The ICONIC Mindset

The 4 P’s of Innovative ICONIC Brands - Part I

June 11, 2020 Calvin Stovall | John Avola
The ICONIC Mindset
The 4 P’s of Innovative ICONIC Brands - Part I
Show Notes Transcript Chapter Markers

The 4 P’s of Innovative ICONIC Brands - Part I
Episode #2

A product, service or idea is innovative when it stands out from the rest and truly makes the customer lives’ easier. Reinvention of experience has been the cornerstone of the 21st century. From Uber to Airbnb, Grubhub to Spotify, pain-points in many areas of our daily lives have been opened up by innovation. The future is already upon us and some iconic brands have taken the lead to innovate and update our life’s experiences. 

During Part I of this two-part series, we unpack two of the 4 P’s of Iconicity, Purpose and People, and discuss how some brands are leveraging innovation to create experiences that make our lives easier and stand out from the crowd.

  • 0:00:51 - Intro: Purpose and People
  • 0:05:00 - The 4 P's of Iconicity
  • 0:09:27 - The first P of Iconicity = Purpose
  • 0:18:21 - The second P of Iconicity = People
  • 0:27:19 - ICONIC Points

To learn more about John Avola and Calvin Stovall, visit iconicpresentations.net. All The ICONIC Mindset episodes can be downloaded at theiconicmindset.com. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, please subscribe to our show.  Remember to select a star rating and/or write a review for The ICONIC Mindset podcast.

Connect with us!

To leave a podcast review:

  1. Open your podcast app and search/navigate to The ICONIC Mindset
  2. Scroll to the subhead titled "Ratings & Reviews" 
  3. Tap to give a rating and/or select "Write a Review"
  4. Once you've finished, select "Send" or "Save" (top-right corner)

Thank you for listening! We value our listeners and subscribers.

Don't just be, Be ICONIC!

Introduction:

Welcome to the ICONIC Mindset podcast with John Avola and Calvin Stovall. This is the only place that uncovers the multiple levels of iconic businesses and brands. Every episode reveals the secrets behind what it takes to make your business, idea, or movement iconic. Now, here are John and Calvin.

John Avola:

Calvin, how are you?

Calvin Stovall:

Good morning, John. How are you?

John Avola:

Hey, I'm doing great. I'm so excited to be here. Episode number two!

Calvin Stovall:

Right! Here we go. Number two. I'm fired up. Just so our listeners know upfront, we have quite a bit to share. This episode is going to be part one, and then we'll have part two of our podcast. We're going to talk about the first piece, which is purpose and people, and then we'll post part two because we have a lot to share and a lot of organizations have shown us innovations. We want to make sure we are cognizant of people's time. So we're going to break these into two parts.

John Avola:

Calvin, that's a great idea. So this podcast will be a focus on purpose and people. Then for the next episode, we will focus on passion and perseverance. I like that, kind of splitting it up a little bit for our listeners. Great idea.

Calvin Stovall:

We're going to get into that content in a moment, but before we get into that, for today's podcast, I'd like to just take a moment to address the inexcusable and horrific death of George Floyd. And more importantly, how that incident has brought to light the injustice that black people have been dealing with for decades. This, unfortunately, isn't the first time something like this has happened. I can run a long list of black people who have died at the hands of police, but what I'd like to highlight is that there's a significant difference, at least that I'm seeing, and I'm sure people around the world are seeing this time around. And that is how we're hearing the voice of some of my most beloved brands saying something about this incident. As I mentioned during our last podcast, remember when I talked about no response is a response and that's a powerful one. What truly gives me hope in this situation is that now it's not just black people that are angry. Corporate America is also angry. I just wanted to mention a few of the brands that were brave enough to speak out and make an iconic move against the racial injustice that black people have faced. So if you don't mind, I'd just like to mention a few brands, if you're okay with that.

John Avola:

I think it's great that we take a moment to recognize the companies that have really taken a moment to stand up. They deserve to be recognized and it is iconic.

Calvin Stovall:

Yes it is. I have a few and this list isn't exhaustive by any means. I think they're worth mentioning: American Airlines, HGTV, Starbucks, Auto Zone, Ben and Jerry's, HBO, Amazon, Disney, Netflix, Uber, 23 and Me, Macy's, Nordstrom's, Twitter, TNT, Warner Media, Paramount, CBS, Nickelodeon, Pokemon, Viacom, Nike, Universal, Fox, AMC, CNN, and even Sesame Street. So I just want to recognize those brands for making that move. And again, my prayers and condolences to the Floyd family. And, I hope we can get past this and make this a better world.

John Avola:

Absolutely. Calvin, I couldn't agree more. It's honestly a tragic, tragic situation, but it's great to see these iconic companies addressing the civil unrest that's sweeping across our nation, grieving in our local communities, making a difference, while at the same time it's providing all of us a reminder that we must keep doing our part to making meaningful change. I wanted to call out one other company, Calvin. You mentioned 23 and Me. The founder and CEO said it best. And I'm going to quote her in an email that she sent out to all her members where she said we, referring to 23 and Me,"absolutely have the potential to be better despite our efforts. I have to honestly say that we are also part of the problem. I'm holding myself accountable. I'm holding 23 and Me accountable. And I'm asking that our customers hold us accountable."

Calvin Stovall:

That's awesome.

John Avola:

So Calvin, let's jump in. I know we talked about taking the four Ps and splitting them between two episodes, but our audience is eager to know, and I think we've got to share, what are the four Ps of iconicity?

Calvin Stovall:

I just can't wait to answer that question! Well, of course we have purpose. And then we're going to have people. The third P is passion and the fourth is perseverance. Those are the four Ps of iconicity. Those are the four quadrants that you need to cover to create an iconic brand.

John Avola:

That's it, Calvin. Would you consider those four Ps as being the iconic framework? Is this the foundation of the iconic mindset podcast?

Calvin Stovall:

Absolutely. It is the foundation! And in these podcasts going forward, even like in the last one, we're going to touch on those framework components because all of those are critical to having a successful and iconic brand. We'll be talking about that quite a bit. By the time we're done, I think our listeners are going to know them just as well as we do.

John Avola:

That's wonderful. You know, I think the best part about these four Ps is that any company can learn them. Any company can apply them. You don't necessarily have to be a status like a Nike or a FedEx. You can be that small brand. Remember, we mentioned that dumpling company in the last episode. These principles can be applied universally. They are essential components that create the staying power that builds a lasting connection with your customers.

Calvin Stovall:

Absolutely, absolutely. You like that dumpling company!

John Avola:

I think I'd like to be their number one customer. Before we jump into each one of those Ps, we should probably talk a little bit about the word innovative, Calvin. We've had some discussions around innovative. How would you define innovative?

Calvin Stovall:

I did look up a definition. It was quite a long one, but I pulled out probably the one sentence that I think underlies it all. It says a product or an idea is innovative when it stands out from the rest and truly makes customer lives better or easier.

John Avola:

Yes. Stands out from the rest, makes lives easier, convenience, iconic, innovative. I love that definition. In doing some research for this podcast specifically, I stumbled across this book by Giles Lury. Its title is From Ideas to Iconic Brands. And in the book, Mr. Lury breaks down the origin of the word innovation, which he explains comes from a Latin root of innovare, which means to alter or make better as well as from novere, which means make new. So looking at either of those translations, it made a lot of sense to me. Innovation doesn't always have to be new. It can evolve and move to make something better, an improvement, whether it's in something that's currently existing or an area that needs to be changed.

Calvin Stovall:

I agree with you a hundred percent. A lot of people do believe when they say let's do something innovative, that it has to be something done from scratch. And that's not necessarily the case. You can have something that's already good and you can add to it and make it great.

John Avola:

Right, and I love the example of LinkedIn. Back in the early 2000s, in the boom of social networking, the founder, Reid Hoffman, saw an opportunity to leverage social media, and develop an area for business professionals to network. So the next thing you know, space for growing trusted relationships in the business community was born and then LinkedIn didn't stop there. They continued to innovate. You may have heard of LinkedIn Jobs, which was a new feature they released just after their network was becoming established. The whole idea behind LinkedIn Jobs was just to make job searching easier. They used profile data and they began matching people with jobs, suggesting candidates for recruiters. Meanwhile, their competitors... do you remember those companies, Monster.com, Hot Jobs, Career Builder? They stayed true to what they at the time believed was correct, which was just having the individual search the job boards versus LinkedIn's approach, which was matching people with jobs. And at the end of the day, it was simply a different approach to job hunting. I think we all know where the story goes from there for Monster.com and Career Builder.

Calvin Stovall:

You used to see them all the time, but they just faded away and nobody even talks about them anymore. It's amazing. Let's start with purpose. And I like to talk about purpose a lot, because once your company finds that, that's the anchor of everything that you do going forward. And a lot of companies are going down this road being innovative. Convenience is a biggie. A lot of companies are focusing on convenience, saving people time. Time is the currency of today. Everybody's looking for a way to do that. The reinvention of experience has been the cornerstone of the 21st century from Uber to Airbnb, Tender to Spotify. A lot of these companies have taken the things that were painstaking for us and focused on these areas to change our daily lives. And that is what's great. I remember back in the day when you had to hail a cab on the side of the street, or call them on the phone and then wait there for 30, 40 minutes for them to show up if they show up at all, but now you could do it on your phone very quickly. You can call Uber or Lyft. I remember when you had to go in the bank to do any transaction. You had to actually walk inside. But now you could walk up to an ATM, drive up to an ATM, or you can do it on your phone as well. That's purpose-led innovation. It's something that transcends the focus on creating something that makes people's lives better. And it looks to wider possibilities and transforms our life's experience. It's kind of like a shift from me to we. The first category I want to talk about that's done a great job at this is the grocery area. I have a statistic here, check this out. During the pandemic, of course, a lot of people were ordering online and they did some research. 41.8% had never done online grocery shopping before. And according to a March 31st survey from Business Insider Intelligence, the penetration of grocery e-commerce users has surged about 72% due to the pandemic. That's amazing. But I think the future is already upon us. Grocery stores, they're starting to race to innovate and really change that shopping experience. So over the next five years, we're going to see a lot of that. They're going to be upgrading quite a bit, and they're experimenting a lot with cashierless checkouts, which allows consumers to scan items on their own and just go. Amazon Go, that's my first. Amazon Go, they have 26 locations. So far they're in Seattle, Chicago, San Francisco and New York City. Customers have the freedom to shop the store for the items they want and then simply walk out without having to wait in line or being checked out by a cashier. It's going to become commonplace among a lot of grocery stores.

John Avola:

So customers can just walk in, pick the items that they want and walk out.

Calvin Stovall:

A number of other stores, Kroger, Walmart, HEB, have already rolled out cashierless retail in some fashion. Some stores will take it a step further about picking out the items and having them delivered after the fact so customers aren't weighed down by having to carry bags. So cashierless retail does free up human employees to focus on assisting customers and keeping the store clean and providing a personalized customer experience. I know there's a love-hate there around cashierless. That means somebody might be out of a job, but again, it's a focus on providing convenience for customers.

John Avola:

Amazon Go, they're doing an awful lot, especially with their recent acquisition of Whole Foods where they have seen some changes there in those stores, integrating their app. So it's very convenient and especially with the last few months around COVID I know a lot of the delivery grocery apps have really spiked. Instacart, or Shipt, where you can get on your app, pick your groceries, and next thing you know, the doorbell is ringing and there you go. You didn't even have to leave the seat of your couch if you didn't want to.

Calvin Stovall:

My next company is Carvana.

John Avola:

That's a good one.

Calvin Stovall:

They were founded in 2012 and they're based in Phoenix. Their mission is really to offer customers a new way to buy a car. A lot of companies, because of COVID, are shifting to online and having to change their business model. But Carvana has been doing this for a while and they've removed the traditional dealership infrastructure and replaced it with technology and exceptional customer service. They're really out to create the Amazon for cars.

John Avola:

Okay. I do like it.

Calvin Stovall:

They're focusing on providing an amazing experience for customers to find the perfect used car. They have a wider range of technology. Customers can look at an inventory of about 25,000 cars, which is much larger than a regular dealership, of course. What I thought was great, you can get a complete and accurate view of the inside and outside of the car. And once a person chooses a car, it can either be delivered to their home as soon as the next day or they can pick it up at a car vending machine. A vending machine! I think that's probably one of the biggest innovations over a traditional car buying experience ever. Customers have a seven day window to return the car with no questions, and that's innovation at its best.

John Avola:

Seven days. I think they're actually the third largest used car dealer in the United States. They've done a tremendous amount of work in the last few years and the need for Carvana and buying used cars online has drastically increased. There's been a lot of positive inventions or innovative ideas that have come out of COVID, one being from Carvana, which just in March introduced a touchless driver and pickup. So not only do you have your car delivered the next day, but it's touchless. Your car just rolls right off the truck and you get right in and you're on your way. It's pretty neat.

Calvin Stovall:

That's incredible. Again, those things, as far as Carvana and Amazon Go, their purpose is focusing on convenience. I think they've done a great job.

John Avola:

I do want to mention another couple of brands here while we're in the purpose category. When you think about purpose and customer convenience, the two companies that come to my mind are FedEx and Microsoft. And what's real exciting about these two companies is just in the last month they announced a partnership to help transform commerce by combining the global, digital and logistics network of FedEx with the power of Microsoft's intelligent cloud. So what that means is together, they're going to use data and analytics to give businesses an unprecedented level of control and insight into the package's journey across the entire management flow. It's called FedEx Surround and it's serving companies that depend on those highly sensitive deliveries. So I started thinking about this. What is a highly time-sensitive delivery and how can FedEx Surround help someone that's in need of something so quickly? And my thoughts went to the hospital. You can imagine this, you've got a hospital that may urgently need a package. It could be a life or death situation where FedEx Surround will be able to pinpoint the exact location of the package and can request an immediate reroute for the fastest delivery. Instead of shippers getting a delivery disruption alert FedEx Surround will anticipate them, recommend a corrective course of action and provide the business with a greater sense of control over their entire supply chain. I'm excited to see more about that. There's some news, a couple of press releases available, but to see where FedEx Surround goes and combining a company like FedEx with Microsoft, it's very exciting to see where that's going to go.

Calvin Stovall:

Yeah, that's awesome. I love hearing about things like that. Again, continuing to make people's lives easier.

John Avola:

That's right. Yeah. Where are we going now?

Calvin Stovall:

We're going to people. And in the iconic framework, people is really around connection and that could be connection around your customers, or it could be your employees, your internal customers, as well. For the first company, we're going way over to Stockholm, Sweden.

John Avola:

Okay. Take me with you, Calvin!

Calvin Stovall:

We're going to talk quickly about a museum called, and I hope I'm pronouncing this right. I hope I'm not butchering it. Vasa Museum.

John Avola:

Sounds right to me.

Calvin Stovall:

Each year, 1.3 million visitors pass through the doors of the Vasa Museum, making it Sweden's most popular museum. According to TripAdvisor, it's the ninth most recommended museum. Let me tell you why I picked this place. Even through its popularity, the museum is continuously working to improve the customer experience. Their most popular museum is known for its amazing attention to detail to create a high quality guest experience. They've studied all aspects of the customer's journey, from discovering the museum to buying a ticket and traveling through the museum. And they've mapped out the best route for a great guest experience. But the cool thing about this is the employees are involved. The employees are trained to quickly identify each type of guest and then personalize the experience to meet their needs. They co-designed the solutions with the staff and that's awesome. In order to create a sustainable solution, they involved their museum staff to design an experience that would meet their visitors' needs. That is iconic.

John Avola:

You're taking personalization and bringing it into real time, real life experiences. And then having the customer experience that while the employees are part of the trip or the tour through the museum, that's really neat.

Calvin Stovall:

I'm going to talk about this when we get to iconic points later, but a lot of organizations when they're looking at innovation and doing something out of the box, sometimes they forget about the frontline employees and the people that are dealing with the customers on a day to day basis. And they're the ones that know what customers are asking for. They know what the pain points are for customers. Sometimes we sell ourselves short when we don't involve them in innovating our organization. I think Vasa did a great job.

John Avola:

That's a strong point there, Calvin, you're absolutely right. Those frontline workers are the workers that know that they're the heartbeat of the organization and you can't get any closer to the customer than someone who's interacting with them on a daily basis.

Calvin Stovall:

Absolutely. John, I've got a question for you.

John Avola:

What's going on, Calvin?

Calvin Stovall:

Do you think a robot can make a human connection and enhance the customer experience?

John Avola:

Oh, Calvin, what kind of robots are we talking about here? I feel like you might be setting me up. Are we talking about robots that are in the field with soldiers? Are we talking about a virtual assistant like Alexa?

Calvin Stovall:

I'm talking about retail, right. Retail.

John Avola:

I do though. To answer your question, I think it's possible. Humans can develop that emotional attachment with robots and because of that, the robot can make the human connection. For me, it comes down to the trust. If you trust the robot, you're naturally going to be emotionally connected. I think it could happen. You could have an emotional connection with a robot.

Calvin Stovall:

Well, you know what, it's going to happen, whether you like it or not. We're going to experience it more. They serve a number of purposes. Some organizations are looking at this from an innovation standpoint, but they can be used from directing customers to stocking shelves and changing prices. As they grow in number, as you just expressed, there's a question if customers even want them. One survey found that 95% of consumers don't want to talk to a robot while shopping in store or online. However, the rising GenZ generation says that robots are the top new technology they would like to see in retail. You have to think about your customers in the future, but I understand that coming across a robot as you walk through the store aisles and asking it to help sounds like something out of the Twilight Zone. It's a little weird, but a growing number of retail stores are using them and involving them in the shopping experience.

John Avola:

I have to say if that robot's readily available... because you can never find a store employee.

Calvin Stovall:

Sometimes that can be challenging! They are on the rise and they expect, based on this research, there'll be an estimated 150,000 robots in brick and mortar stores by 2025. Many experts predict the spread of COVID and the need for contactless service could actually speed up the adoption of in store robots. Lowe's is one of the first stores that have adopted these in store robots. They're called LoweBots. They actually implemented them in 2016. The robot roams the store and customers can talk to it, or you can type a question into its large touch screen front, which is pretty cool, but most requests are to locate items in the store. It can tell customers the location of items and a robot could go with you to find it. It scans shelves to conduct inventory, which is unique to each location. And it just creates a more efficient and personalized shopping experience for each store and where they want to stock items and whatever in high traffic areas. Kroger's also is testing robotic delivery with this. They have a robot, Nuro, which can deliver up to 12 bags of groceries, straight to the customer's doors for a small fee. Walmart is also exploring robots. As time goes on, these robots will become more human like, and again, continue to create a personalized shopping experience.

John Avola:

This is kind of funny, but when you mentioned Kroger, could you imagine walking into Kroger and just giving that robot your grocery list? I would love that! I'd be in and out of there. I'll be chasing after that robot!

Calvin Stovall:

I know. I am not a fan of grocery shopping at all.

John Avola:

You walk in there, you tell Mr. Robot, hey, here's my list. You go find it and I'll just follow you along. I'll go, and don't take my robot!

Calvin Stovall:

You could become really good friends!

John Avola:

An emotional connection with my shopping robot. And Calvin, on a personal side, I actually had an opportunity, probably about a year ago to tour a 3-D printing and repair center. And what was really cool about this tour was that they were using robots similar to what you described as the LoweBot to help workers deliver devices so that they didn't have to leave their workstation. After they finished completing the repair on whatever the device may be, they would actually drop the completed item into the robot. The robot would go away and come back with a new item and they would continue to rotate that way. The worker never had to leave their station and I'm watching these guys and one of the workers needed a new part. So instead of having to get up from his desk and get his new part, he could actually switch to another machine and the robot would go fetch him the part that he needed. It comes back and now he goes back to his original task without even having to move. So I thought that was so cool. And it saves time and is convenient. There are a lot of opportunities there with the robots.

Calvin Stovall:

I think I need to get one in my house.

John Avola:

That's right. It would be watching over those boys for you.

Calvin Stovall:

That's right. That's my robot. Watch these two boys.

John Avola:

Well, Calvin, that was great. I really enjoyed talking about those brands today. As we always do, before we close up, we want to give our listeners a few key takeaways, just so they have something to focus on throughout the next week and in between our podcasts. The first point I want to bring up there is under the purpose. We talked a lot about different brands. We talked about Amazon. We talked about Carvana, FedEx and Microsoft. And what I find that these examples all have in common is that they're extremely focused on amplifying their story. You look at Amazon, they're everywhere. You can't go anywhere without seeing an Amazon or a prime delivery truck in your yard or in your neighbor's yard, right? Carvana is convenience. They've completely changed used car buying to what we used to know. And then you have iconic brands like FedEx and Microsoft that are partnering together, all focusing on amplifying their stories, combining each other's best qualities to help to improve the customer experience and convenience. And then the second takeaway is around the people part and connection, right? It's developing that emotional connection with your customers, immersing yourself in the customer experience. What I like best about the iconic framework and Calvin, you know this more than anyone since you created it, is what we call the moments of impact, right? Maximizing the return on every interaction.

Calvin Stovall:

Yes, sir. And that's what I want to make sure that people understand, that interacting with your customer, when you make an emotional connection and you're creating those memorable experiences for your customers, that's what they're going to remember. That's what's going to make them tell their friends, relatives, and colleagues about the experience they had at your entity, whatever that may be. And that's what you want. You want people out there talking about it. You want them on social media saying they had a great experience at your stores or whatever it is where you're providing your product or service. So that's the biggie.

John Avola:

I can't thank you enough. It's been another great episode. Enjoying this. Absolutely. I think we're both in it for the long, long haul here. So our listeners can rest assured that this is going to continue for a very long time. We're excited about it. We get amped up about it and we're excited to amplify our story to share it with you.

Calvin Stovall:

Absolutely. It's always a blast doing this podcast with you, John, and I want to say thank you to our listeners, continuing to hang in there with us. And we're going to continue to focus on providing content for you that you find valuable and useful in your business on a day to day basis.

John Avola:

Let's say our listeners want to find out more. Maybe it's a little bit more research on those four Ps. We mentioned the iconic framework. Where can they find more out about us?

Calvin Stovall:

All you have to do is go to iconicpresentations.net and the iconic framework is there. And then if you want to learn more, all of the information is right there for you to read. Thank you, John. And I can't wait to come back to finish part two.

John Avola:

That'll be our next episode. Part two. We'll discuss the remaining two Ps and provide some key takeaways.

Calvin Stovall:

Fantastic. Well, thank you. You take care and until next time, don't just be, be iconic. Take it easy. Thank you.

Intro: Purpose and People
The 4 P's of Iconicity
The first P of Iconicity = Purpose
The second P of Iconicity = People
ICONIC Points