Merits of Brand Flexibility

How flexible is your brand? Is your brand able to meet changing consumer needs? Is your brand still relevant to your customers today? Is your brand shrinking or growing? These are probably burning questions brand managers and owners face. The best way to measure brand flexibility is survival-ability.

Brand flexibility is not about changing brand proposition because of changing trends or tastes etc. A brand needs a grounded promise. Brand flexibility is not changing that core proposition. Will Starbucks ever set up a dedicated juice bar counter during hot summer months? Quite possibly but selling dark roasted coffee is what Starbucks as a brand stands for but they are flexible enough to incorporate non coffee (fruity blends) and seasonal treats in their product mix. Toffee nut latte during Christmas period is my absolute favourite!

Brand flexibility is about staying relevant in order to survive tough compeition.

A defeated tune
Sembawang Music Centre is bringing down its shutters after years in the retail mall scene. Sembawang sells music just like That CD Shop and Gramophone but the latter two survive despite declining CD sales. These survivors have their own ways of selling music. Gramophone takes on a mega store approach that sells CD, DVDs, Blu-Rays, earphones, speakers and even PC accessories. Gramophone recognizes consumer needs for a one-stop supermarket shopping experience. Whereas, That CD Shop fuses sexy (strictly all female sales team) with their own private label music called High Society. That CD Shop builds their own discerning music followers (High Society Tribe, complete with a dedicated website), who appreciate their handpicked compilation, complete with in-store eye candy. Unfortunately, Sembawang failed the flexibility test to evolve. 'Neighborhood-style' music stores simply cannot cut it in retail malls anymore.

Inflexible brands expect customers to listen and follow. What if customers don’t? Tribes get disbanded to join others because there is always another one round the corner that feels and looks better. Profit goes where your tribes go. SMEs in Singapore are more vulnerable. On the bright side, SMEs do have lighter feet to make relatively fast turnaround or brand revamps. Big brands are huge oil tankers, takes longer time to change directions. Being small might not be all that bad.

Is your brand tuned for flexibility to relate and adapt? Building flexible brands start with integrative thinking with your customers. Be relevant; be flexible in your branding.

Please leave your comments, if any.      

How to leverage on consumer stardom.

The thing about You-tube and consumer self expression has been pretty well established with the growth of social networking. You saw the VISA dancing guy in different countries, Susan Boyle etc. You probably can name a few more. The fact is that normal people like you and me have a stab at becoming 'stars' is not fantasy. The internet has provided the right medium to do so easily.

Question is, how can brands leverage on this consumer trend? Making your customers feel like a star for them to express their individuality and tastes is not far fetched. In fact, you should do it as a brand owner. To allow your customers to express themselves in their desired form (good or bad) and at the same time creating an unforgettable experience, why not? Look hard and probably the opportunities are around. A dose of creativity helps. Here are my observations.

A recent trip to a popular local KTV chain has prompted some opportunities for such consumer stardom. First, my congrats to them for having a wonderful intuitive, all-in-one remote to select songs and even food at a few button presses. For the song belters who are totally into giving their best shot holding the microphone, why not bring it one notch higher. Having a mini platform stage, mini stage light and a voting system from the audiences (yes, your teasing friends). Quite sure this will create a different experience and a differentiation from competitors.

What about retail? A local, immensely successful shoe chain can also leverage on it without spending more than their frequent renovations to refresh their store experience. Women love shoes. Its about how many brand X can sell to them. Having a proposition of affordability without sacrificing quality and design hit the right spot. On average, I notice local women will try on average of 3 pairs before buying X number. Say 3 is the most desirable, 0 is worst. But it is not a lost cause if you know how to turn it around. How? Have a dedicated shoe corner with the right mirrors and lighting for the women to whip out their camera phones (most got one) to take pictures of the 'considerations'. They can take it back and ponder, think, imagine, fantasize or better, show their friends, post it online etc. Bottom line is, it creates pre-purchase intentions and word of mouth for that brand. You can imagine what happens next? Probably a few more purchases. What does it cost shoe brand X? Not much but an elevated shopping experience with possibly more return visits. If brand X is afraid of shoe copies, they have not understood the concept of continuing innovation. Pity.

Car test drives. Perfect for consumer stardom again. What about having a mini film of you test driving the vehicle you always wanted. Car brand Y could have these delivered to you after a few days of testing driving in a nice 'Thank You for visiting and testing our vehicles' card, enclosed a mini-DVD of the footage of you driving that hot hatch. No sales? Car brand Y just added value to the brand by elevating customer experience using consumer stardom. Some months down the road, that customer would still be talking about it I reckon.

I can think of a few more but lets leave it here for now. Please feedback or comment if you want to.