The fashion and apparel brand Esprit, known throughout the ‘80s and ‘90s for its colorful, oversized sweatshirts and ubiquitous three-striped logo, is seeking a revival on U.S. soil. And it brought on Ana Andjelic, former Chief Brand Officer of Banana Republic, to lead the charge.

Esprit’s new Global Chief Brand Officer is leaning into the brand’s heritage while modernizing it for the cultural moment, Andjelic told Chief Marketer. “There was a very innovative, creative undercurrent that propelled the brand to become what it became in the ‘80s and the ‘90s,” she says, “an unbelievable branding primer, in terms of graphic design, images, photography, our direction and store design… It was something that we now consider table stakes, but that was never done before.”

Her goal is two-fold: to remind Gen Xers and Boomers that Esprit is back after falling off the map, and to attract Gen Z through the signature Esprit “look.” We spoke with Andjelic about her vision and strategy for the brand’s comeback, the art and science of global brand-building, insights gleaned from previous marketing gigs and what it takes to succeed as a modern CMO.

Chief Marketer: What is your vision for Esprit from a brand perspective?

Ana Andjelic, Global Chief Brand Officer of Esprit: In terms of brand vision, it’s almost a dream gig in a sense that this is one of the iconic American—and then global—brands. Most people don’t even know that it was founded in California in 1968 in San Francisco, the same year the Gap was founded. There was a very innovative, creative undercurrent that propelled that brand to become what it became in the ’80s and the ’90s—an unbelievable branding primer, in terms of graphic design, images, photography, our direction, store design… That was something that we now consider table stakes, but that was never done before. They had Ettore Sottsass, the founder of Memphis Group, design their store. We still have the cues of Memphis design everywhere now. People are crazy about it. And that was 40 years ago. Then there is Oliviero Toscani, the legendary photographer who used real people in campaigns.

That’s what I doubled down on, that irreverence of the brand. We are playful, mischievous, we don’t take ourselves seriously. We do everything with a wink. That mischievous brand DNA is very relevant for 2023 and beyond. You see what Marni, Hermes and Gucci are doing… Even in luxury fashion; you have the pigeon bag now. There are memes, there are luxury items that are toys. You have playful Hermes windows. Everything is about that riff on “not ordinary.” So that’s where I see Esprit going. That sense of wonder, that sense of playfulness, that sense of game. And that is very relevant with how Gen Z is shopping: Everything is gamified. That is where I see the bridge between the future and the heritage.

CM: Following up on that, how are you leveraging the brand’s past?

AA: We have a two-fold goal, which is to remind people, like Gen X and Boomers, that we are back, because we went off the map. And then attract Gen Z through the Esprit look. Gen Z already has that look without even knowing it—very layered, oversized, unisex, metropolitan outdoor—which means hiking boots with a suit. That already exists. And then the colorful Esprit logo. They’ve seen it on Depop, on Thread, in marketplaces on TikTok. It’s familiar, but they’ve never heard of Esprit.

And then for our new retail popup, we honed in on the concept of the original brand, how it approached fashion advertising, marketing, merchandising, and so on. It’s also where a lot of current trends originated. If you [analyze] emerging trends, you go back to Esprit styling. When you look at all the advertising, their styling is unbelievably modern.

CM: The role entails leading Esprit’s global creative and design hub in New York. Can you talk about its purpose and direction?

AA: We’re building a brand marketing design office in New York right now. The whole idea is to lead Esprit design, from the Esprit look to seven signature items we are developing. Like the Fendi Baguette, for example, or the Gucci belt, or the Big Mac for McDonald’s. We want to be known and recognized on the street for seven signature items. That’s on the design side. On the marketing side, the vision is to have the latest and the greatest, the most cutting-edge marketing approach. That is a mix of always-on and campaign work, but very heavy on activating the cultural communities, the micro-influencers, and getting that cultural credibility.

And then the third one is the brand. It’s the brand creative, which is the aesthetics we are putting forward. And that aesthetics is very aligned the way we approach pop-ups. So this first spring campaign that we just shot is about what Esprit would look like if it was created now in 2023. So, a lot of mischief, a lot of movement, a lot of color—but in 2023. I don’t want to copy ourselves. I want to evolve. We took all the cues and the DNA and made it reborn in ’23.

CM: What are some lessons learned from your previous marketing roles that you’ve brought to your new gig?

AA: At Banana Republic, I came into a marketing and design organization that already had 200 people. And here, I’m building that 200 people from the first hire. We have 96 to go. It’s a completely different approach when you’re building something from the ground up than when you’re trying to change an already existing organization.

What I do know is that the window of opportunity is only so big, and with any rebrand, you have to move fast and be unbelievably decisive. You need to be brave, you need to be bold, and you need to take risks. And you need to have a clear aesthetic point of view. It’s not going to be for everyone, but that’s fine. So, a clarity of aesthetic, point of view, design approach, merchandising selection, the “look,” and the clarity of that world. Without that, you can’t even start.

CM: So you’re rebuilding Esprit’s U.S. presence from the ground up.

AA: Esprit was away from U.S. market for more than a decade. And this is a global role. Esprit exists in Europe under very different value propositions. It exists in Asia and is already similar to U.S. in certain markets like Taiwan and Hong Kong: They have been there, but they left. In South America and China, they never been there. So it’s a different challenge globally, but at the same time, the priority is to build the markets where Esprit has not been present and to reposition it in the markets where it has.

CM: How did you go about forming your brand vision? What was that process like?

AA: You look at four things. You look at what is happening culturally right now. I don’t look at trends; I look at culture. So that means the undercurrents, the deeper things that are at the cusp of happening. That’s number one. The second one is, who is your customer? Who are the personas? What is the geographic? What is the demographic? Who are we designing for? You’re not designing for a monolith. It’s not a mass audience. It’s like four different audiences at scale.

The third one is the company itself. You look at the assets. What are the company resources? And you look at the gap of where we need to be and where we are now, and who and what we need to get us there. The fourth one is competition. For me, it’s more in terms of price point. You compete with a certain set in terms of aesthetics. You compete with another set in terms of customer. You can compete in terms of culture. It’s a mishmash. I’m informed by the competition, but culture, customer and company informs me more.

CM: What trends in the marketplace should marketers be focusing on right now?

AA: I would recommend a strategic and holistic approach, which means looking at where the marketing connects with merchandising, where merchandise connects with design, where brand connects with the product, and where all of the above connects with physical retail and the experience. Look at the entire brand experience. That’s your job. Sure, you can use data, but why? To connect better with merchandising, to give direction to design the product better, to set the price. I recommend a holistic view in this role.

CM: For those marketers with aspirations toward the C-suite, what qualities and skills should they be honing?

AA: Left brain and right brain. It’s better if you have both. That means both creative and strategic thinking, and then scenario planning and system thinking because of what I said earlier. Rather than have a narrow focus and specialization, I would say the chief marketers for 2023 beyond are generalists. They need to speak the language of everyone, from CRM to performance marketing retargeting to our direction. And then not lose sight of the big picture.

The post Marketers on Fire: Esprit Global Chief Brand Officer Ana Andjelic appeared first on Chief Marketer.

The author of a recent white paper for Nielsen, “Take Command of Your Brand: Long-Term Growth Requires a Balanced Marketing Strategy,” Hirani notes that a one-point increase in upper-funnel metrics such as brand awareness and consideration translates on average to a one percent lift in sales. “You can’t buy what you don’t know exists, and you won’t buy what you have no interest in,” he says. “If you haven’t done the work to build awareness and prime the consumer, it’s going to be awfully difficult to convert them.”

There have long been three primary sources of brand awareness, Hirani says: distribution, regular brand usage and marketing. Distribution is having your products on store shelves or your name on storefronts; brand usage entails seemingly minor elements such as an auto brand’s logo on a steering wheel and a retailer’s name on a credit card that continually reinforce brand awareness on a subconscious level. During the pandemic, as people ventured out less, those first two sources lost much of their impact. But marketing can fill in the gaps. “Use marketing to make up for the loss in the other two channels,” he advises, because that’s the source that marketers can control.

Among the key indicators that a brand’s upper funnel needs renewed investment: “You’ll start to see that your long-term sales prospects are not growing. You’ll also start to see reduced effectiveness in your lower-funnel efforts—that’s a big red flag because it’s saying that you failed to create a significantly broad-enough base,” Hirani says.

That reduced effectiveness of previously successful conversion tactics can help you overcome one of the biggest stumbling blocks to bolstering investment in brand-awareness marketing: internal resistance. Sales departments, executives and investors can be so focused on immediate sales that they hesitate to divert resources from conversion to brand building. “You have to really emphasize the perils of not investing in the upper funnel,” Hirani says. Showing the long-term effects on revenue of this short-sightedness can—and should—persuade them to adjust the balance of their brand awareness/sales conversion investments.

When rebalancing your marketing investments, keep an eye on your competitors’ efforts. While focusing 60 percent of marketing efforts on the upper funnel, as mentioned above, is a solid guideline, “what’s most important is making sure you’re not getting too far afield from the competition,” Hirani says. If your key competitors are amping up their brand awareness efforts with splashy ads, partnerships, tie-ins and the like, you might want to consider adding more resources into brand building as well, so as not to become overshadowed.

Another thing to keep in mind: “When you think about how you optimize your marketing mix, it looks different when you’re optimizing for sales versus the upper funnel,” Hirani warns. Avoid assuming that what worked for the lower funnel will also perform well for the upper funnel. “Sometimes there’s a correlation, but overall there’s tremendous variability in how effective channels are for upper funnel versus lower funnel. Balance is needed not just from a messaging perspective but also from a channel perspective.”

The post Nielsen: Short-Term Failure to Build Brand Awareness Can Hurt Long-Term Sales appeared first on Chief Marketer.

The latest campaign, “Wonder Awaits” consists of both photography and videography advertisements. The storyline plays off a loose homage to its founder Pierre Draps, who as a young man in Belgium learned how to make his now famous truffles to delight his wife. The campaign signals a transformation and reintroduction of the brand with a goal to reach a younger audience.

“The campaign was created to invoke curiosity and wonder. Godiva is promising something wonderful, something exciting—the feeling of anticipation of what’s to come when a customer chooses this chocolate,” says John Galloway, CMO and innovation officer at Godiva Chocolatier.

The videos features two young characters, Pierre, a chocolatier, and Mimi, a lover of sweets. Together, they indulge in Godiva chocolate, which plays a central role in their connection, and helps to grow their relationship.

The campaign is distributed on leading media properties, including YouTube, Facebook and Instagram in addition to media publishers like PopSugar and BuzzFeed.

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Globally, the brand is investing multimillions on the total ad campaign, with a focus on the key selling periods beginning last month and running through 2020.

“The ‘Wonder Awaits’ campaign signifies an evolution and reintroduction of Godiva with exciting, uplifting creative concepts that are a new approach for the brand,” Galloway says. “The colors, visuals, words that are used to describe the brand and the overall style of the ads, present Godiva in a modern way.”

Advertising momentum and engagement will be key in measuring the success of the campaign.

This year has been a year of firsts for Godiva, starting with the opening of its first café in the Americas, with plans to have 15 cafés opened by the end of the year.

“Godiva is growing exponentially, and we are dedicated to create wonder and delight for our consumers at every touchpoint along the way—whether it be in our boutiques, cafés, at grocery and retail stores, or online,” he says.

The post Godiva Plans to Grow its Business Fivefold in Six Years appeared first on Chief Marketer.

The legal cannabis industry will be worth $66.3 billion by 2025, according to Grandview Research, but as more companies rush into the market, advertising and marketing regulations are putting tight constraints on how, when and where marketers can talk about their cannabis business.

Advertising regulations are especially strict, as many social media and marketing platforms restrict or outright ban cannabis advertisements due to federal statutes and regulations. This often leaves marketers in a murky position. What can they say? And where can they say it?

The days of simply defining your audience, building a strategy and executing a marketing campaign to millions of consumers is in limbo. It used to be the major advertising platforms pitched you and practically begged for your money. But as it turns out the tech companies who disrupted the media industry are now the old guards. Many marketers are finding it difficult to weave through the tangle of advertising restrictions that state legislators have placed on new business owners.

With the cannabis industry being censored by most major advertising channels, how can marketers reach and build the audiences they are hoping to attract? By getting back to the basics of brand building:

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1. Build a brand with a soul
With cannabis turning into a commodity, and so many brands popping up across the country, it’s important to spend the time to craft your brand story from seed to sale and give consumers a reason to evangelize the story to their friends. Killer packaging is key because it’s the one thing that can explain why you do what you do without help from anybody else.

2. Tell your story visually
Make a concerted effort on social media with high-quality brand photography and video since it’s one of the places the most potential consumers will hear about your products. Some of the best brands on social turn out to be the most successful, like Beboe, Dosist and Bloom Farms. All invested heavily in a strong consistent visual brand narrative and it’s paid off handsomely.

And it really matters to your audience. According to Smart Bird Social, content with relevant images get 94 percent more views than content without relevant images. So by including engaging images with your posts, you not only help attract new followers and customers, but also keep the attention of your existing audience.

3. Back to brick and mortar
It’s a bit insane that a progressive industry in 2019 has us talking about the future of brick and mortar, but the dispensary is where a lot of your marketing can happen. From product placement to budtender relationships, your story has to come alive in the retail space and a major part of that is good distribution.

4. Manage your cannabis profiles
Sites like Leafly, BlackbirdGo and Weedmaps are great places to set up and maintain brand profiles. This allows you to reach cannabis open to consumers while managing high quality photos that will ultimately end up on dispensary menus.

5. Billboards and influencers.
One of the oldest forms of advertising (billboards) and one of the newest (social media influencers) can actually move the dial depending on how you target locations and audiences. Because the path to purchase can become convoluted, brand recognition may be your best way to track marketing success.

6. Lobby for change
Lastly, we’re in an industry that is far more safe than alcohol in terms of death and violence. It’s unacceptable that cannabis is blocked from advertising on major display networks and social media sites. It’s on us to enact change and help more people learn about this largely beneficial plant.
Allbriton Robbins is the creative director at Blackbird Logistics. He can be reached at allbriton@myblackbird.com.

The post 6 Marketing Tips from an Industry with Tight Constraints—Cannabis appeared first on Chief Marketer.

Since 1973 the brand has been telling consumers that its pilsner is “probably” not the best beer in the world. That tagline caught on, confused customers and sales fell.

Now, the Danish brewer is turning a page. A new campaign and brand overhaul includes everything from a rebrew to updated packaging and glassware. Carlsberg says in the campaign that it is moving from brewing large quantities of beer sold for a cheap price, to a quality product that can compete with some of the best lagers in the market at a higher price point.

“We believe in the UK we lost our way. We started to focus on the wrong things and perhaps got preoccupied with being the biggest rather than the best … Whether it’s the global team or the local team, we all felt that we had to be bold and direct in what we were doing. There hasn’t been any pushback. We do accept there is a risk with this, it is not a traditional approach. We will only know in six months’ time,” Lynsey Woods, Carlsberg UK’s director of marketing told Marketing Week.

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Prior to the rebrand, testing with both new and existing customers was positive, paving the way for Carlsberg to move forward. Marketing includes storytelling around Carlsberg’s Danish roots and the brand will keep its ambassador Mads Mikkelsen, Marketing Week said. But the brand is also continuing to share disparaging comments about the old recipe as part of the new campaign including one that compared it to “drinking the bathwater your nan died in,” Independent.ie reported.

The rising competition from craft beers and fancy cocktails have cut into overall beer sales. A new focus for Carlsberg will be marketing to women.

The post Carlsberg Turns its “Probably Not the Best Beer” Promise on its Head appeared first on Chief Marketer.

The Freakshow Maskerade app features six face-changing characters, with three additional characters ready to be unlocked by scanning Freakshow wine bottles at retail.

Users who share their “freak’n faces” on Instagram and Facebook with the hashtag #freakshowwine are automatically entered to win a weekly Freak-of-the-Week swag pack. In addition, one winner will have their real face added to the menagerie of freaks on the Cabernet Sauvignon label.

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“While Augmented Reality has made its place in the wine industry, we really wanted to use this technology to give consumers a fun, interactive experience that connects them to the brand and wine they’re drinking,” Melissa Phillips Stroud, vp sales and marketing for the winery says. “What better way to do that than making them part of the label?”

The winery also markets the Petite Petit and Earthquake wines, and the latest to the Freakshow lineup, Freakshow Zin.

The post It’s a Freakshow All Right appeared first on Chief Marketer.

Rising consumer expectations and increases in advertising expenses are driving the cost of customer acquisition and conversion through the roof. In fact, one study found an average increase of 65 percent in the past five years. This makes it tougher to compete, as it often means a net loss on the first order, and many customers never return. In order to stand out and strengthen profit-boosting customer loyalty, modern brands are turning to value-added services and automation to create an exceptional customer experience.

Seventy-three percent of consumers identify the customer experience as an important factor in purchasing decisions, but less than half of shoppers in the U.S. think companies are providing a good experience. Of course, some are better than others, and a handful are charting exceptional performance in spite of the challenges. Take a page from these three brands that are turning the customer experience into an art form and redefining the rules to win by.

Best Buy

As the e-commerce revolution took over and left many brick-and-mortar retailers out in the cold, Best Buy was written off as another casualty. Because large online players in the electronics space could easily optimize based on price, Best Buy needed to stand out in a meaningful way to earn lasting customer loyalty.

The brand investigated how people research and compare products and then looked at how it could improve the customer experience to make it a continued relationship instead of a one-time transaction. The resulting insights paved the way for new store layouts, employee training, and value-added services like in-home assistance. Posting a strong increase in revenue between July 2017 and August 2018, Best Buy is thriving.

Best Buy figured out how to provide additional services to customers, made those services easy to access, and continues to offer more than competing alternatives do. By creating superlative customer experiences that focus on convenience, personalization, and timeliness, Best Buy has tapped into the major drivers of customer satisfaction and created a loyal following.

Taking a leaf out of Best Buy’s book means looking beyond how a customer purchases products and taking a broad view of how that product is used in the context of the customer’s life. This can provide insights into services that could be automated and offered both pre- and post-purchase, highlighting opportunities to provide new, loyalty-building value to customers.

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Glossier

Emily Weiss, CEO and founder of Glossier, is well-known for her customer-centric vision. She’s a firm believer that there aren’t enough companies that fully leverage the expertise of their customers. It’s no surprise, then, that Glossier’s novel approach to product development and customer engagement makes fans feel like a part of the brand instead of just customers. The strategy is working—the online beauty retailer was valued at $390 million just five years after opening.

Some brands have experimented with a “surprise and amplify” approach in which they go above and beyond for a customer and broadcast the details across social media. In contrast, Glossier has reinvented the concept of customer care to make customers a vital part of every aspect of the business by creating new communication paths and engagement opportunities. The company reimagined customer service, referring to members of the “customer experience” team as “editors” and empowering them to integrate learning and sharing in a two-way model with customers, even sometimes using FaceTime to chat with customers about product feedback.

Glossier’s approach gives it a competitive advantage against its many rivals, and the value-added nature of how it engages with and provides service to customers creates unforgettable experiences and products that are just right for customers. Brands can learn from this approach by expanding the role of customer care and integrating it more holistically into marketing, e-commerce, and product planning and execution. Creating two-way communication with customers and providing value-added services to help them get exactly what they need is the winning recipe for this fast-growing, digitally native brand.

Sur La Table

As the “largest nonprofessional cooking school” in the country, Sur La Table has redefined what a brand experience can be. Delivering exceptional experiences—not just great products—is core to this brand’s ethos and fundamental to its growth and customer loyalty. As CEO Billy May explains, “The experiential piece is really about how we get customers in, and it’s our opportunity to get customers back.”

Digital is a huge part of what makes Sur La Table’s experiences successful. It invests in a broad base of content production, value-added education, and assistance with product selection. For example, Sur La Table completely revamped the way consumers search for products on its site. The company did away with complicated jargon in product descriptions and revised them to include phrases that potential customers might actually use when discussing the product. It also employed filters to help site visitors more easily find what they’re looking for.

While some brands might baulk at the idea of extending their businesses into adjacent offerings, brands like Sur La Table are literally building their businesses on them. And the differentiation they establish serves as a defensible competitive advantage that’s hard for competitors to keep up with or replicate. The lesson here is that there is no limit to how far value-added services can go.

Brands can no longer bank on competing on price or product alone when a customer experience built on value-added services is a new and potentially significant differentiator. Capturing a customer’s loyalty (and a long-term share of her or his purchasing power) is a matter of continuous engagement and delivering experiences that are seamless and immediate. To set your brand apart, focus on providing value-added services and elevating the customer experience by making these services more accessible, convenient, and timely for customers. Do so, and you’ll cement their loyalty and boost growth.
Fang Cheng is the CEO and co-founder of customer care automation platform Linc Global.

The post These 3 Brands Are Tapping Into a Powerful Differentiator — and You Can, Too appeared first on Chief Marketer.

T-Mobile is one of many brands successfully connecting with the LGBTQ community. It has been involved at various sponsorship levels with Pride events throughout the nation since 2014, and participated in nearly 80 events last year alone. Internally, the brand is a leader in diversity and inclusion, forming 50 local D&I chapters with more than 22,000 employees participating. T-Mobile is the presenting corporate sponsor of WorldPride|Stonewall 50 in June, the first WorldPride hosted in the U.S. with more than 4 million people expected to attend.

Jen Palmer is director of social marketing at T-Mobile and is also the head of the company’s Pride and Allies Employee Network Group. She shares the company’s strategy on marketing to the powerful LGBTQ community that holds immense buying power, yet demands proof of true diversity and inclusion from brands they will show loyalty to.

CHIEF MARKETER: How long have you been marketing to and supporting the LGBTQ community?
JEN PALMER: While our official diversity and inclusion programs hit their five-year anniversary in the fall of 2018, the concept of being a diverse and inclusive company has been at the heart of our culture from the beginning. We are always looking for more that can be done, which is actually one of the challenges with investing in diversity and inclusion—there is always so much more we want to accomplish.

CM: What do brands need to understand about LGBTQ marketing ?
JP: Brands have to go all-in if they want to market for diversity and inclusion. Consumers are smart, and they can see beyond the brands who are doing something just to benefit their bottom line, it has to be part of a company’s culture, at every level.

CM: How did T-Mobile build a strong connection with this community?
JP: By listening to our customers: customers who are heard, not dismissed—diverse customers across the country from every region, economic class, race, sex, creed, gender identity and sexual orientation. Our frontline employees are our best representation of who we are as a company, which makes it a great way for our customers to experience our authenticity for diversity and inclusion firsthand.

CM: How do you interact with the community from a marketing standpoint?
JP: Our priority is listening to the community, and this means that marketing approaches have to be nimble, and may change overtime. While T-Mobile’s marketing strategy started as a grassroots effort, over the years we have evolved to taking more of a proactive role celebrating with employees, our customers and the community.

CM: Do you craft messages and images specific to this community?
JP: Messaging is centered around the love of the community versus stating our value proposition. We proudly declare that T-Mobile stands with its LGBTQ employees and customers who continue to fight for equal rights for all. Our motto is “Our Pride is Unlimited and so is our Support.”

CM: What marketing channels do you use?
JP: T-Mobile meets our customers where they engage the most—whether that’s social media, advertisements, blog posts or community events. We’ve even gone as big as talking to consumers about equality during the 2018 Super Bowl by featuring a commercial with a diverse group of babies to promote our campaign, “Are You With Us?” The campaign is an invitation to people who are ready to be part of something, to join something bigger and experience more than just another wireless service.

We believe in creating a culture—at all levels—that is diverse as our customer base. This means that there is no perfect formula for marketing for everyone, but we do all that we can to show up where our customers are. Specific to LGBTQ support, this means showing up in communities, participating in Pride events and supporting our employees through our Pride and Allies Network—we’re always looking for new and fun ways to engage.

CM: Have you found that this community is extremely loyal to brands that understand it?
JP: Without a doubt, the LGBTQ community knows which brands authentically embrace them. This population has immense buying power, so companies need to be thoughtful when speaking directly to them. But, this is not just about consumer buying power—it is also about encouraging our employees and our communities to embrace inclusion and be themselves. We embrace and promote inclusion at all levels, so we can better connect to our customers. By listening to the community and understanding their needs, we can continue to show up in ways that are supportive and encouraging.

CM: What are your thoughts on diversity and inclusivity within the workplace?
JP: We believe it’s extremely important to create a work environment that is an inclusive and safe space for all employees to authentically be themselves to foster innovation and spark creativity. We have six employee Diversity and Inclusion networks and more than 50 local chapters—which means T-Mobile has one of the most robust D&I networks in the industry —with more than 22,000 employees actively participating. These networks enhance T-Mobile as a safe, accepting and exceptional workplace for all employees, and move the business forward to greater growth. As T-Mobile continues to be a leader in diversity and inclusion, it’s increasingly critical to not only know who our employees are, but also inspire and empower everyone to bring their full, true selves to work.

CM: What is the role of the Pride and Allies Network?
JP: The network provides a collaborative space for LGBTQ employees and allies to network, share experiences and have fun. In addition to my role on the marketing team, I am also the chair for the network, working with a team to help identify opportunities for professional development, develop educational programs on matters of importance to the LGBTQ community and assist the business with outreach to employees and customers.

CM: How do you determine goals for the network?
JP: We listen to our LGBTQ employees to find out how to best support them as a company, be more inclusive and supportive. We have a number of employee benefits, like transgender specific medical coverage, adoption/surrogacy benefits, paid time-off programs that align with feedback we have heard from employees. Our Pride and Allies Employee Network Group partners with HR to continually re-assess where we need to add or improve benefits policies based off of our diverse set of employees, and their preferences.

CM: What kind of reactions do you get from the LGBTQ community?
JP: One of my favorite moments of being a T-Mobile employee each year is being involved in various Pride parades alongside my colleagues, their families and the community. It is hard to explain in words—but there is a feeling of joy that you can just see in the community. But, at the same time, you think about how far we have come, and all the work still to be done.

The post How T-Mobile Built a Strong Connection with the LGBTQ Community appeared first on Chief Marketer.

After Bud Light called out competitors Coors Light and Miller Lite during its Super Bowl commercial for using corn syrup in their brewing process, the beer biting still hasn’t died down.

Weeks later, Coors parent company SABMiller called the attack “misleading” and organized a “Toast to Farmers” event honoring American Farmers who grow the ingredients used to make beer.

This week, the battle continues as Coors Light unveiled a new smart beer tap handle that’s “fueled by Bud Light negativity.”

The next time—and there will be one—that Bud Light talks about Coors Light on social or broadcast media, the tap handle will light up and free Coors Light will start flowing for customers.

Bud Light’s activity will be monitored in real time when the promotion begins March 22. Bars in five cities will be participating: New York, Philadelphia, Dallas, Omaha and Las Vegas, timed to coincide with the start of the national college basketball tournament.

“When they bring hate, we will literally bring light,” Ryan Reis, vice president of the Coors family of brands said in a blog post. “The more Bud Light talks, the more we refresh.”

Coors Light claims that since the Bud Light Super Bowl ad ran, its sales have slumped.

“America’s top-selling beer was down 8.8 percent in the four-week period since the Super Bowl, plunging the brand farther into the red for 2019, according to Nielsen all-outlet and convenience data through March 2. And instead of winning over drinkers with its promises of “transparency,” the opposite appears to be happening: Since the new campaign launched, Bud Light’s share losses have accelerated, Nielsen data show, Coors Light said.

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“Bud Light has been attacking us out of frustration for weeks now,” Reis says. “We believe people just want to move on. So we invented this smart beer tap that does the listening for them—and even better, turns Bud Light’s negativity into rounds of Coors Light on us.”

Should the tap, called “The Coors Light,” illuminate patrons shouldn’t expect to go wild; each customer will be held to a two-brew limit that will be monitored with wristbands.

For cities that don’t have a smart tap, a round of Coors Light for the bar will be served if an ad for Bud Light runs during one of the basketball games.

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Here’s how not to go about naming a brand, product, or service:

1. Buy a bunch of dudes a case of beer and a few pizzas. See what happens. The unaware masses often think this is what brand naming professionals do for a living—hang out, wax poetic and use alcohol to get the creative gears turning. In reality, group brainstorming only happens occasionally. Beer isn’t consumed during work hours. This is a strategic job, with clients and responsibilities. Names—along with trademark screenings, language analyses, presentation decks, naming architectures, and naming systems—are serious deliverables.

2. Reject a name based on initial associations. Rarely does an idea strike you in a vacuum. We hear all too often: “That name sounds like X,” where X is a loaded word or a well-known product or brand. But immediate associations don’t always matter. As long as X isn’t in the same trademark class or space as the project at hand, the name can still be a contender. Also, the English language is limited. With 26 letters and a few hundred thousand defined words, it’s prone to collisions. A fresh brand name doesn’t have to be totally new to the world. Just because a name sounds familiar does not mean it’s stale.  A “tumbler” was a gymnast and a plastic cup until it lost an “e” and became one of the world’s most popular blogging platforms.

2. Stick to the original brief. Listen carefully to a client’s initial brief. But remember, what the client wants might change by the hour. Naming is like photography: In every new light, the subject looks totally different. The best brand naming teams are diverse—each member sees things differently, and the team remains flexible to account for diverse perspectives, multiple briefings, and as many versions of the story as possible.  Some of the best names have been crafted when we can tell that story back to the client better than they first told it to us.

4. Stay far away from the competitors. A competitive audit is a good place to start when naming a brand or product. If there’s something like it out there, what do the others call it? Our instinct as branding experts might be to differentiate whenever possible. But our experience in naming specifically has affirmed Mark Twain’s musing, “All ideas are secondhand.” We’re not saying to steal from the competitors; we’re just creatively borrowing what works. Tweak it to be simpler, to surprise. Make it your own. And do your trademark screenings early and often! But once in a while, great names evolve an existing name and imbue it with new life. Think Huffington Post versus Washington Post—one syllable apart. The latter was founded 128 years prior, but the former boasts wider readership today.

5. Speak American! America speaks many languages, and the consumer world takes notes. From ESPN to Hyundai, big brands have been incorporating “Spanglish” into their marketing. As Hispanics, Asian Americans, and other groups move from minority to majority in the U.S., brand names will likely follow suit.

Alison Greenberg is a naming strategist at Siegel+Gale.

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