Lesson #1: Your Brand is Your Company’s Backbone
Lesson #1: Your Brand is Your Company’s Backbone
At the time, branding was a relatively new concept for entrepreneurs, but it was one that Heinz was all too ready to seize. Because of the relatively untapped market, Heinz knew he would need some way of distinguishing his products. What was it about his products that would make people buy them over his competitors? In answering that question, Heinz decided to focus on four things: the product’s source, its functional attributes, its perceived quality, and its perceived associations.
In starting with his bottled horseradish, Heinz knew that people would be unwilling to buy a new product that they could just have easily made themselves – unless it was of unmatched quality, that is. Through careful packaging and promotion, Heinz began to associate his products with first-class quality goods. Once Heinz noticed the increasing pace of urban life thanks to improvements in transportation and communications, he jumped on the bandwagon. Soon, Heinz was promoting his products as time and energy savers that were not only quick to cook up, but also healthy and full of flavour.
But Heinz’s branding strategy did not fully take off until the introduction of the “57 Varieties” slogan. Heinz had been riding on a streetcar in New York one day back in 1896, when he saw an advertisement for a shoe store; it read “21 Styles.” “I said to myself, ‘we do not have styles of products, but we do have varieties of products,” recalled Heinz. “Counting up how many we had, I counted well beyond 57, but 57 kept coming back to my mind. Seven, seven – there are so many illustrations of the psychological influence of that figure and of its alluring significance to people of all ages and races that ‘58 Varieties’ or ‘59 Varieties’ did not appeal at all to me as being equally strong.”
With that, Heinz immediately jumped off the streetcar, went down to the lithographers, and drafted up a card with the new slogan. “I myself did not realize how highly successful a slogan it was going to be,” he says. Within just weeks, that new slogan was on billboards, in magazines and newspapers, on hillsides, on all product labels, and everywhere else one seemed to look.
Today, the magic of Heinz’s 57 continues. Despite a rapidly expanded product line, the number stuck with the company. Heinz was not sure why he liked the number, or why it seemed to work so well, but he was happy to take it and run with it. As such, he learned that branding was not always in the planning but in the seizing the opportunity.
Lesson 1 Your Brand is Your Companys Backbone
Like this article? Share it with your friends
When Heinz first got his feet wet in the processed foods industry, it was a largely undefined market as of yet. He knew that he was treading new waters and had to act fast to make the most of the opportunity. But Heinz also knew that getting as many new products out onto the market was not the answer. What he had to do was build a strong brand, one that would make sure his products stood out.
At the time, branding was a relatively new concept for entrepreneurs, but it was one that Heinz was all too ready to seize. Because of the relatively untapped market, Heinz knew he would need some way of distinguishing his products. What was it about his products that would make people buy them over his competitors? In answering that question, Heinz decided to focus on four things: the product’s source, its functional attributes, its perceived quality, and its perceived associations.
In starting with his bottled horseradish, Heinz knew that people would be unwilling to buy a new product that they could just have easily made themselves – unless it was of unmatched quality, that is. Through careful packaging and promotion, Heinz began to associate his products with first-class quality goods. Once Heinz noticed the increasing pace of urban life thanks to improvements in transportation and communications, he jumped on the bandwagon. Soon, Heinz was promoting his products as time and energy savers that were not only quick to cook up, but also healthy and full of flavour.
But Heinz’s branding strategy did not fully take off until the introduction of the “57 Varieties” slogan. Heinz had been riding on a streetcar in New York one day back in 1896, when he saw an advertisement for a shoe store; it read “21 Styles.” “I said to myself, ‘we do not have styles of products, but we do have varieties of products,” recalled Heinz. “Counting up how many we had, I counted well beyond 57, but 57 kept coming back to my mind. Seven, seven – there are so many illustrations of the psychological influence of that figure and of its alluring significance to people of all ages and races that ‘58 Varieties’ or ‘59 Varieties’ did not appeal at all to me as being equally strong.”
With that, Heinz immediately jumped off the streetcar, went down to the lithographers, and drafted up a card with the new slogan. “I myself did not realize how highly successful a slogan it was going to be,” he says. Within just weeks, that new slogan was on billboards, in magazines and newspapers, on hillsides, on all product labels, and everywhere else one seemed to look.
Today, the magic of Heinz’s 57 continues. Despite a rapidly expanded product line, the number stuck with the company. Heinz was not sure why he liked the number, or why it seemed to work so well, but he was happy to take it and run with it. As such, he learned that branding was not always in the planning but in the seizing the opportunity.
Lesson 1 Your Brand is Your Companys Backbone
Like this article? Share it with your friends
 | |
 |
No article feedback found. |
| |
Leave Your Feedback |
 | |
| |||
Kim CastleWith nearly two decades in the advertising and design business, with clients like Domino's Pizza, General Motors, Direct TV, Pedigree, Wolfgang Puck, Higher Octave Music, Hollywood Celebrity Products, Disney, and Paramount, as well as thousands of entrepreneurs around the world define, structure, communicate, and position their business for greater profits, BrandU(R) co-creators Kim Castle and W. Vito Montone discovered that entrepreneurs could experience the same power that big brands command for a fraction of the cost with the world's only process-based results-drive Integral approach to business creation. BrandU(R) is helping entrepreneurs grow with the power of extreme clarity from idea...to brand...to market(TM) and helping one million entrepreneurs become successful and whole so that they can make a difference in the world. Are you one of them? If you want to experience clarity all the way to the bank(TM), get started now at http://www.brandu.com. - Visit Kim Castle's Website |
|||
|
To learn more about the Evan Elite Author Program please contact us. | |||
|
 | ||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
 | ||
 |
| Have you written articles that would be of value to entrepreneurs? Become an expert on our site by publishing them! Expose yourself to a wide audience, drive more traffic to your website and get more sales! Click Here for details. |
 |
 |
| Modeling the Masters: Learn the true secrets behind Walt Disney's business success factors & grow your company! Video produced by Phanta Media |
|
|
 |
"Learn straight from Evan how you can Make a Full Time Income (And More) from a Website"
Click Here To Learn More |
|
|
|
|
Get advice & tips from famous business owners, new articles by entrepreneur experts, my latest website updates, & special sneak peaks at what's to come!
|
|
 |
 Managing Generations Leadership 2.0 Business Coaching Easy Product Ideas Feed your body, gain a life |
|
 | ||
 |
Top 50 Productivity Blogs
Top Blogs To Watch In 2009 | |
 |
Top 50 Franchising Blogs
Top 50 Franchising Blogs | |
| ||
 | ||||
| ||||
|
| ||||
| ||||
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||
|
Email us your ideas on how to make our website more valuable! Thank you Sharon from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for your suggestions to make the newsletter look like the website and profile younger entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez and Sean Combs!
|
|
|
