The creators of the best-selling game Cranium just can't stop creating hit products. How can a company this young be so brainy?
Terry Archibald had worked at Cranium Inc. for only a few months, but he recognized at once that the company was betraying its own principles. Just back from vacation, the local editor of the French Canadian edition of the Cranium game was reviewing translations of some packaging language that had been chosen in his absence. Then he saw the phrase Épatants talents ("splendid talents"). Aware that the boxes for that edition were poised to go into production, Archibald wasted no time. He shot an E-mail to Cranium's marketing team in Seattle, strongly warning them off Épatants. As a concept it was dry. As a collection of sounds it clunked when spoken.
In short, it wasn't CHIFF.
CHIFF -- an acronym for "clever, high quality, innovative, friendly, and fun" -- is both the spirit that animates Cranium and the criterion by which all its decisions are judged. Far removed from rigorous quantitative metrics like Six Sigma, the cheerfully subjective CHIFF has proved to be a reliable guarantor of quality. Cranium's 14 employees -- as well as its suppliers, distributors, and public-relations and advertising agencies -- are so well indoctrinated in CHIFF that they reflexively apply its standards to everything they do. Consequently, workable but uninspiring choices -- the use of the word Épatants, for example -- never get the chance to diminish the brand. At Archibald's suggestion, Cranium substituted Époustouflants, which not only has a more playful definition ("mind-boggling") but also looks funny and is a hoot to pronounce. "We bounced it off a native French speaker here in our office, and he immediately broke into a grin," recalls editorial director Catherine Fisher. "So we knew it was right."
Cranium-the-company has done so much right that Cranium-the-flagship-product sold more than 1 million units in 2001, making it the fastest-selling independent board game in U.S. history despite its $34.95 price tag. Profitable within six weeks of its first product's debut, the company encored this year with a children's game that started winning awards before it left the factory. Eight more Cranium offerings await release. Endorsements have been high profile and ringing: Julia Roberts told Oprah she couldn't stop playing Cranium, and the readers of Playboy and American Woman -- who presumably have little else in common -- are ideal consumers for the game, according to reviews in those magazines.