Growing Products and Profits

Inc. magazine included Nutiva in its list of fastest growing American companies, and for good reason. With a 41% annual growth rate since 2006, Nutiva is quickly becoming the go-to brand for organic.

“Nutiva’s core offering of Organic Coconut Oil, Hemp and Chia foods happens to be the fastest growing sectors in food,” explained Roulac. “It’s part good planning and perhaps a bit of luck.”

With rising sales and an increasingly organic-friendly public, Nutiva stepped beyond Mom and Pop stores to major retailers, such as Wal-Mart. That’s not to say they forgot where they came from; Nutiva still works with the small co-ops that helped make organic living popular.

“Nourishing People and Planet”

“As marketing guru, Seth Godin, writes, what is the ‘free prize inside?’” said Roulac. “For Cracker Jacks it was a free toy that made kids buy the product. For Nutiva it’s about creating a better world.”

Nutiva donates 1% of all sales to non-profits pursuing agricultural sustainability. Supporting initiatives such as growing trees in California schools and a documentary about dwindling bee populations are just some ways this organic brand protects nature.

But sometimes, Nutiva takes a more aggressive approach. The brand won a legal battle with the DEA, opening the door for sales of non-drug hemp foods. “Our core fans love this in your face, speak truth to power,” explained Roulac.

Awareness Through Word of Mouth

Nutiva’s YouTube video depicting a “pantry make over” gathered 40,000 views, and that’s without the help of press releases or advertising money. “Firms which do cool things in unusual ways, reap brand praise via social media,” said Roulac.

In fact, some of their biggest profit spikes result without a single dollar spent. When Martha Stewart mentioned hemp, Nutiva Hempseed sales increased twofold for months. Dr. Oz also sends business their way whenever he discusses the healthful benefits of coconut, hemp, and chia foods.

“As marketers understand, whatever you do, just don’t be boring,” said Roulac. Based on Nutiva’s continued growth in 2011, consumers are certainly entertained by the promise of healthy living.

In the latest Brand Innovator Spotlight, learn about the new path consumers are taking and how companies can follow.

The Old Way – Consider, Buy

In the old path to purchase model, consumers confronted a wide marketplace of brands and products. Using information and feelings, they decided on a specific product to purchase. It was a simple, two step process: consider and buy.

“That was the old model,” explained Speichert. “The path to purchase has changed enormously becoming more multi-dimensional with new media.” Businesses are wise to adapt to the new model for increased sales and higher customer satisfaction.

The New Way – Consider, Evaluate, Buy, Advocate

The recent behavior behind purchases has the same two stages as before but with two new stages: consider, evaluate, buy, and advocate.

Similar to before, consumers first consider which brand to select. L’Oréal influences this stage with Destination Beauty, a YouTube channel with tips and news about beauty. Holding the title for most viewed YouTube program, consumers are definitely putting L’Oréal on their list.

After considering their options, consumers evaluate which brand is right for them. “Beauty is personal and specific,” said Speichert, and to address this factor, L’Oréal contributes to typeF.com and eHow Style Channel. These platforms create context that address the individual’s beauty needs.

Consumers then buy the product, but even this stage has a modern twist. Purchases continue to move from physical to digital stores. Speichert gave the Keihl’s Brand as an example of adaptation: “The retail experience … for which Kiehl’s is known in its brick and mortar stores is translated in a very consistent manner online.”

The final goal is for consumers to become advocates for the brands they love. To assist with this transformation, L’Oréal collaborated with Telemundo Communications to launch Club de Noveleras, an online community centered on telenovelas. A point system allows users to earn prizes, such as L’Oréal products.

Following Consumers Down the Path

With the help of Flite, an advertising platform built on cloud technology, L’Oréal can see how consumers interact. The online ads are interactive, and with each click, L’Oréal learns what works and what doesn’t.

“The bottom line is that your customers wield power and control over your brand like never before,” said Speichert. The strategy is turning that power into your company’s advantage.

Jill Pratt

Jill Pratt, VP Marketing for U.S. Consumer Products at McCormick & Co., explained how the grilling company plans on bringing backyard cookers together in the latest Brand Innovator Spotlight.

Grill Mates Wants You to Connect with Your Grill Mates

“We know our fans are spending significant time in digital and social media, and this summer we are focusing on those areas to launch some exciting new initiatives aimed at connecting them in meaningful ways,” said Pratt.

With Grill Mates’ “Master of the Grill” campaign, people can set their backyard as a check-in spot on Foursquare. Whenever they hold a backyard barbecue, Foursquare uses GPS to clock their visit. The griller with the most check-ins will be dubbed the Grill Mayor and receive some royal grilling prizes.

On Facebook, a new app helps avid grillers organize the perfect get-together. Using various Facebook activities such as “likes” and comments, the Grill Mates app calculates a personalized “Grill Circle” of people whom you should invite to your next cookout.

Lawry’s Provides Some Special Ingredients for Some Special Dinners

A new Lawry’s app for Android helps gather your family for dinner. Titled “Digital Dinner Bell,” it sends a message via Facebook, phone calls, and SMS to your family to announce dinner is served. To make things more fun, a custom bell announces the flavor for the evening, from Mexican to Italian to Asian.

“Lawry’s wants to help gather the family around the dinner table and provide savvy moms with new ideas for simple, flavorful meals,” said Pratt. “We are excited to empower our fans and allow them to share their passion for flavor through social media.”

To prepare for the “Digital Dinner Bell” release, Lawry’s turned some lucky fans into New York stars. From June 29 to July 1, fans tweeted #lawrys for a chance to see their Twitter profile picture in Times Square. A live webcam broadcasted this event online, bringing the tradition of grilling into the 21st century.

Storytelling that Resonates with the Audience

If confidence means stepping into any social situation without missing a beat, then the protagonist of Heineken’s new “Open Your World” campaign is confidence personified. In the commercials, he walks into parties and restaurants with poise, greeting each multi-cultured guests with the appropriate salutation.

“Heineken wants to elevate our drinkers by showing the aspirational behaviors,” explained Nasard. “Our consumer knows how to navigate the world, is confident, open-minded and resourceful.” As the storyline progress, this quintessential gentleman will continue to display what it means to have class.

Online and Global Approach

“Thinking digitally is no longer an after thought; it is a component that needs to be fully integrated into the campaign from the very beginning,” said Nasard. As audiences head online for content, Heineken plans on meeting them there with their advertising campaign.

Before the first commercial aired globally on TV, it displayed on YouTube, attracting over 4 million views. The newest commercial is also viewable online, not making an appearance on TV for several months.

“Open Your World” will be Heineken’s first global campaign in over 5 years.

Forming an Emotional Connection

The interactive nature of online marketing allows Heineken to reach their audience in new ways. People can watch behind the scenes footage of the commercials, letting them get closer than ever to the Heineken brand.

“This type of interactive entertainment enables consumers to form an emotional connection with the film, and the brand as a consequence,” explained Nasard. Heineken will soon provide a video-editing feature, allowing individuals to send personalized date invitations. Hopefully, consumers can find love in both the real world and Heineken’s new campaign.

A 24/7 Real-Time Feedback Channel

Customers have always talked about the products they love, but with the help of Facebook, EA SPORTS can finally listen. “At every turn, they are telling us what they like about the games, what they don’t like, what they want to see, what they are excited about,” said Erb. “It’s a 24/7 real-time feedback channel like nothing else.”

To help create loyalty, EA SPORTS offers their fans bonuses like sneak peaks, insider info, and exclusive content. Incentives and positive user experiences keeps fans coming back to engage with the company and each other.

New Platforms

With the rise of social networks and mobile devices, players aren’t rooted to their TVs anymore. EA SPORTS offers games through Facebook, tablets, and mobile devices. These alternative play styles lets the individuals decide how they want to interact.

“Our aim is to deliver fans the ability to engage with their favorite EA SPORTS games whenever, wherever they want,” explained Erb. These game variants complement their respective franchises, allowing the games to fit into the players’ lifestyle. Wherever the player, an interactive sports experience follows.

Offline Still Important

“As pervasive as digital is, there’s still an offline component to acquiring new customers that remains important,” said Erb. Console and TV gaming still go strong, and EA SPORTS plans on keeping this element alive.

This fall, the company plans on opening their first North American EA SPORTS retail store. Located in Charlotte, NC’s airport, this will be the first of hopefully three new stores opening this year.

“It’s important for us to create environments for people to get their hands on our products and experience how much interactive sports experiences have evolved over the past few years,” explained Erb.

And with EA SPORTS keeping their eyes ahead, gamers will see plenty of evolving for many years to come.

Make Today Better

Panera Bread’s new ad campaign focuses on the slogan “Make Today Better.” Costing $40 million, it will be the restaurant chain’s most expensive marketing move yet, but Simon knows it’s a winner. “Our media spend is just over 1% of our revenues, but we’re still significantly under-spending our competitors who on average spend about 3-5% of sales,” Simon explained.

The campaign also steps toward social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter in an effort to reach both loyal and potential customers. With the new ads, Panera Bread wants to spread their message of optimism and making today better.

Zigging When Others Zag

“Panera’s history is one of zigging when others zag,” said Simon. “When others retrenched during the recession, we invested in our products, services and our differentiation.” And this strategy’s results speak for themselves; Panera Bread rose as one of the most successful restaurants during the recession.

Another way Panera hopes to stand out is by avoiding the overwhelming advertising chatter. The new campaign focuses on the restaurant’s unique story rather than the common low-cost menu messages other companies send out. This way, the “Make Today Better” campaign surpasses the noise without having to outspend it.

Authenticity

“We focus on fact-based differentiators that single us from other concepts like bread baked fresh daily and our lettuce program that has cut the time our produce moves from the field to our customers’ forks in half,” explained Simon. The commercials will feature actual Panera employees to further the push for honest storytelling.

Panera is also known for being the first restaurant to display calorie information on menu boards nationwide.

If there’s one image the restaurant hopes to project, it’s authenticity. “Authenticity suggests honesty and transparency,” said Simon. By telling the facts that make Panera unique and wholesome, customers learn about the restaurant’s mission to “Make Today Better.”

Moving with Customers to Mobile

Companies should always move with their customers, not against them, and that’s exactly what Gilt Groupe did. When the Gilt on the Go app saw substantial growth, the company took notice.

“We are currently seeing 15% of our revenue coming from mobile, which is a significant source of business for us and witnessing engagement metrics over and above our website,” said John.

This helped spur Gilt’s ventures into mobile and social media. Its Webby award winning Jetsetter app depicts 360 degree panoramics of exotic vacation spots. Currently, Gilt is working on a 2.0 iPhone app that lets users find clothes that match the colors in the world around them.

Combining Mobile and Social Media

“Mobile and social media are very much intertwined,” said John. “At Gilt we are using social as our platform for the voice of the customer.”

Gilt values the two way conversation companies can now have with their customers through social media. With Facebook, Twitter, and other social platforms, Gilt builds brand loyalty by spreading the word on sales, receiving direct feedback, and learning what the customers like and dislike.

Always Progressing

In response to whether mobile retail replaces traditional forms, John disagreed. “Getting a customer to interact with your brand across additional channels is always additive in nature.”

Customers expect a company to evolve with their expectations, but Gilt enjoys trying to evolve even beyond that. Creating the perfect retail experience can be difficult, and John explained that this fear shouldn’t stop brands in their tracks.

“My best advice to get started is to not try and wait for the perfect mobile solution before launching,” he said. “It really is a refine as you test process in order to nail down a great mobile offering.

Craig Hayman

While it may seem that new technology would only help marketers, a recent study from IBM showed conflicting results, according to Craig Hayman, General Manager of Industry Solutions at IBM Software Group.

Marketers now possess more consumer information from the Web than ever before, yet more than 60% of surveyed companies have issues turning this data into useful action.

Information Overload

As social and mobile gain popularity among users and consequently, marketers, untapped opportunity remains. For example, marketers use social and mobile outlets to acquire customer information, but have yet to develop systems that turn this information into profit—only half or less of IBM’s survey respondents said they used online data for marketing decisions.

Current Tactics

It’s not as if companies haven’t made efforts to implement social and mobile marketing. More than 40% of companies adopted mobile marketing with an additional 20% planning to implement mobile plans in the coming year as smartphones take over, according to Hayman.

As the initial hype over integrating social and mobile into marketing wanes, the search for value in social media marketing has begun.

Companies will need to value their social media content across these 3 areas:

• Owned – what companies create
• Earned – what customers create
• Paid – what marketers spend money for

Then, marketers must figure out how to put insights from this data into action.

Forward Thinking

What does this mean for the future? Of IBM’s survey respondents, 90% stated the need for an integrated marketing suite that will coordinate marketing efforts between information and social and mobile media, according to Hayman.

Marketers realize that the key to increasing productivity is no longer staff or external support. Customer analysis and action-technology rule the future, and social and mobile marketing is leading the way.

To read the entire interview with IBM’s Craig Hayman, check out the original Brand Innovator Spotlight Q&A.

Online Video-Focused Branding

In May 2009, Coldwell Banker launched its On Location video channel on YouTube. Now, the channel touts an impressive 60,000 video uploads and 3 million views. Coldwell Banker’s relationship with Google and YouTube made this possible.

“They worked very closely with us and helped us become the first with IP lookup and to essentially have an unending amount of video storage space,” said Fischer.

Coldwell Banker’s redesigned website also offers video for searching customers.

iPad App with Video

Fischer believes the iPad was made with real estate in mind. “Its portability, ease of use and large screen allow consumers and agents to benefit greatly.”

Unlike most competitors, the Coldwell Banker app provides video. Considering the processing power of the iPad, video is both possible and essential for delivering the information consumers need to make a decision.

“Our target is not necessarily an age, sex or income demographic, but rather is a mindset demographic. They embrace technology, want and demand resources they can utilize,” explained Fischer.

Reaching their Target

“Our tagline is ‘We Never Stop Moving.’ And we believe in that,” said Fischer. “We are very aggressive at looking at all facets of technology and how it might play in real estate.”

Coldwell Banker was one of the four first brands to provide an iAd, an advertisement working with various media’s iPad display. USA Today, New York Times, Huffington Post, and Conde Nast now help interested consumers reach Coldwell Banker.

The target demographic is most assuredly embracing this technology; the iAd receives 471% better results than Coldwell Banker’s online banner ads. The average iAd visitor stays for 11 page views, showing that Fischer has a pretty good idea where the future of marketing lies.

The Plan

Slim Jim realized early on that social media was the future of marketing and acted accordingly. Instead of setting up a short term team of Facebook techs, it created a long term team and manager to lead social interaction.

What makes Slim Jim different from many other brands that use Facebook? Their customer interaction. While many brands will use the occasional post to raise awareness, Slim Jim responds to customers encouraging open lines of communication for direct customer feedback.

The Challenges

While these plans are useful for collecting customer data and growing brand image, it is difficult to measure success. Linking sales directly to Facebook is difficult in itself, but the process is even more challenging because Slim Jim is sold through brick-and-mortar retailers.

Still, the company feels successful in the fact that brand image has been improved and reinstated, and the customer base has grown.

The Results

This direct customer relation technique is one that Slim Jim plans to continue in the future along with its traditional research.

Through Facebook interaction, the company has designed the concept, name, and image of its new product, the Slim Jim DARE.

Customers now have a direct voice to the Slim Jim Brand. Who knows? Maybe you’ll name the next Slim Jim product through Facebook.

Check out the original interview here.