John Torella

John Torella began his retailing career with the T. Eaton Co., holding the post of Marketing and Communications Manager from 1970-1980. His responsibilities included all advertising, display, public relations, and special events. He was a member of the Executive Committee, and as such, controlled a budget of over $30 million and a staff of 200.

In 1980 he joined Vickers and Benson, one of Canada's largest marketing and communications agencies, as the president of their retail group. There, he worked with clients such as McDonalds, Loblaws, Ford Dealers, Woolco Department Stores, Bank of Montreal, and Ontario Tourism.

In 1992 he joined Grey Advertising, a worldwide communications company with offices in 22 countries. As the General Manager of Grey Retail, he worked with a number of international retail brands.

In the summer of 1993, John Torella joined J.C. Williams Group as a partner and senior consultant in the areas of strategic planning, branding, marketing, and communications.

John is a member of and frequent speaker for the Retail Council of Canada, Retail Ad Club of Chicago, the National Retail Federation of the United States, and the American Marketing Association.

He has been a member of the faculty at Ryerson Institute's Fashion Department, as well as co-author of "Building a Winning Retail Strategy" for the Retail Learning Initiative at Ryerson, and "A Guide to Retail Success" for the National Retail Federation in the United States; and recently released his latest book "Stop Talking Start Doing Retail Branding."

Major clients John has consulted to include: Coca-Cola, Royal Canadian Mint, 3M, Kmart, The Oshawa Group, Royal Doulton, Sporting Life, Visa, Harry Rosen, The Laura Shoppe Group, Aldo Stores, Indian Motorcycle, Microsoft, Holt Renfrew, and The Body Shop.

He currently acts as a consultant to the Retail Council of Canada, Olsen Collection of Germany, Etam Group of the Netherlands, The Northern Group, Liquor Control Board of Ontario, and Pharmasave, among others.

John is a frequent speaker for a number of national organizations that include Retail Council of Canada, Retail Aid of Chicago, and American Marketing Association. In 2002, John delivered major presentations to the National Sporting Goods Association, National Retail Federation (USA), National Hockey League, International Council of Shopping Centres, Retail Institute of Scandinavia and the Marketing Association of New Zealand.

John's book on branding is being used at Fordham University, New York.

John Torella is a graduate of Northwestern University and the Kellogg Graduate school of Management Communications strategy program, Schulich School of Business York University Brand Equity program, Harvard Business School's Managing Brand Value program, and Tuck School program on Strategic Brand Management.

Navigating Your Brand

CMA's Branding Conference is just around the corner (mark the date - June 19th)....and who better to talk it up than the Conference Chair! The organizing committee (CMA's Branding and Strategic Planning Council) has naturally been strategic in developing the conference program ...putting together a great line-up of topics and speakers, with a real focus on thought-leadership.

Tony Chapman, CEO of Capital C, kicks it off with a keynote message, equating today's marketplace as 'the perfect storm'; sharing a proven process to navigate through it. One of the themes he'll address is how to reach consumers as they run from 'mass' media to 'my' media.

Chris Staples, Partner and Co-Creative Director of the ad agency Rethink, shares his experiences and insights on how to break through the clutter of the marketplace.

The luncheon keynote is Matthew Teitelbaum, Director & CEO of the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), who will talk about the AGO Brand of the future. It will be fascinating to learn about the evolution of the AGO brand and the thinking behind it, knowing that the doors will open soon and we will all have the chance to see & experience yet another first-class cultural transformation in Toronto.

Throughout the day, there are a series of concurrent sessions on a variety of high interest topics that you won’t want to miss. A highlight of this year’s event is a series of 10 lunchtime roundtable discussions for you to choose from and get involved in, to name a few; Brand Innovation, Retail Branding, Mobile Marketing, Youth Branding, Organizational Alignment to Enable Brand - the full listing is on the CMA web site. Each roundtable is led by a subject matter expert.

All-in-all, a great event that you and your marketing associates are sure to enjoy and value. You will find yourself thinking about Branding a little differently after this conference!

Hope to see you there.

Refresh, Revitalize, Reinvent

The need to keep your Brand fresh and relevant is a crucial part of maintaining your Brand’s long-term profitable growth.

Your needs may be relatively simple:
– To refresh your Brand’s packaging
– To revitalize your store’s look and feel.

Or more complex:
– To completely reinvent and reposition you Brand to reflect a new customer focus or a global competitor.

The past decade has produced many examples of companies such as Burberry, Club Med, Kinko’s, Levi’s, Adidas, Sobeys, Abercrombie & Fitch, and Honda that have gone through a refresh, revitalize, or reinvent phase and emerged as more powerful and relevant Brands of the future.

The process and methodology is well established. To check it out reference "re/Think Retail Branding", a workbook available on the CMA or J.C. Williams Group Website.

Louis Vuitton – Brand Shrine to Luxury

I have recently returned from Paris where I had the opportunity to visit the Louis Vuitton flagship store on Champs-Élysées. I was struck by the mix of customers and by the complexity of their Brand segmentation model.

There were older, more affluent, established, and status-driven customers mixing comfortably with younger, middle income, career oriented customers. Plus, there were the wanabe shoppers aspiring to the attributes and benefits of Vuitton. While all of these groups are different demographically, they all place a high degree of importance on Brand prestige or Brand value.

The Vuitton differentiation is both tangible and intangible with a focus on status, peer acceptance, and self esteem. Their positioning is clearly more for more. The Brand essence is all about luxury.

This newly renovated store is a temple/Brand shrine to the designer Marc Jacobs. Every effort is made to emphasis the luxury value of the merchandise. Many treated as if they were museum pieces; driving home the point that fashion—or at least Vuitton fashion—is as valuable as art.

Why All the Confusion?

Brand bylines, positioning lines, promotional themes, and symbols are often used interchangeably but in fact, they are quite different.

Brand bylines are simply a description: Maytag Appliances or Ace Hardware.
Positioning lines are much more. They are an attempt to seek out a specific customer with specific appeal: Sears “Good Life at a Great Price.”
Promotional themes are used to support a promotion or seasonal event: The Brick’s Midnight Madness Sale.
Symbols are an effective way to support your Brand: the lonesome Maytag repairman, Michelin man, Nike swoosh, Energizer bunny.

Understand these Brand tools and use them effectively to support your Brand.

A Kid in a Candy Store

I had the opportunity a couple of months ago to visit the University of Birmingham in the U.K. and attend their annual conference on Brand Management.

Just imagine 120 academics from all over the world presenting over 1,000 pages of data, information, and insights in the world of Branding.

I was like a kid in a candy store—it was an incredible experience and the learning and growing was wonderful!

Papers on every aspect of Branding for product, service, store, and place Branding themes like: “The impact of mergers and acquisitions on luxury Brands”; “an integrated definition of Brand”; “Liverpool and City Branding”; and on and on.

I’ve attached a copy of the various papers. If you are interested in any of these, let me know.

Papers from Branding Conference