You need look no further than Apple for proof of this. When cell phones reached their zenith, Apple presented us the iPhone. After they sewed up the new smart phone landscape, they turned around and introduced an entirely new category—the iPad.  Instead of resting on their laurels and simply issuing new colors of iPods or new sizes of Mac laptops, Apple regularly blows the market away with all-new stuff. And consumers react accordingly, by buying it all up as fast as they can.

Now, you might be thinking “sure, electronics are always innovating to survive; that’s nothing new.” But in Apple’s case it’s innovation in the purest sense—completely new categories of products that work brilliantly, look terrific, and are unlike anything we’ve seen before.  That’s innovation. Not just a new and improved screen technology or faster processor, but a whole new mousetrap.

And, great innovations by premium brands aren’t limited to electronics or software. Packaged goods are getting in on the act.  A recent article in Ad Age (Oct. 25, 2010) pointed out that innovative new premium products from Estee Lauder, Lancome and Procter & Gamble have found success.  As well, new shaving innovations from Schick and Gillette helped bring a 35% increase to the shaving category. Even the most basic of brands, Kotex, hit the jackpot with a premium-priced and newly designed “U” line of products. They saw a sales boost of 13% in one category and 57% in another.

So to those who own or work with a premium brand that could use a boost (and couldn’t we all?), consider stepping out of your comfort zone and making an innovative move within the category. You could be rewarded with some very premium results.

Outdoor has always been a favorite media of mine, due to it’s challenging creative canvas: you basically have room for 7 words or less to make an impression that lasts mere seconds as your audience zooms by on the way to work, shop, or play.  (Unfortunately, many creatives routinely break this 7 word rule,  thinking their message or design is better than some “arcane,” old-fashioned rule. Here’s my message to them: it’s not.  Your type’s too small, your idea’s too weak and your board will fail – period.)  But I digress…

My point today is that outdoor media, when executed properly, is hot for all shapes and sizes of brands. Whether playing a supporting role to a larger media vehicle like television or radio, or as the sole media driver for a brand’s effort, outdoor is still a larger-than-life premium canvas capable of informing, entertaining and persuading tens of thousands potential customers everyday.

Take our salad dressing client BRIANNAS, for example.  Sales were lackluster in the Miami market and they needed a fast, cost-effective boost.  Outdoor to the rescue! We crafted a special outdoor-centric campaign exclusively for the Miami audience and began scoring almost immediate recognition. Why? Because the boards followed all the creative rules of premium outdoor: they were succinct, clever, entertaining and memorable.  All for pennies on the dollar compared to a broadcast effort in a major market.

What’s more, new technology has entered the outdoor arena with the advent of bright, full-color digital display boards. These incredibly vivid billboards deliver maximum “pop” and are almost impossible to ignore.  What’s more, they’re highly cost effective because there’s no paper or vinyl to produce.

So the next time your brand is feeling the heat from new competition, shrinking share or stagnant sales, consider taking your message outside with some outdoor.   For many brands, it can be a hot pick to deliver even hotter results.  Just make sure your agency or production resource is capable of delivering the right creative message for this very tricky medium!

So, while knee-deep in indexing products within the grocery, home, software, and health & beauty categories, I began to wonder what would happen if I indexed the popular sites YouTube, MySpace, and Facebook against each other. Taking information from Mediamark Research & Intelligence® (MRI), Google analytics and other special goodness (we’ll never tell!), our system plotted these guys on a scale of 0 to 100 in what we call “premiumness.”

Not all too shockingly, MySpace came in as the least premium with a score of 5 out of 100, while Facebook ranked at 49, and YouTube at a whopping 96! Among other factors, the interesting details that surface include the knowledge that 49% less information is consumed on MySpace than it’s counterparts. Also, 45% of MySpace users also use Facebook, which, if talking about cream cheese, we’d consider to be a brand loyalty problem.

The data also reveals interesting trends in the buy styles of these media consumers—20% of YouTube users fall into the category of “Buyers of the Best.” This generally denotes that they are brand loyal and tend to be willing to spend that extra dollar to get it. YouTube users also tend to have a higher overall income and have the most loyal following in incomes of $200K+.

While all this data is wonderful, how do we apply it to marketing in the real world? It may not seem too far-fetched from our current assumptions that YouTube is pandemic, Facebook is getting there (if China will let them), and MySpace is just plain sad. However, when structuring a marketing plan for a brand that utilizes these three modes of social media transportation, it is emperical evidence that it does matter which brands advertise where.

For instance, even though my last post indicated that 18–22 year olds are now purchasing more specialty food items, a such brand should not inherently push all their efforts into a MySpace campaign. We learn in this study that not only are MySpace subscribers less loyal to brands, they also aren’t the 18–22 year olds with the cash to spend. Also, they tend to lean toward coupon purchases, which most specialty foods cannot afford to do.

So, while this exercise is not 100% fool-proof—and is done mainly as an illustration (we charge for the real thing!)—it does convey the general idea that not all entities within a category can be premium. There are definite factors determined by the consumer’s perceptions, behaviors and experiences that shape what your brand is. And doesn’t it just make you the least bit curious to find out how premium your brand is?

What’s more dangerous than avoiding social media is the mistake of not participating. Food manufacturers, for example, have the opportunity to quickly either dispell or address head-on the consumer concerns that might get brought up in social media. What’s risky is not having the ability to participate in the dialogue, or coming to the party too late to be seen as credible. There are lots of references for this kind of address, including a prominent effort regarding Starbucks. You don’t have to be a mega-brand like Starbucks to have a comfortable dialogue with consumer advocates, or with consumer adversaries for that matter. For sure, though, if you’re a premium brand, the realm of social media is a space you shouldn’t ignore, especially when your fans are gathering online on their own.

Social media will only prove to be a threat to premium brands that opt out of the conversation.

As we observe the responses and insights provided by our Premium Brand Panel, we realize that consumers are willing to pay more for certain brands, as long as the brand meets their expectations at a price they can live with. Although private label brands have gotten much attention, many premium consumers are wary of the short-term concessions and inferior ingredients in less-expensive alternatives. However, the brands that have lost share to private label are discovering that they haven’t done enough to differentiate their product quality, nor have they built their brand as the premium brand they thought they were.

For example, a person who makes $150,000 a year may consistently buy cheap toilet paper; he or she has little expectation from the product and isn’t willing to pay for extra fluff (literally, in this case). On the other hand, a lower-income person may see toilet paper as an affordable mini-luxury, and therefore they’re willing to pay the extra $1.50 for four rolls in a pack. In this instance, the premium consumer is the lower-income household inspired by emotional benefits versus the higher-income household that views toilet paper as only delivering rational benefits.

For more information on what makes a brand premium, visit my post on the topic or visit our website.

The truth is that it’s easy for agencies to be willing to be the first one out there doing something new—they’re not spending their own money to do so. The agency gets the credit if it’s a hit, and if the idea tanks, well, the agency just shoves it under the "learning" rug. Doing something new not only requires innovative execution, but in this day and age it also requires innovative financing.

Warren Douglas has developed project partnerships for several clients that not only allow us to stick our toe in the water before diving into a new initiative, but projects that also take the edge off the front-ended cash investment for the client. Marketers (the clients) have to also be willing to view the agency as a true partner in their business, rather than viewing them as a disposable commodity that will be tossed after next year’s budget review. To make something new work well, both parties have to commit to a relationship in which both parties make meaningful investments and share in meaningful rewards.

Too often, marketers of premium brands seem to believe that advertising their brand or service will be, much like their brand, a premium proposition. They assume that good advertising is simply “too expensive.” And all that production and photography and printing and interactive stuff is just fancy frosting that their cake doesn’t need to sell. So they opt to do only the bare minimum to scrape by. Or, worse yet, leave it to unqualified individuals who end up doing more to tarnish their premium offering then polishing it.

This mindset of “creative advertising = poor house” is unfortunate, because the exact opposite can be true. With the right strategy and the right creative thinking, it’s possible to both showcase and market a premium brand in a premium manner— all while adhering to the tightest of budgets.

A recent effort by our agency on behalf of a packaged goods client is a perfect example. This client enjoys one of the top spots in their category, with a loyal customer fan base its competition would die for. They’d ridden a long-lasting wave of word-of-mouth popularity, relying only on small marketing efforts they handled themselves. But in recent months their business had plateaued. For the first time in their history, they looked outside for marketing assistance. There was one caveat: the budget was tighter than a frog’s eyelids.

The solution we ultimately arrived at was as simple as it was fresh and unexpected. After finding the category cluttered with tired clichés and “me too” creative executions, we chose a 180º direction away from the norm. It was a direction that would celebrate the notion of “less being more.” And in doing so, we’d leverage two of the product’s best advantages: its packaging, and the emotional reaction the product causes in customers.

So to all those in charge of a premium brand who are wringing their hands over the expense of advertising, we say “fear not.” With the right marketing partner, the perfect creative solution for your offering does not require more dollars than you have sense.

The big question for commodities: do your customers want something more from your brand? If you’re willing to provide it for them, you can likely charge a category-appropriate premium for it, and gain brand loyalty in the process.