Ueber-Brands

Impact boom is a social enterprise incubator, blog and podcast based in Australia with an active community and an increasingly global reach. They take the Australian government’s call for a ‘Ideas Boom’ further, saying it is time for a ‘Impact Boom’ – particularly when it comes to helping social enterprises take off and scale their work. A link to their website is provided below.

My interviewer is Mike Lepre, who is a social entrepreneur himself; founder of Bertonni, a producer of high-design vases made of concrete by people experiencing or being threatened by homelessness.  Mike started the business bringing together his desire to design, to experimenting with new materials and to helping the people he saw living without shelter on his way home from the Design and Fabrication Lab at Queensland University of Technology where he works.

It turns out that Mike had read our book on Ueber-Branding and was inspired to apply some of the principles to his nascent brand.  After a few conversations with him on how he might do that, he suggested I do an interview with him for Impact Boom for all his peers to benefit from my thoughts on Ueber-Branding and how it relates to social enterprises. His question: “Should social enterprises brand themselves?”

The short answer is “Absolutely!”  Without people being aware of social enterprises and their causes, without us embracing them and buying INTO what they do, their impact risks to be limited.  Using what we call the ‘Ueber-Branding’ approach makes particular sense, since social enterprise comes with a desirable element in their DNA that ‘regular’ companies often lack: A higher purpose, a mission truly lived that can make their brand ‘meaningful beyond the material.’

For the full interview click here:

FURTHER THOUGHTS AND READING:

For even deeper insights into what drives the success of Ueber-Brands read our book “Rethinking Prestige Branding – Secrets of the Ueberbrands” and some of the many case-studies on this blog or listen to our podcast.

If you want us to help you elevate your own brand, then write to us at [email protected].

Here are links to the Impact Boom website and that of Bertonni, Mike Lepre’s brand and the related crowd funding site on StartSomeGood. Don’t hesitate to donate, encourage and contact Mike, he’ll be happy to hear from you.

You can subscribe to our podcasts on iTunes, Android, Stitcher, TuneIn, etc. or on our blog to receive new post notifications. 

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE INTERVIEW:

[Mike Lepre] – To get things started, could you please share a bit about your background and what led you down the path of branding and strategy?

[JP Kuehlwein] – Sure. It wasn’t very clear to me at the beginning after my studies, which were in France, Portugal, UK, and Germany. I had done a lot of things, but was a little bit at a loss about what to do for my professional career. And so Procter and Gamble knocked on my door asking me if I wanted to join them and I said, “Hey, sure, why not?” Actually, in order not to have to write too many applications and instead being able to do a long vacation to Australia before starting to work. So between the studies and work, I did a three month trip through Australia. I figured I can always change companies later. I stayed, I think, 23 years with Procter and Gamble. I started in finance and then pretty quickly moved over to marketing because it seemed so much more exciting and interesting on that side of the conference table and the company.

Over the years you’ve worked with brands in different industries and at different stages of their journeys. So what are some of the common challenges you’ve seen brands experience and what tips can you offer on how to navigate through them? [02:39]

I’ve worked in the US, I’ve worked in Asia and India. Actually I’ve stayed in Asia and India for a combined 15 years. And then I did global jobs, worked across household care, beauty, baby care, you name it. I can tell you, some of the common challenges might seem very straightforward, but they kept being repeated.

One, a lot of brands are not very clear as to what they actually have to offer, or they’re not very differentiated in what they have to offer. I mean, often when I teach at NYU or even watch TV with my kids here or YouTube, I do the so-called video test, we mute the sound and I ask them, “What brand is this commercial about?” And you’ll often struggle, and sometimes you struggle even leaving the sound on.

And they get either too far ahead of themselves in talking about stuff that when you meet the brand for the first time, it doesn’t make sense to you in a first time encounter. Or they simply are not even able to articulate who are they and what are they about and why are they around. And so I would say that’s one big thing that everyone working on a brand needs to make sure of.

The second big thing that I see a lot, even among the most professional marketers, is that marketers get bored about their brand, and their communication, and their campaign in particular, before the customers do. They change what they’re talking about and how they’re talking about their brand way before that message actually gets through to the average customer. And that might be driven by tons of organisational changes, which often happens in big groups, or simply impatience, because you know your own message, you’ve seen your own video over and over, you read your own blog posts and your own social media interactions and you get bored with it, or you get worried that you’re repetitive.

Ueber-Brands comes from the German, ‘Ueber’, so it has nothing to do with the taxi service. Ueber is there to annoy a little bit the Anglo Saxons who can’t pronounce it. But really the background is when Wolfgang and I were thinking about what to call these brands that we got very interested in, we were reminded a little bit of Nietzsche’s philosophy. Nietzsche talks about the Ubermensch. It’s controversial and it’s been abused historically. But what we extract or what we take from that, which is interesting, is this concept of going above and beyond, which is what Ueber means in German. And what we find is that these brands have in common that they want to be more than good, they want to be more than a functional utilitarian benefit or service.

They all have this in common and that’s why we call them the Ueber-Brands. Ueber-Brands are about creating meaning beyond the material, being more than a car, a handbag, a vase, a soft drink, you name it. Why is that attractive, why should brands be interested in that? When you are able to create more meaning with your proposition, then people have their heart in it. So if you’re not just a soft drink, but you are a little magic potion that gives people wings, literally make them Superman, and gives them the energy and the courage to jump out of the sky or do crazy stunts on their bikes or disco party through the night, you’ve got a different kind of following than if you’re just a refreshing drink. And I think you know who I’m talking about, Red Bull. If you help people understand that it’s important to protect the environment, that you discover in their products, and you show them to some extent the way, by advocating building back dams or even protesting against making national monuments smaller and you’re Patagonia, then people buy more than a sweater. They buy into an ideology, beliefs, values. And so they have more heart in it. They become more loyal. They’re also less focused on price because these things are often priceless as we say. And so you’ve got more flexibility in terms of margin that you can put against funding those causes, pay your people decently, growing your business. People are more engaged with you. So they spread the word more. And word of mouth is this very strong advertisement. In fact, it’s not even perceived as advertisement. And so creates great trial for your brand and awareness. It also creates more flexibility for your brand equity in that a brand like Red Bull or Patagonia or Ben and Jerry’s or Brunello Cucinelli and all these brands we talk about in our book, They can open a hotel, they can make sweaters, they can make surfboards, they can brew beer, which is now true for Patagonia for example. And the stretch can hold quite a bit because they are about more than just having made sweaters. If Nautica or Levi’s was making beer tomorrow, it might be more difficult because there’s less meaning and less broad meaning in that brand. So it opens up possibilities from a brand architecture side as well. And then finally, one interesting aspect that I come across quite a bit is people become more forgiving. They think about you in a more human way. So for example, you’re Method laundry detergent and you tried to use ocean plastic and that ocean plastic is brittle, and early bottles of your hand soap leak, then instead of getting all upset on social media, people actually exchange how to help you, how they refill this stuff into glass and give you tips of where it’s leaking and how you might change the design. This kind of kindness doesn’t happen with a product that is perceived as just industrial and doesn’t have any further meaning to people.

Some great insights there JP. In your book, you talk about the concept of prestige as the human need for distinction and aspiration. Social enterprise has an advantage over regular business because of the aspirational mission and values that are inherent within the business model. How can social enterprises leverage this advantage to increase sales, while making sure they don’t appear as trying to guilt the consumer into making a purchase? [10:58]

I think you’re right. I mean social enterprises have a big advantage. When we talk about Ueber-Brands, we talk about mission, myths, and truths as important ingredients to these brands. And mission, obviously social enterprise should have and is a big asset there because it provides a lot of that meaning I was talking about. So they have this higher mission from the get go as part of their DNA.

To your second question about how not to look like you guilt people into something, that’s actually something we also talk about in the book, which is we talk about the concept of unselling.

Some great insights there JP. In your book, you talk about the concept of prestige as the human need for distinction and aspiration. Social enterprise has an advantage over regular business because of the aspirational mission and values that are inherent within the business model. How can social enterprises leverage this advantage to increase sales, while making sure they don’t appear as trying to guilt the consumer into making a purchase? [Continued]

I’ll give you an example. I’ve just started discussing here with my little village in New York around trees. Trees get chopped here like crazy because people are afraid that the old trees in town will fall on their houses. And all the new people moving in are so afraid that the first thing they do when they buy a house is to cut all these hundred-plus year old trees and they plant nothing behind it except for a few decorative bushes. They also live with this ideal of their children playing in the backyard, which is all grass. And so there is this charity now forming around, “let’s get the trees back”. Rather than begging for money and subsidies and trying to push people to plant trees, we want to be very clear that trees actually provide energy savings, they provide health, and there’s tons of studies around even mental health and how it’s positively correlated to a green neighbourhood. They’re not just pretty things. And so I think in the same way a social enterprise that really focuses on the value it provides, and the value can be beauty or it can be functional value etc. But the value it provides is the way there.

I love these companies like Freitag that we talk about in the book, or Patagonia, or TerraCycle, that really often make good business, and actually might’ve been born out of commerce, but have developed into social enterprises. When you think about Not For Sale, which is another one on our podcast that we talk about, or Toms with their one-for-one. In fact, there’s an interesting episode in the life of Patagonia, which is one of my absolute favourite brands that I studied in detail, where Yvon Chouinard, the founder, thinks about what’s the next step after his company has become bigger than he’s ever imagined. And he’s thinking about selling it. And if you know him, his company, if you’ve read the books, you will know that his ambition was to sell the company and then put all the money he would get into a foundation. Fortunately his advisors said, “you know, Yvon, you’ll be able to do so much more good for so much longer and for generations to come and at a global scale if you remain an enterprise and make money that way, but also spread the news that way and enable investment into all the things that you want to do, like building back dams and so on, than if you take the money out and become a charity, it’ll just dwindle away”. And I think that might be true also for social enterprises that have an enterprising and value creation mindset versus a charity mindset.

Definitely. I think most of the people listening to this podcast certainly understand the extra value that a social enterprise can bring over a charity. JP, we’re seeing a shift towards purpose within business, and even multinational corporations are jumping on board. Big businesses are even spending millions of dollars on marketing and advertising to appear to care about trending issues.

How can social enterprises rise above the hype and communicate to consumers that they truly exist to create social and environmental change? [15:42]

I think social enterprises that really mean it, that have in their DNA, that really live their mission, have a huge leg up and a huge advantage over, let’s call them “imitators” and the big commercial companies moving in and all talking about purpose and doing good as well. And that is this aspect of living it. It’s the third aspect when I said mission, myths, and truth.

And I think that’s where social enterprise has a big advantage. So for example, Ben and Jerry’s has been an activist when it comes to social justice in the US for decades now. So when Ben and Jerry’s, and literally the founders, get arrested on the steps of Capitol Hill during the elections because they protest against unjust legislation or conditions in the US, then nobody’s surprised. It makes total sense. It’s part of what endears this brand to its core audience, its apostles, if you like. The people who spread the word. As I said earlier, contrast that with something that just happened a few weeks ago where Kraft Heinz group, the folks who do Velveeta and Heinz Ketchup and so on, went out in Washington during the Government shutdown that you might’ve heard about, and handed out in a special kind of pop-up store, paper bags with a big Kraft and Heinz logo on it. And in the paper bag was obviously, as you can imagine, Velveeta cheese and Heinz Ketchup and the other goods that this company makes. And they said, “we’re doing good. These Government employees are laid off, many of them don’t have the means to just skip a paycheck, as happens now with the Government shut down. So we’re handing out free product.” Well there are some people of course who thought it was great, but many people were very sceptical, very sceptical that this would be a stunt. Obviously with all the logos everywhere and the company itself blasting it on social media, and making sure all the TV cameras are there, really just exploited these poor government workers rather than really doing good. And I think that’s where the difference is, with Ben and Jerry’s that has lived its mission and has authenticated it through its consistent actions over time and through what it does as an organisation internally as well, has the credibility and it has the right to stand for things like that, whereas these quick adopters cannot. So I think that’s one big advantage of social enterprise.

And then I think the other way to defend is not to defend at all, but rather to collaborate, and acknowledge that struggle for big companies and say, “why don’t we make this a win-win? Why don’t we work together, but everyone has their place in it.” And that’s where I see, for example, a social enterprise like TerraCycle, with their loop system now working across big companies, P&G, Unilever, Coca-Cola, you name it, and work on things like recyclable, in fact, reusable containers, whether it’s for shampoo or for ice cream, instead of throwaway plastic. Or do they work on scaling ocean plastic now with Head and Shoulders and Pantene and so on and so on, where the social enterprise can lend the credibility, the independence, the DNA that has been proven over time, and the big company can lend the scale, the publicity certainly around it, and making it matter because, you know, it only matters, all these things of recycling or avoiding plastic, if it’s in big quantities, and Coca-Cola can certainly deliver those quantities of replaced bottles, etc. So I think it can be a symbiotic, very interesting relationship that is valuable.

So who are some of the businesses with true social and environmental missions that you have come across who you see excelling at brand strategy, and what can we learn from them? [21:08]

There’s many. We talk about some of them in our book. Some of our favourites, Freitag, the Swiss bag, and by now suitcase, wallet, you name it, brand that basically uses trash that doesn’t decompose, it’s not biodegradable, which are tarps that are used on trucks, particularly in Europe, as well as parts like seat belts, tires and tubes from bicycles, and fashion them into bags. From the beginning the DNA of that company was recontextualisation and “how do we preserve our resources?” This goes all the way through, not only by recontextualising these materials, but also how they do it. So when they wash it, they use rain water, and some of their products are, for example, compost bags, etc. They live it through and through. But they also have incredible design, incredible language, corporate identity, visual identity, sound identity. They are also incredible brand builders. And it’s a fantastic brand and doing good story. And the same applies for Patagonia. Even in the B2B arena by now there are great companies.

There’s a company I stumbled on called Rockwool, and they make insulation material from rock, basically that lasts longer, it’s nontoxic, it’s 100% natural. So there’s a lot of interesting stuff going on across a very broad spectrum of categories.

To finish off, what are some great books or podcasts that you’d recommend? [23:19]

Some really inspiring books are written by the people who make these brands. So I like the classics, The Responsible Company, which was written by Yvon Chouinard, the founder of Patagonia together with Vincent Stanley, his nephew who we interviewed on my podcast, and you know, he’s just an incredible thinker when it comes to really thinking through the relationship between product, brand, and doing the right thing, and organisation. They are incredibly considerate when it comes to that, so you really benefit from people who have thought about these things for a long time.

There is a book about Freitag called Out of the Bag. And it’s fascinating and instructive from a brand design. They are designers, after all. It’s one of the few companies, I guess, owned by graphic designers. They are industrial, not only graphic designers, and talk a lot about things even like the brand architecture or the brand language, how they found their own language, very distinctive language for the brand. Fascinating read.

Excellent recommendations there. And of course, your book with Wolfgang Schaefer, Rethinking Prestige Branding – Secrets of the Ueber-Brands, is another great one that all of our listeners out there should get a copy of and read. JP, thank you very much for your time today.

In this interview Peter Rahal, co-founder of RXBAR tells us how the nutrition bar was conceived (in his kitchen, of course) and how it made its swift four-year ascent to becoming a brand so talked-about and appealing that Kellogg could not resist buying it for a whopping $600 million in 2017.

This brand creation story seems seductively simple:  A single-minded focus on a specific product offering missing in the market. A simple package and communication – a few ingredients on the front of the label and “no BS” (that is, no “Bad Stuff”).  A disciplined targeting- and distribution strategy – with focus on a receptive early adopter community and distributors, at first, followed by a logic roll-out. A personal- and company set of values centering around listening, working hard, succeeding but staying humble; Foregoing claims about honest ingredients, sourcing integrity, feeding the hungry or another higher purpose which ‘feel disingenuous’ even when the company does participate in food donations.

In fact, it might be this ‘straight-forwardness’ that delivers differentiation and the key to success in what can feel like an increasingly complex and convoluted ‘new food world’. – Organic, non-GMO, ‘sustainably’ grown and fair-traded camu-camu, anyone?

Things might get a bit more complex, nevertheless, now that RXBAR has joined the Kellogg Company house of brands neighborhood.  Not the one to lounge around a pool just living off his fortune, Peter has decided to stay on as CEO of the new subsidiary, which provides important continuity¹.  But can the ‘humble straight forwardness’ be kept alive and be scaled across the globe and other food categories at a fast pace, as intended.  — Listen in and tell us what you think.

Listen (CLICK PLAY BUTTON) 

https://ueberbrands.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/rx-bar-with-peter-rahal-ep-21.mp3

FURTHER READING:

For more insights into what drives the success of brands like RXBAR and many more read our book “Rethinking Prestige Branding – Secrets of the Ueberbrands” about the Ueber-Branding model and method of application and other posts on this blog-cast.

If you want us to help you elevate your own brand, then write to us at [email protected].

Here is a link to the RXBAR website and an article on the acquisition by Kellogg Company in 2017.

¹ Here is a post based on our book in which we describe the strategy of ‘Ring-Fencing’ which can help small brands stay nimble and successful – even after they get acquired by big, scale-driven groups.

Remember, you can subscribe to our podcasts on iTunes, Android, Stitcher, etc. as well as to our blog (top right) to receive new post notifications. 

“I don’t do ‘experiences’ … I hate when people say ‘your package is beautiful’.  We are not about ‘status’ … we are all about selling the best product!”  Such statements might surprise, coming from Ramdane Touhami, a serial creator of Prestige and Lifestyle brands who has more recently focused on transforming businesses long on history but short on relevance into coveted Prestige brands – notably Cire Trudon and Buly – that stand out offering inspired … experiences. – Sorry, Ramdane.

As we probe deeper into what he means by ‘selling’ or ‘best product,’ it becomes clear that Touhami’s definitions diverge from the norm and that he follows rather unconventional strategies.  And, staying true to a reputation for being ‘outspoken’ he does not shy away from contrasting his approach to brand building – he talks about “building an institution” – to those of other players ranging from Aesop and Glossier to L’Oreal and Shiseido.

To us, it is a prime example of myth-making in marketing¹ when someone feels compelled to build a neo-romantic beauty boutique (half Classic, half Art Deco), calls it ‘L’Officine Universelle Buly’ (after a perfumer, distiller, cosmetician and boutique owner ‘Bully,²’ who, in 1809, invented an iconic multi-purpose ‘vinaigre de toilette’) and locates the it in the former foundry where Rodin cast ‘The Thinker’ in Paris.  And, in case you miss the mythic connection, a commemorative plate next to the door will tell you that Bully was the inspiration behind one of Honoré Balzac’s heros (César Birotteau – its contested).  Cards placed throughout the store and the uniformed boutique staff will share – in a whispering voice – stories about the place and each of the hundreds of products and potions on display.  The ‘vinaigre,’ we are told, can tighten the skin as well as refresh the mouth.

But hi-/story is just one ingredient.  Touhami employs all the latest strategies one finds in modern Prestige brand building and crafts them into unique expressions of Buly.  As Ramdane tells us, the brand is on an important mission: To save traditional but effective beauty secrets from extinction.  Products are made of exotic, artisan-sourced and elaborated ingredients from around the world – but eschew synthetic preservatives. (Does that sound traditional, yet ‘of-our-time’?).  Extreme attention is paid to package design featuring vintage graphics, glass, even marble and heavy metal lids.  And what about the environment?  The desire is for this exceptional packaging to be re-discovered and “re-used for decades to come”.

The ‘selling’ includes a lot of un-hurried, highly choreographed rituals (taking time is luxury, after all) such as the origami-like⁴ folding of wrappers over your purchase complete with hand-calligraphed labeling. – That’s  called ‘Personalization’ in modern marketing speak.  And, like most modern ‘retail experiences’, the latest Officine Buly has a ‘food & beverage component’.  But, of course, it is special one.  The ‘Cafe Tortoni’ is a revival of the famed Paris cafe once frequented and written about by famed authors like Stendhal (in the ‘Le Rouge et le Noir’), they serve Madeleines in honor of Marcel Proust… (you get the hang of it?)

Finally, we were told that a major investment into bringing Buly to life (and to your shopping cart) digitally “with a WOW” is close to coming to fruition. (Aka omni-channel and owned-media strategy.)

With this bit of background and our Ueber-Branding framework at hand, you are ready to dive into the interview with Ramdane.  His wife, Victoire de Taillac-Touhami, makes a ‘guest appearance’ as well.  Its rapid-fire and ‘Franglish’ at times but we are sure you’ll find it inspiring and will want to study this “polymath entrepreneur” and his brand creations more once we are done (further reading provided right below). – Enjoy

Listen (CLICK PLAY BUTTON) 

https://ueberbrands.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/ueberbrands-buly-ramdane-touhami-ep-20.mp3

FURTHER READING:

For more insights into what drives the success of modern Prestige brands like Buly and many more read our book “Rethinking Prestige Branding – Secrets of the Ueberbrands” about the Ueber-Branding model and method of application and other posts on this blog-cast.

If you want us to help you elevate your own brand, then write to us at [email protected].

¹ Read this article for a summary of the Ueber-Branding approach and this one specifically on Myth-Making and modern Prestige branding.

Here are links to the official  ‘Officine Universelle Buly’ website as well as the Cire Trudon websites, and our Ueber-Brand case study of Cire Trudon – at a time when Touhami was still involved.

² The story has it that Touhami dropped the second ‘l’ in the original Bully to get around the unfavorable meaning in English.

³ Umberto Eco talked about a ‘better-than-real’ or ‘fantastic past’ as he explored American commercial life and visited Disneyland, which makes some sense when thinking about Buly. Read an essay on Umberto Eco’s writing on Hyperreality and judge for yourself what the two brands might have in common.

Ramdane and his wife Victoire de Taillac-Touhami in the boutique in Daikanyama, Japan, the first outside France. This one is built-out half Modern-Minimalist , half Classic – literally.

Here is an interesting piece Dana Thomas has written about Ramdame, his legendary backgound story and his “French Empire” for the New York Times.  Contrast it with an example of how it reads when a Luxury magazine reports on the ‘historic French brand’ or a fashion blogger’s perspective – Blogger Irene says she loves the ‘Pommade Virginale’ and the brushes engraved with your name…

⁴ Another anecdote: Buly’s ‘head wrapper’ was trained by the only family that practices origata—the complex craft paper-folding previously reserved for the imperial Japanese court – of course.

For more about that origata wrapping technique, ‘A day in the Life of Ramdame Touhami‘ – and the myth that Touhami’s life itself has become by now – in this article in Kinfolk.

A bit of historic research into Jean-Vinvent Bully, the link to Balzac’s hero (or not) and the re-interpretation by the Touhami’s (- its in French).

Remember, you can subscribe to our podcasts on iTunes, Android, Stitcher, etc. as well as to our blog (top right) to receive new post notifications. 

Ramdane Touhami – portrait by Lawrence Mynott

Can the principles of Ueber-Branding be applied to B2B brands, to elevate them in the minds of professional buyers and make them ‘priceless’ … or at least less dependent on price?  That’s a question we get asked quite a bit.  The short answer is “Absolutely, Yes!”  …   But, we know, people are hungry for examples that illustrate the point, that talk about an industry “that is not sexy or high tech” and about “small companies with limited budgets.”   That’s because many marketers feel that they are working in a commodity category and/or products that can not be differentiated due to lack of funds. We, however, have not encountered a category or company, yet, that would not be able to execute- and benefit from Ueber-Branding*.

How about a medium-sized paper- and envelope manufacturer  (2017 revenue est. $230 mio) that supplies people who design and print mailers, brochures, catalogs and the like.  Does that sound B2B, small, ‘commoditized’ enough?**  Some might even argue it sounds like a category doomed to die in a digital world.

Well – in this interview we talk with Christopher Harrold about how Mohawk Fine Paper is not only surviving but thriving, by “finding meaning in the making of paper”*** and passing it on through the products their business clients print on or wrap in.  Christopher is the Creative Director at Mohawk and tells us that craft-fully made paper can make you “feel the message before you read it.” – And that is an experience that is increasingly valuable in our sensation-deprived. One shouldn’t be surprised, then, that digital platforms and tech companies are a fast growing customer segment and that clients are willing to pay a significant premium for paper well crafted.

But as you will hear, getting there required a deep believe that paper making is a craft worth preserving – since 1931 – as well as investing time and effort into Ueber-Branding, including deeply understanding the needs of your most devoted users (your ‘Ueber-Target’), educating, enabling and seducing them (versus selling to them) and having patience in developing trust-based relationships, products and services for the long run. We also talk about potential sources of brand strength that are still largely untapped, like a mythical place of provenance and about the logic and fit of a very recent extension into the business-to-consumer space.

Listen (CLICK PLAY BUTTON) and then read on below

https://ueberbrands.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/mohawk-paper-with-christopher-harrold-v3.mp3

FURTHER THOUGHTS AND READING:

*For insights into what drives the success of modern premium brands read our book “Rethinking Prestige Branding – Secrets of the Ueberbrands” and other case-studies on this blog.

If you want us to help you elevate your own brand, then write to us at [email protected].

**If you want more paper industry ‘Ueber-Brand’ examples, then listen to our interview with the CEO of Renova, a premium (any quirky) toilet paper maker from Portugal or the episode with the co-founder of Moleskine – those little black notebooks with a lot of (hi-)story.  If you are more into the service kind-of-boring, read our case study on Vanguard Investments.

*** Quote from the Mohawk ‘Declaration of Craft’ video – see links below

Here is a link to the Mowhawk website note how they seek to bring the rich experience of paper to live on a digital screen…

See how the Mohawk Fine Paper brochure is a design project in itself. This one was featured in Communication Arts.

Here is our Ueber-Youtube Channel selection of Mohawk films celebrating their craft, ‘meaning in making‘ as well as their marketing tie-ins with clients like moo.com.

You can subscribe to our podcasts on iTunes, Android, Stitcher, TuneIn, etc. or on our blog to receive new post notifications. 

Can Ueber-Branding be applied to any industry and brand? How about people as Ueber-Brands?  How do Ueber-Brands elevate themselves above the rest? How do they attract people? – Not only as buyers but as employees? … These are just some of the questions Patrick Brigger asked me in a recent interview for his blog getAbstract ‘life‘ … that tag meaning that I got to answer some personal questions, as well, which I will mostly spare you from listening to in this shortened edit (link to full interview below).

GetAbstract was founded in 1999 by Patrick and two friends.  It is all about evaluating ideas and concepts and ‘compressing knowledge’ so you can assimilate it faster.  They started with business books – and have the largest collection of rated summaries by now (some 15k and counting) – but have expanded into business information-, organizational effectiveness-, self-help- and other areas since.

Of course, our book ‘Rethinking Prestige Branding – Secrets of the Ueber-Brands’ can not be missing from their library – in fact, we are quite proud that it out-ranks some of the Aaker, Godin, Kotler or Kapferer ‘bibles’ in their assessment.  Wolf and I were interviewed last year for their newsletter and now they came back after me for this podcast episode on Ueber-Brands, their world, our world, … my world. – Enjoy

Listen (CLICK PLAY BUTTON) and then read on below

https://ueberbrands.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/ueberbrands-jp-kuehlwein-by-getabstract-episode-16.mp3

FURTHER THOUGHTS AND READING:

For even deeper insights into what drives the success of Ueber-Brands read our book “Rethinking Prestige Branding – Secrets of the Ueberbrands” and some of the many case-studies on this blog or listen to our podcast.

If you want us to help you elevate your own brand, then write to us at [email protected].

Here are the links to the getAbstract website, the original podcast interview on getAbstract life (2018) and the interview Wolf and I gave for their newsletter (2017).

You can subscribe to our podcasts on iTunes, Android, Stitcher, TuneIn, etc. or on our blog to receive new post notifications. 

‘Brandless’ is the only ‘brand’ you can buy at the eponymous e-grocer that carries the same name.  As co-founder Tina Sharkey explains, young ‘Brandless’ is not about the absence of identity or meaning and being a brand in that sense. Rather, it is about changing the way in which a brand connects with constituents and is distributed. Which, in her words, is no less than a ‘revolution’ in which Brandless seeks to ‘abolish the brand tax’ (see chart below) used by ‘regular brands’ to make up stories (aka advertising) and generate profits for everyone across the media employed and the long supply chain – retailers, in particular.

Instead, the vision of a ‘Brandless life’ is one where you ‘shop by values’ (ie. ‘certified organic’) on a website, where labels check-off (what are judged) key product attributes on the front (pics below), where less is more (ie. GMO free, gluten free, no added sugar, no pictures/logos/slogans, etc.), where you swap recipes with the ‘Brandless community’ and dialogue with the company on what they should add to the lineup.

from the brandless.com website

And every item costs a mere $3, ships for free and an order triggers two meals being donated to NGO Feeding America – provided you signed-up to ‘B.More’  for $39/year.  –  ‘Hurray!’ (to quote the site).

The above are just some of the elements Tina talks about – enthusiastically – in our interview, as she illustrates how Brandless executes against a higher mission of ‘democratizing goodness’ with the help of a motivated team and brilliant agency.  — You can imagine that we were intrigued.

Listen (CLICK PLAY BUTTON) and then read on below

https://ueberbrands.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/ueberbrands-brandless-tina-sharkey-ep17.mp3

Is Brandless a blueprint for the ‘new way we live and shop … build communities … and thus build brands,’ as Tina says?  Or is it more simply a savvy shot by two digital serial entrepreneurs at disrupting ‘Big CPG and Retail’ – or at least scare it enough to buy them out?  The other co-founder, Ido Leffler, wrote a book in 2013 entitled “Get Big Fast and Do More Good’ to summarize his experience in ‘accelerated brand building’ up to that date.  Him and Tina have certainly succeeded to catch attention fast if over 165k Facebook followers (as of Jan 2018) six months into their new venture are a solid indicator.

But is the @BrandlessLife here to stay?   Maybe, the best way to judge might indeed be to take Tina up on her offer and give it a try.  Let us know when you do and what you think.

FURTHER THOUGHTS AND READING:

For insights into what drives the success of modern brands – we call those that succeed to elevate themselves and can charge a premium Ueber-Brands – read our book “Rethinking Prestige Branding – Secrets of the Ueberbrands” and other case-studies on this blog.

If you want us to help you elevate your own brand, then write to us at [email protected].

Here is a link to the Brandless website and related FAQs on B.More (including that ‘Hurray!’ answer).

Here is another interview with Tina about how “Hot new e-commerce start-up Brandless is totally obsessed with its own brand” by Alison Grisworld at Quartz magazine.  We learn that the “brand bills itself as the Procter & Gamble of millennials” wanting “people to live more, brand less… and stop the false narratives sold by Madison Avenue”.  Out of context quotes or an over-the-top portrayal?  Listen to our interview with Tina and or study the brand talking ‘About Us‘ and you will hear/read that Brandless sees itself a “group of thinkers, eaters, doers and lovers of life with big dreams about changing the world.”

Or watch both founders on CBS This Morning:

You can subscribe to our podcasts on iTunes, Android, Stitcher, TuneIn, etc. or on our blog to receive new post notifications. 

Victor and his wife Sarah are in love with making jeans the old, slow way in their Raleigh Denim Workshop. They sewed them themselves and proudly signed every pair when they started out in 2007.  But in the meantime, they employ some two dozen people and ‘getting to use the signing Shapie’ has become a rite of passage, of sorts, to becoming one of them – a true ‘jeans-smith’.  And that’s just one of the intriguing stories and quirky details Victor shares in our interview (click the play button below).  You can hear the love in his voice for his partner Sarah, for vintage sewing machines and for the ‘good old’ time when making things required some physical skill, happened in a workshop somewhere close and yielded objects with ‘soul’ – a quality beyond what can easily be described, seen or felt.

A signed pair.

A steadily increasing number of customers and retailers seem to share their love for ‘slow fashion’ and feel that it is special.  So special that some make it a point to stop over at their store and workshop in Raleigh, North Carolina or make a special ‘pilgrimage’ to pick up a few pairs which go for around $200-400 a piece.  The industry has also taken note:  Sarah and Victor were into the coveted CFDA, the Council of Fashion Designers of America.

In the interview, you will also hear Victor tell us …

… and how they look at growth and the future – among other things.  What do you think? Is the RDM ‘Ueber-Brand’ material?

Take a listen (CLICK THE PLAY BUTTON) and a look (more pictures and resources below) and let us know you think (like, comment, ask questions).

https://ueberbrands.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/ueberbrands-raleigh-demin-victor-lytvinenko-ep-14.mp3

Raleigh Denim Workshop, owner, jean and shop (photos by Ernesto Sue Photography)

FURTHER THOUGHTS AND READING:

For more insights what drives the success of modern Prestige brands – Ueber-Brands as we call the best of them – read our book “Rethinking Prestige Branding – Secrets of the Ueberbrands” and other case-studies on this blog.   And if you want us to help you elevate your own brand, then write to us at [email protected].

Here is a link to the Raleigh Denim Workshop website and store.  And here some Yelp reviews of the brand and store – passionate … but not always.

Here is a video that tells the RDW story and shows Victor’s love for these old machines…

You can subscribe to our podcasts on iTunes, Android, Stitcher, TuneIn, etc. or on our blog to receive new post notifications. 

Victor, Sarah and pattern making mentor Chris Ellsberg

Uwe Ellinghaus is CMO of Cadillac and on a mission to revive this icon of American luxury. But rather than starting with automobiles, his vision of Cadillac is one of “an experience that young people associate with modern luxury, … of a brand that happens to also make cars.’ That sounds like a page from our ‘Ueber-Brands’ research, so we dig deeper in our interview (click play button below).

Ellinghaus tells us that he does not count on rekindling the flame of lapsed Boomer drivers or seek to change the acerbic opinions of skeptical Gen Y-ers.  His focus is on people who are young enough not to have witnessed the clunky Cadillac of the late 70ies through the 90ies but are curious to (re-)discover the brand through a cultural lens, from pop-art and photography to Hollywood movies and Motown music.  And that includes the Chinese many of whom revere American icons and make them part of their modern lifestyle.  What they have in common is “a perception that all their neighbors – and their dad – drives a BMW”, he says.

But the CMO does not want Cadillac to be “a nostalgic piece of Americana”, either.  ‘Dare Greatly’ is the internal rallying cry and campaign slogan.  TV ads first aired during the Oscar awards in 2015 link the brand to personalities who have dared to dream and did greatly from Teddy Roosevelt to Jason Wu (links below). And, of course, there are the cars, themselves.  One could describe them as the luxury version of the American muscle car (in electric, if desired) – with the Escalade at the over-sized, most daring- (some would say ‘bullying’?) end of the spectrum.  An icon of power in its own right and and across generations, Ellinghaus says.

Yet, the ‘daring’ seems not to always come easily or without a need for some moderation: Yes, the gallery at Cadillac House in Soho is intended to be an autonomous art space and the Cadillac ad shown during the Oscars urges America to overcome a ‘Nation Divided’. Yet the CMO emphasizes that the brand does ‘not want to take sides’ or ‘polarize’ with its messages or choices…  We say that Ueber-Brands need to ‘dare beyond compare’ and wonder if Cadillac is daring enough to be noted and respected for a unique view on luxury or cars.

In the interview, we also talk about…

Take a listen (CLICK THE PLAY BUTTON) and a look (more pictures and resources below) and let us know your take on these brand building efforts.

https://ueberbrands.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/ueberbrands-episode-15-cadillac-with-uwe-ellinghaus-v5.mp3

Cadillac as a Lifestyle: Joe Coffee, cars, casual work space and … Art

FURTHER READING:

For more insights what drives the success of modern Prestige brands – Ueber-Brands as we call them – read our book “Rethinking Prestige Branding – Secrets of the Ueberbrands” and other case-studies on this blog.

Here is a link to the Cadillac website and the ‘Dare Greatly’ site. This is the film which uses a speech (‘Man in The Arena’) by Teddy Roosevelt where he asks Americans to ‘Dare Greatly’. The film aired during the 2015 Oscars and kicked off the campaign.   Here are some of the later executions with Steve Wozniak and Jason Wu.

This is the ‘Nation Divided’ film that aired during the Oscars and a critical review by James B Stewart at the New York times of it and socio-political messages by other brands.

For other examples of a car brands that seek to dare, read our MINI case study and our take on Tesla.

You can subscribe to our podcasts on iTunes, Android , Stitcher or on our blog to receive new post notifications. 

Cadillac as a Lifestyle: Joe Coffee, cars, casual work space and … Art

Yes, Burt really existed. The wild-bearded man on the brand’s logo was a documentary photographer turned beekeeper after moving from Manhattan to Maine. He left behind the trappings of a rather privileged upbringing to live in a converted turkey coop in the backwoods (where he also died in 2015).  But it is unlikely that you or I would ever have heard about Burt and his bees and it is certain we would not be able to moisturize your lips with one of the iconic balms that bear their name, if it were not for a woman: Roxanne Quimby. It turns out that Burt played the role of mentor and muse, of an enigmatic, spiritual Ueber-Father of the brand, while Roxanne was the ingenious product developer and business builder who really made ‘Burt’s Bees happen’ as Jim Geikie tells us.

And Jim should know.  He is the General Manager of the business today and a Vice President at Clorox, the parent company which bought the business in 2007 for a whopping $925 million in cash.  Burt had been bought out by previously by Roxanne for just $130,000 but apparently never complained  … which provides just one of the many ingredients to this mythical story that is the man, the couple, the bees, the product… But before we get into the myth, Jim lays out Burt’s Bees guiding mission.  For, while Burt’s Bees is no Luxury brand, its nature and health-centric mission and befitting myth have allowed the brand to carve out a premium position within the mass personal care and beauty segment. Jim and I will also talk about:

CLICK THE PLAY BUTTON below to hear the interview. Scroll down for further reading and some more pictures I took before and after the interview at at Burt’s Bees in Durham, NC.

https://ueberbrands.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/ueberbrands-episode-14-jim-geike-at-burts-bees-v3.mp3You can subscribe to our podcasts on iTunes, Android , Stitcher or to our blog for new post notifications by clicking the button in the sidebar –>

FURTHER READING:

For more insights what drives the success of Ueber-Brands like Burt’s Bees, read our book “Rethinking Prestige Branding – Secrets of the Ueberbrands” and other case-studies on this blog.

Here is a link to the Burt’s Bees website, to the film about Burt that Jim mentioned to a wiki about Burt and about Roxanne Quimby.  And a small report on Burt’s death in the Jewish daily Haaretz reflecting how he was being remembered.

Below is a document on Burt’s Bees culture that Jim shared and which reflects some of the values he talked about and the growth model Burt’s Bees’ organization  follows (click to view/download the full document)

Below are the ‘Memorial Hive’ on the outside facade of the headquarter and Burt’s hut that was being re-build in front of the building while I visited.

One can’t miss the detailed bees painted across the brick facade. They were painted by artist Matthew Willey with the help of Burt’s Bees employees. Willey has pledged to paint 50,000 bees (the number of bees in a healthy hive) to help awareness for Colony Collapse Disorder (we talk about it briefly in the interview) and raise funds to help find a cure for this phenomenon that threatens to wipe out native bees across North America (article in the local newspaper).

David Batstone is not one to be easily typecast.  As you learn more about David you might get a bit perplexed not only by the uncounted, very public projects in which he plays a leading role or the multitude of positions he holds but by their often different, seemingly opposing character: theology scholar, journalists, venture capitalist, ethics professor, businessman, human rights activist…

Among many other things, David is Founder and President of ‘Not For Sale‘ a non-profit organization and campaign that seeks to eliminate factors which facilitate modern slavery around the world. He also is Co-Founder and Senior Managing Partner at ‘Just Business,’ a San Francisco a much for profit venture capital firm and very much personally invested in its holdings such as REBBL a line of “super-herb health drinks that grows faster than any other in health food stores,” he says.  A declared liberation theologian, David teaches ethics at the Jesuit Catholic University of San Francisco, writes books and still somehow finds time to come up with- and start-up new businesses on his own such as Z-Shoes a line of ‘biodegradable shoes’ that are sourced from the Peruvian Amazon. Actually, his son is a co-creator and the first round of investing went through kickstarter …

How might this all fit together?  David says he is leveraging his disciplined venture capitalist approach to create a vertically integrated ‘group for good’… ‘where people in developed markets can buy according to their values’ and where socially disadvantaged people in remote areas like the Amazon are provided with the funds or tools needed to provide their local goods and talent rather than be driven into poverty and slavery.

Ingenious? Too Good to be True?  Meaningful Marketing or Marketing Ploy?

Listen to the interview with David (click button) and let us know what you think (in the comment section below)!

https://ueberbrands.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/ueberbrands-episode-13-david-batstone-at-notforsale.mp3You can subscribe to our podcasts on iTunes, Android , Stitcher or to our blog for new post notifications by clicking the button in the sidebar –>

FURTHER READING:

To read more about how other brands seek to create meaning beyond the material check out other case studies on our blog, podcast and read our book “Rethinking Prestige Branding – Secrets of the Ueberbrands”.

REBBL through the eyes of a ‘disciple‘ and a blogger… with the brand helping as a ‘curator’, as the disclaimer states.  Not everyone is a fan. Read this rather functional review and the emotional comment below it.  I am actually surprised that there are not more critical voices questioning the mixing of social activism and hard core capitalism ‘Not For Sale’ and ‘Just Business’ are undertaking. ‘Artisanal foods’ are increasingly under critical review, as we discussed before.  A question of time?

Here is a link to the Z-Shoe Kickstarter page, where you can see the project’s financing at work.  And here a Facebook video of David and his son Zak talking about how they founded Z-Shoes, their latest venture.

David is a declared liberation theologian.  We do not talk about that aspect in our interview.  But if you read what liberation theology is all about (~ a missionary drive to liberate the oppressed), then that also starts to make sense.

And yes… there is also a NotForSale Ale