Corporate Comics Update: Honest-Tea, It Works!

Using comic-book style elements within corporate collateral is a branding approach that we've profiled more than once..Lo and behold, Honest Tea's co-founder Seth Goldman, a Yale graduate, is applying his smarts to a proven method by telling his corporate story with pictures..

Here's the excerpt from today's NY Times snapshot courtesy of Elizabeth Olson:

WHEN it was building its brand, the beverage maker Honest Tea stayed off the conventional marketing grid, opting for samplings, recycling events and word of mouth to reach its audience. Now the company’s founders are taking an alternate route to telling a button-down corporate history and are instead laying out their story, warts and all, in the pictorial form of a comic book.

“People ask me if it’s a graphic novel, and I say that it’s graphic, but not a novel,” said the Honest Tea co-founder Seth Goldman. Together with Barry Nalebuff, who was his professor while at the Yale School of Management, the two are sharing their company-building lessons in illustrated panels that track the brand’s start in 1998 — and its many missteps and near disasters — through to the flourishing company that was bought in 2011 by Coca-Cola. 

To lay out the dozen years of Honest Tea’s ups and downs before that point, Mr. Goldman borrowed an idea from something he loved doing with his three sons — reading comic books. He wanted to illustrate the company’s story, and persuaded Mr. Nalebuff, who has written five other books, to come aboard. 

Using Comic Book Format To Introduce Innovative Ideas: Google Case Study

For those that might have seen a posting made here almost a year ago, you'll appreciate that we presciently pontificated on the increasing use of comic book-style strategies within corporate publications, main-stream marketing and advertising collateral, and as Google has done courtesy of famed comic book king Scott McCloud, within new product launch announcements.

As observed by leadership guru Mark Murphy, founder of LeadershipIQ, "...the need to address the needs and tastes of Gen Y, a group that is dominating the new work force and represents the most sought after consumer demographic cannot be underestimated.." What Murphy is saying is that we need to speak the language of what is becoming our largest audience, and to deliver messages in a way that inspires, influences and win their votes.

Comic book format messaging became widespread in Japan several years ago, and the 'style' has been successively and successfully embraced by Fortune brands in the course of executing a wide spectrum of marketing and awareness initiatives.

Whether Google's Chrome browser supercedes Microsoft IE, or Firefox (a browser that we have aggressively recommended to corporate and educational industry clients soon after it was introduced)is only something that time can determine. Switching browsers is relatively easy and painless, switching mindsets is something else. Especially when many are hyper-sensitive when it comes to privacy; Chrome will undoubtedly come equipped with imbedded tracking applications that can be used to further enhance Google's Adwords platform and deliver ever-more focused demographic zoning features.

#SteveJobs Bio in #ComicBook Format: Buys into Approach From JLC Group 2008 BlogWe Told You So!!

According to AP, Steve Jobs is cementing his iconic image with the release of a bio in comic book format.

By MATT MOORE AP Business Writer

PHILADELPHIA June 14, 2011 (AP)

Steve Jobs, the public face of Apple Inc., is getting a biographical comic book.

Publisher Bluewater Productions Inc. said Monday it will bring a 32-page biography — titled "Steve Jobs: Co-Founder of Apple" — of the iconic CEO to comic book shops, bookstores and online retailers Aug. 24, detailing his life and career.

Before you click on the the full story, .according to Associated Press.  look back to the September 2008 blog post right here, and you'll understand why we're patting ourselves on the back; after all, we've been promoting this very idea for years, and its one that has since become a proven branding application.

The issue isn't why Jobs waited two years to embrace the application that we've long advocated as a being a key weapon within a larger branding arsenal, the issue is that he's the most recent icon to do so.

Comic Books: Leveraging The Success of Graphic Novels within a Marketing Message

Last year, after noting a bulging trend out of Japan, we pontificated that "comic book-style" messaging would proliferate into mainstream marketing and assorted publications, including How-To books and mags.

Last week BusinessWeek Magazine re-affirmed that notion ""Graphic books on bsuiness are already a hit in Japan. With Johnny Bunko, the genre heads for the U.S..."

Why is this trend gaining traction? Pretty simple, really. We're inundated with txt msgs, overloaded with blackberry correspondences, and overwhelmed with email. Our eyeballs are looking at millions of alpha, symbol, and numeric characters, and for many, elevating premature ADD.

Putting a message within a visually appealing and easy to connect with format is a concept that started with the caveman. Expect to see lots more series-based messaging delivered within graphic novel aka comic book elements.

No Joke: #MarthaStewart Goes Comic; #FlashSale: The New #MarcomStrategy

Comic Book format for story-telling (i.e. product/service selling), a marketing strategy that we profiled two years ago and revisited last week when Steve Jobs announced his new bio will be in comic format, is gaining traction--as evidenced by Martha Stewart's announcement that her bio will be published in a similar comic-centric format.
 "A visual medium provides perspective that is not only accessible but more relatable to the average person without losing any of the information involved." 
Don't say that we didn't tell you so.


As long as we're on the topic of trendy marcom strategies, for all of you PR 'gurus' and marketing geniuses that get paid for positioning creative branding strategies for your clients, you should know that aligning your clients with "flash sale" sites (the ones that offer steep discounts for products only if you act "now") isn't so much a sales strategy as it is a branding and marketing strategy.

Most brands have long lamented the down-sides of using juicy on-line promo coupons to bring in customers; the subsequent sales from these strategies are considered to be momentary blips, and for many merchants, these campaigns prove to be more aggravation than they might be worth.

That said, and as profiled in today's NYT , brands are discovering that flash sale campaigns have become something else: a way to advertise and find new customers, many of whom visit the sites of the brands and buy full-price merchandise soon after the sales.