Baby Got Back – Sir Mix-A-Lot Rocks Benaroya Hall

I recently got an email from GeekWire in which their managing editor, Taylor Soper, shared a hilarious video showing how the Seattle Symphony teamed up a few years back with Seattle’s own legendary rapper Sir Mix-A-Lot.  As part of their critically acclaimed Sonic Evolution project, the Symphony commissioned composer Gabriel Prokofiev to write a new composition inspired by Sir Mix-A-Lot, and orchestrated two of the rapper’s most famous hits, including “Baby Got Back.”

I’m sharing the video of their performance because it’s so full of joy.  And we can all use a little levity in our lives right now.  But I also want to make a point about how we as marketers can approach brand collaborations in a more innovative and powerful way.

The Symphony’s stated goal for the Sonic Evolution project is, in their words,

“To create a bridge between the Symphony and Seattle’s reputation as a launchpad for some of the most creative musicians on the popular music scene.”

This project is central to their strategy of bringing in new, younger audiences.

Compare the Symphony’s approach with a more classical (ahem) approach to brand collaborations.

U Can’t Touch This – PepsiCo’s Brand Partnership With Rapper M.C. Hammer

PepsiCo has always been an expert at brand collaborations.  When I was at Pepsi Cola International in the 90’s, Pepsi launched a hugely successful music sponsorship with M.C. Hammer.  It featured the rapper singing his mega-hit “U Can’t Touch This” in a new execution of their Pepsi: The Choice of a New Generation advertising campaign.

Pepsi Sponsors M.C. Hammer

PepsiCo brought M.C. Hammer back this year to introduce Cheetos Popcorn during Super Bowl 2020, reprising his signature hit.  Because everyone knows that if you eat Cheetos U Can’t  …

M.C. Hammer reprises his hit “U Can’t Touch This” for Cheetos Popcorn

Which Brand Collaboration Approach is Right for You?

Both collaborations involved a well established brand joining forces with a super-hot rap star to demonstrate relevance to a new, younger generation.  Both approaches were highly successful.  But they differ in how innovative the collaborations were.

At PepsiCo we used what we called “borrowed equity” to associate brand Pepsi with the most popular artists in the music scene, to appeal to younger soft drink consumers.  This strategy has served the brand well over the years. But everyone understands these are commercial tie-ins for money.

IMO, the Seattle Symphony achieved something more profound. They could have just presented rap music artists “in concert with … “ and left it at that.  But their relationship with Sir Mix-A-Lot was an authentic collaboration.  Both parties participated in creating something genuinely new, leaving both parties changed, and energizing their audience. That’s alchemy.

So when you are considering a brand collaboration, ask yourself, how can you go for alchemy?

Of course there are other ways to collaborate!  If you want to read about collaborating with customers, here you go …

Their top customization trends for June 2018 lists 25 of the most popular products now being customized – everything from haircare systems targeting your personal hair goals to “alphabet” eyewear you can use to communicate messages from the comfort of your (raised?) eyebrows.  One of my favorites:  Woolly, out of Portland, got Kickstarter funding to build an interface that enables people to customize their wallets by choosing leather colors, stitching, pattern and inscription.  284 backers pledged $25,116 to help bring this project to life.

Source:  Woolly

Why is customization so popular?

Customization taps into deeper Trend Hunter–identified mega trends of personalization, co-creation, and curation.

Customization is also important because Millennials see customization as a form of luxury.  According to a MindSwarm study, Millennials perceive luxury differently than previous generations.  They recognize “True luxury” – think ultra-expensive Rolex watches – still exists but is not yet attainable.  But they also demand “My luxury,” where they can curate everyday experiences and products to make them their own.

So if Millennials are important to your business, customization could be an innovation opportunity.

Customization as an innovation opportunity

A client of mine, Knack, is disrupting the gift industry by enabling customers to create custom gift sets for just about any occasion:  employee appreciation programs, corporate events, thanking clients for their business, birthdays, wedding party gifts, college care packages, housiversaries (really, this is starting to become a thing in real estate) and even bad breakups.

When Knack looked at the market, it seemed saturated with gift baskets, florists, and “slap your corporate logo on this coffee mug” companies.  But nothing struck them as particularly innovative or fresh.  They researched giving from a number of different angles and learned, among other things, that when it comes to gifts, employees and customers really don’t want company swag, and that a lot of people care about where exactly their gifts come from.  Knack developed an ecommerce site that enables gift givers to custom tailor gifts by occasion, recipient, interest / product category, and ethos (local, handmade, sustainable, women entrepreneurs, < 10 employees).

They have been in business since 2014 and are getting great traction.

One of the most exciting parts about scaling a business is there are a lot of strategic choices to make.  That leads to a number of questions that Knack continues to revisit.

7 questions to ask when inviting your customers to design their own products:

• Are Millennials important to your business, either as direct purchasers or influencers? If so, how satisfied are they with existing solutions in your industry?
• What target segments are most important to prioritize, when it comes to customization?
• Who in your industry – or adjacent to your industry – is offering customization? What lessons can you learn from them?
• What dimensions should you customize on? Consider product features, how made, where made, and by whom.  What else?
• How much choice should you offer? Where’s the sweet spot?
• Will customers need help making a selection? What customer service is required?
• What technology is needed to make the user experience seamless and enjoyable?

I think regardless of industry, customization will continue to be an enduring trend.  I would love to hear about your experiences and share best practices.

Let me know!

This post was originally published by the American Marketing Executive Circle.

Medify basically collects these databases in one place and allows people to search on the exact criteria they are looking for.

Source: Medify

Streat decided to go after the consumer market as a B2C play – the need was clearly there for patients and their caregivers. At that point the question became which medical conditions to focus on – such as Alzheimer’s, asthma, autism, breast cancer, kidney disease, leukemia and lymphoma – so they could build out their databases accordingly. Their VC was strongly encouraging them to focus on one of these segments as an initial target audience.

Startups have a particularly urgent need to get the target right for their innovation, because it affects how they build out their product or service, and they have to show results before they run out of money.

But sometimes its hard to evaluate which target is the most viable. There are often many to choose from.

A framework for thinking about targets

Here is a framework I developed with my various clients over the years to help startups assess the attractiveness of possible targets.

The high level criteria required for a viable target are straightforward:

The real power in the framework is that it allows you to build out each of these four buckets with further qualifying criteria to suit your business situation, as in this example.

When you find you have two or more equally viable targets, consider what the tie-breaker criteria should be. For startups, it’s often how quickly you can get to market. If you are concerned about showing traction to your investors, a medium-sized target that is willing to buy now is more attractive than a large target that requires a lengthy sales process.

In Medify’s case, once we spoke with the physicians, hospitals, insurers, drug manufacturers and advocacy groups who made up the health care ecosystem, and aligned our findings against this framework, it became clear which conditions – and therefore which target segment – had the most potential for their innovation.  Once they landed on this, they could solidify their value proposition and build out their product offering.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

This post was originally published by the American Marketing Executive Circle.

How artificial hands became a source of pride and 3D technology became a source for social change

I had the opportunity to meet Eric Dijkhuis when he was visiting Seattle as part of the Young Leaders of the Americas Initiative, sponsored by the U.S. Department of State. He shared his story of how he and Fernando Vallese created a non-profit to create affordable prosthetics for children and teens, overcoming technological and financial obstacles that would be daunting to any entrepreneur.

I didn’t have anything to take notes on at the time, so I am sharing this account from enablingthefuture.org:

In early 2014, medical student Eric Dijkhuis and electronic engineer Fernando Vallese, both from Paraguay, found themselves on the enablingthefuture.org website and explored the e-NABLE Community Google+ group where approximately 200 volunteers (now over 6500!) had started gathering and planning ways in which they were going to “change the world” with 3D printed hands. The pair immediately volunteered to be translators and volunteers for the community with the aim to extend e-NABLE’s work into their home country and eventually their non-profit, Po Paraguay, was born.

As it turns out, in Paraguay fewer than 1% of people that need a prosthetic can actually get one.

Dijkhuis and Vallese researched the problem and discovered three major barriers:

• Cost – prosthetic hands typically cost upwards of $10,000 and few could afford them
• Distance – most of the population lives far from locations where prosthetics are typically measured and fitted, and few could afford the time and cost to get there
• Time – the entire process to be fitted for a prosthetic is a lengthy one

Cost was the biggest barrier, so Po Paraguay focused on solving this first. They used 3D printing technology to produce high quality customized prosthetics, called Po’s.

This brought the cost down to about $120 for those who can afford to pay. For those who cannot, Po Paraguay also gives Po’s out for free, through donor support and crowdfunding from their campaign on Indiegogo’s Generosity site.

To solve the distance and time problem Po Paraguay eventually wants to locate prosthesis production closer to where people live, once consistent quality can be assured.

I thought it was pretty amazing that Dijkhuis and Vallese could get around the cost problem, particularly in country where there are few 3D printers, and a fairly undeveloped startup community for that matter.

But the most inspiring aspect of this story, for me, revolves around product design. Instead of assuming children and teens would want to feel “less disabled”, and to fit in with their peers, the founders listened to potential Po recipients and learned that they actually felt empowered by their new hands, and wanted them to stand out. So instead of designing Po’s to look “natural”, the Po’s became pink princess hands, glow-in-the-dark hands, even Iron Man hands.

With 3D printing, a non-profit business model, and some creativity, virtually anyone who needs a prosthetic will someday be able to get one – and love the result.

3 inspiring innovation lessons from Po Paraguay:

• Po Paraguay identified and tackled the barriers of prosthetic cost, distance, and time, to address the whole problem from the point of view of prosthetic recipients and their families. They approached the question with their heads and their hearts.

• They combined crowdsourcing, an emerging technology and a non-profit business model to overcome their technological and financial challenges.

• They invited recipients to use their fertile imaginations to design their own hands.

Dijkhuis told me their Po’s are built out of the same material used to produce Legos, which I find strangely fitting.

What innovations have inspired you lately? Feel free to comment and share with any organization looking to improve their innovation capabilities.

This post was originally published by the Marketing Executive Network Group.

A full 2 liter bottle of boiling hot water, thoughtfully wrapped in several layers of paper towels. I used it to make my drink, and the rest – as you can see – made a perfectly fine hot water bottle. That’s improvisation, and great customer service, from an empowered Alaska Air employee.  Gotta love that.

Just came back from the Johnson Advisory Council meeting at Cornell, where we discussed the NYC Tech Campus, recently announced by Mayor Bloomberg, and how Johnson will contribute to it. This will be transformational for the business school and for NYC! See below for more.

Cornell wins NYC Tech Campus bid

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg named Cornell and Technion the winners of his highly publicized competition to create what he called a “game-changing” applied sciences and technology campus, December 19, 2011 at a press conference at Weill Cornell Medical College.

http://www.cornell.edu/nyc/