Brett Favre - THE Brand

Man, the power of a Brand!

Listening to Squawk on the Street this morning, presenter Mark Haines opened the program with "Welcome to Squawk Box from the financial capital of the world and the home of Brett Favre." This is a financial program!

I had never referenced Favre (hey I’m an Irishman) when presenting as a keynote speaker on Branding and Marketing previously, but he is definitely a great brand offering a fabulous brand experience to some many people over the last thousand years or however long he has been playing. A simple definition of a brand is the core product plus associated experience.

Favre provides the core product – a very good quarterback. The associated experience is that he is a winner, a leader, a player who never gives up, a tough man who is not afraid to show his human nature. Sure, he is the player that opposing fans love to hate, but not in a vitriolic manner and there is hardly a football fan out there who would not have wished Favre to be on their team.

Favre’s #4 jersey is the best selling shirt in the NFL, but he transcends football. My very lovely (and long-suffering ) Irish wife couldn’t care two hoots for American football –until Favre gets mentioned.

I think as a keynote speaker on branding and marketing, there are a few points I might make in the future about branding and the Brett Favre experience?

1) Have a good product
2) Create a connection with your customer base
3) Engender a level of emotion about your product
4) Constantly reinforce that connection and emotion.
5) Create word of mouth momentum with satisfied customers speaking positively about your product
6) Keep your brand promise
7) Don’t kill your brand before end of its natural life cycle (Maybe Brett should have paid attention to this)

All of this is so obvious, that it is amazing marketers do not do this more often – Yea right! Brand building is tough, but when you get it right, when you create that emotional connection that allows you to charge premium prices, you will know it has been worth it.

AND NOW FOR:

THE BRAND EXPERIENCE COMMERCIAL

If you are looking for a genuinely interesting, educational and funny brand experience from a keynote speaker, then contact Conor Cunneen. Conor is an Irish keynote speaker, happily exiled in Chicagoland whose clients include Harley-Davidson, Abbott, Siemens, London Life, Spanish Food & Drink Federation and many more.

As a funny and inspirational keynote speaker, Conor makes you a BRAND PROMISE which is E4: Energize, Educate, Entertain AND Easy to work with.

While Conor likes to use ludicrously hyperbolic references to encourage search engine optimization (e.g. Conor is a humorous, inspirational, funny, insightful, humorous keynote business speaker on topics as diverse as Communications, Cancer recovery (twice), Healthcare, Foodservice), the fact that he keeps his BRAND PROMISE (kind of) justifies the level of hyperbole.

Clients say things like
“In my close to thirty years of association work, I have never seen a speaker as well received as you.” Incentive Marketing Association

“Working with Conor Cunneen has been a pleasure both for our company and our clients. Conor is a great speaker who obviously knows the importance of a good and well planned speech according to the wishes of our clients.” SpeakersForum, Finland.

“Everybody was talking about your presentation. You literally made our event. Your ability to hold an audience is exceptional.” Jerry Elsner – Executive Director, Illinois State Crime Commission

Go on. Get a taste of the Irish brogue and phone Conor at 630 718 1643 or send him an email and tell him you are looking for an inspirational, funny, motivational, humorous keynote speaker (give over Conor – Ed.) for your next conference or send him an email.

Starbucks: The Brand Risk

What did we ever do without smoothies?


Kudos to companies like Jamba Juice for really pushing a product category that is now being adopted almost universally. McDonald’s, the big dog in the fast food category, has identified beverages as a ‘growth engine.’(Other growth engines are breakfast, chicken and 24 hour convenience.)


Indeed ,the vision for the Golden Arches is that McDonald’s will become a ‘beverage destination’ in this $60b category. The chain believes it can grow average sales by $125,000 per restaurant, which if it happens would generate about 5% incremental sales growth. Whether the hamburger giant can achieve the beverage destination goal and provide good quality smoothies without slowing the experience is open to question but given how successful it has been in general since the late Jim Cantalupo took the hot seat in 2003, I wouldn’t bet against them.


Now we have our Seattle buddies Starbucks getting in on the smoothie act “raising the bar on good nutrition with the introduction of Vivanno™ Nourishing Blends.” It is an obvious move given the Starbucks demographics and the growth in this sector. Vivanno and similar products from Jamba Juice are a meal in themselves, thus this might help Starbucks to grow its breakfast business.


The only caveat I have with this introduction is that like it or not, it moves Starbucks further away from its coffee house tradition. That is the brand risk which Starbucks is taking, something which - if it happens, may not be visible for quite some time. The right thing for sales growth may not be the right thing for Brand Integrity. For instance, an argument could be made that the drive-thru at Starbucks takes from the 'Third Place' experience the company has been so proud of.



Posted by Conor Cunneen who is a humorous keynote business speaker on Marketing, Business Growth and Branding. Conor is an Irishman, happily exiled in Naperville, IL where he says the Guinness is drinkable (now there is a Brand) and the natives are friendly.
http://www.irishmanspeaks.com/