Just A Branding Contest?

Fouros alerts us to Fast Company's "How Can This Brand Be Better" Contest:

Oooh, a contest for armchair brandbuilders and pros alike.

"Armchair" brand-builders is right. I thought maybe David Wolfe's post about marketing was a wee bit harsh - but on second thought, I dunno. I realize this is merely a contest - but I think it sends the wrong message about marketing. Alas, this isn't too far off the mark from how most repositioning strategies are actually conducted.

I just don't see how anyone can reposition a brand without doing some level of research - involving talking and listening to customers - whatsoever.

On this contest list, I only have sufficient first-hand knowledge with Office Depot, Tide, Fast Company, Starbucks, and Microsoft. I'm not sure I'd touch the U.S.A ;-)

Marketers certainly shouldn't confine their knowledge to their own experience with a brand - but I hope those that enter the contest find some minimum amount time to connect with the core target market. (And, by the way, in that list above, I'd only count myself as a core customer for Microsoft and Fast Company. For instance, I don't even drink coffee but I occasionally go to Starbucks for a soy chai. But I'm not their bread-and-butter customer. Can you make a case that they should woo me - perhaps. That's a side conversation and trust me I'm not an easy sell for them.) Now, could I add some value to repositioning the Starbucks' brand? Maybe, but I wouldn't recommend it unless I at least sat down at the cafe with a few customers in different markets, maybe chatted with a barista or two, and then went to a competitor's cafe and did the same. That's the minimum to just enter the contest.

Not to pick on a participant too much, as again the contest lends itself to armchair musing, but as a loyal Fast Company reader since its first issue I totally disagree with Marketing Playbook's assessment for Fast Company. I have never before or since had the emotional pull to any magazine in quite the way I have had with Fast Company. Now this does not constitute market research - but a friend told me the other day that the first issue of FC literally jumped off the shelf for him - it was a magnetic, attractive force. (BTW, Brand Autopsy is having a FC reader dialogue about Fast Company right now.)

Marketing Playbook's "be safe" story is just not going to play with me - at all. I'm quite a bit older than I was in 1996 too. But, if anything, maybe we get more brash as we get older. Perhaps, we're more self-assured and less concerned with "keeping up appearances". (If anything I've learned in a myriad of ways - some would say hammered in - that security is an illusion.) A lot of collective soul-searching happened in the years between 2001 to present. They haven't tapped into that. Although the magazine is called "Fast Company" it was always about far far more than merely being fast. It is Fast Company that's strayed from understanding us - it seems to have lost its voice and doesn't resonate with its loyal following any longer.

My point: Armchair brainstorming is part and parcel of what's wrong with marketing in general. How Can This Brand Be Better? Don't ask brand or marketing pundits - always ask your customers first.

Comments

[Heath Row]

Actually, I view the contest less as armchair brand building -- and more as a thought exercise that could help earn a participant some free branding expertise. The prize is a three-hour consultation... pretty useful.

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/85/open_brand_contest.html

That said, I agree that it's important to turn to your customers for assistance like this. Which is why we included ourselves in the mix. We wanted to use the contest as a trigger for seeking reader feedback, as well. And as this post attests -- it's working! Thanks for your in-depth commentary.

[Evelyn Rodriguez]

Heath,
Thanks for your quick reply. My issue was less about the contest per se - again, it's just a contest - and more that this resembles a bit too closely how many repositioning strategies are conducted.

That said, I did think it was clever to include Fast Company in the mix as it was INSIDE your own magazine that you're soliciting feedback so chances are you are reaching your core market. Be interesting to see to also reach past readers that have dropped their subscription as well.

In fact, it's got me to thinking about Fast Company quite a bit after this post went up...so I'll probably throw in my hat for the FC category.

[johnza]

Evelyn.

I think you make a great point about armchair brand/marketing folks. It is awfully easy (and kind of fun) to opine on stuff like this when you do not have to carry the water. I totally agree (in fact it is fundamental tenet of the Marketing Playbook) that YOU need to own the solution to your problems. You do not need to be intimidated by marketing issues. You need to build your own playbook.

You need to decide who you are and want to be. First by understanding your playing field. Not only by asking your customers (as you so rightly note) but also by understanding your competitors (using their products, knowing thier people), and looking hard at yourself and what you really can and should do. This is not a theoretical thing. It is down and dirty, it is something you and not any armchair quarterback can own.

(That said I think it is cool that FC asks and includes itself in this contest. It is in essense asking its own customers. Good work. Keep it up and go even further, invite your subscribers to BECOME more of FC in blogs, content creation, criticism etc.)