brand2.0

2009-02-19T03:24:00.000-08:00

For a while now I have been following the blog of a guy in Cincinatti called Dave Knox. He works at P&G and is the honcho of digital media.

Have a look - the home page has a scary story that mashes creative directors, sales promotion and who wants to be a millionaire...scary if you are in an agency that is...

http://www.hardknoxlife.com/

Sleep well in the knowledge that the world is changing!

Michael

2009-02-15T21:04:00.000-08:00

I am just writing a deck on being remarkable and found this video about the prank day when Whoppers were discontinued at Burger King in the US.

How many brands do you know that would elicit this response?

http://www.livevideo.com/video/8AB27BAE889643CCB782A685D49C3A00/the-whopper-discontinued-a-bu.aspx

Would yours ?

Michael

Brand Camp - We've all been there

2009-02-14T15:17:00.000-08:00

Just saw this for the first time

http://www.tomfishburne.com

Have a look around - you will have a good laugh!

Michael

...and here's the stuff that I really hate

2009-02-11T20:34:00.000-08:00

The people running this ask you to enter a competition and then slug you 5 bucks per message four times a week to be entered in a draw. My kids know not to but how many don't ?

If I was apple I'd be furious = if I was a geek enought to spam or crash their site, I would probably do it

Here it is...

http://www.ringaling.tv/au/product.php?id=22&source=au029&gclid=CM_Y3JeT1pgCFRYiagodtUjfdw

Burn!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3qltEtl7H8&NR=1

2009-02-05T19:23:00.000-08:00

Just finished talking to a colleague about the problem with being an agency...

I still love this ad! It makes me squirm and lol!

here it is

Have a great weekend

Michael

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3qltEtl7H8&NR=1

2009-01-28T15:19:00.000-08:00

I just finished reading The Brand Bubble by two senior Y&R Execs. John Gerzema and Ed LeBar.

The book is great. it brings together the threads from 'Competing for the Future' to BAV really well and shows a huge grasp of the impact of technology etc etc. It deserves the praise that it is getting from the Business Press -

The Brand Bubble #12 on Business Week’s Best Seller List #1 on CEORead’s Monthly Top 25 Best Selling Business Books #3 Best Business Book for 2008 By Amazon’s editors Best Book of 2008 in the marketing /advertising category, CEORead Advertising Age List Of Tens: Books You Should Have Read: “A wake-up call for marketers.” - Harvard Business Review “A huge reassessment of brand-owning companies may still lie ahead.” - FT “Could a collapse in brand valuations be the next bursting of a financial bubble?” - Los Angeles Times “Fasten your seatbelts for when the bubble bursts.” - Toronto Globe & Mail “What Corporate America is Reading” - Sacramento Bee

The Book outlines a really thorough approach and I have heard many people talk of doing this as an agency but I think agencies are all trapped by the need to make ads do logos etc in order to liquidate their costs of creative directors and writers etc etc. This means they very rarely get to the types of conversations that should arise from the book. The legacy system and IP of the agency hinders their ability to be TRUE brand people (i.e. consumer centric) because they sell a craft (TV Design Web build) and could thus be called craft centric.

If you were to have a business that delivered for clients the things you talked about, how would you do it? My view is that I would have planners who came from say psychology and anthroploogy backgrounds, and project managers who were ex-management consultants who could mix creativity and rigour. I would also have the 'Creative Director' employed by the company - like at Apple and LVMH - and report to the CEO. That would be a good gig!

I would outsource creative to agencies on a project basis and as a creative consultancy orchestrate all agencies on behalf of the client...with the Chief Brand Officer as my client. Anyone know a company where the Chief Brand Officer is a real Role and reports direct to the CEO? That could be fun?

Hmmm...to find a different way to look at clients' needs we need to have a different structure to support a different strategy.

SUPERmarkets

2009-01-28T15:08:00.000-08:00

I just spent five weeks in California. Apart from the weather being spectacular, the things that struck me most (apart for the usual Theme Parks that is) ? The SUPERMARKETS!!!

What do I remember the most:-

- Polite staff. "Excuse me where can I find batteries?" "Right over here sir let me take you to the aisle" What, is this person hitting on me ?

- Helpful staff. "Would you like help with these packages to your car Sir?" Pardon?

- Involved Staff -"Let me check that those eggs for you, Sir?" Weird!!

And that is in the standard 'Ralphs' store....

When we get to Whole Foods it is a different story altogether. Fantastic ambience, great choices and an out of home pre-prepared meal section that would blow your mind!

What is preventing us form having the same shopper experience here in Australia? Well it is, to me, a mindset issue. In the US they know that you have a choice. And they make money from selling goods and data - not just selling space and providing a channel to manufacturers.

Anybody out there wanna start a Trader Joes? Somewhere between Aldi and Whole Foods? I reckon it is a serious space that is unoccupied....Hmmmm

Food for Thought!

Keeping it real

2008-10-20T23:58:00.000-07:00

Here is a thought...

I had two different conversations today with two very different people - one a very smart and talented market researcher and the other a management consultant who specialises in leadership and development training.

Both conversations led us to talk about the aspects that will make you a valuable contributer to clients' businesses over the coming year.

We all agreed that

1. 'Brand' development consulting that does not get to the numbers will find it very hard going. Businesses will want to see an explicit return on their spend on 'brand' or not spend at all.

2. Business development and relationships centered on existing customers will be the foundation of success/survival

3. The bounce will not be far away - possibly 9-12 months - and that the time to start planning new services and initiatives to slingshot the upswing is now.

4. That the strong will come out stronger and that the weak will perish as they get stranded by the ebb tide of a boom period of growth. In effect that the slowdown will sort the wheat from the chaff.

Time to sharpen the edge ? I think so! Is this the turning point for many? Perhaps ! What do you think?

Food for thought?

ASB Presentation

2008-10-20T23:49:00.000-07:00

Hi

Last night I made a presentation to the Masters Students at the Australian School of Business courtesy of Prof. John Roberts. As well as the very nice bottle of red that came my way at the end it was a pleasure to be able to share some of my thoughts and experiences with the class. They certainly looked like a bright bunch (and I remember how hard it was doing night lectures - only one young woman kept yawning through the whole thing!).

I hope that it was useful for the people in the class. If you would like a copy of the presnetation pleas email me and I will attempt to find a way to get it to you - it does not seem like I can simply upload it to this site - any ideas welcome! (what a luddite!).

Cheers for now!

A new brand era? or a Brand New Era?

2008-10-15T09:32:00.000-07:00

Two days ago I had a very interesting hour and a half with a friend of mine who was deeply involved in Yahoo in it's earlyish stages. The conversation turned to the developments in marketing and brand building over the last 10 years. Weird wonderful stuff with the tech boom and bust and web 2.0 coming our way - it has been very exciting.

But the next few years will be even more dramatic. Why? Well here are a few things:-

1. A generational shift in the people in marketing roles. The people in the top jobs in the next 5 years will all have grown up with the internet. Facebook myspace blogging will all be part of their brand scape.

2. The technology can actually do what we are talking about. In 2000 we talked to clients about things that were coming - but they did not! The tech wreck saw the VCs hurry back home and the digital agencies were belted by the downturn. Now we have real broadband (sort of in Australia) an the things that we talked about then are now real! Well most of them anyway.

3. Our customers (our partners and spouses to paraphrase Ogilvy) now expect that we know this stuff and expect that we (marketers) are up to it. They take referrals and advice from people online that they have never met as well as their neighbours. Look at www.tripadvisor.com - fantastic!

4. There will be a bucket load of behavioural data available to marketers. It will require more than gut ideas to make sense of it all. So the new CMO might have to be idea AND data driven!

5. Think of the businesses that are succeeding now - Apple, Nike, Toyota - they are all based on conversations that are going somewhere not just 'stories well told' as the brand building agencies like to remind us when they talk at conferences. Brands will evolve in the conversation not just be an outcome of communication.

6. These dialogue driven brands will place themselves at the service of the people whose needs they exist to serve. Technology will enable and facilitate the dialogue, but the CMO will no longer just be a communicator - listening will be just as important.

7. In a world where there are exploding channels of communication (fragmentation is the media terminology, as if lamenting the days of concentration) only brands with the most interesting conversations will thrive, Sure there are many that will muddle in the middle, but they will only be business wallpaper - and bland at that.

8. The agency world will shift - and shift dramatically - but to what? Every agency that I know approaches branding from a communications background. Every one of them talks brand but is selling PR,design, advertising, direct mail, web build or something else to do with downstream communications because that's where their cost base and economic engine is based on.

What if an agency approached the task from the point of view of the brand conversation? Oh wow! They would have to really know the consumer and be interested in them. Really interested - like more interested in consumers than in going to Cannes - and in return they would find they had to have something interesting to say to that consumer. This new 'agency' might employ anthropologists, psychologists and technologists rather than creative directors, writers and producers. They might deliver only ideas not ads and logos and websites.

This new era is going to be very interesting....more to come.