tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-69346570171433077722024-03-05T20:14:12.789+11:00bloggosfearAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13047579768747822057noreply@blogger.comBlogger192125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6934657017143307772.post-50505677957698424092015-05-10T08:44:00.002+10:002015-05-10T08:50:36.215+10:00Google car to replace the Audi?How many times have you heard about families trying to gently persuade or develop all kinds of Machiavellian plots to get an aged parent or grandparent's driving license handed in or forcibly removed?<br />
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While there are plenty of capable elderly drivers on the roads, there are also regular reports of someone's grand pop taking out a shop front, or inadvertantly treating some sidewalk dining tables as a drive-through. It would be funny if it wasn't so life threatening to innocent bystanders.<br />
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The issue is that, as people get older, their driving license becomes a symbol of independence and capacity for self-sufficiency.<br />
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It's easy to emphathise with this, particularly in a country like Australia where rickety public transport services make it a necessity in some places.<br />
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So, it is with great interest that, I have been watching the evolution of the next generation of cars. Tesla's rocket ship electric cars (I had a Scalectrix prototype as a kid, but thank God you don't need to slots cut in the road to make Tesla's version work!).<br />
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While Tesla's cars are already changing the auto industry, from manufacture right through to marketing and distribution, I think the biggest game changer will be the self-driving cars, like those Google types trialing on US roads right now.<br />
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The reason I think they'll create the biggest impact is that they have the potential to revolutionise the lives and capabilities of our ageing population.<br />
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If these cars can create the opportunity to 'uber' a driverless car to the front door to do the shopping run, or whip down to the local club, then they potentially have the capacity to deliver the independence, feedom and mobility so desired by the elderly, the disabled and others.<br />
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Their other social impacts may be a reduction in traffic accidents, cleaner air and a bunch of other community level benefits. But at the individual level, enabling individuals to extend their capabilities will be the most appreciated.<br />
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My long-held loyalty to Audi, misplaced though it may be in the eyes of some, may hang in the balance if my favourite automaker doesn't come to the party with a driverless carriage before I head off on my final journey.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13047579768747822057noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6934657017143307772.post-41655421149633443912015-05-09T09:19:00.001+10:002015-05-09T09:40:17.473+10:00Marketing retirement products to me? Get real!As some may know, I'm in the business of marketing and communicating about superannuation - for those in foreign climes, a pension fund. In Australia, we run an interminable debate about what where sales end and financial advice begin, or is it vice versa? The upshot is that I spend most marketing days in some form of Clark Kent mode, unsure of when to leap into a phone box and emerge in my marketing Superman suit.<br />
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As I am looking increasingly like my target market with each passing year, it becomes apt to consider if some young Turk was going to market anything to do with retirement to me, how should they go about it?<br />
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This is the moment I become vulnerable and at risk of being encoded in some dude's data analytics package. As a target market, I look like this:<br />
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<li>Within a decade of retirement;</li>
<li>Hate the whole idea of retirement;</li>
<li>Could in theory afford to retire now, although facing off with an ageing feline over a bowl of tuna later in life might still be on the cards;</li>
<li>Invest like a patron of Crown Casino;</li>
<li>Enjoy German cars;</li>
<li>Covet wines beyond my budget;</li>
<li>Like soft adventure holidays with hot showers and feather pillows at day's end;</li>
<li>Regularly retreat to my holiday home and go kayaking in the occasionally tame waters of Port Phillip Bay.</li>
<li>Spend a lot of time getting over musculo-skeletal issues due to taking on ridiculously complex and major renovating/landscaping projects.</li>
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In other words, living beyond my means and physical capabilities is the norm, not just an aspiration. This has huge implications for the retirement marketer.<br />
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First it means don't tell me that I want to slow down, leave work, put my feet up or spend endless, blissful days on the beach with sand between my toes. I know it's all crap and will never happen to me. And don't therefore use images of same, or words talking about spending 'quality time' with family, because:<br />
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<li>My wife is, in fact, dreading my retirement even more than me; and</li>
<li>My teenage daughter is not far off driving her own chariot and getting as far away as possible with her contemporaries.</li>
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Accordingly, my current major project is building a decent sized shed down the beach house. Yes, at a push big enough to accommodate a bed and satellite TV!<br />
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So, if you're going to seriously market retirement products to me, understand the reality.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13047579768747822057noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6934657017143307772.post-47644003324454787392014-10-03T10:35:00.000+10:002014-10-04T07:25:50.204+10:00Do you have the 'And Capacity' for content marketing?In the olden days, before content marketers were born, there was this thing called PR. Basically, PR meant writing a bucketload of material, flogging it to journalists, pushing out newsletters that 5% of recipients wanted, and dreaming up great events that had lots more to do with 'relationship building' and 'photo ops' than with the subject matter at hand.<br />
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Now more and more brands are being persuaded that their core business is publishing or 'content marketing'. The PR industry, marginalised to a large extent by the incursions of direct marketing gurus and nerdy types, who knew a lot about developing websites but naff all about good and engaging content, suddenly became relevant again as their core business suddenly became their clients' 'core business'. A beautiful alignment of interests!</div>
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Let me clearly articulate my position in all this. First up - I'm old, or at least that's what recruiters would think of me today. What being old means is that you've lived through and - yay! - even survived several PR cycles and are well-entrenched and qualified for the content marketing game. You even bring 'old' skills like journalism to content marketing - you know, formal training in writing narratives longer than 140 characters. A 'click-bait' tweet is simply headline writing under previous definitions. Come to think of it 140 characters is too long!</div>
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So what do I think about content marketing? I am a strong advocate for it, particularly in the online space. But there is a rider that I will get to.</div>
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I have partnered with websites on which I have placed both display advertising, banners and MRECs, and editorial content. Guess what's worked best in terms of click-throughs? Content - by a ratio of four to one. And why? Because it allows you to better explain the link between your product's or your brand's attributes and the solution your potential consumer is seeking. Sort of like what print advertisements used to do, but less tactile.</div>
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This all assumes, of course, that you have ticked all the boxes in terms of channel selection and strategy and that you're reaching consumers who are at or around the right place in the buying process or lifestage for what you're trying to sell. (No more calls from data analytics floggers please.)</div>
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But here's the rub in a dis-aggregated media world. Online content is transient and your consumers generally have the attention span of a goldfish when they're on their smartphones or tablets. Outside of your own website, consumers are scanning streams of information for stuff that is new. And they're fickle - particularly younger consumers, for whom new channels seem to emerge every few months. Remember while you were labouring over whether to set up a Facebook presence, Pinterest, Snapchat, Instagram and a whole bunch of other channels sprang to life? It's just a series of 'Oh shit, didn't see that coming!' moments.</div>
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This constantly evolving landscape means you have to create an absolute avalanche of engaging material - editorial, videos, infographics and, yes, even click-bait. It sucks up massive resources - constant scrutiny of current affairs and conversations that you can leverage off, working creative visual and story angles, constantly evaluating the channel preferences of your different audiences, distribution through channels, monitoring online chatter, running analytics and responding to inquiries and online commentary - and potentially crises - in as close as possible to real time.</div>
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It is activity that can be all-consuming and suck the marrow from your bones, putting at risk other marketing and communications strategies and activities, pleasing and retaining your existing customers by talking to them on the phone, and building awareness with great advertising through traditional channels (remember TV?).</div>
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All I suggest to anyone being sold the content marketing story is be aware of the resources required to do it properly. Jumping into content-hungry channels and being unprepared to feed the beast is worse than not being there at all. Most of all, evaluate whether you have the 'And Capacity' for content marketing. It's not a replacement for everything else you're doing. It's just <u>additional</u> to what you are doing.</div>
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Having said that, I must rush off. I have other 'and' jobs to complete.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13047579768747822057noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6934657017143307772.post-66290788892539847732014-03-07T06:29:00.001+11:002014-03-07T06:29:05.174+11:00Remember when being Number 1 meant so much?In the heady days of the 80s I consulted to, or worked for organisations where there was really only one success metric - being market leader, or being 'Number 1'.<br />
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Depending on how you look at it, until the 90s, I never worked for a business that wasn't market leader. At Ford Australia, I remember publishing the staff tabloid in 1983 with the London Sun type headline 'We did it!', as we knocked arch enemy, Holden, off it's perch as market leader. How times have changed, with both companies recently announcing their intention to quit the country, let alone market leadership.</div>
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When Hertz became a client in 1993, the global positioning line was 'Go with the world's #1', a counterpoint to Avis' legendary and blindingly successful line 'We try harder.' Simultaneously, a guy called Bob Ansett was hammering a customer-first message for Budget, building market share by the age-old method of price discounting.</div>
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How many younger colleagues have I come across that have said 'I wish I was around in the 80s with all that money to spend.'. Yes, there was money to spend - mostly other people's - and much of it was pitched at securing the Holy Grail, market leadership.</div>
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These days, corporate leadership is defined across a wide range of metrics - financial, social, environmental, governance, workplace - the list goes on. The fact that you sell more than anyone else is largely immaterial. There is no authenticity in selling more than anyone else. It could just mean you're cheaper and probably won't be around much longer. There's always someone bigger, meaner and with deeper pockets lurking around the corner.<br />
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What is the leadership metric that drives your organisation? I'd be interest to know.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13047579768747822057noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6934657017143307772.post-83231031447396075252013-07-10T10:35:00.003+10:002013-07-10T10:44:48.108+10:00A humble explanation for my absenceI just checked out my space on here - August last year since my last post! A relief to many no doubt, shattering to the two people who used to enjoy it. Perhaps it's all down to my last post on favourite logos - now there's a blogger completely out of ideas - perhaps it was the Last Post for innovative thought.<br />
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I don't really care if you care why I've been away. I'm going to fill you in anyway. I'll arrange the reasons in ascending order of importance:<br />
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<li><b>Disillusion</b> - I realised I wasn't the new Messiah. My 'Disciples' group has stubbornly remained at six - and even they are having second thoughts. The Bloggosfear has not proved to be the gathering place for a new religion. However, a couple of recent comments have indicated that there may be a number of closet disciples who have missed my posts. Although they're not registered, I may have even detected a hint of concern among these flesh and blood readers about my health, or even existence. These real life encounters have done nothing to allay their concerns - their personal experience being a pale shadow of the promise in the photo taken about seven years ago (no, I'm not uploading a more contempotary one!).</li>
<li><b>Madness</b> - I undertook a major landscaping exercise at my home down the beach. 60 tonnes of earth removal and replacement later, plus a stack of paving almost delivered on the concerns of the closet disciples previously mentioned and probably makes retaining the display photo a wise decision. Yes, the project conceived in a moment of madness enforced a subsequent period of sustained leisure, including a break from authoring. I think all will agree that this has proved to be ideal therapy for both author and readers.</li>
<li><b>Machismo</b> - Some men of a certain age love to prove they still have what it takes. Perhaps that's what drove me to regular kayaking off the Mornington Peninsula. Bizarrely, I kicked the whole obsession off in an inflatable kayak which, in good offshore winds, encouraged me to see more of Port Phillip Bay than initially intended. I remember one instance in which a person sailing a significant sized yacht asked about my well-being as I made a frog-on-the-wall-of-a-slippery-well approach back to shore against a stiff south-easter. I smiled and waved, which he mistakenly took to mean I had things under control. I had what it takes as I left the beach. I had nothing to give on my return. The new, sleeker hard-shell kayak will be delivered this month.</li>
<li><b>Work</b> - It's been bloody busy. And guess what? I like being busy at work. Nothing more boring that just turning up and collecting the money - although the latter is important to funding previously mentioned activities. A merger, then non-merger, two re-brand projects in one year, two new websites in one year. The sad thing is that only half of last year's work will ever see light of day. Believe me, if you saw what we did, you wouldn't believe me. That's why I'll never show you half of it. The half you do see is bloody unbelievable anyway - in the best possible sense.</li>
<li><b>Politics</b> - Labor's leadership crisis consumed all the oxygen. KRudd personally tweeted me asking could I lay off the blog for a while so people could focus on his positivism and Julia's incoherence. I would have ignored the request, except that Kev's gazillion Twitter followers threatened to organise a Facebook party at my house if I didn't comply. If only I had realised the hollowness of this threat, coming from 1.5 million names purchased from a Belarus company.</li>
<li><b>Family</b> - Families just consume lots of things - emotion, time, money. These are all big investments and the fiscal element seems to hold greater sway as your beloved teenage daughter takes to retail therapy, advancing education, school trips and so on. Just lucky blogspot is free, or this might be the last you see of me, dear reader.</li>
<li><b>Brand experiences</b> - Talking about personal brand experiences is what this blog is supposed to be about but, you know what - I haven't had any great or really bad brand experiences lately. Perhaps everything has just faded to beige. </li>
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So what's resuscitated the Bloggosfear? Simple. A sick day. Off work with what many females readers will refer to as 'man flu', but which is a real assault on the respiratory tract in this case. Having been constrained to quarters for just 3.5 hours, I now know why I put colleagues at risk for the past few days. There's no upside to staying at home - unless you're really taking what Aussie's refer to as a 'sickie'. In this instance, you're not sick at all and free to indulge in all the world has to offer and therefore not at home.</div>
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As she left this morning (not permanently I don't think), my wife said to get to bed and catch up on lost sleep. But you don't have to take a sick day lying down. In my case, it's inspired me to revisit the blog knowing that, ultimately, what I write will be a cure for insomnia anyway.</div>
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Readers can only hope that I am back where I should be tomorrow - in the office and not cluttering the web with unnecessary verbiage. </div>
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I'll be back...</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13047579768747822057noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6934657017143307772.post-7224691688472434842012-08-14T16:56:00.000+10:002012-08-14T16:56:10.240+10:00What makes logos great?In the most recent edition of Australia's <a href="http://www.marketingmag.com.au/" target="_blank"><i>Marketing</i></a> magazine, appears one of those articles that does the regular rounds - Australia's greatest logos, world's greatest logos, complete your own geographic coverage.<br />
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The regular chestnuts turn up again in this edition with the ABC's sinewave adaptation taking number one spot, the Qantas flying kangaroo number two and so on. A relative newcomer to the Top 10 is Woolworth's apple peel logo. The usual retinue make up the numbers - Commbank (let's forgive the 'CAN' campaign for a minute), 7 Network, BHP Billiton, 9 Network and so on.<br />
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Perhaps the only surprise is that the national broadcaster's sinewave beats the two commercial networks' logos to take first place. Why surprising? Because the relative number of viewers of ABC is significantly less than the other two.<br />
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Of course, public exposure does not make a great logo - or it shouldn't. But there is an uncanny link in the <i>Marketing</i> mag panel's top choices and exposure. The TV networks achieve it on the basis they are what they are - TV networks. I believe there is still no greater medium for brand awareness building in Australia than free-to-air TV.<br />
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Then, of course, there is Qantas. The iconic flying kangaroo is embedded in the Australian consumer psyche, although one would argue that awareness is outstripping affection with many right now. Woolworths spends more than just about anyone on its brand profile, Commbank is a prolific advertiser. Perhaps of the nominated logos, BHP Billiton's is the only one that is not currently backed by a multi-million dollar advertising campaign or equivalent.<br />
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For what it's worth, I'd like to propose a fewAussie logos that I think are great and capture the essence of their business:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl6X3gAoq5-CUZndtw3A22nXedfze6eglXsT5kW1_mg938owzbhlUCmWgxKyCBvSRWR65E88xBpu-tpuFgufSloRlNG3AEnX_fCMlttcUBMLwDoTVtQQP2qUWGvWdv0PIjJPjB3TyQOYs/s1600/mambo_farting_dog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl6X3gAoq5-CUZndtw3A22nXedfze6eglXsT5kW1_mg938owzbhlUCmWgxKyCBvSRWR65E88xBpu-tpuFgufSloRlNG3AEnX_fCMlttcUBMLwDoTVtQQP2qUWGvWdv0PIjJPjB3TyQOYs/s200/mambo_farting_dog.jpg" width="141" /></a></div>
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For sheer cheek 'up the establishment' cheek, I love Mambo. Music to one's ears (?). Is it still cool to wear Mambo. Who cares? They almost challenge us to be uncool.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfNOg9vB2ORZherOIHr3xEi4rlViBrU5kg8eWLk0-jzzII36jtSqf4HfIuctvW-E03MznS9_D2xK_cdGDKE_7KC2w-UUjpEG5X37xtEoGmKT8garmmSQ6pXHx7VotxPRqYehYsGpIuzT0/s1600/rip+curl.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="94" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfNOg9vB2ORZherOIHr3xEi4rlViBrU5kg8eWLk0-jzzII36jtSqf4HfIuctvW-E03MznS9_D2xK_cdGDKE_7KC2w-UUjpEG5X37xtEoGmKT8garmmSQ6pXHx7VotxPRqYehYsGpIuzT0/s320/rip+curl.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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The graphic integration of the 'R' and 'C' in the shape of a wave captures what this company's heritage is all about. Rival Quiksilver also scores highly in the logo department, but I put Rip Curl marginally ahead because of its simple execution. Iconic.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbbBw3vRYfku6kWApkXd77kcmlxi0gYxh9QiQQLO53qIOuNt1UNMp-Iojal-WPPlQ4MIg4MXBZ37y06sL777vXdm8NJLD4Ov7EHiI-jDn0CFk-XuerEPfa_WBbYgZbBuJBfr2S_JYWI1k/s1600/williams.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="127" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbbBw3vRYfku6kWApkXd77kcmlxi0gYxh9QiQQLO53qIOuNt1UNMp-Iojal-WPPlQ4MIg4MXBZ37y06sL777vXdm8NJLD4Ov7EHiI-jDn0CFk-XuerEPfa_WBbYgZbBuJBfr2S_JYWI1k/s200/williams.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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Absolutely no bull from the R.M. Williams paddock. I love the way the company has not tried to contemporise its outback Aussie feel. You can almost smell the cow dung on the leather.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibVyUm4MFUDXv3760zWAHel4bt33SzdDTERJvU1KwIc0rer-V7iom43tJO1g4QNuFvktyrzFj0M80zShTFT8q15u_lArfU1SBVvv705WRJDX0ngMMQZaMDJm5E_RYFSq23zEWeDO1tJeM/s1600/afl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="113" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibVyUm4MFUDXv3760zWAHel4bt33SzdDTERJvU1KwIc0rer-V7iom43tJO1g4QNuFvktyrzFj0M80zShTFT8q15u_lArfU1SBVvv705WRJDX0ngMMQZaMDJm5E_RYFSq23zEWeDO1tJeM/s200/afl.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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It's football. Say no more. Enjoys a high profile, but why? Hundreds of thousands just love what it delivers. Footy. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoTfiIGB3LxNS1MCQcNKNPnZgF3NFB183T5Rqx05IW102zO3wTx0DSSMnLQZkbyHiY9siVHwq19XqTi8-s52_tBM_NCcOCtR4S_ymv5TtDI7sMlXK_3ZGn0weuHQgy_Sujj_gLuIwLqAQ/s1600/4n20.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="104" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoTfiIGB3LxNS1MCQcNKNPnZgF3NFB183T5Rqx05IW102zO3wTx0DSSMnLQZkbyHiY9siVHwq19XqTi8-s52_tBM_NCcOCtR4S_ymv5TtDI7sMlXK_3ZGn0weuHQgy_Sujj_gLuIwLqAQ/s200/4n20.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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Yeah, right. It goes with the footy. Almost interchangeable with the logo above. Go the pies!</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP87cRq2I6YgYed8dfwieTRL61yw1eFaL1rJ_HXLH3w2wqT5YAdYhqU3YkHOJm_QSQ7i15hUIEpzjkcjkCbLotQG8Bp2ewFtl1iu4j32I-zaH9QdfpyrIfuE0nk-q75iaS2rHwqT6pHAw/s1600/rover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP87cRq2I6YgYed8dfwieTRL61yw1eFaL1rJ_HXLH3w2wqT5YAdYhqU3YkHOJm_QSQ7i15hUIEpzjkcjkCbLotQG8Bp2ewFtl1iu4j32I-zaH9QdfpyrIfuE0nk-q75iaS2rHwqT6pHAw/s1600/rover.jpg" /></a></div>
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I don't know how the hell this logo equates to lawn mowers, but it does. Unchanged for as long as I can remember, even if it has dallied with engines not produced by Briggs & Stratton in recent years. A cut above the rest.</div>
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Any other entries into the logo Hall of Fame welcome...</div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13047579768747822057noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6934657017143307772.post-79836604231949918722012-08-09T08:34:00.000+10:002012-08-10T17:06:26.131+10:00It's wrong on so many levelsMaybe I'm too dumb to fathom some things, but how often have I heard this statement in business? Usually when someone says 'it's wrong on so many levels', I can only see one reason why it is so. What are the other levels? How many levels form the threshold at which you decide not to do something?<br />
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I'm sorry if this entry includes more questions than narrative, but I fear I might be missing out on some very big chunks in the formulation of business strategy or, more accurately, the drivers of rejecting a strategy.
The most worrying thing about this is that, if you're part of a collective of supposedly wise heads,when someone says this, everyone else in the room nods in agreement.<br />
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Am I the only one at the meeting who is one dimensional in their thinking? Others can clearly penetrate the obvious first level to explore other levels.
No. I think the answer may be that I may be the most savvy in the room in being able to see through this fraudulent comment.<br />
<br />
Either the person saying it is embracing the entire collective by using 'so many levels' to cover their own incapacity to recognize the other intellectual arguments others may have. A less generous explanation may be that they know something is wrong with an idea, but cannot place their finger on it, so invite others to fill in the gaps.<br />
<br />
I'm afraid I'm going to have to add this to the <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/ericjackson/2012/06/19/89-business-cliches-that-will-get-any-mba-promoted-to-middle-management-and-make-them-totally-useless/">Forbes list of most disliked cliches used in business</a>. I am perfectly happy in my simplistic, superficial world to accept a single wrong is enough to convince me not to pursue something.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13047579768747822057noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6934657017143307772.post-40510879559105796512012-07-17T14:09:00.000+10:002012-07-17T14:09:00.006+10:00Coles reverts to Status QuoFrancis Rossi what are you doing? For old rockers, who won't even admit these days to being fans of 'The Quo' as 70s rock band, <a href="http://www.statusquo.co.uk/" target="_blank">Status Quo</a>, was affectionately known, playing the Cole's 'big red hand' guitars is a perfect symbol of fading youth and, indeed, relevance.<br />
<br />
It's a startling revelation and even reality check for all of that vintage to witness the absence of Rossi's former long mane. In lieu, we see some thinning strands, swept back almost as a reference to virility and cool. And the glasses! Like having grandpop doing karaoke to the once proud, yet simple chords (or is it just a chord?) of <i>Down, Down</i>. <br />
<br />
Yes indeed, Coles is pushing prices down and it's appropriate that this response to Woolies' newest, fresh food brand campaign is belted out by Status Quo. For it's a return to type for Coles, with it's price-led advertising leading a race to the bottom.<br />
<br />
But as they push prices down, so they deflate the morale of people who remember the golden years of Status Quo. (Oh dear! Just remembered I still have a Status Quo vinyl at home called <i>12 Gold Bars</i>. Don't tell Coles, they'll use it as a promo line in the confectionary aisle.)<br />
<br />
As you look at Rossi who, admittedly, is quite a bit older than me, instead of reflecting on Coles low prices, you have to ask yourself: <i>"Have I deteriorated that much since I listened to The Quo?"</i> It's enough to prompt hanging up the air guitar for good.<br />
<br />
The sight of those old rockers opening their guitar cases only to feign surprise at the tightly strung 'red hands' inside is quite sad. And then to bastardise a song that no one possibly thought could be further degraded to create the <i>'Down, down prices are down'</i> lyric is just too much to accept. The rock gods and immortal chords in reflecting their mortality are, in fact, a reflection of your own. <br />
<br />
I've got to hand it to Rossi, the vocals appear to hold up for at least the duration of the advertisement. It's more than can be said for some of his contemporaries, who still occasionally warble to entranced, or more likely effused, crowds in Victorian vineyards on Sunday afternoon.<br />
<br />
It's clearly a bit of a lark for The Quo. Reputations cannot be tarnished when most of the viewing audience is either too young to know who these guys are, or so engrossed in mobile devices during the ad breaks to not even notice. <br />
<br />
But the point of the advertisement is well communicated - down, down, prices are down. Perhaps not down as much as Status Quo's appearance fees these days.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13047579768747822057noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6934657017143307772.post-43499418256110140452012-07-12T13:48:00.000+10:002012-07-12T13:55:31.085+10:00The day Campaign Palace faced the schizophrenicsThe older cohort of marketing types are looking back with some nostalgia at the evaporation of The Campaign Palace, the iconic creative hothouse circa the 70s to the 90s.<br />
<br />
Some of their great work is featured <a href="http://tinyurl.com/7n9u46z" target="_blank">here</a> and I've heard much commentary about the demise of advertising creative in the age of YouTube since the announcement of the Palace's closure.<br />
<br />
I did have some experience of Campaign Palace in the late 1980s. I was employed at then travel powerhouse, Jetset, in those years. I learned a lot - mostly about how bad agency briefings could be.<br />
<br />
In one particular instance, I recall feeling pity, even remorse for even turning up, for Palace account director, John Poulakakis, who in Palace's dimly lit black boardroom faced a house divided.
You see, like most travel wholesaler / retailers, we were not used to paying our own marketing bills - or at least not 100% of them.<br />
<br />
For the most part, campaigns were funded by airline partners and anyone else you could rope in.
Hence the rise and rise of the schizophrenic brief. On the one hand, we wanted campaigns that would build the brand of the fledgling Jetset Travel Centre retail network, on the other, in this particular instance, there was our 50% owner, Air New Zealand, who wanted to fill trans-Tasman seats in a damn hurry.<br />
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I'll never forget John's exasperation towards the end of the two hour briefing or, should I say, debate. The brand development brief around warm, caring Jetset retail types did not mesh easily with the frantic, price-driven rush to fill aircraft seats.<br />
<br />
It was brand building versus tactical imperatives and, of course, who was picking up the tab.
The meeting ended with no resolution and a Palace resolve to try to accommodate both briefs. I'll never forget the end result - half page newspaper advertisements divided in two, half featuring the Jetset Travel Centre positioning, the other the last-minute seat sale.<br />
<br />
It was not a campaign that The Campaign Palace would later feature in its portfolio and, I note, one which does not feature in the <a href="http://tinyurl.com/7n9u46z" target="_blank">highlights package</a>. That meeting taught me much about putting crap in and getting crap out - whether you're programming a computer, or briefing an agency.<br />
<br />
We did enjoy some good times with the guys at The Campaign Palace, but our schizophrenia soon resulted in a parting of the ways.<br />
<br />
The key to their success was identifying the key message and developing creative that delivered it in an effective and memorable way.
In their day, they were certainly the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GU59Vq-nxjg">Antz Pantz</a> in advertising (still so hot!).Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13047579768747822057noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6934657017143307772.post-37849318182114793972012-07-07T07:55:00.000+10:002012-07-07T08:03:16.627+10:00Brand differentiation worth a sausageDon't you just love a citrus grower who smells like oranges? And a zany farmer in the armour? And a truck driver with the joke I cannot remember? If you don't know who I'm talking about, the latest Woolworths TVCs created by Droga5 have completely passed you by.<br />
<br />
Woolworths has taken a significant step to ending the price war with supermarket rival Coles and steer us to making 'quality' and 'fresh' decisions. Commercially, it's a big call for the people running Woolworths' brand - a stance against being beaten to death by the big red hand that points prices downwards for Coles.<br />
<br />
Woolworths has chosen to get back to brand differentiation because, as we know, discounting might bring market share, but it can also deliver commercial ruin and unhappy shareholders.<br />
<br />
It will be interesting to see what they do with the stablemate Masters big box hardware brand. So far, my only recollection is the call <i>'Don't you just love competition',</i> positioning the brand in the category as a rival to Bunnings.<br />
<br/>
I made my Masters debut at Mornington outside Melbourne the other week. It's certainly very tidy and not in the mould of a traditional hardware store for blokes, with the customary bins of plumbing bits and stands of stormwater pipe to fantasise over.<br />
<br />
White goods take pride of place, with one of the glitziest arrays of washing machines I have ever seen. Some of the Samsung machines would not look out of place in a night club - perhaps they're for laundering money, but I digress.<br/>
<br/>
I would not be surprised to see Masters positioning itself for the female handyman, if that is not a contradiction in terms, or perhaps the male housemaid.<br />
<br/>
But there is a real opportunity that the brand Masters have so far failed to capitalise on - and it's right on their doorstep. It's the sausage sizzle at the front of the store.<br/>
<br/>
I was amazed to see that the sausage sizzle was an exact duplicate of the Bunnings sizzle. Heavy cotton canopy, six burner BBQ, same happy combination of community minded adults and kids folding snags in bread with onions and sauce according to taste. Sorry, girls and boys, you're going to have to put more sizzle into the idea if you're going to differentiate.<br/>
<br/>
How about gourmet sausages with a selection of mustards from regional growers - maybe even one of those whacky Woolworths fresh food people grows unique mustard seeds. Perhaps the guy in the armour could serve them, while a tradie from inside the store lubricated the moving parts with some motor oil off the specials stand. Nothing wrong with cross-promotion.<br/>
<br/>
As it is now, Masters is failing its first brand promise by not delivering the competition we love. The sizzle thing is just trademark infringement! I know a guy who goes to Bunnings every Sunday just for a look around and a sausage. Sad though that may be, the point is that Bunnings has trademarked the car park sausage sizzle as part of the retail experience.<br/>
<br/>
Clearly, I'm unimpressed. I'm not a Masters convert and will chew over my future purchase decisions at the Bunnings sizzler.<br/>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13047579768747822057noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6934657017143307772.post-68643112318758861692012-07-07T06:55:00.000+10:002012-07-07T07:09:46.302+10:00Voicing her differenceI have the good fortune to have a 14 year old daughter who helps keep her middle aged Dad at least partially in tune with popular culture. Sorry, wrong - who totally immerses her Dad in popular culture by taking control directly and remotely of every audiovisual device in the household and car.
<br />
<br />
<div>
That's why I spent many consecutive weeks recently tuned into <i>'The Voice'</i> on the Nine Network. It's an interesting concept. Remove the visual cues from the contestants to make initial selections based solely on 'the voice'. But that's not what this is about.<br />
<br /></div>
<div>
Over the course of the show, old dudes like me try to look cool by declaring the winner early in the series - sort of lording it over their teenage kids by bringing several decades of music cool and discernment to the task of blowing everyone away with their wisdom. How could anyone who had heard Slade, Kiss and Elton John not be better equipped to assess the contestants than those consumed by Chris Brown, Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber? It's a lay down misere...<br />
<br /></div>
<div>
But these talent shows are really all about who can build their personal brand in the space of a few short months. Happily, I picked Karise Eden to win The Voice way back at her second appearance. If I had as much success at Flemington Racecourse, I would have time to more frequently keep this blog up to date.<br />
<br /></div>
<div>
Why Karise? Because among the other aspirers to the throne, her voice was absolutely unique. Close your eyes and you could be in one of those ice cool clubs in New Orleans listening revelling in soul. None of the other contestants on the show had the capacity to stamp their unique mark - their brand.<br />
<br /></div>
<div>
Good luck Karise. Don't compromise. Too many brands fail because they lose their soul.</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13047579768747822057noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6934657017143307772.post-82406705914444410462012-04-29T12:54:00.003+10:002012-04-29T12:54:50.318+10:00Tidying up Google's messI wrote a couple of pieces on some days off from the normal gig last week. For those who clicked through from Twitter and elsewhere previously, my apologies for the tatty presentation and lack of paragraphs. You can blame me, but I'd prefer it if you blamed it on Google's Blogspot.<br />
<br />
When is Google going to get on the pace and ensure bloggers like me can upload properly formatted material from an Apple mobile device, in my case an iPad?<br />
<br />
I understandthe Google-backed Androids are locked in an interstellar fight to the death with the iWorld, but I don't appreciate being collateral damage. It's enough to get one thinking about WordPress as a better option, although I understand there's less scope for some of the finer points of formatting like colours, fonts etc.<br />
<br />
But if I am continually thwarted in my attempts to bore the world stupid with my blogs, then I will migrate to WordPress. I know it won't change the world, or perhaps even break anyone's sleep, but I will have the satisfaction of knowing that I took a stand.<br />
<br />
Once again, apologies to any readers this week who appreciate the finer points of paragraphing etc. I have now tidied up the page using ancient desktop technology.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13047579768747822057noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6934657017143307772.post-80682438203882451622012-04-26T18:48:00.000+10:002012-04-29T12:44:32.945+10:00Brand journalism? The media and commerce conspireWay way back, when I began a journalism cadetship on <i>The Courier-Mail</i> in Brisbane, there was a massive separation between advertising (promoting brands and products) and editorial. Never the twain should meet in those days.
But the other week, I joined a LinkedIn group called 'Brand Journalism'.<br />
<br />
It was the final sign-off for me from journalism, as I once knew it, and PR and marketing. Don't get me wrong, I see nothing wrong with brand journalism, as long as it doesn't masquerade as pure journalism, like many of our so-called current affairs programs do.<br />
<br />
I crossed to the 'dark side' when I left newspapers in 1981 and moved into Ford Australia's public affairs office. It wasn't long before I was elevated to the lofty position of 'Product Information Manager', which was the first formal transition from PR into marketing. From there, from the journalism purists point of view, it was all downhill for yours truly.<br />
<br />
It's now widely acknowledged that there are more journalists working for corporate masters than reporting on them. Over 80% of many newspapers, more in some cases, originates from copy or ideas generated by brand journalists than from those employed in the media. Whether this is a good thing is another issue, but it's a trend endorsed by the growth in media distribution and the 24-hour news cycle.<br />
<br />
Get past the first section of your daily newspaper, or the first two items on your current affairs program and you're well into understanding the growing nexus between editorial and PR / brand journalism. You're into channels hungry for content and grateful for any corporate largesse that may help fill them.<br />
<br />
What's worse is the evidence suggests the public is generally happy with this arrangement. They're happy for a current affairs show to research whether it's cheaper to shop at Aldi than anywhere else. They think all content should be free on the Internet.<br />
<br />
If they wanted truly independent editorial, they'd pay subscriptions to independent news services. Indeed some do, but not enough to sustain a genuine global news organizations.
So brand journalism is here to stay, perhaps to become one of the fastest growing professions in corporate communications, as companies not only interact with media organisations, but also service their own growing channels in the social media and web.<br />
<br />
Always thought of myself as a journalism turncoat until I discovered brand journalism. I've subscribed!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13047579768747822057noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6934657017143307772.post-21760635071367030772012-04-26T09:26:00.001+10:002012-04-29T12:42:35.574+10:00Leveson inquiry - an archaelogical dig into what the media used to bePretty damning isn't it? My last blog entry was January. Slack, uninspired? What has been the cause of the demise?
Two things have come to light in the last 24 hours that have helped me understand where the answer to this question lies.<br />
<br />
Everyone's favorite media guy, Uncle Rupert, fronted the UK's Leveson inquiry into media ethics, while <i><a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/04/predicted-in-15-years-90-of-news-stories-will-be-written-by-algorithms/256357/">The Atlantic</a></i> published an article pointing out that 90% of news stories may eventually be written by computer algorithms. Clearly, I am a humble scribe who has neither the access that Uncle Rupe has to people who can inspire or be inspired, or the smarts to create an algorithm that can generate blogs for me.
But I am inspired to return to the keyboard by Murdoch's first appearance at the Leveson hearings.<br />
<br />
Due respect to the inquiry inquisitors, but what háve we learned from the first interview with Rupert? <i><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/" target="_blank">The Guardian</a></i> this morning described a series of concessions uttered by the media mogul, but the reality is that, beyond obtaining some specific insights about conversations between him and various UK politicians and prime ministers,did we learn anything we did not know, or at least assume, already.<br />
<br />
Today's <i>Guardian</i>, for example, asks how Rupert can believe that meeting Tony Blair a few times a year demonstrates little more influence than that accorded the average citizen? This misses the point. It is no more access than any substantial media mogul would have to a prime minister.
I don't believe the Murdoch assertion that commercial interests never sway the content or support delivered by newspapers like London's <i>The Sun</i>, but then I don't believe there is any media enterprise that lends support to one or other political party's election campaign without taking it's own commercial interests into account.<br />
<br />
The main issue I have with the Leveson inquiry and any other similar investigation is that it is interrogating the past, not the future of media. As marketers and corporate communicators, we are well aware of the disaggregation of media. If <i>The Sun</i> had the influence that some claim, all our media strategy issues would be resolved. But the reality is that we know audiences are behaving differently.<br />
<br />
Ownership of traditional media channels is increasingly becoming a financial liability rather than an asset.
Mini-publishers, like me, today are taking to the web, mobile and other distribution channels together our message out. I have about 300 people a month visiting this blog (apologies to them for my recent neglect). Unless that 300 are all prime ministers and presidents, I obviously have much less clout than Rupert, but the collective efforts of hundreds of thousands of bloggers do have influence - perhaps even more because followers tend to be people who generally subscribe to the credibility or value of the source.<br />
<br />
And now, with the advent of journalism by algorithm, there is no sign of disaggregation continuing. As <i>The Atlantic</i> suggests, algorithms are unlikely to replace opinion pieces and so on, but they do have the potential to increase the sheer volume of news covered. I cannot confirm it, but <i>The Atlantic</i> claims these algorithms already account for thousands of stories about America's Little League coverage.<br />
<br />
To me, this suggests the technology has the potential to create micro packets of news for local community digestion.
So for me, putting the octogeneric Rupert in front of the Leveson inquiry at great expense is only of passing interest, an archaeological dig into what media used to look like before the US President funded much of his campaign and ultimately won office on the back of a slick social media strategy.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13047579768747822057noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6934657017143307772.post-19133236911926845072012-01-20T08:51:00.002+11:002012-01-20T09:08:34.947+11:00Kodak failure a lesson for all, but not surprisingIt's sad about Kodak, the venerable brand that has played a central role in capturing a big chunk of modern natural and human history. Perhaps more sad is that fact that the people running it either a) didn't see digital coming or b) saw it coming and buried their heads in the sand and refused to embrace it.<br />
<br />
The company's demise is no surprise to me. I consulted to another long-established and highly respected brand in the 1990s - Agfa. They were in the film production business also and arguably produced the best consumer film product on the market.<br />
<br />
The interesting thing about Agfa was that it had seen the digital age coming and was actually a leader in the area of high-resolution medical and pre-press imaging (remnants of it still are, as far as I know). Even in the mid-range scanning segment, some of Agfa's flatbed scanners were second to none. So there was no excuse for its rapid demise and disappearance in the consumer imaging sphere.<br />
<br />
The writing was on the wall for me when I was asked to promote Agfa's range of digital cameras. I had a stockpile of them in my office that I promoted to the camera cognizenty in the media to 'road test'. I remember them clearly - 2 megapixel resolution on the base model, with a premium 4 mPx on the upmarket model.<br />
<br />
That was great for about six months, but not for the several years that the company promoted the range. It got to the point where I was forced to have a very robust conversation with the company's executives about the wisdom of maintaining the media evaluation program when competitors were rapidly moving on to a whopping 6 mPx and beyond.<br />
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In fact, in my famously diplomatic way, I shipped all the test units back to them declaring that there was no evidence that the company had any commitment to the segment and no product development strategy that I could see.<br />
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Twelve months later, and to my cost, I received the inevitable call from Agfa Australia. I was to lose a significant marcoms account - not because of what I said, but because I had been proved right and the Belgian HQ had announced Agfa was withdrawing from the consumer digital imaging market. That was back in 2001 and, in my view Kodak was not looking much healthier even then - remember the $15 million Australian Government subsidy to retain Kodak in Australia when Ziggy Switowski headed up the operation? Perhaps we'd rather forget this in the context of the auto industry funding debate!<br />
<br />
But, back to the knitting. I was later told that Agfa had withdrawn from the sector because it saw mobile phone and electronics companies as the future players in photography for the masses. And hey, they were correct. The digital cameras offered in mobile devices today are vastly superior to their early offerings. But the point is, why didn't they take action to forge alliances or even negotiate mergers with some of these operators?<br />
<br />
Agfa's brand in consumer photography was massive in Europe, respected in the United States and growing in Asia-Pacific. It had strong advocacy in professional photographic ranks. But it appeared the executive placed no real value on the potential for their brand to assist other companies not already in the consumer imaging space to, at minimum, develop and manufacture products for them.<br />
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I am not close enough to Eastman-Kodak to know the intricacies of why they went broke, but Rupert Goodwins of technology website, <a href="http://www.zdnet.com/" target="_blank">ZDNet</a> sees it this way:<br />
<br />
"Kodak made all its money from selling film, then the digital camera
came along and now no-one's buying film. It's not like they didn't see
it coming. Kodak hesitated because they didn't want to eviscerate their
business," he said.<br />
<br />
Sounds a hell of a lot like history repeating itself to me and there are lessons in it for all of us. Purists might argue film produces superior images with more subtle colour gradations and so on, but no one wants it. Some audiophiles still argue vinyl LPs deliver a warmer sound than CDs. And even I believe CDs deliver superior sound to mpeg devices. But those views don't matter if the masses don't believe them.<br />
<br />
Consumer demand drives our businesses, not the widgets we might develop
or service models and systems we might think are good, or even superior, for them.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13047579768747822057noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6934657017143307772.post-80229026463594462882012-01-20T07:13:00.000+11:002012-01-20T09:54:19.877+11:00It's not only the Earth that's spinning!Have you caught up with the discussion about whether we should ignore the Earth's speed of rotation on its axis and set our time by the obviously more accurate atomic clocks? If you haven't, pin your ears back because it occasionally has implications for all of us.<br />
<br />
If you didn't know it already, the Earth is not an accurate keeper of time because, would you believe it,the damn thing cuts a nick off 24 hours every time it spins. This is because it actually wobbles several degrees on its axis and gets hit by various bits of space debris, solar winds etc.<br />
<br />
So if you stuck around a few million years, if you relied on good old Mother Earth to run your life, you'd effectively be robbed of a few weeks or so. In fact, the boffins who work tirelessly to deliver this info to us calculate the loss of about half a day every 6,000 years. It means that once in every few thousand years, your client's deadline of tomorrow is really closer than you think.<br />
<br />
To better focus our minds on this, our boffins have spiced this debate up in a way that should soon have management and IT consultants donning the sandwich boards again declaring 'the end is nigh'.<br />
<br />
Remember the Y2K millennium bug? Filled newspaper columns and IT consultant pockets in tandem, as we waited in dread throughout 1999 for the moment when society ground to halt as we ticked over past midnight to enter the 21st Century.<br />
<br />
We'll never really know whether the 20th Century habit of encoding the year date as two digits in PCs would have brought down contemporary society because our multi-million dollar investments in IT upgrades were completed in time, but it was probably the biggest ever millennium con we ever fell for! Of course, Apple users were immune from the travails faced by mere PC users - more iTuned into the future as usual.<br />
<br />
Now scientists are debating whether we should abandon our current practice of bumping our atomic clocks by a second every few years to compensate for the Earth's wobbly behavior lest it upset our computer systems. The Ghost of Y2K perhaps? So, if we stick to the atomic clock, some are arguing that we won't have to make the miniscule adjustments that put our computer driven society at risk every few years.<br />
<br />
What we really need now is the daylight saving lobby to zoom in on this discussion. What are the implications of moving to atomic clock time? Will this result in extra daylight seconds - those poor farmers having to get up micro-seconds earlier to milk the cows, curtains fading, outdoor decking needing extra oil. The consequences don't bear thinking about.<br />
<br />
And what about the nuclear lobby. Where do these atomic clocks derive their power. Where will we dump the nuclear waste? My God, we already have atomic clocks. Is there a waste dump in my backyard? Should I start buying BHP shares to capitalise on the proceeds from the Olympic Dam development? Big social and strategic issues that strike at the heart of my general well-being!<br />
<br />
And then there's the Green lobby. How is carbon pollution influencing the timing and rhythm of our existence? Should we go nuclear or keep burning fossil fuels to keep town hall clocks running. Should we re-introduce wind-up watches so we derive health benefits as well as energy savings.<br />
<br />
We spend a lot of time talking about this stuff, yet we have all been
turning back the clock to help our punctuality for years. Even as I
write, I'm betting someone somewhere is adjusting a watch heading into
meeting to declare their timepiece had let them down again.<br />
<br />
For
the most part, knocking a second off a deadline once every few years is
not going to resolve my day to day tardiness, especially when the
atomic adjustments are most likely to occur on New Year's Eve!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13047579768747822057noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6934657017143307772.post-50365497384519480952012-01-14T08:30:00.001+11:002012-01-14T08:48:34.991+11:00Social media - awareness or equity in the brand equation?I'm pretty much over the Marcoms seminars on social media, so just to bore everyone yet again, I'll talk about(yep, you guessed it) social media. The reason I'm over these discussions is because I'm essentially over the line with it, both a relatively early adopter and convinced that it has a role to play in corporate communications.<br />
<br />
In fact, it plays many roles, both offensive and defensive in overall communications strategy but, from a brand perspective, I'm starting to believe that in some sectors it is a greater brand awareness than engagement tool. Many would argue that they have run successful engagement programs using social media. I have seen some very creative and engaging programs. My issue is, what exactly has the target audience become engaged with? I'd argue that in nine out of ten instances, the engagement has been with the creative rather than the brand. The brand is a sponsor of the program, but does it translate into calls to action of commercial benefit to the sponsoring brand?<br />
<br />
Sponsorship is perhaps an appropriate analogy. How does sports sponsorship benefit a brand? Does it deliver greater brand awareness, or does it build brand equity? In some instances, it can create a positive disposition towards a brand, but does this ultimately translate into sales?<br />
<br />
Both social media and sponsorship generate interaction with the brand. Both can promote brand values by positive association with well crafted campaigns, well-chosen partnerships and so on. But there is increasing evidence that users of social media, in particular FaceBook, are not enthused by the thought of interacting with business in these channels. There are better online vehicles for that, principally online search and aggregator sites like eBay etc.<br />
<br />
And if we generally accept that social media is not the appropriate channel for handling specific customer queries and complaints, we by definition remove one of the most effective drivers of interaction from the social media space.<br />
<br />
On the flip side, followers on Twitter and friends on FaceBook have expressed an interest in your company simply by following your news and commentary and given you permission to access their space. Even so, I think you'll generally find that very little flows back the other way from these disciples - unless, of course, you really want to launch some edgy conversation. That's why I qualified my opening comments by saying engagement is difficult in 'some' sectors. Part of the brand DNA of some organisations may actually court controversy - think Benetton.<br />
<br />
It's why I'm leaning to the view that, for most sectors, social media has greater potential for brand awareness building through leveraged distribution of information than it has for true customer engagement reflected in increased sales.
That's still better achieved through well constructed search and website strategies.<br />
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The key for me lies in optimizing online strategy to ensure that, no matter what online channel people are in, that they are ultimately directed to a websites designed by you to provide solutions and advice aligned to their interests. You never know, doing so, may actually encourage people to really 'Like' you!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13047579768747822057noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6934657017143307772.post-53220410757271660622011-12-08T07:14:00.001+11:002011-12-08T08:00:13.096+11:00A brand new Vision - a triumph for brandingAs some may know, I have been involved in a brand project that brings together two long-established superannuation funds in Australia - Equipsuper and Vision Super. Naturally, the question on everyone's lips was what will the new fund be called? What will the logo look like?<br />
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As people involved in brands already know, the name and logo is merely the end of the brand journey, with a whole bunch of other stuff preceding it - qualitative and quantitative research, identification of shared values and culture, SWOT analysis and the list goes on. I prefaced the first Brand & Communications Group meeting by saying I did not want to see any crayons or sketch pads in the room until the real work was done. <br />
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It's now common knowledge that the merged fund will be called Vision, dropping the 'Super' name from the original fund name. This was the best decision on a number of metrics, but how we got there is what convinced me that it was so. <br />
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When the funds announced the merger about 18 months ago, the guidelines provided to the B&C Group was that the new fund should have a new name, in other words should not adopt either of the previous names. There were a number of factors driving this, which are largely irrelevant, except to say the instruction preceded any evaluation of brand metrics or objectives. <br />
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So the B&C Group's brief was to come up with a new brand name and the process was established accordingly. However, as a precaution, we did drop questions about current names into the stakeholder research conducted for us by <a href="http://www.coredata.com.au/">CoreData</a>.<br />
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<a href="http://www.elmwood.com/">Elmwood Australia</a> was commissioned to undertake the brand development work based on the research findings and other investigations. And that's where the rubber hit the road with the naming challenge. We invited staff to submit names, Elmwood came up with some and I found myself sitting in front of several screens on weekends creating and evaluating names and their availability. Elmwood mobile devices regularly sprang to life at 5 a.m. with 'what about this?' questions.<br />
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As directed, we spent a few sessions with the usual butcher's paper sheets of names stuck around the wall looking for new names. Vision was up there as an option, but was struck out early, for all the wrong reasons. <br />
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But over several weeks, it became clear that nothing we had come up with was superior to Vision, which captured a number of the core brand and cultural values established by the research. Most of all, none of the new names retained any sort of connection with the 80-year heritage of the two existing funds. In particular, the research had established there was greater attachment to the Vision name than the Equipsuper name across existing stakeholder groups, including staff. <br />
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Of course, a new name would have clearly signalled a change both internally and externally and the recommendation and approval of the Vision name has created its own unique challenges - in particular that of ensuring that the current Vision staff recognise that the name, the visual treatment of it and the brand narrative surrounding represents a fresh beginning. Our internal communications campaign is therefore headlined 'A brand new Vision' <br />
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Despite this challenge, Vision is absolutely the right name and I am delighted to say that, a key derivative from the brand project has been the articulation of a clear vision for the brand and a guiding 'Big Idea' to which the new organisation will subscribe. <br />
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I also am pleased that the executive and boards of the existing entities had the courage to put aside the initial directive and to hear and approve the brand recommendation on the basis of a thorough investigation of key metrics, a recognition of the value of heritage and the adoption of a challenging guiding idea for the future. <br />
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To hear more about this and see the new visual identity, I'm sorry you'll have to wait until mid-next year when the merger is completed and the 'brand new Vision' comes to life.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13047579768747822057noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6934657017143307772.post-16803127058556535882011-12-07T06:34:00.001+11:002011-12-08T07:11:34.016+11:00How wrong can you be?After reading an report last week that Coke's idea of putting names on cans was one of its most successful campaigns ever, I have to swallow my pride and admit I never thought it would be a goer. <br />
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But you cannot underestimate the power of personalisation. The trouble some have gone to to find a can with their name on it is unbelievable. Serial tweeter and Deloitte Digital CEO in Australia, Pete Williams, tweeted last week that he'd finally found a can with his name on it. "Straight to the poolroom," he tweeted (the Aussie version of the trophy cabinet). <br />
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So congratulations to the people at Coke for their much greater appreciation of consumer behavior than yours truly.I have one challenge though - could you please set up a digital can printer in retail outlets so we don't have to freeze our hands searching frosted for a can pre-printed with our names? Now that would be fun because we could progress to nicknames and other terms of endearment.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13047579768747822057noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6934657017143307772.post-55973013557101890512011-12-06T06:51:00.001+11:002011-12-06T07:15:34.086+11:00The career-limiting Christmas wine listRight outside our office window over the past year, we've witnessed construction workers walking along a crane gantry in quite high winds - a high-risk occupation by any measure. But I was tempted to swap places last week when by far the most daunting task of the year hit my office desk - selection of the Christmas party wine list.<div>
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This is an extremely career-limiting task. Roughly 50 palettes head down to a Southbank restaurant for the annual bonhomie that is the feature of the end of year Christmas party. And because we're in the process of merging, I've suddenly inherited a few additional palettes - with opinions! </div>
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So the pressure is on - balancing the lolly water palettes of the Sauvignon Blanc set, with the 'sophisticated' tastes of the Pinot group and the raw Aussie bluster of the big bold Shiraz bloc. Add to this a 'salary cap' of $50 a bottle in a place where the cheapest drop is $45 a bottle and you are in very challenging territory.</div>
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These days, the task is not made easier by the proliferation of wine labels. I don't know what it is with the wine industry, but new 'brands' seem to pop up like daisies during the year. Gone are the days when the choice was basically Ben Ean Moselle or Asti Spumante for the more discerning (sorry, that was university days).</div>
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So why does this task fall to me? Yes, I'm responsible for brand in our organisation, but that doesn't mean to say I should be across every new label appearing in Dan Murphy's or Vintage Cellars. No. There is something far more fundamental.</div>
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You see, I'm relatively old, perceived as in the twilight of career by everyone except the Federal Government who believe I should work until they carry me out feet first to save the drain on the public purse. The logic is, therefore, that if I stuff up the Christmas wine selection, I have least to lose - less career years lost, diminishing prospects of promotion not too severely impaired.</div>
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There's also the view that caginess born of long experience will ensure I read the Gold medals on the bottles properly to ensure that the accumulated awards are from the Adelaide or Sydney wine shows, rather than the Bullamakanka Ladies Local Produce Awards. </div>
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I have picked five wines for this year's luncheon, of which I will have to consume a reasonable quantity as I anxiously scan the dials of colleagues partaking of the first drops for signs of approval or disdain. </div>
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For the record, I've picked the following varieties: a Prosecco (because the boss likes it), a WA Sauvignon Blanc Semillon (I had to add something to the SB to manage reputational risk), Pinot Gris (NZ) for the Pinot set, a Pinot Noir (the Pinot group is influential) and a McLaren Vale Shiraz (my favourite region for this variety because I bloody deserve it).</div>
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The Christmas wine list - not a job for the faint hearted!</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13047579768747822057noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6934657017143307772.post-11529982456426788142011-12-06T06:06:00.001+11:002011-12-06T06:28:55.911+11:00Just another bum on a seatTonight I'm doing something that, as a football tragic, I'd normally never do unless Liverpool were visiting - attending one of those pointless 'friendlies' between a half-decent overseas club team and a local team struggling to score.<br />
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Yep. I'm about to watch LA Galaxy play Melbourne Victory. More correctly, I'm expecting to watch David Beckham play Harry Kewell. With due respect to others in those teams, that is how my teenage daughter describes the event.<br />
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She finds football boring, preferring the local free scoring goal fest that is AFL. But the Becks brand (not the beer, you idiot!) has worked its magic and we're going to experience 'His Presence' rather than attending with any hope of seeing an exciting contest.<br />
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Reports are that over 35,000 tickets have been sold for this event, I estimate about 25,000 more than if LA Galaxy were playing Melbourne Victory. Oh hang on! That's what we're going to see. Almost forgot.<br />
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So at $60 a throw, the Becks brand has added about 25,000 bums on seats and $1 million big ones to the gate. And wait a minute - it's live on Foxtel. Bit of an overstatement. 'Live' is not how I'd describe my expectations for the game. So Uncle Rupert and Telstra have also subscribed to the Becks phenomenon to boost the coffers of Football Federation Australia.<br />
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Of course, this is all small potatoes to Becks. At 36, he's made hundreds of times more than tonight's gate takings and this is probably his last game for LA Galaxy before he heads to Europe to convince some aspiring team that he can still flog more merchandise by merely appearing on the subs bench.<br />
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Don't get me wrong. I'm not slating Becks. I'm just jealous that brand BrooksieG is trailing somewhat in the financial rewards stakes. I played football years ago, but usually bent the ball out of play or wide of the goal rather than bending it like Beckham. There are few enterprises other than the trainers of Golden Retrievers who'll sponsor that sort of talent.<br />
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What's probably more concerning about the Becks phenomenon is, for my daughter. the allure is more about pecs like Becks rather than football skill. It's a worrying time.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13047579768747822057noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6934657017143307772.post-58798673659905817882011-12-02T06:09:00.001+11:002011-12-02T07:05:23.669+11:00Great news! I'm now drinking in the national interest!I'm not a great beer drinker - the absence of grapes in the mix deters me. Nonetheless, when I do partake of the amber, my favourite brew is Coopers. And now, thanks to offloading Fosters to South African brewer, SABMiller, yesterday for a cool $10 billion, when I drink Coopers, I'm drinking in the national interest - crusading to keep the last great Aussie beer brand in local hands.<br />
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As I jump in my chariot of choice and drive over to Dan Murphy's to collect a carton, I know the crusade will be a long one. Coopers only has 4% share of the national beer market. So it will be guerilla warfare, with a few diehard defenders of Aussie brands sniping with their credit cards at the overseas behemoths.<br />
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The great thing going for Coopers is you can consume more of it, because you don't need to eat with it. All the food's contained in the bottle, with that familiar sediment churning through it to nourish you as you drink. Someone told me that you can never get a hangover from drinking Coopers because it's naturally top fermented - no added chemicals to give you the headache. Even though I heard this about 30 years ago, I find it hard to read the ingredients information with the bottle in my mouth, so cannot verify the veracity of this claim.<br />
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Yes, it's a comforting thought knowing that the internationals haven't really developed a beer that you can eat chilled. Chilling is mainly confined to what the Europeans would call lager. Beer they drink warm. Any pom will tell you that Aussies are not beer drinkers. We're all lager drinkers. So we've sold the South Africans a dud - they've bought a lager company when they thought they were buying a beer brewer. Aussies have never been good at disclosure.<br />
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Are we sad that another icon Aussie brand is heading overseas to live? Has Fosters gone the way of the Speedo? Will beer in stubbies go the way of men in Stubbies. Remember Stubbies? Those shorty cotton shorts that gave everyone a peek-a-boo at some of Australia's greatest nut crops on building sites? Let's hope we exported the roadshow as well as the brand!<br />
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Seriously though, it seems we're good at creating brands, but not good at hanging onto them. Doing that is a bloody hard exercise when your domestic market would fit in a schooner and you've failed to really make decent inroads internationally. <br />
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A Fosters spin-off, Treasury Wines, is now attacking the Chinese market and called for Aussie winemakers to resist the temptation to pour cheap crap into China and to build the market based on quality and, therefore, sustainable margins. With some of the brands, like Penfolds, in the Treasury Wines cellar, it's no surprise they're encouraging this approach.<br />
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In any event, I now have a job to do. Christmas-New Year beer will be there to be eaten, not drunk. Coopers is it and my 2012 Coopers Crusade will begin. Let's drink to save a great Aussie brand.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13047579768747822057noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6934657017143307772.post-10989721494472841682011-11-04T13:16:00.001+11:002011-11-04T13:26:17.331+11:00Paving a path to the bleeding obviousPeople much smarter than me tell me that the generation preceding my boomer group were 'Builders'. These were my parents' generation - people who remembered the deprivations of the Great Depression and the conflagration of World War II. So they were thrifty and did things themselves to save money. Compare this with the great outsourcing Gen X and you wonder how the boomers, who are stuck in the middle, go about things.<br />
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Well, I can tell you. For the past few months, I have been posted down on the Mornington Peninsula for days on end, doing it myself to save money. I recall keystroking through the pain barrier in August after the first four days of a marathon garden upgrade, which involves laying over 90 square metres of pavers. As I drank another glass of red to anaethetise the pain, I wondered how it would gel with Panadol Osteo.<br />
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Am I typical of the boomer generation - the generation that lived by The Who's iconic lyric <em>'Hope I die before I get old'</em>? As I get older, living the lyric is getting tougher. Insane decisions about laying pavers, with all that precedes, symbolise the refusal to get old, to prove you still have what it takes. <br />
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But you don't. Let me tell you, after four days 'on the tools', I could no longer cut a piece of broccoli. The nerves and muscles charged with that task in my left hand would not allow me to push my fork into the broccoli. The nerves and muscles in my right hand would not permit me to open the screw top on the wine bottle, although somehow it happened - wine over broccoli trumps mind over matter any time.<br />
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My wife thinks I'm a nutter, which explains why we filled in separate census forms in August, but my 'Builder' generation parents cheered from the sidelines, even though they also suspect I might be a nutter.<br />
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The great thing is that being down there doing landscaping stuff put me back in touch with good Aussies. I just completed an excavating apprenticeship with a local guy called Rutz. Forked out nearly four big ones for the privilege, but education isn't cheap is it? Consulted with another dude, Tim, about putting poles in the ground for shade sails. He was formerly a corporate marketing bloke, but cast that aside, took a big pay cut to work for a builder for a couple of years before striking out on his own. You gotta like doing business with guys like that.<br />
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I think the Builders generation had something. Have a crack and see what you can do. While I took leave to landscape in frontier land, back at work they were cranking out a message about the stock market schemozzle, trying to deliver confidence and certainty amid irrational investment markets.<br />
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But down there driving a Dingo digger for two days made me impervious to stock market shenanigans. There, I could sink money into something and see the outcome. Yep. Rutz didn't come cheap, but his advice didn't carry a disclaimer and everything was crystal clear.<br />
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When it all comes down to it, the generational thing is bollocks. All anyone wants is clarity and direction. We all want authenticity and outcomes. The biggest source of failure in brand and marketing is failing to satisfy these basic customer needs.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13047579768747822057noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6934657017143307772.post-62941981487090018842011-09-02T08:38:00.001+10:002011-09-02T08:39:27.999+10:00New evidence - Audi is a 'chick magnet'As a 50-plus male, I intuitively knew that driving an Audi made me more attractive to women, but until this year I could not produce any tangible evidence of it. Yesterday evening, I completed the jigsaw as, for the second time in seven months, an attractive young woman ran into the back of my Audi.<br />
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It was about the same time of day, driving home from work. In both instances, I was stationery at a set of traffic lights. Imagine my delight at being able to jump out of my car again on the way home and have a valid excuse to capture the mobile phone number of a woman half my age! Try it any other time and the result would lie somewhere between a slap in the face and jail.<br />
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It's a methodology I wish I'd thought of about 25 years ago, but the problem is that there were no mobile phones then, I was driving company-provided Fords and half my age would have been about 14, but you get my drift.<br />
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Perhaps it never happened because even 'chicks' in my era were unattracted to Fords, or people driving them. The blue Ford oval didn't have the hypnotic effect on them that the four linked circles of the Audi logo clearly do as they approach them at intersections.<br />
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Last night as I perused and considered the cost and inconvenience of my car being a resurgent chick magnet, I felt relieved that, even though the young woman concerned had revealed her insurer, she hadn't asked for mine. Australian Pensioners Insurance (APIA) is not the brand name you want to parade out there when you're trying to impress a 20-something woman.<br />
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Yes, at every point in life, you encounter the power of brands. On the one hand those you're proud to be associated with, on the other brands that actually match your profile but reflect terrible truths about you that are best left unspoken.<br />
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As for the documented evidence of the allure of the Audi brand for young women, it's all at APIA, where all ageing dudes secretly accept the discounts for being senior members of the community. Perhaps APIA will start tightening underwriting requirements soon, insisting that older folks reduce their risk by associating with less sexy brands.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13047579768747822057noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6934657017143307772.post-85035182966511231792011-09-01T15:40:00.000+10:002011-09-01T15:40:17.137+10:00America's new copy writing sweatshopsIf you're a writer and you're knocking together 5-Star online endorsements for products and services for $5 a pop, then you're totally out of your mind. And if you're hiring writers to do this sort of stuff, then your brand is seriously in need of a makeover, or soon will be.<br />
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What got me started on this rant was an article I read today reporting that some companies in the US were hiring writers to write favourable 'reviews' for five bucks each. After reading this blog, some may not identify me as a writer, but nonetheless I stick doggedly to the proposition that it is a professional category with which I have some affinity.<br />
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Even back in the good old days of freelance journalism circa 1980s, a decent journo could pull something like $150 a thousand words from even the stingiest magazine publisher, so $5 for an endorsement wreaks of serious under-payment, even if house prices in the US have collapsed and the Tea Party refuses to spend any more. Come to think of it, perhaps the brand needing the cheap endorsements is the Tea Party - if not endorsements, then perhaps endorphins, but I digress.<br />
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You see, the thing with these $5 mercenaries is that they're providing three things - words (presumably coherently crafted), a personal endorsement and, as a by-product, great risk of trashing their personal brand in the process. Willing to put all that skill and reputation on the line for $5? I'm certainly not!<br />
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For their clients, there is the small matter of brand authenticity, widely regarded as the currency of social media. What happens when they're found out, as they surely will be? Already, companies like Amazon are commissioning sharp software dudes to develop algorithms to identify and weed out fake endorsements. It will be interesting to see if, in the process, they publish the names of the businesses who have chipped in their $100 for 20 or so "recommendations".<br />
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Their only hope is that unsuspecting customers driven to these businesses by the rave reviews have an extremely positive brand experience when they make contact. Because if customers are savvy enough to source third party recommendations online, they're certainly smart enough to go back online and express their contrary view if the experience does not live up to the promise.<br />
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There are plenty of websites dedicated to publishing consumer reviews. Perhaps we're about to see a flourishing business based on reviewing the reviewers! Oh dear ... who are we to believe? My head's starting to hurt.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13047579768747822057noreply@blogger.com0