License to Brand

P&G and the Limited…an unlikely brand marriage?

I don’t think so. This brand relationship is really an interesting creative twist. And I like it a lot.

 

Retailing Today is reporting a marketing partnership between P & G’s Tide and Downy brands with The Limited – taking place in more than 200 Limited stores with hang tags, GWP’s and customized signing.

 

It’s all part of a $60 marketing campaign to introduce Tide and Downy’s latest line of fashion care products.  The companies are building on the success of previous partnerships, and cite the fact that research has shown a strong overlap between Tide and Downy consumers and The Limited’s clientele, both of whom are focused on fashion as well as clothing maintenance.

 

Tide and Downy could be thought of as anything but fashion brands – but in today’s economy the idea of making your clothes wear and last longer is right on target. The Limited enhances its customer care profile while P & G gets exposure in an exciting, up-lifting lifestyle-driven environment…..linking these everyday brands with a sense of style and fashion. Just like their Times Square events on News Year Eve, P & G is showing some real creativity in how they are reaching out to new generations of consumers with non-traditional experiential-type programs.

 

According to Linda Heasley, CEO of The Limited, "The Limited provides modern women with high-quality private-label apparel designed to help the modern woman succeed. Nearly 80% of The Limited's products are machine washable, allowing clients to keep costs down as they continue to care for their clothes. This partnership with Tide and Downy will give our clients the opportunity to wash their favorite items with innovative Total Care technologies, helping to keep their clothes looking beautiful."

 

It seems to me both brands win on this one. And that’s the way good marriages are supposed to work!

 

P.S. For all you “brand junkies”  out there, you might want to cast your votes for brandchannel.coms 2009 BRAND JUNKIE AWARDS – just click on the link and let your opinions be heard!

Heinz new look?…..batting 1000! Pepsi is only 1 for 3!

 

Updating brands is a curious process that marketers seemed compelled to engage in. I love logos, packaging, brand imagery, as well as all of the sociological and psychological art and science that they embody. But sometimes we wonder what drives changes like the ones Pepsi recently made. I like the new Pepsi logo – it’s immediately recognizable and it updates the brand’s contemporary feel by degrees. And then there’s Pepsi great Super Bowl advertising this year – what a great way to reinforce Pepsi’s iconic status as the brand of American youthfulness - classic, funny, modern and irreverent. But what they’ve done to Gatorade and Tropicana is a different story.

 

The rationale behind the Gatorade switch is supposedly a loss of share to enhanced water products.  But is that really the segment in which they want their brand to compete? It seems to me that the brand they have (or maybe had) was so much more than that – it had history, it had soul, it had plenty of energy. Now, I’m the first to admit that it’s a bit presumptuous to be opining from the sidelines without reams of data about the Pepsi brands and their relevance today…and tomorrow. But it is curious to me how Pepsi can pull off a smart “tweak” with the Pepsi brand, while at the same time take such a risky leap with Gatorade, and then seemingly take the great Tropicana brand generic.  It just doesn’t make sense.

 

Heinz seems to have done it right. Lose a pickle and gain a tomato? That’s easy to understand…..and no matter what the research says, 95% of consumers will barely notice. It’s now and always the brand they love and trust. Solid and true. That, to me, is the way it should be done. Great brands seldom need overhauls.  Betty Crocker, Westinghouse, GE, Jack Daniels, Apple, Verizon. Whether old or new, brands sometime need minor treatment for the fine lines and wrinkles. It’s the Joan Rivers “overhaul” approach that I find hard to understand.

AMAZING FOOD CREATIONS AND CONSTELLATION MANAGEMENT GROUP FORM PROPRIETARY BRAND RELATIONSHIP

I wanted to share some news about one of Constellation Management Group’s (CMG) latest projects.  We’ve been selected by

Chicago-

based Amazing Food Creations! to develop a distinguished private label brand based on its leading-edge Chef Papillote™ cooking technology for healthy, high-quality frozen prepared foods.  Chef Papillot's brown paper pouch cooking technology is environmentally-friendly and is a unique cooking technology that maintains the flavor, freshness and proper texture of food throughout the cooking process, unlike other frozen prepared meals currently on the market.

Amazing Food Creations is relying on CMG to build a comprehensive private label branding strategy for the Chef Papillote line, which includes research, product and package development, sales, marketing and brand management.

 

The new Chef Papillote private-label line will be sold on a regional exclusive basis in supermarkets and gourmet grocery stores across the U.S. Right now, you can buy Chef Papillote at Sam's Club and we will be announcing more retail partners in the near future.  Stay tuned.