The 6149

I remember the day we landed in Sydney, Australia in March 2005.  We (my wife and I) were in our hotel room staring at each other in disbelief that we had just moved our life to the other side of the world.  We knew no one. We had never been there before. All up, we were very far from home and all things familiar. 

This wasn't a bad thing, mind you.

After we got done with our staring and head shaking, we laid two big, wide-eyed smiles on one another and set out to explore. We were hungry so we went to the corner store to grab a few things to put in the fridge. I got there and...more staring...I hardly recognised one brand on the shelf. 

Yes, the stalwarts were there: Coca-Cola, Kellogg's Corn Flakes and Kleenex to name just a few.  But what the hell was all that other stuff?!  I wanted to grab and go as I normally would, but my decision became much more laboured and confused.  Where were all the brands I knew, loved and trusted? Back home, stupid. 

I have always loved to go to grocery stores. I am a design and packaging freak.  I love to see when both come together in an engaging way and provide me a significant utility. I do the grocery shopping in our family.  I like to see what is new on the shelves, what has a new look and what new tricks has someone taught an old brand. 

Similar to when I moved to Sydney, I now go to the grocery stores in London and gaze out amongst all of the unknown-brand-madness and try to make sense of it all. I'll give you one example.

My wife and I were at Waitroes, an upscale grocery store in South Kensington.  They have a high quality prepared hot food selection as well as refrigerated/packaged prepared foods.  We were in the soup section which has many, many products/options: organic, low fat, lottsa fat, "veggie pots"...you name it. 

Being a stranger in a strange land with all these strange brands, we defaulted to three criteria to choose from: appearance (brand & packaging), health and "flavour".  The first two were the traffic lights and roads signs...which direction should we go?  Once we solved that, then heath & flavour options were very much similar across the board.

(We didn't stand there and draft up a criteria.  This is what we did as a knee jerk reaction)

There were three brands we looked at.  Please remember that I have no history with these brands at all.  I am just going on first impression. Also, I am not going to touch on price since we were in an upscale joint and expected to pay a premium.

The first one was called "Covent Garden Food Co.".  The first thing that I noticed was the container. It was closed. I could see what was inside?  What does the consistency look like?  Can I see some of the ingredients that claim are in there?  Or is this going to be like a bag of chips...more air than product in the bag?

Secondly, the images of the vegetables and other ingredients are drawings...caricatures of the real thing.  Why?  Personally I want my healthy, from the earth ingredients to be as real on the outside as they claim to be on the inside. 

Verdict: No chance. For the first timer, you can't hide everything behind packaging and drawings before you've earned my trust.  Hey, it might be the best tasting soup there for all I know...but, it didn't have me at hello.

Next up: Waitrose's own private label, "Farmer's Hero".  Ah, now we are getting some place. The packaging invites me in to see all of the ingredients that it says are in there.  Now, this brand and product is talking to me.  I can have an open conversation with my potential dinner, rather than get the cold shoulder from the previous packaging. 

We had only been in Waitrose for a few minutes, but we liked the place.  This being a Waitrose product helped sway us.

Bonus points for adding the human touch and showing support for the local farmers (hey, this is marketing, right?). If this was the U.S., there would have been a botoxed, fake chested, collagen infected blond rubbing that lettuce up and down the inside of her thighs on that label. Not a bad thing, I know...but not the right brand image here.

Verdict: I'm getting hungry

Lastly, we looked at "Veggie Pots" from "Innocent.  Now, if this brand had the same packaging as the first we looked at, it would have no shot. This product needs the clear packaging to show off why it thinks it is different and why you should buy it over "normal" soup. 

The veggie pots are a variation on a theme. Innocent says not to buy a soup that has been blended up into soup-y broth base. You may want something with a broth base, but that has actual chucks, hunks and leafy bits of the actual ingredients. A novel idea that had me thinking that would fill me up more than a simple-r soup.  

The package here is good, the branding...not appetising at all.  If I could not see the ingredients and had to rely on this branding, I wouldn't have looked twice.  Boring and uninspiring. Not a reflection of the product at in my opinion.

Verdict:  The product better not taste as bland as the creative work. 

So what did we decide?  Option #1 was out for both us.  We liked Options #2 and #3...the food looked good and worth the spend. It came down to heath and flavour; which brand would hit the sweet-spot combo for either of us.  

I chose the Farmer's Hero and my wife chose Innocent's Veggie Pot. We decided that we would each try the other's brand choice later in the week. 

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If you put something on the shelf, treat the packaging and design as a welcome mat. A welcome mat can serve two purposes:  It can send a message to new visitors and/or it can welcome back old friends.

If you put something on the shelf that tells you how good everything inside is and you don't show them, you run the risk of not inviting people into a trusting environment.  

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And another thing: #1

In one of my previous job back in the States, I had the opportunity to utilise a (then) new packaging material to launch a new product I was working on.  The process was the now familiar shrink wrap that so many brands use today. An outside company had presented the material to our operations team.  The head of that team asked us (the marketing department) if any of us had a use for it.  Being a huge advocate of "non-conventional" and risk taking, I jumped at the challenge. 

I got it done, but it wasn't easy.  I had to overcome many internal and external issues to get people to see the value and utility the brand could derive from using it...even though it meant a significant capital investment.  It was a risk; the bigger risk was playing it safe. 

And another thing: #2

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Close to three weeks ago I left my job. My team and co-workers had a bit of a send-off ceremony for me. People gathered in the cafeteria, they played a slideshow of photos (backed with Johnny Paycheck's, "Take This Job and Shove It"...nice touch) and they gave me a beautiful framed portrait of Sydney's famed harbour.  

A good friend (now ex-boss) said a few words as well. In the course of him telling stories he talked about my personal style of work and how I make things happen.  

He touched on something I hadn't thought of. He talked about how I had seemingly made myself part and parcel of all the major initiatives that I had launched internally for my brand.  Literally, I was the face of everything that I did.  It wasn't just the "initiative" that needed to be completed, it was "Judd's initiative" that needed to be completed. 

In some cases I would have a simple piece of creative worked up with me in it to have a bit of theatre around what I was trying to do.  Rather than be a stale, "same-old" roll out, I would try and give it some life.  This always generated more support and dedication to the desired outcome.  It was simple to do and it had great effect. 

Here is a sample of one of the simple posters I made up for the second phase of an internal initiative. 

But it wasn't just a goofy movie poster parody that garnered all the support.  What really made this work was my lunging into it head first and seeing it through. Being showy for showy's sake doesn't work.  It is transparent.  When people can see through you and don't feel that you are supporting them with equal dedication to the task that you are asking of them, they find something more worthwhile to focus on.  

When I heard my friend speak about me in this way, I instantly thought of one of my heros: Hunter S. Thompson.  

One of Hunter's bits of wisdom, is to "never try and be like anyone else".  I agree.  I don't desire to emulate anyone of my heroes. I am influenced by them thought.  The line between influence and emulate is not a fine one in my opinion.  

When you try and emulate (or equal) someone, you are set up to fail.  You can't be anyone else.  You can only be yourself...but your self can be influenced by others. 

Hunter (wether he liked it or not) created what has come to be known as Gonzo Journalism. A quick wikipedia reference give us a formal version of what that is:  

Gonzo journalism is a style of journalism which is written subjectively, often including the reporter as part of the story via a first person narrative...it often uses personal experiences and emotions to provide context for the topic or event being covered

Without knowing it...or trying to do it...I was applying Hunter's influence into my work/my personal style. I was acting out my own personal Gonzo Management.  The idea of this was exciting to me.  In his best of works, Hunter made himself an integral part of the story. The story could not be written without a healthy dose of Hunter in it.  Not that Hunter stole the spotlight, but he helped shine it on the messages and the meaning...first hand.  In hindsight, this is what I was doing. 

This is influence in action.  I did not set out to emulate Hunter.  That would have resulted in failure. If I did, the emulation of Hunter would have been my focus and not gather ing the necessary support to be successful in our common goals.  

Influence is you with a twist.   Emulate is you trying not to be you.  People follow you's.

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A side note:

I am a hands on guy.  Not hands on in a "control freak", but hands on in the sense that I am willing to do the hard-yards with you.  I'm passionate about what I do and I like to get involved.  I also crave and give autonomy whenever possible. You can't lead from the middle of the pack, but you can lead by example. 

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