Strategy Portfolio 4.0

lem b o r p a e v l o s t o “You cann pe y t e m a s e h t h t i w to d e s u s a w t a h t g of thinkin create it.”

Albert Einstein

Hi there.

I’m bryan. I wanted to be a rock star, but that just didn’t happen. I went back to school for psychology because people fascinate me, but after working in an ER for two years I discovered that I didn’t want to be a doctor. To me, the logical next step was advertising and marketing. I mean what business relies more on understanding people without having to give them pills?

When I was finishing college I worked at a tiny agency that represented some local banks and hospitals but I wanted to do something creative, something “bigger.”

Unfortunately, “bigger” wasn’t hiring people with no experience so I looked into other options. I could keep waiting tables and mowing lawns to make ends meet while I wrote PR for a local bank, or I could go to graduate school.

Hello Brandcenter.

Two years later I am a blossoming “Creative Strategist”and I still want to do something big. I want to solve problems for companies using consumer driven insights that provide branding, productenhancing, developmental, and distribution solutions and I’m hoping that “bigger” is finally hiring.

Hello you.

me

Contents: -

a new model building a brand with legos finding the right target intermission new product development insights to prototypes Contact Info

Boy scouts of america Problem: BSA recruitment numbers are declining rapidly and the brand is viewed as “old hat” and “irrelevant” Objectives: Reposition BSA as a relevant brand and educate the public to its benefits, as well as increase enrollment numbers by 4% this year Target: Parents of both Second and Third graders Method: Conduct secondary research into BSA recruitment models and advertising methods. Conduct one on one interviews with parents of scouts and non-scouts as well as kids involved with scouts and kids that weren’t, to understand why enrollment is declining.

a broken model First we took a look into why BSA’s recruitment numbers are down. What we found was their previous method of sending scout leaders into schools once a semester to present and hand out flyers to take home was no longer allowed because other groups soliciting children wanted the same option.

budget

We looked into how BSA was spending their 28k budget per region, and found that most of the money was going to printing flyers for the children to bring home. Since this was no longer an option, it freed up the cash for other recruitment methods

finding insight In focus groups we discovered that the brand was no longer viewed as relevant.

The known benefits of scouting had been lost on the general public.

But when asked what benefits are important in an extra curricular activity, parents mentioned many of the attributes of scouting such as “teamwork,” “leadership,” and “responsibility”

So where were parents sending their kids to obtain these values

?

We found the target averages 4+ extra curricular activities each week making time one of our largest competitors

80

Why all the activities? Parents wanted their children to socialize, build their resume for college, and also explore different things that they might enjoy, all benefits of scouting.

60 40

Sports took up the highest percentage of the targets time, so we analyzed them a bit further

20 0 70.0 52.5 35.0 17.5 0

sports

clubs

education

lessons

Soccer topped the charts with over 67% of the target being involved with it for at least ten weeks out of the year, and many of those surveyed played twice that much each year

baseball

soccer

football basketball

We now know that parents choose these sports based on the benefits they represent, and that they coincide with the BSA brand, but turning the scouts completely into a sporting event wasn’t going to maintain all that scouting had to offer.

That’s when it hit us.

Strategy: Align scouting with youth soccer leagues by sponsoring youth teams.

+

=

Benefits: - scouting can “piggy-back” off of soccer’s relevant and popular brand perception - as sponsors, BSA are entitled to speak with the team and parents about the benefits of scouting and recruitment - each team only costs $1100 to sponsor each season meaning each region (made up of about seven counties) could sponsor 25 teams - each team travels, playing all the non-sponsored teams giving the sponsorship a HUGE reach!

Youth soccer organizations loved the idea! They are constantly looking for sponsors that represent the type of brand that they are, and the BSA was a “Sure Fit” BSA also thought the idea was a hit, and are working nationally to get a program started

LEGO “Build your Imagination” Branding Brief The Problem: Children are growing up before their time. Kids everywhere are trying to mirror their older siblings by asking for cell phones, Ipods, and laptops instead of toys for their age and mom is giving in because “learning to use a computer” might have benefits, but “playing with blocks” might not.

(attached to the back of the brief)

what you see

Objectives: • Remind mom of all the benefits of playing with blocks • Position the LEGO brand as the ‘building block” of child creativity.

Target: Primary-

Parents with children ages 2-8 (purchasing agents)

SecondaryChildren ages 2-8

What we know about them: The Parents: Want their children to have a “childhood” and would rather their child’s imagination be sparked by creativity than be force-fed ideas via the digital world, but seem to have forgotten some of the original outlets and values of creation.

what they see

The Children: Still have the ability to see things in a unique fashion. At this age everything from riding the bus to walking through the woods is an adventure filled with imagination and creativity. Everything seems like more than it really is.

Most important message: LEGO preserves the joy of childhood by being an outlet for creativity.

Brand Tone: The company name, LEGO, was coined by founder Ole Kirk Christiansen from the Danish phrase leg godt, which means “play well” and the brand has stayed true to its name for nearly 60 years. Advertisements should be “Shreklike”. . fun and easy to understand, but with a literal sensibility that parents can respect and enjoy.

build your imagination

finding the right target Client:

New Balance

Problem: NB faces low brand equity and market share in the 16-34 demographic against the dominate “bigger, faster, stronger” position of Nike.

Objectives: Find a new place for NB to live in the minds of the target that differentiates it from the Nike and other “me too” brands that will increase NB’s market share Method: Conduct 1 on 1 ethnographic interviews that take a deep dive into the targets world of running, motivations for choosing a brand, and how they view themselves as athletes.

Findings: During interviews runners naturally divided into running groups (fair weather, rain or shine, trainers, and marathon men) that could be depicted by three prominent variables.

- Was image or function more important?

- Did they consider themselves a runner?

- How many miles a week did they run?

*This project was conducted freelance by a team of students to aid Cramer-Krasselt in their NB pitch

finding what nike missed

(fair-weather runners)

“I’m an athlete” - runs less than 8 miles weekly - image is much more important than function

We decided it was best not to target the fair weather runners, because their focus was only in an area where we couldn’t compete

(rain or shine runners) “I’m not an athlete” - runs more than 24 miles weekly - function is slightly more important than image

(the trainers) “I’m not an athlete” - runs more than 30 miles weekly - function is much more important than image

We decided to target the under-served market that lie hidden in the middle of the target. These two groups run regularly to stay in shape, to support another sport, or simply to relax, but don’t necessarily consider themselves “athletes.” Their primary concern is function but they haven’t established their long-lasting brand relationships leading them to be over looked by Nike, and making them a perfect match for the NB Brand

(marathon men)

“I’m an athlete” - runs more than 35 miles weekly - function is the only thing that matters

We decided it was best not to target the marathon men, because they had already established long lasting brand relationships

the result

Insight: There is an under served segment within the target that isn’t interested in the “bigger, faster, stronger” hype, and that hasn’t yet established a long-term relationship with any brand.

Strategy: Target the under-served market that the competition is ignoring, the devoted everyday athlete that isn’t in it for fashion or super-bowls. This creates an untouched brand position that NB can occupy and a tone that represents consumer understanding. “you say you’re not an athlete, we beg to differ.”

“all of my heros are either dead or cartoons”

Product development

Client: TGI Friday’s Problem: Friday’s is facing slow growth in a saturated market Objectives: Increase profitability and market share by sharpening Friday’s position against it’s competition Hypothesis: There is a celebration at the heart of every Friday. This is something no other restaurant in the category can own and is something that Friday’s can leverage.

Methods: Primary qualitative research (1-on-1 interviews and surveys)

Party Feel

Friendliness

Drink Selection

5.00

TO TEST our hypothesis we ranked Friday’s against it’s competition in the area’s of “Party Atmosphere, Friendliness, and Cocktail Selection” just the sort of things that you would expect to find at a good party.

3.75

2.50

As you can see from our graph to the left, Friday’s has made itself synonymous with the idea of a “celebration.”

1.25

0 Appleb.

Olive G.

Red L.

33% 67% 3 or more

Less than 3

Ruby T.

TGIF

Chili’s

THEN, we took a look into how often our customers visited a restaurant in the category each month and found that it was rather frequent

Out Back

31% 69%

Carry-out

Don’t

THEN, we looked into our secondary competition, the “carry-out” segment, and found that almost 70% of our customer base was taking food directly home from the restaurant at least once a month

so what?

We now understood where Friday’s position was in the category, but how could we reinforce this position and use it to create more revenue?

music

alcohol

food

We decided to take a closer look at what made a good celebration, not surprisingly music, alcohol, and food topped the list.

But these are things that Friday’s already ranked highly on.

So we took another look at food at a celebration since it is our primary product.

how food is prepared at parties Made at Home

Catared

Take-out

2004

0

12.5

25.0

37.5

50.0

Upon close examination we found that over 50% of food at parties is catered in some form, and we could draw a line between this and our take-out numbers. The solution became clear.

Friday’s already owned the idea of celebration, and a majority of our customers were bringing home a piece of the party regularly. . .

WHY NOT BRING THE PARTY TO THEM?

Introducing Friday’s Celebration Station

Features: -

“Making every day a celebration”

Friday’s Cocktails Full Menu (prepped in advance) A staff member Music Ipod Karaoke

Available for: - Private Parties - Birthday Parties - Office Events

from insight to prototype building the “Google Guide”

Last summer I interned in Chicago which was quite an adventure because I had never been there before.

I looked around from magazine stand to magazine stand, talked to tour guides, found bus and train schedules, heard about the best place to get a deep dish pizza from 7 different people at 7 different locations and hours later I eventually started to wonder how I was going to get back to my original train stop.

After finding a room on Craig’s list, I showed up in June with little more than a pile of “business clothes” and a map of the city that I found in the back of a travel brochure.

I unpacked, jumped a train downtown, took an escalator out of the subway and into the unknown, and ultimately, the birth of an idea.

As soon as I stepped out of the subway I was lost. I didn’t even know where I wanted to go, let alone how to get there.

All the while I was thinking that there has to be an easier way. .

man that’s big

me in Chicago

This worked great from time to time, but most of the time when I really needed the site, when plans changed or I was just exploring, I wasn’t home to access the site, rendering it useless.

On my first day of work my coworkers asked me what I thought of the city so far and I mentioned my original overwhelming experience.

They offered up a website for advice. The website (chicagorta.com) allowed the user to enter their location and destination and in return gave the public transportation available to get you there, and the schedule.

Perfect.

I thought about getting a PDA of sorts but the technology just wasn’t reliable enough to justify the price.

I started thinking about what I could do that would provide the kind of on-the-go information that I needed. . .

Introducing the “Google Guide” What is the “Google Guide?”

Google Guide Interface

optional mounted solar panel for “greener” design

It’s an on-sight, instantaneous, information resource. Based on WiFi technology Google Guide gives every traveller the keys to the city.

touch screen

Guide

protective case

Features: - instant public transportation information from your location to anywhere in the city, including buses, trains, destinations, and schedules - multiple languages for international travelers - city tour scheduling and historic landmark information - local restaurant and business search - emergency call button - limitless potential

Locations: - the google guide would be located based on the average amount of foot traffic in the area and on primary market test results - spread through out the city the “Google Guide� would offer the ultimate in both convenience and safety for any city around the world

where would Google Guide live? anywhere. there are myriad of existing structures that could support the google guide such as old ATM machines, telephone booths, or street lights

Guide

these existing structures give the product equity, as well as a back-up power source should the solar panels not be functioning

How does it make money?

You could charge each user a small fee, but ideally the “Google Guide” would be a free service provided by the city that created revenue from ad dollars.

Local restaurants and businesses would have the perfect way to reach wanting customers just feet away from the guide, and the service would be extremely measurable.

How do we launch?

A perfect time to launch the “Google Guide” would be just before the Olympics when many cities are competing for its location. Any city employing the “Google Guide” would clearly be a much friendlier choice to travelers.

do it yourself?

I toyed around with the idea of developing the “Google Guide” on my own. My hope was to design the product and a marketing / distribution plan as well as create revenue models. Then I hoped to work with a digital agency such as RGA or a design centered firm such as IDEO to develop relationships with brands that would be involved in the project, such as a WiFi provider, or in this case “Google” who could make the technology work.

I’ll admit, it was a lot to take on by myself during my final year of graduate school but I continued on with my research until I reached the realization that by the time the product was produced (given my timeline) someone else would have produced something like it, or PDA technology would finally be good enough that it wouldn’t be needed. Now it lives in this portfolio in hopes that it will inspire someone like you to give me a shot at developing ideas for your company.

Benefits of a digital portfolio -

I can claim the “green” movement it can be longer and not look intimidating it’s way cheaper I can email again if you lose it

bryan marville 843-441-0308 marvillebr@yahoo.com www.marvillebr.wordpress.com

Also available from the author - a “black and white” resume - a PDF version of this portfolio - discussion over beer