Happy Holidays

Note: Image from flickr

With another year coming to a close and an exciting 2012 just around the corner, I'm going to sign off from my blog while I travel back to Canada to spend some time with family and friends for the holidays!!

Thank you for continuing to follow my blog and challenge me to explore my great passion for branding and all that it encompasses and impacts! Although I would have loved to write so much more, this year was very exciting with many adventures, from making the difficult decision to leave Blast Radius, to volunteering in Tanzania for a month and then coming back to start an exciting role within the CSU (Central Strategy Unit) at M&C Saatchi!

I think next year will continue to see the importance of meaningful brands. Today's (and tomorrow's brands) will need to be delivering meaningful value beyond its products. In fact, everything it does must be built to satisfy a unmet need in its consumers' lives creating a role for itself in their daily lives. This will see a rise in the need to continually innovate to remain relevant to people, and this innovation won't be to create only new products, but rather how to evolve existing products or developing new uses and/or services around these products.

I'm very excited to see where branding is - rather than just being a branded identity, it's a branded behaviour and role in the consumer's lives!

Have a wonderful holiday season, and I look forward to chatting some more in the new year!

The Experience is the Brand

A couple weeks ago, my flat mate, Roger, made a wrong turn and went to use the map on his Blackberry (having just switched from an iPhone - I should note not by choice), and it was anything but an intuitive experience. This led to an immediate trip to the Apple store, where he bought the new iPhone outright, and will never look back at Blackberry (BB) again.

This got us talking about where BB went wrong, and why the once market leader in smartphones seems to be stumbling all over the place.

I believe BB lost sight of its core competency - mobile business solutions. Rather than focusing on its bright spots (i.e. what it excels at), it became distracted by the seductive personal smartphone market that every smartphone manufacturer was after, forcing BB to think defensively. This caused BB to lose sight of who it is and what makes it unique, forcing BB to be reactive rather than a thought leader. Thinking defensively will always keep you at the very best #2 - you need to think individually to be #1.

BB would have been better off focusing on innovating business consumer-centric experiences that better enabled on-the-go communications.  In fact, within 2 blocks of chatting, Roger and I were able to come up with a long list of helpful solutions BB could have developed had it remained focused, such as enabling the use of its devices in-flight; or forming strategic partnerships with Microsoft for collaborative working/editing while on-the-go, etc.

Another brand that seems to be losing its focus is Tim Hortons, a popular Canadian bred coffee and donut shop. I recently read that it's launching more Starbucks style coffees, like lattes and cappuccinos, to the menu. Let me be clear, Timmy's is a place you go to get a donut and a cup of Joe, or as many lovingly call it a Double Double (two sugars; two creams) not a venti Americano.  To top it off, it's focusing less on donuts and introducing new foods like lasanga - sorry but a WTF is needed here. I was less than impressed when they started to bake their donuts off-site, something they used to do fresh in-store, but now this!?

This is a classic case of losing focus of the brand's essence and taking a competitive approach. Clearly, Timmy's core customer is being taken for granted, much like the BB business user, where they think, 'Ok, so we have that segment, lets go and find someone else' causing them to forget their core business and no longer develop experiences to leverage that area fully.

Lest we forget this happened to Apple in the 80s when Jobs left. Jobs started Apple with user-centered design at the heart, and when he left it switched to a competitive/defensive strategy. The company almost went under until Jobs returned in the 90s with a focused product line, which centred on its core purpose of making technology approachable, and it ensured every element of the experience communicated the brand in a way that resonated with the end user, from the products, to the stores, to the un-boxing experience. Doing this led to a 1000% increase in market value for the organisation, while practically forming a religious following of customers.

Focusing on great customer experiences pays off.

I mean, just look at one of my favourite brands, Lululemon who do this fabulously (as an aside I think it's awesome that all the brands I'm writing about today, minus Apple, are Canadian! How patriotic of me - LOL).

Lululemon has built its brand on a life philosophy, that by investing in your health, you are bettering yourself and society, elevating the world from mediocrity to greatness. What a wonderful and motivating philosophy to build a brand from.

All of its products are designed with the wearer in mind. I always love the surprise of having a new piece and thinking oh I wish it did this, then BOOM, they've already done it! They think of everything one needs to enjoy fitness, be comfortable and look great doing it.  

Additionally, the feng shui friendly stores are always buzzing with staff fully engaged in conversations with customers, or as they call them, Guests, about the latest wrap or a type of fabric. This is just chatting, this is community building! Engaging consumers with the brand's philosophy motivating them to associate and live the brand, so that when they buy something, they feels as though they are bettering themselves.

Lulu continues to enable this life philosophy with additional experiences like hosting free yoga sessions for staff and Guests in its stores after-hours. It was also one of the first retailers to offer reusable shopping bags covered in inspirational quotes on personal enrichment and health, so its Guests can take home the Lululemon philosophy.

Having a strong commitment to its life philosophy and delivering it through relevant consumer experiences (products and services), has allowed them to see a 250% gain year over year -- I think that says enough!

So, it is clear, yet often difficult to see when in the daily grind, that for a brand to be successful in the long term, it needs to create experiences that are relevant to the brand's purpose/philosophy and are designed with the consumer at its heart.

Remarkable Stories = Social Currency

I've been wanting to write this post for some time now, but oddly haven't got around to putting it down.

I want to talk about stories again. I did so a year-plus ago, but it's a topic that seems to be continually popping up.

Everyone has a story to share and/or are working towards creating them. I find it slightly amusing when I'm walking around London seeing people pose for the perfect picture, which immediately makes me think - profile pic!

People are continually striving for social currency.

Social currency is a concept that comes from the social capital theory, which is about increasing one's sense of community, access to information/knowledge to help shape his/her personal brand/identity and providing status and recognition.

Clearly this is not a new concept, but with the use of social media and instant communications through mobile technology, which can share a status, image or even location, increasing the importance of defining one's personal brand. Not only that, it's resulting in an increased understanding of creating a personal brand, which is a whole other interesting blog post!

Today, the majority of millennials spend less than one hour a day offline! Yes that's right - offline. We are a hugely connected generation. There are even stats proving that Facebook is the first thing people look at when they get up and the last thing they see before they go to bed. What's equally crazy, is that there are mobile apps that monitor your sleeping patterns! This means that people are now sleeping with their mobile phones - talk about a meaningful relationship!

So, where do corporate brands come in? Well, it's important to note that brand association is so important to people, especially millennials, that it's equally ranked in importance for expression of personal identity as religion and ethnicity!

This tells us that people care a lot about the brands they associate themselves with because it will greatly impact the personal brand he/she is trying to shape for themselves.  So, brands need to be able to connect with their audience on not just an emotional level, but a level that provides them with the tools to express or shape their personal brand. Making it important to feature a brands benefits in terms of the end state it creates, answering the inevitable question, "how is this going to help feature and define who I am [aka who I want to be perceived as]".

To adequately give the answer to this question, brands need to have a compelling story to tell. This enables the brand to create an experience around itself, which will captivate the audience and provide them with a increasingly meaningful end state of heightened social capital!

The root of these brand stories come from the organisation's purpose - its reason for existence; that big hairy audacious goal/idea/dream it has set out to accomplish. This provides the content to fuel the story and the way it's shared.

I believe there are 4 key ways to share your brand's story and give your hyper connected audience the social currency it wants:

1 - Movements:

This is where the brand takes an stand on something, and has the audience rally around its purpose to spread the gospel. People are usually proud to be a part of these movements if they align with their personal values and will give them the creds they're looking for, and make them feel a part of something bigger than just making another purchase.

TOMS Shoes, fits perfectly here. Its business model is designed to give back and wearing a pair of TOMS is more than wearing a pair of shoes, it says something about the kind of person you're striving to be - one that cares about the global community. We can even look to brands that are less philanthropic like Puma who has started a movement supporting After Hours Athletes, bringing people together online and offline in support of 'sports' like billiards.

2 - Legacy/Product Stories:

A classic, but I find people are craving meaningful companies with local flare or interesting background stories.  In fact, the last time I was in NYC, there wasn't a place I went to that didn't have a unique story behind it, from which, I had to tell everyone about, and, to that end, I wouldn't have even gone had there been no story fuelling our interest in checking out the spot.

This works really well for restaurants, cafes, etc. One place I was recommended was Levain Bakery - it's famous for its $4 cookies - yes $4 for one cookie! Each weighs like a brick, and is totally decadent, but if it was so outrageous it wouldn't be as remarkable, and instead it would just be another place that sold cookies, rather than a notable place that sells cookies.  In-n-Out Burger is another brand with a great story and discipline to live up to that story everyday.

Both of these places give people something interesting to talk about and share.

3 - Special Experiences:

Building off the desire to give people something interesting to talk about, why not give them something that also helps them seem a bit more interesting by involving them in a unique experience. This can range from involvement with the product or the brand experience on a whole.

For instance, there's this company, Wool and the Gang. It's a company that sells trendy knitting packages. In essence, this company is involving people in the creation of their products in a unique way that provides bragging rights because firstly, you made it and, second, you now have a new skill because of it!

Other experiences, can include creating a unique retail experience like Net-A-Porter did during Fashion's Night Out, where they took their online business offline and created a store window where people could actually buy items using their mobile app.

It's all about creating something that's remarkable -- something you will want to tell to others about because in doing so you will appear interesting, having taken part in these activities.

4 - Consumption Rituals

As we're seeing, the stories brands give their audiences don't have to only be about them, but rather are stories for consumers to share about themselves that happen to involve the brand.  I think consumption rituals, a special way you can/should consume a product, is another way to help consumers earn social currency with brand enabled stories. 

Take for instance the game of getting 'Iced'. This is where if a mate hands you a Smirnoff Ice you have to down it right there, but if you already have one, then your mate has to down both. Sure Smirnoff may never admit to creating this game, and I'm sure they didn't, because it probably came from one of their agencies. But this game has spread like wild fire, and the stories on how people are getting 'Iced' are hilarious, proving that creating a bizarre and entertaining way to consume a product can create buzz and give people stories to share

What we can take from these 4  activities is that they take the brand's purpose and turn it into remarkable experience, which involves the consumer, or story that they can't help but share with their mates! So how are you going to make your brand enable people to earn social currency and stand out?

Note: Above image from The Brand Gap

Creative & Collaborative Partnerships

Note: This is The Hudson's Bay Trading Coin from 1855 

In the last couple weeks, I've had the privilege to attend a couple trend briefings. One from nVision: Radical Times - Radical Response? And another from LS:N Global: The Wisdom Age.  I find trends very interesting and always inspiring. So it's certain my next few posts will be inspired by what I've heard at these events.

One topic that I found particularly interesting was the idea of the trader generation, mentioned at The Wisdom Age. Essentially, this is about everyone being a brand with something to say; we want to contribute and be a part of things we believe in -- the idea of B2B and B2C is long gone. Rather, we are all traders, buying and selling / giving and receiving.

The rationale and strength behind this trend began to make more sense when I went back and looked at my notes from the nVision conference.  There, I learned that 70% of people want to learn more, 50% of people want more experience, while only 30% want more stuff. Making it quite evident that people are looking for more self-fulfillment than material objects.

I think this stems from various things, but social networking and shaping our personal brands in very public arenas have played an important role in this shift. People are looking for ways to express themselves and appear interesting, unique and someone with a point of view - much like how we approach positioning brands.

We can see this in a few other stats, like the importance we place on having lots of friends has more than doubled since 2006. And interestingly, yet I'm sure it will come as very little surprise, there has been a 700% increase in the purchase of photo equipment since, I believe, 1980 (I apologise, I didn't capture the exact date range in my notes). And lastly, there has been a 40 point increase, from 21% to 61%, in the desire for personal creative expression, since 1980.

Knowing this, it's fair to say that it's important for brands to give people, more specifically their consumers/fans/ambassadors an outlet to express themselves or get involved with the brand in some way. However, there must be a reward to do so, as 70% of consumers would be interested in contributing ideas to a brand only if rewarded to do so.

The level of the reward obviously depends on the level of involvement, and the type of reward can vary from something that is monetary in value to something that contributes to their daily life.

In fairness, this isn't new. We saw this years ago with the creation of Nike ID or the ability to personalise Kleenex boxes and M&Ms. But it's evolving to be a bit more sophisticated and the benefits aren't just personalised products.

Looking at an oldie but a goodie, Threadless, has done a great job creating a highly collaborative business model that allows users to contribute designs while being able to purchase others. We also, saw this with the Keds Collective, which encouraged people to create their own custom trainers, then put them into the collective market to sell. For every pair sold their would get a percentage of the profits.  This idea was then taken to the next level with the release of Kaiser Chiefs' latest album.  People were asked to create their own album from a selection of 20 prerecorded songs and then create their own cover art to reflect their selection. For every one of that person's album sold, they receive a pound. Another unique example involving consumer involvement and creativity, is Heinz using Facebook to encourage people to send a personalised call of soup as a Get Well gift to friends.

Brilliant!

We're seeing people's creativity tapped into, which creates the IKEA affect, increasing brand affinity. Not only that, these brands are providing people with amazing stories to share with their community/friends, elevating their personal brand.

So, when thinking about a brand, we need to start asking ourselves, 'What are we going to do to create a creative and/or collaborative partnership with our consumers that will create a meaningful role within their lives beyond its base products and services?'

Steve Jobs Built His Click

Note: Image features on the cover of The Times on Friday, October 7, 2011

This week came with a bit of a shock -- the death of Steve Jobs -- a man who had impacted the world as strongly as Johannes Gutenberg (inventor of the printing press) and Thomas Edison (inventor of the lightbulb).

I think we all knew the inevitability of this, but I don't think we expected it to be so soon.

In the past, I questioned whether Jobs was telling time - continually executing on and creating the Apple brand, without enabling others to deliver on the brand independently -- or building a clock -- creating an internal structure that provides a brand compass, enabling the brand to sustain itself well after Jobs' departure.

After his first medical leave, Apple's share price plummeted, indicating the market's lack of confidence that Apple was able to remain successful and drive long-term demand without Steve at the helm.  Truthfully, I, too, felt pretty confident he was only telling time up to this point. And perhaps he was only telling time.

But clearly, Apple took note, because after each subsequent medical leave, the share price dipped less and less, indicating that the market was beginning to believe Apple could remain strong even without its iconic and legendary co-founder leading the way.

So this is proof that Steve didn't just tell time by developing tools for the mind that advance human kind, but he built the clock too!

"We will honour [Steve's] memory by dedicating ourselves to continuing the work he loved so much"

--Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, from his email to the Apple Staff

Having said that, the real test will be a year from now, when we will see whether Apple continues to change the world in a beautiful and impactful way.

Now, in memory of Steve JObs, a person I would call a brand guru, here are a few of his philosophies, which I believe have led to Apple's brand success:

• Apple's innovations come from saying no to 1,000 things to make sure they don't get on the wrong track or try to do too much
• The human brain craves meaning before details. What does it mean in one sentence (i.e. iPod = 1,000 songs in your pocket)
• Don't bother to create manifestos, mantras or guidelines - LIVE THEM.

Thank you Steve Jobs for teaching and inspiring us for so many years!

Just a Thought: Customers are the Brand

While living in London for the past year, now, I have only had three instances where a car almost hits me while running. Oddly, the three vehicles to almost hit me were all BMWs, and since two of these 3 occurrences happened this past weekend, it had me think, "BMW doesn't like me very much, and frankly, if they keep trying to hit me, I'm not going to like them at all."

This internal dialogue inevitably turned to a thought about branding, and how a brand's customers end up representing and communicating the brand's positioning via their actions. After all, it wasn't the BMW that was almost running me over, it was the drivers, but still I thought of it as the vehicle.

I guess Abercrombie & Fitch recently began to notice who wears their clothes ends up reflecting the type of brand it is, hence they've asked Michael “The Situation” Sorrentino, from Jersey Shore, to stop wearing its products. 


Looking at the kind of people who associate themselves with your brand (i.e. wear, drive, use, etc.) defines the kind of brand you are. So maybe it becomes a question of targeting. If A&F didn't have half naked teenage models standing out front of its stores, with blaring clubbing music at all hours of the day and oozing of an offensive amount of cologne, maybe it wouldn't appeal to a half naked all-hours partier like "The Situation".

A&F's stores are designed to appeal to people like "The Situation" drawing them in, and then they act surprised when he's actually wearing their products? If they genuinely want to stop attracting people like "The Situation", the brand experience must change to reflect they type of people they wish to attract and feel are better suited to the brand they are or want to be.

So maybe BMW should have a test for prospect customers to see if they make the cut for being BMW drivers, which I hope includes those who don't want to accelerate when they see runners. Who knows maybe the quiz to be selected as a BMW drivers will make the brand more exclusive and stimulate greater demand... just a thought.

Louboutin isn't Louboutin without its red soles

Image created by the amazing Garance Dorè

If you are a woman, or have some interest in fashion, I'm sure just by looking at the red soles of these drawn shoes, you're already thinking Christian Louboutin. A shoe brand famous for its vibrant red soles. I once saw a program on TV about luxury shoes, where Mr. Louboutin was interviewed on where he came up with the idea to paint the soles of his shoes red -- he was sitting around with one of his friends, who was painting her nails, when he started to paint the sole of a shoe and fell in love with how the shoe looked from behind. Then the rest is history...well, until now.

Recently, Louboutin has taken YSL to court on the basis of trademark infringement,  as YSL is selling shoes with a red sole.  Unfortunately, the judge does not believe a designer can trademark a colour. In fact, he "has made up his mind that no fashion designer should be allowed a monopoly on colour because as artists they need to be able to use a full palette".

Personally, I think the wrong argument is being made here. Sure the colour is essential, but more importantly, it's the location of the colour -- on the sole of the shoe -- which makes it quintessentially Louboutin.  So rather than fighting so hard over a colour, Louboutin should be registering the design element of having a red sole as its trademark.

Frankly, I had no idea what the Louboutin logo looked like until a few years ago. Up to that point I only recognised the brand via the red soles. In fact, my friend, Jade, gave me a business card for her friend, who designed accessories for a shoe brand she couldn't remember the name of...this is the card she handed me:

I didn't need to turn the card over; I knew exactly what company she worked for -- Christian Louboutin!

If we're looking at this business card alone, it's clear that Louboutin considers its red soles a powerful trademark for its brand.  I would consider this an excellent example that brand identification lies beyond the logo.  Look at Apple, they even go as far to register all its products, from the shape of its iPad to its desktop icons and apps. We can also look at Coca-Cola and the original design of its glass bottles. The brief to design the Coca-Cola bottle was to create something that when held in your hand blind-folded you knew it was Coca-Cola, and when shattered into a million shards of glass you knew it was Coca-Cola.

This goes back to Martin Lindstrom's concept of smashability. The idea here, is that you should be able to take away the logo from the product and/or service, and instinctually know the brand it comes from. Louboutin clearly has this going for them just like Apple and Coca-Cola, maybe even more so, since Louboutin's logo seems secondary to its red soles.

I truly believe Louboutin must win this case over YSL selling red soled shoes. Simply for the fact that red soled shoes are a key brand identifier for Louboutin. And if we agree on the definition YSL's lawyer gives trademarks - "merely the right to indicate the origin of a product or service" - than Louboutin will win. Having said that, if they keep fighting for the colour rather than the combined power of the colour and its location on the shoe, they won't win this case. The power of the red sole, as a trademark for Louboutin, is not so much the colour as it is the location of the colour.

Google+: A new playground for the same games

I've been wanting to write about Google+ for some time -- not to critique the new social platform, as I don't think it's worth making a full-on critique until I see how people use the platform and if they use it at a sustained rate like Facebook.

However, Google+ has grown at an incredible rate - 18 million users in 21 days...something that took Facebook 2.5 years to achieve, as stated in the below presentation. What interests me most about this, was something I was asked a year ago, "Is Facebook a fad?"  The answer has been made clear by the launch of Google+. Facebook may come and go, but the behaviour it has strongly influenced is not a fad and won't go away.

In essence, the playground may change, from MySpace to Facebook to Google+, but the games will remain the same. If anything, people's social behaviour will only grow and evolve to a more elevated social level. After all, we've always been social creatures, and the tools have evolved to allow our social behaviour to stretch farther, to more people and faster.

So, it would be silly if brands avoided joining the social conversation, and not develop a strategy on the role its brand can play in the online social environment.

Here's a presentation I came across the other day, which I felt was a good summary of how organizations should start looking at Google+...enjoy:

Google+ for brands_ogilvy

View more presentations from John Bell

Redefining Athlete and a Brand

I love it when I see a brand take on a meaningful role, aka positioning, and integrate it into every single one of its touch points creating a wonderfully fluid story no matter where you begin interacting with the brand -- and Puma has done just that.

Puma has taken its, in my opinion, tired brand, and run neon lighting through it to reinvigorate itself to make it relevant to people who aren't typically the primary target of sportswear brands -- the after hours athlete. People who like to wear trendy sportswear in casual social settings.

This all started with an award winning and moving campaign featuring a classic voiceover creating a rallying call and celebration for after hour athletes:



The success of this campaign has clearly leapt from its TV and print campaign to create a more long-term positioning for the brand and further establish its support for the after hours athlete by creating tangible brand experiences.

I first noticed this on my daily walk into work through Carnaby Street -- Puma has completely redesigned its retail experience to appeal to the after hours athlete.

Even the inside of the shop is filled with foosball, pool and ping pong tables, along with mannequins wearing clown wigs and posters featuring after hour athlete mantras.  It's a massive expense and undertaking to redesign your stores, so it's clear this is a positioning Puma is dedicated to.

Not only are they creating some fabulous retail theatre for the brand's positioning, but they are also creating offline social events to encourage people to get together for after hour athlete activities around the world.  Actually, I think that's another thing I love about this whole re-positioning initiative - it's talking to a global youth audience.

I'm impressed with Puma's repositioning. They have found a truly unique segment to gear their products and experiences towards, and are making a clear effort to owning and mastering this space.  Not only that, their communications have been used to stimulate a movement to take part in Puma's support for those who enjoy recreational, late night, social activities.

Today, for a brand positioning claim to be truly valid, the organization must stand behind its claim through actions. These actions involve the retail experience, products, engagement activities, and any other consumer touch points. This is where Puma is succeeding and Reebok has missed the opportunity. I look forward to seeing more from Puma and all the fun things they can do with their new positioning.  Having said that, only time will tell if this brand position is meaningful enough internally to continue to be delivered upon, ensuring the brand remains relevant to the market stimulating long-term demand.

What Makes a Fashion House Iconic?

One of the things I love about living in London is that there are always cool and inspiring exhibits going on, and recently there was one such exhibit, which seemed to combine my two favourite things -- fashion and branding -- with or without knowing it.  The exhibit was called the Masters of Style: Celebrating the Stories behind Italian Fashion. 

In celebration of the 150th anniversary of the unification of Italy, the exhibit featured six of Italy's iconic design houses: Giorgio Armani, Dolce & Gabbana, Salvatore Ferragamo, Gucci, Missoni & Prada.

          

Going through the exhibit, which featured the fashion labels' favourite images and ads they felt captured the essence of their brand and Italian heritage, I began to see clearly how fashion brands, particularly luxury fashion brands, define themselves.

Fashion is a tough business for a variety of reasons, a few being:

• Each label has to create something new, fresh and innovative every six months without fail
• Collections have to appeal to a global audience
• The personal viewpoint of the creative director, who may or may not be the founder of the label, should be integrated
• All the while, the brand's heritage and founding personality must be maintained 
• Not to mention they are faced with unforgiving critics that could kill the brand with one little slip

There is a lot of pressure continuously placed on fashion labels, so it's no wonder only a few succeed and even fewer rise to being iconic.

I think the way fashion houses define their brand allows them to be flexible enough to combat these tough market conditions.  After reading about and observing the images chosen by and for each label, it was very clear that fashion brands are defined through a combination of two things: 

1 - A stylistic point of view, such as Armani's  precision cuts and subtle colour palette, or Missoni's passion for colourful knitwear.  Style is forever, and from that point of view fresh fashion can rise to the surface each season. However, a strong stylistic point of view is the red thread that tells a unified brand story across seasons.

2 - Emotions they wish to evoke. There are functional brands, which provide tangible utility such as Google or Apple, and the have a brand purpose to continually provide function well into the future. Then there are emotional brands. These brands aim to stimulate various feelings and aspirations for those who engage with them. Dressing is a personal and often emotional (not in the terms of being sad, but in reference to being based on personal feelings), Miuccia Prada said it best back in 2007:

"For me, dressing is a versatile instrument that helps you express what's in your head … -- a relationship with a man, with society. Sometimes you want to appear powerful, or serious or rich. All of us want to represent something. When you meet someone, among the instruments you have – like dialogue – you also have clothes"

So it's only natural that fashion labels define themselves on the emotions they wish to create. For instance Dolce & Gabbana evokes irony and Mediterranean sensuality in all they create; Prada aims for bravery and wit, while Armani elicits elegance, understatement and assurance.

Having a strong stylistic point of view combined with a set of emotions you wish to kindle, creates a powerful and unique positioning within the market. It's brands like those featured in this exhibit that have stayed true to these key elements that have allowed them to rise to an iconic status and maintain that status over the years.

What's it all about, Rodrigo?

Today, I decided to take a different approach with this post.  Rather than writing a structured post, I met my opinionated and grumpy Brazilian friend, Rodrigo, to talk about a series of random topics around technology, people and brands…here’s where we ended up:

Note: Whatever is written in italics is Rodrigo and the rest is me

To start things off, I asked Rodrigo, "What should we blog about?" This was the question that got us going and stopped us dead in our tracks.

It’s difficult when you put two professionals together, on a Sunday, to talk about only one topic in an area we work with every day. Instead there are various pockets of things to discuss.

So that’s what we’re going to do – talk about a bunch of random topics.

But first, SOCIAL CURRENCY – Rodrigo had to check us into The Providores on Facebook:

Isn’t it sad that we are in a real social environment, with real people and we’re checking our Facebook? Your virtual presence should be helping your real one – not the other way around, like it has become. It’s like we care more about our invisible self…

That reminds me how much I’m beginning to hate the word ‘Like’ these days…

There’s a difference between sharing and liking something. Brands are so hung up on their ‘Like Vanity' – building their communities, striving for the largest fan base – but does this really do anything for the brand? It means so much more when a community member is moved by what the brand is doing to a point where he/she actually shares the content! That’s the value.

Couldn’t agree more! That’s why I’m tired of clients requesting another Facebook Page or application with no means to an end. “We want more likes”…but why? What value is it really going to give you or your consumers?  There’s so much opportunity online to engage with qualified people and provide actual value to the community, rather than appealing to the masses and trying to win by the law of numbers – a small percentage in a big number is a big number – sure, but it’s a large number of people who don’t share the brand’s values to be a true advocate.

Facebook is interesting as it's going to seize from being a social network and become a browser. It will become the hub where we begin to access any content on the Internet. I mean we’ll see blog posts, articles, pictures, videos, etc. from our newsfeeds – in fact, I think Facebook is the second largest distributor of video next to YouTube. And with everything being shown within the page, you never need to leave facebook…

I don’t think Facebook will replace my need for Google. My network won’t be able to give me information on everything I look for on the internet.  I guess Google is good when I have a specific inquiry, but Facebook may be the platform I learn about new topics or content I wouldn't come across if it wasn't for someone else posting it... 

Just a thought, but tsn’t it interesting that, now, with digital TV, we fast-forward the ads, but then we go on Twitter and Facebook to follow and like brands, which, in essence, brings a version of that ad content back into our lives…

But in this situation, it’s an opt-in! People, for the most part, are choosing to get information from brands they are interested in. People can pick and choose the brands they want to hear from.  And if done correctly and for the right reasons (i.e. attracting people who share common values with a specific brand), brands can engage qualified consumers/people on a more personal and meaningful level, rather than the general public, who become annoyed with ads because, really, most are not for them.

Okay, so now that we have a community of interested and engaged people – we being a brand/organization – we can give them a platform to contribute and/or be heard by the brand, like My Starbucks Idea…

Yes, it’s important to have a conversation to involve and learn from your advocates, but brands still need to have amazing curation of ideas, otherwise we just end up with normal, basic ideas…

Actually, I read a great quote from Richard Seymour, in June’s Wired magazine, saying, “Don’t ask people what they’re going to want – they don’t know”…

Totally, don’t ask people what they want, because they don’t want to think about it – it’s too much work. Over the years, I have created a list of 12 things I need to consider when designing something, and at the top of this list is, people are lazy!  And it takes a lot of work to really define what we want…

So really, great crowdsourcing isn’t about asking people what they want. Instead, it’s about bringing lots of minds together to talk about specific topics. From these discussions we can learn where people’s heads are at (trends, interests, etc.), what they’re missing from the brand experience (products and/or services) or what they want more of (what the brand is doing well). Then, from here, brands can evolve based on people’s wants/needs to remain relevant.

It’s curation at a different level – it’s curating conversations.

Innovation is weird, because we tend to take it for granted. Most people don’t stop and think about the evolution of things. To me, the million-dollar ideas are about creating new processes for basic things – how to we brush our teeth without needing water, a toothbrush or toothpaste – how do we optimize something to be less reliant on certain tools.

I guess when we listen to people, we need start to redefine the problem and look at the fundamental behaviour, rather than just trying to create a new version of something…

So it's like looking at transport – rather than trying to make cars better for the environment (i.e. Hybrid, electric, etc.), we should look to change how people get from point A to point B…

Totally, like why do people need to own cars anymore? Why is ownership of a vehicle so important? I mean people only use their cars for a tiny fraction of the time they own them… 

So, Rodders, we've talked about everything from virtual social vanity, to Facebook as our next browser, to crowdsourcing, to rethinking basic processes…What does all this mean?

I guess it’s interesting because we both are in marketing, typically a message-pushing business, but most of what we’ve talked about is getting people to talk and having brands listen.

You're right – the relationship between people and brands has changed. It’s more transparent and open, looking for a personal interchange, which gives people a voice to contribute, and create a more relevant experience.

But the questions remains…are brands really listening? And are they ready act on what they’ve heard?

Rodrigo Lebrun – Creative at Wieden + Kennedy, currently working on Nike

Talk with me... Not at me

This week, I came across this amazing presentation from a Cannes Workshop.  It talks about brand's starting movements, and I couldn't help but think this is the future of advertising.

Strawberry Frog Cannes Workshop 2011

View more presentations from Heather LeFevre

Clearly we can tell people don't want to be talked at -- instead, they want to be spoken with.

Creating movements is about organising a group of passionate advocates who rally around an idea on the rise in culture to bring change.

To a certain degree, this is what brands with purpose are trying to do -- create change or contribute to the greater whole. The key point, in the above definition, is about rallying around 'an idea on the rise in culture'. This indicates communicating your message to in a relevant/meaningful way to capture the interest of your audience.

People today are looking for meaningful brands more and more, and like I've mentioned before, this is not just a western desire, rather it's a global demand. So really, it seems like a natural evolution for more static one-way dialogues, traditional advertising, to transform into a more immersive and relevant conversation through messages and actions!  After all, it's in our nature to be social and want to belong to something greater than our everyday.  Brands have the power to inspire and excite people.

Lastly, movements are about the people and issues that are important to them. This is another huge opportunity for brands to leverage movement creation rather than traditional advertising, because they are engaging with their audiences in a more relevant and meaningful and the product becomes a facilitator to accomplishing that shared, overarching goal/dream/purpose.

I hope you enjoy this presentation as much as I did.

How People Talk About Brands

Currently, I'm reading a book called How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read, by Pierre Bayard.  It's interesting because it says rather than consuming yourself in the details of books, since there are more than we could ever read in a lifetime, we should consider the context in which the book was written and the author's overall idea for the story. Bayard says it is this that will help us understand how the book fits among other literary pieces -- or in his words:

"Paying exclusive attention to an individual volume causes us to risk losing sight of that totality, as well as the qualities in each book that figure in the larger scheme"

Bayard also mentions that taking this approach is good even if you've read the book because no matter what, everyone develops their own version of the story in their mind. This is because different elements become more salient and/or significant depending on the reader, as people's divergent life experiences impact their perceptions/interpretations of the book.

I find this concept is not only good for books, but it's also a good way to view brands and how people think about them.

To understand how a brand fits, or the role it plays, in the global market, we need to consider the brand's central idea, or what I call the brand's purpose. This provides context to what the brand is about, what makes it special, and how we should view it relative to other brands.

On a more granular level, as people engage with a brand they develop their own perceptions of it, making it important to note that these perceptions are influenced by both the direct experience with the brand and the life experiences of the person interacting with the brand. These life experiences include what they've already heard about the brand.

To this point, Bayrad also mentions that books do not live on their own:

"A book is not limited to itself, but from the moment of dissemination also encompasses the exchanges it inspires"

The same is true for brands. They are greatly influenced by the stories told about them by others, who could be existing customers, ex-customers, analysts, or people who have just heard things second hand. We know it's this external world that has the greatest impact on the definition of a brand, making the salience and clarity of the central idea for a brand essential.

Lastly, this philosophy, of having a central brand idea defining its stance in the global market and accepting that the idea comes to fruition through various interpretations as people take it in differently based on their individual backgrounds, can be leveraged when taking a brand to other markets.

The brand must keep its purpose intact, but find details that resonate with people in the new market so it's interpreted in a way that adequately reflects the brand's desired position in the global market.

Who knew books and brands were so closely related...well, they are both stories to be told, experienced and interpreted.  I guess they're not that different at all.

Catching-up with some great articles

After coming back from Tanzania, I have been busier than expected, especially since last week I started a new and very exciting role as a senior strategist with M&C Saatchi, here in London! I will be working in their Central Strategy Unit on some exciting clients with great opportunities. I'm thrilled to work with a fully integrated agency where I can help organizations position, innovate and evolve with their purpose at the heart.


In addition to embarking on an new and amazing opportunity, I have plenty of great articles to read and catch-up on after being away for a month. So this week, rather than a post from me, I thought I would share some of the articles I have come across that have interested and/or inspired me... Enjoy:


I went to India and all I got was this lousy epiphany 
(Wolff Olins Blog)
I really like what Nick Keppel Palmer is writing about these days in terms of brand collaboration and finding partners that share your values and/or purpose to deliver meaningful solutions to society, which, in turn, makes your brand more relevant to people's lives.  This is a great piece about if brands want to shape the way we live, they need to be fundamentally collaborative, partnering with any player who shares a similar ambition.


Top ten ways CEO's must change to lead in the social business marketplace
This is a great post on how business leaders need to change their thinking about the organization's structure, services provided to consumers and expectations on employees, to become a more socially aware organization. I think this is particularly important considering how transparency is becoming a business imperative and social responsibility is becoming a key selection criteria when consumers are choosing a brand. 


LVMH opens heritage sites to public, reasserts roots in craftsmanship
(PSFK)
I thought this was a very interesting initiative by LVMH, as it creates a wonderful reason to believe in their dedication to craftsmanship, but it also provides an experience for people to delve into the life of the various LVMH brands and immerse yourself in the brand essence continuing the brand story.  This actually follows quite closely to a post I put together prior to departing to TZ - Meaningful Luxury Brands.


The Trouble with Context
(SlideShare)
This is a great presentation on what's going on with mobile technology and its influence on behaviour. More importantly, it emphasises that access to the web anywhere is becoming the commonplace.  It's now fully integrated into our daily lives that we don't consciously think "I'm going online right now" when we access information on the web from one or our many mobile devices.


in.gredients
This is a cool company I came across this week. It's a grocery store that is package-free.  Living in the UK, where I'm always amazed at the amount of packaging is used here, I think this is a great new grocery concept. I always get excited when I find brands that create new business concepts as a result of their meaningful brand purpose.


And here's a little something fun that always makes me smile:

Purpose Gives a Brand Legs

Last year, I blogged about my favorite brand, TOMS, an organization that truly understands branding with purpose.  I mean its One for One business model was created around the organization's purpose:

For every one person who buys, one person is helped.

With a purpose as grand, unique and meaningful as TOMS', it was only natural to see it evolve and grow.

Last week, TOMS launched its 'next chapter' of its One for One business. In addition to selling and giving shoes, which I have a whole new appreciation for after learning about the fungus, worms, etc. that can borrow into your feet and cause illness - even death if not treated - from exposure to mud in places like rural Tanzania, they have added eyewear to the roster.

So for every pair of TOMS Eyewear sold, they will provide sight to one person.  This comes in the form of medical treatment, a pair of glasses or sight-saving surgery.

Although it's not as direct as the shoe program, it proves that innovation and growth comes quite naturally when it aligns with your purpose. Additionally, no one is left confused wondering why you chose to take the company in that direction - like how I felt this weekend when I kept stumbling across all these PEUGEOT pepper grinders...

This is only the begging for what TOMS is capable of, and I'm very excited to see how it continues to evolve and change the world one purchase at a time!

Here's a picture of a pair of my well loved TOMS shoes that kept my feet fungus and worm free while I was in Tanzania! Oh the skull next to my feet is of a hippo: