Remember 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'.

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.

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.

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.

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.

What is the leadership metric that drives your organisation? I'd be interest to know.

A humble explanation for my absence

I 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.

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:

1. Disillusion - 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!).
2. Madness - 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.
3. Machismo - 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.
4. Work - 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.
5. Politics - 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.
6. Family - 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.
7. Brand experiences - 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. 

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.

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.

Readers can only hope that I am back where I should be tomorrow - in the office and not cluttering the web with unnecessary verbiage. 

I'll be back...

What makes logos great?

In the most recent edition of Australia's Marketing magazine, appears one of those articles that does the regular rounds - Australia's greatest logos, world's greatest logos, complete your own geographic coverage.

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.

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.

Of course, public exposure does not make a great logo - or it shouldn't. But there is an uncanny link in the Marketing 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.

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.

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:

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.

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.

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.

It's football. Say no more. Enjoys a high profile, but why? Hundreds of thousands just love what it delivers. Footy. 

Yeah, right. It goes with the footy. Almost interchangeable with the logo above. Go the pies!

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.

Any other entries into the logo Hall of Fame welcome...

It's wrong on so many levels

Maybe 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?

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.

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.

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.

I'm afraid I'm going to have to add this to the Forbes list of most disliked cliches used in business. I am perfectly happy in my simplistic, superficial world to accept a single wrong is enough to convince me not to pursue something.

Coles reverts to Status Quo

Francis 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, Status Quo, was affectionately known, playing the Cole's 'big red hand' guitars is a perfect symbol of fading youth and, indeed, relevance.

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 Down, Down.

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.

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 12 Gold Bars. Don't tell Coles, they'll use it as a promo line in the confectionary aisle.)

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: "Have I deteriorated that much since I listened to The Quo?" It's enough to prompt hanging up the air guitar for good.

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 'Down, down prices are down' 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.

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.

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.

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.

The day Campaign Palace faced the schizophrenics

The 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.

Some of their great work is featured here 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 highlights package. That meeting taught me much about putting crap in and getting crap out - whether you're programming a computer, or briefing an agency.

We did enjoy some good times with the guys at The Campaign Palace, but our schizophrenia soon resulted in a parting of the ways.

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 Antz Pantz in advertising (still so hot!).