Surprise and Delight with Virgin Group and Sir Richard Branson

Sir Richard Branson and any of his Virgin companies can always be counted on for their creative and remarkable ideas for marketing their products and services. The recession has not stopped any of the innovation at Virgin. In fact, almost the opposite is true. According to Sir Richard, “Bad Times offer an opportunity to show off your brand’s true colors”. He feels that consistently communicating your values and attitude keeps your customers loyal, despite a long and bumpy ride. “If they don’t hear from you, they will lose interest and go elsewhere”

So what has the Virgin team been up to recently?

Screw you Recession – A statement that captured the sentiment of the Canadian populace was turned into a weblog that encouraged user-generated content and money saving tips. The weblog was launched with the provocative headline on a billboard in Dundas Square, the equivalent of Times Square.
















Yesterday marked the last day of the site since “the recession is now lifting”. It’s a cheeky site full of attitude and a reflection of the Virgin brand's irreverent personality.

WiFi on board – Virgin America announced a test flight with Wifi and threw a party in the sky for social media/YouTube digerati and friends which was streamed live from 35,000 feet to a YouTube event in San Francisco. In addition, when Wifi went fleetwide, Virgin celebrated the occasion with the first ever Skype chat with Oprah. While Virgin wasn’t the first airline to have Wifi on board, they certainly did a good job reaching their target customer and made a big splash in a way that reinforced their chic yet accessible positioning.

Day in The Clouds - an online scavenger hunt with Virgin America and Google Apps that was held in the clouds and on the ground. The purpose was to showcase and bring awareness of what people can do on-the-go with technology.

Freefest – Music is at the core of the Virgin brand. One of the outcomes of the recession has been the decline in music festival sales as people have scaled back on discretionary spending. Seeing this trend, Virgin Mobile USA was inspired to make their annual summer festival free. “Freefest” was announced on Jimmy Fallon’s show and the announcement was tweeted and retweeted around the country. As a result, when tickets were released four days later, they were scooped up in minutes.

According to Branson, “ we placed more value on warming consumer’s hearts than on ticket sales. My hope was that the festival would be a great day of community and music, while also showing that a daring plan like giving something for free will pay off in ways that money just can’t buy. That is the sort of brand they know will continue to surprise and delight. And who doesn't want that?”

credit: PR Week Sept 2009 issue, Boing Boing

Why did the chicken stop in the middle of the road?

To fix a pothole?

Last week, KFC launched a campaign addressed to city mayors offering to patch potholes for free. In return , the company wants to leave behind a chalk stenciled logo on the patch informing people the road has been "Re-Freshed by KFC."

"In honor of our "Fresh Tastes Best" campaign, we want to come and Re-"Fresh" your roads!" KFC president Roger Eaton says in the letter. "Every patched pothole comes with the Colonel's very own stamp of approval."

I’m all for corporate citizenship, but as a branding and marketing professional, this just feels wrong. This promotion runs counter-intuitive to supporting the brand promise of “fresh taste best” and feels like old-school self-serving corporate citizenry.

Let’s use the checklist I put together from Jay Heyman’s book (All You Need is A Good Idea) to see how this promotion fairs.(See book review below)

Could I understand the strategy? Yes

• KFC wants to be a good corporate citizen by filling in potholes

Was the idea unexpected yet relevant?

• Unexpected yes, relevant to the brand/product – no. Road works and fried chicken have zero in common

Did it have the power to make me smile?

• No - this made me scratch my head

Does the promotion tie in with the brand promise?

• No. Fresh taste and refresh the roads puts gravel in my mouth and smells of tar

Does the promotion help differentiate the brand from competitors?

• yes – but not necessarily in a good way

Is the idea brand building & campaignable?

• Absolutely not
  

Based on these answers, I would not recommend this promotion.

So here’s the question. If KFC were your client, what promotion would you recommend that would be more in keeping with their brand promise and would build awareness while doing good?

Here’s mine. Please share your ideas!

Get citizens involved in a “fresh thinking” campaign

Using a tool such as “A Better Project”, get people to submit and vote on ideas on how to “refresh” their city by providing grants to the best ideas. KFC would be able to create a groundswell of involvement that would not only build brand equity but be better aligned with their brand strategy.

In the end the winning idea might be to fill in potholes. The difference is in the how – by getting people involved in a new way that taps into a fresh approach of getting folks involved in supporting their city.

Share your idea.

I love MOO

The other day I was asked by a reader of The Essential Orange if I could also write posts that would benefit mid-sized businesses with low brand recognition. Sure, I thought, I can do that – although I’ve always tried to pick stories that are relevant no matter what the size the business. So thank you Michael for the inspiration for this post!

Because of my love-affair with paper, I’ve decided to focus on “MOO.com”. MOO is a London-based online stationer that… “helps businesses and individuals stand out in an over-crowded world”. Launched in September 2006, venture-backed MOO started with a simple idea – reinventing the “business card” for the web 2.0 crowd – something that made a personal statement and wasn’t stuffy or cheezie. These Mini-Cards are half the size of regular business cards and come in packs of 100 – all with the option of having a different image on each one. Images for the cards can be imported directly or downloaded from Flickr, or you can use any of the MOO design templates.

Now, hands-up all who have heard of MOO?

Well, if you’ve attended a SXSW, chances are you have. Otherwise, having spoken to a number of friends, I’d say MOO was still fairly “undiscovered” by mainstream. Yet this company with low brand recognition seems to be fairly successful. They ship to customers in over 100 countries, in their first year they printed more than 10 million cards worldwide and have experienced triple digit growth since launching. In order to reduce shipping times, they are opening an office in Rhode Island this year – despite the recession. They’ve also expanded their offering to include Business Cards, MiniCards, NoteCards, StickerBooks, Postcards, Greeting Cards and accessories.

So what’s their secret?

Their product is differentiated – it’s a great example of mass-customization that’s affordable, personal, and has relatively short turnaround/delivery (soon to improve). And the whole process on their web-site is super easy.

They have the right kind of brand recognition from the people who really matter – the kind of people who really care about and want to buy their products. And they’ve accomplished this, not by running ads on TV or fancy magazines, but by engaging with their target in conversations in venues where they “live” and by enabling conversations between users with similar interests or passions.

To quote Seth Godin in Meatball Sundae, MOO.com practices “The New Marketing” which… “treats every interaction, product, service and side effect as a form of media”. Offline they are at events like South by Southwest (US), Photoshopworld (US) and Social Media Influence (UK). Online, they’re active with fan bases in Facebook, Bedo, Flickr, and Etsy. They have an engaging blog and often host meet-ups looking for new ideas. And their SEO strategy seems to working – that’s how I discovered MOO and have become a “raving fan”.

In summary, MOO.com offers a great product that stands out, excellent customer service and engages with their customer, creating meaningful opportunities for conversation and shared passions – stuff any organization – big, small, medium or indifferent could benefit from.