“We have a clearly defined brand mission, vision, and values. Authenticity plays a vital role here… It builds trust and credibility with the consumer and provides the basis for identification with your brand, and it must never be jeopardized.” Erich Stamminger, CEO and President of Adidas Brand

Oreo gets it. They have been able to remain relevant for a century without compromising the authenticity of their hero product.  Oreo is an original.  We say things like that, “Oreo is an original,” but do we ever reflect on what being ‘an original’ really means in terms of brand value?

In Kevin Maney’s outstanding new book, Trade-Off: Why Some Things Catch On and Others Don’t, he describes one of the most desirable and easily overlooked aspects of a product: its aura.  Products have an implied value based on their tactile, visible, and sensory components- as well as their aura.  Unfortunately, most products don’t have aura, so their value is based entirely on the sum of their parts.  Take for example a beautiful painting created in the 18^th century.  Imagine now that this painting has been perfectly reproduced, perhaps even touched-up and improved upon.  If the value of the painting were based strictly on its visual beauty, then the original should not be worth more than the copy.  But there is another, unseen value to the original painting- an indescribable value that only original things have: aura.  People will travel great distances to view an original work of art.  They won’t drive around the block to see a perfect imitation.  Imitation lacks aura.

The brand graveyard is littered with the headstones of companies that had an original product and underestimated the value of remaining authentic.  Again this year, Interbrand named The Coca-Cola Company the world’s best global brand.  In 1985, The Coca-Cola Company changed the recipe of its flagship product.  New Coke was a colossal failure- not because it didn’t taste good.  In blind taste tests most customers preferred the taste of New Coke over the original.  If you asked people to choose between the original painting and the reproduction, they will likely choose the reproduction.  If you label the paintings, they will consistently select the original.  In the same way, when Coca-Cola labeled the taste test cups, people preferred the original.  It had authenticity.  It had aura.

Oreos ooze aura.

Stay tuned for Oreo Part 4: Turn Negatives into Positives

Sure it is just two chocolate disks with some sweetened lard in between, but we all know it’s more than just the sum of its parts.  There is something transcendent about Oreos.  A brand does not maintain a No. 1 position for 100 years without being able to connect with customers on an emotional level.  People are no longer content with simply consuming a product; they desire to be moved by it.

Oreo understands the importance of the customer experience.  For decades, their marketing campaigns have nurtured the idea of sharing- sharing a moment to connect with your Grandpa, your mother, your best friend, your pet.  But sharing is only one element of the experience, there is also the eating!  Rarely do you see someone simply remove an Oreo from the package and put it in their mouth.  Oreos are stacked, taken apart, licked, reconfigured, dunked in milk.  You don’t simply eat an Oreo…..you experience it.  If you think it is just a cookie you are mistaken.

Success has not stopped Oreo from innovating.  There is Post Oreo Cereal, Peanut Butter and Chocolate Crème Oreo, Chocolate Dipped Candy Cane Crème Oreo, Fudge Mint Covered Oreo, Double Stuf Oreo, Reduced Fat Oreo, and roughly 20 other innovative extensions.  In 2005 Nabisco introduced the Oreo Dunker elongated cookie.  Here was their insight: dunkers enjoy the experience of eating an Oreo more than non-dunkers.  The primary reason non-dunkers don’t dunk is fear of getting their fingers in the milk.  Nabisco created the Oreo Dunker specifically for this sanitary minded customer.  Oreo didn’t have to change the shape of their cookie, but they did.  Here is what they know that maybe you don’t.  If you are not relentlessly trying to create a memorable customer experience, chances are your product will soon be just a memory.

Next week Oreo Part 3: Leverage Authenticity

Most commercially successful new products tend to follow an economic S-Curve.  Just in case you were sleeping during your professor’s description of the S-Curve, allow me to refresh your memory.    New products start slowly (the bottom of the ‘S’).  They rely on market adoption, which typically does not happen fast.  With any luck the new product will experience a season of economic growth (the steep part of the ‘S’).  Eventually sales and growth will plateau (the top of the ‘S’).  This is usually the point in the product’s life cycle where a competitor will come into the market and establish a new S-Curve.  The competitor has the advantage of learning from the leader’s mistakes, assessing current marketplace trends, and taking advantage of new technologies.  They are not locked into any existing capital equipment or infrastructure, so they can be very nimble.  Think about the S-Curve that Toyota created at the expense of Ford; Sony at the expense of RCA; Netflix at the expense of Blockbuster.  Very few companies can escape this phenomenon that Clayton Christenson refers to as The Innovator’s Dilemma.  Let me tell you about a product that has.

Oreo cookies were introduced by the National Biscuit Company in 1912.  Nabisco’s cookie became the best selling cookie in America.  Nearly 100 years later it is still at the top!  It has never, ever, ever, ever been anything but #1.  Chew on that for a while.

Over the next several weeks I will unpack four insights that have helped Nabisco defy the odds:

1. Innovate in your Sweet Spot
2. Leverage Authenticity
3. Turn Negatives into Positives
4. Broaden your Horizons

So pour a glass of milk, grab a bag of America’s original dunking cookie, and join me.

Don’t look now but Greyhound is making a comeback! Bus travel is getting a second look not only because it’s affordable and has fewer hassles than air, but also because it’s green.  Thanks to computer-controlled turbo-diesel engines and low-sulfur diesel fuel, long-distance bus travel creates the least pollution per passenger mile of any means of transportation short of riding a bike or walking. At about 0.2 pounds of carbon per passenger mile, intercity buses are greener than hybrids!
Smoothing the ride with smart design and a few modern amenities has certainly helped. Leveraging the power of customer insights, Greyhound has redesigned their cabins. Wi-fi, foldout desks, and power outlets are now available.  Seats have been removed to increase legroom. Seeking to elevate the new Greyhound to a more premium level, the classic canine logo has a new more streamlined, chrome-plated appearance to emphasize speed.

Commitment to consumer driven sustainable design, along with a willingness to look at old products in new ways, can be its own form of innovation.

A friend asked me the other day if I am planning on getting a Kindle. A Kindle is a handheld device that allows you to download books and read them electronically. Books can be purchased at roughly half the cost of printed editions. You can even elect to have the book read aloud to you.

For someone like me, who likes new things and appreciates all things sustainable (no more wasted paper), this would seem like a must-have toy. The problem is….I don’t want one.

I am a packaging guy at heart. I love book covers. I can walk around a book store for hours just reading and admiring dust jackets. They represent an essential and important part of our country’s design history.

When I was young we had these things called LP records. They came in really cool record album covers. You would listen to the record and just stare at the album cover. Album covers were cool. Now I just buy music electronically and download it to my i-pod. I don’t have to drive to the store. There is no more packaging. It certainly is a greener alternative, but I would be lying if I said I don’t miss the thrill of holding an album. There was something magical about staring at those covers.

I am certain that one day I will own a Kindle or-the-like. They are practical and efficient. One day I will get one. We’ll call that day ‘the sad day.’