Going Out With a Purpose Driven Brand

Jim Stengel, Global Marketing Officer for Procter and Gamble, officially retires from the company after a 25-year ride on October 31st. He treated more than 200 attendees of the first ever University of Cincinnati College of Business Marketing Summit to the tricks of creating what he called a purpose-driven brand. No tricks really. He defined a brand as

the collective intent of people behind it (a product, idea or service) manifested in actions they take.

I particularly like the example he used of Goldfish. He said it's not simply a snack but is described by creator Peppridge Farms as existing to instill optimism in children. When I think about how excited my nine-year old used to get about buying and eating goldfish (notice I said used to--adolescence is creeping lower and lower as the years pass by), I can begin to appreciate this take. Imagine how a statement like that would motivate your employees who seek a nobler purpose than just collecting a paycheck.

I'll leave it to the mainstream local media to dissect the rest of Stengels's comments.
http://cincinnati.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/stories/2008/10/06/daily58.html

I was very impressed with UC's faculty at today's event. Although in talking with organizers they are already worrying about how to top this year's successful launch. A number of teachers/administrators made the effort to walk around to the different tables making guests feel welcome. I also learned more about the schools's Masters in Marketing Capstone program, a two-quarter experience where students diagnose a business challenge, then solve it using the head knowledge gained in the classroom. One example outlined in UC's literature was the development of a comprehensive marketing plan for the American Sign Museum which moved from Walnut Hills to larger quarters in Camp Washington. The program which can utilize a maximum of 400 student hours, runs from January to June. A one- to two-page proposal can be submitted by for-profits and non-profits. Deadline is November 14. All they ask is a description of your entity, the issues you are facing and a rundown of how students would benefit from helping you. Details: andrea.dixon@uc.edu.

Procter and Gamble Letting Go While Starbucks Getting a Grip

Northern Kentucky was fortunate enough to serve as host this week of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC: http://www.iabc.org/) Heritage Region Conference hosting 200 professionals and students from as far away as New York, Virginia, Illinois and Michigan. IABC provides a professional network of more than 14,000 business communication professionals in over 70 countries, with members holding positions in such broad ranging disciplines as public relations, government relations, video production, training, education and human resources.

Two of the more engaging speakers at the conference were Procter & Gamble (http://www.pg.com/) Global External Relations Officer Charlotte Otto and James Greathouse, Director of Internal Communications for Starbucks. While both groups are known for innovation, Otto advised that the venerable corporate giant has been cautious in being transparent to consumers. For P&G, that opaqueness comes in the form of revealing details about product ingredients, something unthinkable even a few years ago.

Consumer brands face a hostile and skeptical market today, she added (citing Dan Yankelovich's book Profit With Honor in which the author details America's third wave of public distrust--following the Depression and Vietnam--coming in the form of 911, corporate scandals and the Iraq War (http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=0300108583). Otto says P&G's goal is to be authentic and interesting but safe to advertisers. "We have to respect consumers as co-creators acknowledging their control over the message."

If the coffee doesn't give Starbucks (http://www.starbucks.com/) executives the jitters, the problems created by the organization's growth might. Greathouse says seven new Starbucks a day are opening creating hundreds of new jobs for partners and baristas but also keeping busy about 1,200 employees in real estate, store design and construction as well as 150 HR people and regional Vice Presidents, Directors and District Managers. Imagine the potential for communication chaos with these swelling numbers. And Greathouse says the cost is potentially enormous. He reported that a single poorly written headline on an intranet home page amounts to $1,000 in wasted employee time (think about pondering a headline, clicking through it even though it's useless, taking time to decide whether it's useless, you get the picture). How to deal with this? Greathouse has pulled together a multi-department task force predicating their work on what the audiences need, or as Greathouse so succinctly phrased it, "Do things because the audience wants it not because it's cool or because (as the IT department might boast) 'we can.' "