Align Your Brand to the Products You Push

The Drive-By Truckers are my favorite band. (To anyone who hasn’t heard ‘em, listen to them. Now. They’re the last bastion of American music.) Led by Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley, DBT has been around a while. Endless tours… a stack of albums… playing sold out clubs… but they’ve never really “made it.” And frankly, that’s fine. However, recently, the band lent two of their songs to STP Motor Oil for some TV spots. Cooley, with his gravely voice, did the voiceovers too. 

Most of the feedback from fans was great: “Kick ass, Cooley!” “DBT finally makes a buck!” On the flip side, some fans felt it was selling out: “No self-respecting rock band would huck motor oil!” 

But here’s the difference: Motor oil is very DBT. These guys write whole songs dedicated to cars. “Daddy’s Cup” is about a son learning how to race. “Outfit” mentions a “302 Mach One in green.” (If I knew anything about cars like my fiance does, I’d know what that means.) Point is, in a rare foray into product promotion (and honestly, it’s surprising that STP had even heard of DBT), the band chose wisely. They aligned themselves with a product that their fan base actually uses. A lot. They seemed to have maintained a good deal of influence on creative direction of the ads (tough, mean, badass). And they weren’t in-your-face about it: unless you know their songs or Cooley’s voice, you have no idea who’s behind it.

This isn’t like Shaq shilling Buicks. (Seriously, you really think Shaq drives a Buick? Not a chance. But there’s a good chance Cooley uses STP.) And lyrics like this back it up:

I got 350 heads on a 305 engine / I get ten miles to the gallon / I ain’t got no good intentions (“Zip City” - Southern Rock Opera)

Here’s one of the spots:

Pay and We’ll Remove Our “Powered By” Logo!

We’ve all seen freemium models that encourage users to convert to paid by the “if you convert to paid, our branding goes away!” promoting pressure. Sometimes that might be a decent enough incentive. Sometimes a userbase will say, “Meh… I don’t mind your branding.” 

And this brings up an interesting decision point: if you’re going to take this approach, you need to play out a couple scenarios before making the call…

If I’m using a product’s free version and the paid selling point is to have a “powered by [LOGO]” removed, the logo needs to be juuuuuust glaring enough that I’d at least consider my user experience without it. I need to be able to say, “Yeah, you know what? If the company’s logo wasn’t slapped on here, I’d be happier. They can have their $9.99.”

However, if the freemium branding skews too much towards cool (aka, not glaring at all), the majority of users won’t care - and worse yet… they’ll like it. If the “powered by [LOGO]” becomes a badge of cool, you’re sunk. 

Another “however” scenario… What if the “powered by [LOGO]” is so God-awful that it’s halting potential users from even signing up for the freemium version? (Needless to say, a branding exercise is on the horizon.)

So it’s certainly a gray area. One solution? Avoid the “pay and we’ll remove our logo” model. It’s much more effective to convert free users to paid (aka: high-value) on additional functionality that they really want than it is to sell on brand removal.

Case Study: GetRaised

Overview

GetRaised came out of the ChurnlessLabs.  While we were at Thrive, we saw that, as a percentage of income, women were great savers compared to men.  But in terms or raw dollars, there was a sizable gap.  So our product team developed GetRaised, a recommendation engine that shows users whether or not they are underpaid - and gives them the tools to do something about it. 

How It Works

A user tells GetRaised what they do, where they do it and how long they’ve been doing it.  The system compares that data against a mashup of Bureau Labor Statistics data, other anonymized GetRaised user data, and more.  Then, on a bell graph, GetRaised shows the user whether or not they are underpaid.  If they are, GetRaised will help them build a custom raise request for $20.  Think of that custom raise request as a mad lib; it’s an actual letter mapping out the users market value, recent accomplishments and short- and long-term goals that the user will download and deliver to their boss.  The system then coaches the user through the process: negotiation tips, prep recommendations and more.  And if GetRaised doesn’t help the user get a raise in six months, the $20 are refunded.

PR Element

Dave planned, executed and measured all GetRaised PR, content and social efforts.  He earned key coverage in outlets ranging from Forbes to Thrillist to Mashable to the New York Times and more.  He also engaged bloggers focused on workplaces issues and career topics.  Socially, he established Facebook and Twitter communities, measuring engagement and driving awareness.  Dave also led the way in terms of generating guest content for GetRaised on other media outlets and blogs.

Tactical Moment - In addition to traditional media, we pursued GetRaised coverage in daily emails like Thrillist, DailyWorth and LearnVest. Why? The subscribers to these products have signaled that they care about certain topics, specifically lifestyle, personal finance, career growth, etc. The result: quality coverage in front of an already interested audience. Thrillist coverage, by itself, drove about 3,000 visits. In one day.

Product Snapshot

(Note the sweet media coverage!)