Appliances for Ghana / Part 1

Willis and Chandra were on a special mission for the launch of a new consumer product. The product was a small appliance intended for food preparation. The details were outlined in a one hour meeting with the Vice President of Marketing for Consumer Brands, Rita del Pando. The small appliance product would launch into the marketplace with strategic positioning that would rely upon a key license agreement. This license agreement and the business relationship that made it all possible were developed by a team that included the following: Rita, the VP of Marketing; Robert Williamson, the company’s Chief Marketing Officer; Lewis Scott, the right hand man to the Chief Operating Officer; two senior people in the compliance department, and five (very hard to reach) people from business affairs. Of course, there were ongoing consultations with the company’s two advertising agencies, their new consumer products PR agency, and a very specialized agency enlisted to analyze the potential leveraging of new distribution channels through a proprietary software algorithm referred to as, The Pervasive Invasive Paradigm Plotter.

Willis and Chandra were in no way connected to anyone in the company above Rita, or to anyone who Rita reported to. They did not report to, or work for, any of Rita’s fellow marketing VPs at headquarters or in any of the domestic regional offices. Willis and Chandra had never visited or worked for anyone in any of the international outposts of the company. They belonged to Rita. Willis and Chandra were under Rita’s sole direction at her discretion. No Director of Marketing or Brand Manager sat between Rita and the team of Willis and Chandra.

The direct and private link between Rita and her two person crew of Willis and Chandra was critically important to the mission at hand. The success of the mission would in fact determine the future success of the small appliance product line and the overall success of the licensor-licensee relationship. Confidentiality and trust were critical cornerstones of their work together.

Soon to hit a big box store shelf near you was the small appliance product line of Super Ramen Nikomu. The launch would deliver five unique Super Ramen Nikomus. Each of the five was identical in form and function. What made this product line unique and differentiated the five modified mini electric hot pots (presented as personalized ramen cookers) were five super heroes from The 5th Dimension Time Protectors.

At the end of the prior fiscal year, the top grossing animated feature film, which spawned a hit episodic live-action TV show, was none other than, The 5th Dimension Time Protectors. The mega-hit movie and the highly rated TV show were both viciously violent with an ever evolving love interest backstory. The movie firmly established the inner workings of five fabulously exciting heroes policing time and space. The TV show offered a deeper look at each character’s heritage and introduced new villains from every corner of the Universe. These heinous characters could endlessly defy the laws of physics as we currently understand the laws.

After uncovering and exhausting the most obvious and traditional ways to capitalize on the success of a super hero property and blossoming franchise, the brokering agents, the licensing agents, and various attorney representatives for the controlling ownership of The 5th Dimension Time Protectors, were down to appliances. Cooking appliances were not the typical domain of super hero licensing deals. Few had ventured into the province of mixers, toasters, or espresso machines emblazoned with the wondrous brand demarcations of a star super hero — let alone, a full blown product line, with iterations of the product based on individual heroes who were members of an eclectic team of newbie super heroes. Pushing the envelope of licensing, and redefining what may qualify as an opportunity, the deal was made.

Two years before anyone ever heard of The 5th Dimension Time Protectors, Rita del Pando’s fellow VPs put aside any hopes for a new strategy to be applied to a water heater prototype intended to cook dry noodles. The prototype was functional and performed as it was intended, but no one in sales or marketing wanted to touch it. No one wanted to risk their reputation or career trajectory on the fledgling product without some possible affiliation or association with something of proven historical success. There was no leading product in the company portfolio to reasonably claim it was a brand extension of. There were no licensing deals to exercise options on, that could meaningfully saddle up with the future ramen cooker.

The investment to date justified bringing it to market. Regardless of need or want, the company was going to shoehorn the future of in-home ramen preparation into the marketplace. Maybe they’d find a niche of consumers who were environmentally conscious and didn’t want to deal with the soiled foam cup that defined the most successful instant ramen products in the local grocery store and gas station food stops. Maybe they could isolate a demographic that purchased bulk ramen in packets, but didn’t want to clean a pot or a cooking utensil. Maybe a demographic that didn’t own a pot or a cooking utensil, or a stove for that matter. Maybe they’d find a psychographic that’s not environmentally conscious and could care less about their personal contribution to the Pacific Trash Vortex, but can’t stand the idea of carcinogens leaching from the foam container into their ramen when cooked in a microwave. To discover and land on one of these demographics or psychographics involved a huge risk. Not to mention, the enormous challenge to define the promotional language and irresistible visual presentation. A challenge only eclipsed by a related and possibly greater challenge — to convey the product benefits and build the product association with the targeted lifestyle at the same time.

Super heroes sidestep all of the demographic and psychographic targets and misfires. With super heroes, quantitative and qualitative analysis both lose their seats at the adult table, but still have a place at the kid’s table for window dressing and the occasional board member who doesn’t understand super heroes. Rita del Pando understood super heroes. She understood the impact of super heroes through her two pre-teen boys and their insatiable appetite for good deed doers with superhuman powers. When she became the VP marketing executive to champion this bold company cause — force feeding the no-name ramen preparation appliance to a world of consumers who were just fine without it, super heroes would empower her marketing brilliance and save the day.

The product was approved and in full production. Iterations of the product for each 5th Dimension Time Protector were approved by all parties. Product finishing would integrate their respective individual super hero identities. The packaging design team had received approvals for art assets, layout, most legal copy, logos, and trademarks. Rita and her team had worked the trade shows and conventions utilizing prototype demos. Momentum was building for the product launch date, which was less than a month away.

A meeting was set for Rita’s private executive duo of Willis and Chandra. It would be a true one hour meeting. No one would sit for the first five minutes awaiting the other meeting goers. No one would sit and then get back up for a vending machine refreshment. No one would moan about back-to-back meetings and excuse themselves for a quick trip to the potty. There were no quick trips to the potty. This would not be twenty minutes of actual meeting time within a scheduled sixty minute block of meeting time. Rita’s meeting was of the utmost importance. The commitment from everyone involved was for all sixty minutes. There was an astonishing real world development and possible mental setback surrounding the successful launch of the Super Ramen Nikomu.