Mark Kolier’s Blog

Archive for May, 2010

When I was growing up print, television and radio advertisements often used comparisons between their Brand (i.e. Ivory Soap) and Brand X. Brand X was meant to not directly poke the competition and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) did not favor this which is why companies no longer portray the competition as Brand X.

With the United States and much of the world trying desperately to recover from a sustained recession, comparing oneself to Brand X could offer some consolation. Although I’ve never actually met a North Korean, my impression is that these poor people (and that is entirely meant as a double-entendre) would not relish being thought of as a Brand-X country. Meaning the one that people compare their country to in order to tell themselves – ‘Hey it could be worse’.

But North Korea does not appear (to me) to even qualify as Brand-X. Yet to most of the western world Kim Jong-Il and North Korea have a very distinctive brand identity. They are the bad guys. Nothing middle-of-the road there. Ask anyone you know about North Korea and I can almost guarantee the response will not be anything like ‘Oh North Korea is not really that bad – Kim Jong-Il is just misunderstood…’

I think that Kim Jong-Il enjoys playing the villain. He has a stranglehold on North Korean politics, is grooming his youngest son to be the next ‘President’ (i.e. in this case autocrat), and most recently appears by all accounts to have decided to stir up the pot by torpedoing a South Korean warship. That coupled with North Korea’s insistence on developing nuclear warhead capabilities, make Mr. Kim and by extension, North Korea, the Darth Vader of the world community.

Being the ‘bad guy’ can be a very unique and profitable brand (think of what Vince McMahon has done with WWF!). It’s easy and even fun to position the antithesis to good by identifying what is perceived as evil. That’s all fine and dandy when we are talking about entertainment. But the oppression, hard-line and totalitarianism exhibited by North Korea is devastating to its own people, extremely serious, and downright scary. Mr. Kim might be the most dangerous man in the world today. And that’s a brand identity as well.
I just wish that were not the case.

It is said that revolutions happen one moment at a time. Steve Jobs and Apple Inc. have been consistently gone against the grain and in so doing created a company and I daresay even a movement counterculture based on the Apple platform. In today’s Wall Street Journal ‘Apple wins Ground in Fight Over Flash’ http://bit.ly/c1vyvU , the hissy fight with Adobe and its Flash technology is highlighted.

I am a big believer in breaking the mold and trying to do things a different way. The iMac was a different approach to personal computing. The iPhone is widely considered to be even more ‘revolutionary’ (despite the lousy phone service) when Apple unveiled the device in 2007. And the iPad may well turn out to be the gateway to a future in how people consume content (a very overused term BTW).

Yet I have difficulty in understanding how Mr. Jobs’ seemingly personal war on Flash will help make things better for consumers – and make no bones about it, Mr. Jobs likes to think of himself as the leader of a movement to make things better.

The alternative that Apple is suggesting is HTML5 programming which according to some is several years away from broad adoption. Since 75% of online video uses Flash (which has the ability to secure and track videos) not having flash on the iPhone or iPad is very limiting and from what I have heard very annoying.
The article also notes that analysts estimate that only 5% of Adobe’s revenue is directly tied to Flash. So it’s not as if the (should Steve Jobs has his way) possible crash of Flash would destroy Adobe. It seems to me that Apple is trying to protect its turf. That’s not the way that I (or many people) have perceived Apple as a company and it may be an indication that Apple has gone from an upstart anti-establishment company to being an ‘establishment’ company.

I suspect that people that work for Apple like working there, and like working for Mr. Jobs thinking that at Apple you are not working for ‘the man’. Those same people then will be disappointed when they figure out that they have might have been working for ‘the man’ all along.

Good Apple or Bad Apple? Or both? What say you?

On May 28th Kodak CMO Jeff Hayzlett will leave Kodak to pursue a television career. He has recently published a book, The Mirror Test: Is Your Business Really Breathing? His new television show is likely to be centered on offering business advice. Mr. Hayzlett has done a remarkable job in keeping Kodak relevant. The fact that he is leaving may be a signal that Kodak is again headed for troubled times. In yesterday’s Wall Street Journal http://bit.ly/bmu4DP it was noted that Kodak relies heavily on payments from intellectual property lawsuits to bolster revenue as it waits for the new initiatives to take hold. That does not strike me as an ideal business model.

Under Mr. Hayzlett, the company created the roles of Chief Listener and Chief Blogger and launched a social media team. Kodak also landed a central spot on NBC’s Celebrity Apprentice, where viewers vote for their favorite Kodak Moment of each episode. Kodak also recently launched a new advertising campaign, emphasizing the “share” capability on its cameras, which allows users to post pictures directly to Facebook and other websites.

Having joined Kodak in April of 2006 as SMO and VP of Graphic Communications, Hayzlett was instrumental in helping Kodak gain a foothold in the digital printing marketplace. Competing with HP’s Indigo and Xerox iGen, Kodak’s NexPress is a very solid performer both for print resellers as well as Kodak.

I visited both Xerox and Kodak back in 2006 and toured their facilities when an associate asked me to help him decide which machine to purchase (the NexPress was $ 3.2 million at the time). I was more enamored with the Kodak technology than the Xerox but both platforms were impressive in their own right. And Rochester, NY is lovely in mid-March after all.

Moving into the digital printing arena was a smart move by Kodak. After all, Instamatic cameras were long gone, film cameras a novelty, and digital cameras were being relegated to special occasions as consumers increasingly used their phone or PDA cameras to take photos. So what’s the next play for Kodak? I would not consider the digital print marketplace to be rife with new opportunity.

Kodak CEO Antony Perez will not replace Mr. Hayzlett, who noted that in staying four years at Kodak it was the longest he had ever stayed in one spot. His resume while at Kodak will read well and I suspect he got out while the getting was good.

What kind of future do you think Kodak has?

The rebuilding of the World Trade Center (WTC) is an ongoing saga. It’s hard for me to believe that nearly nine years after the event of 9/11 construction is only now starting to get into gear. To call it a fiasco might be an understatement and I am overly thrilled with the final design. In addition, a lack of prime tenants (I would not consider the Port Authority of NY/NJ to be a prime tenant) had been of great concern to Larry Silverstein and his development team.

It’s no secret the publishing industry is in the midst of severe changes and employee downsizing. The future of publishing is fast evolving. So let’s say that one the largest and most successful publishers in the world (Conde-Nast – think Vanity Fair, Vogue, etc.) might be uncertain about their future in terms of how many people and they will employ (staff vs. freelance for example). What might they do?

Reading the article in today’s New York Times http://nyti.ms/cHwJyA gave me the idea that Conde-Nast moving out of Times-Square and down to the WTC is a nearly perfect arrangement. It gives the WTC a flagship tenant that very well could attract other possible prime tenants to head back downtown. Conde-Nast currently occupies 800,000 square feet at 4 Times Square as well as five other buildings in Manhattan. One million square feet out of 2.9 million total square feet will be a huge boost to Mr. Silverstein and his partners.

And what does Conde-Nast get? A back door perhaps? If for some reason Conde-Nast were to be smaller than they forecast, (I strongly suspect the brass at Conde-Nast have no idea what their personnel needs will truly be five years from now) they can simply renegotiate lease terms – less space, lower cost per square foot etc. In the meantime both parties can crow about a match made in heaven or at least the 110th floor of this 1,776 foot tower, (to be known as 1 World Trade Center after the term Freedom Tower was scrapped) which is to be the tallest building in the United States.

It’s a risk both parties have a good reason to strongly consider.

Agree? Disagree?

I’ve lived in Connecticut for more than 18 years. Even before my wife and I moved here we visited frequently. On more than one occasion we stopped and shopped at Stew Leonard’s www.stewleonards.com – self proclaimed ‘World’s largest dairy store’. With roots back all the way to 1921 Stew Leonard’s is a Connecticut and now New York State institution. In 1969 Stew Leonard’s opened its first retail dairy store with 7 employees. Stew Leonard Sr. (the stores today are run by Stew Leonard Jr.) wanted retail dairy store where children could watch milk being bottled, while mothers did their shopping in a farmer’s market atmosphere.

Stew Leonard’s practices the ideal – ‘the customer is always right’. Each store carries only 2,000 items. All have a prime butcher, fresh baked goods, as well as fresh fish and produce. Most people do not do their regular grocery shopping at Stew’s. But people do go there if they want a high quality and yes – fun experience. The stores are designed such that you push your cart around in a circuitous manner in and around people who are constantly stopping to get free food and drink samples which are offered throughout the store. That’s fun and an experience. It’s just one reason Stew Leonard’s is a destination place.

For kids it is a fun place too. Outside the Norwalk store is a petting zoo – my children loved it and always wanted to stop there when we first moved to the area. Inside there are motorized displays with animals singing and dancing, and ‘interactive’ displays like pushing the button and hearing the cow moo. So kids love going to Stew’s as well.

It takes a while to navigate the store – not a fast in and out, and anyone that goes there regularly will tell you it is a commitment of sorts. It’s not a bargain store necessarily but not overpriced either and even at the end of the ride Stew Leonard’s shows that they get it. They have a large number of cashiers – all pleasant and fast with baggers helping get you out fast. Spend more than $ 100 and you get a coupon for a free ice cream on your way out.

Consistently Stew Leonard’s is ranked among the 100 best companies to work for in America. http://www.stewleonards.com/press/07Fortune.cfm.

Let’s see, a fun place for the whole family to shop for quality food, where employees are happy and valued. Something every company should aspire to be. How does your company measure up?