Have a Very Merry Christmas - Give to Others

Christmas is the time of presents, however what many people don’t realize, or at least are beginning to realize is that it truly is better to ‘give than it is to receive’. Comprehensive studies on gifting show that when it comes to gifts giving makes us happier than receiving (Dunn, Aknin and Norton (2008).

Related to this I wonder if people are rapidly becoming less commercial and consumerism focused as they quickly realize that an ever increasing number of possessions are not likely to make us happier. There is a flood of information coming into the market (mainly through positive psychology) demonstrating the relationship between happiness and consumerism. And although it’s difficult to pull apart casual effects the research tends to suggest that being less consumer focused is a sure fire way to stoke up our happiness quotient.

Further, research on those who enjoy Christmas the most (Kasser and Sheldon, 2002) shows that those who focus on family, friends, and the religious elements of Christmas have a happier experience than those who focus on the spending and consumerism. So this year we see the retailers complaining that it’s their worst Christmas in years. Retail spending is at an all time low we hear. I wonder then if that means on balance this will be the happiest Christmas for some time.

Naked Communications and Behaviour Change

Here is how The Australian's Lara Sinclair reported Naked's focus on behaviour change, as reported on 13.12.10

PLANNING agency Naked Communications is repositioning itself as an agent of behavioural change.

The positioning, which is based on some key tenets of behavioural psychology, was developed here and will be rolled out globally, according to Naked Australia founding partner Adam Ferrier.

While some advertising agencies may argue they have been finding ways to persuade people to change their behaviour by trying a new product or buying a new brand for decades, the Naked model turns on its head traditional marketing theory in an effort to expedite and streamline the process.

"Behavioural change is seemingly obvious but currently the marketing industry still is taking the wrong approach: build awareness and desire (which leads to) action,'' Mr Ferrier said.

"We believe in flipping that model on its head, where we start with action first. The rest - interest and desire - will look after itself.''

Campaigns such as "Cabaoke'' for Telstra - in which young people were offered a free ride home in a customised karaoke cab and the experience was captured and shared via social networks - and the Effie Award-winning "Ask Richard'' for Sydney community radio station FBi, which asked listeners to come up with creative ways to ask billionaire Sir Richard Branson to give FBi $1 million to keep the station on air, are examples of the model in action.Naked has used or is using the model with clients Kraft, Novartis and the Transport Accident Commission in Melbourne as well as Coca-Cola in Sydney, and is believed to have used it in its recent successful pitch for the Weight Watchers account.

"We're finding that its the most effective way to deal with loyalty is through getting people to interact with a brand rather than passively receiving a message,'' Mr Ferrier said.

"This has all come about because of massive changes in technology,'' he said. "With all media having the ability to be interactive we can always get (people) to do something.

"It doesn't mean we're changing what we do. Our focus is on understanding humans and understanding behaviour change and that's our focus.'

Three brand positionings that are not

I love looking at communications and trying to understand the brand positoning that lies behind it (that is one of the things that makes me a little sad). Here are three brand positionings that I don’t think are brand positionings at all.

Real

Any time a brand tries to say ‘I’m the real one’ be wary. All brands in a category are real (unless they don’t actually exist). To say one is more real than the other is esoteric and not at all consumer focused. People need a degree of authenticity in the brands they consume nearly all the time, but this is not a brand positioning, it’s one small element of positioning (credibility). To say you’re ‘real’ is to say you exist, and brands need to do more than that. What’s your promise?

Individual

How can a brand deliver ‘individuality’? It’s weird. Marketing is a mass-market game, and brands have to appeal to lots of people to succeed. You cannot credibly be individualistic to each of these people. There is one exception, perhaps brands that can completely change their appearance for every customer can live up to this promise (e.g. iGoogle?). However, a typical FMCG or alcohol brand (for example) cannot.

Nostalgia

What’s nostalgia? It’s a story that communicates the brand has been around for a while. However, this is more a product feature than a positioning. If you can’t think of anything else to say, then say you’ve been around for a while, but please don’t confuse that with your brand positioning.

There you go. Thoughts?