How Hollywood Markets

Alfred Hitchcock revolutionized the idea of self-marketing himself in Hollywood by being one of the first to brand himself with his famous…walk-by-the-camera in the first scene in all of his movies. Everyone knew it was a Hitchcock movie once they saw his appearance in the film.

Today this trend has swayed towards music artists. With so many new artists popping up and becoming top billboard hits without fans knowing who all these new artists are, it can be hard to remember which artists have the big hits. Not anymore! When artists plug their name into songs like…
-Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance “Gaga…ooo…la la!”
-in Break Your Heart “…with Taio Cruz and Ludacris!”
-Jason Derulo’s In My Head where the first words sung are his name
…to name a few mentions…it’s much easier for radio stations and consumers to remember the artist’s name if its plugged into the middle of the song.

Truly a brilliant way to brand yourself in a clutter music market in Hollywood. Looking forward to seeing what the next big thing Hollywood does to keep consumers informed & engaged…

Consumers Trust LESS!

Wonder why? Hmm...shall we go back to the original Enron scandel? GM? Lehman Bros? Ring a bell? It should make you realize why many consumers have lost their trust in companies today. Check out a quick video & article titled The Great Trust Offensive in BusinessWeek.

The video describes how "consumers want to know what the company is doing..." Some ways McD's has risen in the most trusted list because of tying itself to causes like GreenPeace & by not fighting its image as having unhealthy foods by posting its calorie counts in each menu item in some locations.

However not everybody is happy with every company out there... It takes some skill to improve your overall image and not something that is an instant fix. Consumers are very savy and will find ways to switch brands/retailers/options for products & services if they hear or are dissatisfied. Should be interesting to see who can improve their image & gain back the consumer trust needed for their brand to succeed!

MEGA-Brand

BrandWeek describes it...but really the question remains - what is a megabrand? Is it something that "relates to taking a power brand and extending its equity across related product categories to drive growth and efficiencies"? Or is it just a powerful company in general? There seems to be so many large brands out there acquiring different little brands...so I wonder if technically they count as well?

Nielsen also does a nice piece on "How Can a Mega Brand Equal a Mega Success?". The key points made to keep a mega brand a mega hit revolve around the following: cross-over consumption, good practice, sustainable competitive advantage, unique relevance, persuasive actions, credibility carries clout, invest for growth, & distinct direction.

Looking forward to watching to see which companies are considered or not considered mega brands in the near future depending on which successful growth tactics they take!

the "not so little" organic food companies

Did YOU know that...
*Bear Naked is backed by Kellogg?
*Cascadian Farm is backed by General Mills?
*Kashi is backed by Kellogg?

The Chicago Tribune did a great piece on how many small organic food companies are and have been bought out by larger companies like Kellogg and General Mills. It makes you wonder...is that small brand you're buying really a small brand? Or, is it backed by a powerhouse brand? Tough to tell since a majority of the time, the larger brand is not mentioned on the packaging.

BIG time mistake G!

Felt it to be VERY necessary to follow up on my July 9th post about G/Gatorade as I stumbled on a WSJ article which describes how Gatorade did a BIG mistake in renaming its Gatorade as G. This not-so-small tradeoff of rebranding has now turned into one of THE biggest marketing mistakes in the recession. Pepsi has been hit harder than Coke - Pepsi with an overall 6% drop in sales, Coke with an overall 1% drop in sales in second quarter sales.

Must mean that Coke is doing something right & that consumers have been very confused about the G & G2 products on shelves.

Easy fix? Call me old fashioned but save the billion dollar brand & go back to its roots of the big lightning bolt & GATORADE on the bottle.