Success has many parents
but failure is a b………d

Personnel research has shown that there is frequently a rush to collect a talisman of success. Promote and move a manager, and ex-colleagues rush to pick up his old desk organizer, chair, cubicle, corner office, but fire someone and no-one goes near!

It’s like that with new product development too. There’s always a rush to claim credit for success and it’s understandable that everyone wants to get in on the act from project champion to the previously hostile manager who tried to kill the idea at Stage Gate 2. And that’s just the producer company. Look at any famous success and count the number of case histories claiming it at market research, pack design, advertising and even innovation consultancies!

Success has many parents but failure, as we all know, is a bastard, an illegitimate, unloved child.

That fear of failure or even association with failure can be so powerful as to overcome logical management. Some years ago, I observed at close hand the launch of a food product into test market. Trial rates were very high but repeat purchases almost non-existent, the result of a serious but overcomeable manufacturing failure. But the rush to sever all connections with the failure was so great that the remedial work was never undertaken, the product withdrawn but not re-launched and eventually a competitor successfully launched a near identical product.

Earlier this year at the Coca-Cola Annual Meeting, Chairman and CEO Neville Isdell was quoted as saying “you will see some failures” “this is something we must accept as part of the regeneration process”. A powerful message to his company and a powerful reminder to us all.

Here are my two failure mantras:

- Unless we accept some degree of new product failure our teams will become so risk adverse that stagnation will follow.

- It’s only a failure if we do not learn from it.

I earn my living helping clients succeed in innovation, but I know the importance of failure. Just don’t let it be on my projects too often!

Cooking up a brand

Any previous reader of this column may know that as a somewhat virtual newcomer to these shores there are a lot of things I have no “history” of. I like to think that this stops me from making too many assumptions (never assume – best dictum I ever learnt). Sometimes, of course, it’s frustrating and sometimes it may just lead to a different point of view.I’ve seen lots of celebrity endorsed brands recently and in markets like fragrance quite a few personality brands from the likes of J LO and Britney, but I’ve seen less in food than I had come to expect from the UK market. Now, I admit, Brits have come to love food comparatively recently – in my childhood food was much more about fuel than fun - but now they’re keen watchers of TV Chefs and as lascivious over food porn as anyone. In the UK, there are Chef Brands in value added Rice, Couscous, Cook in and Pour Over sauces, Ready Desserts, Confectionery and Meats. Here in the US, though, I’ve only read about Emeril’s heritage tomatoes, heard about Francis Ford Coppola’s wine, and have drunk Wolfgang Puck’s coffee in my hotel room.Am I missing something? There are more restaurants here than anywhere else in the world, there are brands in depth in every category, it’s a society that generously supports Paul Newman’s charity brand, that applauds George Forman and his grill so why no Chefs? Where’s the equivalent of Jamie Oliver who having exposed the shame of junk food in UK schools and won real change in children’s nutrition has gone on to put his name to a few special products – and to promote a whole supermarket chain. He’s almost a King of Chefs. Of course we do have a real Prince too – the Duchy Originals brand (pictured above left) is as close to being branded Prince Charles’s Recipe as can be (actually it’s rather like Newmans Own, a charity brand). So advice please. Am I just unaware of Chef brands or aware of a really strong opportunity?

Think Global, Act Local ... (but very very carefully)

Last weeks action by WASH on salt levels has bigger implications than being yet another pressure group action against problem ingredients and their “users”.WASH, it stands for World Action on Salt and Health, identified foods from a number of prominent food manufacturers and food service operators, and published the salt levels in some of their products in different countries.They found, for example, that salt in Coco Pops was higher in Colombia than in Australia which was itself higher than in the UK. That a McDonalds Cheeseburger has 21% more salt in Australia than in the UK but that a KFC Twister in the UK had 34% more salt than in the same product in France. WASH PR has very successfully placed the findings in many newspapers and magazines around the world and now we can all read which products “our” country has “extra” salt in, and the perception is that its those bad manufacturers again.Maybe they are and then maybe again they’re not. I think that most companies were merely following that old dictum – Think Global, Act Local. We can probably all imagine the scenario. Brand X is International, but run by subsidiaries in each of its major countries. The local brand team is testing local taste preferences and discovers that in their country, consumers like it to taste saltier – so they adapt the recipe. Some time later medical research points to perceived dangers from too much salt in the national diet and Brand X again re-formulates and claims “now with less salt”. No problem, a responsible manufacturer acting in the best interests of their consumers. But that I think was then. Now consumers of Brand X compare their salt levels to those in other countries, but they don’t think “we like more salt here”, they think “what a bad manufacturer you are”Its time I think to re-work the old dictum, perhaps it should now be Think Global and Act Local, very very carefully because to rather misquote Marshall McLuhan the world really is a village now.

Web Grocery –

A Comeback?

I’ve never used a Web Grocer – I enjoy walking grocery aisles too much to miss out on the chance to get up close and personal with all those products and brands, but several recent events have had me thinking about this sector more than usual.

In June, Amazon began to sell over 10,000 grocery lines but with no perishables, and a top 10 items list comprised only of baby wipes and diapers its not what I call grocery. Time I felt to consider what does constitute web grocery and clearly the start point has to be the end point – of WebVan. Was this the greatest of all the Dot Gones burning over $1 billion before its spectacular collapse?

If WebVan was too large and complicated then The Home Grocer with 300 or so items may be spot on, at least the shopping shouldn’t take too long. The wonderfully named SPUD - Small Potato Urban Delivery - is twice as big – all of 600 items which it delivers on a weekly schedule. To be fair to SPUD I think that their model is closer to the organic vegetable box scheme than a full web grocer. If, however, delivery once a week is too slow for you, and if you live in LA, Yummy may be more appropriate. They promise delivery within 30 minutes of order – more of a taxi than a web grocer I think.

Peapod looks like a real on-line grocer, offering 8000 lines, including perishables and frozen foods, and given that they are owned by an extremely large grocer, the Dutch Royal Ahold group, it’s no surprise that they now operate in eight states, working from a mix of warehouse/rooms and retail outlets. They claim almost 250,000 customers.

Internet groceries grew by some 36% last year to about $3.3 billion nationally, so would it be a surprise to show that in the UK, a country with less than a quarter the population of the US, one company turned over nearly $2 billion in on-line grocery sales last year? Tesco, the UK grocery market leader, has been quietly growing its net expertise. It never invested billions, never offered tiny selections and never promised 30 minute deliveries but, like Peapod, it has developed from its national store base.

Last November and December, it claimed I million customers purchasing on-line and now claims to be the world’s largest e-grocer. Yesterday, Tesco declared their 6 month profit up 10.3% to just over £1 billion. That’s almost $2 billion. The on-line profit grew by 43%. Tesco has nearly 1000 stores outside the UK. They are in the process of launching in California. One to watch I think.

Wine naming - smile with me or laugh at me?

Twenty or so years ago most wine sold in the UK was purchased by professional class men at specialist stores where dim lighting, and knowledgeable, intimidating staff ensured that wine stayed elitist. Then the grocery supermarkets changed everything. They put lots of different bottles on brightly lit shelves, added descriptions, serving suggestions, clear pricing and let shoppers look, loiter and of course purchase - and mainly it was women who did the purchasing.

Over 60% of the wine sold in the UK is now purchased in Grocery. I understand that the US figure is nearer 30% and maybe this at least in part explains the explosion in “strange” names that now stock the US wine shelves.

There seem to be two categories, animal or comical. The first group follows the extremely successful Yellow Tail, a brand which on launch, changed all the rules by defining its competitors as all alcoholic drinks rather than just wine. Yellow Tail turned its back on the wine attributes of prestige and complexity of flavor and sought out fun and easy drinking - a market worth 3 times as much!

I’ve never tried 3 Blind Moose or Cool Fish or Smoking Loon but I surely hope that they have learned that success takes more than just a name with stand out.

I accept the need to create real change and to continue to de-mystify but I think that the second group may be in danger of mistaking the subtle difference between laugh with me and laugh at me.

I can smile with Marilyn Merlot, enjoy Tusk ‘n’ Red, even just about “get” Goats Do Roam but Old Fart, Big Ass Cab, Royal Bitch, and Mad Housewife seem to miss the point. A joke to buy once, something to take to a party, maybe even an enjoyable drink, but a long term brand, a name to still comfortably accept as one of my badge choices in 5 or 10 years, probably not.

Claude C. Hopkins, one of Americas finest advertising minds (who was earning $185,000 in 1907!), wrote that “the right name is an advertisement in itself” He also said that “People don’t buy from clowns”

I wonder how he would respond to the offer of a glass of Fat Bastard.

This post is an update of one of my first for this blog.

Can time replace money?

Two recent product launches – coincidentally both from Coca Cola have had me thinking about the power of time in the Marketing Mix. Not the timing of a launch, although I still pay homage to my first Marketing boss at Kraft for understanding that too early is as bad as too late, but the ability to take time to establish a brand.

I think we all know that retailers look for almost instant performance following a listing and that sluggish sales lead rapidly to removal from the shelf and yet some, usually small brands continue to find ways to hang on until familiarity and understanding have reached critical mass.

I used to be a very loyal consumer of Diet Coke, I liked the taste, liked the effect and liked the badge but almost without realizing it I now find myself buying Red Bull. I’m certainly not an early adopter, its taken at least 15 years to get me from awareness to trial and for most of that time I’ve seen little or no promotional support. Awareness, word of mouth, seeing it on the street, even talking about it all preceded trial.

Spending my time in both the USA and the UK I’ve enjoyed discovering Blaq, at first I was confused by the classic bottle shape in such a small size and thought that it was a competitor to Red Bull, but lots of advertising has shown its coffee role better than its on pack description of “Carbonated Fusion”.

I found Relentless in a UK Petrol station( and if you can read that brand name on the pack congratulate your optometrist). It's 500ml and claims "No half measures", "Your Energy, Your Obsession - Relentless" Again I was confused it looked more like a cheap beer to me (all that quasi Gothic type) and with no advertising so far I would have stayed confused without a professionally driven look at its web site www.relentlessenergy.com It too is from Coke and this one is in the energy drinks market.

Without advertising can Relentless hold some distribution whilst slow adopters like me get to know it? Can giant Coca Cola behave like Dietrich Mateschitz and give it time? Would retailers allow a major company to behave like a minnow?

Or will patience and determination remain the most powerful part of only a small companies marketing mix?

Probiotic ... prebiotic ... magic bullet or confusion for consumer?

For as long as I can remember the household cleaning brands have been telling me that their products would kill the germs, the bugs, the bacteria that threatened me in my home.

I’ve been warned since my childhood that food that has “gone off” is full of bugs, I’ve seen mold on forgotten leftovers in the fridge and I have become afraid to consume any of these baddies.

Now though a number of new products suggest I should start consuming “healthy bacteria”, that I should learn to love the good bugs. That I should go Pro Biotic and understand that my yogurt is now full of billions of bacteria or that the funny little drink pack contains a delicious blend of bugs.

Not an easy sell, and not if my UK experience is anything to go by a quick one either, but with the opportunity to create a brand with a patented active ingredient and a life enhancing benefit like Dannon’s Bifidus Regularis it is certainly quite a lure. It’s been fascinating to watch the gradual availability of these products widen from the almost quirky in health food stores through to grocery and main stream consumers. The progress, at least globally however, has not been without its problems even giant Nestle has withdrawn its LC1 range from a number of countries.

Perhaps we could see a proper functional claim, a specific health problem, a specific benefit. So I was particularly grateful to my friend Elaine Tecklenburg for pointing out to me that in May this year the FDA approved heart health claims for Barley. Now if I understood this correctly Barley can now make claims similar to Oats, and we all know how powerful that has been. What we need is the same opportunity for probiotics.

Elaine tells me that Colon cancer, asthma, blood pressure, lactose intolerance, inflammatory bowel disease, immune function, osteoporosis, etc. are all thought to benefit from probiotics. Ideally, they do, and, ideally the FDA is ready for an onslaught of petitions to allow qualified claims for these as well. Hopefully the major food companies are racing behind the scenes to clinically link specific bacterial strains and specific health conditions or diseases.

In the meantime, marketers need to be creative. Cereal companies can take a lesson from Tesco and Weetabix, who have introduced prebiotic cereal bars in the UK. Why not introduce the ultimate portable breakfast: a prebiotic cereal bar with probiotic yogurt?

A magic bullet or yet another way to confuse the poor old consumer?

Fair Trade: Make Money, Do Good, Have Fun

Some years ago I saw what I still think of as the best Company Mission Statement possible.

It read, “Make some money. Do some good. Have some fun.” The only trouble I saw was how, apart from adding “Pay your tax and Increase your charitable contributions”, any normal company could actively pursue all three objectives. That’s not to say of course that people haven’t tried, The Newman’s Own brand has grown and grown since its launch in 1982 and contributed over $200 million to charitable causes but that’s an example of a charity brand not a charitable brand.

Most of the Organic food producers I’ve met have charitable philosophies but are driven by their beliefs about food quality as a way to “do some good”. And with Organic Food growing at over 16% last year to nearly $14 billion clearly many Americans agree.

But going Organic and changing suppliers, re-modeling your production process, handling significant cost changes isn’t an easy do some good option for most food manufacturers, and giving all or a large proportion of your profits to a charity isn’t going to endear the shareholders either. And that I thought was that, but several European observations have recently made me think again.

For a growing number of consumers, Fair Trade is taking a similar role to Going Green. It satisfies a need to feel better about ourselves and our impact on the planet – but without having to give up anything that we enjoy.

The UK is now Europe’s biggest Fair Trade market, and it’s growing at nearly 40% a year.

Then I read that Ben and Jerry’s has launched a Fair Trade vanilla ice cream and I understood the win-win opportunity that Fair Trade can present, and that it can be more than just coffee. Fair Trade ingredients are bought at a price which covers the cost of sustainable production and an extra premium that is invested in social or economic development projects.

I know that many companies trade very ethically but choose not to publicize their policies but in not doing so, they make it harder for consumers to make informed brand choices. You don’t have to be a tree hugger to be a Fair Trader. You don’t have to change all your factory and you don’t have to give all your profit away.

If US consumers also follow the UK trend, then there are some major opportunities on the way. I think it’s just got a little easier to……..

Make some money. Do some good. Have some Fun.

First "Published" August 23rd 2006 4 days after President Clintons 5oth Birthday

Evidence of Boomer Power in U.S.

Happy Birthday Mr. President, and best wishes too to the 5 Americans turning 60 years old every minute of this year. Actually it was Bill Clinton’s birthday on Saturday August 19th and President Bush’s on July 6th and both have joined the 78 million that the US Census estimates are the Baby Boomers.Of course I’m nowhere near this age any more than Bob Messenger is! My position is merely that of a professional empathizing with a target group! I suspect however that many of us can at least share some of the Boomers attitudes in our desire to re-create the taste of favorite childhood memories, its just that there are so many Boomers and that they’ve got the money to do it with.As a specialist in new products I find old ones fascinating. I like to think that I know how to look for consumer insights, to recognize a trend or a new platform and I know lots of example Boomer growth brands in the UK (if there are any long gone ex-pats out there you should see what Marmite is doing) but in the US I have to look for evidence of boomer power.I think I’m seeing it in collections of classic 50’s candy for sale on Amazon, I read that beer is back (not that it ever really went away for some of us) and I can see it in furnishings, even in the styling of radios. What intrigues me however is what companies can do to attract boomer nostalgia purchases.Is it enough to stay true to memory and NOT change?Should the packaging be deliberately retro, should it remind us of its past and spell out the message “Just like Mom Served”? Can your childhood favorite still be best in a world that has changed so much?Or given a changed consumer should the brand change too, to match the needs of a 60 year old?I see that Hostess Twinkies have recently made the first major change to its packaging design in 25 years, but it still features the traditional colors and the product remains the same.Should Jell-O now have added fiber?Could Kraft's boxed Spaghetti Dinners be positioned as Microwave Meals and still appeal?Is it enough to add “Classic Recipe” to Heinz Sloppy Joe Sauce?Would Peter Pan peanut butter be improved with a heart healthy Omega 3 claim? Could Added Calcium persuade us that Tang or Start are Florida Orange Juice replacements?Or is the secret of Baby Boomer Nostalgia that it is as close a copy as possible of the original experience with all the emotions, reminiscences and warmth that childhood memories can bring.If that's the case as innovators our role is only to spot the trend, to match the product, perhaps to promote and then just to sit back and enjoy.Pretty much what Pabst has done with Schlitz beer really, a retro makeover including the iconic bottle from when it was the world's best selling beer in the 1950’s – Cheers.

I have been neglecting my blog whilst enjoying writing each Wednesday for Bob Messenger's Morning Cup, a daily on line journal following food and beverage industry news, trends and commentary. I'm biased of course but I recomend it highly. www.morningcup.net

I will be re-issuing my pieces here in Innovation Observed