How rally towels were invented...

I was lucky enough to work for the St. Louis Cardinals in college from 1986-1990 and then again from 1993-1997. I started out as a switchboard operator and customer service rep answering general Cardinal information, working as the front office receptionist and filling in for secretaries around the office. When they figured out I was smart and had more to offer, I moved to the promotions department.

In 1987 during the World Series, Bud Light sponsored an adult t-shirt giveway. That October night was windy and cold so everyone came to the game wearing winter coats. So instead of possibly putting on their new, cool, give away shirt, they just carried them to their seats.

Later I was watching the game from the offices and the coolest thing happened. All the fans started waving their shirts in the air. Instead of the usual sea of red, it was a sea of white waving spirit shirts! AWESOME!

We quickly went to work on producing actual rally flags for the next games. I’m sure one of the AB brands was the sponsor (one of the benefits of being an Anheuser-Busch subsidiary). And when the series moved to Minnesota, they totally stole the idea and and gave away rally flags!

At least, that’s my memory of how rally flags were invented. Pretty cool!

Updating product labels...20 years later

It’s been a very exciting year for the marketing department at Reliv with our rebranding efforts. So once we successfully launched the brand standards and the new logo, our next big project was to tackle our core product labels.

In the 20+ years of my marketing career, I’ve never worked for a company with a tangible consumer product. The St. Louis Cardinals was more of an experience; Charter Communications (cable TV and high-speed Internet) was more of a service evolving into a utility; at AVALA Marketing Sea Ray Boats was my major client but that’s not really a consumer packaged good; Maritz was b-2-b sales and marketing service model. So the label redesign was a very exciting opportunity for me.

Before the designers began concept one, we started with team discussion around a general label strategy. This really was a luxury to be able to redesign everything at once instead of one at a time. We could create a true line of products where they all look like they are from the same family, but each child has his own personality.

The labels had not changed since the launch of each product in the late 80’s through 2008. We launched a very cool, new, exciting product in February of 2011 called 24K. It was our first ready-to-drink product and featured a very modern and exciting label and was the first to feature our new label and color palette. The label redesign was an opportunity to build off 24K and create a balance across the line.

We wanted all the labels to appeal to a younger demographic and to people leading healthy active live but not alienate our core group of Distributors who skew over 50 and many of which are ‘sick and getting better.’

We wanted the labels to support cross-selling opportunities via common design elements.

Trust is one of our core values. We decided to create ‘trust’ icons for our 30-Day Money Back Guarantee, gluten-free and for the number of grams of soy protein.

We created a patent icon that would be consistent in design and placement across all patented products

We wanted consistent placement of the Reliv logo on all products so that at a glance your eye could scan and see the bold, circle logo on every can.

Considerations also needed to be made regarding the limitations of flexography printing. Because of budget and time resources we were not in an environment to research other label styles that would require changes to our internal manufacturing equipment.

Our next step was to create a mini-brief or personality profile for each product. We discussed the target audience, value prop and descriptors for each product. We put into words what we wanted the designs to deliver. E.g. ProVantage is our performance nutrition protein product. We wanted the label to ‘flex its muscles.’

We reviewed these strategy documents with everyone who would be involved in approving the concepts. This put the entire team on the same literal page of expectations.

We staggered the timeline for the new designs into batches based on manufacturing timelines. I factored in the travel schedules for all stakeholders to be sure that approvals would not be delayed. I also scheduled the first round of concept reviews for each batch weeks and months in advance to be sure we wouldn’t miss any dates.

I couldn’t have asked for the process to run more smoothly. The art department ‘knocked it out of the park!’ We flew through the approval process. Most of the first rounds of designs were approved with minor tweaks. The team pushed-back on a couple of designs (and rightly so) and the art department dug deep and gave us better designs. I am so proud of these designs. They are thoughtful, restrained and complex. We achieved everything in the strategic briefs and now they are getting rave reviews from the field. What a fun and satisfying accomplishment for me and my team.

Updating a Brand...20 years later

For most of my marketing career, I’ve worked for companies that had a well-defined brand strategy and I simply executed against or worked to refine the strategy. I was very surprised when I started at Reliv to find they had no formal, written brand guidelines and no logo standards. With an internal art department this provided a level of unguided freedom but there was nothing to anchor all of the creative so that you knew it was all from the same company. As a result, marketing collateral and product labels lacked consistency and cohesiveness.

Our management committee established a strategic initiative to “refresh, renew and reinvigorate” the brand. Looking back, I think their expectations were focused on our core product labels. Were they in for a ride!

As the new Director of Marketing, I needed to understand what I was trying to refresh! I improvised using a process I learned from the Market Intelligence group at Maritz. Normally this would involve conducting primary research to better understand the buyers, their perception of our brand and what aspects of our value proposition they see as table stakes or as valued and different. I knew we had zero budget for outside research so I simulated that process with our executives.

I began a brand audit with a core team of sales and marketing colleagues. We met to brainstorm and collaborate on initial thoughts about the Reliv brand. We created a laundry list of honest attributes, both positive and negative, that could be considered as our core values, brand personality and voice. Everyone contributed their own thoughts and brought in feedback from past conversations with the field. The output of these meetings was used as stimulus material for 1:1 executive interviews. This process was fascinating. Even without any formal brand guidelines, there was a tremendous amount of consistency in everyone’s perception of the brand. Integrity, quality and trust were mentioned by almost everyone as core values. It made me appreciate the legacy of what this company has accomplished.

The core team also reviewed secondary research from GfK Roper Consulting on global consumer trends. As a member of the AMA (American Marketing Association) I had been invited to attend a virtual conference on Marketing Research. I was thrilled as the team from GfK was presenting their slides and so many of their trends were perfectly aligned with Reliv. A few examples:

Consumers are becoming increasingly self-directed

Consumers crave security and trust

Higher level of concern with health and safety

Recession has been a ‘green’ stimulus

People are reaching out to others

Wellness, charity and green are intertwined values

After considering all data points, the core team decided upon Reliv’s mission statement, value proposition, core values, brand personality and brand voice. These were comprised of a combination of attributes that were presently true and a few that were aspirations and would guide new messaging.

With brand standards established, marketing evaluated these new descriptors against current marketing efforts and established a new color palette, approved fonts, photo style and general design and copy guidelines.

During my 1:1 executive interview with the President and CEO, he had given me the history of the logo and specifically advised me not to touch the logo during this process! My art director took it upon herself to modify the current logo. She raised the issue: our newly defined brand personality and voice no longer fit our current logo. We either had to change the brand or change the logo. We quietly socialized the new logo concept among the core team and everyone was in agreement.

Months of work culminated in a formal presentation to the management committee with the core team’s recommendation on our core values, brand personality and voice. And with the President sitting next to me, I proposed that we change the very logo that he specifically requested that we never change!

Professionally and personally this was a big moment for me. I had only been with the company for a year and I was proposing a change to their sacred teal logo…a logo that had never changed. But from a strategic perspective it was clear: change the logo or change the personality and voice.

This wasn’t about me and what I wanted or thought was right. I think we had the right people involved in the process. We took the time to review the research and thoughtfully debate the various attributes. The process guided the team to a collective agreement.

I am happy to say that when we launched the new logo and the brand standards to the field at our national conference it was all met with rave reviews. Our Distributors live and breathe our brand so they ate it up! The changes to the logo, while subtle to the naked eye, have made a vast impact on our design. The new standards have put everyone literally ‘on the same page!’ Now everyone talks about core values and being the brand…not just the marketing department!

Remembering 9/11

Watching the footage this morning I had a hard time to stop crying. Personally, I didn’t know anyone who died that day in any of the attack sites. Like everyone else on Twitter, Facebook and TV I thought about where I was and how I heard.

I had arrived at work sometime between 7:30 and 8am. I remember checking Yahoo and there was a single sentence as the lead news story. Something simple like “Plane hits World Trade Center.” The site was getting too much traffic and wouldn’t completely load. I imagined a small four-seater plane accidentally hitting a corner of one of the buildings. At that point, there was no way to imagine or comprehend what really happened.

We piped in a news radio station to our speaker phones so we could listen to the news. Even when the first tower collapsed there was still feeling of denial. There’s no way a building over 100 stories could have collapsed. I just couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I had been to the viewing deck on a really special trip to New York. There’s just no way.

It’s odd, in my previous two jobs with the Cardinals and Charter, I was used to everyone having a TV in their office. My boss ran home to get a small portable TV so we could see the news coverage. I didn’t see any footage of the towers falling until probably 10 or 10:30 St. Louis time. I still didn’t believe what I was seeing.

Experiencing this devastating event with co-workers was interesting. My title at that time was project manager and I shared an office with another pm. I remember us talking about how crazy it was that Bin Laden could ‘project manage’ this incredibly complex and senseless attack on four different sites from a cave in Afghanistan. The coordination of all the people, their specific assignments, their training, booking all the flights, getting the exact seat, getting through security etc. Imagine if he had put all those resources together for some good.

I have to say, after watching a lot of the footage and memorial shows today, State Farm nailed it with their commercial with the kids singing the Alicia Keyes song “Streets of New York” to a group of fire-fighters.

Facebook saved this kitty

This beautiful baby wandered into my yard one Saturday night during a party. She was super sweet and friendly and did not seem like a stray. I put food and water out for her. She came back Sunday and then disappeared Monday. My fellow cat owner friends thought she might be an indoor-outdoor kitty (a concept I don’t understand at all!) But then she returned on Tuesday.

It’s so easy to change the channel when the commercial comes on playing Sara McLachlan’s Angel and show’s all the homeless animals. It’s not so easy to ignore the sweetest kitty camping out on your back porch. I put out a kennel so she had a place to sleep, kept her in fresh food and water and spent time petting her each day.

I posted this picture on Facebook on multiple friends’ and neighborhood group sites. A girl in my neighborhood offered to foster her. She took her to a local vet and found out she was not micro-chipped, she fostered her for a few days and a friend ended up taking her. Facebook saved this kitty. How cool is that?

Networking Tips from an 11 Year Old

My nephew Eric clearly inherited my mom’s ‘talking’ gene. He talks non-stop. He can carry on a conversation with adults just as easily as his friends. The last few times we’ve hung out I’ve noticed his ‘ice-breaker’ question leads with “What’s your favorite…?”

After I took him to the final Harry Potter movie…”Aunt Chris, what was your favorite part?” Mine was when you find out Snape was a good guy the whole time and made the ultimate sacrifice to go undercover as a bad guy to watch over Harry because he had been in love with Harry’s mom, Lily, since they were kids. His was the part when the fire was blazing through the room where everything is hidden and it turned into a snake and dogs.

“What’s your favorite thing at Taco Bell?” He’s just a basic crunchy taco with cheese nacho kinda guy. I like the very decadent Crunch-wrap Supreme.

We were watching “The A-Team” movie…”Aunt Chris, who’s your favorite character?” Mine was Bradley Cooper. Eric likes the crazy guy, Murdoch.

Eric is the cutest kid, he’s never met a stranger. It’s so amazing watching him grow up and have this funny, charming confidence. I took him to Chicago for his 10th birthday. We were at a Cubs game and he was dressed head to toe in his Cardinals gear. A Chicago policeman sat next to me and he and Eric hazed and heckled each other the entire game. I love that Eric inherited my mom’s talking gene and that he can talk to anyone (kinda like his aunt Chris). And the next time I’m at a networking event, I’m totally stealing his “what’s your favorite…” as an ice-breaker.

and PS, this photo is from our Chicago trip, pre-Cubs game, he asked if he could order a cappuccino. Of course Aunt Chris said yes. After he added three sugar packets, he took a tiny sip and hated it, so of course, Aunt Chris drank the cappuccino.

Circle of Life...all in one day

Friday, July 15, I attended a funeral, a wedding and a baby shower. I experienced a full range of emotions and a deeper level of introspection…much more than a typical Friday.

Baby Shower
The morning started with a ‘food day’ celebrating the pending arrival of baby Levi. Everything from cheesey-bacon-tator tots, a breakfast casserole, monkey bread, the token healthy fruit tray and of course, cupcakes with the plastic safety pin topper. I had a really interesting conversation with Amy, the expectant mother, about what a true miracle it is that a woman’s body can conceive and grow a baby to term…everything from eye lashes to fingernails and the ability to laugh and cry. While I will never have this life experience, I can certainly appreciate the magnitude.

It makes me think…a newborn baby represents the possibilities that life offers. Maybe little Levi will be the next president of the United States or beat Michael Phelps’ Olympic gold medal record in swimming or invent the next generation’s iPod or simply be a good man who loves his family, is happy and enjoys life to the fullest.

Babies start with a clean slate. Babies aren’t born with racism or homophobia. They don’t know how to bully or gossip. Their laughter is pure joy. They are more curious about the cardboard box than the expensive designer toy. As they grow older their imagination has the ability to turn a blanket into a secret castle. When you ask them what they want to be when they grow up they say “a baseball player, a fireman AND a doctor”…no limits, everything is possible.

Funeral
Mid-morning I left the office to attend my first Jewish funeral service. The funeral was for my friend Sandy’s father who had passed away at the age of 95. I was raised Catholic so I’m most familiar with a full funeral mass. (I know this is dorky but I Googled “jewish funeral service” to see what to expect.) The temple was a simple room compared to many Catholic Churches with their mosaics, stained glass windows and statues. But the acoustics were perfect to hear Rabbi Amy Feder officiate the service.

The minimal service had a comforting flow of poignant readings, quotes, commentary and songs. The Rabbi’s voice was simply beautiful unaccompanied by an organ or piano as I’m used to. The verses she sang had this ancient rhythm that drew me into their rituals and traditions. And when the Rabbi spoke, she displayed emotion and passion unlike Catholic priests and lectors who tend to read in a robotic monotone. As sad as funerals can be, I appreciate the gift it is to share this experience with a close friend.

Sandy’s brother spoke and the rabbi read letters from Sandy and her sister to their father. It’s inspiring to hear the love and admiration for a man who deeply touched many lives. Sometimes people discount your grief of someone who dies at an advanced age…”oh he lived a long life” or “it was time.” I think this makes the grief more profound because you have more years of memories and experiences with the person who is now gone.

It makes me think…have I lived my life creating the memories and experiences that I will be satisfied with at the end? Have I taken advantage of all those possibilities that lie before me when I was born?

Wedding
I hurriedly left the office to commute through rush-hour traffic to get to the 5:30 wedding ceremony of my cousin Jared. I think weddings are the ultimate act of optimism. More marriages end in divorces than last ‘till death do us part’…so anyone who is willing to stand up in front of their closest friends and families and make this commitment knowing the odds are against them has to be filled with optimism that their relationship is different.

It makes me think...when you’re sitting in church you can’t help but reflect on your own life, your own hopes and your own relationships. Watching two people who are truly in love is inspiring. I like that feeling of optimism.

Final Thoughts

At the end of the funeral service they brought the casket over to the family for a final moment before the procession out of the temple. My heart broke as Sandy’s mom sobbed, calling out to her husband with such pain her voice. Her grief was palpable in the room. They had been together 68 years, what a gift. Life and all of its experiences, good and bad, is a gift. And it’s days like this that remind you to appreciate it.

and PS: wow what a crazy thought filled Friday!