen as less of an evil and more of a constructive stepping stone.

An innovation midset

The impediments to successful innovation are many and varied. It’s often said the number one cause of new product failure is inadequate market analysis, or incomplete understanding and response to unmet consumer needs. The urge to innovate can lead to a compacted process that skips necessary steps in the innovation pipeline, propelling innovators to leap from high-level ideas to the market prematurely.

Innovation for innovation’s sake

With commercial imperatives driving much of the innovation conducted by brands, there is a real danger of forcing innovation out for the sake of making profits, rather than making something of genuine value to the consumer. For Lisa McKee, Kimberly-Clark’s marketing manager, VIVA towel and cleaning products, manufacturing-led innovation rather than consumer insight-led innovation rates as one of the top causes of failure. The VIVA cleaning products range was developed to address an unmet consumer need – making high frustration cleaning tasks quicker and easier – with cleaning a category in which Kimberly-Clark did not have established competencies or supply chains.

“Our core competency is paper manufacturing,” McKee explains. “Extending into the broader cleaning category and sourcing uniquely different innovation, like TV and computer wipes, from blue sky concepts, required a very different supply chain model than what we were used to.” But rather than using manufacturing competencies as the spark for innovation, Kimberly-Clark kept consumer needs at the heart of what it did and captured 6.5% of the bathroom cleaning market within a year of launch – incremental value of $1 million in sales for the brand.

Think with your eyes

Consumer insight reports, concept tests and market analysis are all vital parts of the new product development process, but nothing beats seeing it with your own eyes. This is the first piece of advice Bennett gives clients and a key part of human-centred design thinking. “Designers think with their eyes,” Bennett says.

“Half the time we take our clients into the world and just say, ‘Say nothing. Watch.’ Use your eyes and ears, don’t use the numbers. Go out in the world with a small team and look and listen and be open, and don’t walk out thinking you know the answer; walk out having the great question and then learn the answer together.”

Flatness over hierarchy

Bennett also encourages flatness in the client organisations with which he works. “Hierarchy breeds fear,” he says. “Ideas have to be able to come from anywhere, and you can’t be shot down for having a bad one. I have 500 bad ideas a day – that’s part of my job. But I’ve seen thousands of examples where people have just been mute because they’re terrified that some person three steps above them in the chain will hear they had a dumb idea and fire them.”

Hierarchy also gets in the way of speed, another factor key to successful innovation in today’s competitive market.

Build for speed

The need for speed is becoming more pronounced, as is the need for the agility to evolve on the run. Some organisations have embraced this and some haven’t. But more and more, brands are seeing speed and iteration as being the new product development cycle.

Traditionally, product development cycles have been protracted, often 18-month long, expensive affairs. Bennett believes they can no longer be drawn out, cumbersome and expensive. “The word agile is now a real word in our lexicon these days. Clients need to look at an agility, they need to be comfortable with the notion of beta, they need to be comfortable getting stuff out to market quickly and asking for feedback.

The days of the big idea are over… they’re massively overrated because they’re cumbersome and they can’t be consumed inside an organisation. Nokia, for example, simply can’t get something to market fast enough.”

A face only a mother could love

For many, an innovation takes on greater meaning – it becomes the child they gave birth to, nurtured and loved. It’s a phenomenon that Bennett calls the ‘dinosaur baby’. “A dinosaur baby is something so ugly that only a dinosaur’s mother would love it,” he explains. “Some people spend enormous amounts of time incubating something privately inside their organisation, never letting anybody see it, loving it to death because they’ve done it, not because it’s good.”

To avoid giving birth to baby dinosaurs, Bennett advises bringing as diverse a group as possible into the process as early as possible, making the journey a collaborative endeavour instead of an isolated experience. Bring friends, colleagues and potential end-consumers in to look, ask, brainstorm and create together, and be sure to really listen to feedback. He also advises introducing prototyping into the process, again as early as possible, to make the concept tangible, realistic and something that can be looked at in the flesh.

Never waste a crisis

While Australia never really bore the full brunt of the global financial crisis, the economic turmoil of 2008 affected how brands approach innovation and how consumers respond to it. There was a change to what consumers looked for in new products and, from a manufacturer standpoint, an acceleration of a trend that had already been evident for a few years: the move away from new brand innovation to line extensions.

Research firm TNS’ database containing thousands of concept tests showed new brand creation slumped dramatically between 2008 and 2010, with only 1% of the ideas and products evaluated being for new brands, whereas line extensions increased to 95% of the tests. In 2012, there has been a slight resurgence in new brand creation in Australia – out of 300 concepts tested so far, 5% are for new brands, TNS found. While true ‘breakthrough’ innovation does not necessarily require a new brand name, the findings are indicative of the level of innovation work being carried out.

Sarah Connelly, who has run the Product of the Year Awards for FMCG goods over the past four years, can’t remember seeing a new brand come through. “Launching a new product involves taking quite a lot of risk and what we’ve seen, unfortunately, is a lot more lower-risk innovations coming through every year,” Connelly says. While observers may note a flurry of activity in the FMCG NPD space, it is being dominated by lower-risk line extensions – new flavours, sizes or formats. “As a result of that, we’re faced with a lot more ‘me too’ type products that don’t inspire and excite people.”

Regional director of innovation and product development, Asia Pacific, at TNS, Ray Crook, cautions brands against relying on, and being hoodwinked by, the lower-risk line extension approach. Estimating that line extensions cost half of what new brands cost to bring to market, he sees many clients take a bet on line extensions without doing their due diligence, comforted by having less at stake. The research agency’s database shows that, on average, new brands launched have a 27% higher purchase intent score on average than line extensions launched, illustrating a willingness to take a bet on lower-risk activity where it sometimes isn’t warranted. Crook also points out the strain that continual reliance on the mother brand can cause: “If a line extension fails, you’re now changing the perception that consumers have of the mother brand as well.”

The challenge for brands is finding the right mix of ‘renovation’ versus innovation, and finding line extensions that possess high incremental value. “We see that line extensions tend to be very similar to what the company is currently producing,” Crook adds. “So you’re seeing cannibalisation of upwards of about 50%, depending on what the category is.” New brands can access new occasions, new niche states and move away from traditional volume area. They can position in a different space, potentially unlocking premium price points, as Kimberly-Clark has done with its VIVA range, introduced to bring convenience to high frustration tasks.

Massasso takes a blended approach at Arnott’s, depending on the brand, portfolio strategy and consumption opportunities. “There’s a role to play for what we would call sustaining innovation or what some may call line extensions. But the things that really continue to freshen, cultivate and nurture the heartland of the brand are the breakthrough opportunities. We don’t intentionally only focus on one or the other.”

Bennett’s observations tell him that most brands have a healthy mix of evolutionary and disruptive innovation, as well as shortand longer-term approaches, but there are some that focus on line extensions too heavily. “There are certain places where, to keep the brand fresh, it’s fine to introduce a flavour for summer, but if all you ever do with your brand is introduce flavour variations, you’re diluting it. I look at something like Absolut, and I think where did Absolut vodka go? I don’t need marshmallow flavour.

Vodka is about purity… they’ve forgotten the core of their DNA is something very powerful and they’ve gone for the easy money.”

So, are new product developers being too cautious in the face of uncertainty? “Unfortunately, there is a lot of fear out there,” Connelly says. “Companies are increasingly reticent to invest in research and development, particularly the middle players… the current climate is definitely not lending itself to encouraging innovation, or it’s encouraging low-risk, more strategic type stuff, rather than brands really stepping out of their comfort zone and coming up with some really new and exciting innovations.”

Playing it safe in uncertain times is the knee-jerk reaction that researchers and innovation agencies counsel against. “Never waste a crisis,” Bennett insists, alluding to the Inuit proverb ‘the storm is the time to fish’. Based in Singapore, Bennett’s picture of Australia is of a nation keen to get on with things and use the changing times as an opportunity. “One of the things that I’m most excited about in Australia is we’re seeing less of that [cautious] behaviour and more of the desire to be home grown and local… I got a strong sense that the attitude was ‘we’re going to innovate our way through this’.”

This kind of attitude can deliver great success. As Edison also said, “Discontent is the first necessity of progress. Show me a thoroughly satisfied man and I’ll show you a failure.”

As consumer behaviour changes and technology advances, the opportunities to continually revive the growth of brands are not lost on the marketing community. Google and MTV were created in recession, BMG and Tesco experienced some of their biggest growth spurts during troubled times. With Kantar Worldpanel forecasting that 75% of consumer product companies’ growth will come from new developments in the next 10 years, brands know that innovation is required to continue to thrive, regardless of the state of the economy. While necessity was the mother of innovation in Edison’s time, survival and future prosperity is the mother of innovation for brands today.

In Part Two, as well as a case study from KimberlyClark we’ll share Air New Zealand’s introduction of reconfigurable economy class seats, plus other examples to step you through the challenges of different stages of the innovation pipeline.

There will be no return to normal for grocery (or anything else)

by Nick Hickford ON 23 January 2013

Australia’s buying habits have been in such a shit state for the past three years that we invited a bunch of our clients to a slap up lunch late last year.

Tim Haymes from Haymes Paint is our wine expert and for those of you in the grip of the grape the 2012 Hutton Vale Riesling from the Eden Valley (around $20) and the Gomersal Barossa Shiraz (around $50) really had our clients (and ourselves) firing on all eight cylinders.

To cheer them up further we invited social researcher David Chalke from Australia Scan to tell them that maybe things would return to normal soon –after all, through Australia Scan David has his finger more firmly on the pulse of the nation than anyone else we know.

And he delivered some messages only made palatable by Tim’s selected wines.

Far from ‘returning to normal’, David advised, we should get used to ‘normal being what we have right now.’ Several people got up to leave at this point but fortunately the wine had them firmly in its grip.

According to Chalke, Australians currently have more cash than ever, but they’re saving not spending. The GFC has created a ‘return to prudence’ with more people haggling over price (pity the poor Merc salesman), having things repaired (cobblers rejoice), doing stuff themselves (pity the poor pool guy), giving up luxuries (pity the poor Merc salesman again), and even buying less-expensive foods (house brands rejoice).

You might think the post-GFC grocery shopping behavior of ‘always looking for specials’ and being ‘happy to consider private label alternatives’ receiving higher scores than ‘stay with one preferred, known brand’, would cause real concerns for grocery brands.

You might fear that this frugal behavior runs the risk of sending us into a ‘1984’ type scenario of a supermarket full of private label brands that commoditise everyday lives and make peoples’ pantries look like something from The Truman Show.

Don’t worry – brands still wield massive power. Almost three quarters of people believing brands are useful in helping them judge quality and value. They are the benchmark for every home brand and private label.

And according to Chalky’s take, almost 80% of people say that although they try to save money on day-to-day groceries, they always buy the best quality –no matter what!

But the judgment of today’s Aussie consumer is that big brands better live up to the promises they make. Otherwise, more of them than ever are happy to consider private label alternatives because more of them than ever are actively looking for ‘specials’.

If you’re a big global brand you pump the heck out of your advertising above, below and on the line and drive brand engagement – easy.

But if you don’t have megabucks to spend, it’s obviously a harder solve.

A couple of David’s key themes were to ‘mine the niches’ and ‘nurture your existing fans’. This takes a real shift in thinking for brands that, for the past few decades, have been about mass marketing. But it has to happen if they are to survive, because now the private label brands are becoming the mass marketers.

For me this comes down to delivering better value, not price, than the private label brand. Adding information, service or advice that assists customers in using your product. Refining the product to be less generic and cater more for specific needs or usage.

Like sugar did. Remember when it came as white as snow in big paper bags? No longer ‘white death’, sugar has evolved through careful innovation to consumer-friendly brown, raw, demerara, logicane, palm or coconut, date sugar, jaggery, muscovado, Barbados, organic, panela, pearl sugar, sulcanet, turbinado… and the list grows every day.

Have a look at the sexy packaging next time you’re lost in Coles or Woolies. Stop for a latté and fondle the café-style, infinite variety, one-teaspoon sugar sticks – the pariah has turned into a paragon!

Try evolving your product to be a bit more special – but still affordable for regular use – like Tim Tam did. Alcohol-based flavours like Kaluha, Tia Maria and Rum and Raisin make them sexier, yet still an everyday supermarket item.

Evolution is critical to your brand’s survival in this market.

Because things are not going to return to normal, as David quotes The Economist journo Domenic Cadbury: “The mistake people make is to assume things will return to normal. Normal is what we have right now.”

Chalky is a fabulous presenter and in complete control his audience, his material and the minds of the Aussie electorate. If you ever get a chance to hear him on his hind legs, don’t miss it. Our clients wouldn’t.

Mutant chew: Wrigley/X-Men promo packaging

by Marketing ON 7 January 2013

Campaign: 5X limited edition gum and X-Men: First Class promotional packaging and point-of-sale material

Client: The Wrigley Company

Agency: Saltmine Design Group

Background

The Wrigley Company’s 5 Gum brand was created to invigorate the gum category and drive growth among the category’s key demographic, Gen C – creative, connected and community- oriented teenagers who crave stimulation in both the real and digital worlds. Its unique packaging, sleek black design and breakthrough graphics distinguish it from all other gum brands in the Australian market.

Since its Australian launch in 2009, the 5 Gum brand has grown the gum category by offering consumers engaging experiences along with regular new flavour launches and engagement with the brand via social media. As the first gum that you can ‘feel as you chew’, it delights the target market with something unexpected, rewarding their curious nature and desire for discovery.

5 Gum inhabits a dark imaginary world full of fantastic sensory experiences, mimicking contemporary fantasy blockbusters, so aligning with an instalment of major movie and comic franchise, X-Men, provided the perfect partner for 5 Gum for a limited edition pack launch and consumer promotion.

When Wrigley’s 5 Gum joined forces with 20th Century Fox’s new movie release, it called on Saltmine Design Group to design the branding, packaging and point of sale material for the campaign, as well as the promotional fulfilment.

Objectives

Wrigley’s 5 Gum wanted to drive gum category growth by increasing frequency and penetration within the key target market. It was also important for this brand to continue to deliver news as the brand’s target market actively seeks out new flavours and innovations.

The design objective was to create a piece of packaging that was distinctly 5 Gum in look and feel, while remaining true to the brand positioning, brand guidelines and design integrity of both 5 Gum and X-Men: First Class brands.

Strategy

The task was to design packaging for the new limited edition 5X Mutant gum and an ownable 5X lock-up device, which was to be used across all promotional touch points on a major cross-brand promotion for Australia and New Zealand. The pack would communicate 5 Gum’s partnership with X-Men: First Class and launch a large-scale consumer promotion across Australia and New Zealand.

Saltmine’s starting point was to design a 5X lock-up that would be central to the pack design, as well as being the collaborative logo used across all touch points of the campaign. The team of creatives were given a sneak peek at characters, costumes and storylines for the upcoming film to inspire them during the design journey.

There were several mandatories to consider throughout the process: the gum variant name was to be ‘Mutant’, in keeping with the X-Men movie theme, the purple variant colour was dictated by the blueberry gum flavour and Saltmine was supplied with X-Men logos by 20th Century Fox, which needed to be integrated into the design.

The key to the brief was to seamlessly bring together two brands into one for this brand collaboration. Saltmine was also briefed to design a point of sale suite, which would be used as a platform to launch the consumer promotion in-store.

5X Gum package

Execution

Saltmine started by exploring a vast array of shapes that would inject colour and dynamic movement into a cross- brand logo, translate into a variant icon to be used on the gum box and be in keeping with the look and feel of both 5 Gum and X-Men: First Class brands. The key visual needed to be predominantly purple to mimic the purple gum inside and one of the key challenges was ensuring the contrast of purple with the black 5 Gum pack to guarantee on-shelf standout.

Designed with shelf impact in mind, the typography needed to be big, bold and true to the style of both brands and work with the purple explosive device to form an ownable cross-brand logo.

The final 5 Gum pack included an impactful shrink wrap complete with the X-Men: First Class movie logo, which could be removed to reveal the iconic 5 Gum pack with new flavour descriptor and purple explosion.

5X Gum POS1

The packs were merchandised in pre-pack units that dialled up 5 Gum’s association with the movie by incorporating the characters on a die-cut header card along with a product shot sitting on a purple carpet, highlighted by spotlights.

The striking point of sale suite – which also included posters, counter units and wobblers – included the details of the promotional campaign to encourage trial of the gum and leverage the tie-in with the movie.

The campaign was also rolled out online through 5 Gum’s Facebook page, which has over 350,000 fans and Saltmine’s 5X lock-up was used to ensure consistency throughout the campaign. The packaging and 5X lock-up were also featured in the 5 Gum TVC.

Results

The 5X campaign, for which Saltmine collaborated with OMD and Soap Creative, won multiple awards.

Sales results for the promotion far exceeded expectations. Within its first month of sales, 5 Gum Mutant was the number two SKU (stock keeping unit) in national grocery value sales, and became the top selling gum SKU across all the major packaging and converting accounts.

5X drove 5 Gum to its best ever market share in Australia: 26.5% (up from 21.1% prior to 5X’s launch). 5X was also the number two selling gum across Australia in June 2011, an exceptional result for a limited edition product.

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P&G sets sights on innovation to create new categories

by Marketing ON 23 November 2012

Global FMCG giant Procter & Gamble has set its sights on innovation that creates entirely new categories, in a move which will see it triple its innovation output.

Comments made by the company’s innovation head suggest the firm will attempt to launch a raft of “disruptive” innovations, comfortable in the knowledge that by nature many such innovations are likely to fail.

The organisation’s group president of new business creation and innovation, Jorge Mesquita, told the Cincinnati Business Courier that 40% of its innovation output would be directed to “disruptive solutions that create new categories” while the other 60% would be directed to large, established markets.

The new wave of innovation planned for release in the near future could involve up to 30 new products and launches at triple the volume that the company produced in the last five years, Cincinnati Business Courier reports.

“We’ve got some outstanding technologies that are going to result in new-to-the-world products very soon,” P&G’s chief executive, Bob McDonald said . “New categories. New brands. Just some unbelievable new technologies.

“We’re going to want to strengthen our innovation program so that there are no gaps … so that we’re constantly bringing new products, new brands, new categories to market.”

The firm appears prepared to accept failures as collateral damage in its search for the new revenue opportunities disruptive ideas offer. It spends around $2 billion on research and development every year, and recently gathered together executives from its innovation, marketing, insights, technology and design teams to source new ideas and potential intellectual property.

Among the items the firm has already announced it will launch in early 2013 are Pantene Age Defy in the beauty category, Cascade Platinum dishwasher tablets that clean the inside of machines as they work, and Mach3 razors for sensitive skin.

“Not all of these will make it to market,” Mesquita added. “Such is the reality of disruptive innovation. But we are confident that many will.”

Why social sucks for grocery brands

by Nick Hickford ON 27 September 2012

Social media. Everybody’s doing it so why not a product that’s used by all eight million Australian households? Laundry detergent. Let’s call our product Super Soapy Suds.

Super Soapy Suds advertises to busy mums on TV so why can’t we get a slice of the social stuff? Jeez, think about it for a nanosecond. Mum manages the household, feeds, clothes, transports the kids, works 20 to 30 hours a week in a paying job and if she is lucky has about 2.5 hours a week to actually spend relaxing. In those 2.5 hours she’s watching TV, going for a run or looking at internet sites she enjoys. The last thing she’s going to want to do is connect with Super Soapy Bloody Suds. The only way Super Soapy Suds will ‘engage’ with busy mums is when she chucks a few grams into the washer.

You’ve got no hope in hell of breaking into that precious 2.5 hours of ‘me time’ – as the snack food companies call it – to establish an ongoing, meaningful, sharing relationship. She’d much rather be talking to her friends on Facebook, pinning her dreams to Pinterest or buying clothes on The Iconic.

I’m not singing solo here – the other day I read a McKinsey article talking about how many grocery brands are struggling to gain traction in the social space, finding it difficult to measure success and don’t see numbers big enough to support an ROI case.

The category numbers support this, too. It’s a $500 million market, 200 million litres, used by everyone, hopefully… but the leading brands have only a meager 10,000 to 35,000 Facebook followers.

Even when you point this out some clients will say, ‘That’s great, but we’re still going to do it. So tell us how. After all, there are so many great food brands doing well like Coke, Red Bull, Skittles, Oreos…’

Bloody hell, he’s talking about global food brands with mega bucks invested into a full range of marketing channels over many, many, many years.

They also have an extremely compelling level of sensory engagement that the majority of grocery products don’t. That is, these products are all bloody delicious and Super Soapy Suds taste like, well, soap. Combine that with the time that most of them have been on the market and you’ve got more nostalgia in their bottle top than the entire Super Soapy Suds brand.

So what are you going to do with $50-200K (on a good day) to communicate with loyal Super Soapy Suds users on social media?

Firstly, forget talking about the product on social. That plays straight to the issue here. Your target is online for enjoyment and relaxation, not to learn about how the special chemicals in your product mean it clogs up the washing machine 300 times slower than its nearest competitor. Instead, lets talk to the combination of the consumer’s life stage and the brand’s emotional benefits, looking for similarities and cross-overs between the two.

In the case of Super Soapy Suds, history can give us a lesson on what they could do. In the 1950s and 60s soap brands knew how to connect with their market. They sponsored shows on TV and radio like Lux Theatre and hence the expression soap operas. The key to making this work is content.

Why should people visit the Super Soapy Suds social site? If we make it part of their leisure activities they will but we have to think beyond the supermarket aisles.

For instance, Mills and Boon sell more books than God. And now with the Fifty Shades phenomenon this genre is set to go to the next stratosphere! Pair up with them and pay for content. Half a dozen romance novels, new chapters downloaded every day. On-site blogs about soap operas, novels and even a ‘How to become a writer’ section. Prizes for book ideas or outlines – encourage your audience to participate and add content themselves. It becomes self-perpetuating for Super Soapy Suds. (If you’re from Unilever or Proctor & Gamble, you read it here first!)

Like this example, once you’ve nailed what you’re going to talk about online, get the direction established and the content can be sourced through your agencies once you brief them on the lifestage vs emotional benefit mix.

Combine your great content with ‘multi-social-platform’ placement and commitment over a decent period of time to test what will work and then you might just have a shot at getting a few minutes in those precious 2.5 hours of me time.

Targeting the cost-conscious, empowered, digital-savvy customer in store

by Georgie Torrens ON 29 August 2012

According to a recent Nielsen Global Survey, Australian consumer confidence is at its lowest levels since the GFC hit us a couple of years ago. Working in retail, we know that this news, as with the other prior premonitions, translates into a more cautious customer in store. Combined with the added uncertainty around how the digital landscape will shape up in the future, most retailers are working out how to navigate and yield results in what seems to be a new world – one where the customer is king (or queen), and technology has growing importance on the path to purchase.

In many cases, pricing seems to be the obvious and first step to combating the challenge from online retail and to reigning in a cost-conscious customer. But, marketers need to question the relevance of a strategy driven solely by price and aimed at an increase in short-term sales. How will it impact their long term brand value? Discounts, coupons and special deals are all great mechanisms to drive sales in store, but are they always the best strategy to engage the cost-conscious shopper?

US-based shopper research company MaxPoint Interactive recently deduced from a survey they conducted that the majority of respondents had made changes to their grocery shopping habits within the last year – becoming more cost-conscious before and during their trips. The survey also highlights how more shoppers were researching products online before purchasing them in store. Mums were also the most likely group of respondents to use digital methods to find recipes when preparing for a trip to the grocery store. These observations are not far from or different to the situation in Australia.

Knowing the challenges the retail industry faces, the question is how we tackle the situation and look at the opportunities that lay ahead. We need to constantly review shopper dynamics and understand the influencing factors – during pre-purchase, purchase and post-purchase – that drive decision making.

We recently attended the In-store Conference that took place in the UK and two key trends were highlighted as being key influencers behind shopper purchase patterns: product bundling and meal solutions. These aren’t new concepts and have been discussed in the past. However, a number of companies, both globally and locally, are underscoring the importance of bundling to their sales and marketing strategies as an opportunity in a tough, price-competitive market.

SPAR UK and Shoppercentric (a shopper insights agency in the UK) highlighted product bundling and meal solutions as both a driver of sales and the opportunity sectors. According to SPAR UK, for the convenience shopper that is driven by price, quality and range, meals solutions should deliver with good value, a treat factor, convenience, quality, product choice and health. If you were to read deeper between the lines, and psychoanalyse the expectations, you’d see that shoppers still want the drama, variety and joy with each meal, at a better (not necessarily reduced) price point.

In Australia, a report released in May 2012 by IGD Retail Analysis suggested that improving meal based solutions and occasion merchandising will drive growth and make the wider offer more compelling. According to IGD, there are signs of meal solutions becoming an increasingly prominent part of the offer but understanding the shopping mission is key.

Integration of products at point-of-purchase through clever use of modular systems and off-shelf placement is tantamount to getting meal solutions and product bundling right in Australia. A snacking station that combined drinks, chips, dips and salsa is a great example of how the marketers sought to build on the occasion of parties to bundle complementary products and give shoppers a complete meal solution.

Yes, shoppers are tight on budget and are more empowered with information. But, as an industry, it falls upon us to innovate, be more creative and work out how best we can attract them to the stores, steer them through the path to purchase and enable them to make choices that bring them closer to brands. Shoppers are in the driving seat, so work with them to provide the best tools that make their journey fun and memorable – but most importantly, profitable for you.

Darrell Lea: a take home message for marketers, CEOs and business owners

by Rebecca Wilson ON 24 July 2012

By now all of you have heard about our 85-year-old, third-generation, well-loved national confectionary brand Darrell Lea going into administration two weeks ago. A tragedy many will cry, and I concur that it may be very sad for the employees of the company, pending what the commercial outcomes of administration bring.

There are two take-home messages for all business owners and marketers in the Darrell Lea administration… nostalgia doesn’t make you open your wallet, and bigger is not always better.

1. Nostalgia doesn’t make you open your wallet

We don’t buy Darrell Lea purely because of the nostalgia we have for the brand anymore. Those times are gone. Instead, the Australian premium confectionery market has been swept up by large-promoting international brands and the market positioning of Darrell Lea pushed into competition with supermarket labels who have clearly had deeper pockets or more current branding and positioning drive. Sales at Darrell Lea have fallen 20% over the last five years and all the while, the company has continued to expand their costs and number of physical retail outlets.

2. Bigger is not always better

Your business does not always improve profitability, brand penetration or success with size and scale. For some businesses, more stores means more sales, greater profit and a wider network to share your costs over. For others, more stores means greater cost of distribution, management, production and advertising to have the reach you need to produce volume sales to satisfy independent owners’ demands of ROI.

There is no doubt about it, Darrell Lea was once a powerhouse of Australian retailing, with reports in the Sydney Morning Herald of there being 2000 small independent outlets and 70 stores owned by the company in its heyday. It also began exporting its products internationally in the year 2000, reportedly selling it in 10,000 outlets by 2007 and no doubt more now.

The Darrell Lea brand was built on nostalgia. All the packaging is traditional, and steeped in decades of tradition. I know from my own experience that their Rocklea Road easter egg has tasted and looked the same for many years (and will be sorely missed in our house if it goes away).

But getting away from chocolate for a minute, it is the same with a services business… I am not going to buy your services simply because they have been around for 10, 30 or 40 or 85 years, or because they are branded the same way they were 50 years ago, steeped in the past.

Instead, I am going to buy it for the following reasons:

Because the team you offer me is the most skilled, experienced and capable for the job I need done (right now not 10 years ago),
because my network of trust told me I should or could rely on you to do a good job (you are trusted by someone I trust), or
because I have bought from you before and you continue to communicate with me showing me you care, keeping your business front of mind and demonstrating you can still provide a good service (or because you can be bothered maintaining your existing client relationships).

Whether the Darrell Lea we know today survives or changes forever, don’t forget the take home message… that you cannot market your business on nostalgia alone.