[About a 4 minute read; 2 if you skim; 0 minute read if you’re in your prepper hideout deep underground, entirely focused on stocking soup cans and ammo]
Back atcha after just a month. Eureka! This edition covers a range of findings and thoughts from out in the world, from the allure of grilled cheese, to a problem with The Masters tournament (but not what you think), to a fantastic Mr. Fox, to a megadeal, to a clever Tesla hack (also not what you think), when not to brand something, and more.
1. OBSERVATIONS FROM THE BRANDVERSE
Lizard King
The ultimate prize in our game is to create work that accesses the ever-elusive “reptilian brain” (also called “lizard brain”). Reports vary,* but generally the reptilian brain is where the most powerful, most primal, basest-level instincts reside. It’s tough to hit but when you do, it’s like blowing up the Death Star. I have been thinking: is there a repeatable method for reptilian brain access, or it is more like capturing lightning?
This is for sure: you know it when you see it. Consider our latest variety of GOODLES, a mac with notes evoking a toasty buttery grilled cheese sandwich. It is named Thrilled Cheese, aptly. We unveiled it at the Expo West… and people went berserk. Why??? The food is spectacular and the name slays (great job, Molly and Dan respectively) but this one works at a level deeper than functional wins. To me, Thrilled Cheese takes me to childhood, a simpler more innocent time, lunch after a snowball fight, laughter, a warm kitchen full of delightful smells and sounds, MOM. All in a nanosecond. Reptilian.
*Included in the pool of studies on the reptilian brain are a few arguments that there isn’t one. I feel sorry for whoever holds that view, as life must be pretty dull.
Foxy
Speaking of accessing the reptilian brain, I was recently speaking with two great folks whose fund invested in FOX IN THE SNOW, a small but mighty chain of cafes and bakeries in the Columbus, Ohio area. My gosh what an absolutely beautiful name. I just love it. It had me at “hello.” Poetic, romantic, melodic, rich, and warm (ironically). It’s just spectacular. And apparently so is the business.
Nice Par
As a youngster at Saatchi & Saatchi, I worked on campaigns for a handful of over-the-counter brands owned by Johnson & Johnson and its affiliates: TYLENOL, PEPCID AC, MYLANTA, and others. During this time, I was taught the art and science of the “parity claim”: nomenclature drafted to play like an assertion of superiority… but actually, upon closer inspection, isn’t. Example: “No pain reliever works faster.” It’s disingenuous and I never liked it.
This week, as the great American institution “The Masters” golf tournament returns for its 89th edition, you’ll be hearing this line a lot: “A tradition unlike any other.” That is, yep, a parity claim. And not a very good one. Be better, Masters. There is plenty of history and story depth with which to work.
Pop goes the dee-al
Congrats to our friends at POPPI for a giant deal to sell the company to PepsiCo (assuming it closes). Of the BFY sodas and such, I was pretty sure that OLIPOP—which is the bigger of the two, and very popular, pun intended— would get gobbled up first. Nope! POPPI achieved truly epic growth in the 2023-2024 period and $1Bn+ is the bounty for their smarts, wit, and courage. Entrepreneurs must figure out how to make their enterprises profitable (this ain’t 2018, people) but the POPPI deal is a reminder that growth is an aphrodisiac…
Yassification, con’t
I caught up the other day with Emily Groden, founder/CEO of EVERGREEN. They are aiming to provide a beautiful, BFY contemporary upgrade to legacy frozen breakfast staples (we all know the leading incumbent brand; will people “leg-go” of it, and switch?). It’s a strategy that is so simple and clear, a 4th grader could understand it… that’s a very high compliment. This play is another one for the “Yassify 101” file, as referenced in my previous newsletter. Suffice it to say that I’m familiar with this type of game plan, and it works beautifully if you do it right. Keep an eye on this one.
Punky newster
Last month I wrote about “dopamine design,” a design trend marked by exuberant expressions with unexpected megawatt colors and type treatments. Well, I’m not sure that this dope will wear off any time soon; for one, it continues to work really well for GOODLES and other brands (see POPPI). People love it, we love it, carry on.
But if you forced me to identify a new interesting space to mine, it would be this: design aesthetics evoking the original punk mentality. The world is on fire, and a strong “DGAF” mindset is beginning to pervade, especially with young people. In other words, the identical conditions that led to the rise to relevance of the Sex Pistols, Ramones et al. With that rise came a very strong high fidelity signal of a visual world and I think it may come back in a contemporary context…
What’s in a name?
As I have been proselytizing for years, everything is a branding opportunity, and by “everything” I mean everything (although I finally found one exception, which you’ll see when you scroll down). Great branding is especially potent in spaces where it is uncommon.
In that vain, congrats to Schlep, which I discovered parked in front of a neighbor’s house. Wow that’s great, and I’m not being sarcastic. To continue the use of Yiddish (and I’m not even Jewish), the branding world they occupy is defined by, well, schlock. Terrible names, cluttered ugly vans; it’s amateur hour, and not in a charming way. Schlep, on the other hand, is elevated, sophisticated, and somehow adds wit and humor to a field without any of it. I am definitely hiring them next time I have a need they can meet, and I’ll do it just because of the branding. Mazel!
Mess-la
A fantastic old b-school professor and mentor of mine, the great John Sherry, spoke often about “compensatory innovation.” By that, he meant: sometimes people modify or “hack” products because there is an issue with them, but the solution isn’t commercially available. For inno pros: this spells opportunity. Example: P&G discovered that people were crafting makeshift stands to hold toothpaste tubes upside down, making it easier to dispense the goop when ready. So they created the Crest standing toothpaste tube, a big breakthrough at the time and now a category standard. Fast forward to today: the TESLA brand has encountered, um, “a few unresolved issues.” I found these cases of compensatory innovation out there to be ingenious… and very amusing.
Going batty
Speaking of inno hacks, an MIT engineer discovered that baseball bats can be more potent if one distributes the almighty “barrel” portion differently. This new “torpedo” bat design is all the rage now. The @&#* Yankees seem to be the first team to adopt them widely and, as a team, just hit 15 home runs over a single weekend (non baseball fans: that’s a ton, and highly unusual). This minor change is major; the basic form of the bat hasn’t radically evolved in 50 years. Seems obvious in hindsight; all innovations do.
Hello, Dolly
I greatly enjoyed Howard Stern’s interview of Dolly Parton the other day. Included in the conversation was a deep dive into Dolly’s creative process! Some of her pro tips as a creative: (1) fill notebook after notebook with whatever portions of ideas you have, and don’t worry about anything being incomplete; you can fix that later. Even keep a notebook by your bedside table*; (2) Write everything down! The brain is great at generating ideas but terrible at remembering them; and (3) Feeling is the ultimate path to follow. Dolly is really awesome at applying (3): “And IIIIIIIIIIIII-eeee-IIIIIIII will always love youuuuuwhooowhooo...” Holy moly what a tune; clobbers me every time. (Ed: I always thought that Whitney Houston wrote I Will Always Love You. Nope. Dolly did).
*Paul McCartney also famously kept a notebook by his bedside table. His timeless masterpiece Let It Be was sparked by a vision he had, in an overnight liminal dreamstate, of his departed mother visiting him (“Mother Mary comes to me, speaking words of wisdom…”). Had Sir Paul not jotted this down on the spot and had he then forgotten it, the world would have been deprived of a work that is important and meaningful to millions.
Are we there yet?
How big a market opportunity is left for two more sports hydration drinks? And “celebrity brands,” no less? I don’t know. I guess we’ll find out. (Note: when I say ‘I don’t know” here, I mean precisely that. I’m not trying to be negative.)
Pissed off
I discretely grabbed his photo of a urinal (mine) in a men’s room at the Phoenix airport. Look, I’m for prominently branding your wares, and doing it well. Name recognition, indication of source, all that. But not this particular one, in this particular context.
2. INSIDE THE ROPES (OR: “DESIGN THINKING DOING”)
Lookin’ GOODLES
GOODLES continues to amaze. That’s how I opened the GOODLES update last time and I’ll do it again. Headlines this month: we wrapped another successful Expo show. Thanks to the team for the truly Herculean work to pull it off. The booth was a hit but the chef d’oeuvre was the party, where we hosted 2,000+ guests and rocked a prom-for-adults theme (that’s me in a lime green tux). In product news, there is, per uuushe, lots: we announced three new flavor varieties last week, all exciting (not just Thrilled Cheese referenced above). The Queso Tell Me More is our Tex Mex offering and yes there is plenty of “Tex appeal” there.
Kate the great
Big Nose Kate western whiskey continues to rock it, having opened 50 new accounts in Southern California alone this calendar year. Another highlight so far has been the grand opening of a sparkling new Costco in the San Bernardino, Calif. area, graced by Melissa McCarthy and Ben Falcone, who were there on Kate’s behalf. (Yep, that dude is meeting Melissa and Ben with a dog in his backpack. Why not?) The event was a big success and more will follow. If you think Melissa and Ben seem like kind, smart, funny, overall lovely people, it’s because they actually are. BNK is soon opening up a “Friends of Kate” fundraising round reserved for big fans and believers in the mission.
I’m just Wondering…
Small Wonder powder-to-lather shampoo (and now conditioner) is soon launching a serum product that is going to be “serumiously” a smash. Go to Smallwonder.world and sign up for news. And speaking of smashes, the brand was loud and proud at America’s Beauty Show in Chicago last week, and had plenty of traffic at the booth. ABS is sort of like the Expo of the beauty product community, and it’s… wild. A few times I asked myself: am I at a trade show, or Studio 54? It’s glammy. And it’s one big party; there’s a bar cart dishing out cocktails at practically at every corner on the show floor itself (officially backed by the show), and wacky tobbacky permeated the bathrooms (not officially backed by the show, but not policed either). I partook in neither, and was the squarest person at the convention center by far. And still had a great time.
A Front Row Seat At The Revolution (con’t)
My pals at Product Ventures, which is a growing collection of design firms, brought me in last week to talk to a group of industry wonks about what’s happening out there in the brandverse, especially at it relates to the playbook for new brands, trends vs. fads, design hits and misses, and such. This is a continuation of my ongoing “Front Row Seat…” material that first appeared in 2018. I really enjoy doing these sorts of events and will be sharing a few words at a similar one put on by Springdale Ventures and JP Morgan next week. Unless doing so is in direct conflict with one of my own endeavors, I enjoy sharing my experiences with others—which include plenty of mistakes, by the way— to help them get to where they want to go.
That’s a wrap for now. Enjoy the spring, a time of renewal. And if tulips and warmer climes aren’t enough to help you manage these turbulent days, try Calm Down by Pete Yorn. Love the cover art.
Get in touch:
A Day In The Sun
909 Davis Street, 5th floor
Evanston, Illinois 60201
paul@ADayInTheSun.com
I live Goodles. Had no idea it was my reptilian brain.
Thanks for the exuberant update, Paul!
I was also clonked on the head by the first Schlep truck I saw. Clonked because it struck me as simple and brilliant but, annoyingly, I hadn't thought of it myself. Congratulations on you continued Goodles success. Much more to come! Colleen
PS I'm not sure reptiles love their MOMs. That may be the mammalian brain talking.