The100: Brand loyalty, innovation adoption and feeding Olympians

Grab some popcorn…

A lil’ while back we shared Mark Ritson’s article on Liquid Death neglecting product. 

But now Will Poskett has entered the chat. And he thinks Ritson is wrong, wrong, wrong and wrong some more:

“In short, product differentiation and innovation are very limited in the commoditized bottled water category. Yet despite these limitations, Liquid Death has done more than most to push things forward. […] It has released a new range of sparkling water flavors, new product extensions via an Iced Tea range and new formats via ‘Death Dust’.” 

Habit > genuine loyalty

Bubble, meet pin… Brand loyalty is primarily just speed, ease and habit. And has less to do with fandom than many think. So says Ellen Hammett, reporting on a new study from Canvas8 and Intuit Mailchimp.

Richard Shotton, one of the study co-authors, lets the wisdom rain:

“Rather than genuine loyalty, it’s people repeating behaviours because that’s what they’ve done in the past or it’s too much of a hassle to switch.”

Optimal newness

Continuing in his dowsing, Richard Shotton has explained how to encourage people to adopt an innovation. The answer? It depends on how radical that innovation is. In the words of the Atlantic columnist, Derek Thompson:

“To sell something surprising, make it familiar; and to sell something familiar, make it surprising.”

*prints quote and sticks to wall for all eternity*

Unsurprisingly surprising

It’s no surprise then that many innovations aren’t as surprising as they first appear (how’s that for a word salad?). John Sills has shared some examples of things that haven’t really changed.

And finally…

What have the athletes been eating at the Olympic games? Including 2 – 3 million bananas. 

Just 2 people climbing a 660m tower without any ropes. Yeeeesh, that makes me feel queasy. 

You aren’t allowed to take balloons into Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Instead, said balloon has to go into daycare. One of those “I wish I thought of that” things.