From April 2015

(Red) Case 随记

（RED）的商业模式能成立的前提必须是（RED）本身达到一定的关注度，从而能够达到提高related-products sales的目的。用文中的原话说就是”encourage consumers to keep choosing (RED) over non-(RED)”. 假如说(RED) 自身的影响力减少从而导致相关的合作伙伴的合作产品关注度和销量下降，这个商业模式就会受到生存威胁。另外，这个program真是给大企业提供了一个堂而皇之地制造一个profitable的corporate responsibility的机会。不禁让我想，有多少企业真的是care在非洲的那些受到AIDS生命威胁的人民？又有多少买RED产品的人是真的care 这个cause? 还是只是觉得红色的产品很酷？

NOTES:
  • 3 month raises 25M; 1 year raises 50M. –> shows a characteristic of a FAD(一阵热) product/service.
  • 4P; promotion is done by their partners; difficult to measure.
  • successful brand alliance VS. negative brand image spillover; selecting right partners MATTERS-> e.g. Tiger Woods was chosen by Accenture to be the endorsement.
  • Partners:
    • AMEX: prestige and conservative
    • GAP: causal and young
    • CONVERSE: rebellious and fashionable
    • AMARNI: exclusive and high quality
    • APPLE: innovative and trendy
    • MOTOROLA
    • OPRAH WINFREY
  •  The point is these partners all have different brand images; RED has to be careful about choosing partners so to mitigate and avoid negative brand dilution.
  • Segments of people doing charity:
    • Norm
    • Helping some one (warm glow)
    • avoid guilt
    • giving back
    • self-interest (由于consumer在做善事的同时得到一个产品，大多数RED product的consumer是这个segment)

Read more

Getting Emotional About Brands

  • Emotional connections are not only the province of certain “emotional” categories or brands. Consumers are emotional about checking accounts and discount merchandise, not just about soft drinks and expensive fountain pens. Bank of America and Wal-Mart create emotional connections just as surely as JetBlue and iPod do. They do it in different ways — depending far more on their people than on their products — but the result is the same.
  • Gallup surveys have shown that 11% of U.S. car owners are passionate about the car they own, but 13% are passionate about the place where they bank, and 12% are passionate about the mass merchant retailers where they shop. People aren’t either “emotional” or “unemotional.” Consumers are typically highly emotional about some brands and products while completely indifferent and “unattached” to others. Business customers are as emotional about their B2B purchases as car buyers, clothing shoppers, and resort visitors are about their selections.
  • Consumers’ emotional connections have a specific — and fairly simple — structure, regardless of the nature of the particular emotions involved. As revealed by Gallup’s customer engagement metric, the structure begins at the foundation of the customer relationship with Confidence, then proceeds through Integrity to Pride to — at the pinnacle of the relationship — Passion about the service, product, or brand. (See sidebar: “Levels of Customer Engagement.”)
  • Emotional connections are not merely warm and fuzzy, nor are they simply interesting to contemplate and debate. They have powerful financial consequences, ranging from share-of-wallet to frequency and amount of repeat business. “Fully engaged” retail customers spend more and return more frequently than those who are disengaged. Retailers that have taken action to enhance their customer engagement by capitalizing on the engagement-building skills of their own customer-facing employees have seen double-digit increases in both sales and profit per square foot. Gallup has seen these results not just in the United States, but around the globe — and we’ve seen them for banks, auto dealers, hardware stores, and business services marketers. Emotional connections are universally important, and managing those emotional bonds pays off handsomely.
  • Some companies are very good at creating emotional connections with their customers. Most, however, are not. Companies that are successful at creating emotional connections benefit from stronger results, not only in cash flow and profit, but in market share.
  • Emotional connections aren’t static. They ebb and flow, and the results can affect a company’s long-term business success. Emotional connections can be measured. They can be enhanced. And they can be managed. It’s not easy, but it’s demonstrably possible.

Excerpt from “Getting Emotional About Brands”

http://www.gallup.com/businessjournal/12910/getting-emotional-about-brands.aspx

Sprezzatura- Warby Parker

  • We’re often asked why Warby has been successful. If we sum it up in one word, it’s Deliberate.” …There’s an element to this in any good party: What looks effortless is actually labored; what looks tossed off is deeply considered. Italians call this concept Sprezzatura.

– Excerpts from the FASTCO article “For building the first great made-on-the-internet- brand”

 

  • “与传统垄断行业竞争，一个最大的挑战就是如何成功塑造自己的品牌。传统品牌在衡量自身竞争力时一般会考虑三个要素，cost leadership（价格优势）、product differentiation（产品区别）和niche market（垂直市场）。可以说Warby Parker在这三方面都做得非常出色，再加上它的理念与最近很火的精益创业（The Lean Startup）非常吻合，都是先推出市场试用原型，之后再慢慢根据市场客户的回馈进行及时的更新迭代.”
  • Warby Parker尝试了所有传统公司的营销方法，只不过它凭借互联网更加有创意地达到了效果。初创公司涉足慈善领域的并不多，更何况是眼镜行业，Warby Parker第一个做到了。
  • 顾客可以网上选择5副眼镜，免费送上门，并且可以在5天之类任意试戴直到顾客做出选择，最后网上订单，再次免费送上门。看似简单的模式其实与平时我们接触的电商大不一样，这种对顾客来说零风险的承诺，无疑大大增加了彼此的好感和信任度，而且在试戴期间，顾客向自己社交圈资讯意见无形中就又给Warby Parker做了推广，这种“word of mouth(口碑营销)”的策略实属精彩。
  • 近几年出现并存活甚至大放光彩的一些电商，它们的模式都逐渐在发生变化，但却呈现出一定的规律。以限时闪购艺术品为主的Fab、只出售剃须刀的线上品牌的Harry’s、专注在线上男鞋的Beckett Simonon、衬衫领域的Warby Parker VASTRM等等，与eBay亚马逊等巨头不同的是，这些企业都将自身的顾客定位在某一特定商品的范畴，并加入自身品牌的元素设计，试图绕开与门户电商巨头的正面竞争，而的确它们很好做到了。
  • 中国市场早已到了时机成熟之时，却等待着被挑战，而我们做为消费者，也早已做好以更低的价格购买高质量独一无二设计诱人的商品的准备。

– Excerpts from http://36kr.com/p/205725.html