The CPG Flat Stanley Project

If you ever asked where in the world was Waldo, the answer should have been that he was hanging out with Flat Stanley, understanding the life he led and how to participate in his adventures instead of just trying to get that scroll from Wizard Whitebeard.

From Wikipedia, The Flat Stanley Project, created by Canadian school teacher Dale Hubert to facilitate student learning and writing, provides an opportunity for students to make connections with students of other member schools who've signed up with the project. Students begin by reading the book, Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown, a story of a boy flattened by a falling bulletin board who emerges fine but flat and then embarks on a series of adventures.

Students make paper "Flat Stanleys" (or pictures of the Stanley Lambchop character) and keep a journal, documenting the places and activities in which Flat Stanley is involved. The Flat Stanley and the journal are mailed to others who are asked to treat the figure as a visiting guest add to his journal, and return them both to the other student.

Students find it fun to plot Flat Stanley's travels on maps and share the contents of the journal. Often, a Flat Stanley returns with a photo or postcard from his visit. Some teachers may prefer to use email. In 2005, 6,000 classrooms in 47 countries participated in the project.

The Flat Stanley project exemplifies a great two-dimensional viral way of communicating with and educating young people globally.

So how can marketers take advantage of this concept? Well, it is a given that global brands have and represent great tangible and intangible assets.

But think for a moment:
Do we always recognize how our brands fit into people's lives?
Do we always recognize how to make the best connection with consumers, particularly in emerging markets?
Do we recognize the best way to educate potential consumers?

Everybody in Marketing and their mother (who gets the call center question routed to Mumbai) is living Thomas Friedman's version of The World is Flat, but they may not be extending that living connection to their brands.

In a NY Times article on India becoming a more complex market (April 3, 2007), Michael Cannon-Brookes of IBM comments that India is "one of the world's two biggest pools of high value skills, which we want to leverage both to help clients in the domestic marketplace and to help clients globally."

Which domestic marketplace: India or the US? If you are selling chocolate or bottled water or detergent, can they be the same?

In fact, thinking about global education can make them the same.

In that same article, Anand Giridharadas writes that Indian IT firm Infosys Technologies spends $65 of every $1,000 in revenue training its employees; in contrast, IBM spends $6.56.

I would be targeting those Infosys employees. They are going to be smarter and have more money to buy my Nespresso machine and my Dasani water.

The key, though, is that Infosys recognizes the value of education. That is a critical component of any Flat Stanley consumer marketing campaign. Yes, you have to get the pricing, the packaging and the positioning right.

But you also have to show how the product fits into people's lives.

In this same NY Times issue, Richard Lenny of the Hershey Company announced that Hershey is forming a joint venture in India with Godrej Beverages and Foods to manufacture and sell, confections, snacks and beverages.

Now we really know that the world can be as flat as a Hershey bar and still just as tasty, and that knowledge is what's key to our market and brand development.