Bipartisan Brand Management

The most significant and magnificent story of the week has been the inauguration of Barak Obama as the President of the USA (Sheppard Fairy for the image).

One of the elements that makes him remarkable is his bipartisan approach to politics. He has loudly embraced his traditional foe, and also announced a cabinet with (heaven forbid) Republicans on it. This thinking is similar to Nelson Mandela who was insistent that his enemy (in his case F.W. DeClerk) should never be spoken about negatively and always respected, insisting that the stronger his enemy the stronger he became.

What if brand owners took the bipartisan model of politics on board and developed bipartisan brand management. That is, never talking their enemy down, embracing them and growing not only their market share, but the category as well. Duopolies would start to behave very differently towards one another.

If anyone knows of examples of a brand that has embraced its closest rival I would love to hear about it.

The Issues With Social Media

Recently, we engaged people in a campaign through social media. Out of this has come loads of PR, loads of views, and loads of debate.

There are a few points I want to make:

1. Don't believe everything people say: Every focus group I've been to starts with 'I don't watch much TV' and 'Ads don't really have an impact on me - I like what I like'. Same applies to the world of social media - self-report is not always accurate.

2. The loudest voices are not always right: Unfortunately, people don't need to be right to be heard in social media. To be heard you unfortunately just need to be extreme or sensational

3. 'Who in social media understands marketing strategy: Campaigns using social media need to be judged, not on how well they abide by the so called rules of social media, but rather the effectiveness of the communications.

4. Who in social media understands consumer behaviour: This is an interesting one and relates back to point 1. People are notoriously bad historians and predictors of their own behaviour. We cannot rely on self-report to understand why people do things and predict what they may do.

I started this blog in 2008 to better understand the world of social media. I think people with a history in social media who want careers in marketing and communications should get educated in the broader aspects of human behaviour and marketing. Please. Some of the comments people are making in this space are at best naive.

Complications During It's Anal Phase?

America is the most grandiose experiment the world has seen , but , I am afraid , it is not going to be a success.

Sigmund Freud

How To Be Happy - and How Brands Can Help!

There are a lot of chatter around at the moment about happiness, and in particular the role marketing plays in it. Some marketers are completely deluded, including my old mate Faris Yacob and Jane McGonigal who refers to herself as a Happiness Engineer. There argument is that marketing done right can make people happy. Encouraging people to play games, making life more fun and less boring. Brands should be measured in how much happiness they generate says Faris, because 'Happiness is the new capital".

I've recently read two other books that have a slightly different view 'Affluenza' by Clive Hamilton, and 'Bonfire of the Brands'. These authors hold a very different view and believe that brands - and our desire for them creates among other things anxiety, depression and a general level of discontent.

However, when you speak to an independent Happiness 'Expert' (somewhat unconvincingly called 'Dr Happy') he doesn't mention brands at all. Dr Happy (Tim Sharp) runs 'The Happiness Institute' his answer to being happy consists of doing the following (as summarised in a TV interview):

• Connect: Developing relationships with family, friends, colleagues and neighbours will enrich your life and bring you support


• Be active: Sports, hobbies such as gardening or dancing, or just a daily stroll will make you feel good and maintain mobility and fitness


• Be curious: Noting the beauty of everyday moments as well as the unusual and reflecting on them helps you to appreciate what matters to you


• Learn: Fixing a bike, learning an instrument, cooking – the challenge and satisfaction brings fun and confidence


• Give: Helping friends and strangers links your happiness to a wider community and is very rewarding

So hear is the exciting bit....

As a marketer ask yourself. How can my brands help people achieve these 5. behaviours. No not just advertise around these themes - but genuinely get people off the couch and participate in the above activities. If Faris and Jane are right, us 'Happiness Engineers' can't just go around making games - we need to understand what makes people happy and ensure that our brands are contributing to these behaviours.

As a consumer ask yourself - 'Do the brands I consume genuinely make me happier by helping me in some way participate in the above activities?

Warning: Be careful some brands will promise the above (friends, popularity, an active lifestyle, a giving nature) in glossy advertising. You will believe you are getting these things when in fact they wont deliver. Just purchasing a brand that promises you'll be popular / cool / successful doesn't make it so. Look for brands that actually practice these behaviours, and encourage you to do so too.

Humour in Advertising is Not Funny

It's crap. There have been no studies that link humour in ads to effectiveness. It is the unexpected, and not humour that is more strongly linked to effectiveness according to Dave Munger in Cognitive Daily. He goes on to say that this is only true when the unexpected moment is strongly linked to(or casued by) the actual brand. He shows the ad above as a great example of this.

Kellaris and Cline (2007) go further and show that humour can actually detract from teh effectiveness of an ad, making recall, and message take out difficult to understand.

I am amazed at how often funny asvertising is suggested - when it is so often the wrong thing to do. If you want to read a blog of a person who would no doubt agree with all this - check out the blog sadvertising. If you work in an advertising agency please push back on funny for funny's sake.

Hot Cross Buns For Christmas

I've never been a big fan of the 'look how early the Christmas / Easter decorations are coming out this year' conversation, and it's not something I thought I would ever post about. That was until I was shopping in a supermarket on January 5th 2009 and saw Easter Eggs and Hot Cross Buns from Cadbury on display. Does anyone know what sales of Cadbury's Hot Cross Buns are like in January, or why they would be promoted so early (on a valuable stand alone display)?

We Should Be Creating Not Consuming

Right now we are in a financial crisis, and consumer confidence is at an all time low. What is being done about this? Interestingly two things:

1. Consuming: The government is asking consumers to keep on consuming - spend, spend, spend you good citizens.

2. Creating: While the government takes control of creating. Infrastructure and job creating programs are being fast-tracked (at least by governments who can afford to do so).

The opposite of consume (spend, use up, destroy) is create (amalgamate, start, collect).

Consumers (us) should also think of themselves as 'creators'. The time has come to stop our focus on asking people to consume as much as possible, and instead ask them to do something more productive with their time. Ask people what can they create?

• Create a strong relationship with the family.


• Create a small business.


• Create some art


• Create a vegetable garden.


• Create a rain water tank.


• Create a co-op with the people who live in your apartment block.


• Create a machine that will stop global warming or cancer.


• Create new skills for yourself

There is a limit to how much people can and should consume. There is no limit with what's possible though creating and creativity. Richard Florida in 'The Rise of the Creative Class' expresses very clearly the importance of creativity. If you are a marketer then there is no limit consumers will go to to co-create your brand with you as well.