It's the Cola

Pepsi is a very successful company in its own right, however their pursuit of Coca-Cola can be compared to one thing.

Wile E. Coyote keeps ordering new tools, trying new tactics, and continually fails to catch the Roadrunner. The only winner in Wile's incessant attempts is the Acme Company who continues to profit off of him.

Do you really want to catch the roadrunner, or should you set your sights on something different? Why spend all that money to make Mr. Acme rich?

Back in the better days, Pepsi was the choice of a new generation. Their advertising had a fun and youthful feel that still applied to everyone (remember, no matter how old we are, we want to be thought of as young). Though Coca-Cola has always been number 1, Pepsi wasn't too far behind. It was this threatening market position, and the results of the Pepsi Challenge that led Coca-Cola to make the colossal mistake of introducing New Coke.

Coke reversed their mistake, and for the most part kept their message strong. Meanwhile, Pepsi continued to chase them by using every celebrity and package redesign possible. In 2002, sales of Pepsi were 35% behind Coca-Cola in sales. The slogan was "Think young. Drink young." Then they abandoned the new generation. 2003 brought "The joy of Pepsi." 2004, "It's the cola." Now they are attempting to "Refresh Everything."

Notice anything about the new slogans? They're all head-on attacks against Coke. Joy, refreshment, and all about being "The Real Thing" are brand essences of Coca-Cola. The Acme Company was selling Pepsi countless logo revisions while their advertising messages were making people think about Coke. Today, they sit 41% behind the real thing.

When it comes to your business, do you want to be Wile E. Coyote, and constantly chase the Roadrunner? Or would you rather set a goal that won't have you always the one to have the anvil drop on you?

Ranting about the snake-oil sellers

Search engine optimization has been a major buzz-word for a number of years now. While there are a handful of good practitioners out there, there are also a great number of people who are the equivalent of yesteryear's snake-oil salesmen. They know all the keywords, they have all the answers, yet they haven't worked a day in an actual brand-marketing environment. Once you're at the top of the search results, are you actually delivering anything to keep the customers thinking positively about you?

The barrier to entry is low for the internet, which attracts all of the get-rich-quick crowd. It can be very frustrating for a business who is looking for help, when so many seem to have all the right answers. These snake-oil pushers are now excitedly entering the social-media market. They can set up a Facebook fan-page, a Twitter account, and tell you about sites like Urbanspoon, Yelp, and Foursquare. They have quick-tricks with tools to get you thousands of followers. But once you get past the talk, have you really made a meaningful connection with anyone?

There is a great likelihood that they can make you feel great about everything you are paying them for, and they likely can tell you all about the thousands of businesses they have helped. Just like the street-side vendors who could make your hair grow, cure leprosy, and fix all of your problems with a simple elixir, these SEO or social media "gurus" will be quick to sell you tools and tactics to promote your business and get you to the top of Google.

The problem is, being a top result on Google doesn't pay your rent and overhead. A communication strategy is needed, products must meet customer expectations, and customers must want to interact with you. Social media and SEO are a piece of the puzzle, but if that is the only focus of your consultant, you may be left with an empty bottle of snake oil.

Burger King to get into the bar business

Burger King will open a new extension to their fast-food empire in February 2010. The Whopper Bar in Miami will be a new type of restaurant where customers can get beer and burgers with a familiar logo backing up the new concept. Burger King will sell Anheuser-Busch and MillerCoors beers along with a special menu of burgers and toppings.

While the obvious challenges will be how to handle the new concept with a new labor structure, considering most fast food restaurants are staffed by employees under 21, and this will require an older workforce, what do you think of the brand implications and their choice to partner with the domestic mass-market brewers?

The big-three brewers (which recently became the big-2 with the acquisition of Coors by Miller Brewing) have been facing a loss of growth recently and have all been financially challenged. Each of these companies has been part of industry-wide consolidations to secure their financial position, while microbrews and imported beers have been increasingly greater in demand. Should BK have tried to ride the wave of the up-market beers rather than partnering with the mass-market drinks? It would seem that bargain-hunters may be the target market for Bud, Miller, and Coors, yet will that crowd be enough to make this new concept successful?

Another interesting challenge is that the name "Whopper Bar" was introduced in Universal Studios theme park, as an upscale location that focuses on Whopper customization. This location will not change to serve beer, which would lead to a fragmentation of the Whopper Bar brand.

What do you think? Is BK making the right alliances, and are they sending mixed messages by having multiple formats under the same name?

Amazon has a deal you cannot refuse

Amazon is yet again shaking up the world of books. To promote sales of electronic books to the Kindle, they are offering a 70% royalty to authors. For those unfamiliar with how much authors make, this is a huge increase. Of course, accepting the new 70% terms come with a catch.

The terms to accept this benefit are not what most would guess. Amazon is not trying to force writers into only distributing through them, but is trying to make Kindle purchases more attractive to buyers. To receive the increased royalty, the book must be priced between $2.99 and $7.99, and must be priced 20% less than the listed price for the physical book.

Faced with the same circumstances, many other companies may have tried to force exclusive deals to make their device more attractive. But this plan makes the product more attractive to both customers and suppliers of the content, which should pay off in the long-term for Amazon. When customers and suppliers are happy, it makes a much better business.

The meaning of life, the universe, and everything

I hope everyone knows that the answer is 42.

Whether you learned this watching the BBC series many years ago, just learned about it from the adventures of Mos Def & Sam Rockwell, or actually read the iconic books by Douglas Adams, there's a message in there that is of great importance in life and market research.

You must know the right question to get the answer you want.

It's all about asking the right questions. Surveys and feedback can often mislead the direction of a company. Too many times I have seen companies invest in product development because a customer said they liked the idea, only to find their intentions were quite different when there was a price tag on that new product.

What good is knowing what people like, what channels they watch, and what websites they are viewing, if you do not know what will motivate them to support your business? Spend more time thinking about the questions you ask, the extra time is worth the wait.

How to get people talking

So you want to be the popular company that people tell their friends about? Do something to make your product easier to use.

Andy Sernowitz pointed out an example of a product feature few probably think about. A big frustration for any parent is changing batteries for kids' toys. Often the toys require a special size screwdriver, and the hunt around the house for the proper tool while the kids are begging to play with the toy can be overwhelming.

Leapfrog replaced that screw with one that could be opened with a penny. They did something great with such an insignificant product component. What can you do?

Does Facebook think about security at all?

I'm not a big evangelist of the whole "personal brand" concept, as I believe many people can keep their business and personal lives properly separate. But Facebook seems to be forcing our private lives into the public eye more each day.

Their newest problem, the Facebook 3.1 app for iPhone scans your address book for phone numbers and emails in your contact list, scans Facebook, and syncs the profile pics with your contact list. Even for those people you are not Facebook friends with.

For an example of how this can be troublesome, an iPhone blog reader shared a story of a coworker who he is not Facebook friends with, but suddenly when she calls he receives a bikini picture of her because it is her profile pic. (The writer of the post was kind enough to mock-up an example image rather than further embarrass the unknowing coworker).

While Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg believes privacy is a thing of the past, how many of you want your profile pics scanned and sent to everyone's iPhones?