My skin – where some of my body parts were “over looked” the skin gods delivered and I thank them by looking after it.  Although a couple of decades ago, between sun-beds and basting in baby-oil and iodine in the hot summer sun, a entire generation of us never really “got” it. 

Suntan?  Ha…that’s an understatement.  We were orange people… year-round.  As a result, I’m now religious about sunscreen, regular facials and investing in good products. 

Better late than never right?  And with a boatload of lotions, potions and miracle-in-a-jar solutions driven by a marketing machine called an “aging population” I’m hardly alone in the quest to turn back time.

The economic reality is all of the above is driving anti-aging product demand and prices through the medicine cabinet… which is why when I saw an infomercial for Murad’s Resurgence Program, it spoke to me.  It said:  good value in a quality line of products from a renowned skincare company and the convenience of auto-shipping every 3 months so I don’t have to think about it.

I confess.  I was also totally drawn in by their luminous spokeswoman Joan Lunden who looks 40 vs. 60+… and faster than you can say “sign-me-up”, I was in. 

Two weeks later my first Murad Resurgence delivery arrived complete with:

• Brilliant packaging that oozed feelings of health and younger skin… and I hadn’t even opened the box yet;
• Inside?  Perfectly, symmetrically situated tubes of hope; and
• Persuasive printed materials including a catalogue of even more product options to add to my auto-shipments (gotta love good up-sell).

Basically it was skincare fairy-dust at every touch-point.

Results?  Not so Joan Lunden. 

Maybe it’s just my skin-type (normal?)… but the “glow” they promoted was more like “grease-monkey” which translated to clogged pores… and we all know where that leads.  High school Clearasil flash-backs, that’s where.

So one more auto-ship and a fair test-drive later, I called Murad’s customer service line and cancelled.  They took it well.

MY SOAPBOX:  It’s not complicated.  This was a classic case of a well branded/packaged marketing vortex that over-promised, under-delivered.

Quality skincare via infomercials?  Step away from the 1-800 number.  All those smiling, happy, shiny people are actors.  Period.

It’s an experiment I won’t be repeating because right now, I feel like a lab rat with zits… so how’s that for a testimonial Murad?

STAGE LEFT:  First error… I didn’t consult Paula Begoun’s book Don’t Go to the Cosmetics Counter Without Me which basically pans the entire Murad Resurgence line.  Paula is a one-woman cosmetics cop that puts out a detailed bible on virtually every beauty line on the market and I’ve been following her gospel for years.  Begoun blog post coming soon… this chick has built a brand around the science of cosmetics.  She knows her stuff and I can’t wait to write about it.

brand experience, brand inconsistency, brand performance, branding, infomercial, joan lunden, murad, murad resurgence, skincare, smd marketing, smdmarketing, susan dore

As my favourite digital marketing demi-god Mitch Joel said in a recent blog post, ”Product Is The New Marketing“.

“The individual is empowered is code for Social Media,” writes Mitch.  “This isn’t really about word of mouth marketing in as much as it is about the fact that customers don’t just tell one another about brands they love (and hate)… they tell everybody.”

Which is exactly what happened here. 

I was first introduced to 1-800-Headsets through my friends at LeapZone Strategies when they raved/blogged about the service.  Nothing like a glowing endorsement to get me motivated.  Plus I was looking for a replacement office phone and me (and my chiropractor) love headsets. 

Having hung myself copious times with headset cords, I was particularly interested in finding out about cordless options.  Well voila!  I landed on 1800headsets.com and a world of options unfolded.  From selection through product delivery and support, I’ve enjoyed a fantastic, multi-functional office phone/headset solution ever since. 

This week, I needed a replacement battery and was reminded of all the reasons why this service rocks.  I landed back on their easy-to-navigate site where help is encouraged through a “Customer Love” mantra, where LiveChat operators are standing by for assistance, where picking up the phone is welcomed with messages like “Call us!  A real person would be happy to help you”.

In a rush, I decided to go traditional.  Inside two minutes, the delightful customer service dude pulled up my profile, told me what I needed and made it happen.  Yah. 

I was promised delivery by Friday, got it Thursday.  The box came complete with custom, idiot-proof installation tips/instructions and…get this… TOOTSIE ROLLS. 

Yes, Tootsie Rolls. 

Nothing like taking an already great brand experience and making it fun and yummy too. 

MY SOAPBOX:  To be clear, all I needed was to get my phone battery replaced… boring right?  Wrong.  1-800-Headsets took a pedestrian purchase and made it personal, easy and enjoyable.

And the best part is, with the power and influence vested in me as a consumer, I get to share it with you.

When is the last time you were surprised and delighted by a brand?  Tell us about it…

1-800-headsets, 1800headsets, brand experience, brand experiences, brand performance, branding, headset, leapzone strategies, mitch joel, smd marketing, smdmarketing, susan dore

How many blondes does it take to light a barbecue?   That’s what I was asking myself this weekend as a friend and I were trying to spark up a piece-of-crap grill at a girls’ soiree – right before the click-click-click of the dead starter turned to the WOOF of a propane-fuelled cloud of fire.  We both still had our eyebrows but as the unmistakable whiff of singed forearms hung in the evening air… followed by some painfully slow, uneven cooking… all I could think was I LOVE MY WEBER.

A humble Barbecue Bon Vivant, I grew up grilling in backyards, campgrounds, on beaches and boats.  Since then I’ve grilled up great meals, made charcoal of others, enjoyed authentic southern barbecue in Memphis, Tennessee and right here in my home-town at Memphis Blues Barbeque House, a fantastic restaurant chain founded by some talented friends. 

Barbecuing is like a slice of life… know what I mean?  There’s something about the sauce-slathering sound of searing, the smell of the sizzle when heat and meat meet, a gathering of friends and family, a liquid libation in one hand, flipper in the other (sigh…you get the gist).

A burgeoning cooking trend fuelled by Boomers wanting better, faster and healthier, the age-old tradition of grilling has evolved into a full-on sport.  One that’s clearly gender-neutral with more and more women happily wielding the tongs (and no, we don’t really care about the BTU measurements… please pass the wine).  

From cook-offs and cook-outs to grilling cookbooks, cooking shows and restaurants, barbecuing is a trend with serious traction. 

Grills range from knock-off, cheap and cheerful (stand back!) models to Cadillacs complete with wood chip shelves, warming drawers, even on-board computers (whoa)… but the best known brand of outdoor barbecues in the world is Weber.  “Everyman’s barbecue” so to speak, Weber is positioned as a mid to high-end, quality gas and charcoal grills with stylish, functional grilling accessories. 

Whether you’re a grill greenhorn or an iron-chef Weber.com is an eye-opener:

Fun basics – tons of recipes online and emailed weekly, free downloads, shop for cookbooks, accessories/apparel, tools and replacement parts, easy registration and online manuals.

1.800.GRILLOUT – available 7 days a week/364 days a year, barbecue experts are ready to assist with grill troubleshooting, cooking tips, food prep, etc.  (I test-drove it and had a great chat with Jean who told me all about the art of grilling fruit!?)

iPhone app – On the Grill is a “mobile grilling companion” with 250+ recipes, grocery lists, grilling tips and a cooking timer.

Dealer locator – an easy “where to buy” worldwide directory.

More?  You won’t believe Webernation.com – “The site for real people that love their Weber grills” you can join the Weber Nation and get free, exclusive access to online grilling classes, audio/visual podcasts and forums and an interactive recipe box with other grilling fanatics (aka “Weberheads”).  

All this and you haven’t even cooked on your grill yet!

MY SOAPBOX:  A full-scale Web 2.0 brand experience, Weber has created a community of close to 33,000 Facebook followers and umpteen thousand Weber Nation members sharing stories, recipes and photos.

They have made it fun to own a Weber by building a brand strategy around an interactive platform for raving fans to pitch the brand for them using positioning statements like:   “Weber grill owners always say they’re the ones who truly sell our grills, and we totally agree”. 

And with Weber owners posting comments like “Friends don’t let friends buy cheap barbecues”… I’d say it’s working.

baby boomer trends, brand experience, brand strategy, branding, cooking trend, grilling, grilling cookbooks, smd marketing, smdmarketing, susan dore, weber, weber nation

What do you get when you combine 6,000 women, Oprah Winfrey and a 3-day celebration in New York City?  Some surreal, jaw-dropping, crack-up moments along with a whole lot of chaos and estrogen-fuelled drama.  Oh… and a city-wide jump in shoe sales.

A one woman show, media maven and brand, Oprah Winfrey is quite possibly the most influential woman on the planet.  And like so many, seeing her live was on my bucket-list.  So when O Magazine’s Live Your Best Life Weekend in New York came across my radar, I jumped at it and so did some of my friends. 

So there we were in the city that never sleeps and neither did we really, squeezing sight-seeing, shopping and signature cocktails in with a very full event schedule. From a champagne welcome reception and an inspiring line of “Lifeshop” headliners (Dr. Oz, Suze Orman, etc.) to a gala at Radio City Music Hall and a Sunday charity walk, it was non-stop fun.

Highlights

• Oprah live.  Mind-blowingly brilliant.  And after following her for years, it was like watching a girlfriend on stage.
• Eat Pray Love author Elizabeth Gilbert’s opener.  So real, so cool… that woman oozes how to live in the present.
• A great welcome kit, spectacular collateral materials and sponsors like L’Oreal that rocked the gift bags.

Lowlights

• There was one glaring gap in this Oprah brand experience – the logistics at Jacob K. Javits Convention Center were beyond bad.  From mismanaged line-ups and event coordination to banana battles in the food lines and near-riots over a lack of bathrooms forcing urinal usage by some angry sisters (yes you read that right), that facility was ill-prepared for 6,000 women (and 10 men).  My friend’s and I laugh about it now, but it was truly like an all-day episode of Survivor.

The weekend also marked the 10-year anniversary of O Magazine which continues to set the bar on  page-turning layouts and visual platforms along with compelling content, life stories and a just-right balance of tasteful advertising. 

But that’s just one piece of Oprah’s media empire. 

There’s Oprah & Friends satellite radio, Oprah’s Book Club, the multi-layered Oprah.com, a new reality show and with September 2011 marking 25 years and the last for the Oprah Winfrey Show, she’s launching OWN Network.

Whether relaxing in my living room or as a proud, live participant in magical NYC it’s been a wild ride to be part of the Oprah brand experience.  And it’s not over yet.

MY SOAPBOX:   When you’re #1, you’re an easy target. 

News this week talked about how the Oprah Winfrey Show has had a 7% decline in viewership – which on 9 million is hardly a crisis. 

But rather than focus on how her O-Factor has changed lives, saved lives, got millions reading, and raised over $80 million to fund 200+ charity grants in the US and 30 other countries, let’s focus on a dip/blip in ratings on a show that’s winding down (??).   

And for the record, it’s winding down to make way for a ground-breaking, new network that’s poised to make what the Oprah Winfrey Show did to daytime television look like training-wheels.

Maybe the real story is how we’ve only scratched the surface on Oprah’s enduring influence.

brand experience, Eat Pray Love, Elizabeth Gilbert, Live Your Best Life Weekend, O Magazine, Oprah & Friends, Oprah Winfrey, Oprah.com, OWN Network, smd marketing, smdmarketing, susan dore

When my old vacuum recently started to blow vs. suck, it was a little problematic.  Decided it was time to invest in a dirt-sucking solution that was built to last.  I’ve been fascinated by Dyson… how can you not be?  Hip commercials with casual, cool James Dyson talking about how he was frustrated by vacuum cleaners that clogged and lost suction – so he invented Dyson cyclone technology:  The first vacuum that doesn’t lose suction.

Like me, you’ve probably seen those Dyson ads and thought… this IKEA kind of dude built a business around vacuum suction?  I can assure you that you can’t fully appreciate the problem/solution here until you see dust bunnies forming a funnel-cloud in your living room because your vacuum blows.  Literally.

Research – I start with Dyson.com and was not only drawn in by what I can only describe as sexy looking machines, I was seduced by the story behind this brand.  Turns out James Dyson built 5,127 prototypes (what??) before he was satisfied with his powerful, bag-free technology.  Described as “a man that likes to make things work better”, all I can say is this guy was focussed!  Since then, the Dyson brand has broken through bag brainwashing and patent nightmares.  Now in over 15 million households, you could say Dyson has sucked up some serious market share.

Purchase – Next step, Home Depot where Dyson had decent display real estate and easy-to-follow point of sale material.  This is where the price-point comes in.  At $500+ a Dyson is an investment, however, strategic yet approachable brand positioning makes you feel like you’re buying the Jaguar of vacuums (psst!  Dysons don’t just come with operating instructions, they come with Owner’s Manuals).

Thought I’d need to recruit some muscle or at least a dolly to get the box to my vehicle…but it was so lightweight complete with a handle, it was no sweat.

Test-drive – Back at the ranch, assembly was effortless with 3 easy-snap pieces in a well-packed box with negative cardboard cuts.  I was vacuuming on all floor surfaces in no time flat, easily getting into nooks/crannies with a festival of built-in attachments… all while enjoying music that I didn’t need to blare to hear.  And light?  This unit is so ergonomic and easy to manoeuvre it feels like a dance partner.  (I can’t believe I’m romanticizing household cleaning but dragging around a heavy, awkward vacuum?  Well it sucks.)

The comprehensive collateral kit directed me to register online for my 5 year warranty – took under 2 minutes and the follow-up emails since then have been all about “me and my experience” vs. up-sell or intrusive side-offers.

And at the risk of sounding ridiculous, when I “parked” my shiny new Dyson in the closet… I smiled feeling a sense of pride in a worthwhile, well-executed purchase. 

And isn’t that what a great brand experience is all about?

MY SOAPBOX:  From easy-to-empty to easy-to-push, the Dyson brand has harnessed innovation in its quest to engineer “a new way to clean”.  And from worldwide industrial design awards to exhibits at modern art museums, Dyson has invented a euro-hip brand that’s reinvented the “category” of vacuums.  But that’s just the beginning.  In recent months I’ve seen/test-driven Dyson hand-dryers popping up in major North American airport washrooms.  Same technology – reverse application.  Guess what?  They blow vs. suck!  And just as brilliantly.

brand efficiency, brand experience, brand innovation, brand leadership, brand performance, brand promise, brand strategy, branding, branding continuity, dyson, dyson.com, innovation, smd marketing, smdmarketing, susan dore, vacuum technology, vacuums