Author:
Jason Voiovich
Ecra Creative Group
Key Points:
1. It may be a response to the globalization of the food supply, but locally-produced foods are a growing trend.
2. Following the same broad strategy as organics, local food producers use emotional appeals as well as raw facts to convince us to pay more.
3. In the end, however, globalization (and resulting efficiencies) may be too powerful a force for anything but a niche market presence for “local” foods.
I had every intention to buy Gold’n Plump chicken.
My wife and I were at the grocery store (which shall remain nameless) last weekend. And I was ready. I had seen the ‘local chicken’ ads on television and on billboards during my (some days too many) trips around town. They made sense to me. I was ready to ‘take a stand’.
When we arrived at the meat counter, I noticed a competing national brand on sale for 20 percent less money. But I was prepared. Locally produced food was important to me. I put it in the cart anyway.
That’s when I noticed the I-can’t-take-you-anywhere look.
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Author: Jason Voiovich Ecra Creative Group
Key Points: 1. Apple’s latest operating system release, OSX 10.6 (code named “Snow Leopard”), spawned an unplanned grassroots effort to help real cats in the wild. 2. The attention is a boon to Snow Leopard conservancy organizations, due perhaps in part to unexpected Google search results, the speed of social media, and Apple’s status. 3. However, the real hook is the image Apple uses to promote its new product - so different from other Apple creative and so powerfully engaging.
This was never supposed to happen.
The new Apple Operating System - technically named Mac OSX 10.6 - simply was following the naming convention the company adopted when it released version 10.2. That was Jaguar. Then came Panther (10.3). Then Tiger (10.4). Then Leopard (10.5).
You get the idea.
The newest release - 10.6, or “Snow Leopard” - has been positioned by Apple as an important, but evolutionary release. Most of the upgrading this time around happened “under the hood”. In other words users won’t see too many new whiz-bang features. From that perspective, using “Snow Leopard”, versus the more distinctly named “Lion”, made product management sense.
From a business objectives perspective, it also helped Apple stay one step ahead of the upcoming Microsoft 7 operating system release.
But something odd happened on the way to market. (more…)
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Author:
Jason Voiovich
Ecra Creative Group
Key Points:
1. Build-A-Bear Workshop and Ridemakerz use the same business model, with a different product, to target girls and boys respectively.
2. BABW invested in the Ridemakerz concept, and helped it along. It really should work.
3. But Ridemakerz really doesn’t work as well. My guess is that the real reason lies in the subtle differences between mother/daughter and father/son relationships.
My wife collects Build-A-Bears.
But not just any Build-A-Bear, she only collects the limited edition World Wildlife Federation “bears”. Last weekend, we stood outside the Build-A-Bear workshop at the Ridgedale Mall in Minnetonka, Minnesota - before the store opened - to be the first in line to purchase the newest WWF wolf.
We stood and waited alongside a group of 9 and 10 year old girls getting ready for a Build-A-Bear birthday party with their moms. We waited as early shoppers stood and gawked at the new (limited edition as well) Portuguese Water Dog Build-A-Bear, no doubt encouraged by the Obama girls’ choice of puppy. My wife chuckled at the fathers and husbands kept physical distance from the store. I didn’t chuckle. I was working on increasing my distance.
The whole surreal experience reminded me of an eerily similar experience about a year ago.
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Author:
Jason Voiovich
Ecra Creative Group
Key Points:
1. Lund’s and Byerly’s entered into a partnership with the Double R Ranch to provide premium beef for its retail grocery stores, taking advantage of building its footprint in a rapidly growing segment.
2. However, it can be hard to distinguish the Lund’s and Byerly’s effort from similar efforts at other major grocery chains, where the “partnership” is more marketing creation than physical reality.
3. In the long-term, however, an authentic branding position has better staying power than a simply imaginary one.
I love the meat counter at Byerly’s.
They still have actual butchers. Not that I would blame most people for not knowing one when they saw one, but nowhere else can use ask tough questions about meat preparation and cooking and actually receive intelligent answers. It’s just about heaven for an armchair chef.
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Author:
Jason Voiovich
Ecra Creative Group
Key Points:
1. Abercrombie & Fitch publicly said is abandoning its premium price strategy and focusing its offerings in order to boost earnings.
2. Lowering prices, however, is a dangerous slippery slope in the fashion world. Shoppers devalue the brand, and will only buy when there’s a bargain.
3. Youth trends are fickle, but Abercrombie & Fitch could have positioned itself for success if it had only reinvented itself sooner. It is likely too late now.
I thought I’d never see it.
A sale. At Abercrombie & Fitch.
Middle school has arrived for our family, and so has a certain sensitivity toward the clothes we buy our oldest son. Needless to say, I found myself at the kid-version of the popular Abercrombie & Fitch. This is the store with less soft core imagery than the adult version, but basically the same clothes, the same undeniably pungent over-cologned aroma, and the same lucky-I-have-rock-n-roll-ear-damage music volume.
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Author:
Jason Voiovich
Ecra Creative Group
Key Points:
1. Plastic water bottles are an undeniable environmental disaster, contributing tons of plastic each year to the Texas-size Pacific Garbage Patch.
2. Bottlers have an incentive to fix the problem and save their $11 billion cash cow.
3. But canteens - repositioned as fashion accessories - are making a strong return, and could eventually cannibalize 30 to 40 percent of the market.
In the middle of the northern Pacific Ocean, the currents converge just right.
They form a giant loop of swirling water attracting floating debris from the entire Pacific basin into just one spot. In the middle of this immense area of ocean is a growing island of floating garbage twice the size of Texas. It is a sea of unbelievable foulness filled with all manner of trash from North America, Russia, Japan, China, and Southeast Asia. And it’s growing.
By far one of the biggest contributors: The humble plastic water bottle.
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Author: Jason Voiovich Ecra Creative Group
Key Points: 1. Young athletes are very likely to experience a mouth injury during their sports careers, but most parents and players resist calls to wear mouth guards. 2. The dental industry has a great product - the custom mouthguard - but adoption is low due to poor marketing. 3. Customizable options (colors, team logos, and MLB endorsements) could encourage players to want to wear mouth guards in a pull marketing strategy - a “win” for everyone involved.
It’s baseball season at the Voiovich household.
Both of our boys are part of organized teams for the first time; both in what you might call “developmental” leagues, primarily concerned with teaching baseball fundamentals, working as a team, and having a good time. My wife and I have one more concern: Safety.
We have a pointed example on my older son’s team this year. During last season, one of the young players had a tooth knocked out by an errant pitch. (In his league, the kids are just starting to pitch. You get the idea.) (more…)
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Author: Jason Voiovich Ecra Creative Group
Key Points: 1. The body and hair care market has seen an explosive rise in the number of fruit and vegetable-derived product ingredients. 2. The trend can be traced to the small - but rapidly growing - organic market as a whole, even if mainline market products are not really all that natural. 3. If you feel up to it, you too can create the next big product line, just follow my simple guide!
The healing power of cucumber and melon.
Ordinarily, I don’t pay much attention to the shampoo, conditioner, and body-wash products my wife picks up at the store. I cut off my long hair 15 years ago - so shampoo means little to me - and soap is soap. If I’m clean, it works.
But this new one got me thinking. What is it about “cucumber” and “melon” that conferred “healing” benefits? (more…)
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Author:
Jason Voiovich
Ecra Creative Group
Key points:
1. Portable oxygen remains a niche market serving athletes, spa-goers, and travelers.
2. To break out of this limiting situation, oxygen-retailers (like the locally-based Oxygen Plus) should replicate and tap the success of the $2 billion energy drink market.
3. However, wider distribution beyond its core market will require a “cool factor” repositioning of the portable oxygen brand.
I decided to find out.
The first step was finding a retailer in our area. Luckily, the Mahtomedi, Minnesota-based Oxygen Plus website listed several choices (spas, health clubs, and specialty retailers), with Urban Traveler a scant five miles away.
The clerk at the retail store was helpful, pointed me to the Oxygen Plus display, and promptly informed me that the “smaller size” was tough to keep on the shelf. My remaining choice was the O+Stick - a refillable canister and dispenser model - retailing for $30.00. (I’ll return to my personal experience with the product later).
As I handed the clerk my credit card, I took the opportunity to ask what type of person buys portable oxygen (and more specifically, why the smaller size was so hard to keep in stock). What he said shouldn’t surprise you, but it was interesting nonetheless. (more…)
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Author:
Jason Voiovich
Ecra Creative Group
Key Points:
1. Cheap imports were destroying the business model for Nerf soft sports balls.
2. A confluence of trends (“Super Soaker”, childhood obesity, and kid’s love of electronics) gave Nerf a new opportunity.
3. Nerf leveraged its “safe, active fun” brand position to rebuild the business.
I shot my son today. It was fun.
My kids got the Nerf dart-gun game for the Nintendo Wii console for Christmas. It comes with a “gun” controller of sorts. In one mode, you insert the Wii controller and use the trigger to shoot on-screen targets. Remove the Wii controller, and insert the spring-loaded dart shooter, and you have hours of release-pent-up-frustration-at-child fun.
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