Tag Archives: brand management

Collaboration Part 1

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Here’s a dirty little secret: Brand Managers don’t always know what’s best for their brand.  For the most part, Brand Managers are sitting behind desks, combing through research and telling themselves how smart they are.  They’re not out there in the trenches and experiencing the daily challenges their brand encounters on the street.

Here’s another dirty little secret: just because promotion agencies get paid to come up with awesome ideas, they don’t always deliver.

The point here is that a lot of the time, the ideas that actually increase sales come via collaboration with the people who don’t get paid to come up with awesome ideas that actually move product or increase sales.  It might be a sales person out in the trenches.  It might be the a retailer who sees a golden opportunity.  It might be a consumer that is passionate about the brand and sees an emotional connection that others don’t.

Most great ideas just can’t bubble up to the top from a consumer research deck or creative brief.  The best ones come via the true collaboration with the people that are out there actually making things happen and out there truly interacting with the brand.

How much time do you spend collaborating with these people?

You Gotta Live in the NOW

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At the risk of looking like a total kiss-ass to my boss, I’m going to quote him: “Without the short-term there is no long-term.”

This principle is amplified about 1000% in a weak economy and has become my mantra for each and every day.

As a marketer, adopting the “live in the now” philosophy has been challenging, educational and rewarding.   I prioritize 100% of every single day what is important NOW.  What will move volume NOW?  What will produce revenue NOW?  This shift has resulted in me understanding and appreciating what happens at the point of purchase: on the shelf  and out relationship with key stakeholders in the trade.

Yes, consumer pull and long-term branding still matters – but when cash is tight for brands, retailers and consumers, you gotta live in the now.

Brand Audit: Cracker Jack

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While I was getting my car washed today, I was browsing the convenience store inside and noticed a bag of Cracker Jack sitting on the shelf.  If there’s a brand that can stake claim to a “You Can’t Buy That!” equity, it’s Cracker Jack.  I mean for crying out loud: their brand name is sung by millions and millions of people during the 7th Inning Stretch at every single baseball game across the country throughout the summer.  Plus, they’re the brand KNOWN for the ‘Surprise Inside!

So what’s the deal with this brand?  Other than “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” you don’t hear much about this iconic brand.  Let’s do a quick Brand Audit on Cracker Jack.

Packaging: Cracker Jack’s packaging seems to be up to date.  The Sailor Jack and Bingo (his dog) illustration are modern and the rest of the package design is clean.  They’re trying to appeal to”healthy snack eaters” by including the “zero trans fat” on the front.

Cracker Jack Packaging

Pricing: The bag shown here is line priced with the rest of Frito Lay’s snacks at $.99/bag.  Cracker Jack is probably perceived to be a little cheaper than brands that have huge ad spends like Doritos, but I don’t think there would be much lift if the price was a dime or two cheaper – so it seems to be in the right spot.

Unfortunately, after packaging and pricing, there isn’t much good to say.  In fact there isn’t much to talk about at all.

Advertising: According to their website, Cracker Jack’s last TV ad was in 1999.  But here’s the problem, it’s not available on YouTube.  I’m not sure if they do any print/radio/OOH – but I seriously doubt it.

Website: It looks like the last time it was really updated was in 2002.  And the more I look at it, this might have been Cracker Jack’s FIRST (and only) website.

  • It has a little bit of flash (and I mean a LITTLE bit)
  • Straightforward navigation, and a whopping seven total pages.
  • Decent content about the history of the brand, but nothing that engages consumers.
  • The only way you can “reach” Cracker Jack is via US Mail or Phone (normal biz hours).  No email offered.
  • There is a slight tie-in with Major League Baseball.  You can download a Collector’s Sheet for the MLB-themed Special Prizes.  I guess they did a promotion where boxes would have an MLB team’s logo on a sticker as the Special Prize inside.  That’s m guess – as I’m not totally sure what the deal was.  I will give them credit – the logos on the Collector’s Sheet were up-to-date.

Web Presence: It would be safe to assume that with their website being as basic as it is, their web presence would be lacking.  But I was amazed at how lacking it is.  I googled “Cracker Jack” and the top four listings pointed to something brand related (website, wikipedia, NPR piece) but nothing after that.  I even did a blog search – nothing other than derogatory uses of the phrase “Cracker Jack” – i.e. “This Cracker Jack blogger doesn’t know what the hell he’s talking about!”

Promotion: What really chaps my ass is their weak effort to tie in with baseball.  They should be all over that shit and it doesn’t have to license the MLB properties – which probably sucks up their entire yearly marketing budget.  What about Little League?  What about college baseball?  What about JUST BASEBALL?!

Either way, they gotta OWN baseball.  No other brand can take the baseball association away from them, but they’re not leveraging this equity into sales.  Buying a box of Cracker Jack was once a rite of passage at ballgames.  Now, it’s just a line in a song.

All in all, it’s pretty obvious to me that no one at Frito Lay is managing this brand.  I seriously believe that they re-up their contract with Major League Baseball once a year because that makes them feel like they did something.  And then MAYBE an Associate Brand Manager (from another brand) calls the web design firm once a year to make a couple small changes.  That’s it.

Doesn’t this brand deserve a little better than being sent off to pasture?