Dan’s reasoning can’t be faulted and it appears there was lots of internal discussion. However, it also seems that Meredith gave lip service to consumers but didn’t ask them what they thought. I seldom if ever recommend that a brand such as Better Homes & Gardens get away from its core branding message. And it is hard for me to believe that Mixing Bowl will ever attain the cache that BH&G has. Being new and fresh should not be the driving force behind creating a new brand; consumer wants and needs based on their voices being heard should be the primary reason for creating a new brand.

To me, you could spend years upon years branding “mixing bowl” and it still would never reach the brand awareness stature of BH&G. Takes Big brass ones to suggest it and even bigger ones to sign off on the decision.

Lewis and Marc,

Thank you for your comments. I would like to point out that Meredith has 13 magazines covering a broad range of topics; BH&G, More, Ladies Home Journal, Family Circle, Fitness, Parents, Heart Healthy Living, etc. One big advantage of Mixing Bowl’s lack of affiliation with BH&G is that it can also easily gather audience from these other properties as well without confusion in the consumer’s mind.

A new brand also has the advantage of being able to be killed off in the event of a failure, which wouldn’t damage the well established brand’s reputation. This is a type of contingency planning the marketer should consider. However, that of course won’t happen in this case because MixingBowl are doing it right with Ripple6 technology to back them up!

Chris

Hey Chris, you asked…But from an SEO standpoint creating mixing bowl makes perfect sense.

Social sites are struggling with the issue of trust. Not only are consumers worried about trusting their data with new sites, but they wonder whether to invest time in a site that may not exist in a few months. BH&G brand affiliation would certainly help bolster consumer trust in a new site. While I understand the desire to create something new, for me, the strength of the existing brand would outweigh the other arguments.

Chris, thanks for sharing this with me on twitter. After watching the video and really listening to the explanations given, I really think that the decision to create a new brand makes a lot of business sense. I, fyi, am a *huge* BHG fan. Huge. When I think of BHG, I think of flowers, gardens, home decor and recipes. So, as shared in the vid, if the intent is to create an environment that can house multiple brands or publications, then the “mixing bowl” concept should work perfectly. As stated, BHG is just one of many mags/brands to be housed and/or included in the “mixing bowl.” And I think that the “mixing bowl” concept is very appropriate if the brands/mags/pubs are all different rather than similar. The strength of the existing brand can be leveraged and highlighted from within the “mixing bowl.” I totally get what folks are saying about not messing with the BHG brand and/or using the BHG brand over the “mixing bowl” but given the goals as outlined in the video, I am a firm believer that the team made the decision very, very carefully and did their best to move forward in a way where the BHG brand would still get its due props but not hog all the spotlight from other mags/pubs.