The Skin You're In

I love companies that take on chief responsiblity for the categories in which they reside. I worked for a couple of guys at Coke, George Murphy and Scott Bedbury, who called this "category protagonism." It means elevating what you do, taking it to the next level, and putting the people who buy your stuff ahead of simply selling the stuff. For example, while other people just sold coffee, Starbucks became the protagonist for coffee and raised it to an art form, surrounding it with an environment where people could come together for work or social reasons. I can't tell you how much I believe in this idea.

I try not to write about Coke much, since I worked there for so long and have so many friends still there, but I'd like to believe that someday Coke will really take an active lead in becoming a protagonist for thirst. That would mean not only creating and distributing a wide portfolio of beverages to every corner of the globe -- which they already do -- but also using their considerable expertise and power to help solve the world's potable water problem.

What brings me to talk about companies being protagonists for their category? I saw a new TV ad last night for Coppertone. It's about a woman who has had skin cancer, and about how she pays attention to the sun and the protection of her family thanks to the products offered by Coppertone. It's a nice change from the average suntan lotion ad, featuring girls in skimpy bathing suits aiming at the darkest, most leathery skin they can get. Coppertone's new tagline? "Get smart about the sun." Good for them. A cynic could argue they're simply playing off the fears people have about sun damage. But I like to think they just realized that it would be good for them, and good for us, if they took a leading role in educating people about the effects the sun can have. Leadership means REALLY stepping up to the plate, even if it takes more work and money to do it. As Starbucks can attest, they certainly worked harder and spent more money than the coffee joints down the street, but the returns were worth it.

Tag: marketing

Comments

[Ken Hall]

You have a good point, but I think in the case of Coppertone they're going to have to be able to demonstrate a tangible, benefit amenable to independent verification. After all, I believe that most dermatologists (and I'll have to check this out) would say, "Get smart about the sun = stay the heck out of it." No, I'm not smart enough to do that--I'm an SPF15/30 guy myself. :-)

[David Wolfe]

You are talking about marketers morphing from hucksters to healers, a rather large paradigm shift that puts the challenges people face ahead of the traditional marketing paradigm practice of pushing products in consumers' faces to get company numbers up.

Starbucks is a healer. It put legs on the quaint expression, "Stop an smell the latte." While we haven't yet adopted the siesta or even the 4 o'clock British tea, for a few minutes every day tens of millions pause with a Starbuck beverage -- many in the store itself -- to refresh. Sure, many of the same people bought coffee before Starbucks, but most did so at a fast food place -- the antithesis of a pause to stop and smell the latte.

The relaxed cafe ambience of many Starbucks drinkeries coaches one into forgetting the rat race for a few moments in a caring, comfortable atmosphere. Sounds like a healer approach to marketing to me.

BTW, the Wall Street Journal ran a story yesterday on problems your ex-employer is having as demand for carbonated beverages sags. This was an easily foreseeable event that I warned a former research director at Coke about some years ago. I told him that with the rise in median age to the point whereby people over 40 had become the adult majority, the market for fizz drinks would go flat. He answered that people's drink habits could be changed. That's old school market think: bend customers to your will rather than submit to their will -- and becoming protagonists of their well being.

Per capita consumption of bubbly sugar water has always declined as midlife approaches. I saw nothing on the horizon that would change that when I issued my warning to the Coke researcher. In fact, just imagine how much of a competitor Starbucks has become for Coke.

Be well, do good and have lots of fun!

David