green push

The Wallstreet Journal has a really interesting article out focusing on method (and Seventh Generation's) latest big green cleaning products push using new advertisting campaigns! Check it out:

"Green Products To Get A Push |
by Ellen Byron and Suzanne Vranica

Encouraged by resilient sales, some leading makers of environmentally friendly household products are boosting their marketing firepower, mounting a broader challenge to manufacturers of mainstream consumer goods.

Seventh Generation and Method Products, which both tout their cleaning and personal-care lines as safer for people and the environment, plan to launch their first major marketing campaigns this week. Both companies are hoping to capitalize on the momentum behind "green" products, which have posted surprisingly strong sales despite the weak economy.

The campaigns come as the two companies take other steps designed at least in part to prepare them to compete more directly with their mainstream counterparts. Seventh Generation is introducing a line of disinfecting wipes and sprays, while Method is expanding its lineup to include a new laundry detergent. They are also polishing their management credentials: The founders of both companies recently brought in consumer-product industry veterans to take over chief-executive duties.

While many shoppers switched to cheaper products during the recession, sales of products promoted as environmentally friendly have held up relatively well, despite their premium prices. Over the past five years, U.S. sales of "ethical" household products—what the industry calls items marketed on the basis of meeting an ethical standard—have nearly tripled, reaching an estimated $1.6 billion in 2009, according to market-research firm Packaged Facts.

"People may be trading from steak to poultry, but the people who buy these green products believe the health and safety of one's family is more important," says Burt Flickinger III, managing director of consulting firm Strategic Resource Group.



Indeed, a spokeswoman for Seventh Generation says sales at mass-market retailers rose 20% last year from the year before. The company says its 2009 totaled sales about $150 million, but declined to disclose profits.

Seventh Generation plans to launch its first TV ad on Monday. In the past, the Burlington, Vt., company has relied on small, mostly online, campaigns to promote its products, which include diapers, trash bags and laundry detergent it touts for attributes like biodegradability or natural ingredients.

The new ads, based on the slogan, "Protecting Planet Home," describe a household that uses Seventh Generation products as a place where "no one holds their breath while they're cleaning." Seventh Generation declines to disclose how much it is spending on the ads, which coincide with its introduction of wipes and spray that use a thyme-based disinfectant technology.

Method has depended on offbeat marketing tactics, including a Web site that lets people wash away their sins virtually with its hand soap. Now it is rolling out its largest ad campaign ever to plug a new superconcentrated laundry detergent. The product, scheduled to hit U.S. stores this month, comes in a slim bottle with a pump dispenser.

San Francisco-based Method is spending $10 million on the campaign, which includes a new detergent Web site that launches this week and print and online ads that begin next month. The pitch takes aim at the company's bigger laundry-aisle competitors with the tagline "Jug-Free America," suggesting that consumers don't need to lug around heavy detergent bottles.

One ad compares a Method detergent bottle with a large orange one, a not-so-subtle swipe at market leader Procter & Gamble's Tide..."

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Read the rest here! Thoughts? (And what do you think of Seventh Generation debuting an all-natural disinfectant formula? Good? Bad? Does disinfectant = antibacterial? What if method were to do this? Comment!)

new marketing in action

Those folks over at Zeus Jones have a really cool blog post on new marketing ideas in action, focusing on method! Here goes:

"As you know, we’re big believers in the idea that brands are increasingly defined by a company’s internal culture. The two examples that we use in our presentation to clients to make this point are Zappos and Method. So it was a rare treat for us to be able to get a tour of Method and spend time with Eric, on our recent trip to Planningness.

Apart from some very cool and top secret stuff they are doing on a product front, the stuff that impressed me the most was the amount of energy and creativity that they devote to their culture. It’s no accident that culture is what defines them. One of the things that really stuck with me was something that Eric said offhandedly, “we always try to find ways to help our people feel like they’re working at a place that matters.”

This becomes increasingly more clear and evident as you walk around their space. From their wall of values which every employee has posted a quote onto, to their staircase of employee pictures with their ideas on “how to keep method weird,” to their grass-lined quiet room, every part of their space is a reflection and an embodiment of who they are. It is literally impossible to work there and not understand what they’re about.

Lest you miss it, one of the touches that I really loved was seeing the kit they lay out for people who are just starting to work there.

Of course it contains all the stuff you’d expect but on page two of their orientation binder is this:

A lottery ticket! It’s a really nice little touch and is emblematic of the attention to detail they’ve taken in all things cultural.

We try to make culture a focus here at ZJ, but I walked away realising we don’t spend half the time on it that we should. I also realised that if, as I believe, brand strength is directly correlated to the strength of your culture, there are very few brands out there who can compete with Method at the moment."

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And you're a winner either way! Cause even if you have a losing lottery ticket, you've still won cause you're now working for method! Win, win!

buying in

A very interesting article over on The Dieline, a blog focusing on product and package design. And method is included in the discussion:

"Journalist, Rob Walker writes the weekly “Consumed” column for the NY Times Magazine. Equally adept at addressing both the business and cultural aspects of his subject, Walker’s well-reasoned column has emerged as an unusually clear window on the murky world of branding.

His book, “Buying In, The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We Are” came out this past Summer.

box vox: One of the companies you write about in your book is Method. You make the case that buying one of their cleaning products is not a strictly rational decision, since so much of their product appeal is based on how cool the packaging looks, rather than how well the product works. Because of their packaging, Method seems to have inspired one of those impromptu brand communities that you discuss elsewhere in your book. Their products are regularly celebrated in package design blogs like The Dieline and I know of at least one designer’s blog (Nathan Aaron’s “Method Lust” site) that is devoted to nothing else. Of course, package designers may have their own self-serving reasons for loving Method, but they don’t seem to be the only ones who are buying Method because of its decorator packaging. Is it possible that Method has built a business entirely on a demographic of aesthetes who want every detail of their lives to reflect their own overarching good taste?

Rob Walker: It was actually one of the founders of Method who told me that their customer feedback indicated that people who bought Method products were often surprised that they worked — that is, they were attracted to the packaging for whatever reason, but had some kind of suspicion that there would be some kind of tradeoff of function for form. I thought that was pretty interesting, that people would buy a household cleaner, of all things, on that basis. It’s not like dish liquid is a good candidate for the “conspicuous consumption” theory of consumer behavior.

So I think it’s pretty clear that design was a major part of what has built Method’s business. BUT ... I’m not sure that I’d go quite so far as to say they’d built their business totally on the aesthete demo. That that demo was not crucial.

Here’s what I mean. One of the things that most interests me about Method is that they have an eco-friendly or “green” story to tell—their products are (they say) made without many of the toxic ingredients common to household cleaning products. But they chose not to make that their main selling point, their main way of differentiating themselves at the shelf level. They went with the “good design” strategy instead. They don’t hide the other, eco-ish story, they just skipped the traditional strategy of, you know, putting a tree on the bottle or whatever.

And I think this strategy worked well at a time when the broad idea of “good design” was much in the air. I think there were plenty of consumers who had been in essence conditioned by a variety of cultural forces (many of them commercial) to pay attention to the idea of “good design.” And Method offered both a kind of novelty at the shelf, and an easy way into that broad idea.

I’m generalizing wildly. But still. I think it was both a clever strategy and, on some level, an admirable one. I think it’s clever because the truth is the eco/green thing is really easy to knock off—especially in symbolic/design terms. (Just add a tree to your package and you’re ... green ... ish.) Many consumers don’t want to “do their homework” about such issues, so devious design/packaging strategies can work. And Method, as far as I can tell, had the right facts to back up their eco claims for anybody who did do their homework.

So I think that’s clever because really striking visual design is actually harder to knock off, if it’s done right. Copycats look like copycats, and it can actually strengthen the position of “the original.”

And I think it’s admirable in the sense that there was something going on behind the “good design.” (I am not particularly impressed by the argument that buying “good design” is its own reward, which is in effect what many observers seem to believe.) There was something ethical (for lack of a better term) about the product—but they aimed for an audience larger than the one that is overtly tuned in to such issues. And it would appear that they have attained such an audience. For now!"

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Oh! I didn't even realize I was in the article! Yo, too cool! Head on over to The Dieline and read the rest!

You can also read Rob Walker's original Consumed article, from 2004 (Whew! Did they have computers back then?!) which was previously posted here on method lust.

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 clean some more

I did a short post on this WAY back when, but just wanted to let everyone know, in case they don't spend hours and hours on method lust reading every single post that has ever been (and if not, why? Why? Why hurt me, ok? Just remember that, you're only hurting me. And that's not real nice, is it?) But uh, I've put the Come Clean confession site and screensaver permanently on the right sidebar of method lust! So now all you'll have to do is scroll down the sidebar, and click on the image, and off you'll go to confess your latest dirty deed! It's a blast, seriously, so give it a try if you haven't already.

come clean

Now this is just the coolest thing! I stumbled upon this while roaming the internet for some method photos. I've got to say I'm not sure if this is legit method marketing, or just a fan having fun! I've never personally seen it before now... http://www.comeclean.com/

UPDATE: Aha, I've just discovered some information about this. Apparently the CBP Group "...launched a viral campaign for Method with the Come Clean website. This viral website lets people start fresh by letting them confess to things they have done -- it captures people's confessions and then streams them in a screensaver and on the website. When confessions are entered a woman's voice reacts to the confessions and tells you how what you've done is wrong but that you are forgiven." Ok, so perhaps I've been, gasp, out of the loop on this one! I mean, apparently method once put out pumpkin spice hand wash during the holidays, and I've NEVER seen it. It's like the holy grail of method "rarity" products. (Ok, ok, actually that would be the method bamboo and coral cleaning spray. But I am WAY digressing here...) anyway, this rocks! It's so much fun! Make sure to stop on by at http://www.comeclean.com/, and download your own personal screensaver. Then start the hand washing fun (and the come clean confessing!)