He seemed like Prince Charming at the time, if a little on the cheesy side….but it turns out he poisons puppies AND little children.  Goodness, you didn’t even really mean to get married!  It was just the most efficient thing to do at the time.  But if you’re Purina or Mattel, who now find their brands inexorably linked to the concept of “made in China,” it turns out that what happens in Shanghai doesn’t stay in Shanghai after all. 

Now Mattel is scrambling to fix the lead-paint problem before the holiday season.  For business reasons, moving operations out of China is not going to happen; so no divorce, although some very public bickering before the counseling phase.  Blame and counter-blame.  It turns out that if you look beyond the recent lead-paint scare, most toy recalls are actually due to design flaws caused by the U.S. toy-manufacturers themselves.  “It’s not the “Made in China” label,” says one expert. “Even if it were made somewhere else, it was likely to have similar problems.” 

Past toy recalls bears this out.  According to Radar Magazine’s list of the 10 most dangerous playthings of all time, Mattel suffered from an absurd lack of judgment back in 1964 when it put out the Thingmaker, featuring toxic plastic goop which needed to be heated to 310 degrees on an open face fryer.   Likely grandmas worldwide had the common sense to avoid that one. 

But today, family members searching for safe toys don’t have a lot of options.   U.S.-made toys account for only 10% of toys, and are mostly “nostalgia” products made of wood which would be considered unacceptably boring by the 6-and-older set.   

What can brands linked to China do?  Like Hillary Clinton dealing with Bill’s bad behavior in 1998, be as dignified as you can, take steps to fix the problem, and move on together.  When Mattel was notified ealier this week about the filing of a lawsuit against them (along with 19 other companies) by the state of California, they kept to the righteous path by saying they “welcomed the attorney general’s involvement and added that it would be helpful for the entire toy industry.” 

Bottom line - Mattel needs to be seen as doing something about the lead paint issue by parents, but it also needs to pour on the Christmas advertising to up the demand factor from kids – all while keeping prices low.   No co-brand divorce, but let’s take separate cars to the holiday party this year. 

- Peggy Brown

This is the first step in cultivating a strong brand. And while it seems self-explanatory, there are a few things to keep in mind.

• First, you’re brand lives at the intersection of what you do well, what your customers value and what you can honestly own in your market. It’s is not any one of these things, but a sub-segment of all three. You can’t be something you’re not. And customers sometimes don’t care about everything you are.

• Your brand should also be made up of simple, easy to understand concepts because a brand that can’t be acted on is useless.

• It’s also important to have leadership buy-in on the brand tools so that they can actively support and model this work in their daily jobs.

• And finally, everyone at the organization needs to know what the brand tools are and how they can apply the brand in every decision they make—more on that later.

A great example of a company who has done this well is Merriman Berkman Next—a team of money managers in Seattle. Part of their brand is around “peace of mind”—not just taking care of people but making them feel taken care of. They surveyed their clients and employees to learn more about what makes them different, came to consensus as a leadership team and then started rolling out the brand through events and workshops to all employees. Ask anyone at the organization what their brand is all about, and he or she can tell you. Since determining that “peace of mind” is a significant portion of their brand, they’ve applied it in some important ways. They used it as a filter when considering their new name—making sure the name is differentiating and yet not so far out there as to make clients feels unsettled. They’ve also used the concept to drive processes such as how and how often they talk to clients about certain types of financial transactions.

If you’re in the role of managing your organization’s brand, you know there’s a lot to track. Well, I’ve conveniently boiled it down for you into five easy to remember elements that I will post here one at time for the next week. In cases where companies have been able to do each of these well, they have increased the amount they can charge for their product or service, improved word of mouth and strengthened employee and customer loyalty. Who doesn’t want those things?

Here is the list, but check back to get more info as we discuss them one at a time:

1) Know what your brand is and make sure your employees know what your brand is.
2) Use your brand to drive core business strategy.
3) Hold people accountable for delivering the brand.
4) Clearly communicate what you promise.
5) Measure and celebrate brand-driven success.

–Briana Marrah