Product Strategy: FishDuck Wins Big

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing.  Today is Recon Thursday and we’re going to elaborate on one of the philosophies for introducing a new product into the market that we discussed on Monday, the Marketing Concept, by sighting the example of FishDuck.com.

You may recall that the marketing concept revolves around the identification of a product to fill a customer need.  Today’s example demonstrates how a new website vying to capture market share of internet college football coverage leveraged the marketing concept.

Charles Fisher, the founder of FishDuck.com lives in Eugene, Oregon and is a huge fan of Oregon Ducks football.  Over the last few years Oregon’s offense has been one of the most prolific in all of college football.  If their offense is complicated for coaches and players to follow, what about fans?  Charles’ goal was to create a very simple way for loyal Ducks fans to be able to understand the plays as they followed their team.

The concept began when Charles noticed there was something missing on the numerous websites covering college football.  He observed that despite all the coverage of the Ducks, no site provided in-depth analysis of how Chip Kelly’s offense was scoring all those touchdowns.  Charles created FishDuck.com to fill the gap and began sharing videos with Xs and Os clearly explaining how Oregon’s offense was working, the inside read, the outside read, and other techniques.

Over the last year FishDuck.com has gained many followers including ESPN and Bleacher Report, two of the prominent websites that cover college football on the internet.  They are now linking to his videos.

Using the marketing concept, review your products and determine if there are things you could be providing to your customers that they want and you aren’t currently providing.

As Charles identified the fact that fans wanted more information about the Xs and Os and created FishDuck.com, consider the possible Xs and Os you can deliver to your customers.

That concludes Recon Thursday.  Be sure to stop by tomorrow for Digital Friday.  To discuss an online or face-to-face service engagement and enhance the marketing and branding for your organization, contact James Glover: (505) 501-1330 or onceadaymarketing@gmail.com.  I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing and we’ll see you next time.

Branding at the Speed of Ducks (Smart Monday/Positioning)

Hello again, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing, where business takes shape.  And today is Smart Monday and you know what that means, that’s when we increase your knowledge base about all things marketing and branding related.  Today’s title is “Branding at the Speed of Ducks.”  We’re going to define branding citing the University of Oregon’s football team as an example.

Just what is branding?  Branding is the process that you use to create a clear identity of your products and services to target audiences and to also clearly differentiate your product and services from your competition.  You want your customers to understand your brand and to gravitate to your products because they clearly see the unique nature of your product and how it will benefit them.  That’s what branding does.

Why is branding so important?  There are a gazillion products and services out there, how does the typical consumer remember it all.  So through your branding efforts you create messaging that cuts through the clutter.  You create an identity they will remember and hopefully, when it comes time to buy a product or service, they will naturally gravitate right towards yours because of their familiarity and confidence in your brand.

You can tell by my Oregon t-shirt and hat (what I’m wearing in my video blog) that I’m a proud alumnus right now because the University of Oregon Ducks just won their first Rose Bowl in 95 years.  It’s interesting to note that, over the course of these 95 years, the Ducks lost a lot of games but recently they’ve become somewhat of a powerhouse in college football.  They have been leading the pack when it comes to branding.  I can’t think of another team right now in the whole nation that’s doing such a great job in branding their football program.

Through its branding, Oregon is known for many things.  It’s now known as the fastest team out there.  It’s now known for the most innovative coach, for the flashiest uniforms, and the best stadium to play football in.  Probably the #1 mascot in the nation, Puddles, who looks a lot like Donald Duck.  Everything the Ducks are doing right now is to solidify that brand in the market place, to make sure that everybody knows they are a fast, elite college football team. 

This has a lot of positive impact.  It increases their advertising opportunities with sponsors.  It increases ticket sales, and television deals, even gets high school recruits to think about coming to University of Oregon because they want to be on a team like that.  And when those recruits, for instance, clearly understand what the Oregon brand is all about and they are one of those kind of guys―fast and elite football player―then they are going to very interested in the University of Oregon brand.  That’s what branding really does for you.  It focuses people’s thoughts and actions in the direction you want them to go.

To sum it all up, branding is the process that enables you to create the right identity for your product or services in the market place, target the right customers, and clearly differentiate your product from the competition.  That’s why branding is so important to the success of your company: it gives customers a clear understanding of what your product is all about.  We’ll be talking a lot more about this process in Once a Day Marketing over the coming year.

Thanks again for joining us on Smart Monday and please stop by tomorrow for Strategic Tuesday.  I also encourage you to share our site with your friends; we’d love to build our following.  I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing, where business takes shape.  We will see you next time.