The last decade has seen increased attention paid to what a brand stands for, beyond the product they sell. No longer do consumers simply want a good product – they want to stand for something they believe in at the same time. Tom’s Shoes gives a pair of shoes to the less fortunate for every pair purchased. Patagonia represents sustainable manufacturing for outdoor gear. American Apparel says no to overseas sweatshops and child labor. Apple designs products that push the status-quo and embrace the elegance of simplicity.

What a wonderful world it is. Unfortunately, there is one problem with all of these brands – they are all quite expensive. You have to pay a hefty premium to buy an iPod rather than a Zune, an American Apparel v-neck rather than Hanes, a Patagonia rain jacket rather than one from Walmart, and a pair of Tom’s Shoes rather than a pair from H&M. Not everyone has the luxury of expendable income to pay a 2x markup, but I’m sure they would still like to stand for something through their purchases.

Let’s forget about clothing and technology for a moment and examine a much smaller scale. Can the same stances be taken for highly commoditized goods as well? The definition of a commodity is that you don’t care which one you have because they are all the same. One brand’s iodized salt is identical to the next. But instead of looking so closely at the product, let’s look at the brand itself.

Let’s say you have two brands selling salt. Bradley’s costs $1.00 and Chuck’s costs $1.05. You know that they sell identical products, so logically you would choose the cheaper option. Now for the twist. Bradley’s ships their salt to the store on sleighs pulled by puppies and aren’t shy about using their whips to get moving faster. Chuck’s is a brand that came about to provide a direct foil to Bradley’s – they ship their salt by truck and donate 1% of all profits to PETA. Now which brand would you buy?

Of course, a 5% premium doesn’t sound so bad now! But even more importantly than the fact that it is a 5% premium, it is a 5 cent premium – something that is accessible for everyone who buys salt (which cannot be said about premium brands like Patagonia and Apple).

Some questions come out of this thought experiment. Is there a margin for any commoditized product that can be successfully taken by a “righteous” brand? Is it only an option when the established brands are bad? What about neutral? Can these “righteous” brands come into existence without a marketing budget that would kill their narrow margins above commodity prices?
 

Photo: collective nouns

This blog is largely composed of writings intending to teach or explore a subject I finding interesting. Some posts are about subjects I know quite well, like nerdy ratios. But the vast majority of posts are about subjects that I want to learn about, like how check-sum digits work on credit cards. The beauty of having a blog with intelligent readers is that I have an excuse to research the subject, internalize it, and output a concise explanation.

Unfortunately, I’m finding that it is going to be difficult to produce research-based posts while traveling. With limited internet access, I simply don’t have the opportunity to explore a new subject to the level required to write a blog post on it.

I could react to this in one of two ways. The first is to simply stop writing blog posts while I’m traveling since I can’t write the heavily researched posts I love so dearly. But a far better solution is to see this as an opportunity to explore alternative types of posts.

So stay tuned for new posts that might be a little bit different. Rather than being so factual, they will be of a nature that can’t be argued with (and thus doesn’t require supporting data) – things like personal beliefs and observations of the world. Do you have any other ideas?

Photo: Amy Lenzo

Merry Christmas to all! I know exactly what you should ask for next Christmas – a pet reindeer! There are three reasons why a reindeer would be a great pet.

Antlers

Reindeer lose their antlers every year and grow them back. This means each year you have your pet reindeer, you’ll have another set of antlers to hang in your den. Couple this with that facts that reindeer have the largest antlers to body size ratio of any deer and both males plus females have antlers, and you have a hell of a pet.

Milk

Pretty much all we drink is cow milk, and maybe occasionally some goat milk, but there are many other animals that product excellent milk, including reindeer. Compared to cow milk, reindeer milk has 3 times the protein, 6 times the fat, and half the lactose. Sounds pretty good, but be warned – it is pretty labor intensive as it requires someone to hold the antlers while someone else milks. Probably worth the effort though.

Santa Costume

How legit would it be to have a live reindeer to go along with your Santa costume? Can you imagine a reindeer pulling you down Lombard Street at SantaCon next year?

Most people avoid confrontation when possible. Makes sense, why get into a dispute if you don’t have to? But sometimes a little confrontation now can avoid a massive fight later on – by talking through things early, you can keep harmful thoughts from building up inside until they boil over. This is important in almost any relationship – business partnerships, love interests, foreign relations, etc. However, we don’t do it because it can be very uncomfortable. Some subjects are very sensitive: sexual orientation, religion, political beliefs, finances, the list goes on.

I’m generally very passive in this regard, just letting people believe what they want to believe – especially with religion and politics (but then again maybe this is just because I don’t have the burning passion about them that some people have). My thinking took a turn after reading the appendix of “Eating Animals”, in which the author explains the importance of vegetarians spreading the gospel to end factory farming and save the world. I learned that if you have the goal of making change in this world, you are going to need to recruit others on your side, even when the subject is sensitive or others don’t immediately care.

One individual can have a humongous influence with the ripple effect, where the new recruit turns around and recruits someone else. In the example of choosing not to eat meat, there are three meals a day where you influence others without getting up on a soapbox. But is that enough? To do more would require an uncomfortable conversation. I am willing to make the personal sacrifice of limited food options, but am I willing to put myself in awkward situations where I am apparently judging others’ beliefs?

Meatetarian or vegetarian is not even the most sensitive of subjects. What about other areas I might like to influence those around me? Especially those that don’t obviously and publicly occur three times a day. Even worse, during these conversations I would likely find strongly entrenched beliefs rather than the chosen indifference of meat-eaters. Good luck to anyone who wants to talk to my Grandfather about how the president is performing.

I recently watched a TED talk about the most sensitive topic of all, religion. It is ridiculous in this day and age that we can’t openly talk about religious beliefs when the other person isn’t the same religion. It’s even more ridiculous that such small differences in beliefs lead to wars. The first step to overcome this is to openly talk about religion and truly understand one another. Well, what better way to start this understanding than watching a video you are not likely to agree with? Here is Richard Dawkins advocating militant atheism. Keep reading…

It has been almost a month since my last post – no I have not forgotten nor abandoned you. On the contrary, I have been spending my time becoming a more interesting person and broadening my perspective, which will only result in more interesting things to write about.

What have I been doing? As you may know, I left my job a few weeks ago to travel the world before the next step in my life. Traveling is important for building perspective – we all get caught up in our environment without realizing that there are other ways we can live our lives. This can manifest itself in many ways, but there are a couple specific examples I want to closely examine.

The first is what I call work-fun balance. The United States has a different relationship with work than any other place in the world. I don’t think I have to go into it here, but some countries have 35 hour work weeks and 8 weeks of vacation. They work to live and don’t put the same intense focus on their careers. The work-fun balance is particularly pronounced in my environment – having gone to an elite university, I am surrounded by friends that are on the hardcore side of US work schedules.

The second is how each of us approach money. Americans comparatively don’t travel as much and spend more money on possessions. There is a strong “keeping up with the Joneses” mentality that causes us to spend approximately what those around us spend. Running up a $100 bar tab, spending $50 on a meal, and popping into Vegas for the weekend – are these things I fully appreciate or just do because of my environment?

I don’t think my current perspective on these items is necessarily wrong – really there is no right or wrong. But I want to realize that there are other options available – in the end, not making a choice on these matters is effectively the same as a conscious decision.

What else should I focus on during my time on the road?