Name Dropping

Happy Friday,

How was your week?

Still, holding your dry January? My shorts certainly have no faith in me trying to convince me that Dry Wine qualifies…

Last week, I spent some time in Quebec City, sharing meals with people I like to work with at L'Affaire est Ketchup, JJacques and experiencing Tanière with M for his birthday❣️

I also had the pleasure of being a judge at the JCD at ULaval; think 13 universities competing in business academic topics, running on no sleep, 4 hours to build a marketing strategy to win outside of Qc for an up-and-coming health brand and having 24 minutes to bring it to life.  

And they gave it their all, 

In retrospect, a few things stayed at me;

• Only one team advocated for a strong ranking organic and paid plan to ensure visibility and being there and where it matters.

• Another suggested subscription boxes to simplify distribution and, more importantly, use that data to research where to open their future stores.

But what jumps out at me is that all the francophone teams recommended a name change to have a chance to win, and not one anglophone team did!

And I don't blame them, a brand name has so much pressure, it needs to 

• Build trust

• Hint your brand purpose

• Be memorable

• All at once, all the time

Many brand builders are faced with this dilemma:

• Some are forced for TM reasons, like Cottonelle, who took 2 years to prepare consumers to change to Charmin while staying #1

• Some have a midlife crisis. They want you to call them by their nickname, get a tattoo, a leather jacket, and a sports car in hopes of seducing younger crowds. Looking at you, Molson Ex.

• Having to find a new identity out of a merger like Beneva

• Or separating entities like Kellogg's, now WK Kellogg Co and Kellanova after 117 years. 

In any case, it doesn't always work and is very disruptive if it doesn't. I loved the team's answer recommending keeping it; why would you? It represents who the brand is and keeps reminding future consumers where you are from.

Needless to say, they had my vote.

See you next week