3-Step Drop: Rivalries

What a great weekend for college football fans coming up with the marquee games on the schedule.  Topping this list of rivalries and big games are USC v Notre Dame and OU v Texas.  What can your brand learn from these annual match ups?

1. Brands Need Brands - If your marketing agency has done a great job during the discovery and account planning process, your brand will be able to pioneer a new category free from competitors, initially.  But with today's resources and technology, some other company will copy you and come to market soon after you enter.  Do not worry, you want and need this to happen.  Why?  Think about it...how else would we be able to judge how good USC or Notre Dame is unless they play another team?  It would be ridiculous to crown Texas as national champions if they didn't play a game all year, right?

Your brand is the exact same.  If no competitors come into the market after you, the consumer will likely not give you the credibility you deserve.  Consumers need a way to gauge your brand against others to see just how good it really is; whether or not your "big idea" is as big as you think it is.  Past the initial phase of newness, consumers tend to think, "it must not be that good if nobody else is doing it."  You have a decided advantage when you enter this new market first, and you will have chances to "out play" your competition with better strategy, just as USC and Texas will this weekend.

2. Consumers Need Brands - You might be thinking this statement should be the other way around.  You would be correct; brands do need consumers.  But it is equally as true that consumers need and want good brands as well, for three main reasons.  The first being it saves time.  Assume your favorite college football team has a bye this weekend, will you not watch games at all?  Most likely not.  So how will you choose?  You will scan your TV Guide channel and look at the match ups.  Certain teams/universities have built brands over the long term that give you a sense of what to watch; OU v Texas being one of them.  Your brand is the same way.  Once you make a name for yourself, it will be easier to sell to the consumer because the consumer knows what they are getting.

The second reason is that brands project the right message to the people who will be judging you; and face it, we all judge.  Again, assume your favorite team has a bye this weekend and you choose to watch these two marquee match ups.  Let's say both of these games end up being one-sided blowouts.  Will anyone fault you for tuning in to these games, even if they become blowouts, instead of Central Seaweed State v. Northern Turkeyneck University?  No.  But if you tune into the Turkeyneck's game and OU v Texas is a close nail biter people will think you're nuts for not even tuning in at all.  Nobody will fault you for choosing those marquee match ups and you, as a consumer, don't lose any image points.

Lastly, and closely related to the second point is brands provide consumers with an identity.  Consumers need an identity just as much as brands do.  Being a fan of USC or OU aligns them with a group of like-minded people.  However they choose this association, for now, is irrelevant.  What is important is that consumers WILL choose things, groups, people, and/or products that will help people identify them and so they can identify themselves.  If you want to be seen as cool and hip, you might buy an iPhone.  When people see you with that iPhone they will think that you are an up-to-date, tech-savvy, cool person.

3. Brands Are Long Term Assets -  When we look at these games, today we see them as the big games of weekend.  But were they always that big?  No.  There was a time when OU v Texas only had meaning for people associated with those institutions.  Eventually overtime with the success of the teams and the national championship implications, this game itself became a brand, hence the name the Red River Rivalry, as well as the teams that play in them.  This did not happen overnight.  It took years on the recruiting trail for the coaches, countless wins, loses, championships, and marquee players to get this game noticed at the national level.  Now when someone mentions the Red River Rivalry we don't need to ask who's playing in that game.

Your brand will start small and may need years to prosper to the level where it is synonymous with a particular category.  It takes consistency, cash and an ability to cut through the competitive clutter.  Don't believe me?  Red Bull took nine years to exceed $100 million in annual sales.  It took Microsoft ten years to exceed that same amount.  How long did it take the world's largest retailer, Wal-Mart (with approximately $339 billion in annual sales), to reach the $100 million mark? FOURTEEN YEARS!  Be patient and don't expect instant results with your brand either.  Eventually your brand can reach the heights of a USC, Notre Dame or the Red River Rivalry as well.  Fight On!

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3-Step Drop: Oakland Raiders

The Oakland Raiders have been one of the biggest jokes in all of sports the past few seasons.  They have been incorporated into the punchline of countless jokes and parodies.  And this year they didn't disappoint; Head Coach Tom Cable punched an assistant coach in the face breaking his jaw.  Only in Oakland could that happen.  But even with all this organizational incompetence, is there anything a marketer can learn?  Yes.

1. Your visible head - Who is the visible head of the Oakland Raiders; QB JaMarcus Russell, Al Davis, Head Coach Tom Cable?  Probably a mix of all three.  In either case, the perception is not good.  Most people think Al Davis is senile, we already mentioned the head coach's issue, and JaMarcus Russell couldn't hit the inside of a barn if he was standing inside the barn.

The visible head of your organization can do more to help or hurt your brand than any ad campaign the best creative director in the world can dream up.  Your visible head - CEO, CMO, COO, PR - needs to be on top of their game at all times.  In today's world of 24-hour news cycle, blogs and other social media outlets anything they say and do in public will scrutinized.  Whoever this person is in your organization should exude the qualities of your brand at all times and be good for a sound bite or two occasionally.  My favorite: Larry Ellison of Oracle. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UYa6gQC14o

2. Deficiencies in strategy make execution look bad - As of this writing, JaMarcus Russell ranks 30th in the NFL in passing with 1 touchdown, 4 interceptions, 378 yards and a pathetic 39.8 passer rating through three games.  Is JaMarcus Russel this bad as a player, as a quarterback?  Probably not.  What this is indicative of is bad strategy by the Raiders play callers.  The Raiders need to run the ball more and put Russell in manageable situations and not ask him to win games with his arm just yet.

Look at your current marketing strategy.  Do you know why your ad looks the way it looks and is running with the frequency that it is?  Do you know why you are positioned in the market where you are?  Should you reposition yourself to gain a competitive advantage, and you should you reposition your competitor to take away their edge?  Your advertising might not be working because there is a key bit of strategy that is lacking; be it in your positioning, creative or messaging strategy.  Oh, I know your agency won an award for it, but if it doesn't help you sell more stuff does it really matter?

3. Don't let your tagline become a punchline - Commitment to Excellence.  Does anyone really think the Raiders are committed to excellence?  Well in actuality they are.  Al Davis wants to win just as much as the the next owner and so do the staff and players of the Raiders.  The problem is with the execution of the Raiders and how it compares to what they say they are about through the use of their tagline or slogan.  The Raiders are usually one of the most penalized teams in the league, we have coaches punching coaches in the face, coaches calling players dumb, and a revolving door of coaches to name a few.  None of these things exude excellence.

Whatever you tagline or corporate slogan may be, constantly review it.  Make sure your brand is living up to it in every touch point that you have.  If you find it is not, change your execution to match the tagline or change your tagline.  If you wait until your tagline becomes a punchline you'll have a hard time reversing course in the minds of your consumers.

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3-Step Drop: Aaron Corp

Last Saturday the USC Trojans were upset by the Washington Huskies.  The Trojans were forced to play the game with their #2 quarterback Aaron Corp because the Freshman phenom, Matt Barkley, had an injured shoulder from their previous weeks win at Ohio State.  So what can your brand learn from Aaron Corp?  In honor of football lets look at three quick points.  Let's call it the 3-Step Drop.

1. Credentials - Aaron Corp was a top recruit in from Lutheran High in Orange, California.  His senior season he completed 68% of his passes throwing for 2,750 yards with 21 touchdowns while rushing for another 1,197 yards and 12 touchdowns.  He won the Glenn Davis Award as the best player in Southern California while leading his team to a 14-1 championship season.

You need to build strong credentials early before your brands makes the big time.  Running one great ad with a great tagline isn't going to cut it.  It's often a slow process and you can't cut corners.  You must be consistent, perform well at the lower levels, and get noticed.  Corp (the brand) built his credentials from Pop Warner through high school and got noticed by the Trojans (consumer).  What are you doing to build your brands credentials?

2. Perform - Once your brand gets noticed and makes it to the big stage you have to perform.  Corp got his chance against the Huskies.  What happened?  13 of 22 passing for 110 yards, one interception and no touchdowns.  Your brand has to perform when given the chance.

That means your sales staff has to look the part and know what they're talking about.  That means the receptionist can't sound like she hates talking to people when she answers the phone.  If your brand performs to levels below expectations, as did Corp, you may never get a second chance.  That one rude interaction from your salesperson can turn that upset customer into an advocate AGAINST your brand because that is how they will remember you.  Aaron Corp is probably a great guy that will go on to be successful at whatever he does, but for now he will be the quarterback that didn't get it done when he should have.  Until he gets a second chance, if he does, that is what we will remember.  How will your brand perform when given a chance?  You may not get another shot.

3. Brand Equity - Because Corp goes to USC and was in a battle for the starting position, we expect certain things from him.  We expect him to be the next in line; to be able to make USC perform as seamlessly as the transition from Carson Palmer to Matt Leinart.  Why?  Because that's the brand USC has built for themselves in this modern era.  All the experts expected USC to beat the Huskies convincingly because of this equity.

If you are fortunate enough to own a successful brand, there will be a time when you think about growing your business and extending your brand into new categories.  Be careful!  Like Corp, if your consumers extend the main brands equity (trust) to your new category and you do not perform up to the original brands standard you are doomed.  USC's loss to Washington may cost them a shot at the national championship and has caused fans and pundits alike to question just how good the Trojans really are.  It will be tough for the Trojans to make it back to the top even if they do win out.  What will that failure cost your brand?

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