Love this product. Love the name just about as much. While it’s reminiscent of my school-girl dreams of becoming Wonder Woman one day (yes, it was a gold belt but an invisible plane), this product meets the needs of women on so many levels. No longer having to choose a traditionally bulky accessory, gals can keep their fashion integrity while still maintaining comfort and style.

The manufacturers of the Invisibelt could have gone a lot of different directions when deciding on a name – trendy, obscure, arbitrary. Instead, they spoke to form and function. Nice job being clever with a descriptive name.

There is always excitement and discomfort with change. Your portfolio of products or services may change gradually through organic growth or expand suddenly due to a merger or acquisition. There is a prayer you can manage portfolio change with care in the former case, but sudden growth always raises key challenges.

When Portfolios Merge
There is usually a sound business strategy behind a corporate merger. This could include expanding an identical product or service into an enlarged geographic footprint or expanding an array of products within the same general product category. The closer the add-on products are to the original, the easier it will be for company employees and customers (new and merged) to embrace the new products.

However, let’s consider the corporate combination (whether small or large scale) that introduces whole new categories of merchandise or service to the buying audiences of both former entities. Now HERE’s where internal AND external brand positioning mind-bending can occur.

Questions can start to creep in that could well affect the overall corporate brand, its place in the cosmos, its reason for being. This may sound overly dramatic, but altering a portfolio mix will have a direct functional impact on every level of the organization. Some might be minor, like adding a few pages to a catalogue or web site, or redrafting the organizational chart. But, unless strategic clarity is applied to the change, the rationale and subsequent merger execution could also never quite congeal with employees and customers.

Who Needs to Know What
WHY did this merger happen, to whom does it make the most sense, who benefits and how? A logical explanation must be given to all employee groups. And not just once, but as an ongoing reminder to sustain the pain of adjustment they will be enduring. You can simply call it vigilant internal communications, but, for it to be truly successful, it should really be a long term, internal MARKETING campaign. Nothing less than the integrity of the overall, master brand is at stake.

Certainly, external audiences, especially all current and potential customer groups, should receive clear and consistent messages about why these new products are now part of the corporation’s offering. It should be seen as a rationally expanding family group, with next to none of the externally visible dysfunction any newly-blended family inevitably experiences.

Going Forward
THEN, how you avoid purchase decision-making confusion or paralysis from that point on has a lot to do with how the portfolio is structured and how products are named. Pay close attention to what everything is called. If names need to change, allow adequate time for all involved to absorb and become familiar with the change. Blending companies is just as delicate a task as merging families… just a heck of a lot larger!

Contributed by Bev Brandt

My mother is obsessed with her iPhone. While she taps away on her touchscreen all day, she asks me why I don’t trade in my “clearly less superior” iPod nano (5th generation) for Apple’s newer flagship device. My typical response is that my iPod is my music device and nothing more, and that’s the way I like it, thank you very much.

But then people started using Facebook from their iPhones. Then Angry Birds became popular to play on-the-go. Now, all of my friends have started playing Words with Friends (appropriately).

But me? I’m still here with my iPod. And I’m starting to think my mom has a point.

We are approaching an age of the all-or-nothing device. Phones aren’t appealing to consumers unless they can offer Internet access, Skype capabilities, a slew of apps, e-mail, a GPS, video players, and music, just to name a few features. The basic iPod, which is only a music (and sometimes video) player, simply can’t compete anymore, and so its brand is suffering a slow demise.

The iPhone, on the other hand, is so adept at meeting every technological need that Apple is willing to let the iPod brand be exceedingly eclipsed by the iPhone brand. Why would Apple invest time and money to revive an increasingly irrelevant iPod brand, when it can minimally advertise the lucrative iPhone and garner massive earnings?

By choosing to essentially leave its iPod brand strategy alone, Apple’s sales are starting to reflect iPhone domination. Where iPod sales superseded those of iPhones by $13 million in 2010, that amount shrunk to only a $3 million difference in the first quarter of 2011. If the sales gap diminished that much in just one year, the outlook seems very favorable for iPhones.

The iPod brand’s last saving grace could be its highly established brand image. Like it or not, iPhones will always have their roots from the iPod brand, both in name and in likeness – and many people will always refer collectively to the products as “iPod” devices. Even so, it will be difficult for iPods to hold their own in the coming years against their all-encompassing, digital successors.

Contributed by Allison Meeks

From new sizes to a new logo, the Starbucks brand has seen many changes in the last year. Following the introduction of wine and beer to its menu options, Starbucks has also extended its food offerings.

Starbucks is introducing a line of “ bistro boxes,” in snack and entree sizes, priced from $4.95 to $6.95 and all under 500 calories. The initial entrees are chipotle chicken wraps, sesame noodles, chicken lettuce wraps and salumi and cheese. The new menu items reflect a ramped-up emphasis on food at Starbucks, which has generally focused on breakfast sandwiches and pastries.

From booze to bistro boxes, Starbucks has moved far beyond the classic cup of joe. The Starbucks brand started with a focus on coffee. Baristas were trained in coffee knowledge and served high quality coffee due the strict control over the quality and processing of the beans. Aroma, atmosphere, flavor and store design stimulated all five senses and contributed to an overall “Starbucks Experience.”

Though food items are nothing new, previously served pastries acted as complements to the coffee. As the menu at Starbucks keeps growing, edible items are standing out on their own. I don’t want to wash down my chipotle chicken with a vanilla latte. Add other innovations such as books and music to the mix and it’s no surprise  Starbucks dropped the word “coffee” from its name and logo.

New ideas and expanded menus don’t appear to be a problem for Starbucks loyalists. With corporate restructuring plans in place and new stores opening in India and Vietnam, expansion of the Starbucks brand doesn’t seem to be slowing any time soon.