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There's a new documentary all about the cult that surrounds the Apple brand.



Posted by Ed Cotton I just quickly pulled together a deck that highlights some interesting quotes from experts, observers and the media in general on a variety of topics including; advertising, China, economy, environment, food, media/technology, etc.

It's a smorgasboard of smart thinking that sums up the year rather nicely and should provide some food for thought for all of us starting this new year.

It's been sourced from some of the raw material we've collected at Influx over the past 12 months.



Posted by Ed Cotton In the last week or so everyone has been commenting on Facebook's Beacon and the  problems and privacy pitfalls of opening up the "social graph" to brands and other third parties. Some have mentioned they don't think it's a good idea for brands to be people's friends, where others have argued that brands are important social currency, so they naturally fit into social actions and display.

I thought it made sense to explore what brands are up to on Facebook.

This is a two-part post.

Part one is a look at some basic counts and part two will examine some strategies behind the successfull brand efforts.

This is by no means exhaustive, but it's a very quick glance at who is doing what and it's pretty interesting to see the inconsistent approaches. The simple analysis here is just to look at the brands and to do a simple count for the member or fan base for their group or page. This doesn't include consumer generated efforts on behalf of brands, there are lots of those, just the ones that appear to be initated by the brand itself.

You can see clearly that some brands are leveraging the presence, while others have just put their toe in and have yet to take real action. It's surprising to see product brands that are well loved, like iPhone and Halo 3, have so little traction. It's also clear that some brands have a lot of catching up to do- United against Southwest, is just one example. You can also see how brands are using Facebook for campaigns- Reebok's "Run Easy" is a good example.

What distinguishes success from failure here appears to revolve around execution and content; you've got to offer content and offers direct to your Facebook audience and you've also have to give them a reason to belong and take actions, but more of that in Part 2.

Here are the counts:

Abercrombie and Fitch- 235 fans

Adidas- 148 fans

Altoids- 2 fans

Amazon- 18 fans

Apple Students -431,288 fans

BMW- 264 fans

Coca-Cola- 803 fans

Dell Spot- 2,485 members

The Economist- 41 fans

Halo 3- 329 fans

H&M- 25,449 members

iPhone- 476 fans

iPod Touch- 145 fans

Mountain Dew-Dew Uncapped

New York Times- 3,318 fans

Nike-14 fans

Nike- Greatest Team You Have Never Heard Of (US Women's Soccer Team)- 26,345 members

Patagonia- 29 fans

PBS- 827 fans

Pepsi- 58 fans

Pepsi Platinum- 20,144 members

Pizza Hut- 5 fans

Ralph Lauren- 136 fans

Reebok- Run Easy- 13,162 members

Saturn Astra- 212 fans

Sony Playstation 3- 277 fans

Southwest -46,670 members

Target- 16,869 members

Taco Bell -33 fans

Toyota Prius- 48 fans

United Airlines- 13 fans

Victoria's Secret-Pink- 351,622 members



Posted by Ed Cotton There are some very rare occasions when brand strength doesn’t matter because the an event comes along that's so huge it threatens the stability of your business and your brand.

Such an occasion happened last week to the Northern Rock bank. Media images of people lined up to withdraw their savings harkened back to stories we had heard from our grandparents about the 1929 depression, something we’ve never seen in our lifetime or expected to see.

Only an intervention by the British government saved the bank. At the last minute, it decided to step in and guarantee all the bank’s funds. They had to make a swift change because existing legislation guaranteed only 90% of funds up to 33,000 pounds ($70k) and nothing above and beyond that.

The announcement changed everything and the lines stopped forming at the bank and its share price started rising yesterday.

While the UK Government defended their action, which some critics had described as belated, it was clear from the government’s comments that the Northern Rock situation was something almost beyond their control and entirely symptomatic of the world of global finance.

In the wilds of global finance, it was almost as if the wolves had gathered around the weakest deer and were intent on killing it.

For the Northern Rock brand, it’s going to be a long hard journey back. While they have certainly gained infamy and awareness the fundamental element of brand trust that consumers need to have will need to be won back piece by piece.

It will be need to be open and honest and explain what went wrong and what they intend to do about it.

Here’s the start of the re-building campaign; a letter that’s running as full page ads and on the front page of the bank’s website.

May I begin by offering our customers my sincere apologies for the anxiety and inconvenience that we have caused you. I know how worried many of you must have been.

Today I want to make it emphatically clear to all Northern Rock customers that we are open for business as usual.

We remain a well-managed company and continue to be a safe place for your savings, loans and mortgages.

The simple fact now is that the Chancellor has made it clear that all existing deposits in Northern Rock are fully backed by The Bank of England and are totally secure during the current instability in the financial markets.

We are all working night and day to provide you with the service that you expect from us and deserve from us. And I would like to express my appreciation to our staff for their work and commitment over the last few difficult days.

Above all I would also like to thank all our customers for their support and understanding.

I am also pleased to announce that any customer who has paid a penalty for withdrawing their investment, will have the penalty refunded if they re-invest the same amount in the same type of account by 5th October 2007.

These have been troubled times but Northern Rock will prevail. We will not let you down.

Clearly, they have a lot more work to do.
 

Posted by Ed Cotton There was a good piece in the New Yorker, a couple of weeks back, by James "Wisdom of the Crowds" Surowiecki on why consumers tolerate delays on airlines.

"In other words, we’re stuck with the current system, because it isn’t really in any airline’s interest to try to change it. As long as no airline makes a dedicated effort to distinguish itself from the pack, all the airlines can stay lean, even at the expense of quality. In that sense, the most honest thing about the airlines may be their advertising, which tends to emphasize the flying experience—lulling us with talk of leg room and fully reclining seats. You may end up waiting on the runway for a couple of hours, the message seems to be, but at least you’ll do it in a comfortable chair."

The challenge appears to be for those who are trying to do something genuinely different- Jet Blue, Southwest and Virgin.

How do they avoid getting lumped into the category?

How do they also motivate their staff to care and raise standards, when the competition is doing such a bad job?

How and can do they do more than promise a comfortable chair?

It's interesting to think of other categories were the image of the category is so strongly ingrained, it's very tough for brands to push against it.

Banking is an obvious one.


Posted by Ed Cotton We are rapidly moving into a landscape where there will only be two models of marketing communication.

1.    An entertainment based model where marketers work hard to breakthrough the clutter. The goal is to raise awareness and to get people to like you.

2.    A utility based model- the brand provides something useful, good and meaningful to its consumers and perhaps the world beyond. Instead of just running regular ads, they are big idea platforms that inspire, encourage engagement and give something back.

If you don’t do either of these, you will die.

The “shouting” benefits model of marketing communication is about to become as extinct as a dodo.

So the challenge for brands that operate is to understand how they get to entertainment and/or utility.

The secret is the same as it has always been.

It’s all about having a disciplined strategic process that allows you to uncover the big idea.

Something that allows you to stand for something that’s way bigger than yourself or your category.

Once you have it, the opportunities become boundless.

It’s a place that comes from a brand truth, but expands way beyond that.

It can be like over the top entertaining emotional “Joy” of Cadbury’s chocolate or Omo’s philosophical belief that “Dirt is Good”.



Think only about small functional benefits and you will die.

It’s time to think big.

What are you about?

What do you believe in?
 

Posted by Ed Cotton