When does a brand become a piece of Americana?

In marketing strategy courses throughout the country students learn the importance of managing a brand or product by its stage in the product life-cycle. It is drilled into their heads that every product will inexorably move through each stage of the cycle until it is ultimately cast into the dustbin of irrelevancy. They learn that investing heavily in advertising and promotion in a product's introductory and growth stages is an important determinant in whether the new product will get off the ground. They also learn that cutting back ad spend as the product progresses on through maturity and eventual decline is often just as important. But what they don't learn -- perhaps because it countervails existing dogma or simply because it is seen as anomalous -- is that some brands are so indelibly linked to our unique American consciousness that their absence from the marketplace is near unfathomable. 

In fact, we recently came across such a phenomena with a client in whose portfolio resides a brand so iconic that it is difficult to imagine a world in which it does not exist. This raises a variety of questions: Do iconic brands prevail simply because they have stood the test of time? In other words is it inertia that keeps these brands alive? And if so, how immune to the product life-cycle are they? (And perhaps more importantly, how do I get a job as one of these tried and true products brand manager?) Jocularity aside, what does it take to create a brand so strong that it becomes inextricably linked to our collective consciousness? We know there is such a thing as 'too big' to fail. Is there such a thing as too old to fail? And if so, what does that mean for the organizations that own these brands? What responsibility does that thrust upon them?

We spent many a night pondering such imponderables (and came up with largely nothing to show for it) and now we would like to pass them on to you. So in a nutshell: what does it take for a brand to become a piece of Americana?

CI in a Down Economy

We just published our March CI and Strategy newsletter, Looking Out. In it, Karen Rothwell had a piece on the importance of maintaining CI capabilities in a down economy. What role is CI playing in your companies amid the economic uncertainty we are facing? Is CI becoming a more important tool to help navigate through a possible recession, or is the CI function on the budget chopping block?

--Ken

How to Reinvigorate CI Skills

If you'll allow me to indulge a bit, I just want to say that today, I am more physically fit than I ever have been, having just completed a Marine Corps style outdoor boot camp. I performed more push ups, squats and sit ups that I cared to do in one lifetime. Why? Not because a six-foot-tall ex-Marine drill sergeant was yelling at me, but because I decided that my old workout routine wasn't helping me achieve my fitness goals, and that it was time for a change to avoid getting complacent.

Do you rely on the same analytical techniques you have used since college or worse, none at all? Then, it's time to revamp your competitive intelligence "basic training." CI Analysts must constantly look for ways to enhance their skills through different, and more challenging, training. Consider giving your mind a new training regimen that won't involve chin-ups or running but instead a refresher on the basics or an introduction to new tools that will whip it up into the best shape possible, ready for any intelligence challenge that comes your way.

Most of us have experience with some of the core analytical techniques such as Porter's Five Forces analysis. But, what about some of the less popular analysis techniques that provide tremendous value in certain situations? Consider win-loss analysis, a straightforward technique for analyzing what approaches and strategies help your firm win or lose business against competition.  Both techniques, and others, can help your company benefit from novel strategic insights that your "tried and true" methods may be failing to deliver.

I'd like to attend David Rogers CI Financial Intelligence class, I've heard good things about his session.  Also interested in hearing Tata Group speak on 'Technology possibilities at the bottom of the pyramid."

SCIP 08

Who's going to the SCIP 2008 conference in San Diego (April 14-17, 2008)? What sessions look good? For those who have been to SCIP conferences in the past, how do you think this one will compare to past sessions?

Welcome to Outward Insight's Competitive Intelligence Weblog

Welcome!

Outward Insights is an intelligence and strategy consulting firm that provides its clients the skills, tools, and counsel they require to anticipate external threats, identify opportunities, and develop strategies to achieve leadership positions. We believe that organizations have tremendous opportunities to use internal and external information more effectively, and we equip our clients with cutting-edge tools and methodologies to assess external information, derive insights, and formulate winning strategies. We work in a way that fosters teamwork, skills transfer, and continuous learning. We measure our results by how well we enhance our clients’ skills and capabilities. An important piece of which is creating a forum through which our expertise and insight can be conveyed to our clients. As such, Outward Insights will be regularly posting to this blog to offer what we hope will be valuable insight to our clients and anyone else who may be interested in Competitive Intelligence. 

We urge readers to participate in the discussion and will do our best to respond to questions and comments regularly.

Once again, welcome. We hope you enjoy!

~ Outward Insights