Branston Baked Beans

Branston are giving students loans in the form of 24 packs of their Baked Beans to start their university terms off.

This cleverly targeted activity aimed fairly and squarely at students is brilliant and has generated a great deal of PR because it is of genuine relevance, use and interest to students. What's more it's also disarmingly surprising and therefore fits in with Russell Davies' theory of being:

Useful



Surprising



Interesting



From Beyond Baked Beans:

"According to a report in yesterday's Times food manufacturer Branston is introducing a baked beans loan scheme. Students will receive free cans and pay for them once they start work.

Cases of 24 tins will be delivered by Branston - a relatively new entrant to the bean market - to participating students, every term for the next three years. They will defer the interest-free payment of £105.84, at today’s prices, until the students start work.

Apparently sales of baked beans in student households are down 20% in the last five years with students developing more sophisticated tastes - such as the Thai Green Curry posted today. That's also roughly the period this site has been in existence so who knows, maybe we started the trend!

Anyway if you want to take advantage of the offer - and why not - you should email branstonbeanloans@premierfoods.co.uk. Apparently you have to settle the loan by the end of your first year of paid employment though whether Branston is going to employ a vast staff of debt collectors to enforce that seems highly unlikely."

Nick has made the following observations about why this idea is so good:

1. The idea is well targeted, and shows a really well defined business and consumer challenge. A clear ‘X’ marks the spot.

2. It is disruptive and newsworthy. Yesterday I heard a radio discussion about this launch sandwiched between an article on student debt and the political party conferences. It made ‘headline’ news at virtually no cost. It has been covered on many news programmes and newspapers. I assume that they are communicating on campus and in student-targeted publications too. It got covered not because of the amount of A&P spend, but because it was inventive, surprising, relevant and entertaining.

3. The context and the manner of delivering the message communicates Branston as a big brand, and more importantly (for this brand) a big baked beans brand

4.It is highly relevant to the target audience, and likely to generate discussion amongst them.

5. Every student that takes up the ‘loan’ will try the brand enough times to become a loyalist, and as students usually live with other students are likely to talk about the brand to their friends.

6.Once students have registered for the ‘loan’ Branston will have a database and the right to further communication, which they would not have had if they just gave away the beans.

7. The more obvious approach of just giving away the beans would still have the potential to convert Heinz users, but would not have delivered the talk value (word of mouth or news coverage) and ongoing relationship.

On top of this activity, taste tests have shown that 76% prefered Branstons to Heinz. Heinz are clearly rattled hence their decision to change the recipe for their Beans.

We love the clever targeting and timing and the sheer simplicity of the idea. It's an idea fits with John Grant's Marketing Innovation Manifesto and Alex Wipperfurth's Brand Hijack. What we need are strong interesting ideas that are useful and executed in a surprising way.



Thank you Nick for this.

Starbucks

From Starbucks Gossip:

"Starbucks chairman Howard Schultz wrote this to CEO Jim Donald earlier this month. The memo's authenticity has been confirmed by Starbucks.

From: Howard Schultz
Sent: Wednesday, February 14, 2007 10:39 AM Pacific Standard Time
To: Jim Donald
Cc: Anne Saunders; Dave Pace; Dorothy Kim; Gerry Lopez; Jim Alling; Ken Lombard; Martin Coles; Michael Casey; Michelle Gass; Paula Boggs; Sandra Taylor

Subject: The Commoditization of the Starbucks Experience

As you prepare for the FY 08 strategic planning process, I want to share some of my thoughts with you.

Over the past ten years, in order to achieve the growth, development, and scale necessary to go from less than 1,000 stores to 13,000 stores and beyond, we have had to make a series of decisions that, in retrospect, have lead to the watering down of the Starbucks experience, and, what some might call the commoditization of our brand.

Many of these decisions were probably right at the time, and on their own merit would not have created the dilution of the experience; but in this case, the sum is much greater and, unfortunately, much more damaging than the individual pieces. For example, when we went to automatic espresso machines, we solved a major problem in terms of speed of service and efficiency. At the same time, we overlooked the fact that we would remove much of the romance and theatre that was in play with the use of the La Marzocca machines. This specific decision became even more damaging when the height of the machines, which are now in thousands of stores, blocked the visual sight line the customer previously had to watch the drink being made, and for the intimate experience with the barista. This, coupled with the need for fresh roasted coffee in every North America city and every international market, moved us toward the decision and the need for flavor locked packaging. Again, the right decision at the right time, and once again I believe we overlooked the cause and the affect of flavor lock in our stores. We achieved fresh roasted bagged coffee, but at what cost? The loss of aroma -- perhaps the most powerful non-verbal signal we had in our stores; the loss of our people scooping fresh coffee from the bins and grinding it fresh in front of the customer, and once again stripping the store of tradition and our heritage? Then we moved to store design. Clearly we have had to streamline store design to gain efficiencies of scale and to make sure we had the ROI on sales to investment ratios that would satisfy the financial side of our business. However, one of the results has been stores that no longer have the soul of the past and reflect a chain of stores vs. the warm feeling of a neighborhood store. Some people even call our stores sterile, cookie cutter, no longer reflecting the passion our partners feel about our coffee. In fact, I am not sure people today even know we are roasting coffee. You certainly can't get the message from being in our stores. The merchandise, more art than science, is far removed from being the merchant that I believe we can be and certainly at a minimum should support the foundation of our coffee heritage. Some stores don't have coffee grinders, French presses from Bodum, or even coffee filters.

Now that I have provided you with a list of some of the underlying issues that I believe we need to solve, let me say at the outset that we have all been part of these decisions. I take full responsibility myself, but we desperately need to look into the mirror and realize it's time to get back to the core and make the changes necessary to evoke the heritage, the tradition, and the passion that we all have for the true Starbucks experience. While the current state of affairs for the most part is self induced, that has lead to competitors of all kinds, small and large coffee companies, fast food operators, and mom and pops, to position themselves in a way that creates awareness, trial and loyalty of people who previously have been Starbucks customers. This must be eradicated.

I have said for 20 years that our success is not an entitlement and now it's proving to be a reality. Let's be smarter about how we are spending our time, money and resources. Let's get back to the core. Push for innovation and do the things necessary to once again differentiate Starbucks from all others. We source and buy the highest quality coffee. We have built the most trusted brand in coffee in the world, and we have an enormous responsibility to both the people who have come before us and the 150,000 partners and their families who are relying on our stewardship.

Finally, I would like to acknowledge all that you do for Starbucks. Without your passion and commitment, we would not be where we are today.

Onward…"



To read more on the debate that's ignited click here.