Brand Myth Busting

Companies have more data to hand than ever before; multiple sources, multiple dashboards enabling them to look at any one performance data point from a multiple of different angles. And every sale resulting in jillions of tonnes of data to the analysis pile.

Yet, despite this seeming richness, brand myths still abound in many companies. Brand myths that no amount of rational analysis seems to be able to shift. Brand myths that people either willingly accept, grudgingly accept, or circumnavigate. Myths that are are wasteful and potentially dangerous, because they can become a smoke screen, behind which the slow tides of change in the market place can go unnoticed, or false truths can become anchors that prevent necessary action, or channel investment and resource into the wrong things.

How, then, do brands and companies remove the myths? How do they allow the truth to shine through and future opportunities be seen and realised?  As with many things in life it involves going back to basics, in this case brand basics:

  1. Know your core target versus your source of business. This is really important to get right. Miss the bullseye of your core target and you will miss the fertile ground that understanding their attitudes and needs feed. And whilst consumer behaviour does not change overnight, subtle shifts can happen over time that if you are not checking in with your consumers can be missed and false assumptions can manifest in sub-optimal executions. This doesn’t mean ignoring your source of business – they are commercially important, but are likely to be more transient and focusing on them will dilute your brand proposition and strategy where it can really make a difference.

Action 1: generate and test alternative hypothesis to whom your core consumer is – age, needs, attitudes, occasions for engaging with your product based on clues you are seeing and have gathered from; other research you have done, trends, performance data or simply speaking to people you know.

Action 2: Identify and have a clear understanding of your source of business – subtle shifts in action planning can ensure this bucket remains topped up and you can focus on that part of them that can become the habitual consumers of the future.

  1. Being clear what your brand is. Everyone thinks they are clear on what their brand offers. But, with pressure to grow, incremental creep can mean that internal views of what the brand is can be very different to how a consumer sees it.  Just because your brand can launch into multiple categories doesn’t mean it should. Indeed, by being clear on what your brand is means it can be more successful and selective in the categories it extends in to.

Action: does the consumer view on what your brand is match the interval view? If not, why not, and take the action to align them. Brands can only be built successfully when all audiences agree on what the brand is.

  1. Brand thinking and understanding never stops but the final brand basic is knowing the benefits and ‘reasons to believe’ that really resonate with your core audience, and are properly grounded in a product truth.

Action: understand whether your brand benefits and RTB’s are as compelling as they should be. Are they expressed in the right way, do they really deliver against the wants and needs of your target audience?

If you need help cutting through the data, or challenging the brand myths that have built up in your business over time, get in touch. They can often be the biggest impediment to future growth – get your house in order however, and you have a chance.

Gael Laurie is Brand Building Director of The Crow Flies, a research, strategy and innovation company that helps brands find a direct route to long lasting success.  gael@thecrowflies.co.uk; +44 (0) 1283 295100; www.thecrowflies.co.uk; @crowflieshigh. © The Crow Flies, 2024

What’s in a name?

Peter Andre doesn’t often make me ponder, but recent headlines about how long he took to announce the naming of his baby daughter did just that. The importance and diligence behind naming children today;  the myriad influences of cultural references from film characters, royalty, pop stars and even politicians… all leave a  heightened sense of loading names with meaning and sentiment. Did people used to put this much thought into naming their child?

Naming a brand or company is arguably just as hard and serious in this highly competitive world. The name chosen will be at the centre of the base of mental associations that the brand or company will be building up; it will help steer or navigate people towards  -or away from – the brand; it will, over time, become loaded with meaning which helps or hinders it commercially (and beyond – it could help or hinder employee recruitment or engagement too).

So, naming requires some careful thought, a rationale consideration of the alternatives and a clear fit to the business’ strategic intent.

It’s also alchemy.

There are no rules, no playbook – but you can consider whether you want your glass full, half full or empty in terms of giving you a helping hand – and trends undoubtedly do influence this.

  • The obvious place to start is to name after a founder. Some would argue it is the least creative approach, yet it may be perfectly serviceable (in, say, a smaller independent business) and it has traditionally been the most common approach in that most creative of industries – advertising. Ogilvy; Saatchi & Saatchi; Doyle Dane Bernbach; White, Collins, Rutherford, Scott – take your pick.Naming after the founder can mean the naming ‘glass’ is empty: you have to fill it with meaning over time. Equally, though, in many professional fields naming after the founder brings gravitas, expertise and a confidence in who and what you are buying into. (This is why celebrity spin offs rely heavily on carrying their name).
  • Likewise making up a name entirely, which conversely, often seems like the most creative approach is also, typically a ‘glass empty’ start point. Whether you’re ‘Diageo’ or ‘Velcro’ or ‘Wii’ you’ve got to invest to create meaning.
  • A slightly more ‘glass half full’ approach is when you choose to use a strong cue from the category you are entering (assuming the category is established): e.g. Crunchy Nut Cornflakes, Dairy Milk, Home Bargains…
  • …but when suggestion of the product benefits is added, with a sprinkle of emotion the glass fills a little more. Take the soft furnishings and curtain company, ‘A Room with a View’ for example.
  • Recent trends include single word names that are weighty and loaded e.g. Loaf, Gusto, Guu as well as interesting pairings e.g. Wolf & Badger, Fable & Eve, Bricks & Stitches that work well together and the more personal approach where the consumer is made to feel intrinsic to the name, such as Bio & Me or Me&Em.
  • And layer over this whether you’re creating a new master brand, or a brand extension, or if you’re rebranding…. it really becomes alchemy not science.

So, where you should start?

Firstly, and most importantly you have to remember that any name, no matter how wonderful is a fairly empty vessel that has to be filled with all the things you want associated with it. Brands are built not born fully formed.

Second, start from a clear positioning. This will give you a broad direction and help you understand the best approaches to consider – half empty, empty or full.

Third, be realistic about time and investment. The name is a critical part of creating a company or brand, but it will only become known as you invest hard graft and your not-so-filthy-lucre in it.

The Crow Flies can help build your brand’s strategic foundations – be it creating a brand from scratch, or deciding where to go in the future. Get this right, and the naming pathway becomes a little easier to see.

 

Gael Laurie is Brand Building Director of The Crow Flies, a research, strategy and innovation company that helps brands find a direct route to long lasting success. If naming is perplexing you, get in touch: gael@thecrowflies.co.uk; +44 (0) 1889 725670; www.thecrowflies.co.uk; @crowflieshigh. Copyright 2024

New innovation launch for bottlegreen: vodka spritz cans

Here’s a lovely liquid launch from Crow Friends SHS Drinks, their first move into alcoholic drinks with a range of ready-to-drink vodka spritz cans, made exclusively with the premium flavours of bottlegreen and Edwards 1902 vodka. Look out for it in Sainsbury’s!

As always we were chuffin’ Choughed to support the team – in this project with the research and concept refinement ready for launch!

New innovation launch for Pieminister: Handy Pies

Whoop! Here’s another amazing *new* innovation from our pie-fectly formed friends at Pieminister and lovely to have played a small part in developing the idea and getting them to market.

It’s time to dump the lunchtime soggy sandwich, sad slice or joyless wrap and feast on these handily handheld, deep filled, and seriously delicious Handy Pies.

There are four delicious flavours including a veggie and vegan option and they’re piefect to eat hot or cold.

Available in Ocado right now, Tesco to come very soon!

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Links:

Pieminister webpage

Pieminister insta

 

Crow Chronicle – unlocking the power of great plans

Ah, Crow Friends, please find attached for your delight and cawsome delectation this Spring’s Crow Chronicle, which this season is mostly focusing on plans and planning. Now, yes, here at Crow we are a brand building business, but creating great plans and much bigger than that. Whether it’s the plan for the whole business; a BU; a function or a brand portfolio or range, the power of a compelling plan, and the process that gets you there is often under-appreciated.

A great planning process aligns and unites the whole business. A great process not only delivers a plan that everyone then works to, but also drives engagement because of the confidence it creates.

A great plan focuses minds. Too often plans are flabby, unfocused and don’t talk to the key issues at play. The Chronicle offers a few tips and thought-starters for how to ensure this doesn’t happen.

Us Crows are absolute converts to the power of a great plan to drive a business positively forward. It takes effort, commitment, guts and no end of cat-herding, but get it right, and the domino effect you can create in the business will repay that investment in time and energy thrice over*

Enjoy the read!

Link here: Crow Chronicle on Planning

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*Yes, Crow said ‘thrice’ there. It’s a word that is not used often enough. Like ‘nuptials’, ‘egregious’, or ‘snollygoster’

New innovation launch for Florette: Gourmet Slaws

We loved working with the green-fingered team at Florette UK&I on the idea generation and concept development for the new Gourmet Slaw range, launching today in Sainsbury’s, and next month in Tesco, Booths (and more to follow).

The insight revealed a simple unmet need: people like coleslaw but get frustrated that too often, they’re pretty bland and often slathered in cheap mock-mayonnaise.

Not these: three flavours; fresh ingredients… ready to make or complete any meal, from a light lunch to a tasty dinner.  So cawsome, they’re slawsome!
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If you’re looking to develop new products so good they should be against the s-law, get in touch!

Innovation Success for Pieminister

Oh, it was so cawsome to hear the Piefect news about Pieminister’s – now *award winning* – Souk Chouk chicken and harissa filo pie in the British Pie Awards 2024! (Yes, very delightfully, there is such a thing). It’s always great to see the fruits of the team’s efforts do well, and in this case great to have been part of the  ‘filled-right-to-the-brim’ team at Pieminister that conceived and brought this beaut to market!
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Honestly, if you haven’t tried one yet they’re in Waitrose & Partners, Tesco and Ocado Retail Ltd – very much a case of winner, winner, filo pie dinner. Or lunch.
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Looking to build your innovation pipeline? Call Crow!

Not All Insights Are Created Equal

Debate and opinion on insights in marketing orientates around three topics. One, whether a business or brand is market-orientated at all, and how it becomes it. Two, how to gather insights. And three, debates about whether ‘insights’ are actually ‘insights’ at all or merely ‘data’, ‘observations’ or ‘truisms’ (and therefore somehow of less value). Enough indeed, for a Chapter each in the not-yet-started-or-frankly-needed, Crow Marketing Text Book.

What isn’t discussed is the utility of your insights. This tends to be assumed, but it would be incorrect to do so. A suite of insights that have been developed or identified for the brand are exploitable in different ways and in different degrees. In effect, insights are not created equal – deciding which to use and leverage is the one of the critical transition points between strategy and action.

Start with the brand positioning: if leveraging the insight creates dissonance with the task of refreshing or reinforcing what the brand stands for, then stop – you’re about to waste effort and resource.

Next, consider whether the insight is emergent – too often, it’s easy to be beguiled by a trend that seems exciting and new, but in fact isn’t scalable – at least not yet. Here, have a watching brief and bide your time.

Conversely, watch for being late to the party, when the words “we have to…” are being used around the business. You may have identified an insight whose time is passing and is beginning to recede. The risk here is that you spend resource on something that isn’t ownable and so doesn’t benefit the brand long term.

Discussing choosing between insights may seem counter-intuitive… after all, there’s an almost unstated assumption that insights are semi-mystical entities only capable of being found when you’re in the bath or when an apple drops on your head – neither of which are particularly likely to happen on a Teams call (at least not with the cameras on). And it isn’t true. Insights can be built and developed through being observant, curious, challenging and testing.

That’s when the real challenge emerges in insight: which will best help me grow my brand?

 

David Preston is founder of The Crow Flies, a research, strategy and innovation company that helps brands find a direct route to long lasting success. For a different take on insights: david@thecrowflies.co.uk; +44 (0) 1889 725670; www.thecrowflies.co.uk; @crowflieshigh. Copyright 2024

Not thinking about innovation? You should be.
In the last year the number of innovation projects we help our clients with at The Crow Flies has stepped up. At first we thought it just a blip, but Helen Edward‘s article in Marketing Week underlines why, when times are tough, you need to have real clarity of focus on what’s important in your marketing mix – and innovation is right up there. As she says in the piece:
“Consumers love brands that don’t stand still. Think Apple, Red Bull, Spotify, Zara, L’Oréal. So, commit. Make 2024 the year you innovate. And by year’s end, you might find that you have not only better ridden out this bleak backdrop of economic and societal gloom, but perhaps, in some small way, actually done something to change it”.
If you’re looking for an innovation partner to build your brand’s pipeline, or need to start from scratch with the fundamentals – we can help.
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caw@thecrowflies.co.uk | +44 (0) 1889 725670
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Link to Helen’s article is also here.
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