Episode 11: Great Brands

Once upon a time all great brands were just a twinkle in an entrepreneur’s eye. In this episode, Doug and Glenn explore some great brands to see what might be learned and share some of their insights. Come on in! The listening’s fine.

Transcript

Glenn Suart 0:00

Doug Ross 0:27

Welcome to Conversations on Startups, a podcast brought to you by Douglas Ross, author of the book Spark Click Go: How to Bring Your Creative Business Idea to Life, and Glenn Suart of Today’s Great Idea, a radio series featuring over 300 origin stories of businesses, brands and inventions that have changed the culture. Welcome to today’s conversation.

Glenn Suart 0:50

Today’s episode is an interesting one, which is, what can you learn from other successful brands?

Doug Ross 0:58

Oh, I didn’t know we were gonna have that caveat successful brands. But… that’s how I took it too. Yeah, of course, there’s, there’s so many around us. And they can be both inspiring and instructive. So yeah, I think it’s a good topic. People can relate to it from the point of view of… usually as a customer of some of these brands. And they can think of it from the point of view of the people that run those brands and companies. And, and one thing to bear in mind is all of these big brands that we know now, and these well known companies that are perhaps every day, what’s the word you say they’re an everyday name, or there’s a phrase for that. [Yep] Anyway, all of them were once small companies, and even before that, they were just an idea, so we can gain inspiration from that. So, I’ve got several brands I can talk to, but what about you, Glenn, when you think of a successful brand, that entrepreneurs can learn from, what comes to mind?

Glenn Suart 2:06

One that jumps out to me [has] been around for about 100 years, and very, very successful. Everyone knows the brand. But people don’t realize that part of the success of the brand came from trouble dealing with competitors, and how do you stand out from competitors. And what they did was – their product is packaged in a bottle – and one of the big problems was that all these other competitors would package similar looking things in similar looking bottles. So you had this counterfeit thing going on all the time.

Doug Ross 2:42

Oh, dear. I thought you were talking about beer for a moment.

Glenn Suart 2:45

Oh, no, it’s not beer. So the customer, the client had a national contest and asked all their suppliers to come up with a package that, this was a quote: “A person could recognize, even if they felt it in the dark, and so shaped that even if broken a person could tell at a glance what it was.” [Really] Yeah. So what they did is they… this guy in Terre Haute, Indiana working for a glass factory, went to the local library, looked for inspiration, and he figured out – after opening up an encyclopedia and looked at some of the ingredients in this particular thing that was inside the glass container – they created a mold, a special mold, and they printed it and they…obviously the company liked it. And then, what they did is something really refreshingly unusual. The company got a trademark on the package design because it wasn’t a standard bottle. That trademark, as opposed to patent, protects that design to this very day. And we’re talking about… Doug, you ready to guess what it is?

Doug Ross 3:47

Okay, so, it’s a distinctive package that you could tell what it was in the dark. So you have to be able to feel it’s shape, or something maybe about its texture. Did you say it was glass?

Glenn Suart 4:02

It was glass at the time.

Doug Ross 4:04

It was glass at the time? Oh, is it something like, well, Aunt Jemima’s a brand that’s no longer popular… or, does it contain honey, maybe?

Glenn Suart 4:15

No, it’s the shape of the thing, which looks like a cola nut which is, Coca Cola. The trademark bottle.

Doug Ross 4:23

Okay, very nice.

Bridget 4:26

You’re listening to Conversations on Startups with Doug and Glenn. Thanks for joining us. Let’s get back to the show.

Glenn Suart 4:32

… and the reason I mentioned it is, it’s interesting because they used it as a way of differentiating themselves and they could… because of the trademark they could stop other people from doing bottles that were similar. It reflected the brand, did everything they wanted [it] to do. It’s still one of their main assets today and the learning for me is you can differentiate yourself from others by being inventive and clear. Another example… more modern, would be the basic search engines. If you recall, back when Google came out, all the search engines, Microsoft and Ask Jeeves and a whole bunch of others, they would have a little place for you to enter your information and surrounded the entire search bar by ads, and nobody liked that. So when Google came without… with just a blank page, and the search bar, it was again different, and that helped you, stand out and be successful, along with a great algorithm and other things like that. So, there are great brands that have been successful, they tell me, you should stand out in some way, and change the business model a little bit to make it work.

Doug Ross 5:47

Well, I love that. And it’s not just on what’s in the bottle, you can stand out in so many different ways. Makes me think of a few things. One is Crystal Head Vodka. It’s a unique bottle design as well, created by an artist and then crafted in Italy. And you can take this standard package or bottle and do limited editions [cool] of it for your really high-end, in that case, vodka. And you can do it in your everyday one. And it stands out, and I can tell you that they are positioning themselves at the higher end of the market partly on the strength of that bottle and partly on other things that are perhaps instructive too, like having a story that you can tell that really also sets you apart. You know, we use this particular water, it’s from Newfoundland, or we use these crystals that are found in caves in the southern US, and things like that in our process. And, if you can tell a story, I think that’s something else that’s really important now too to set yourself apart, or just to draw people in. Something that’s different about you, because let’s face it, anybody can make sugared water, anyone can make vodka – it’s not that difficult, but very different from creating a brand, let alone a business.

Glenn Suart 7:18

Yeah, it’s hard to create something unique and different. But if you can do it, it’s very powerful. That’s the lesson for most entrepreneurs at the end of the day.

Doug Ross 7:27

I think it’s highly relevant in today’s markets in a lot of markets, because some of these… creation of products, let’s say it’s a song, for example, and you and I’ve talked about songs before, and entertainers. [Ya] There’s a vast number of artists out there creating songs and putting them on an amazing platform that can get to the world, so that’s the good part of it. You can do that. But the question that you pose here, Glenn (how do you stand out ?), remains. So if you’re one of 10s of 1000s of products on a shelf, or songs in a marketplace / online marketplace, like Spotify or [a] hosting platform, how do you stand out? It’s a great question.

Glenn Suart 8:12

And it’s not an easy one either. It’s easy to say it – it’s not easy to be different. And you have to think through all the elements. I guess one of the way[s] to do it – if you’re going to think about being different – is… go back to your fundamentals. As you talked about with the water, the water is part of your history, storytelling. Coca Cola, using the Coca nut as an example for the bottle, the shape, great, that helped to reinforce the brand. Google, simplicity. It works. You don’t have to fight through stuff to get it. Those are the things that are reflected in the brand’s success. So by trying to set yourself apart, work on what jumps out at you about what your brand, or your invention, or business is… ’cause, you know.. there’s a million restaurants. How do you stand out? Exactly.

Doug Ross 9:04

Hey, podcast listeners, we’re going to take a short break. If you’re enjoying the show, feel free to invite your friends, remember to subscribe, and if you want to help spread the word, leave us a review on Apple podcasts, or your favorite podcast app. Each episode of Conversations onStartups focuses on a single topic. If you want to comment on something you’ve heard on the podcast or suggest a topic for us to cover in a future episode, send an email to go@todaysgreatidea.com or douglas@sparkclickgo.com. Glenn and I appreciate you and hope you find our uncut and unrehearsed stories, perspectives and tips helpful. Speaking of helpful stuff, let’s pick up where we left off.

Doug Ross ~9:55

Yeah, you need a story and it can be some sort of reflection of you or something of the product as you’re saying. One that I can think of is Tom’s shoes, and this is a brand that…part of their story was, how can we create a business that not only creates a product that people like, but can help improve the situation for people around the world. So they created, and it’s Blake Mycoskie is the name of the founder there, he created a buy-one-give-one model, or at least popularized it. And so for every pair of shoes purchased, they give away a pair of shoes, and this has been something that’s not only doing a benefit in society, but attracting people to their brand, because they love being a part of it. And now they’ve done it for eyewear as well as I’ve maybe previously mentioned on this… on this podcast. Speaking of eyewear, there’s another brand you may know of, Warby Parker, have you heard of Warby Parker?

Glenn Suart 10:59

I have heard of it, yeah.

Doug Ross 11:00

So here’s a brand that is an upstart, relatively speaking. I believe they, if you look at the whole eyeglass market, there’s a lot of brands there, but if you peel the onion you would find relatively few owners of those brands. [Right] So it looks like competition, but it’s not, so it was ripe for some sort of disruption, and the guys at Warby Parker thought, oh, we can create stylistic frames, we can do online eye exams. And so for the digitally savvy, we can create a business that’s going to cut through all of that excess margin that’s on the table created by these big house, eyeglass brands. So, I think that’s a good example of looking at…where are there, maybe industries that are ripe for improvement? Why do I need to spend $600 for a set of eyeglass frames? Doesn’t make sense.

Glenn Suart 12:01

Makes sense. One of the companies that I’m involved with is making coolers. What we looked at…is we looked at a variety of companies that were making coolers already in the US and Canada and variety of sizes, there’s premium ones and less less premium ones. And we looked at it and two things sprung to mind. One was, some of the higher end ones were really expensive – there was an opportunity to create a similar quality unit for a premium value price that was significantly less than the market leader. We were successful in getting that to market. We then found that like these other great.. this company in the States, they also jumped into drink ware and a few other things, well, that gave us some strategic thoughts about well, we should do something similar. So we positioned ourselves as a premium brand based on competitors that are generally more expensive than us. We’ve done our own tweaking, we haven’t just knocked them off. We’ve tried to create our own designs and do things that are different. But the lesson was… what’s working for these big brands, where’s the hole in the market, which you were just talking about, and can we fit in there? And that’s what we’ve done, and, I think that’s what most entrepreneurs should look for is- is there a hole in an existing market somewhere, for something?

Doug Ross 13:23

It sounds like you’re, you’re sort of the Hyundai or the Kia, maybe Hyundai or their Genesis brand which was premium, and is premium, but it’s still the lower end of the premium end of the spectrum. So it’s a high quality car, looks great, all of that at a slightly lower price and that’s… that’s an entry way and then build up your following, your customers, your own designs, and eventually people will have forgotten about the… maybe the leader at some point in time and they just look to you as hey, I really love this brand. They make great stuff. They stand behind their stuff. I love their style. I don’t need to go any higher end than this for all of my… all of my needs. The other car example I think about in this area is Corvette. Have you seen the recent… oh my god, Glenn, these things are unbelievable. You see a Corvette now – current year – and you think you’re looking at a Lamborghini. And these cars, performance wise, compete with these high end Italian brands and… and but at a much better price point. And you can buy North American, so all good. All good things.

Glenn Suart 14:36

Understanding your market is really key here.

Ali 14:40

You’re listening to Conversations on Startups with Doug and Glen. Merci pour nous avoir joindre.

Glenn Suart 14:45

I think the lesson from all these conversations and sort of summarize this for today, is that, the reason you look at these other brands is to understand the competitive landscape a little bit, and understand where you can fit in with what you’re offering. If you don’t look at them, you may not understand what the clients are really looking for, what the market is really looking for. So that’s why we suggest looking at successful brands.

Doug Ross 15:16

Yeah, I think that’s… I think that’s a great idea – can be applied in any area that you’re you’re dealing in. How do I set myself apart? How do I find an opening? I think these are highly relevant no matter where you are operating. So…so how do people get more of that? Should they… should they just be more observant, do you think Glenn and think about these other brands, or… what should they do? How can they do that for themselves a little bit better?

Glenn Suart 15:46

I think there’s lots of great places. Today’s Great Idea, for example.

Doug Ross 15:51

Love that. CHQR.

Glenn Suart 15:52

That’s a great place to learn about where a few great brands came. [Yeah] There’s so many great places to look for business stories. From great business magazines, to others, to the internet, to Wikipedia. Look at the backstories for some of these brands to get a sense of how they grew -might just give you comfort to sort of ask more questions. You really need to be curious about why things have worked for others and can it be applied, because stuff in one industry can be applied to another industry quite easily. How many people have said, oh, what we’re doing for our industries, is the Uber of this, you know, or the Google of that. It’s understanding where… what the lessons from these brands can be applied to your particular industry – there’s lots of places for that. But I would… Google searching is a great one. What do you think? Are there any specific spots you should look?

Doug Ross 16:43

Well, I like that. And you hear that quite a bit. We’re going to be the Uber of so and so. I know in the company that I’m working with right now, we are thinking about that for lab services. So, how could we deliver lab service, a medical lab service right to your home? Call us up on your app we’ll come, you spit pee, or bleed into our vessel, and we’ll give you a result, you know, right there on your driveway. So I do like that. I think that’s relevant. Finding the right analog. So for example, if you had SpaceX, how would you apply that to your business? I bet you could find a way. I mean, it seems like, no, how could a rocket business apply to my business, but you could probably think of something. Maybe storytelling. Storytelling is highly appealing in that business.

Glenn Suart 17:26

100 percent.

Doug Ross 17:36

Maybe customer, like… that’s a business, which is… has the government as the single most important customer… lots of businesses have been built that way. So I think looking around and finding the right analog would be a great exercise to do and applying it to your business. I can’t think of a better tip than that other than my book, SPARK CLICK GO, but I don’t want to shamelessly plug – we don’t do that here.

Glenn Suart 18:03

We don’t do that at all, Doug.

Doug Ross 18:05

No, we do not. Well, so next time, Glenn, what… any thing come to mind for next time?

Glenn Suart 18:11

Well, maybe keep it on the same track? You know, we were talking off mic earlier that… we made the joke that… what can you learn from successful brands .. you can learn a lot from unsuccessful brands too, and maybe that’s what our next episode will be about.

Doug Ross 18:26

That would be interesting. Those kinds of learnings from mistakes are so painful for people as they’re going through them, and they’re so memorable for those people. Why go through the pain when you can learn from somebody else’s flop? I think that sounds like fun.

Glenn Suart 18:44

Oh, yeah and there’s some great examples where somebody spent millions of dollars to do something, and it fails. And you think, well, that’s pretty obvious. And then you realize, well, maybe it wasn’t obvious at the time and the learnings from that have allowed others to succeed.

Doug Ross 19:10

Conversations on Startups is a production of Glenn Suart and Douglas Ross. We hope you’re having fun listening, but mostly that you take action on your business idea. For more inspiration, visit our websites todaysgreatidea.com and sparkclickgo.com. Another episode of Conversations on Startups will drop soon or is already available to binge. Thanks for joining us and remember to subscribe, and invite your friends. See you next time.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai