Brand Noise

Food: Simple, Fresh, Economical--On Message

On the West Coast, Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market has introduced a new line of ready-to-eat products that can be mixed and matched to create over 200 meal ideas. The line includes 30 different varieties of fresh pastas, sauces, meat and vegetarian dishes, and sides which pair to create meals for two for about $10.  All Fresh & Easy products contain no added trans fats, no artificial flavors and colors and only use preservatives when absolutely necessary. At roughly 10,000 square feet, Fresh & Easy markets are smaller than the typical supermarket to give customers a faster, easier shopping experience. In addition to fresh, prepared meals and produce, Fresh & Easy offers national brands and household items at everyday low prices. (Photo: Oakmonster.)

Counting Calories Gives Control Back

When all else is failing, it beckons the need to gain control wherever you can. We're seeing it across the board. One way they're seizing the opportunity is by counting calories. It's do-able.

"For the last few decades, the most popular diets were complex formulas that promised abundant eating with just the right combinations of fat, protein and carbohydrates. Now those regimens are starting to look like exotic mortgages and other risky financing instruments. And just like a reliable savings account, good old calorie counting is coming back into fashion...New Yorkers got a harsh dose of calorie reality this summer when restaurants with 15 or more outlets were forced to post the calorie content of food next to the price."

Read more.

Toast Art?

Follow this photostream on Flickr. But don't do it when you're hungry.

The Next Starbucks

It has been a hard to watch some of the news items trickling out about Starbucks lately.  From cheaper coffee to smoothies (how very late nineties)- the brand's recent moves have me underwhelmed and quite puzzled.  A brand that has led the rest of the market for so long is now, at least appearing to scramble to do what everyone else is doing and has been doing. In early 2007 Howard Schultz warned of the  commoditization of the Starbuck's experience. Starbucks reshaped consumer behavior in the US (and Asia).  It turned coffee into a new social concept.  The Starbucks ritual reshaped how people get together, meet up and spend time in between the activities of the day. It was more than coffee - it was a reinvention of the American eating out experience,  which had stayed unchanged since the birth of McDonald's. Ironically we now see the brand feeling more like McD's than anything new - and in fact with some of what the fast food brands are doing with partnerships like Nestle and Vitamin Water - they come out looking like the innovator.  Easier to do when you are "trading up" the brand.

An article in the WSJ delivers some advice from Starbucks Asia on how to recharge the passion around the brand.  " To break into the market, Starbucks strategists observed customers at its first outlet on a back street in Tokyo's Ginza district and soon caught on that women with disposable incomes would become the main patrons of Western-style coffee houses. Subsequent Starbucks outlets in Japan catered to them with a smoke-free environment conducive to lengthy conversations."

It seems to me that the brand that has been leading in this passionate twist on lingering and grazing is the Belgian brand Le Pain Quotidien.  We mentioned this point in an article about Starbucks when it was announced that Howard Schultz was returning.   There is a lot to be learned from this brand for  Starbucks.  Perhaps  at least in developing a tiered brand strategy where different locations function in unique ways.  Some faster - some that encourage lingering.  In the meantime I think Le Pain Quotidien will be filling the space that Starbucks seems to eager to leave behind. 

Starbucks Pike Place Backlash

(via WSJ) A backlash is brewing against Starbucks Corp. over its Pike Place Roast coffee, which has perked up the company's sales by attracting new business, but has alienated a small yet vocal group of longtime patrons.

Related
Starbucks Replaces Bold Blend
 

BK Trades (Way) Up

If you have ever worked on an "eating out" brand, you probably are aware of the way in which food/restaurant chains are often positioned and grouped.  The difference from fast food and fast casual.  It seems that these groupings are slowly losing their meaning.  Do consumer see a difference between "semi-upscale" fast food like Panera and "everyday" fast food like BK's?  The consumer is looking for innovation and it seems like it is anyone's game if you can capture the imagination and attention of the consumer.  Trading up is the opportunity in every action you take.

(excerpt from Adage)The world's most-expensive burger -- at $190 a pop -- is not to be found in an exclusive Manhattan restaurant, but in a tiny branch of Burger King in West London.  Determined to show the world that it takes meat quality seriously, the fast-food chain is marketing a limited-edition gastronomic glory available once a week, Thursdays only, in this single location. All proceeds go to a local children's charity. "The idea is to change perceptions by pushing the envelope to raise awareness of our ambitions," said Mark Dowding, Burger King's head of product and innovation for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. "We have emphasized the quality to create noise and interest in the market."

Tyson loses Antibiotic-Free

Tyson Foods will voluntarily withdraw its labels for chicken raised without antibiotics because of what it called “uncertainty and controversy over product labeling regulations.”

The company said it had also asked the Agriculture Department to consider beginning a public process for more clarity and consistency in labeling and advertising rules for product claims.

Tyson was informed by the department in May 2007 that it could use the “raised without antibiotics” label, but it reversed that decision last fall.

Mapping cultural impact plays out for Clorox Greenworks

Be careful when you make new friends in the new era of networks.  Partnerships, especially dealing with politically charged areas such as green, are often more complicated than you think. When Clorox courts a deal with the Sierra Club for the Greenworks line of cleaners, the marriage can cause a ripple effect that shifts the narrative for groups  clustered around and connected up to that point in the "green" social network. 

(excerpt from this week's AdAge) Green marketers want endorsements from environmental groups to give their efforts greater credibility. Environmental groups know those marketers can provide some much-needed money and exposure. It's a marriage made in heaven -- except when it's not. Four of the Sierra Club's 64 chapters outright opposed the association. And it's not hard to find a blog by outraged former Sierra Club members decrying the partnership.

The lesson is that the new friend you make on the new consumer playground for your brand is not necessarily going to get everyone liking you.  In fact, at first the stories will generate on you with more focus and skepticism than before.  The key is staying on top of how this language evolves.  Understanding ways to demonstrate that the brand is evolving and moving forward.  Speaking as a brand that is learning from the partnership. The partnerships should never come off as a "quick pass" to green. They are an opportunity for a dialog to  grow and improve a product line.  Anticipating  ripples in the networks that brands seek to engage and participate in is crucial to their growth and survival. Mapping the cultural impact is just as important as mapping the sales impact. Brands need to do both now.

Serendipity and the Resurgence of the Supper Club

(from NY Times Magazine)  ....we began hearing about a strange monthly ritual that sounded as if it might have escaped from an ancient episode of “Thirtysomething” — that is if the 30-somethings had been wine connoisseurs who consulted the U.C. Davis home-winemaking Web site and crushed and pressed Petit Syrah in their driveways. Serendipity is the potluck’s guiding light. At First Wednesday, there are never any assigned dishes — in true California style, you cook your bliss. Sometimes, great minds cook alike: there have been all-pasta First Wednesdays, all-salad First Wednesdays, all-dessert First Wednesdays (the latter the reason God invented Domino’s Pizza).  read more

Raising the Dead (Brands)

Rob Walker looks at the fine art of reviving old, discontinued brands in this week's NY Times Magazine. (excerpt) Brim, the decaffeinated coffee brand, has been off retail shelves since the 1990s. From 1961 to around 1995, General Foods spent tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars to get it (top of mind). But General Foods disappeared into the conglomerate now known as Altria, which also acquired Kraft, maker of Maxwell House. With much smaller sales than that megabrand, Brim soon disappeared — except, perhaps, for a vague idea of Brim that lingered, and lingers even now, in the minds of millions of consumers. What’s that worth? A small company in Chicago, called River West Brands, figures that it’s definitely worth something, and possibly quite a lot.