Dot Tom

Posthumous portrait of Christopher Columbus by Ridolfo Ghirlandaio.

When Christopher Columbus made his maiden voyage in search of a western route to the East Indies there were many similarities between that venture and the pioneers of social media in organizations today.  It’s an unprecedented request; potentially requiring significant funding & resources; a business case with research and data must be developed; and the project must deliver an attractive and measurable ROI!

It took Columbus more then two years to persuade Queen Isabella’s committee.  Central to his case was his estimation of the circumference of the earth and the argument that he could get to the east faster by going west.  There was also the promise of a huge ROI making Spain competitive in the Indies spice trade.

Once approved, Columbus set sail with the blessings of senior management.  Unfortunately Columbus drastically underestimated the earth’s circumference and assumed there was only ocean between Spain and the Indies.  He landed in the Bahamas. He also misinterpreted this data believing he had landed on the East Asian Mainland.  Nevertheless this voyage is remembered for many crucial discoveries and his subsequent travels benefited from improved metrics.

In the world of Web 2.0 the evolution of social media is well beyond any “Pre-Columbian Era”.  We stand on the shoulders of explorers that have gone ahead of us paving the way with ever more user-friendly and commercialized solutions.  The state of social media simply awaits inspired ideas, informed intuition, and strategic vision applied to unique industry needs to be the catalyst for further exploration and innovation.  In the future, today’s tools may seem as antiquated as a Model-T but unlike the advent of commercial auto industry, the roads are already paved for social media.

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Generic Cola Can - Jewel Supermarket

I read a very interesting post on the Branding Strategy Insider Blog that got me thinking about house brands and how beneficial they are to driving product innovation and in particular a product’s value proposition.  Granted house brands are often a lower cost version of a brand name but there is genuine innovation going on here.  There is no doubt that the manufacturing processes are being optimized, there are lower R&D costs, product components or ingredients are being changed to add to that cost optimization and of course they are being placed in head to head competition on retail shelves.  Nevertheless if the consumer chooses the house brand over the name brand, the price is only one component of that decision.

Twenty five years ago when “generic” brands first hit the marketplace, the “branding” was designed to tell the story that they were a cheap but serviceable alternative to the real “brand name” products.  The stenciled font used clearly identified them as taking very little effort in packaging cost and offered a tremendous value and price savings.  As a young couple my wife and I made ends meet with these un-branded brands.

Today even though our household income is substantially greater, house brands STILL fill our pantry.  Whenever we feel that a house brand is about equivalent to the leading brand we will invariable pick the house brand and typically save a bundle.

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