How Founder Brands Are Leveraging Their Unfair Advantage
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In today's consumer culture, Founder Brands have huge cultural power and competitive edge. As a Founder Brand you now have the keys to unlock your unfair advantage. A presentation from our TRIPTK Brand Builder workshop.
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How Founder Brands Are Leveraging Their Unfair Advantage
- 1. TRIPTK Brand Builder IN THE SPIRIT OF COLLABORATION
- 2. 1 We’re seeing the end of big business as usual
- 3. 2 A TIDAL WAVE OF CHANGING SENTIMENT
- 4. ` OUR LOVE AFFAIR WITH BIG IS OVER
- 5. ` PEOPLE HAVE LOST FAITH IN BIG SYSTEMS
- 7. 6 A WHOLE NEW GENERATION DRIVING THIS SHIFT
- 8. 7 A GENERATION WHO WANT BETTER NOT BIGGER
- 9. 8 Who are taking back control of media WHO ARE TAKING BACK CONTROL OF MEDIA
- 11. 10 ` CHANGING THE FACE OF AMERICAN TOWNS & CITIES
- 12. ` CHANGING THE WHOLE DEFINITION OF ‘CONSUMER’
- 13. FOUNDER BRANDS ARE AT THE HEART OF THIS MOVEMENT
- 14. FOUNDER BRANDS HAVE THE ADVANTAGE
- 15. THE CLUE IS IN THE NAME – YOU HAVE ONE
- 16. ` THE CLUE IS IN THE NAME – YOU HAVE ONE
- 17. ` THE CLUE IS IN THE NAME – YOU HAVE ONE
- 19. YOU HAVE A GOOD REASON TO EXIST
- 20. 19 ``YOU HAVE A GOOD REASON TO EXIST
- 21. `YOU HAVE A GOOD REASON TO EXIST
- 23. FOUNDER BRANDS BUILD REAL COMMUNITY
- 24. 23 ` FOUNDER BRANDS BUILD REAL COMMUNITY
- 25. 24 ` FOUNDER BRANDS BUILD REAL COMMUNITY
- 27. FOUNDER BRANDS ARE TRUE LOCAL HEROES
- 28. ` FOUNDER BRANDS ARE TRUE LOCAL HEROES
- 29. ` …BIG BRANDS HAVE TO BUILD OR REVIVE CONNECTIONS WITH A PLACE OF ORIGIN
- 30. FOUNDER BRANDS EXPERIMENT WITH PASSION
- 31. ` FOUNDER BRANDS EXPERIMENT WITH PASSION
- 32. HUNDREDS OF FOUNDER BRANDS ARE LEVERAGING THEIR UNFAIR ADVANTAGE
- 33. ` AND YOU HAVE THE KEYS... THE CLUE IS IN THE NAME A GOOD REASON TO EXIST EXPERIMENTING WITH PASSION BEING A LOCAL HERO` BUILDING REAL COMMUNITY
- 34. WWW.TRIPTK.CO
Notes de l'éditeur
- We’re seeing the END OF BIG BUSINESS AS USUAL and the emergence of some VERY STRONG NEW VALUES The traditional relationship between ‘brands’ and ‘consumers’ is being challenged more and more by the day Its ALL OVER THE NEWS and founder brands are the stars of the show In terms of cultural traction it REALLY feels like the David’s are beating the Goliaths…
- We’re seeing a tidal wave of changing consumer sentiment. The big businesses and brands that have dominated our world are struggling to keep up; critically hamstrung by their own structures, processes and default behaviors. The spirit of our times is a growing rally cry for the end of big business as usual. The scale has tipped so dramatically that start-ups and founder brands now have what might be called an UNFAIR ADVANTAGE. If you’ve been working in consumer insight and brand strategy over the last decade, consulting for some of the world’s largest household name brands like we have, it’s hard to overstate how pervasive and widespread this shift has been. We’ve yet to meet one big brand strategist or marketer who feels they’ve responded fully or quickly enough to the changes we’re seeing, even now. So what’s going on?
- PEOPLE HAVE LOST FAITH IN BIG SYSTEMS A common refrain for people first arriving to the shores of America goes something like, ‘wow - everything here is so big’. Now, of course there’s a physical truth to this: America is a big country requiring big roads and cars; lots of space to erect big buildings; and a relative abundance allowing for big portions. But underpinning all of this has been the project of a particular ‘big’ – big business. Big consumer goods companies, growing bigger and bigger, operating at big scale, for big revenues. We’re now in a place where that kind of big is no longer beautiful for a huge number of people in America. We’ve supersized, and now we’re feeling a bit sick.
- It’s important to recognize that this pushback to big business as usual is part of an even wider phenomenon. People are losing faith in the entire systems that we’ve bet our future on, and the result is a deep sense of anxiety. ‘Technology’, which once promised a seamless and empowering experience now increasingly feels overwhelming and intrusive. ‘Globalization’, which promised a flat world now seems to have had a hand in breeding inequality and instability. The atmosphere of popular disenchantment with these big systems can be seen everywhere, reflected in popular culture as well as in our politics; disillusionment with global systems was at the heart of the ‘Brexit’ vote, and has been an underlying theme of the current US election cycle. From the vantage point of a start-up founder brand or a small batch distillery, these topics may well seem somewhat distant and aloof. But in fact, they couldn’t be more relevant. It’s no co-incidence that this is the climate in which we’re seeing huge interest in and a resurgence of, founder brands. Founder brand success stems from a response to these deep modern anxieties, and playing to that represents their golden opportunity.
- One particular hot button issue within this cultural shift is the processes of big business: industrialization and mass production. The never-ending drive towards efficiency and standardization has gotten us to a place where we now feed the feathers of our chickens back to our chickens as food. There was a time not that long ago when the vision of a gleaming and efficient factory floor replete with thousands of workers felt like a modern marvel. Now this image looks like a moral blight, and these conveyor belts carry a sense of un-ease. Most importantly perhaps, the products made this way are now perceived to be pretty nasty.
- Talking about ‘Millennials’ has been a way for big business to get a handle on the huge shifts we’re seeing in culture. That’s because this was the generation that grew up amid the crisis of Big. They had front row seats, but now they’re in the driving seat of the economy. Millennials are the biggest generation in US history, they have $200B in annual buying power and by 2018 they’ll have more spending power than any other generation.
- One of the things we see a lot with this generation, quite understandably perhaps given the context of their upbringing, is a desire to just say no. They want to take control back and are turning away from the culture of bigger (or ‘more’) is better. In their buying habits we see a pattern of everyday discernment and popular brands are tapping into this. The mantra of cult clothing store Standard & Strange in Oakland is ‘own fewer better things’, an idea that sums up a generation who are interested in quality, not just quantity. This is surely a factor behind the ascendance of craft spirits in the US.
- We also now have a media environment that is catering to this generation. Look at the explosive growth of social media services which allow you to customize, choose and curate the content that you want. Social media has obliterated the traditional brand marketing model and the old media approach of ‘spray and pray’ communications just isn’t as effective. People don’t need big brands telling their story at them – if they want to know something about you, they’ll just look it up in a split second. This is an environment that truly favors the Davids over the Goliaths and gives founder brands a very advantageous pitch to play on. A few years ago surveys around influence would tell a familiar story – people are influenced by (A-list) celebrities. Now a top influencer is just as likely to be someone in your extended circle, with a shared passion – maybe even the founder of a great new brand.4
- One of our favorite facts about Millennials is that the majority of them self identify as foodies. 90% of Millennials seek out new flavors, as opposed to only 53% for their parents.5 That should come as a fairly inspiring statistic when you’re in the business of creating delicious, complex and Interesting F&B offerings. There was a time not that long ago that you could successfully sell food and beverage products based on selling a lifestyle. Those whisky advertisements from the 80’s showing off the powerful masculine world that magically appears when you merely sip a big brand scotch seem comical now. People today want to know what your product actually tastes like. They’re interested in provenance, ingredients and flavor profiles. They want to understand and experience your product with their mouths, and they wont just take your word for it. 99% (basically all) Millennials don’t trust brands based on ads alone.6 This is an incredibly skeptical generation who love to taste things, but have no appetite for being sold on an image.
- Sometimes the conversation about cultural shifts can seem a little abstract and intangible: a matter of new ideas and values. But you only need to travel the country as we do with our work to see the very visible, physical and real footprint of what’s going on. This shift is changing the face of American towns and cities. It’s manifesting in the growth of specific neighborhoods and districts as huge numbers of Millennials migrate to the places where they can find communities that shares their ideals.7 This urban migration and accompanying urban regeneration is easy to see – just walk the streets of Williamsburg or Oakland and it’s right there. These growing areas are magnetic for Millennials and are all proudly declaring their opposition to the homogenized, standardized culture that big business creates. ‘Keep it weird’ is the famous slogan in Austin, one of these Millennial hubs. But its not just Austin - towns from Portland to Louisville now have their own public ‘keep it weird’ campaigns. The movement has taken our streets, nationally.
- When you visit these cities, towns and neighborhoods you see something unusual happening. Everywhere the project of these communities seems to be to disrupt the top down models of production and consumption. You see ‘producer’ and ‘consumer’ blurred together as people find new ways of doing business together. Lots of ink has been spent writing about the share- economy and its disruption of various business categories.
- Founder brands signal a protest against standardization, homogeny and uniformity. They provide a means of surrounding yourself with the people and ideas that you actually care about, and the ability to experience truly unique and tasty products made with passion and intent. These are exactly the things that big brands struggle with. Success for founder brands, then, will be about focusing on the amazing things founder brands can do, that big brands simply can’t. Luckily, we’ve scoured the world of alcohol to show exactly how this is being done today and have developed 5 keys to leveraging your unfair advantage.
- It may seem obvious to say that founder brands are driven by real, passionate people - but this is at the heart of their success.These are people (just like you) who have a name. There is nothing more powerful than that in today’s environment. People want to know your name, and they want to know you. Just look at the founders of Brew Dog, James and Martin. They’ve been on a crusade to make people as passionate about craft beer as they are and to find genuine ways to connect with people. They now have an international hit TV show broadcast in 30+ countries, but it started as a very low-fi blog they used to raise awareness and get people excited about amazing beer. Crucially they’ve done this by putting themselves and their personalities –with all their quirks – out there, and people wanted more.Big brands rarely have founders like James and Martin. Whenthey do have founder stories or characters, they aren’t living or real. Instead they’re fictional yarns conjured up by advertising agencies; historic characters battling sea- monsters and the likes. No matter what their supposed feats, these characters are no competition for a real person with a name.
- Look at the guys from BREW DOG They’ve been on a crusade to make people as passionate about craft beer as they are…LOOKING FOR GENUINE WAYS TO CONNECT WITH PEOPLE. A great example of this is their TV show which SPAN OUT OF THEIR LOW-FI DIY BLOGS – now an international hit (shown in 30 countries around the world) with a cult following The founders use it as a platform to raise awareness of craft beer, educate people as to how beer is brewed and get them excited about amazing beer in general… THEY PUT THEMSELVES, THEIR PERSONALITIES AND THEIR PASSION OUT THERE and people wanted more…
- Or take the legendary brewmaster - or as he likes to put it the “chef” - GARRETT OLIVER A name you recognize and a real personality Garret’s elegant lectures on the history of beer and the art of brewing, his extensive knowledge of movies and literature…give the brand so much depth Garett wasn’t one of the original two founders but joined early on and became integral to the Brooklyn Brewery story….HAS COME TO EMBODY THE BREWERY’S EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH He’s a REAL and POWERFUL asset
- …BY CONTRAST Big brands rarely have founders like JAMES and MARTIN Where they do have founder stories and characters, THEY AREN’T LIVING OR REAL – They’re conjured up by advertising agencies – as entertaining yarns and fictions
- Founder brands nearly always have a REALLY GOOD reason for being that makes sense to people If you’re a founder in the room you’ll know it never starts with a desire just to make money
- Founder brands nearly always have a really good reason to exist that makes sense to people, and it never starts with a desire to make money (there are easier ways). Look at Monkey 47. Its founder Alex Stein didn’t set out to create a brand or make money, he wanted to make the best gin possible. Alex has had some success and the next logical step would have been to ramp up production. But he’s gone the other way, investing in four pocketsize stills of 100l each, showing total dedication to his obsession with creating the best possible product – one that can be drunk neat just like a high-end eau- de-vie. For Alex, the reason for being has always been, ‘quality’ and that is something people want to engage with.
- The world’s first non alcoholic spirit brand - that’s reason to exist stemmed from the REAL DILEMA of what to drink when you’re not drinking This is a great example of stating your purpose in a simple way - Stating your reason to exist in plain simple terms – makes it so easy for your message to get picked up by journalists, influencers, social media
- Whether big brands PURPORT TO HAVE A DIFFERENT STORY, or try to connect marketing to another purpose Ultimately there’s the UNDENIABLE FACT THAT THEY’RE PART OF SHAREHOLDER OWNED COMPANIES AND THEY EXIST FOR ONE REASON - TO MAKE MONEY…and people can feel it
- Look at SLIPSMITH and the way they create MEMBERSHIP with people They’ve launched a quarterly “sipping service” featuring experimental gins Subscribers receive four “surprise” 90ml experimental gin bottles every three months IN EXCHANGE OF COMPANY FUNDING. They’re bringing people INTO THE COMPANY in a real way They raised 200% of their funding goal in three days – testament to the appetite for this kind of membership and participation A great platform in many ways – Directly sending products to consumers Trying things out and getting feedback on new products
- And there’s KOVAL – A GREAT CASE STUDY IN BUILDING COMMUNITY in the industry A couple –ROBERT AND SONAT - who left their academic careers They’ve USED THEIR CHICAGO DISTILLERY TO PUSH THE BOUNDARIES OF WHAT MAKES A GREAT SPIRIT. And through community spirit have BECOME THOUGHT LEADERS IN THE INDUSTRY and COMMUNITY HEROES They’re NOW HOLDING POPULAR WORKSHOP – and estimate that THEY’VE HELPED MORE THAN 2,800 PEOPLE LEARN MORE ABOUT ARTISANAL SPIRITS And they’ve directly helped bring to life several other budding craft brands including Evanston’s FEW Spirits, Michigan’s Journeyman Distilling and Iowa’s Mississippi River Distilling Company.
- You look at this in contrast to the REQUIREMENT for big brands to buy platforms to speak to their audiences Their model and structure means they have to ATTEMPT TO BUY COMMUNITY Whether a community of sports fans or fans of a celebrity
- Community then is at the heart of how founder brands are leveraging their advantage and this is especially true of local community. Founder brands celebrate their local community and they are celebrated in return. Founder brands are actual local heroes and in today’s context that goodwill spreads incredibly far and fast. Look at Smooth Ambler who channel the Appalachian spirit to make remarkable drinks. Their motto is ‘patiently crafted Appalachian spirits’ and guides everything Smooth Ambler does in and outside the distillery. Born after the 2008 downturn (at the height of the crisis of Big) they put real emphasis on their community, supporting local suppliers, local businesses and local folks and genuinely creating opportunities for people in their back yard that didn’t exist before. Or look to LA where Greenbar Distillery and their husband and wife founders, Melkon anD Litty, have become local heroes. Their spirits take inspiration from their own back yard, such as the Grand Poppy Organic Aperitif inspired by hikes in Griffith Park and created with local, organic ingredients that payhomage to Southern California. Big brands, by contrast, have to build or revive connections with a real time and place of origin. Often they’ll create origin stories which don’t hold water. According to the bottle Hendrick’s was established in 1886, which might have been when William Grant & Sons was founded, but they didn’t get round to making Hendrick’s for over a century, so clearly no Victorian English distiller was involved in its birth.
- Look at SMOOTH AMBLER – They talk a lot about how THEY USE THE APPALACHIAN SPRIT TO CREATE REMARKABLE DRINKS. Their motto is “patiently crafted Appalachian spirits” - It guides everything Smooth Ambler does in and outside the distillery …. Born after the 2008 downturn, THEY TALK A LOT ABOUT THEIR INVOLVEMENT IN THE COMMUNITY AND HOW THEY SUPPORT LOCAL SUPPLIERS, LOCAL BUSINESSES AND LOCAL FOLKS. Genuinely creating opportunities for people in their back yard that didn’t exist before
- Big brands by contrast HAVE TO BUILD OR REVIVE CONNECTIONS WITH A TIME AND PLACE OF ORIGIN They’re usually borrowing from a local culture rather than contributing to it Often they’ll create origin stories – which don’t hold water under inspection
- Then there’s the way founder brands innovate. Profit can drive big brands to issue more and more flavors, but founder brands can innovate out of curiosity and a ‘why the hell not’ state of mind. This is meaningful experimentation that leads to unique offerings born of passion and creativity. Top of mind for many in the spirits industry in this regard will be be the St. George Test Lab. St. George’s master distiller, Lance, has become a symbol for pushing the experimental boundaries of craft spirits, taking trial and error to extremes - they’ve tried distilling everything from Christmas trees and oysters, to seaweed. On their website they quote Edison - ‘I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work’ and its this kind of approach of failing forward that inspires consumers and creates spirits that are different or better than what’s already out there. Then there’s King’s County in Brooklyn, flexing their ability to try new flavors that bigger distilleries just can’t. King’s produced a limited production chocolate flavored whiskey by infusing their Moonshine with the leftover cocoa husks from Mast Brothers Chocolate (another Brooklyn based and successful founder company) to create something rich in both story and flavor. Big brands inevitably have to practice a very different innovation process to sustain their shareholder-mandated growth. It’s one that produces endless line and flavor extensions (cheesecake vodka anyone?) which erode their brand value in pursuit of shrinking share and ultimately represent a race to the bottom for their brands.
- Top of mind for many will be the ST GEORGE TEST LAB ITS MASTER DISTILLER LANCE HAVE BECOME A SYMBOL FOR KEEPING ON PUSHING THE EXPERIMENTAL BOUNDARIES OF CRAFT SPIRITS These guys take the TRIAL AND ERROR PROCESS TO EXTREMES - they’ve even tried distilling Christmas trees, oysters, seaweed On their website they quote EDISON - “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work” They reckon that if this kind of thinking is good enough for Edison, it’s good enough for them… Its this kind of FAILING FORWARD that inspires others and of course – creates spirits that’s different or better than what’s already out there
- These are the kinds of behaviors that have LED FOUNDER BRANDS TO HAVE STARTLING cultural power and COMMERCIAL SUCCESS
- And now you have the keys… THE CLUE IS IN THE NAME Where big brands often have to come up with fantasy characters, myths and legends, you have a real story and CAN PUT YOURSELF CENTRE STAGE. A GOOD REASON TO EXIST Big brands often have to revisit their history and culture to come up with a purpose BUT YOUR PURPOSE IS YOUR VERY REASON TO EXIST TODAY … which isn’t just about making money BUILDING REAL COMMUNITY Big brand have to find platforms to to talk to wider audiences BUT YOU CAN BUILD REAL COMMUNITY AND CAN BECOME YOUR OWN PLATFORM. BEING A LOCAL HERO Big brands have to build or revive connections with a place of origin yet YOU’RE LIVING A MORE SYMBIOTIC RELATIONSHIP WITH YOUR COMMUNITY. YOU CELEBRATE WHERE YOU ARE FORM AND THEY CELEBRATE YOU… EXPERIMENTING WITH PASSION Profit can drive big brands to issue meaningless innovation. YOU INNOVATE OUT OF CURIOSITY AND A ‘WHY THE HELL NOT’ STATE OF MIND THIS IS WHY IT HAS NEVER BEEN A BETTER TIME TO BE A FOUNDER BRAND AND WHY NOW IS THE TIME TO LEVERAGE YOUR UNFAIR ADVANTAGE