Protecting an Identity from Worm Poop?

In the June 6th blog about touchpoints, I cited the following quote:

"A distinctive identity is worth nothing unless you can protect it."

I'm going to follow up on this quote with today's blog about the article Legal Lemons, PR Lemonade by Mike Hofman that was published in Inc. Magazine's June 2007 issue.

Basically, the article is about Tom Szaky and TerraCycle's battle with Scotts Miracle-Gro. Those of us that read Inc. regularly know Tom and his company TerraCycle from a previous Inc. feature article. Cool company. They make organic fertilizer from worm poop. Yep. That's right. Worm poop. On top of that, their packaging comes from your old, discarded 20 oz soda bottles. Needless to say, they've positioned themselves as a green company and they've found some real traction - including the shelves of WalMart and HomeDepot.

The problem; however, is that TerraCycle has found a little undesirable traction. They're being sued by Scotts Miracle-Gro, their largest competitor. Scotts is alleging false advertising and trade dress violations. The false advertising allegations stem from TerraCycle's claim that its product "outgrows the leading synthetic fertilizer." The trade dress violations stem from TerraCycle's packaging. Scotts feels the yellow and green bottle that TerraCycle uses infringes on its registered trade dress.

While the merits of Scotts lawsuit seem a little fishy to me, this situation does a great job of illustrating the quote I started this blog with. Scotts has an identity that they've spent countless years and significant resources building. They've also taken the necessary step of protecting that identity. Now they would simply say that they're in the process of protecting that identity.

Tom Szaky definitely calls b.s. on the Scotts lawsuit (I think most of us are inclined to believe that Scotts is really attempting to derail a small but presumably viable competitor.) but another interesting aspect of this situation is that Scotts may actually be helping TerraCycle. In many ways, TerraCycle benefits from this lawsuit. Scotts is giving TerraCycle big time publicity. TerraCycle gets to cast itself in a David vs. Goliath role and also gets to use the issue in its guerrilla marketing efforts. Check out www.suedbyscotts.com. Aditionally, Scotts futher enhances TerraCycle's image of being the rebel in the industry - the anti-Miracle Gro.

Amazon.com and the ACLU

In the last section of the book, we turn to take a look at some case studies and best practices. I'm not going to repeat the book and I'm probably not going to offer much of a summary. But what I do want to do is take a look at a few topics presented.

Amazon.com. Turner Duckworth was retained to redesign Amazon.com's brand identity with specific attention paid to packaging.There are several things interesting about the move from the old logo to the new logo.

First, one of the challenges was how do you create a new identity but retain the brand equity of the previous logo. Obviously, the new logo doesn't overhaul the old identity. What it does though is smile from "A to Z". The smile represents Amazon's personality and the "A to Z" communicates that Amazon is the web's largest retailer selling everything from "A to Z". Pretty neat.

Another topic I found interesting was that Amazon didn't do a big launch. They did a soft launch. They didn't announce the new brand identity. They didn't notify the press and the new identity wasn't even mentioned on the web site. Amazon merely implemented the switch. Why the soft launch? Amazon didn't want to give the perception to customers and investors that they were a "different" company.

ACLU. The ACLU rebranding project completed by the Fo Wilson Group illustrates how a national organization has to properly manage its assets. As part of the identity audit, the ACLU discovered that every affiliate in each of the 50 states had their own unique logo, website design and architecture. There was no standardization and brand assets were being diluted. In response, Flo Wilson revitalized the ACLU's original symbol from the 1930's, the Statue of Liberty. Additionally, FO Wilson provided the ACLU with the all important means to manage its new identity - a successful role out, an Identity Guidelines website, etc.

Managing Assets

As we've worked out way through the brand identity process, we've identified several phases. First, we conducting research. Then we clarified strategy, designed the identity and created touchpoints. Today, we'll look at the last phase - managing assets.

Brand identity doesn't simply end once the identity is created. In fact, creating the identity was probably the easy part. Once an identity is created it has to be managed.

"The brand is a living animate object. It needs to be continually monitored, ensuring differentiation and relevance." - Clay Timon

How is the brand managed? It's managed through standardization, guidelines, implementation, and measurement.

As I've done in previous blogs, I wanted to take a look at a few topics of interest that stuck out to me.

"In the UK, over 70% of what was paid in the acquisition of companies was for the goodwill from intangibles including corporate brand value." - Turnbridge Consulting

Wow. That's an interesting quantification. If you've read my paper about Federated's national Macy's strategy, you'll know that one of my concerns with the strategy was the loss of the regionals' brand value. Now think about... If the quote I've provided above is at all representative of corporate acquisition valuations as related to brand value, then how much did Federated gamble and stand to loose by doing away with the May Department Store, Foley's, Marshall Field's brands?

Metrics and measurements are a pretty big topic in this Managing Assets phase. By isolating touchpoints, you can measure the success of branding efforts. For example, you measure advertising by quantifying awareness or conversions. Or, you can measure public relations by quantifying buzz and awareness. With that in mind, what are the best metrics for measuring a website? I'll build on what the book suggests and say that metrics for the web are specific to the goals of an initiative. If you are purely interested in a branding initiative, impressions or page views may suffice. However, if you are interested in direct response leading to conversions, cost per click, cost per action, conversions and return on investment are solid metrics.

"If employees are excited and mobilized, then more than half the branding battle has been won. Employees carry the company's culture and character into the marketplace." - Bruce Berkowitz

I can't agree more. Exployees are often the human face of a brand.

The last topic I wanted to look at today was the concept that the web can provide a means to facilitate an identity. Yes, websites are definitely touchpoints. But, the web and websites can also be used as tools to facilitate that brand identity. For instance, standards and guidelines can be consolidated in a single, easy to access website for use both internally and externally. Employees can access and download files, templates and imagery. Companies can also provide media/press kits online (Honda, VH1, Vouge) as well as marketing and sales toolkits (Denon USA, KUMHO Tire, OnStar).