stung?

"Please cancel your coconut cream + honey moisturizing hand wash and go back to being a 100% vegan, cruelty free company!"

"Please reconsider your decision to move away from products that are 100% vegan. I feel good about purchasing your products based on the fact that they are vegan - please don't change that."

"I only buy from companies that do not use any animal ingredients in any products and that also do not animal test. I'm very disappointed that you've made the wrong decision to add animal ingredients into a product. Please rethink this repulsive decision otherwise I certainly will not be buying method products anymore."

"I only bought your shower cleaner because it was cruelty-free. It's worked well & I was thinking of buying more products from you. If you're not keep your items cruelty-free, I'll find a company that will."

"You're a cleaner clean? I don't think so, you guys are more like a dirtier clean! Shame on you people for using animal ingredients."

"I was always a big fan of your company. As a strict vegan and a sufferer of chemical sensitivities, I found your products to be a lifesaver, but after learning that you are no longer a vegan company and are now using honey in one of your products, I'll have to find another source."

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I swear to you I woke up today, and the vegan lynch mob had taken over method's Facebook account! Now, now, hold on - I don't mean that in any sort of jesting or negative manner; it was just yesterday was "Oh look violet bloom!" and today was "Holy crap, are they angry!" as post after post like this was showing up on the method Facebook page. I don't even have a clue where or when this all started? It (seems to) have happened that fast.

method's response (which they posted ad nauseam, just to make sure everyone understood where they were coming from (especially after the whole Soap Suds video incident) is:

"To our vegan friends:

Thanks for reaching out to us with your concerns. Since the beginning, we at Method have been committed to our beliefs as a vegan and cruelty-free brand. You are correct in bringing to our attention that a trace amount of honey in our new moisturizing hand wash is not vegan. We will start working immediately to re-formulate and remove honey from the product.

In an effort to create a moisturizing hand wash using natural and naturally-derived ingredients, we sought after some that are known for their moisturizing benefits, such as aloe and honey. This was an oversight on our end. We’re very sorry that we’ve disappointed you.... See More

Please rest assured that with this exception, all Method products are vegan and cruelty-free. We ensure that none of our suppliers do any animal testing on our behalf and have lobbied to gain acceptance for our non-animal product testing protocols from regulatory agencies, retailers and consumers. For our product safety testing, we use in-vitro (non-animal) simulated skin and eye irritation tests and have been successful in lobbying various federal and state agencies to accept these test methods in the place of animal test results.

A few efforts we’re particularly proud of:
• method dryer cloths – we pioneered a technology that uses plant-based softeners instead of animal fat, which is a standard ingredient in dryer sheets
• The beautiful colors in our soaps never come from animal by-products
• In 2006, PETA named our two co-founders ‘Person of the Year’ for their commitment to creating innovative and cruelty-free products

We hope you can forgive us for our mistake and trust that we will correct this issue as soon as possible.

Thanks, Method"

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Ok, honestly, I didn't know honey was such a big deal. Then again, I'm not a vegan, and I have a feeling they might be really angry if they knew I drank real milk, instead of soy milk? (And uhm, ate honey?) Who knows. My question to you is a) are you vegan? And b) what are your thoughts on all of this? Comment away!

snarky bubbles

Wow, method's made it to that snarky land called gawker.com! Which usually isn't a good thing. Being how gawker is all snark, all the time.

In a post titled "Everybody's Mad at Dolls, Cartoons", discussing the new African American Barbie and methods recent Shiny Suds online ad (I know, odd combination!), they go on to say:

"We like to "jest" with the advertising industry about how stupid and evil they are, but the truth is that marketing is not easy. Today in Fuzzy Public Outrage: Dolls are racist, and soap bubbles are rapists. Here is one of those "viral" videos you've heard so much about. In it, imaginary cartoon soap bubbles representing chemical soap scum linger around a lady's shower, acting like jerks. That is because the household cleaner company that made it supports rape."

They're jesting (AND snarking!) on that last sentence, as it's linked to this article, over on Advertising Age:

"Household cleaner marketer Method has pulled down a viral video roundly applauded by marketers at the Association of National Advertisers annual conference last month and by most viewers who've seen it because of heated complaints from some women who view it as sexist and even condoning rape.

The "Shiny Suds" video from Droga5, New York, the agency's first work for Method since winning the account a year ago, was a parody of traditional household cleaner advertising meant to support the Household Product Labeling Acts, which would require disclosure of ingredients in household cleaners.

The video, while taken down late last week by Method from its website and Droga5 from YouTube, remains available through unauthorized versions.

Scrubbing Bubbles, which the next day turn into leering perverts commenting on the woman taking a shower and urging her to use a loofah. The message: "You deserve to know what chemicals are in your cleaners."

The video got more than 700,000 views in a week on YouTube and a five-star rating from viewers before Method pulled the plug. Method competitor Unilever seemed to like it, too. Search ads for its Dove brand appeared alongside results for searches on the phrase "Shiny Suds" the day the video first appeared Nov. 18. (A spokeswoman for Dove didn't return an e-mail for comment by deadline).

Little did attendees at the ANA or most commenters on YouTube and Twitter know, however, that the Shiny Suds were really about degrading women and promoting rape, at least in the opinion of commenters on one blog, Shakesville, which posted the video in its "Today in Rape Culture" section.

That elicited more than 100 angry comments from posters, many of whom said they would stop buying Method products and helped produce some of the hundreds of negative responses to the company's website MethodHome.com. Among the posts: "Making us fear chemical residue from cleaning products because it's tied into a rape threat is beyond sickening."

Of course, that's not the point Method was trying to make. "Due to the sensitive nature of [concerned viewers'] concerns we chose to take down the video," a spokeswoman for Method said in an email statement.

"We received a great deal of feedback about the Shiny Suds video, much of it overwhelmingly positive," she said. "We also received feedback from concerned viewers. ... As with all media messages, people will interpret our video in different ways. The purpose of the video was to raise awareness for transparency in cleaning product ingredients, to which we remain committed."

Besides offending some people, the video did result in 2,500 letters supporting the Household Products Labeling Acts to more than 400 members of Congress, according to Method."

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I guess they did manage to get some positive support out of this after all (2,500 letters!) But it's telling to me that over on gawker, commenters immediately began repeating many of the negative posts we've already seen on Facebook, and method's people against dirty blog. I'm thinking method will be glad when this bubble has popped, and gone away.

10 questions with tom fishburne

"by Ben McConnell -
Church of The Customer

(Note: method comes into play in the second half of the interview, and even moreso when you click over to finish reading the rest! Enjoy!)

Tom Fishburne is the Gary Larson of marketing: He creates cartoons that lampoon the often-ridiculous nature of business processes and marketing.

His inspiration is his work as a marketer at companies like General Mills, Nestle and home-product manufacturer Method Products, where he currently resides as senior marketing director of Europe.

His new book, "This One Time at Brand Camp," is a collection of his work from 2005-2008 (and features a foreword from CotC blogger Jackie Huba). We sat down with Tom (virtually) and tossed a basketful of questions at him.

Q: What's the biggest challenge in being a brand manager today?

Remarkable thinking. Then shepherding that thinking through the organizational gates. Too often the edges of a great idea get sanded, eventually launching as a pale shadow of the original idea.

I love this quote from Robert Stephens, founder of Geek Squad: "Advertising is a tax you pay for unremarkable thinking."

Q: What's the biggest trap most brand managers stupidly fall into?

The mass market trap. Chasing market size. Trying to appeal to everyone and avoiding alienating anyone. By trying to appeal to everyone, no one gets excited.

In my past brand lives, we joked that our target was "a woman, age 25–39, with a pulse." Instead, if you cater to a passionate and vocal niche, you become more meaningful. Consumer loyalty follows. Niche marketing isn't just for small brands. General Mills does a great job of training marketers to find and truly understand your niche's brand champions. You create your products and marketing just for them. When you do, much of the mass market will follow, too.

Q: A central theme among many of your cartoons is the fear of standing out. From your experience at various companies, who typically is the driver in the race to be average -- an internal person/department or a force outside the company, such as Wall Street?

The fear of standing out mainly comes from inside the company. When I started at General Mills, a big product launch called Wahoos had just failed. Many people who worked on it had been let go. That created the Wahoos hangover: If someone suggested a risky idea in a meeting, someone else would say "we don't want another Wahoos." Most companies have their own version of a Wahoos hangover.

When I was at General Mills and Nestle I tacked this quote over my desk from Doug Hall: "Don't be afraid to take risks. Corporations have an amazing array of checks, balances, and safety nets to prevent you from hitting the wall at ninety miles an hour. Be bold and brash. Develop a reputation for it."

Q: How serious is the disconnect when brand managers work 12-16 months on product then, because of the nature of the employment game, move on to a new one? How can you build customer loyalty with such a short timeframe?

It's like that game of telephone we all played in kindergarten. A departing brand manager whispers their insights and brand plan to the replacement, much of which gets lost in the transition. Often the replacement brand manager starts from scratch with research and navel-gazing. As soon as the replacement brand manager gets a feel for the job, they move on, and the telephone game continues.

When I was starting out, I loved the quick transitions because I got exposure to different situations. But it's not great for creating customer loyalty. It sands the edges. It can feel like a different brand incarnation each year. A lot of hard work gets lost in the revolving door.

Q: Provide us, if you will, a brief, state of the union report on retailing today.

Retailing is in flux with the credit crunch. It will make consumers think hard about their brand choices. If a brand has proven that it is meaningful, it will continue to do well. If not, its true colors will be exposed. This is an acid test for meaningful brands.

Q: Who typically has the more insanely inflated ego: marketers or professional wrestlers?

Most of the marketers I've worked with have been down-to-earth. That's why I think ego inflation comes from hierarchy.

For instance, when I was at General Mills, all of the executives worked in a separate wing that even had its own parking garage we called the Bat Cave (where all the Jaguars went to park). They had a different dress code in the executive wing and there was very little mixing. The hierarchy was reinforced at every turn. As you progressed in marketing, you moved from a cubicle to something called an "officle" to eventually an office. You could tell the seniority of someone with an office by counting the number of ceiling tiles. I remember an official memo that stated that marketers above a certain level were entitled to leather Filofax binders. Everyone else received pleather. I swear I'm not making this up.

All of this resulted in a medical condition I call Title-itis, where it was assumed that the more senior the marketer, the better their ideas. It's tempting to start breathing your own exhaust in an environment like that.

I love the idea of a "No Holds Barred Title Bout World Marketing Federation Cage Match."

Q: Did your cartoon work help or hinder your landing at Method?

I joined method thanks to my cartoons (tell that to my high school guidance counselor). I discovered method in 2003 and was inspired by the impact they were making with such a small team. Then, I discovered that Eric Ryan, their co-founder, was getting my cartoon each week. So, I drew a cartoon on method comparing them to Apple and their famous "1984" ad where they took on IBM as Big Brother. That was my cover letter. When I actually joined the company a few years later, I told Eric that my last boss often said that if he ever ended up in a cartoon that I would be fired. Eric responded that if he didn't end up in a cartoon that I would be fired.

My cartoons often lampoon the type of business absurdities I try to exploit in my day job working with method as a challenger brand. Many of my cartoons are used around the company, in presentations on our strategy and even in our handbook. Eric often pings me with an idea that he wants to communicate. I'm pretty candid though, so I often cover topics in my cartoons if I think we're making a wrong call, steering in the wrong direction, or becoming too process-driven.

Q: What's your marketing mix for Method?

Eric once calculated that our competitors literally spend more on employee toilet paper than we do on advertising. We can't outspend them..."

Check out Church of The Customer to read the rest!

And Holy Yow!, I got another shout out, this time from Tom! "We know (word of mouth) is working when we find consumers like Nathan, who created an entire blog devoted to method."

come on in

method luster steve parker let me know HSN.com is running a sweepstakes, and they have an ad which showcases method! Look at one of the prizes you can win!

"Green Your Life with Method - Founders Eric Ryan and Adam Lowry offer a prize package that's keen on green. You and a companion will visit the Method headquarters in San Francisco, where you'll design a personalized home detox kit and dine with Eric & Adam. After a day of natural nourishment at Solage Calistoga resort & spa, you'll be sent home to a year's supply of your custom-designed Method products, a Whirlpool Duet Steam washer & dryer and the eco-efficient Whirlpool dishwasher. Winner announced July 30 on HSNtv."

OK, custom-designed? Uh, what DOES that mean? Like we can make our very own as I dreamed about here! Or does it mean we get to select our very own grouping of method products to use all year long? I don't know! Hey, anyone from method reading this, if you have more info, please comment below! I'd appreciate it!

I actually, quite by coincidence, saw this ad on tv this morning during The Today Show! So sign up, you just might win! (Ok, well chances of winning are probably pretty slim. I mean, just from experience, I never win a thing! Nothing, nada! But hey, where's the harm, give it a try! You never know! Well... I know I won't win, but you might!)

not method

method lust reader Missy was RIGHT! (I had faith in you, Missy! I did, I did!) I was roaming mindlessly through Big Lots this weekend, and what did I stumble upon in the personal care aisle, but the non-method antibacterial gel, in the "method" bottle! She'd mentioned a few weeks ago how she'd also found this, and was going to look into it further. The brand name is Virx, and it's this big bottle (same size as method's spray cleaner, because it's in the same identical bottle!) of antibacterial gel in neon yellow (lemon) and green (aloe vera). BUT, the shocker is, the bottle is an exact copy of method's, right down to the square bottom, and the four embossed m's, one on each side of the bottom of the bottle! It does have a non-method white pump top.

I tried to find information on this brand, but came up empty online. Except for some business called Virx, Inc. located in, you guessed it, San Francisco! I have no idea if this is a coincidence or not, but Katherine Farkas, here's another one for you!

quickie quotes

"With method, the brand promise is immediate. Looking at this package, you know method cares about your environment and your world. It doesn’t try to dominate your world. It wants to fit in with your life."
- Dennis Furniss, Vice President of Creative and Strategy at BrandScope

a method to marketing

I've gotten some requests for information on the marketing side of method! (Including what font method uses - it's Avenir, by the way!) And being that I'm in the graphic design biz, I also get intrigued by the "behind the scenes" stuff! So check out this article on method's marketing, from over on Dynamic Graphics:

A Method to Marketing
Thanks to a cutting-edge palette and packaging,
Method is cleaning up in home care goods.
by Rodney J. Moore

Method enlisted Karim Rashid to help design product packaging that would “disrupt” the marketplace. He wound up opening doors for their entry into Target. His handwash package design (top) turned the personal care category on its head. “The graphic way that we treated these distinct product shapes [helps them] really stick in your head,” says Tim Roper of Crispin Porter + Bogusky. Five years ago, Eric Ryan and Adam Lowry decided on a course of action that was not unlike David taking on Goliath. Their company Method, which offers household products ranging from hand soap to floor care, would take on the giants of the industry. Turns out it hasn’t been a fair fight.

When Method launched, cleaning products was one of the most stagnant and conventional categories around. Now, thanks to partnerships with Karim Rashid for packaging designs and Crispin Porter + Bogusky (CP+B) for marketing, Method has found a welcome niche for the forward-thinking and forwardlooking product line.

What makes Method so unique is their philosophy. In a phrase, their mantra is “be disruptive.” The first thing you notice about Method products is the packaging design. After an initial launch in the San Francisco area, Ryan and Lowry courted Karim Rashid to help get their products noticed on a national scale. Method’s partnership with Rashid would open the door for their entry into national distribution via stores like Target.

When it came time for their first full-scale marketing effort in 2004, Method teamed up with Miami-based Crispin Porter + Bogusky for a campaign to raise brand awareness and get products in consumers’ hands. With a budget that might be an accounting error to the likes of Procter & Gamble or Unilever, Method had to find a creative way to be effective. From the many ideas CP+B pitched, Method decided on an 18-page booklet insert that would explain their philosophy and offer starter kits for sale. Oh, and naturally it would feature on the cover a naked man cleaning house. Is that disruptive enough for you?

“Those original Karim Rashid [packaging] designs were very inspirational for us,” says Tim Roper, CP+B executive vice president and creative director. “We immediately saw a company that wants to take some risks.”

Continuing with the disruptive theme, the booklet’s small size and title —“People Against Dirty”— stood out in the publications (such as Real Simple) in which it appeared. Suffice it to say, this is one booklet that got noticed. And thanks to the starter kit offers, Method had a way of measuring its effectiveness. “It’s a pretty good device for getting direct feedback from people who have seen the booklets,” says Roper. “I must say in all my years of advertising, we probably had a more positive wave of overwhelming response on this first book than anything I’ve ever worked on.”

While Method was pleased with the overall campaign effort, they never dreamed that the booklet would become something with pass-along value.

Method’s “People Against Dirty” booklet was the first real marketing piece of the young brand, so it had to make a big splash on a limited budget. “I think it’s just fun and approachable,” says Roper “It’s not like work to read through this thing. It’s pretty breezy. And there’s a lot of pass-along with these books: Women give them to friends and cohorts, and they may get a giggle out of one spread or another.” Method was pleasantly surprised by the pass-along value of the booklets. “The viral aspect of the booklet was much greater than what we had anticipated,” says Sangita Forth, pod director at Method.

“One of the reasons why it seemed to work in this case as a booklet is because Method had a unique story to tell, and they were doing it for the first time,” says Mason Reed, management supervisor at CP+B. “I think those two things combined gave it a depth and richness that needed to be told, and the longer format allowed for that. And their brand itself has a lot of different dimensions: It has a fragrance story, a social responsibility story, and a design aesthetic across the board. When you are new and don’t have the dollars to put this in all of the different places you would want, [the booklet] allowed us to tell a deeper, richer story in one place.”

The idea of using colors as your palette that complement a pink grapefruit, or a cucumber, or lavender, or eucalyptus mint is very intentional and purposeful,” says Roper. Background color for the the pink grapefruit execution was C0 M45 Y40 K0. Fonts maintaining the cool, clean tone in the booklets and website are Avenir Black, Avenir Roman, and Recycle.

In addition to the booklet, CP+B launched a website that was equally disruptive and popular. The site, www.comeclean.com, served as an online confessional for folks who felt compelled to “come clean.” Only an unobtrusive icon near the top of the web pages served as a link to Method’s product information.

So successful was their initial People Against Dirty booklet that Method published another booklet insert in 2005. In 2006, Method printed a third booklet focusing on their laundry line of products. The next step in the Method story (has been) a more traditional print campaign."

stay courageous

Adam Richardson has a short, but full of quirky method insights article (from January) over on his blog!

"...Eric Ryan, founder of Method Home (who’s slogan is “People Against Dirty), kicked off frog design’s Design Mind talk series with a terrific talk with Valerie Casey, frog design’s Executive Creative Director. Here’s a few nuggets:

“Style is what gets a customer into a brand, substance is what keeps them there.”

“A brand has to have boundaries”. In other words, don’t try to be all things to all people. Take a stand, have a point of view.

The average US home is five times more polluted than the outside world. Liquids in particular go right through the skin and into the bloodstream, so cleaning products are an especially dangerous toxin. Method tries to reduce the toxin level of its products as much as possible, but doesn’t put itself out there as a “green” company, as that would box it into a much smaller niche.

The original upright/upside-down Karim Rashid-design dish soap bottle was a big disaster mechanically. It leaked all over the place (including on the shelf) and people couldn’t figure out how to open it. But it was a “hail Mary” attempt for Method, at the time only having $100k in revenues, as they tried to get into Target for their first big distribution deal. Eric said it ultimately put them on the map, and is proud they took the risk.

“Never, ever test things. Stay courageous.”

The phone number on the Method packaging originally rang Eric’s cellphone!

Eric emphasized several times that Method sees itself on a journey, that they don’t do everything perfectly now (such as being even more environmentally friendly than they are), but that their hearts are in the right place and that they know they have to grow to a certain size to be able to achieve what they want, which sometimes means making short-term trade-offs."

lust forever

What a little whimsy will do (this particular branding he's talking about is from the second version method dish soap bottles. I'm not sure if the same wording is on the current bottle design, but perhaps they should give it another go, seeing as how well it worked here!)

"Target has some cool stuff. Some of it you don't really notice unless you look really hard. I was on the hunt for some dishwashing soap the other day when I stumbled upon Method dish soap. Ok, one dish soap is no different than another dish soap. Ivory, Palmolive, whatever. Right? So I thought until I read the back of the Method stuff (I know, reading the back of dish soap is pretty pathetic). Here is what I found:

This dish soap has been designated a collector's item by us. In the future, your grandchildren will sell this bottle for lots of money at a dish soap collector convention. Always insist on authentic method products. See cashier for exact value.

Now if that isn't the coolest thing in dish soap I will drink this whole bottle! I imagine most dish soap products post a list of incomprehensible chemicals, warnings about drinking or washing your eyes with it, and plugs for other products. This one goes beyond that and inject a little whimsy. That is what the corporate world needs, a little more fantasy.

I will always buy this stuff from now on. They have a customer for life.
- Corsair The Rational Pirate"