The ICONIC Mindset

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

June 22, 2020 Calvin Stovall | John Avola
The ICONIC Mindset
The 4 P’s of Innovative ICONIC Brands - Part II
Show Notes Transcript Chapter Markers

The 4 P’s of Innovative ICONIC Brands - Part II
Episode #3

A product, service or idea is innovative when it truly makes your customer lives’ easier, whether it's something new or making something better–an improvement. During Part Il of this two-part series, we unpack the last two of the 4 P’s of Iconicity, Passion and Perseverance. 

Learn how to magnify your vision (own it, live it, love it) and focus on what matters to your customers. The future is already upon us and some iconic brands have taken the lead to engage, empower and inspire our life’s experiences.

  • 0:01:02 - Intro: Passion and Perseverance
  • 0:01:25 - The third P of Iconicity = Passion
  • 0:08:08 - The fourth P of Iconicity = Perseverance
  • 0:13:59 - 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.

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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 today?

Calvin Stovall:

Great, John. I'm doing great, man. Welcome. This is our third one!

John Avola:

Third one, Calvin. Great to be here with you. I have to tell you, this podcast has changed my life. I'm getting so immersed in iconic brands.

Calvin Stovall:

I'm excited too. And today is going to be wonderful as well because we're following up on our last podcast where we talked about the four Ps of innovative iconic brands. We're back with part two. In the first part we talked about purpose. We covered convenience, saving people time and all of that, and some organizations under that umbrella. And then we also talked about people and connection in the museum and remember the whole robot thing we covered. This time we are going to cover the last two Ps of the iconic framework, which of course are passion and perseverance. We have some great content to share with our listeners on that. They are really going to enjoy what we have to talk about today. As you know, I have two little boys and they love their games. Fortnite has just taken over my household. The company that I want to talk about here is Nintendo. You remember Mario brothers, right? Nintendo entertainment has been around since 1983 and they've released over a dozen video game consoles and handhelds. But what I want to talk about from an innovative standpoint is their Switch. That new thing is a dream come true for gamers. It's a full blown console that you can take with you wherever you go. Switch has created an entire new generation of Nintendo fans. Carson, my little boy, has one and he thinks it's the best gaming thing ever made. He's been through a ton of them. It's the perfect size. They have a ton of games and it can seamlessly dock to a TV. The controllers put smartphones to shame. It's one device that you can play on a plane. You could travel with it in a backpack or a pouch. It can be played wherever you want without an external control screen required. And it actually was a big gamble for Nintendo. They combined the best of their companies. They had that 3DS handheld. They also took the learnings when they stumbled with the WII U and they've sold, since it's been out on the market, 55 million of these things.

John Avola:

That's amazing. I just have to laugh. Calvin. I remember blowing in those Nintendo games trying to get those things to work. Your son, Carson has no idea.

Calvin Stovall:

He has no idea the pain we went through. I wanted to put them in there because I think they've done a great job continuing to innovate, continuing to make great products for their audience. Nintendo's fantastic.

John Avola:

They've come such a long way, from back, like you said, in1983 to today, with the Nintendo Switch. I need to get one of those.

Calvin Stovall:

My next company is Adidas.

John Avola:

Adidas is a great brand.

Calvin Stovall:

I'm going to highlight what they've been working on. What do you do with your gym shoes after you've worn them out, John?

John Avola:

Calvin, I enjoy running and I would say every 500 miles or so I have to toss them out. That's it. I rotate them maybe through some yard work, but after that they go in the garbage.

Calvin Stovall:

Well, Adidas is trying to change that. They're on a quest to develop a fully circular product. We're facing a grave, environmental threat in the form of plastic, which is clogging our landfills and oceans. What they're focusing on is creating this 100% fully recyclable gym shoe. It's like a product that lives forever. The raw material is never thrown away. It just becomes another product. And then another one, and then another one. It's called Adidas Futurecraft Loop. And it's the first 100% recyclable performance running shoe. You would probably think that a shoe like this is probably going to be pretty ugly, but that's not the case. It's a really good looking shoe.

John Avola:

Tell me, Calvin, would you wear it?

Calvin Stovall:

I would wear it. It's nice, it has a nice garment. It's a nice woven plastic and it's really a nice looking shoe and it's very comfortable. What I also want to share with you is what they said. And it's going to tie in great with our podcast here. This is from one of the people on the team that's created this shoe, and this is his quote,"This is about mindset. It's about pushing boundaries. We are acting as explorers or pioneers. We're trying something new. For this type of work, you need the mindset of we're going to learn and we're going to take what we l earned and apply that into a setting where the ultimate goal is that it becomes a commercial reality." That is an iconic mindset right there. I love it.

John Avola:

That's cool. Adidas, they're such a great company, hearing about that fully recyclable sneaker. I love the Loop. I love the name. It actually clicked, right as you were saying they're going to continue to reuse over and over and over again- that's the loop. And the fact that it's made fully from plastic, a lot of that plastic, like you mentioned, is fished out of oceans for the composite of that shoe. Speaking of Adidas, recently they actually had an announcement where they're joining forces with Allbirds. Allbirds is a new brand. It's only a couple of years old, but they're known for their shoes where that you do not have to wear socks. Allbirds was founded on the concept as well of kind of reducing that carbon footprint. You may even see ads for them on Facebook. They're collaborating to create a performance shoe similar to the Loop. The idea behind this shoe is that it will have the world's lowest carbon footprint at just two kilograms. So I had to look into that. What is two kilograms versus anything else? How do you know two kilograms is good? The answer is that a normal shoe actually contains 12.5 kilograms of carbon footprint. They are reducing that down to two. But what I really loved about this innovation is that technically these brands are competitors. They're both in the performance shoe market, but Allbirds doesn't have the scale or the manufacturing capability to produce or reproduce a carbon footprint to that caliber. However, that's where Adidas comes in. That's how they enter the game. They have that manufacturing capability and they believed that by working together, they can bring their respective expertise to the table to create the most sustainable shoe in the world.

Calvin Stovall:

Wow. That's awesome. Love it.

John Avola:

All right, Calvin. We're rounding out here, with the fourth P.

Calvin Stovall:

Rounding out. Here we go. Fourth P is perseverance. And John, this quadrant is all about innovation really, and continuing to look for ways to make your customers' lives better again, and really the focus on what matters. I have two brands that I think exemplify this quadrant very well.

John Avola:

This is probably your favorite P.

Calvin Stovall:

Oh yeah, this is my favorite P. It really is.

John Avola:

We talk about it, never losing the beat.

Calvin Stovall:

That's right. Never lose the beat! The first one is Netflix. They recently had one of their biggest quarters. They actually had 60 million new subscribers signing on because of COVID. These guys have 182.8 million subscribers worldwide, and I'm putting them here. I don't know if you're a fan of Stranger Things.

John Avola:

I watched all three seasons.

Calvin Stovall:

They had a great advertising campaign and they pulled together some of the biggest brands to help promote that show, Burger King, Coca-Cola, Nike, Lego, Baskin Robbins, to really hype that show up. And they even actually convinced Coke to relive their New Coke disaster. We all remember that situation and they turned it into a marketing master stroke. So I want to put Netflix there because they're continuing to grow and innovate and I'm just happy they were there during this COVID thing. I would have just lost my mind for sure. The great thing about Netflix too, is that they've done a great job at personalizing experiences. When you look at a movie, they'll make suggestions and that's just awesome.

John Avola:

It's so cool. I think Netflix are the kings of personalization. Everything is perfectly personalized. Everything from what's recommended to the order in which it's recommended, even the images that you'll see before you select your show, even those are personalized to the individual. They're changed based on your viewing patterns. And it's just really neat to see the connection cross channel as well. You can get an email recommendation, a new documentary uploaded, or a suggestion to check this out on a Friday night. With all that personalization though, I have to share something. My wife keeps using my accounts. She gets in there and I'll say, you know, Kim, there's multiple accounts for a reason. She gets in there, watches her shows on my account. And then I get in there and I'm getting ads for Golden Girls and The Crown. All I want to see is Money Heist, or some Breaking Bad, and I just can't seem to get it. So an unfortunate personalization from Netflix is being caused by some self error.

Calvin Stovall:

That's too funny. My second one is Nike. They are the epitome of perseverance. Of course, you know the history with them. Founded in 64 as Blue Ribbon Sports, had their first retail outlet in 66, launched Nike brand shoe in 72, and the rest is history. The Just Do It ad campaign. They signed some of the greatest athletes of our time. Michael Jordan, Derek Jeter, Tiger Woods, LeBron James, and Kobe Bryant, rest in peace. In 2018, which is what I really want to highlight here, they made the controversial decision to name former NFL quarterback, Colin Kaepernick, as one of their spokespeople. How timely could this be, with what we're going through right now? Two years before, Kaepernick famously took a knee during the national anthem to protest racial inequality and police brutality. And basically he was really pretty much locked out of the NFL a fterward. But despite that, despite the boycotts, all of the noise, all the craziness, Nike stood by its decision and they made money. Shares and sales rose dramatically. When you're silent or y ou're just in the middle, it probably goes unnoticed. Nike will step out there and they will do something no other brand will do. And i t's successful. I would say they're probably one of the brands that seem to be about a couple of years ahead of society. T hey probably saw something in this whole thing with Kaepernick and just stuck by it. And now here we are dealing with this whole worldwide thing with George Floyd. So I've just got to commend Nike. They were on it quick and they persevere.

John Avola:

All right, Calvin, as we finish up here, I don't think you can have a conversation about passion, products, and perseverance without mentioning Apple. Apple constantly is committing to innovation, literally transforming our lives from the first iMac to smartphones, tablets, smartwatches. The list goes on. Steve Jobs was brilliant, arguably one of the best innovators of our time, and his famous quote that continues to reside with me is that deciding what not to do is as important as deciding what to do, narrowing that focus can be an effective innovation. Keeping it simple.

Calvin Stovall:

You can't have a conversation about innovation without Apple. They're so integrated into our lives today.

John Avola:

Calvin, we talked about a lot today. I always like to recap. We like to leave our listeners with a few takeaways. Why don't we look back at some of the things we talked about, maybe kind of recap a couple of key takeaways for our listeners today.

Calvin Stovall:

All right, here we go. Iconic points. I'm going to give you three. You can't develop innovative products or services in a vacuum. It's imperative that you involve the voice of the customer. And in many, if not all cases, your employees, particularly those that are customer facing. These guys are out there in the trenches every day. They're talking to your customers on a daily basis. They're a critical resource you should tap into. Unfortunately the frontline people don't feel like they can be involved in innovation. A recent study of more than 3,000 workers across industries conducted by Survey Monkey, doing a study for Fast Company, revealed that while 71% of C-level respondents believe they have opportunities to personally contribute to new or innovative ideas at work, only 22% of lower level individual contributors felt that way. Number two, you must cultivate the right work environment that encourages and celebrates innovation. No risk, no reward. Your employees have to feel safe to share their ideas, even those that challenge the norm. Number three, never lose the beat.

John Avola:

My favorite, I think about that all the time, ever since we started working together, Calvin, never lose the beat. I bring that into my daily life, and not just necessarily on a business mentality, but never lose the beat with your family, your friends, your personal goals.

Calvin Stovall:

Never become too comfortable or complacent. Ask Circuit City or Blockbuster, they probably remember this one. Customer expectations are changing and evolving all the time. Always seek out new ways to improve the lives of your customers as well as your employees. There's a quote, you'll get run over if you just sit there.

John Avola:

You've got to think about that for a minute.

Calvin Stovall:

You've got to keep the beat. That's right.

John Avola:

And Calvin, those are great points. As you were talking through those, a fourth point came to mind. And that is iconic innovation takes, not just inspiration, but also purpose, people, passion and perseverance. See what I did there. Well, I can't thank you enough for being here, doing this together, and for your time this morning. It's awesome. I'm loving this podcast and loving where we're headed here.

Calvin Stovall:

I'm having a blast.

John Avola:

Well, shall we give a sneak peek into our next episode?

Calvin Stovall:

I think we might want to revisit COVID-19 a little bit. It might help some companies, small and large, with how they can deliver iconic customer experience in a post COVID-19 world. Customer service, customer experience is going to change after all of this, so I want to talk a little bit about that.

John Avola:

That's a great topic. We mentioned a little bit of COVID-19 even today in this podcast. There are definitely some innovations that have come out of it and to look at how iconic customer experiences are now being evolved due to COVID is going to be a wonderful topic. I'm pretty excited about it. All right. Well, that's it Calvin. So, if any of our listeners want to learn more about the iconic framework, you can contact us through iconicpresentations.net. And until next time, don't just be, be iconic.

Intro: Passion and Perseverance
The third P of Iconicity = Passion
The fourth P of Iconicity = Perseverance
ICONIC Points