Two weeks ago, I stopped over at Marina Maher Communications (MMC), a PR agency devoted to the women consumer.  MMC organizationally falls under the independent agency Worldcom Public Relations Group umbrella, meaning that they can leverage the expertise of any other Worldcom group’s agencies if need be.

Without divulging too much intellectual capital, the whole objective of a PR firm is to manage and influence the image of a client firm through several mediums, including magazine subject matter experts (technology and beauty editors, for example), local news and newspapers, and increasingly social media like blogs.  PR agencies also collaborate with creative agencies in executing consumer-oriented PR campaigns, such as the Nintendo Wii Resort experience in the middle of Times Square last month.

Though PR firms have historically emphasized their strategy through trade magazines due to its wider reach, increasing client-driven demands have driven PR firms to embrace social media outlets.  As evidenced in a WSJ article, Twitter and Facebook are increasingly used by corporate giants to manage the brand in a more personal and direct way.  Moreover, social media can be more cost-effective when expanding media reach internationally.

Though this phenomenon is not going to die down anytime soon, a question worth examining is how social media communications strategy will be managed.  Will it continue to be under the jurisdiction of the PR firm, or will creative agencies want a piece?  Will entire verbal identity systems be created for social media outlets, or will it merely be an addendum to existing brand identity systems?

And for those that doubt the creation of a complete verbal identity system – see the risks of allowing undisciplined Tweeting adversely affect the brand.

A.G. Lafley Presentation

Ex-CEO of P&G who directed the acquisition of Gilette, making P&G the biggest CPG company in the world.  Also helped purchase Crest’s electric toothbrush technology and revitalize P&G’s core brands, including Tide and Pampers.

Naturally his credentials instantly command respect, but the simplicity of his presentation falls on two pieces of advice:

1)   Know yourself

2)   Be yourself

This is stuff quoted through and through by Sun-Tzu,

Miyamoto Mushashi , and half a dozen other philosophers, but to have someone with his credentials distill their experience to two simple things is powerful.  What is it to know myself?  What are my skills?  What can I contribute to the world?  Where can I add value?  These are things that I hope to discover during business school.

Marc Pritchard Presentation

The one thing that really sticks out about his presentation is the idea behind the “Power of the Brand”.  Selling Charmin at the end of the day is still selling toilet paper (my personal opinion).  But what makes branding powerful is the potential for it to transform into something special.  Case in point – the Pampers/UNICEF collaboration where P&G bought one 1 tetanus vaccine for every Pampers purchase.   Imagine that – over 31 million lives have been improved just because soccer-moms had to buy some diapers for their kids.  If that’s not powerful, I don’t know what is.

Maybe I drank some of the Kool-aid, but I do believe in what Marc says.  We can be cynics and accept that a diaper is a diaper or a detergent is a detergent.  But if we go just a little bit further, suspend our cynicism just a little bit and suppose that what we can do can make a difference, then I think we can use the power of the brand for good.

Day-in-the life of a Brand and Brand Management Methodologies

This was by far my most favorite experience.  I love corporate presentations and meetings just as much as the next guy, but what really matters to me is the day-in-day-out tasks that a brand manager needs to perform.

So my mentor had the foresight to have me shadow a complete cross-functional team, from a brand manager to a market researcher to a public relations POC.  I got to talk to everyone involved in building a brand, ranging in topics from strategy to tactical execution.  What’s awesome is that I had the opportunity to discuss the P&G branding methodology and see where the different pieces come together that allows P&G to have 21 $1 billion brands in its portfolio.   Is it the perfect approach? – probably not.  But you can’t dispute the legacy of a 172 year old company in building a disciplined approach to building brands.

Bottom line is that after having worked in retail operations and product design on the business services side, a career in brand management is appealing because of the ability to touch so many facets of marketing at once.  For example, other areas under the jurisdiction of the brand manager include the development of Television Commercials (TVCs), product placement plans, print, and digital marketing (I’ll put SEO under here Dean).  So a brand manager has the opportunity to use any tools necessary to build and develop a brand; whether he/she has the power or authority to do so is another question.

To end this summary, here’s an ad we discussed during the brand camp – one of my personal favorites.

A little about the Pre-MBA Brand Camp itself – it’s a 5.5 day ordeal where P&G shows us why we, as Pre-MBAers, should work for them, and for them to evaluate us to see if there is mutual fit.  Some of the week’s festivities include presentations from the Chairman of the Board and Chief Branding Officers, introductions to P&G approaches and methodologies, and an opportunity to shadow a brand manager on one of its multiple billion dollar brands.  At the end of the camp, P&G BM and ABMs interview us for an internship next year.  So talk about a great opportunity – not only do we get wined and dined, but we also get an opportunity to lock up an internship offer for next year!

Day 0 was relatively quiet so I’m not going to bore anybody with the details.  We did do a nice ice-breaking session at Gameworks and an informal panel with current interns and assistant brand managers.  We were also handed books Rising Tide and What Really Matters.  Good reading material for the next few days if I manage to find time.  Also, we did find out that we 40 were selected out of 1100 applications – only around a 3.6% acceptance rate!

Case #1: A multi-national company had created an everyday drink in China a few years ago, but the bottle design erroneously implied sportiness and aggressiveness.  The design agency at the time thus also tailored all external communications to revolve around sport, even signing a major martial arts star.  Following this positioning, sales rose with every hyped flavor debut but inevitably fell as the novelty wore off.  The client approached us to revisit the label and bottle design to align itself with a different persona.

I am convinced that if more thought went into strategically conceptualizing and creating a bottle that personified the brand, there would be no mistake in erroneously positioning the brand.  Reading a creative brief is much different than personally holding a tactile object that clearly personifies the brand identity and allows for very little confusion.  This client could have been market leader in its new-found category; instead, the brand is struggling against intense local sports drink competitors and has lost its first-mover advantage.

Case #2: An alcohol holding company is conceptualizing a drink to target young professionals in an up-and-coming Asian country.  A central part of their campaign is to create an iconic bottle.  Performing competitive research, I saw that many of the major bottlers use the same approach when designing their brand – Pink Vodka, Patron Tequila, Absolut Vodka, among many others.  Knowing that their product must stand out in a multitude of diverse venues including modern trade liquour stores, supermarkets and dimly-lit special trade bars and clubs, these bottlers created distinctive designs that stand out from the very competitive alcohol market.

This approach is common in the alcohol industry, but it is an approach that must be embraced by other industries as well.  As FMCGs become more competitive, PD must also become a point of differentiation and in of itself a personification of the brand identity in order to be successful.  Consumers are constantly bombarded with options and a successful product needs to stand out distinctively.  As a central PD strategy becomes more widely recognized, companies need to tailor their conceptual communications to reflect the PD identity; case in point – Absolut Vodka’s It’s An Absolut World campaign.