Based on insights from Timothy Calkins
For Kelloggs Tim Calkins, theres plenty to learn from brands that make smart decisionslike Geicos commitment to its memorable tagline: 15 minutes can save you 15 percent or more on car insurance.
Theres probably even more to learn from the brands that mess up.
From United Airlines forcibly removing a passenger from an overbooked flight to Sea Worlds long, slow trickle of negative publicity, Calkinss much-lauded blog Building Strong Brands is the place to go for insightful takes on brands in the news.
I hope my blog encourages people to think a bit more deeply about brands, marketing, and communication more broadly, says Calkins, a clinical professor of marketing at Kellogg.
If you are unfamiliar with his blog, heres a preview of what youve been missing.
A Pay Your Age Fiasco
By all accounts, Build-A-Bears recent Pay Your Age Day promotion was an utter disaster. Crowded stores, long lines, and safety concerns forced the stuffed-animal retailer to shut down what was intended to be an all-day event by 11 a.m.
Clearly, the day marked a low point for the retailer. After all, no company wants to be associated with crying children. But as Calkins wrote in a recent post, Build-A-Bears brand may experience a less obviousand potentially more insidioushit for quite some time.
By offering its products at $3 or $5if even for a daythe company may have set the expectation that this is all that its product should cost. Pricing is complicated, writes Calkins, especially for items that arent easy to compare. What is the right price for a home robot? I have no idea. How about a flying personal drone that can get you to your work? Not a clue.
So consumers use what a product does cost as a reference. For many people, the correct price for an iTunes song is 99 cents, only because thats where Apple started, Calkins explains. Now that some people have seen a stuffed narwhal or T-Rex go for a handful of dollars, their willingness to pay could be influenced for many years to come.
Freedom for All
In another recent post, Calkins explains why he thinks Budweisers creatively named new Freedom Reserve Red Lagerinspired by a recipe that George Washington wrote in his journal in 1757is a good idea, though unlikely to be a blockbuster.
Fraction Confusion
Or check out this post on Fifth Third Banks acquisition of MB Financial Bank. The move, writes Calkins, gives Cincinnati-based Fifth Third an opportunity to do something it should have done a long time agodrop its ridiculous brand name.
The article was originally published in Kellogg Insights.
Timothy Calkins is the Clinical Professor of Marketing.